Handbook of Solid Waste Management

Chinnappan Baskar
Seeram Ramakrishna
Shikha Baskar
Rashmi Sharma
Amutha Chinnappan
Rashmi Sehrawat
Editors
Handbook of
Solid Waste
Management
Sustainability through
Circular Economy
Handbook of Solid Waste Management
Chinnappan Baskar • Seeram Ramakrishna •
Shikha Baskar • Rashmi Sharma •
Amutha Chinnappan • Rashmi Sehrawat
Editors
Handbook of Solid Waste

Management
Sustainability through Circular Economy
With 568 Figures and 318 Tables

Editors
Chinnappan Baskar Seeram Ramakrishna
Research and Development Center Department of Mechanical Engineering
Teerthanker Mahaveer University Center for Nanofibers and Nanotechnology
Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, India National University of Singapore
Singapore, Singapore
Shikha Baskar Rashmi Sharma

Chemistry and Bioprospecting Division Department of Science and Technology
Forest Research Institute Government of India
Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India New Delhi, Delhi, India
Amutha Chinnappan Rashmi Sehrawat

Department of Mechanical Engineering Department of Basic Science
Center for Nanofibers and Nanotechnology Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of
National University of Singapore Agriculture and Technology
Singapore, Singapore Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India
ISBN 978-981-16-4229-6 ISBN 978-981-16-4230-2 (eBook)

ISBN 978-981-16-4231-9 (print and electronic bundle)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022
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This book is dedicated to
our beloved parents
Mr. S. Chinnappan & Mrs. Mariya
Chinnappan; Sushila Mary;
and
Mr. Pawan Kumar Sambher & Mrs. Sudesh
Sambher
Special dedication to
scientists, researchers, doctors, nurses,
caretakers, hospital staff, and teachers who
are combating the COVID-19 pandemic.
Preface
The word sustainability is derived from the French verb soutenir, which means to
hold up or support. The concept of sustainable development was framed in a 1987
United Nations document, “World Commission on Environment and Development:
Our Common Future,” known widely as the Brundtland Report and defined sustain-
able development as “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs
of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their
own needs.” It contains within it two key concepts: (i) the concept of “needs,” in
particular the essential needs of the world's poor, to which overriding priority should
be given, and (ii) the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and
social organization on the environment's ability to meet present and future needs.
Since that time, approaches to sustainability have received increasing attention in
academia, industry, and society with critical system thinking, analysis, frameworks,
theories, innovation, inter-/transdisciplinary research and development for the ben-
efit of the environment, energy, human development, and economic activities world-
wide. The concept of sustainability goals involves many aspects that include the
integration of inter/multidisciplinary knowledge, green methodologies, novel tech-
nologies, and efficient use of renewable raw materials and waste materials.
The linear economy model (take-make-use-dispose) dominated last decades of
the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first century, and it is a very
inefficient and expensive approach, one that harms the environment or depletes
natural resources. Due to the exponential growth of the global population and
subsequent consumption of our natural resources, ineffective waste management,
and climate change, the linear economy model can no longer be encouraged and
acceptable. The circular economy model (reduce-reuse-refuse-recycle-recovery-
rethink-redesign) is a new way of creating value, and ultimately prosperity. Circular
economy is designed to be restorative and regenerative and defined as “a regener-
ative system in which resource input and waste, emission, and energy leakage are
minimized by slowing, closing, and narrowing material and energy loops. This can
be achieved through long-lasting design, maintenance, repair, reuse,
remanufacturing, refurbishing, and recycling.” The circular economy model has
garnered increasing attention among academia, scholars, industry, governments,
policy makers, and citizens as it seems to overcome the harmful consequences of
vii
viii Preface
linear patterns of growth and is an innovative approach to achieve sustainable

development.
The issue of solid waste management and finding green solutions to solid waste
management are important challenges throughout the world. Based on the concept of
sustainability, circular economy, green chemistry, and engineering, this book aims to
provide an overview of present trends and future potential in solid waste manage-
ment from different sectors into valuable green materials and products, novel
methodologies, green technology, green energy, sustainability, and applications.
This book consists of 89 peer-reviewed chapters contributed by renowned profes-
sionals, researchers, and scientists from academia, laboratories, centers, and industry
from various countries. This book has been divided into four parts:
(i) Solid Waste Management, Municipal Solid Waste Management, and Food
Waste Management
(ii) Agricultural Solid Waste Management
(iii) Plastic Waste Management, Rubber Waste Management, Textile Waste Man-
agement, and E-Waste Management
(iv) Hazardous Waste Management, Bio-waste Management, Waste Water Man-
agement, and Solid Waste to Energy
This book also features the importance of integration of multi-disciplinary

research fields and provides solutions to addressing all concerned problems associ-
ated with solid waste management and latest research perspectives, technology
development, critical analysis and thinking, societal requirements, and development
of green circular economy of solid waste management to researchers, scientists,
engineers, environmental managers, policy makers, and experts in the energy divi-
sion of governments as well as private organizations and industries.
We gratefully acknowledge the hard work and patience of all the authors who
have contributed to this book project during the COVID-19 pandemic. We sincerely
thank the Springer Nature editorial and production team, especially Dr. Stephen
Yeung (Executive Editor, Major Reference Works) and Ms. Swati Meherishi
(Editorial Director) and Ms Abiramy Sarangapani (Project Manager), for their
suggestions and help. Our heartfelt thanks to Mr. Salmanul Faris Nedum Palli
(Project Coordinator, Springer Nature) for his continuous support, dedication, and
hard work. We would like to express our gratitude to the external reviewers whose
contributions helped to improve the quality of this book.
January 2022 Dr. Chinnappan Baskar

Prof. Seeram Ramakrishna
Dr. Shikha Baskar
Dr. Rashmi Sharma
Dr. Amutha Chinnappan
Dr. Rashmi Sehrawat
Contents
Volume 1
Part I Solid Waste Management, Municipal Solid Waste

Management, and Food Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1 Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries: Towards

a Circular Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Zobaidul Kabir and Mahfuz Kabir
2 Research Trends of the Management of Solid Waste in the
Context of Circular Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Ana Batlles-de-la-Fuente, Luis Jesús Belmonte-Ureña,
José Antonio Plaza-Úbeda, and Emilio Abad-Segura
3 Pretreatments of Solid Wastes for Anaerobic Digestion and Its
Importance for the Circular Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Sabrina Vieira, Jaíne Schneider, Walter José Martinez Burgos,
Antônio Magalhães, Adriane Bianchi Pedroni Medeiros,
Julio Cesar de Carvalho, Luciana Porto de Souza Vandenberghe,
Carlos Ricardo Soccol, and Eduardo Bittencourt Sydney
4 Understanding Circular Economy in Solid Waste Management . . . 95
Monika Patel, Sweta Kumari, Neetu Kumari, and Arkendu Ghosh
5 Greenways for Solid Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Amrita Kumari, Anita Roy Aich, Sweta Kumari, and
Samanyita Mohanty
6 Waste Management in the Changing Climate ................ 169
Chanathip Pharino and Nuchcha Phonphoton
7 Future Perspective of Solid Waste Management Strategy
in India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Samanyita Mohanty, Sushanta Saha, Gour Hari Santra, and
Amrita Kumari
ix
x Contents
8 Assessment of Quality of Compost Derived from Municipal

Solid Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
M. Chandra Sekhar and G. Venkatesam
9 Current Waste Management Status and Trends in Russian

Federation: Case Study on Industrial Symbiosis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Amani Maalouf, Vladimir A. Maryev, Tatiana S. Smirnova, and
Antonis Mavropoulos
10 A Transition Toward a Circular Economy: Insights from

Brazilian National Policy on Solid Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Luís Paes, Barbara Bezerra, Rafael Deus, Daniel Jugend, and
Rosane Battistelle
11 Analysis of the Implantation of a System for the Sustainable

Management of Solid Urban Waste in Brazil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
Antonio Marco-Ferreira and Reginaldo Fidelis
12 Thermal Utilization of Municipal Solid Waste in the Central

Region of Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
Francisco Gutierrez-Galicia, Ana Lilia Coria-Páez,
Ricardo Tejeida-Padilla, and Víctor Ramón Oliva-Aguilar
13 Developing “Zero Waste Model” for Solid Waste Management

to Shift the Paradigm Toward Sustainability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
Sudipti Arora, Jasmine Sethi, Jayana Rajvanshi, Devanshi Sutaria, and
Sonika Saxena
14 Food Waste Management Practice in Malaysia and Its Potential

Contribution to the Circular Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
Leong Siew Yoong, Mohammed J. K. Bashir, and Lim Jun Wei
15 Life Cycle Assessment to Support Waste Management

Strategies in a Circular Economy Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
Lineker Max Goulart Coelho and Rafaella de Souza Henriques
16 Circular Economy Approach to Address the Industrial

Solid Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
Salman Raza Naqvi, Bilal Beig, and Muhammad Naqvi
17 From Waste to Wealth: Stepping Toward Sustainability

Through Circular Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441
Rashmi Paliwal
Contents xi
Part II Agricultural Solid Waste Management ................ 465
18 Recovery of Agricultural Waste Biomass: A Sustainability

Strategy for Moving Towards a Circular Bioeconomy . . . . . . . . . . 467
Mónica Duque-Acevedo, Luis Jesús Belmonte-Ureña,
Francisco J. Cortés-García, and Francisco Camacho-Ferre
19 Sustainable Management of Agricultural Waste in India ....... 497
Rachana Jain and Satya Narayan Naik
20 Solid Waste Management and Policies Toward Sustainable
Agriculture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523
Vijay Kant Singh, Praveen Solanki, Arkendu Ghosh, and Apurba Pal
21 Agricultural Solid Waste Management: An Approach to
Protect the Environment and Increase Agricultural
Productivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545
Faraz Ahmad Khan, Anita Tomar, Yogesh Kumar Agarwal, and
Hari Om Shukla
22 Agricultural Bio-wastes: A Potent Sustainable Adsorbent
for Contaminant Removal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 571
Adyasa Barik, Geetanjali Rajhans, Sudip Kumar Sen, and
Sangeeta Raut
23 Use of Agricultural Wastes in Cementitious Composites . . . . . . . . 593
Adeyemi Adesina
24 Mass Production of Trichoderma from Agricultural Waste
and Its Application for Plant Disease Management . . . . . . . . . . . . 619
Bireswar Sinha, Poorvasandhya Rajendran, and
Phanjoubam Sobita Devi
25 Impact of Agricultural Waste Characterization in Biomass:
Solar PV Hybrid Mini-grid Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635
J. E. Bambokela, Edison Muzenda, and Mohamed Belaid
26 Simultaneous Fermentative Production of Lipase and
Bio-polymeric flocculants from Produce (Vegetable) Wastes . . . . . 661
Moushumi Ghosh, Surbhi Sharma, and Vivek Sharma
27 Paddy Straw-Based Circular Economy for Sustainable Waste
Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 683
Kalyanasundaram Geetha Thanuja, Subramanian Marimuthu,
Desikan Ramesh, and Subburamu Karthikeyan
28 Circular Economy Model for Florists: Need of the Hour . . . . . . . . 711
M. Ponnien Selvi and R. Atheeswari
xii Contents
29 Temple Floral Waste Management in India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 725

Neelam Srivastava
30 Utility of Fruit-Based Industry Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 757
Aditi Guha Choudhury, Pinaki Roy, Sweta Kumari, and
Vijay Kant Singh
31 Turning Crop Waste into Wealth-Sustainable and
Economical Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 785
Ranguwal Sangeet and Raj Kumar
Volume 2
32 Sustainable and Economical Approaches in Utilizing

Agricultural Solid Waste for Bioethanol Production . . . . . . . . . . . 817
Vikas Chandra Gupta, Meenu Singh, Shiv Prasad, and Bhartendu
Nath Mishra
33 A Community-Driven Household Waste Management System in
the Tea Plantation Sector: Experiences from Sri Lanka Toward
a Circular Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 847
H. M. P. Peiris and Nuwan Gunarathne
34 Sludge Waste Management Techniques and Challenges in Water
Resources Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 877
Mu’izzah Mansor and Mohd Omar Fatehah
35 Optimal Management of Municipal Solid Waste Landfill
Leachate Using Mathematical Modeling: A Case Study
in Valencia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 901
Javier Rodrigo-Ilarri and María-Elena Rodrigo-Clavero
36 Contribution of a Well-Managed Landfill to Sustainable
Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 943
O. O. Ololade and I. R. Orimoloye
37 Phytoremediation: A Cost-Effective Tool for Solid Waste
Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 959
Arkendu Ghosh, Vijay Kant Singh, Koyel Dey, Monika Patel, and
Apurba Pal
38 Bioremediation of Solid Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 989
Naresh Gopal Shrivastava
39 Bioremediation of Oil-Contaminated Effluent Pits and Soil Plot
for Pollution Control and Environment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . 1039
Yashwant Singh Yadav, P. C. Nath, P. K. Hazarika, and Sanjay
Bhutani
Contents xiii
40 Bioremediation: Harnessing Natural Forces for Solid Waste

Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1077
Navdeep Kaur Sahota and Ramica Sharma
Part III Plastic Waste Management, Rubber Waste Management,

Textile Waste Management, and E-Waste Management . . . . . . . . . 1109
41 Utilization of Plastic Wastes and Its Technologies:

An Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1111
Arenjungla Kichu and Nirmala Devi
42 Integrated Strategy of Plastic Waste Management to Green

Environmental Sustainability and Health Care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1133
Sugumaran Karuppiah and Mahalakshmi Mathivanan
43 Recent Innovations in Chemical Recycling of Polyethylene

Terephthalate Waste: A Circular Economy Approach Toward
Sustainability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1149
Amandeep Singh, S. L. Banerjee, K. Kumari, and P. P. Kundu
44 Stakeholders Perception of Used Plastics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1177

Bishal Bharadwaj and Rajesh Kumar Rai
45 Biopolymer-Based Liners for Waste Containment Facilities:

A Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1207
Evangelin Ramani Sujatha and Subramani Anandha Kumar
46 Solid Waste Management in Textile Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1225

Monika Patel, Ankita Sahu, and Ravikant Rajak
47 Turning Plastic Wastes into Textile Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1257

Hande Sezgin and Ipek Yalcin-Enis
48 Sources and Fates of Textile Solid Wastes and Their

Sustainable Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1285
Md. Shafiul Islam and Jahid M. M. Islam
49 Reuse of Textile ETP Sludge into Value-Added Products for

Environmental Sustainability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1307
Subrata Chandra Das, M. Sarwar Jahan, Debasree Paul, and
Mubarak Ahmad Khan
50 Bio-management of Textile Industrial Wastewater Sludge

Using Earthworms: A Doable Strategy Toward Sustainable
Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1337
Ananthanarayanan Yuvaraj, Ramasundaram Thangaraj, and
Natchimuthu Karmegam
xiv Contents
51 Integrated Biotechnological Interventions in Textile Effluent

Treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1357
Geetanjali Rajhans, Adyasa Barik, Sudip Kumar Sen, and
Sangeeta Raut
52 Effects of Marine Littering and Sustainable Measures to

Reduce Marine Pollution in India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1375
Satyanarayana Narra, Vicky Shettigondahalli Ekanthalu,
Edward Antwi, and Michael Nelles
53 Utilization of Tyre Wastes in Cementitious Composites . . . . . . . . . 1407

Adeyemi Adesina
54 Circular Economy in the Concrete Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1433

Adeyemi Adesina
55 Experimental Investigation of Physiochemical Properties of

Cement Mortar Incorporating Clay Brick Waste Powder:
Recyclable Sustainable Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1449
Hemraj R. Kumavat and Rohan V. Kumavat
56 A Sustainability Approach to Geopolymer Brick Manufacture

Using Mine Wastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1461
M. Beulah, J. Pratap Kumar, Mothi Krishna Mohan,
Gayathri Gopalakrishnan, and M. R. Sudhir
57 Integrated Electronic Waste Management: Issues and

Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1479
V. Rathinakumar, G. Ashwin Sriram, and G. I. Gunarani
58 e-Waste Management: A Transition Towards a Circular

Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1499
Sheetal Barapatre and Mansi Rastogi
59 Management of E-Waste: Technological Challenges and

Opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1523
Deepak Sakhuja, Hemant Ghai, Ravi Kant Bhatia, and Arvind Kumar
Bhatt
60 Exploring E-waste Management: Strategies and Implications . . . . 1559

Nitika Goyal and Deepam Goyal
61 E-Waste Management: Rising Concern on Existing Problems,

Modern Perspectives, and Innovative Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1573
Ravichandran Subramaniam, Kamarajan Rajagopalan,
Melinda Grace Rossan Mathews, Jackson Durairaj Selvan
Christyraj, and Johnson Retnaraj Samuel Selvan Christyraj
Contents xv
62 Consumer’s Awareness and Perception Towards E-Waste

Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1593
Richa Goel, Seema Sahai, and Gurinder Singh
63 Recycling and Management of Lithium Battery as

Electronic Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1605
Mohammad Tanhaei, Zahra Beiramzadeh, Saeideh Kholghi Eshkalak,
and Reza Katal
64 Recycling of Rechargeable Batteries: A Sustainable Tool for

Urban Mining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1635
Pankaj Pathak and Karan Chabhadiya
Volume 3
Part IV Hazardous Waste Management, Bio-waste Management,

Waste Water Management, Solid Waste to Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1653
65 Hazardous Waste Management, Challenges, and Risks

in Handling Laboratory Waste in Universities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1655
Annabelle Joy Siril, Siti Nurwajihah Abu Bakar, and
Mohd Omar Fatehah
66 The Global Menace of Hazardous Waste: Challenges and

Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1715
Musa Neksumi, Mohd Zishan, Banerjee Sushmita, and Uzma
Manzoor
67 Inorganic and Organic Pollutants in Baltic Sea Region and

Feasible Circular Economy Perspectives for Waste Management:
A Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1743
Vivek Rana, Justyna Milke, and Małgorzata Gałczyńska
68 Opportunities for Circular Initiatives via Waste Recovery in the

Region of Campos Gerais, Brazil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1779
Franco Sebastián Suarez, Juan Martín Ortolani, Murillo Vetroni
Barros, Rodrigo Salvador, Cristiane Karyn de Carvalho Araújo,
Fabio Neves Puglieri, and Daniel Poletto Tesser
69 Insight into Pharmaceutical Waste Management by Employing

Bioremediation Techniques to Restore Environment . . . . . . . . . . . 1795
xvi Contents
70 Recycling Waste Biopolymers via Electrospinning for Water

Treatment: Waste to Wealth Roadmap, Future Perspective, and
Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1827
Zaira Zaman Chowdhury, Amutha Chinnappan, Ahmed Elsayid Ali,
Yasmin Abdul Wahab, NorAliya Hamizi, Marlinda Binti Ab Rahman,
and Seeram Ramakrishna
71 Used Water Management from Circular Economy Perspective . . . 1861

Veera Gnaneswar Gude
72 Promising Algae-Based Biotechnology for Terbium Removal

and Recovery from Waste(Water) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1885
Bruno Henriques, Pedro Moleiro, Marcelo Costa, Rosa Freitas,
José Pinheiro-Torres, and Eduarda Pereira
73 Arsenic Removal Using Nanoparticles from Groundwater:

A Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1911
Parwathi Pillai and Swapnil Dharaskar
74 Application of Adsorbents Prepared from Waste for the

Removal of Heavy Metals from Water and Wastewater . . . . . . . . 1927
Hossein Esfandian, Amir Hoshang Taheri, Saeideh Kholghi Eshkalak,
and Reza Katal
75 Removal of Struvite in Wastewater Using Anammox Bacteria . . . 1951

G. Gayathri, Dinesh Sankar Reddy, M. Beulah, and M. R. Sudhir
76 Green Synthesis of Nanoparticles: A Solution to Environmental

Pollution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1965
Monika Patel
77 Relevance on the Recovery of High Economic Value Elements

and Potential of Ionic Liquids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1995
Joana C. Almeida, Celso E. D. Cardoso, Tito Trindade,
Mara G. Freire, and Eduarda Pereira
78 Solid Waste to Energy: Existing Scenario in Developing and

Developed Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2023
Aman Kumar, Ekta Singh, Rahul Mishra, and Sunil Kumar
79 Solid Waste to Energy: A Prognostic for Sound Waste

Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2047
Bhargavi N. Kulkarni and V. Anantharama
80 Waste-to-Energy as a Method of Refuse Disposal: An Analysis

of Sustainable Technologies and Their Environmental Impact . . . 2079
Maddalena Buffoli, Andrea Rebecchi, Carlo Signorelli, and
Stefano Capolongo
Contents xvii
81 Waste-to-Energy Technologies: Industrial Progress for Boosting

the Circular Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2093
Spyridon Achinas, Maarten Gramsbergen, Vasileios Achinas, and
Gerrit Jan Willem Euverink
82 Solid Waste as Energy Resource . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2119
Sunita Barot
83 Application of Klebsiella pneumoniae in Treatment and
Electricity Generation from Piggery Solid Wastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2139
Akriti Kodesia, Arun Kumar Chatterjee, Vivek Sharma, and
Moushumi Ghosh
84 Contribution of Biomethane from Different Substrate into
Energy Sustainability and Greener Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2153
Lloyd Lottering, Mohamed Belaid, and Anthony Njuguna Matheri
85 Utilization of Biogas from Solid Waste in the Production of
Biomethane and Its Use as Biofuel in the Transport Sector . . . . . . 2169
Geovana Menegheti, Reinalda Blanco Pereira,
Cassiano Moro Piekarski, Antonio Carlos de Francisco,
Eduardo Bittencourt Sydney, and Juliana Vitoria
Messias Bittencourt
86 Biogas Potential from the Biomethanization of Biodegradable
Municipal Solid Waste Generated in Harare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2197
Trust Nhubu, Edison Muzenda, Charles Mbohwa, and Mohamed
Belaid
87 Adverse Effect of Lawn on Carbon Sequestration Vis-a-Vis
Climate Change and Mitigation Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2229
Sweta Kumari, Monika Patel, Aditi Guha Choudhury, and
Amrita Kumari
88 Environmental Impact of Free-Floating Bike Sharing: From
Life Cycle Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2255
Shouheng Sun and Myriam Ertz
89 Women Warriors of Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2281
Joystu Dutta, Anandi Kerketta, Moharana Choudhury, and
Madhur Mohan Ranga
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2305
About the Editors
Dr. Chinnappan Baskar is a visiting professor at

Pattimura University, Ambon, Indonesia, and a former
director (officiating) of THDC Institute of Hydropower
Engineering and Technology, Tehri, Constituent Insti-
tute of Uttarakhand Technical University, Dehradun,
Uttarakhand. He was a professor and founding director
of the Research and Development Center at Teerthanker
Mahaveer University, Moradabad, India; research pro-
fessor at Brain Korean 21 (BK21), Department of Envi-
ronmental Engineering and Biotechnology; and
co-researcher at the Energy and Environmental Fusion
Technology Center, Myongji University, South Korea.
He has worked as director (academic affairs), Dev
Bhoomi Group of Institutions, Dehradun, Uttarakhand,
and assistant professor and head of the Department of
Chemistry, Lovely Professional University, Punjab,
India. He received his PhD in organic and materials
chemistry from the Department of Chemistry, National
University of Singapore, Singapore, and MSc in chem-
istry from the Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute
of Technology Madras. His research interests include
synthetic organic chemistry, conducting polymers,
green chemistry and engineering, biomass conversion,
biodegradable polymers, green materials, smart func-
tional materials, solid waste management, sustainability,
and circular economy. He has published several research
papers in reputed international journals and conference
proceedings. He has Korean patent and Singapore patent
to his credit. He has been invited to attend and deliver
lectures/seminars at international and national confer-
ences and workshops, and faculty development pro-
grams. He has been a chief guest, session chairman,
advisory committee member, scientific committee
xix
xx About the Editors
member, and convener for many national and interna-

tional conferences and workshops. He is member of
editorial advisory boards and referee for many interna-
tional chemistry, materials science, biotechnology, and
energy journals. He was a member of the Research and
Development Committee for up-to-date progress of PhD
students of chemistry at Uttarakhand Technical Univer-
sity, Dehradun. He has been examiner for PhD and
MPhil theses at various universities and institutes. He
has great passion for teaching. He taught various courses
in the areas of organic chemistry, retro-synthesis, green
chemistry, stereochemistry, research methodology, bio-
mass conversion, general chemistry, and engineering
chemistry for PhD, postgraduate, and undergraduate
students. He has received the “Teaching Excellence
Award” from THDC Institute of Hydropower Engineer-
ing and Technology; Distinguished Academician Award
from Pentagram Research Center (P) Ltd., India, and
award for “Excellent Institute for Promoting Hydro-
power in Uttarakhand” at the 2nd National Uttarakhand
Education Summit & Awards 2015 from CMAI Asso-
ciation of India.
Dr. Baskar is the editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia
of Green Materials, Springer Nature Singapore. He was
the editor of Biomass Conversion: The Interface of
Biotechnology, Chemistry and Materials Science
(Springer-Verlag, 2012); author of Engineering Chem-
istry textbook (Wiley India, 2012); co-author of Stereo-
chemistry textbook (Narosa Publishing House, Indian
Edition, 2014; Alpha Science International Ltd., United
Kingdom, 2014), and co-author of Systematic Nomen-
clature of Organic Compounds textbook
(IK International Publishers, Delhi, 2015; Dreamtech
Press and Wiley India, 2019). He was the editor-in-
chief of Analytical Chemistry Letters, a journal of Taylor
& Francis Groups, United Kingdom. Dr. Baskar is an
author at YSB Foundation, Public Charitable Trust,
Uttarakhand, India.
About the Editors xxi
Professor Seeram Ramakrishna FREng, Everest

Chair, is among the top five impactful authors at the
National University of Singapore (NUS) as well as in
Singapore. NUS ranked among the top five best global
universities for engineering in the world. He is among
the top 500 highly cited researchers in the world. He is
the director of the Center for Nanotechnology & Sus-
tainability and chair of the Circular Economy Taskforce.
He is a member of Extended Producer Responsibility
Advisory Committee of National Environment Agency
(NEA), Ministry of Sustainability and Environment
(MSE), Singapore. Prof. Ramakrishna is a member of
the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) com-
mittee at Singapore Institute of Directors. He is a mem-
ber of Enterprise Singapore/ISO Committees on
ISO59020/TC323 Circular Economy and WG3 on Cir-
cularity. He chairs the Sustainable Manufacturing TC at
the Institution of Engineers Singapore (IES) and is a
member of standards committee of Singapore
Manufacturing Federation. He is a member of Singapore
Standard Council working group on circular economy
and circularity of materials. His book on circular econ-
omy received 2021 Springer Nature China New Devel-
opment Award. The European Commission Director
General for Environment, His Excellency Daniel Calleja
Crespo said, “Professor Seeram Ramakrishna should be
praised for his personal engagement leading the reflec-
tions on how to develop a more sustainable future for
all.” He co-authored a book, Sustainability for Begin-
ners. He is a member of UNESCO’s Global Independent
Expert Group on Universities and the 2030 Agenda. He
also advises the World Bank. He has been honored with
the Excellent Presentation Award by the ICWMT (Inter-
national Conference on Waste Management and Tech-
nology) 2021 initiated by Basel Convention Regional
Centre for Asia and the Pacific and UNEP. He is the
editor-in-chief of the Springer Nature journal Materials
Circular Economy – Sustainability. He is an associate
editor of eScience journal. Prof. Ramakrishna is an
opinion contributor to the Springer Nature Sustainability
Community. He teaches ME6501 Materials and Sustain-
ability course. He also mentors Integrated Sustainable
Design ISD5102 project students. Google Scholar
shows 2,000 articles with 129,000 citations,
xxii About the Editors
164 h-index, and 1084 i10-index for his sustained pub-

lications over the past three decades. Microsoft Aca-
demic ranked him among the top 50 authors out of
3 million materials researchers worldwide based on
saliency, publications, citations, and H-index. He is
named among the World’s Most Influential Minds
(Thomson Reuters) and World’s Highly Cited
Researchers (Clarivate Analytics). He is an impact
speaker at the University of Toronto, Canada, Low
Carbon Renewable Materials Center (https://www.
lcrmc.com/). He is a judge for the Mohammed Bin
Rashid Initiative for Global Prosperity.He advises tech-
nology companies with sustainability vision such as
TRIA, Green Li-Ion, InfraPrime, Volt14, and Ante-
Plastics. Prof. Ramakrishna is a vice president of the
Asian Polymer Association. He is a founding member of
Plastics Recycling Association of Singapore, PRAS,
and chairman of Plastics Recycling Center of Excel-
lence, PRCOE. His senior academic leadership roles
include university vice president (Research Strategy);
dean of Faculty of Engineering; director of NUS Enter-
prise; and founding chairman of Solar Energy Institute
of Singapore. He is an elected fellow of the UK Royal
Academy of Engineering (FREng); AAET; Singapore
Academy of Engineering; and Indian National Academy
of Engineering. He received his PhD from the Univer-
sity of Cambridge, UK, and his GMP from Harvard
University, USA.
Dr. Shikha Baskar is a principal investigator of SYST-

DST Project, Chemistry and Bioprospecting Division,
Forest Research Institute, Dehradun. She obtained her
PhD in organic chemistry and MSc in chemistry from
the Department of Biochemistry and Chemistry, Punjab
Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab, India, and
received her postdoctoral training at Myongji Univer-
sity, South Korea. She has worked as an assistant pro-
fessor in the Department of Chemistry, Lovely
Professional University, Punjab; associate professor of
chemistry and dean (Academic Affairs), GRD Institute
of Management and Technology, Uttarakhand Technical
University, Dehradun, India; guest faculty, Faculty of
Pharmacy at Women Institute of Technology, Dehradun,
Uttarakhand Technical University. Her current research
About the Editors xxiii
interests include synthetic organic chemistry, green

chemistry, ionic liquids, biomass conversion, biode-
gradable polymers, and bioplastics. She is the section
editor of the Encyclopedia of Green Materials, Springer
Nature. Dr. Baskar was co-editor of Biomass Conver-
sion: The Interface of Biotechnology, Chemistry and
Materials Science (Springer-Verlag, 2012); co-author
of Engineering Chemistry textbook (Wiley India,
2012); and co-author of Systematic Nomenclature of
Organic Compounds textbook (IK International Pub-
lishers, Delhi, 2015; Dreamtech Press and Wiley India,
2019). She was the associate editor of Analytical Chem-
istry Letters, a journal of Taylor & Francis Groups,
United Kingdom.
Dr. Rashmi Sharma is a senior scientist in the Depart-

ment of Science and Technology (DST), Government of
India. She received her PhD from the University of
Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan, and MSc in biotechnology
from the University of Roorkee (presently known as
the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee). She is a
recipient of the Japanese Society for Promotion of Sci-
ence (JSPS) Postdoctoral Fellowship (2002–2004) and
Department of Biotechnology (DBT) Fellowship
(1993–1995). She has worked at LABINDIA Life Sci-
ences Pvt. Ltd., Gurgaon (as a senior scientist); Ocimum
Biosolution Ltd., Hyderabad (as a lab manager); and
Amity Institute of Biotechnology (AIB), Noida (as an
assistant professor). Currently, she is associated with
Science for Equity Empowerment and Development
(SEED) Division, State Science and Technology Pro-
gramme and National Council for Science and Technol-
ogy Communication (NCSTC) Division of DST for
developing and disseminating appropriate S&T inter-
ventions for societal need and communicating science
to society. She has published several research papers in
international journals. Dr. Sharma is member of several
departmental and ministerial Committees and is a pro-
lific speaker at national and international conferences,
seminars, workshops, and All India Radio. She has been
honored with the Women Scientist Empowerment
Award at the National Conference by National Commis-
sion of Women; the Amity Outstanding Women Award
on International Women Day (2019); SHERO by
xxiv About the Editors
Biostandups in 2018; and Star of the Department,

Ocimum Biosolutions (2008).
Dr. Amutha Chinnappan received her PhD degree in

organic nanomaterials using ionic liquids for energy
applications from Myongji University, South Korea, in
2013. She worked as a BK21 Postdoctoral Fellow until
2015 and then became an assistant professor (Research)
in the Department of Energy, Science and Technology,
Myongji University. She is currently working as a senior
research fellow at the Center for Nanofibers & Nano-
technology, National University of Singapore. She has
published more than 75 peer-reviewed scientific
research articles in reputed international journals with
high impact factors and large number of citations 1626
with h index-22 (Google Scholar). She has been invited
to attend and deliver lectures/seminars in international
and national conferences and workshops. She has
received many awards and accolades for her research
work. Dr. Chinnappan has received Brain Korea 21 Plus
(BK21+) Postdoctoral Fellowship, South Korea; Excel-
lence Award for outstanding achievements and exem-
plary performance as a postdoctoral researcher,
Department of Energy Science and Technology,
Myongji University, South Korea; and Best Research
Paper Award 2013 for outstanding performance in PhD,
Myongji University, South Korea. She was co-advisor
in The New Nano Advisory Board, Springer Nature. Her
current research interests include green chemistry, cir-
cular economy, plastic recycling, conducting cables/
wires, smart textiles, wearable/flexible electronics, and
ionic liquid-based functional nanomaterials for energy
applications. She is the section editor of the Encyclope-
dia of Green Materials, Springer Nature. She was the
associate editor of Analytical Chemistry Letters, a jour-
nal of Taylor & Francis Groups, United Kingdom.
About the Editors xxv
Dr. Rashmi Sehrawat is a senior scientist in the

Chemistry and Bioprospecting Division, Forest
Research Institute, Dehradun, India, and presently
working as a professor and head of the Department of
Basic Science at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of
Agriculture and Technology, Meerut, India. She has
received her doctorate degree in natural product chem-
istry from Chemistry Division, Forest Research Insti-
tute, Dehradun, India. She is a recipient of the
prestigious Daiko Foundation Fellowship, Japan, and
has completed her postdoctoral studies at Kinjo Gakuin
University, Nagoya, Japan, in 2009. Her research inter-
ests focus on phytochemical investigation of medicinal
and aromatic plants, essential oils, fatty oils,
biopesticides, and value addition of waste biomass into
biodegradable entities. She has been conferred with the
Scientist Assistance Programme (SAP) Award by the
International Union of Forestry Research and Organiza-
tion (IUFRO), Vienna, Austria, and young scientist
awards by national scientific organizations in India.
She has worked on a number of international and nation-
ally funded research projects and developed green tech-
nologies/products. Dr. Rashmi is a patent holder. She
has authored/co-authored more than 60 research papers
that reflect her research interests in diversified field of
natural product chemistry. She is honorary member of
professional societies.
Contributors
Marlinda Binti Ab Rahman Nanotechnology and Catalysis Research Center,

University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Emilio Abad-Segura Department of Economy and Business, University of
Almeria, Almeria, Spain
Yasmin Abdul Wahab Nanotechnology and Catalysis Research Center, University
of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Siti Nurwajihah Abu Bakar School of Civil Engineering, Universiti Sains
Malaysia, Engineering Campus, Penang, Malaysia
Spyridon Achinas Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Groningen,
Groningen, The Netherlands
Vasileios Achinas Solid Waste Management Agency of Attica Region, Special
Inter-Grade Association of Attica Region, Athens, Greece
Adeyemi Adesina Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University
of Windsor, Windsor, ON, Canada
Yogesh Kumar Agarwal Forest Research Centre for Eco-Rehabilitation, Prayagraj,
UP, India
Anita Roy Aich Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Bidhan Chandra
Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Nadia, West Bengal, India
Joana C. Almeida Department of Chemistry and CICECO-Aveiro Institute of
Materials, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal
Department of Chemistry and LAQV-REQUIMTE, University of Aveiro, Aveiro,
Portugal
Subramani Anandha Kumar Centre for Advanced Research on Environment,
School of Civil Engineering, SASTRA Deemed to be University, Thanjavur, India
V. Anantharama Department of Civil Engineering, R V College of Engineering
(Visvesvaraya Technological University-recognized Research Center), Bangalore,
India
xxvii
xxviii Contributors
Edward Antwi Faculty of Agriculture and Environmental Science, Universität

Rostock, Rostock, Germany
Sudipti Arora Department of Biotechnology, Dr. B. Lal Institute of Biotechnology,
Jaipur, India
R. Atheeswari V. V. Vanniaperumal College for Women, Madurai Kamaraj
University, Virudhunagar, Tamil Nadu, India
J. E. Bambokela Department of Chemical Engineering Technology, University of
Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
S. L. Banerjee Department of Polymer Science and Technology, University of
Calcutta, Kolkata, India
Sheetal Barapatre Department of Environmental Sciences, Maharshi Dayanand
University, Rohtak, India
Adyasa Barik Center for Biotechnology, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences,
Siksha O Anusandhan (Deemed to be University), Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
Sunita Barot PLS Analytical, East Brunswick, NJ, USA
Murillo Vetroni Barros Sustainable Production Systems Laboratory (LESP), Post-
graduate Program in Industrial Engineering (PPGEP), Universidade Tecnológica
Federal do Paraná (UTFPR), Ponta Grossa, Brazil
Mohammed J. K. Bashir Department of Environmental Engineering, Universiti
Tunku Abdul Rahman, Kampar, Perak, Malaysia
Ana Batlles-de-la-Fuente Department of Economy and Business, University of
Rosane Battistelle São Paulo State University (UNESP), School of Engineering,
Bauru, SP, Brazil
Bilal Beig School of Chemical and Materials Engineering, National University of
Sciences and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan
Zahra Beiramzadeh Research and Development Department, Green Li-Ion,
Mohamed Belaid Department of Chemical Engineering Technology, Faculty of
Engineering and the Built Environment, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg,
South Africa
Luis Jesús Belmonte-Ureña Department of Economy and Business, Research
Centre CIAIMBITAL, University of Almería, Almería, Spain
M. Beulah Department of Civil Engineering, CHRIST (Deemed to be University),
Bangalore, India
Contributors xxix
Barbara Bezerra São Paulo State University (UNESP), School of Engineering,

Bauru, SP, Brazil
Bishal Bharadwaj School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queens-
land, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
Ravi Kant Bhatia Department of Biotechnology, Himachal Pradesh University,
Shimla, India
Arvind Kumar Bhatt Department of Biotechnology, Himachal Pradesh Univer-
sity, Shimla, India
Sanjay Bhutani Institute of Biotechnology and Geotectonic Studies (INBIGS),
A&AA Basin, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Jorhat, India
Juliana Vitoria Messias Bittencourt Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná
(UTFPR), Ponta Grossa, Brazil
Maddalena Buffoli Department of Architecture, Built environment and Construc-
tion engineering (ABC), Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
Francisco Camacho-Ferre Department of Agronomy, Research Centre
CIAIMBITAL, University of Almería, Almería, Spain
Stefano Capolongo Department of Architecture, Built environment and Construc-
Celso E. D. Cardoso Department of Chemistry and CICECO-Aveiro Institute of
Department of Chemistry and LAQV-REQUIMTE, University of Aveiro, Aveiro,
Portugal
Karan Chabhadiya Research and Development, Vardhman Environmental
Consultancy Services, Rajkot, Gujarat, India
M. Chandra Sekhar Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of
Technology, Warangal, India
Arun Kumar Chatterjee Department of Electronics and Communication
Engineering, Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala, India
Amutha Chinnappan Department of Mechanical Engineering, Center for Nano-
fibers and Nanotechnology, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
Aditi Guha Choudhury Department of Fruit science (Fruit Breeding), Horticulture
College, Khuntpani, Chaibasa, Birsa Agricultural University, Ranchi, Jharkhand,
India
Moharana Choudhury Voice of Environment, Guwahati, Assam, India
Zaira Zaman Chowdhury Nanotechnology and Catalysis Research Center,
University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
xxx Contributors
Ana Lilia Coria-Páez Instituto Politécnico Nacional, ESCA-Tepepan, Mexico

City, Mexico
Francisco J. Cortés-García Faculty of Business and Communication, Universidad
Internacional de La Rioja, Logroño, Spain
Marcelo Costa Department of Chemistry, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal
Subrata Chandra Das Advanced and Sustainable Engineering Materials
Laboratory, Department of Manufacturing and Civil Engineering, Norwegian
University of Science and Technology, Gjøvik, Norway
Julio Cesar de Carvalho Department of Bioprocess Engineering and Biotechnol-
ogy, Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil
Cristiane Karyn de Carvalho Araújo Mechanical Engineering Department,
School of Engineering, São Paulo State University (UNESP), Guaratinguetá, Brazil
Antonio Carlos de Francisco Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná
(UTFPR), Ponta Grossa, Brazil
Rafaella de Souza Henriques Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica de Minas
Gerais – CEFET-MG, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
Luciana Porto de Souza Vandenberghe Department of Bioprocess Engineering
and Biotechnology, Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil
Rafael Deus São Paulo State University (UNESP), School of Engineering, Bauru,
SP, Brazil
Faculdades Integradas de Jahu (FIJ), Jaú, SP, Brazil
Nirmala Devi Central Institute of Petrochemicals Engineering and Technology,
Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
Phanjoubam Sobita Devi Department of Plant Pathology, College of Agriculture,
CAU, Imphal, India
Koyel Dey Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of West Bengal,
Murshidabad, West Bengal, India
Swapnil Dharaskar Nano-Research Group, Department of Chemical Engineering,
Pandit Deendayal Energy University, Gandhinagar, India
Mónica Duque-Acevedo Department of Agronomy, Research Centre CIAIMBITAL,
University of Almería, Almería, Spain
Joystu Dutta Department of Environmental Science, Sant Gahira Guru University,
Sarguja, Ambikapur, Chhattisgarh, India
Ahmed Elsayid Ali Nanotechnology and Catalysis Research Center, University of
Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Contributors xxxi
Myriam Ertz LaboNFC, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, Saguenay, QC,

Canada
Hossein Esfandian Faculty of Engineering Technologies, Amol University of
Special Modern Technologies, Amol, Iran
Saeideh Kholghi Eshkalak Department of Polymer Engineering and Color
Technology, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
Gerrit Jan Willem Euverink Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of
Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
Mohd Omar Fatehah School of Civil Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia,
Engineering Campus, Penang, Malaysia
Reginaldo Fidelis Department of Mathematics, Federal University of Technology
of Paraná, Campus Londrina, Londrina, Brazil
Mara G. Freire Department of Chemistry and CICECO-Aveiro Institute of
Rosa Freitas CESAM, Department of Biology, University of Aveiro, Aveiro,
Portugal
Małgorzata Gałczyńska Department of Bioengineering, Faculty of Environ-
mental Management and Agriculture, West Pomeranian University of Technology,
Szczecin, Poland
G. Gayathri Department of Civil Engineering, ACS College of Engineering,
Bangalore, India
Kalyanasundaram Geetha Thanuja Department of Agricultural Microbiology,
Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
Hemant Ghai Department of Biotechnology, Himachal Pradesh University,
Shimla, India
Arkendu Ghosh Department of Fruit Science, Horticulture College, Birsa
Agricultural University, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India
Moushumi Ghosh Department of Biotechnology, Thapar Institute of Engineering
and Technology, Patiala, Punjab, India
Richa Goel Amity International Business School, Amity University, Noida, Uttar
Pradesh, India
Gayathri Gopalakrishnan Department of Civil Engineering, ACS College of
Engineering, Bangalore, India
Lineker Max Goulart Coelho Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica de Minas
Gerais – CEFET-MG, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
xxxii Contributors
Deepam Goyal Chitkara University Institute of Engineering and Technology,

Chitkara University, Rajpura, Punjab, India
Nitika Goyal Department of Computer Science, Guru Nanak College, Budhlada,
Punjab, India
Maarten Gramsbergen Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of
Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
Veera Gnaneswar Gude Richard A. Rula School of Civil and Environmental
Engineering, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS, USA
G. I. Gunarani School of Civil Engineering, SASTRA Deemed University,
Thanjavur, India
Nuwan Gunarathne Department of Accounting, University of Sri
Jayewardenepura, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Department of Business Strategy and Innovation, Griffith University, Southport,
Australia
Vikas Chandra Gupta Department of Biotechnology, IILM-College of Engineer-
ing and Technology, Greater Noida, UP, India
Francisco Gutierrez-Galicia Instituto Politécnico Nacional, UPIIH, Pachuca,
Mexico
NorAliya Hamizi Nanotechnology and Catalysis Research Center, University of
Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
P. K. Hazarika Institute of Biotechnology and Geotectonic Studies (INBIGS),
A&AA Basin, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Jorhat, India
Bruno Henriques LAQV-REQUIMTE, Department of Chemistry, University of
Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal
Jahid M. M. Islam School of Science, Monash University Malaysia, Subang Jaya,
Malaysia
Md. Shafiul Islam Department of Chemistry, Virginia Commonwealth University,
Richmond, VA, USA
Department of Applied Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Noakhali Science and
Technology University, Noakhali, Bangladesh
M. Sarwar Jahan BSCL Scientific Research Laboratory, Bombay Sweets & Co.
Ltd., Dhaka, Bangladesh
Rachana Jain Centre for Rural Development and Technology, Indian Institute of
Technology, New Delhi, India
Daniel Jugend São Paulo State University (UNESP), School of Engineering,
Bauru, SP, Brazil
Contributors xxxiii
Mahfuz Kabir Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS),

Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh
Zobaidul Kabir School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of New-
castle, Ourimbah, Australia
Natchimuthu Karmegam Department of Botany, Government Arts College
(Autonomous), Salem, Tamil Nadu, India
Subburamu Karthikeyan Department of Renewable Energy Engineering, Tamil
Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
Sugumaran Karuppiah School of Chemical and Biotechnology, SASTRA
Deemed University, Thanjavur, India
Reza Katal Research and Development Department, Green Li-Ion, Singapore,
Singapore
Anandi Kerketta Department of Environmental Science, Sant Gahira Guru
University, Sarguja, Chhattisgarh, India
Faraz Ahmad Khan Forest Research Centre for Eco-Rehabilitation, Prayagraj,
UP, India
Mubarak Ahmad Khan Jute Polymer Unit, Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation,
Ministry of Textiles and Jute, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Saeideh Kholghi Eshkalak Department of Polymer Engineering and Color Tech-
nology, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
Arenjungla Kichu Department of Science and Humanities, National Institute of
Technology Nagaland, Dimapur, Nagaland, India
Akriti Kodesia Department of Biotechnology, Thapar Institute of Engineering and
Technology, Patiala, India
Bhargavi N. Kulkarni Department of Civil Engineering, R V College of
Engineering (Visvesvaraya Technological University-recognized Research Center),
Bangalore, India
Aman Kumar CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute,
Nagpur, India
J. Pratap Kumar Department of Civil Engineering, CHRIST (Deemed to be
University), Bangalore, India
Raj Kumar Department of Economics and Sociology, Punjab Agricultural
University, Ludhiana, Punjab, India
Sunil Kumar CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute,
Nagpur, India
xxxiv Contributors
Amrita Kumari Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Bidhan Chandra

Krishi Vishwavidalaya Mohanpur, Nadia, West Bengal, India
K. Kumari Department of Chemical Engineering, S.L.I.E.T, Longowal, India
Neetu Kumari Department of Social Science, Horticulture College, Birsa Agricul-
tural University, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India
Sweta Kumari Department of Floriculture Landscape Architecture (Flower Breed-
ing), Horticulture College, Khuntpani, Chaibasa, Birsa Agricultural University,
Ranchi, Jharkhand, India
Hemraj R. Kumavat Civil Engineering Department, R C Patel Institute of
Technology, Shirpur, India
Rohan V. Kumavat Civil Engineering Department, Veermata Jijabai Technologi-
cal Institute, Mumbai, India
P. P. Kundu Department of Polymer Science and Technology, University of
Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee,
India
Lloyd Lottering Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Johannes-
burg, Johannesburg, South Africa
Amani Maalouf Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, American
University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon
Research Department, D-Waste, Athens, Greece
Antônio Magalhães Department of Bioprocess Engineering and Biotechnology,
Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil
Mu’izzah Mansor School of Civil Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia,
Penang, Malaysia
Uzma Manzoor Department of Agricultural Sciences, Sharda University, Noida,
India
Antonio Marco-Ferreira Department of Production Engineering, Federal Univer-
sity of Technology of Paraná, Campus Londrina, Londrina, Brazil
Subramanian Marimuthu Department of Nano Science and Technology, Tamil
Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
Walter José Martinez Burgos Department of Bioprocess Engineering and
Biotechnology, Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil
Vladimir A. Maryev R&D Center for Waste and Secondary Resources Manage-
ment, Ecological Industrial Policy Institute under the Ministry of Industry and Trade,
Moscow, Russian Federation
Contributors xxxv
Anthony Njuguna Matheri Department of Chemical Engineering, University of

Melinda Grace Rossan Mathews Regeneration and Stem Cell Biology Lab,
Centre for Molecular and Nanomedical Sciences, International Research Centre,
Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology (Deemed to be University),
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Mahalakshmi Mathivanan School of Civil Engineering, SASTRA Deemed
University, Thanjavur, India
Antonis Mavropoulos Research Department, D-Waste, Athens, Greece
Charles Mbohwa Department of Quality and Operations Management, University
of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
Adriane Bianchi Pedroni Medeiros Department of Bioprocess Engineering and
Biotechnology, Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil
Geovana Menegheti Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (UTFPR), Ponta
Grossa, Brazil
Justyna Milke Department of Bioengineering, Faculty of Environmental Manage-
ment and Agriculture, West Pomeranian University of Technology, Szczecin, Poland
Bhartendu Nath Mishra Department of Biotechnology, Institute of Engineering
and Technology, AKTU, Lucknow, UP, India
Rahul Mishra CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute,
Nagpur, India
Mothi Krishna Mohan Department of Science and Humanities, CHRIST
(Deemed to be University), Bangalore, India
Samanyita Mohanty Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry,
Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Nadia, West Bengal, India
Pedro Moleiro Department of Chemistry, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal
Edison Muzenda Department of Chemical, Materials and Metallurgical Engineer-
ing, Botswana International University of Science and Technology, Palapye,
Botswana
Department of Chemical Engineering Technology, Faculty of Engineering and the
Built Environment, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
Satya Narayan Naik Centre for Rural Development and Technology, Indian
Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India
Muhammad Naqvi Department of Engineering and Chemical Sciences, Karlstad
University, Karlstad, Sweden
xxxvi Contributors
Salman Raza Naqvi School of Chemical and Materials Engineering, National

University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan
Satyanarayana Narra Faculty of Agriculture and Environmental Science,
Universität Rostock, Rostock, Germany
Deutsches Biomasseforschungszentrum (DBFZ), Leipzig, Germany
P. C. Nath Institute of Biotechnology and Geotectonic Studies (INBIGS), A&AA
Basin, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Jorhat, India
Musa Neksumi Department of Environmental Sciences, Sharda University, Noida,
India
Department of Science Laboratory Technology, Adamawa State Polytechnic, Yola,
Nigeria
Michael Nelles Faculty of Agriculture and Environmental Science, Universität
Rostock, Rostock, Germany
Trust Nhubu Department of Chemical Engineering Technology, University of
Víctor Ramón Oliva-Aguilar Instituto Politécnico Nacional, EST, Mexico City,
Mexico
O. O. Ololade Centre for Environmental Management, University of the Free State,
Bloemfontein, South Africa
I. R. Orimoloye Centre for Environmental Management, University of the Free
State, Bloemfontein, South Africa
Department of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Fort Hare,
Alice, South Africa
Juan Martín Ortolani Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (UTFPR),
Ponta Grossa, Brazil
Luís Paes São Paulo State University (UNESP), School of Engineering, Bauru,
SP, Brazil
Apurba Pal Department of Basic Science, Hoticulture College, Birsa Agricultural
University, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India
Rashmi Paliwal Institute of Environmental Studies, Kurukshetra University,
Kurukshetra, India
Monika Patel Department of Floriculture Landscape Architecture (Floriculture),
Horticulture College, Khuntpani, Chaibasa, Birsa Agricultural University, Ranchi,
Jharkhand, India
Pankaj Pathak Department of Environmental Science, SRM University – AP,
Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh, India
Contributors xxxvii
Debasree Paul Department of Textile Engineering, Mawlana Bhashani Science

and Technology University, Tangail, Bangladesh
H. M. P. Peiris Postgraduate Institute of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya,
Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
Maskeliya Plantations PLC, Maharagama, Sri Lanka
Reinalda Blanco Pereira Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (UTFPR),
Eduarda Pereira Department of Chemistry and LAQV-REQUIMTE, University
of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal
Chanathip Pharino Department of Environmental Engineering, Chulalongkorn
University, Bangkok, Thailand
Nuchcha Phonphoton Department of Environmental Engineering, Chulalongkorn
University, Bangkok, Thailand
Cassiano Moro Piekarski Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (UTFPR),
Parwathi Pillai Nano-Research Group, Department of Chemical Engineering,
Pandit Deendayal Energy University, Gandhinagar, India
José Pinheiro-Torres N9VE – Nature, Ocean and Value, Lda, Porto, Portugal
José Antonio Plaza-Úbeda Department of Economy and Business, University of
M. Ponnien Selvi V. V. Vanniaperumal College for Women, Madurai Kamaraj
University, Virudhunagar, Tamil Nadu, India
Shiv Prasad Centre for Environment Science and Climate Resilient Agriculture,
ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India
Fabio Neves Puglieri Sustainable Production Systems Laboratory (LESP), Depart-
ment of Industrial Engineering (DAENP), Universidade Tecnológica Federal do
Paraná (UTFPR), Ponta Grossa, Brazil
Rajesh Kumar Rai School of Forestry and Natural Resource Management, Insti-
tute of Forestry, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal
Kamarajan Rajagopalan Regeneration and Stem Cell Biology Lab, Centre for
Molecular and Nanomedical Sciences, International Research Centre, Sathyabama
Institute of Science and Technology (Deemed to be University), Chennai, Tamil
Nadu, India
Ravikant Rajak RNTC Agriculture College, Deoghar, Birsa Agricultural Univer-
sity, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India
xxxviii Contributors
Poorvasandhya Rajendran Department of Plant Pathology, College of Agricul-

ture, CAU, Imphal, India
Geetanjali Rajhans Center for Biotechnology, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences,
Jayana Rajvanshi Department of Biotechnology, Dr. B. Lal Institute of Biotech-
nology, Jaipur, India
Seeram Ramakrishna Department of Mechanical Engineering, Center for Nano-
fibers and Nanotechnology, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
Desikan Ramesh Department of Vegetable Science, Horticultural College and
Research Institute for Women, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Tiruchirapalli,
Tamil Nadu, India
Vivek Rana Water Quality Management Division, Central Pollution Control
Board, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Delhi, India
Madhur Mohan Ranga Department of Environmental Science, Sant Gahira Guru
University, Sarguja, Chhattisgarh, India
Mansi Rastogi Department of Environmental Sciences, Maharshi Dayanand
University, Rohtak, India
V. Rathinakumar School of Civil Engineering, SASTRA Deemed University,
Thanjavur, India
Sangeeta Raut Center for Biotechnology, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences,
Andrea Rebecchi Department of Architecture, Built environment and Construc-
Dinesh Sankar Reddy Department of Chemical Engineering, National Institute of
Technology, Andhra Pradesh, India
María-Elena Rodrigo-Clavero Instituto de Ingeniería del Agua y Medio
Ambiente (IIAMA), Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), Valencia, Spain
Javier Rodrigo-Ilarri Instituto de Ingeniería del Agua y Medio Ambiente
(IIAMA), Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), Valencia, Spain
Pinaki Roy Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi, India
Sushanta Saha Department of Agricultural Chemistry and Soil Science, Bidhan
Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur, West Bengal, India
Seema Sahai Amity International Business School, Amity University, Noida, Uttar
Pradesh, India
Navdeep Kaur Sahota Department of Pharmacy, Rayat-Bahra Institute of
Pharmacy, Hoshiarpur, Punjab, India
Contributors xxxix
Ankita Sahu ICAR – Central Institute for Women in Agriculture, Bhubaneswar,

Orissa, India
Deepak Sakhuja Department of Biotechnology, Himachal Pradesh University,
Shimla, India
Rodrigo Salvador Sustainable Production Systems Laboratory (LESP), Postgrad-
uate Program in Industrial Engineering (PPGEP), Universidade Tecnológica Federal
do Paraná (UTFPR), Ponta Grossa, Brazil
Ranguwal Sangeet Department of Economics and Sociology, Punjab Agricultural
University, Ludhiana, Punjab, India
Gour Hari Santra Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Insti-
tute of Agricultural Science, Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan, deemed to be University,
Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
Sonika Saxena Department of Biotechnology, Dr. B. Lal Institute of Biotechnol-
ogy, Jaipur, India
Jaíne Schneider Department of Bioprocess Engineering and Biotechnology, Fed-
eral University of Technology of Paraná – Campus Ponta Grossa, Ponta Grossa,
Brazil
Jackson Durairaj Selvan Christyraj Scientist ‘C’, Regeneration and Stem Cell
Biology Lab, Centre for Molecular and Nanomedical Sciences, International
Research Centre, Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology (Deemed to be
University), Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Johnson Retnaraj Samuel Selvan Christyraj Scientist ‘C’, Regeneration and
Stem Cell Biology Lab, Centre for Molecular and Nanomedical Sciences, Interna-
tional Research Centre, Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology (Deemed
to be University), Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Sudip Kumar Sen Biostadt India Limited, Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India
Jasmine Sethi Department of Biotechnology, Dr. B. Lal Institute of Biotechnology,
Jaipur, India
Hande Sezgin Textile Technologies and Design Faculty, Textile Engineering
Department, Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey
Ramica Sharma Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Sachdeva College of
Pharmacy, Gharuan, Punjab, India
Surbhi Sharma Department of Biotechnology, Thapar Institute of Engineering and
Technology, Patiala, Punjab, India
Vivek Sharma Department of Biotechnology, Thapar Institute of Engineering and
Technology, Patiala, Punjab, India
School of Life Sciences, SIILAS campus, Jaipur National University, Jaipur, India
xl Contributors
Vicky Shettigondahalli Ekanthalu Faculty of Agriculture and Environmental

Science, Universität Rostock, Rostock, Germany
Naresh Gopal Shrivastava Pollution Control Research Institute, BHEL, Ranipur,
Haridwar, Uttarakhand, India
Hari Om Shukla Forest Research Centre for Eco-Rehabilitation, Prayagraj, UP,
India
Carlo Signorelli School of Medicine, University Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milan,
Italy
Amandeep Singh Department of Polymer Science and Technology, University of
Ekta Singh CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute,
Nagpur, India
Gurinder Singh Amity International Business School, Amity University, Noida,
Uttar Pradesh, India
Meenu Singh Department of Biotechnology, IILM-College of Engineering and
Technology, Greater Noida, UP, India
Vijay Kant Singh Department of Soil Science, Punjab Agricultural University,
Ludhiana, Punjab, India
Bireswar Sinha Department of Plant Pathology, College of Agriculture, CAU,
Imphal, India
Annabelle Joy Siril School of Civil Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia,
Engineering Campus, Penang, Malaysia
Tatiana S. Smirnova R&D Center for Waste and Secondary Resources Manage-
ment, Ecological Industrial Policy Institute under the Ministry of Industry and Trade,
Moscow, Russian Federation
Department of Industrial Ecology, Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas
(National Research University), Moscow, Russian Federation
Carlos Ricardo Soccol Department of Bioprocess Engineering and Biotechnology,
Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil
Praveen Solanki Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Hoshangabad, Madhya Pradesh, India
G. Ashwin Sriram School of Civil Engineering, SASTRA Deemed University,
Thanjavur, India
Neelam Srivastava Pollution Control Research Institute, BHEL, Haridwar,
Uttarakhand, India
Franco Sebastián Suarez Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (UTFPR),
Contributors xli
Ravichandran Subramaniam Regeneration and Stem Cell Biology Lab, Centre

for Molecular and Nanomedical Sciences, International Research Centre,
Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology (Deemed to be University),
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
M. R. Sudhir Department of Civil Engineering, CHRIST (Deemed to be Univer-
sity), Bangalore, India
Evangelin Ramani Sujatha Centre for Advanced Research on Environment,
School of Civil Engineering, SASTRA Deemed to be University, Thanjavur, India
Shouheng Sun LaboNFC, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, Saguenay, QC,
Canada
Banerjee Sushmita Department of Environmental Sciences, Sharda University,
Noida, India
Devanshi Sutaria Department of Biotechnology, Dr. B. Lal Institute of Biotech-
nology, Jaipur, India
Eduardo Bittencourt Sydney Department of Bioprocess Engineering and Bio-
technology, Federal University of Technology of Paraná – Campus Ponta Grossa,
Amir Hoshang Taheri Department of Chemical Engineering, Nanyang Techno-
logical University, Singapore, Singapore
Mohammad Tanhaei Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, Agency for
Science, Technology and Research, Singapore, Singapore
Ricardo Tejeida-Padilla Instituto Politécnico Nacional, EST, Mexico City,
Mexico
Daniel Poletto Tesser Sustainable Production Systems Laboratory (LESP), Depart-
ment of Industrial Engineering (DAENP), Universidade Tecnológica Federal do
Paraná (UTFPR), Ponta Grossa, Brazil
Ramasundaram Thangaraj Vermitechnology and Ecotoxicology Laboratory,
Department of Zoology, School of Life Sciences, Periyar University, Salem, Tamil
Nadu, India
Anita Tomar Forest Research Centre for Eco-Rehabilitation, Prayagraj, UP, India
Tito Trindade Department of Chemistry and CICECO-Aveiro Institute of Mate-
rials, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal
G. Venkatesam Municipal Administration, Hyderabad, India
Sabrina Vieira Department of Bioprocess Engineering and Biotechnology, Federal
University of Technology of Paraná – Campus Ponta Grossa, Ponta Grossa, Brazil
Lim Jun Wei Fundamental and Applied Science Department, Universiti Teknologi
PETRONAS, Seri Iskandar, Perak, Malaysia
xlii Contributors
Yashwant Singh Yadav Institute of Biotechnology and Geotectonic Studies

(INBIGS), A&AA Basin, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Jorhat, India
Ipek Yalcin-Enis Textile Technologies and Design Faculty, Textile Engineering
Department, Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey
Leong Siew Yoong Department of Petrochemical Engineering, Universiti Tunku
Abdul Rahman, Kampar, Perak, Malaysia
Ananthanarayanan Yuvaraj Vermitechnology and Ecotoxicology Laboratory,
Department of Zoology, School of Life Sciences, Periyar University, Salem, Tamil
Nadu, India
Mohd Zishan Department of Agricultural Sciences, Sharda University, Noida,
India
Part I
Solid Waste Management, Municipal Solid
Waste Management, and Food Waste
Management
Solid Waste Management in Developing
Countries: Towards a Circular Economy 1
Zobaidul Kabir and Mahfuz Kabir
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Potential of MSW to Contribute Circular Economy: a Literature Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Waste to energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Produce Bioenergy and Value-Added Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
The Situation of MSW Management in South Asia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Institutional Arrangement for Waste Management in South Asia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Generation and Composition of MSW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Waste Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Disposal and Treatment of MSW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
The Management of Waste Using WtE Technologies and Circular Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
WtE Technology and Its Potentials for Circular Economy: Case Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Case Study-1: Waste-to-Energy in Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Case Study-2: Waste to Energy in United Kingdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Case Study-3: Estonia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Discussions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
The Way Forward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Annexure-A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of how sustainable solid waste
management practices contribute to circular economy. As a paradigm shift,
circular economy may contribute to the achievement of Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) specially the Goals 11 and 12. It is well recognized that current
Z. Kabir (*)
School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Newcastle, Ourimbah, Australia
e-mail: Zobaidul.Kabir@Newcastle.edu.au
M. Kabir
Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS), Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 3

C. Baskar et al. (eds.), Handbook of Solid Waste Management,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_1
4 Z. Kabir and M. Kabir
global consumption levels and the associated over-reliance on waste disposal and
emissions are unsustainable. This chapter has identified how Municipal Solid
Waste (MSW) with good practice can lead to circular economy in the context of
developing countries with particular focus on South Asian countries. First, this
chapter has provided an introduction including the objectives of the chapter.
Second, this chapter discussed the potential of solid waste management (e.g.,
waste to energy) to create circular economy based on literature. Third, the
situation of MSW management including generation, composition, collection,
disposal, and treatment of MSW in South Asian countries was analyzed. Fourth,
developing countries were presented as case studies to learn lessons on how good
practice of MSW management using WtE technology can lead towards a circular
economy. Fifth, discussions included the potential of circular economy from WtE
and issues relating to WtE for South Asian countries. Finally, this was followed
by conclusions.
Keywords
Circular economy · Sustainability · Municipal solid waste · Technology · South
Asia
Introduction
The notion and practices of circular economy (CE) have been gaining considerable
attention as means of achieving local, national, and global sustainability since it has
the potential to address the manifold challenges of development and environment
posed by overconsumption of resources at local and global levels. The materials
extraction at the global level was nearly 89 gigatons (Gt) in 2017, which is projected
to reach 167 Gt by 2060 (OECD 2018). CE practices offer opportunities to address
the waste management through recycling and reuse, which would be especially
beneficial for low- and middle-income countries that mostly manage industrial and
final consumer wastes through landfilling (Tisserant et al. 2017). Ellen MacArthur
Foundation (EMF) defined that a CE is “an industrial economy that is restorative or
regenerative by intention and design” (EMF 2013) and “restorative and regenerative
by design and aims” (EMF 2015). Thereafter, the notion of CE heavily implies a
restorative and regenerative economy.
The practices and principles of CE would help achieve many targets of several
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDG 8 is aimed to promote sustained,
inclusive, and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and
decent work for all on increasing resource efficiency. The CE practices can directly
contribute to achieving 21 of the targets and indirectly contribute to achieving an
additional 28 targets. The CE practices would help directly achieve five SDGs,
which are SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation), SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy),
SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth), SDG 12 (sustainable consumption and
production), and SDG 15 (life on land) having high scores both for direct and
1 Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries: Towards a Circular Economy 5
indirect contributions. However, it can promote achieving three additional SDGs

indirectly, that is, SDG 1 (no poverty), SDG 2 (zero hunger), and SDG 14 (life below
water) (Schroeder et al. 2019). Table 11 (Annexure-A) shows the relevance of SDGs
and subsequent targets to sustainable waste management and circular economy.
The urban population is on the increase all over the world along with improving
standards of living, which is accompanied by rising rate of resource use and massive
waste generated from residential, industrial, commercial, and institutional sources.
Consequently, the generation of municipal solid wastes (MSWs) has emerged as a
daunting challenge for decision-makers, especially in the developing countries in the
context of attaining the SDGs. Conventional landfilling approach of waste manage-
ment leads to a number of ecological and environmental damages, such as evaporation
of leachates, infections, nuisance odors, presence of UV quenching substances in
leachate and contaminated streams. Therefore, municipal authorities are looking for
sustainable management strategies for wastes aiming to reduce waste generation and
ensure optimal recovery of resource from wastes through CE practices (Bagheri et al.
2020). One of the key options of reducing waste generation and achieving circular
economy is the recovery of energy from MSW. While developed countries have
already adopted technologies for recovery of energy from MSW, developing countries
are still lagged behind in good practice of MSW management. With this in mind, the
aim of this chapter is to understand the prospects of WtE practice in developing
countries to promote circular economy particularly in the South Asian context.
Potential of MSW to Contribute Circular Economy: a Literature

Review
The most recent literature indicates that the MSW management can be conducted in
the following areas within the CE framework (Fig. 1):
Fig. 1 A typical process of

circular economy. Source: Plants growing
Adapted from Fernández-
Delgado et al. (2020)
Fertilizer
Food consumption
production
Circular
Economy
Organic matter
Waste collection
recovery
Mixed municipal
waste compost
Waste to energy
The traditional fossil fuels that dominate the global energy market cause consider-
able damage to environmental due to emission of greenhouse gases. Therefore, the
policymakers and scientific community are paying considerable attention towards
alternative, economical, renewable, and green sources of energy and at the same time
manage the ever-growing waste in a sustainable manner. Given this backdrop, waste-
to-energy (WtE) is a sustainable approach to managing the waste (Sharma et al.
2020a) in which, a raw material of energy, waste can solve three problems: waste
management, produce clean energy, and reduce greenhouse gas emission. Thus, WtE
plays a key role in establishing circular economy. The WtE technologies utilize the
5R principles, viz. Reuse, Reduce, Recycle, Recovery, and Reclamation. Efficient
WtE technologies convert wastes into energy, which are easy to operate, cost-
effective, and helpful in shifting from linear to circular economy (Sharma et al.
2020a).
The WtE technology for generating renewable energy from solid waste helps
recover energy from municipal solid wastes instead of landfill disposal as well as
reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (Bagheri et al. 2020). Nevertheless, the
WtE projects have not been widely installed in most of the municipalities in the
world, especially in the low- and middle-income countries, even though there is a
growing interest on such technologies, such as landfill gas recovery, thermal WtE
systems, and biological system among some cities within the CE framework which
is expected to address manifold environmental and health concerns emanating from
municipal wastes (Bagheri et al. 2020). Therefore, investment can be encouraged in
WtE sector, which has considerable business potential with financial value in new
“circular business” models. It needs to change the mindset of the potential investors
towards willingness to recycle the MSW. The organic portion of MSW, such as yard
waste which constitutes 54–64 per cent of total MSW, can also be used to produce
energy (Sharma et al. 2020b).
Reduce CO2 emission: Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) is
a carbon removal technology, which can be used to remove net carbon dioxide
(CO2) permanently from the atmosphere. Organic waste from MSW can be a notable
resource of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). Pour et al. (2018)
conducted an environmental impact assessment, which demonstrates that nearly
0.7 kg CO2-eq is removed for each kg of wet MSW incinerated. It implies around
2.8 billion tons CO2 if 4 billion tons of MSW generated annually by 2100 is utilized
in Carbon Capture and Storage system, which is quite significant to counter GHG
emission (Pour et al. 2018). Thus, MSW-based BECCS technologies can be a game-
changer for abating and removing considerable amount of the GHGs from the
atmosphere and thus contribute in attaining emission reduction targets.
Produce Bioenergy and Value-Added Products
The MSW can be effectively used in a closed loop integrated refinery platform to
generate bioenergy and manufacture value-added products. The biodegradable solid
waste can be treated to produce bioenergy, for example, bio-hydrogen, bio-methane,

bioelectricity, and value-added products, such as Butanol, Ethanol, Methanol. Inter-
nal combustion engines can be used to process the waste for generating energy, while
nonbiodegradable portion of the MSW can be used for construction and pavement
processes of civil engineering. Applying CE approach to recycling and reuse of
nonbiodegradable wastes for civil construction as well as producing energy and
value-added products can effectively reduce the landfilling problems, saving energy,
and reverse the emission of GHGs. It is evident that the MSWs originate from
households, commercial, educational, and constructional activities, including wastes
generated from office buildings, marketplaces, shops, cafeterias or restaurants,
educational institutions, industrial sites, water and wastewater/sewage facilities,
construction and demolition sites, agricultural land, and farms. There are many
technologies of WtE for treatment of MSW. The major content of MSW particularly
in developing countries is organic matter (Khan and Kabir 2020) or biodegradable
waste. It is well recognized that the treatment of biodegradable waste produces
bioenergy and bi-products that may add value to CE.
Municipal biodegradable waste or bio-waste can be used to produce biogas
containing rich methane through anaerobic digestion (AD) process, which can be a
fuel for combustion in transport or energy production (Nuhaa 2019). AD technique
can be applied to stabilize a large volume of municipal organic solid waste (MOSW)
and at the same time recover energy and nutrients. In other words, it provides
renewable materials and fuels through sustainable manner and thus contributes to
circular economy (Antoniou et al. 2019). Currently, biogas industry is growing
steadily because of apparent substantial reduction operating costs of AD facilities
and associated costs of the capital.
The AD and composting can be applied to treat MOSW to recover both renew-
able energy and nutrients. These two technologies can play a key role in achieving
circular economy by diverting MOSW from landfill and burning and improving the
circularity of biological nutrients even though there is significant improvisation of
the technologies before adoption at large scale (Zhang et al. 2019). Luis et al. (2019)
argue that as much as 60 million tons of solid waste could be recycled in Europe by
using AD and composting technologies, which could help save nearly one million
tons of nitrogen and 20 million tons of organic carbon. Currently, most of which are
lost through landfilling organic waste ― European countries recycle only 5% of the
total MOSW. The countries could replace up to 30% of chemical fertilizer (i.e., 1.8
million tons phosphate) per annum by recycling and reusing OSWs (Luis et al.
2019). A range of green and clean products, fertilizer, heat, clean fuel, plant and soil
nutrients, and methane can be generated from MOSW if different processing tech-
nologies are applied. Also, dark fermentation process is another technology in which
MOSW can be used to recover energy. It is an intermediate process within the AD to
release hydrogen. Traditional steam reforming of methane and noncatalytic partial
oxidation of fossil fuels are more energy-intensive and require greater petroleum
resources than production of hydrogen from MOSW (Zhang et al. 2019).
Several important acids are also produced by adopting the AD technology, which
are used in industries. Volatile fatty acids (VFAsz), short-chain aliphatic carboxylic
acids, are generated as intermediate goods during the AD process. Solid wastes
being utilized as raw materials instead of petroleum resources are currently for
industrial VFAs, which is an important approach of circular economy. These acids
can be of potential use in a range of industrial processes. For example, acetic acid can
be applied in pharmaceutical industries, propionic acid in manufacturing paints,
butyric acid in perfumes, and caproic acid in the preparation of food additives.
The mixed solution of these VFAs can be used in wastewater treatment plants for
biological removal of nitrogen and phosphorus, biosynthesis of mixed alcohols, and
manufacturing of biodegradable plastics. The VFAs can be used in generating power
in microbial fuels cells and serving as the source of carbon for bioprocessing of
biodiesel (González-Garcia et al. 2019).
Among others, lactic acid is used for production of acrylic acid, biodegradable
polymers, pyruvic acid, and propanediol (Phanthumchinda et al. 2018). Factors such
as level of acidity, temperature, and nitrogen concentration are controlled in fermen-
tation of industrial production. Food wastes and organic fraction of MSW can be
processed using microbes during the acidogenic phase in the AD processes (Gu et al.
2018). Zhou et al. (2018) argue that the acidogenic biodegradation of wastes can lead
to biosynthesis of other chemicals together with VFAs, lactic acid, and hydrogen. One
of the biproducts is succinic acid that can be used in manufacturing of inks, polymers,
and pharmaceuticals and is bio-synthesized via the tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA).
E-waste management: In recent years, e-wastes are the most recent MSWs of
major concerns in terms of both landfilling and recycling. Interestingly, an average
0.347 kg of gold can be extracted from recycling one ton of mobile phones, which is
80% of the material value of waste mobile phones. The e-waste valorization is an
important management option to optimize the entire system and extract the maxi-
mum possible valuable materials from MSW. Within the framework of the CE, all
phases of lifecycle of an electronic product must be connected and directed to a
return system for e-waste. In this framework, Reverse Logistics, remanufacturing,
and redesigning are required as tools to implement a circular pattern in the stream of
e-wastes (Ottoni et al. 2020). Table 1 shows the retention options applied for circular
e-waste management.
Waste composting at landfill sites: Waste composting is another dimension of
integrated management of MSW, which is recently becoming popular. Using com-
post improves soil properties and helps reduce the dependence on chemical fertil-
izers and minimization of environmental pollution. Composting on a landfill surface
fosters to close the waste loop and material cycle, which appears to be as convenient
means of management of the organic MSW. However, since composting through
open landfill has a number of negative externalities including environmental pollu-
tion, closed landfill cell would be more appropriate for composting (Vaverková et al.
2020). The gas that is generated from landfills (usually 400–500 cubic meters from
one ton of degradable waste) contains substantial amount Green House Gases
(GHGs) such as carbon-di-oxide (CO2) and methane. Emission of these gases goes
to the air and increases the pollution as well as temperature. The hazardous
chemicals including leaking of toxins from landfills may contaminate soil and
water. Furthermore, infiltrated toxic materials cause the pollution of ground water.
The animals and human health are also affected by waste from landfills.
Table 1 Retention options applied for a circular e-waste management model

Option Description
R0 Refuse Refrain from buying; make product redundant (abandoning its function or
offering this function with a different product)
R1 Reduce Use less, use longer; recently: share the use of products; increase efficiency
in product manufacture or use by consuming fewer natural resources and
materials
R2 Re-use/Re-sell Buy second hand (good conditions, fulfills its original function), or find
buyer for your nonused produced/possibly some cleaning, minor repairs
R3 Repair Making the product work again by repairing or replacing deteriorated parts
R4 Re-furbish Restore an old product and bring it up to date
R5 Use parts of discarded product in a new product with the same function
Re-manufacture
R6Re-propose/ Buy new product with new function
Rethink
R7 Re-cycle Process materials to obtain the same (high grade) or lower (low grade)
quality. Consumer must dispose separately; buy and use secondary
materials
R8 Recover Energy production as by-product of waste treatment
(energy)
R9 Re-mine Buy and use secondary materials from landfills
Source: Modified from Ottoni et al. (2020)
On the other hand, the AD is a cost-effective means of biological treatments of the

municipal bio-waste, which can generate nutrient-rich digestate and reduces natural
impacts of the waste transfer. The digestate can be used as fertilizer or organic
alteration for farming to provide vitality and recover other nutrients in the farm
(Thiriet et al. 2020). Apposite biochemical technologies can be used to treat the
MOSW for producing compost, the nutrient-rich fertilizers that contain nutrients, for
example, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (Thiriet et al. 2020).
Plasma gasification: Besides processing through biological techniques, such as
composting, aerobic and anaerobic digestion, two other techniques can be applied
for making MSW useful, viz. hydrothermal (e.g., wet oxidation, thermal hydrolysis,
liquefaction, and carbonization) and thermochemical (e.g., gasification, pyrolysis,
and incineration). These techniques enable the useful and value-added processing of
the MSWs.
However, plasma gasification, an emerging thermochemical technique, can be
suitable for MSW disposal and value processing as it can be used (i) extract
recyclable goods from landfill waste and (ii) convert carbon-based waste materials
into syngas and fuel energy. It can also help achieve zero-waste accumulation, which
is a crucial objective of the CE. Table 2 shows the techniques of recovering of energy
from MSW.
Separation of valuable matters from fly ashes: MSW incineration fly ashes can
contain high concentrations of zinc and other valuable matters, such as copper, lead,
tin, and antimony. Selectively volatilizing and condensing them in thermal processes
would be necessary to separate these elements from fly ashes. Therefore, an
Table 2 Techniques of extracting resources from MSW

Techniques Outputs from MSW Remarks
Biological Biogas or compost Expensive, inefficient for
hazardous waste, requires a large area, slow process
Hydrothermal Extracts valuables Relatively fast and environmentally safe, but incurs
from waste higher operational costs
Thermochemical Charcoal, oil, Fast and environmentally safe, but incurs higher
syngas, or heat operational costs
Source: Scarlat et al. (2019)
important CE approach to MSW would be to develop fly ash treatment technologies

for recovery of valuable metals and metalloids from the ash. It can be done through
destruction, stabilization, or removal of harmful compounds in the ash, thereby
facilitating safe disposal, storage, and re-utilization of the ash in a circular manner.
Thus, thermal ash treatment technologies would be useful in separating valuable
materials and removing harmful matters from fly ashes destructing injurious organic
pollutants by volatilization (Lindberg et al. 2015). Valuable metals and materials can
also be separated from fly ash through applying differences in metal volatilities at
different temperatures and in different gas atmospheres (Lane et al. 2020).
Produce organic carbon: Soil organic carbon (SOC) is necessary for agricultural
production as improves physical soil conditions, nutrient retention, bacterial diver-
sity, and fertility of the agricultural land. Humic substances, a typical SOC, can be
used in agricultural lands to enhance plant growth and water holding capacity, and
strengthening their bactericidal and fungicidal properties (Kanmaz 2019). SOC also
plays important role in mitigating the global warming. Even the CO2 concentration
in the atmosphere increases notably if small losses in SOC take place (Kanmaz
2019). The SOC can be generated from processing mixed municipal waste as well.
The Situation of MSW Management in South Asia
Institutional Arrangement for Waste Management in South Asia
There are policies and plans for management of MSW in all South Asian Countries.
For example, the Ministry of Environment and Forest in India issued MSW (Man-
agement and Handling) Rules 2000 (amended as Solid Waste Management Rules
2016) to ensure proper waste management and new updated draft rules have recently
been published. In general, municipal authorities or city corporations are account-
able for executing these rules and building infrastructure for collection, storage,
segregation, transportation, processing, and disposal of MSW in India. Table 3
shows the policies of South Asian countries for MSW management. Usually,
MSW management in developing countries is considered public services, and
therefore, this arrangement approach is appear to be weak (Khatib 2018).
Although countries in South Asia have introduced rules and regulations for MSW
management, the implementation of the rules is a challenge. Many cities in India, for
Table 3 Policy and legislations for MSW management in South Asian countries
Countries Policy potions
India Hazardous and Other Wastes (Management and Trans-boundary Movement)
Rules, 2015
E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2016
Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016
Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016
Bhutan Nation al Strategy on Integrated Solid Waste Management 2007
The Waste Prevention and Management Act and Regulation, 2012
Maldives National Solid Waste Management Policy 2008
Environmental Prevention and Protection Act 1993
Nepal Environmental Policy and Action Plan 1993
Solid Waste Management National Policy 1996
Solid Waste Management Act of 2011
Solid Waste (Management and Resource Mobilization) Act 2013
Pakistan Environmental Protection Act 1997
Hazardous Substance Rules 2003
Guidelines for Solid Waste Management 2005
Hospital Waste Management Rules 2005
Sri Lanka Municipal Council Ordinance 1947,
Urban Council Ordinance 1987
Pradeshiya Sabha Act 1917
National Waste Management Policy 2018
Bangladesh Bangladesh Environment Conservation Act, 1995
National Renewable Energy Policy 2008
National Solid Waste Management Handling Rules 2010
Afghanistan Comprehensive Healthcare Waste Management Plan 2014
Source: Khatib (2018), Kabir and Khan (2020), Pucino (2016), Phuntsho et al. (2010), and Asian
Development Bank (2013)
example, are still incapable of complying with regulations due to lack of manpower.
This situation is being exacerbated due to rapid urbanization and population growth
(Sharma et al. 2020a). The policies and acts mentioned in Table 3 emphasize waste
management in municipal and urban areas. The review of the policies and regula-
tions indicates that the key and common objectives of policies and acts are to
(1) make MSW management simple and effective, (2) minimize the impacts of
solid waste on public health and environment, (3) treat solid waste as resources,
(4) include private sector participation for effective MSW management, and
(5) increase awareness about better management of MSW through public
participation.
Generation and Composition of MSW
South Asia is one of the fastest growing region where the generation of total waste
is expected to triple than double by 2050 and this means the amount of waste
generation will be increasing rapidly. The reasons behind the increasing the
generation of waste include repaid urbanization, population growth, and the
increasing economic growth. Population of South Asian is about 1.4 billion or

1/5th of the world population and by 2050, the population is likely to exceed
2 billion (World Bank 2012). In 2016, the total generation of waste in South Asia
region amounted to 334 million tons (World Bank 2018). The average generation
of waste is 0.52 kilogram per person each day much lower than the global average
0.72 kilogram per day. Among the South Asian countries, the Maldives generates
the highest amount of waste per capita, 1.5 kilogram per day. This is due to its
relatively higher income than other South Asian countries and intensive tourism
activities upon which the economy of Maldives mostly depends. The waste
generation rates vary widely in South Asia, with cities such as Kabul in Afghan-
istan generates about 1.5 kilograms per capita per day, and cities such as Thimphu
in Bhutan and Kathmandu in Nepal, generate only about 0.2 kilogram per capita
per day (Asian Development Bank 2013; World Bank 2018). Table 4 shows the
sources and types of MSW generated.
Table 4 Sources and types of waste

Source Typical waste generators Types of solid wastes
Residential Single and multifamily dwellings Food wastes, paper, cardboard,
plastics, textiles, leather, yard
wastes, wood, glass, metals, ashes,
special wastes (e.g., bulky items,
consumer electronics, white goods,
batteries, oil, tires), and household
hazardous wastes
Industrial Light and heavy manufacturing, Housekeeping wastes, packaging,
fabrication, construction sites, power food wastes, construction and
and chemical plants demolition materials, hazardous
wastes, ashes, special wastes
Commercial Stores, hotels, restaurants, markets, Paper, cardboard, plastics, wood,
office buildings, etc. food wastes, glass, metals, special
wastes, hazardous wastes
Institutional Schools, hospitals, prisons, Same as commercial
government centers
Construction New construction sites, road repair, Wood, steel, concrete, dirt, etc.
and demolition renovation sites, demolition of
buildings
Municipal Street cleaning, landscaping, parks, Street sweepings; landscape and tree
services beaches, other recreational areas, trimmings; general wastes from
water and wastewater treatment parks, beaches, and other
plants recreational areas; sludge
Process Heavy and light manufacturing, Industrial process wastes, scrap
(manufacturing, refineries, chemical plants, power materials, off-specification products,
etc.) plants, mineral extraction and tailings
processing
Agriculture Crops, orchards, vineyards, dairies, Spoiled food wastes, agricultural
feedlots, farms wastes, hazardous wastes (e.g.,
pesticides)
Source: Asian Development Bank (2013)
Table 5 Average waste composition in various income group countries

Type of countries Organic (%) Paper (%) Plastic (%) Metals and glass (%) Others (%)
Low income group 64 6 9 6 15
Middle Income 56 12 13 7 12
Countries
High Income 28 30 11 13 18
Countries
Source: Kumar and Samadder (2017a)
While the generation of waste is increasing rapidly, the composition of waste,

however, varies considerably from one country to another. This is due to level of
income, life style and the quality of life, cultural heritage, geographic location, and
domination of weather condition (World Bank 2012). In particular, the composition of
MSW differs from high income countries to low income countries. Indeed, the quality
of life and lifestyle of people and GDP characterize the percentage composition.
Table 5 shows the variability of waste composition by income level worldwide.
In South Asia, the MSW is composed of Foods and green (Organic), rubber,
metal, paper, plastic, wood, and others. More than half (57%) of waste in the South
Asia region is organic as indicated by Fig. 2. This is because countries of South Asia
are in between middle and low incomes. The other major components are other
(15%) such as leather, paper (10%), plastic (8%), and glass (4%) (Asian Develop-
ment Bank 2013). The organic component of MSW of South Asia is much higher
than the usual content of 28% in developed countries (World Bank 2012). This major
part of MSW can be converted to fertilizer or used to generate biogas using
anaerobic digestion plants. Figure 2 shows the composition of MSW in South Asia.
Waste Generation and Composition in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world with more
than 160 million people living in 147,570 square kilometers of land. Of the total
population, only 30% people are living in urban areas, although the density of urban
population and expansion of urban area is rapidly increasing due to rural to urban
migration. Indeed, urbanization in Bangladesh is changing at a rapid pace where
population growth rate in urban areas is 3%, much higher than the national average
1.31%. The generation of waste particularly in the densely populated cities is more
than other urban areas including district towns and upazilla (subdistrict) towns
(There are 336 municipalities including 8 cities, 56 district towns and paurasavas
(sub-districts) in urban Bangladesh in addition to 200 sub-districts those are not yet
declared Paurosava). The cities are facing challenges with waste management due to
the generation of huge amount of waste. However, generation of MSW varies from
city to city. For example, the Dhaka city, the capital of Bangladesh, generates highest
amount of waste 4334.52 kg per person per year. The lowest total generation of
waste is in Barisal city which is 134.38 kg (Ahmed et al. 2018). In 336 municipalities
including eight cities of Bangladesh, the waste generation varies from 0.25 to
0.56 kg per person per day (UNDP 2017). It is to be noted that there is a variation
Fig. 2 MSW composition in South Asia. Source: World Bank (2018)
in waste generation rate in dry and rainy season. Waste contains a great amount of
moisture during the rainy season and therefore the weight of the bulk of the waste is
more than that of in dry season. Furthered, the generation of MSW is increasing. The
projection on the generation in Dhaka city, for example, indicates that municipal
waste of Dhaka north city which is 1,050,000 ton in 2016–2017 will likely to
increase nearly about 1,200,000 ton of waste in 2021–2022.
The MSW in Bangladesh is composed of compostable waste (e.g., food waste),
paper, plastic, metal, wood, textile, glass, and wreckage. The density of these
materials in per cubic meter is compostable 240 kg, paper 85 kg, plastic 65 kg,
metal 320 kg, wood 240 kg, textile 65 kg, glasses 195 kg, and wreckage 480 kg
(UNDP 2017). A recent study on waste composition in four major cities indicates
that on an average MSW including food and vegetable waste 70%, paper 4.5%,
plastics 5.3%, metals 0.7%, wood grasses and leaves 4.5%, rags, textile and jute
3.7%, glasses 0.3%, organic noncompostable 7%, and others 3%. However, it is to
be noted that the composition of MSW varies from one city corporation to another.
Waste Generation and Composition India

India, one of the countries with 1.3 billion population where 377 million people live
in urban areas generate 62 million tons of MSW every year (Nixon et al. 2017). India
generates approximately 133,760 tons of MSW per day. The per capita generation of
MSW in India ranges from approximately 0.17 kg per day in small towns and to
approximately 0.62 kg per person per day in cities. It has been estimated that the
amount of waste generation is expected to increase by 5% per year due to population
and economic growth and change of lifestyle (Sharma and Jain 2019) in addition to
density of population in urban areas and their income, commercial activities, culture,
and the city of region. India generated 31.6 million tons of waste in 2001 and is
currently generating 47.3 million tons. By 2041, the generation of MSW in urban
areas in India is projected to be 0.7 kg per person per day or 161 million tons. This
amount is approximately four to six times higher than the MSW generated in 2001
(Sharma and Jain 2019). Given the increasing amount of waste, in urban areas of
India, 1240 hectors of land is required for landfills every year. The composition of
MSW in India varies significantly between urban and rural areas. Overall, the MSW
consists of high percentage of organic content. The percentage of paper, plastic,
glass, and metal is often found to be low. This is particularly when rag pickers collect
recyclable materials from disposed MSW.
Other South Asian Countries

Total MSW generation in Pakistan is roughly 20 million tons annually with annual
growth rate of 2.4%. The generation of MSW in Pakistan ranges between 0.283 and
0.612 kg/capita/day and the waste generation growth rate is 2.4% per year. Karachi,
Pakistan’s largest city, generates more than 9,000 tons of MSW daily (Bioenergy
Consult, 2020). Broadly the composition of household waste includes 71% organic
wastes, 12% plastics, 7.5% paper and paper products, 5% dirt and construction debris,
and 1.5% medical and other waste. The composition of other sources such as
commercial including restaurants and hotels shows high percentage of organic
waste (Bioenergy Consult, 2020). Based on 58 municipalities, Nepal generate
524,000 tons of total MSW. The waste composition analysis indicates that the highest
waste fraction is organic matter (66%), followed by plastics (12%), paper and paper
products (9%), glass (3%), metals (2%), textile (2%), rubber and leather (1%), and
others (5%). Sri Lanka generates 80 million and 150 million tons of MSW per year
and per capita waste generation ranges from 0.2 to 1.7 kg per day. Bhutan is a small
country but the generation of waste per capita is 0.53 kg per day. Tables 6 and 7 show
the summary of waste generation and composition of MSW in South Asian countries,
respectively.
Table 7 shows that in South Asian countries, the composition of MSW shows
almost similar pattern where most of the MSW is organic. The portion of organic
matter of MSW ranges from 51% to 76%. Sri Lanka shows the highest portion (76%)
of organic of MSW where India shows the lowest portion (51%) of organic of MSW
among the South Asian countries. The other materials of MSW include plastic,
paper, glasses, metals, and others. The use of technology for generation of energy
from MSW often depends on the composition of MSW of a country.
Waste Collection
The coverage of Municipal Waste Collection in South Asia is about 77 percent

excluding Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan where data are not available (World
Bank 2018). However, the coverage of collection varies remarkably from one
country to another. For example, a survey indicates that 62% of total MSW is
Table 6 MSW generation in South Asia by countries

Total MSW generation Per capita per day Growth rate of MSW generation/
Countries per year (tons) (kg) year
Pakistan Total 20 million 0.283 to 0.612 kg 2.4%
India Total 62 million 0.17 to 5%
approximately
0.62 kg
Nepal Total 524,000 tons in 0.66 kg –
58 municipalities
Bhutan Total 43,700 tons from 0.53 kg –
61 town
Bangladesh Total 22.4 million tons 0.25 to 0.56 kg 3.5%
Maldives Total 365,000 tons 0.3 to 2.5 kg –
Sri Lanka Total 11.5 million tons 0.2 to 1.7 kg p By 2025, this rate will be
from increased to about 1.8 million
311 municipalities tons per day
Afghanistan Total 394,200 tons in 0.31 and 0.43 kg NA
Kabul city
Source: United Nations Centre for Regional Development (2017)
Table 7 Composition of MSW in South Asia by countries

Countries Organic Plastics Paper Glass Metals Others References
Nepal 56 16 16 3 2 7 World Bank (2012)
Bangladesh 71 7 5 – – 16 UNDP (2017)
Sri Lanka 76 6 11 1 1 5 World Bank (2012)
Maldives 75 3 5 4 3 10 Pucino (2016)
India 51 10 7 3.4 2.6 26 Sharma et al.
(2020b)
Pakistan 71 12 7.5 5 – 1.5 World Bank (2012)
Bhutan 58 17 13 3.7 0.7 7.6 Phuntsho et al.
(2010)
collected. This collection efficiency is better than the average for low-income
countries (41%) although a bit lower than the average of South Asia (77%). The
services of waste collection in South Asian cities is not door-to-door services except
a few parts of some cities. For example, in Navi Mumbai, India, waste collectors
notify residents to carry waste to the collection vehicles (Ministry of Housing and
Urban Affairs 2016) and Sri Lanka recently started the provision of door to door
collection (World Bank 2018) in some parts of the city of Colombo. The residents
dispose their household waste at primary collection point and municipalities collect
the aggregated using their transport and dispose the waste to the final disposal site.
This is the most common practice of waste collection in South Asian urban areas
with a few exceptions. This means there is limited scope to segregate waste based on
the characteristics of waste by waste producers including households.
In addition, informal waste collection and materials recovery activities are also
common in South Asia where city corporations and municipalities partly adopt
private firms for collection and transport of MSW. There are active waste pickers in
cities and the number of waste pickers varies between 150 and 1,20000. It is to note
that the large cities such as Dhaka in Bangladesh and Delhi in India, there are 120,000
and 90,000 active waste pickers individually (Asian Development Bank 2013). Such
unorganized waste pickers collect mostly recyclable materials and sell the collected
materials to retailers (scavengers) and the retailers supply the recyclables to the
recycling companies. Overall, the collection of MSW in South Asian countries
gives a dismal picture. For example, present collection efficiency on an average is
62% in Nepal’s municipalities and only around 40% waste is collected of the total
MSW generated in Sri Lanka. Dhaka City Corporation in Bangladesh collect 44% of
MSW generated per day. Similarly, in Pakistan, only 60% is collected by the
municipal authorities. However, India is performing well in waste collection rela-
tively to other countries where 82% of waste is collected of total MSW generated.
Disposal and Treatment of MSW
The management of MSW however is inefficient and poor in developing counties

where most of the MSW are dumped in open fields located near the cities (World
Bank 2018). The South Asian countries are not exception to this practice. Although
there are landfills for dumping MSW, most of the landfills in South Asian Countries
are lacking in the collection of leachate and treatment and collection of gas from
landfills (World Bank 2012). This poor management practice of MSW affects both
environment and public health. The consequence of poor management system of
waste is severe particularly to the vulnerable poor families who can come direct
contact to the contaminated waste and their health can be affected. The environmen-
tal and social cost is also high. The poor management system of waste damages the
soil quality, underground water, emits GHSs and odor, and thereby creates hazard
and risk for residents and nature. The dumping of waste in the wetland and open field
may be harmful to even animals when they consume the waste unknowingly and
may affect economy of a country for example, through tourism. Table 8 shows a
typical scenario of MSW disposal in countries by income. The table indicates that
the countries with low income and lower middle income have more open dumping
disposal practice of MSW. It is to be noted that all of the South Asian countries
belong to either low income or lower middle-income economies and the percentage
of open dumping of MSW is between 66% and 93%. On the other hand, the
Table 8 Disposal methods by income

Other
Open advanced
Countries dumping Landfill Composting Recycling Incineration method
HI 2% 39% 6% 29% 22% 2%
UMI 30% 54% 2% 4% 10% –
LMI 66% 18% 10% 6% 1% –
LI 93% 3% 0.3% 3.7% – –
Source: World Bank (2018)
Table 9 Current status of MSW management in India

Parameters Status
1 House-to-house collection of waste 18 states (of 29)
2 Segregation of waste at the source 5 states (of 29)
3 Number of unsanitary landfill sites identified 1285
4 Number of sanitary landfill sites constructed 95
5 Number of ULBs operating compost/vermicompost facilities 553
6 Number of ULBs under construction compost/vermicompost 143
facilities
7 Number of operating pipe composting facilities 7000
8 Number of operating RDF facilities 12
9 Number of operating biogas plants 645
10 Number of energy generation plants 11 (6 operational)
11 Waste collection 117,644 Mt/day
(82%)
12 Waste treated 32, 871 Mt/day
(28%)
Source: CPCB (2016)
percentage of open dumping of MSW countries with higher income and upper
middle income is much lower (only 2% and 30%, respectively) than the other
countries with low and lower middle income.
Recently, some governments of South Asian countries have been putting efforts
for the improvement of this poor management of MSW. For example, India has been
putting efforts to improve its waste management. Table 9 shows the current situation
of waste management in India.
Almost all cities in the South Asia region exercise some open dumping, but cities
are increasingly developing sanitary landfills and pursuing recycling (World Bank
2018). Four out of the eight countries recycle between 1% and 13% of waste, and
seven out of the eight countries have begun composting programs to manage organic
waste (World Bank 2018). This limited process of recyclable materials cannot
harness the full benefits of circular economy. One of the key reasons is, in South
Asia, 44% of waste material inputs carry energy, which are burnt and therefore not
recyclable and cannot add value to economy (For example, large quantity of e-waste
are burnt, notably insulated copper wire, the valuable metal which can be easily
recycled and treaded) (Haas et al. 2015). Figure 3 shows a typical process of MSW
management in South Asian countries.
The Management of Waste Using WtE Technologies and Circular

Economy
One of the key options for MSW management for circular economy is the use of
advanced WtE conversion technologies (Kabir and Khan 2020). There are several
popular WtE conversion technologies to efficiently manage the various types of
materials available in MSW (Ahmed et al. 2018). The most common technologies
commercially available for MSW treatment and recovering energy are AD, pyroly-
sis, gasification, and incineration. The cost of installation and operation is the key
dominant factor for adoption of these technologies. Table 10 shows the cost of
installation and operation of the four WtE technologies. For example, while the
installation cost for incineration and pyrolysis are same, the incineration method is
preferable to pyrolysis as the operation cost of pyrolysis is higher than the inciner-
ation. While the adoption of these WtE technologies depends on installation and
operational cost, the composition of waste and local context including culture,
financial ability, social acceptability, land use policy, environment, and socioeco-
nomic issues also have influence on the adoption of these advanced technologies.
The use of these WtE converting technologies may reduce the overload of
growing MSW on the one hand and can contribute to circular economy through
generating various products and reducing environmental impacts as well as gener-
ating employment for local communities. The use of WtE energy is rapidly growing
in developed countries to generate energy for electricity because substantial results
of waste management using these technologies have already been proven. The
developed countries are using these technologies for energy generation considering
Waste Dispose in Little amount MSW

Waste collection by unmanaged go to Sanitary
Landfills or
Generation Municipalities dumpsites
incinerators
More than 30% of MSW is

not collected and dumped in
river, drain and open space
Fig. 3 Process of MSW management in South Asia. Source: Developed by authors
Table 10 Cost of installation and operation of WtE technologies (Conversion of MSW to useful
products known as thermal efficiency, while the conversion of useful products to electricity is
defined as electric efficiency)
Capital Global warming
cost Operational Thermal Electricity potential (kg CO2
(USD/ton Cost efficiency efficiency equivalent per unit
WTE of (USD/ton of (Average (Average MWh electricity
technologies MSW/year MSW/year) %) %) generation)
Incineration 400–700 40–70 80–90 19 424
Pyrolysis 400–700 50–80 30 34 412
Gasification 250–850 45–85 70 25 412
Anaerobic 50–350 5–35 40 35 222
digestion
Source: Kumar and Samadder (2017b) and Kabir and Khan (2020)
the technical, social, economic suitability of technology in addition to acceptance of

local community. The developed countries are reducing dependency on landfills and
increasingly investing on the installment of these technologies for producing energy
and recovering other materials (Astrup and Davide, 2015).
The WtE technologies could have a key role in achieving circular economy
objectives to divert waste from landfill or open dumping. It is possible to recover
energy for electricity, fertilizer, biogas or syngas, and many other organic and
inorganic matter through the application of WtE technologies. While landfilling is
the most common option for MSW treatment in many countries, it is the least
necessary treatment in the waste management hierarchy (Achillas et al. 2011). The
landfilling has relatively more environmental and social cost than the operation of
WtE technologies (Khan and Kabir 2020). Therefore, the use of WtE technologies
for recovering energy from waste can be a good alternative to conventional methods
like landfilling. Figure 4 shows a graphic view of a theoretical WtE plant for burning
waste and generating electricity.
At present most of these materials are lost through the landfills and open dumping
not only in South Asian countries but also in other parts of the world. Furthermore,
the percentage of recycling of MSW is very low even in developed countries. From
MSW only plastics, paper, glass, and metals are recyclable, and these materials
consist of less than 50% of total MSW generated. The organic waste, major portion
of MSW is not possible to treat efficiently through recycling process or using
landfills. Even with intensive recycling, there is always remaining waste which has
no material or market value and is in some cases classified as hazardous. This
residual waste with a certain calorific value can be utilized to recover energy and
substitute the use of fossil fuels (GIZ 2017). While the installation and operation cost
of WtE technologies higher than the landfills, the WtE technologies are increasingly
applied specially in developed countries to achieve “no waste” and the ultimate
benefits of using these advanced technologies are relative higher than landfills in the
long run.
WtE Technology and Its Potentials for Circular Economy: Case

Studies
In this section, three counties have been taken into account particularly from Europe
to understand the contribution of WtE to circular economy. The case studies were
selected from Europe because efforts to move toward a circular economy using WtE
approach are gaining momentum particularly in this region.
Case Study-1: Waste-to-Energy in Italy
Institutional Arrangement and Management of MSW

Italy is one of the populous countries in Europe with over 60 million population.
Although the country has 8040 municipalities, most of the population are
1
Anaerobic Digestion
Waste type: Organic wastes & domestic sewage
Process: Bio-chemical process at temperature 55-75
degree C
Gas
Residue: Organic matter
Biogas
Engine
Main useful product: Biogas
Pyrolysis
Waste type: Organic waste
Process: Thermo-chemical process at temperature
between 500-800 degree C
Residue: Tar (liquid) and char (solid products)
Main useful product: Syngas
Gas
Syngas
Gasification
Turbine
Waste
Waste type: Carbon-based waste
Electricity

above 650 degree C (in between exothermic and
endothermic process)
Residue: Solid residue of non-combustible materials
Main useful product: Syngas
Incineration
Waste type: Combustible materials (moisture <
50%)
above 850 degree C (highly exothermic process)
Steam
Steam
Turbine
Residue: Flue gas and ash

Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries: Towards a Circular Economy
Main useful product: Heat

21
Fig. 4 Process of waste for electricity generation by WtE technologies. Source: Adapted from Khan and Kabir (2020)
concentrated in 741 municipalities where the number of inhabitants is higher than

15,000 and the rest of the municipalities are small. Italy introduced the waste
legislation in 1997 (replaced by Legislative Decree in 2006) and this legislation
formed the waste management system including the targets about separate collection
of MSW nationwide. In 2014, the per capita waste generation in Italy was 488 kg in
2014 close to European average 476 kg.
The Ministry of Environment introduced a national program for prevention
(N245 2013) in 2013 with the target a 5% decrease in MSW production for 2020
and it was achieved in 2015 due to close monitoring of the efficacy of the actions
proposed by plans at National, Regional, and Municipal levels under the program.
The total MSW generation was 29.5 million tons in 2015 and the generation of waste
is gradually decreasing. This indicates the success of the program of “prevention,”
one of the keyways to improve waste management. In 2015 the total collection of
recyclables was approximately 14 million tons. In 2014, 33% of MSW went to
landfill, 23% to incinerators, 16% to compost and anaerobic digestion, and 28% in
recycling (ISPRA 2016).
Italy does not have a NWMP, because planning is authorized to regions where
each region develops a management plan every 2–3 years or following the new rules
when introduced by EU. However, there is the National Program for waste preven-
tion focusing on sustainable production using suitable raw materials and technolo-
gies, green procurement. Under this program the Ministry of Environment
developed a plan for the environmental sustainability for Public Administration
including the activities such as re-use, research, and raising awareness and education
on waste prevention (Pernice 2013). The country has taken initiative to phase-out
landfilling of recyclable and recoverable waste and thereby to improve the separate
collection and alternative infrastructure to improve waste treatment capacity more
efficiently and finally to extend and improve the cost-effectiveness, monitoring, and
transparency of existing EPR schemes (European Commission 2017a).
The WtE Technologies

For generation of energy from MSW, Italy has 41 incinerators, one of the European
Union countries with the highest number of incinerators in the EU. These plants
treated about 5.6 million tons municipal waste including dry fraction, secondary
solid fuel, and bio-dry fraction in 2015 to recover energy. However, out of these
41 plants, there are 24 plants generate energy for electricity. In 2015, these 24 plants
generated 2.7 million MWh of thermal energy using 3.4 million tons of MSW. In the
same year, the other 15 plants, which are equipped with co-generative cycles, treated
2.6 million tons of waste and recovered 2.7 million MWh of thermal energy and 1.7
MWh of electricity. Additionally, there is also a production of 1.6 million tons of
fertilizer from aerobic and aerobic/anaerobic treatments (ISPRA 2016). In general,
anaerobic digestion process is of specific attention because of its potentials within
the circular economy. First, the production of renewable energy that is the production
of biogas, reduction of Green House Gas emissions, steadiness of biomass, and
further use of the solid residue as fertilizer (secondary raw material). In 2015 there
were 26 plants equipped with this technological process and they treated about 30%
of the organic fraction of collected MSW nationally.
In general, anaerobic digestion process is of specific attention in Italy because of

its potentials within the circular economy. This is because the production of renew-
able energy such as biogas, reduction of GHGs emissions, steadiness of biomass,
and further use of solid residue as fertilizer. In 2015, there were 26 plants equipped
with this technological process and they turned about 30% of the organic fraction of
collected MSW nationally.
Case Study-2: Waste to Energy in United Kingdom
Arrangement and MSW Management

The population of the United Kingdom is 65.5 million, one of the large countries in
Europe in terms of population size. The population of UK is increasing, and it is
estimated the number of populations will exceed 74 million by 2039 (Office for
National Statistics 2017a). For waste management, the Department for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has a policy on waste and recycling. There are three
major authorities for waste management in the UK. These are the Environmental
Agency which act as the main regulator, The Waste Collection Authorities which is
controlled by local councils (Districts), and finally the Waste Disposal Authority to
dispose waste usually at County level. The Central Government adopted the waste
management policies and the local councils are accountable for waste collection and
disposal.
The UK government introduced Waste Regulations (amended) 2012 where the
regulations include the isolated collection of waste (i.e., paper, metal, plastic, and
glass), as necessary by the EU regulations. “Municipal waste” in Britain referred to
all waste collected by Local Authorities, including a significant proportion of waste
similar in nature and composition to household waste generated by businesses (DEFRA
2016). In 2014, total 26.8 million tons municipal waste were generated; about 10.7% of
total waste (251 million tons) generated nationwide (DEFRA 2016). There is gradual
decreasing in MSW production. The generation of MSW (485 kg per capita) in 2015 is
approximately 20% lower than the MSW produced (615 kg per capita) in 2004.
One of the key policy aspects of MSW management is to reduce MSW generation
through the imposing of landfill tax. The Landfill Tax introduced by the UK in 1996
played a vital role in minimizing the generation of waste and its landfilling. Since 2011,
the tax has increased by 8 pounds per ton each year and reached up to 80 pounds in
2014. By 2020, the UK has a target to reduce the amount of MSW sent to landfills
particularly biodegradable waste sent to landfills. The target was to reduce the landfilled
waste by 45% compared to that of in 1995. The UK successfully achieved the target.
The UK presented the national waste management plan in 2013. The plan along
with the Waste Strategy document indicates the UK’s aspiration of sustainable MSW
management in waste management sector and ways to achieve the targets. One of the
key efforts of the government is to provide incentives to reduce, re-use, and recycle
waste and to recover energy from waste. Another target is to reduce the cost of waste
management through landfills. To achieve the set targets, the national, regional, and
local governance have clear understanding and better coordinated action to deliver
services. The UK government becomes able to promote high quality recycling with
increased frequency of waste collection. Moreover, the separate collection of waste

materials such as paper and plastic simplified further recycling. Also the treatment of
residual waste using WtE technology adds value to circular economy and the UK has
adequate plant to treat residual waste.
Contribution of WtE to Circular Economy

For WtE generation using Anaerobic Digestion (AD) technology, the United King-
dom government specifically adopted Anaerobic Digestion Strategy and Action Plan
in 2011 and endorses the anaerobic digestion (AD) of organic waste (DEFRA 2016).
The contribution of AD technology to circular economy, the prospective of AD the
reduction of greenhouse gases, benefits from energy recovery, and recovery of gas or
fertilizer were considerable characteristics. Given the contribution of AD process to
circular economy, the number of AD plants in the UK became doubled in 2 years after
the Strategy was released. Also, the energy recovery from residual waste from AD
process (through thermal processes) was taken into account as one of the contributors to
circular economy. Indeed, all opportunities of the recovery of energy and the treatment
of residual waste (including those are deposited after recycling) provide more economic
and environmental benefits and thereby contribute to circular economy.
Jamas and Nepal (2010) concluded that energy recovery from MSW plays an
important role in circular economy through both waste management strategy and
renewable energy policy. Importantly, the flexibility in the choice of technology may
improve the efficiency of the WtE sector and thereby contribute more in circular
economy. Among the 29 energy recovery facilities, five were dedicated to MSW
process with a total of 2.3 million tons annually. In addition, there are 83 facilities
including incineration plants for energy recovery. These WtE facilities have capacity
to treat 9.8 million tons of waste per year (DEFRA 2016). In general, the incinerators
can treat about 8–9% of MSW generated in the UK with highly efficient energy
recovery. The total energy recovery using WtE reached 17.4 Mtoe in 2015. More
than 2 Mtoe of this energy was taken from MSW, which accounts for about 11.5%
(Office for National Statistics 2017b).
Case Study-3: Estonia
MSW Management and Organization: Estonia

With a population of 1.315 million, Estonia is one of the leading counties in Europe
to generate energy from waste. The generation of MSW in Estonia is 400 kg well-
below the EU average of 476 kg/per capita. In Estonia, Ministry of Environment
(MoE) is authorized to the implementation of waste management policy following
the EU legislation and enforcement of the policy. Local councils are responsible for
collection, transport, recovery, and disposal of MSW within their administrative
territory under the Waste Act (Estonia Government, 2004). Waste Management
Companies are selected through public procurement, collect MSW, and transport
the waste. Estonia has introduced the National Waste Management Plan (NWMP)
that gives a general priority to separate biowaste from mixed MSW.
The policy measure for MSW in Estonia was effectively implemented. Estonia
has introduced a landfill tax in 1990 under the Environmental Charges Act where the
rate of tax depended on the type of waste. The Environmental Charges Act
established that increased rates for environmental charges would be applied if the
volume of waste for landfills was larger than permitted volume. In addition, Estonia
also introduced a ban on the landfill of unsorted municipal waste in 2008 (European
Commission 2017b). In its current National Waste Management Plan (NWMP 2014-
2020), Estonia places an emphasis on further reduction of landfilling and the
promotion of recycling. The NWMP highlights the need to meet the EU’s 2020
targets to recycle at least half of four key household waste streams glass, metal,
paper, and plastic (Zamparutti et al. 2017).
WtE Technologies
In the past, Estonia was dependent on Landfills and even open dumping. In order to
make MSW management more efficient through avoiding environmental cost and to
harness the maximum benefits MSW, there has been a major change of its MSW
management system. There has been a major shift from prime reliance on landfilling
to a high level of energy recovery (OECD 2018) using WtE technologies. Estonia
constructed an incineration plant in 2013 and several MBT facilities in recent years.
The use of advanced WtE technology for MSW management resulted in various
benefits particularly the recovery of energy, use of residue, and production of various
other materials. Therefore, a radical reduction of landfilled municipal waste hap-
pened. Where the landfills used 14% of the total waste, in 2013 the landfills used 8%
in 2014 and 5% in 2015. Concurrently the use of WtE technologies such as
incineration of MSW has increased dramatically and become the main MSW
treatment option (European Commission 2017b). In 2012, the WtE technologies
used 16% of total MSW. The use of MSW reached 56% of total MSW in 2014 a
dramatic increase of the application of WtE technology. The introduction of a landfill
tax in 1990 has also contributed to the diversion of waste from landfills.
Discussions
The case studies in section “WtE Technology and Its Potentials for Circular Econ-
omy: Case Studies” demonstrate that there is a potential of WtE technologies and all
the three countries are generating energy for electricity successfully and thereby
contributing to circular economy. The case studies also show that they initially were
dependent on landfilling for MSW management. Now they are gradually reducing
dependence on landfills and increasingly shifting to the use of advanced technolo-
gies for MSW management and harnessing more benefits. All the three countries
have reformed and updated their waste management policies and legislations and set
targets to reduce the MSW waste at a certain level by a certain time in accordance with
their own plans and European Union Directive. Importantly, each of the counties under
case study has strategies and action plans for the use of WtE technologies to manage
MSW efficiently. To achieve the targets, the use of WtE technologies is playing a vital
role through recovering energy and other materials those have market value.
According to Preston et al. (2019), “a suitable WtE technology for waste management
not only beneficial to environmental security but also to important to furnace a circular
economy.” This goes beyond the typical loop of circular economy that is avoid, reuse,
and recycle and maximize the value of waste management.
The member states comply with EU legislations and also developed individual
national legislations given their local context. For example, the Italy introduced
National Program for prevention in 2013 with a target of a 5% decrease in MSW
production by 2020. Of the total collected MSW, about 40% now goes to WtE
technologies such as incinerators and anaerobic digestion (ISPRA 2016). Similarly,
the UK introduced National Waste Management Plan in 2013 along with the waste
strategy where one of the key strategies is to recovery of energy (DEFRA 2016).
These policy initiatives and enforcement of legislations enable the countries to
operate WtE technologies to manage MSW successfully.
Overall, the case studies demonstrate that the use of WtE is effective to contribute
to circular economy. The use of WtE technologies is increasing in developed
countries. Given these case studies, it is clear that the developing countries need
go for adopting the advanced technology if they intend to reduce the waste smartly
and contribute to circular economy. Considering the increasing MSW generation in
South Asian countries based on economic growth, population size, and rapid
urbanization, there is a potential to harness the benefits from waste management
adoption of WtE technologies. The next subsection focuses on how MSW in South
Asia can contribute to achieve circular economy.
The Way Forward
To contribute circular economy using WtE as one of the best options for MSW
management in South Asia, the governments need to address some issues. These
issues are improved institutional development with up-to-date legislations and their
enforcement, development of capacity, selection of technology, community involve-
ment and awareness development about waste, skilled persons and technical know-
how, minimization of pollutions released WtE technologies, participation of private
sector, financial investment, and market demand and supply. Some of these key
issues were discussed below. Figure 5 indicates the key issues relating to the WtE
technology for circular economy in South Asia. To obtain circular economy using
WtE, it is imperative to address the following issues.
Improving Institutional Arrangement

The adoption and implementation of suitable regulations and compulsory standards
for WtE technologies with respect to circular economy is an important issue. In the
countries in South Asia, although some initiatives have been taken to use WtE
technologies to generate energy for electricity, the lack of adequate institutional
arrangement including legislations, policies, and strategies may be the challenges to
deploy and operate such advanced technologies. For example, the Government of
Bangladesh has initiated to implement two WtE projects to generate energy from
Fig. 5 Key issues towards

Skills
circular economy using WtE Partnership
technology. Source:
Developed by authors Policy
WtE reform
Awareness
technology to
circular
economy
Capacity
Financing
Managing
pollutants
MSW (UNDP 2016). However, it is necessary to formulate policy strategy for

installation, operation, and management WtE technologies in place.
Recently some developing countries are putting efforts to pursue and develop
national CE policies incorporating the use of WtE technologies and strategies for
MSW management. For example, Nigeria, Rwanda, and South Africa launched the
African Circular Economy Alliance in 2017 (NITI Aayog 2017). Among the South
Asian Countries, India has set out a strategy for resource efficiency which recognizes
the role of the WtE to CE as well as the achievement of sustainability (NITI Aayog
2017). In addition to formulation and adoption of plan and legislations suitable for WtE
technology use, enforcement of legislations is important and this depends on the
capacity of government. Inadequate institutional capacity may limit the procedure of
corrective measures such as taxes on poor waste management, for example (Preston
et al. 2019).
Improving to Current Waste Management Practice

In South Asian countries, an improved waste management system is essential, where
the state of current waste management is relatively poor in the absence of clear and
strict laws and lack of enforcement of laws. This poor waste management system is a
challenge to utilize technologies and recover the economic benefits. Most of the
MSW collected are not separated from sources due to lack of proper system of
collection. Most of the collected MSW are dumped in open lands with a few
exceptions such as landfills and incinerators where available (e.g., in India and Sri
Lanka). The recovery of energy from MSW can be a key driving force for an
improved waste management system (Scarlat et al. 2019).
There is also lack of knowledge and information among the residents about the value
of waste. They think it is the responsibly of the Municipalities to collect, sort out, and
transfer the waste and dispose at the landfills. They think waste is simply useless
leftovers, not as beneficial resources. An innovative model is necessary in place instead
of this end-of-pipe approach (Cholifihani 2018) allowing the recovery of energy from
waste and use of byproducts such as fertilizer or other materials. Priority should be given
to shift from reliance on dumping of MSW to improved waste management systems
including the use of advanced technology and recovery of energy and other materials.
The separation of waste at source and use of technology for particular waste can play a
key role. Importantly, to dispose the residual waste after extraction of material resources
needs investment in waste-to-energy facilities (Kumar and Samadder 2017a).
There need to have a resilient and self-governing organizations to control waste
management if management of MSW is to improve in South Asian countries. A clear
regulation and enforcement is a must to improve the management system and to
drive for innovation (Mathews and Tan 2016). Waste management services need to
be made finically attractive and profitable to policy makers and companies on the
one hand and provision of financial penalties in place for not complying with the
regulations (Kumar and Samadder 2017a).
Selection of WtE Technology

The WtE technologies if selected and used properly for the treatment of MSW have
potential to increase product yields and thereby contribute to increase economic benefits
for the society (Awasthi et al. 2019). There is a growing interest of adoption of WtE
technology in South Asian Countries (Kumar and Samadder 2017b). SriLanka,
Bangladesh, and India, for example, have already taken initiative to deploy WtE
technologies. Among the WtE technologies, four technologies Anaerobic Digestion,
Pyrolysis, Incineration, and Gasification are commercially viable and available to use.
While all these available technologies are useful to treat MSW, the selection and
adoption of technologies vary according to the composition of MSW and local context.
Among the WtE methods, the AD process can be a promising one in South Asian
countries for achieving and enhancing circular economy (Awasthi et al. 2019) because
of the characteristics of the technology include low energy consumption, low cost and
investment, high organic removal rate, and meeting the requirement of circular econ-
omy (Khan and Kabir 2020). Since 50% of total MSW in South Asia is organic, the AD
process is suitable to capture biogas and other associated materials (UNDP 2017).
Anaerobic digestion has already become an attractive method in Europe for the
biodegradation of organic fractions derived from MSW (Scarlat et al. 2019) despite
having relatively less portion (around 20–30%) of organic matter in MSW. Utilization
of the organic fraction of MSW for biogas production has a large potential and many
AD plants are in operation around the world (Scarlat et al. 2019). While AD technology
is a suitable one for South Asian countries, other technologies can be used for MSW
management since no single technique can fix the issue of waste management and due
to composition of waste that may vary from country to country. Consideration of the
feasibility of all WtE technologies will not only provide an adaptable waste treatment
decision (organic or inorganic) but also support to recover energy and materials
effectively through it (Khan and Kabir 2020). Overall, the selection of suitable tech-
nology for any developing country may depend on the waste types, capital and
operational costs, technological efficiencies, and complexities involved in the availabil-
ity of skilled labor, socio-economic context, and geographical locations of the facilities.
Raising Public Awareness

There is generally a lack of responsibility among communities towards waste
management. There is a need to cultivate community awareness and change the
attitude of people towards waste, as this is fundamental to developing proper and
sustainable waste management systems (Kumar and Samadder 2017b). A certifica-

tion or labeling system for circular economy products will help build awareness
among consumers, encourage rapid uptake by companies, and reward leading
companies (Preston et al. 2019). Community awareness programs can significantly
improve segregation of waste at source. Public awareness generation is a powerful
tool for driving the system in a sustainable manner and a critical part of any waste
management program (ADB, 2013). The formulation of plans and MSW goals
requires public involvement to decide the real requirements of local community
and thereby able to prioritize MSW management options.
Minimizing Environmental and Social Impacts

While the WtE technologies have potentials to recover energy and other materials
and thereby contribute to circular economy, the WtE also generate some toxic
pollutants those need to be addressed. The WtE technology often releases toxic
materials and gas (e.g., dioxin) that may harmful to human health (Kabir and Khan
2020) and to some extent Green House Gases. Guidelines for environmental Impact
Assessment for WtE technologies should be in place and an EIA needs to be
undertaken before installing WtE technology given its technical nature and scope
and the type of waste to be use (Kabir and Khan 2020). In addition, the government
needs to set stringent operational conditions and technical requirements to minimize
the environmental and health impacts associate with WtE technology operation. For
example, Municipal solid waste (MSW) incinerators require effective flue gas
treatment (FGT) to remove pollutants.
Conclusion
The aim of this chapter was to understand the potential of the contribution of
MSW to circular economy through WtE recovery process. The potential of
circular economy particularly in developed countries is proven in practice.
Given the huge population in developed countries particularly in South Asia,
there is a potential of creation of circular economy particularly from recovery of
energy from waste in addition to recycling. In this chapter, the case studies from
Europe show that the countries in Europe not only focused on recycling for
circular economy but also advancing on the recovery of energy from MSW to
add more value to circular economy. At the same time the sustainable waste
management is being achieved. Given these examples, the lessons show that the
South Asian countries have huge potential to recover energy from MSW and
thereby contribute to circular economy. Some countries, for example, India, have
initiated to recover energy from MSW. However, there are some challenges or
issues need to be addressed to contribute circular economy through WtE process.
These include improving institutional arrangement and policy support, minimiz-
ing environmental and social impacts, raising public awareness, selection of WtE
technology suitable to the country context, and improvement of current waste
management practice.
Annexure-A
(Table 11)
Table 11 Goals and targets relevant to sustainable Municipal Solid Waste management
SDGs Targets
GOAL 1: No Poverty Target 1.5: To build the resilience of the vulnerable poor
people and reduce their exposure to impacts of climate
change including extreme events such as cyclones by 2030
GOAL 2: Zero Hunger Target 2.4: To develop resilient agricultural practices with
increasing production by 2030. This will support to the
delivery of ecosystem services and enhance adaptive capacity
to extreme events due to climate change impacts. This
process in turn will increase the land and soil quality by 2030.
Target 2.5: Maintaining the genetic diversity of seeds and
domestic animals by 2020. Also, to promote access to
benefits of all farmers. Emphasis will be given on the value of
traditional knowledge in this regard.
GOAL 3: Good health and well- Target 3.9: To reduce the number of deaths and sufferings
being from illness due to hazardous waste including pollution of
air, water and soil due to untreated solid waste 2030.
GOAL 6: Clean water and Target 6.1: To achieve worldwide and reasonable access to
sanitation safe and inexpensive drinking water for all by 2030.
Target 6.3: Improvement of water quality by 2030 through
the reduction of pollution and eradicating the dumping and
optimizing the release of hazardous waste such as chemicals.
To make half the amount of untreated waste water through
recycling.
Target 6.4: Efficient use of water will be increased
significantly across all sectors and withdrawals and supply of
water will be sustainable to make sure that nobody suffers
from scarcity of water for farming as well as to meet their
basic needs by 2030.
Target 6.5: To implement integrated water resources
management across the globe including transboundary
cooperation and negotiation as appropriate by 2030.
Target 6.6: To restore and conserve the aquatic ecosystem by
2020 including water bodies such as lakes, rivers, aquifers
and wetland.
Target 6.a: To increase global collaboration and capacity-
building provision for developing countries where water is
used in a unsustainable manner. This will require training
program on water collecting, treatment, efficient use of water,
waste water treatment using best available technology.
Target 6.b: To provide supportive activities and enhance the
involvement of local communities in the management and
improvement of water quality.
GOAL 7: Affordable and clean Target 7.1: To confirm worldwide access to reasonable,
energy dependable and best energy services with particular focus on
renewable energy by 2030.
Target 7.2: To enhance significantly the portion of renewable
(continued)
Table 11 (continued)
SDGs Targets
energy in the energy mix worldwide by 2030.
Target 7.3: To enhance the rate of energy efficiency double
by 2030.
Target 7.a: To augment international collaboration to
facilitate access to clean energy research and technology.
This will include renewable energy, energy efficiency and
advanced technology for clean energy in addition to
promotion of investment for energy infrastructure
development by 2030.
Target 7.b: To increase structure and advancement
technology for providing supportable energy services for all
in developing countries including least developed countries.
GOAL 8: Decent work and Target 8.4: Improve progressively, through 2030, global
economic growth resource efficiency in consumption and production and
endeavor to decouple economic growth from environmental
degradation, in accordance with the 10-year framework of
programs on sustainable consumption and production, with
developed countries taking the lead
Target 8.9: By 2030, devise and implement policies to
promote sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes
local culture and products
GOAL 11: Sustainable cities and Target 11.2: To provide access to safe, reasonable, and
communities available transport systems preferably with the expansion of
public system for all including people with special needs,
women, children and aged persons and ensure road safety.
Target 11.3: To increase all-encompassing and supportable
urbanization and improve capability for development of
livable human settlement with appropriate planning in all
countries by 2030.
Target 11.4: To enhance initiatives to prevent and maintain
global cultural and natural heritage.
Target 11.5: To substantially decrease the number of deaths
of poor and vulnerable people due to decrease of economic
loss caused by disasters by 2030.
Target 11.6: To decrease the negative environmental foot-
print or impacts of cities with particular focus on municipal
solid waste management by 2030.
Target 11.7: To offer widespread admittance to safe, green
and public spaces, in particular for women and children,
older persons and persons with disabilities.
Target 11.a: To establish optimistic economic, social and
environmental links between urban, semi-urban and rural
areas by developing suitable national and regional
development planning.
Target 11.b: To significantly enhance the number of livable
smart cities through the implementation of integrated and
inclusive policies and plans relating to efficient resource
management, adaptation and mitigation of climate change,
resilience to disasters in line with the Sendai Framework for
Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030.
(continued)
SDGs Targets
GOAL 12: Sustainable Target 12.1: To implement the 10-year framework of
consumption and production programmes on sustainable consumption and production
where actions taken by all countries both developed and
developing. To implement the framework the development
and capacity of developing countries need to take into
account.
Target 12.2: To obtain the natural resource management with
more efficiency and sustainability by 2030.
Target 12.3: To reduce and make half of the per capita global
food waste and decrease the loss of food along the production
of food and supply chains and protection of post-harvest
losses by 2030.
Target 12.4: To obtain environmentally sound chemicals and
all wastes throughout their life cycle, following the
international provisions and substantially reduce the release
of the chemicals to air, soil and water in order to minimize
their adverse impacts on human health and the environment
by 2030.
Target 12.5: To decrease the generation of waste significantly
through avoidance, reduction, recycling and reuse.
Target 12.6: To encourage corporates to introduce and
implement sustainable practices and to incorporate
sustainability reporting to share with stakeholders regularly.
Target 12.7: To endorse green public procurement policies
and practices through adoption of suitable national policies
and priorities.
Target 12.8: To confirm that people have access to relevant
information and they are aware about the sustainable
development and how to live with nature coherently; that is
without harming the nature.
Target 12.a: To move towards sustainable pattern of
consumption and production it is mandatory to develop the
scientific and technological capacity of developing countries.
Target 12.c: To justify ineffective subsidies for fossil-fuel that
inspire extravagant consumption through restructuring
taxation and removing those harmful subsidies, where they
exist. This is important not only for reflecting the
environmental impacts but also taking into account the
specific needs and conditions of developing countries in
addition to protect the poor and a effected communities.
GOAL 14: Life below water Target 14.1: To protect substantially marine pollution of all
kinds where the pollution is occurred by land based activities
including marine debris and nutrient pollution by 2025.
Target 14.5: Based on the adequate scientific information and
relevant national and international law it is imperative to
ensure at least 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas as
protected areas.
Target 14.7: To enhance the economic benefits to developing
countries from the sustainable use of marine resources,
including through sustainable management of fisheries,
aquaculture and tourism by 2030.
(continued)
SDGs Targets
Target 14.a: To enhance knowledgebase based on scientific
evidences to increase the contribution of marine biodiversity
to the development of developing countries including small
island states.
Target 14.c: To enhance the increase the maintenance and
sustainable use of oceans and their resources by
implementing international law as reflected in UNCLOS.
GOAL 15: Life on land Target 15.1: To maintain preservation, reinstatement and
sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater
ecosystems and their services, in particular forests, wetlands,
mountains and drylands by 2020.
Target 15.5: To take urgent initiative and action to combat the
degradation of natural habitats including the loss of
biodiversity by 2020 in addition to protection of the
extinction of threatened species.
Target 15.7: To take immediate action to end trafficking of
protected species of flora and fauna in addition to addressing
both demand and supply of illegal wildlife products.
Target 15.9: By 2020, integrate ecosystem and biodiversity
values into national and local planning, development
processes, poverty reduction strategies and accounts
Target 15.b: To provide adequate incentives and technical
support to developing countries so that important resources
are mobilized in a sustainable fashion including management
of forests and other resources.
Target 15.c: Strengthening global support to reduce the
illegal trafficking of protected species by enhancing the
capacity and awareness of local communities. This will also
provide sustainable livelihood opportunities.
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Research Trends of the Management
of Solid Waste in the Context of Circular 2
Economy
Ana Batlles-de-la-Fuente, Luis Jesús Belmonte-Ureña,

José Antonio Plaza-Úbeda, and Emilio Abad-Segura
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Solid Waste and Circular Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Evolution of Scientific Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Analysis of Scientific Production by Subject Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Most Relevant Journals from 1993 to 2019 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
The Most Prolific Authors from 1993 to 2019 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Identification of the Most Relevant Institutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Characteristics of the Most Relevant Countries in the Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Analysis of the Keywords Used During 1993–2019 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Abstract
Circular economy (CE) pursues to contribute economic prosperity and to enhance
sustainability. This model focuses on the reduction of pollution, the consumption
of natural resources, and the revaluation of waste. The interest in the CE and the
management of solid waste are linked with regulatory changes that have been
developed in recent years, mainly since 2015 with the publication of new
regulations such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or the agreement
of the new European Union policy about CE which manages the contribution to
the sustainability of solid waste management. The transition from linear to
A. Batlles-de-la-Fuente · J. A. Plaza-Úbeda · E. Abad-Segura

Department of Economy and Business, University of Almeria, Almeria, Spain
e-mail: anabatlles@ual.es; japlaza@ual.es; eas297@ual.es
L. J. Belmonte-Ureña (*)
Department of Economy and Business, Research Centre CIAIMBITAL, University of Almería,
Almería, Spain
e-mail: lbelmont@ual.es

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_2
38 A. Batlles-de-la-Fuente et al.
circular systems has a direct impact on business strategies, especially in areas

such as operations management, environmental management, or social responsi-
bility. This circularity, in terms of economic strategy, seeks to improve the
balance between natural and social systems through a more environmental
behavior of the stakeholders. In this sense, this conduct focuses on the last
phase of production involved in waste management through different options
such as energy source, recycling, or composting, which play a fundamental role.
This highlights the influence it can have on the business models and strategies of a
company. The present work focuses to provide a global standpoint of the con-
nection between solid waste management and the different business models in the
scope of the CE. In this sense, a bibliometric analysis of scientific production is
proposed to obtain empirical evidence of the performance in different levels:
authors, institutions, and countries, as well as an evolution of research trends by
the analysis of the main keywords.
Keywords
Circular economy · Bibliometric analysis · Solid waste management · Sustainable
development · Environmental management practices
Introduction
In recent years, there has been a growing concern on the part of society and the
production sector for issues related to environmental protection and sustainability.
This increased awareness has resulted in the creation of periodic summits against
climate change. These summits address the necessary expansion and creation of
actions that help mitigate the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, in
addition to those actions agreed by countries at previous summits in this regard
(Parker et al. 2017). Likewise, the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs pursue a process of
transformation in unsustainable models of current production (United Nations 2015;
Carrasco et al. 2018; Montalbán et al. 2018). In other words, new strategies need to
be generated in public and private organizations that support the creation of a more
sustainable economic development model that represents the counterpoint to reduce
certain harmful outputs, such as pollution (Ozsabuneuoglu 1996).
The stakeholders that make up the economic ecosystem should understand that it
is not possible to keep up with the systemic environmental stress of the current
economic model. In addition, it is distinguished by population growth, GHG con-
centration, energy, quality and quantity of water, minerals, and natural resources
(Plaza-Ubeda et al. 2011; Reh 2013). The system of production and provision of
goods and services must be reoriented to reduce the effects that these negative
externalities are causing in natural and environmental ecosystems and in social
and human habitat ecosystems as well.
According to the commitments of the Paris Agreement (2015), within the frame-
work of the United Nations Convention on Climate Change, measures were
established to reduce CO2 emissions from 2020. For this reason, from supranational
2 Research Trends of the Management of Solid Waste in the Context of. . . 39
institutions such as the United Nations (UN), strategies have been developed so that all
countries have as a reference the concept of sustainable development (United Nations
2015). The new policy approaches adopted by the European Union (EU) require that
companies change their current position to the new scenario of the CE, according to
the regulations of the European Commission (European Commission 2018, 2019). In
this sense, these institutions have generated resolutions, which have designed specific
programs to promote the CE, together with a schedule to apply different measures.
For all these reasons, sustainability, understood as the survival capacity in the
long term, has entered the culture of organizations (Uruburu et al. 2018). All this
teaches us that we should generate more environmental awareness. It is important to
remember the development of theories such as functionality, ecology, and sustain-
able development so that our efforts join the global challenges related to sustain-
ability (Stafford et al. 1999). Thus, the productive sector must work harder to
preserve the environment, ecosystems, etc. while it rations the limited resources
and their effective and sustainable management (Torres et al. 2016; Honoré et al.
2019). The CE principles are a response to the demand of companies caused by their
environmental concerns. In this way, the CE refers to a business management
paradigm that will facilitate the company’s transition toward a more sustainable
model. The current economic model is wasteful and unsustainable. That is why
governments, companies, research institutes, and NGOs are exploring ways to reuse
their products or components to make sustainable consumption of materials and
energy through the CE. Global initiatives seek to transform our economy and society
to disassociate industrial growth and negative environmental impacts.
The purpose of this research was to examine the evolution of scientific knowledge
on the management of solid waste in the CE context, while the initial question was to
determine how scientific activity has evolved in this area. Thus, the main objective of
this study is to analyze research trends on solid waste management in the context of
the CE global level during the period 1993–2019. To obtain an answer to the
research question, 1096 articles from scientific journals selected from the Scopus
database were analyzed. This review uses the bibliometric method to synthesize
the knowledge base on management of solid waste in the CE context. Additionally,
the chapter presents an approach that allows future research to clarify the interest of
the scientific community in solid waste management in the CE context. This chapter
has the intention of increasing the scope of the underlying effects and circumstances
that determine the specific results.
Solid Waste and Circular Economy
The theoretical basis of the management of solid waste in the CE context is

supported by a series of theoretical principles so that their insertion in organizations
is properly founded. Thus, the theoretical focus of the stakeholders is established,
stated by Freeman in 1984 (de Gooyert et al. 2017). Previously, the need to disclose
the active contributions of corporate social responsibility was considered. Interest in
corporate responsibility has grown with increasing social demands for companies to
assume the commitment of their social impacts. Thus, companies tend to change
their business models to reflect the concepts of social responsibility, including

environmental and social objectives and interaction with stakeholders (Plaza-
Úbeda et al. 2011; Uruburu et al. 2018).
Likewise, this study is associated with concepts with a specific meaning that
define the conceptual framework of this research. The linear economy model
consists of extracting the raw material, manufacturing the products, and eliminating
them once they have performed their function. In the last decades, work has been
done on waste treatment, adding a new step in the linear economy chain to apply the
3R principle (reduce, reuse, and recycle) with the aim of reducing the amount of
waste produced by the model economic (Górecki et al. 2019; Salguero-Puerta et al.
2019; Leckner and Lind 2020).
In this order, the CE refers to the industrial economy that is restorative and
regenerative by concept, intention, and design (Ellen Macarthur Foundation 2013;
Lieder and Rashid 2016). One of its prominent characteristics is that the main energy
factor or input comes from renewable energies. It eliminates or mitigates the use of
toxic chemicals, byproducts, and waste through a process to minimize the resources
used in manufacturing. This leads to the reduction of the energy production balance,
water footprint (WF), and carbon footprint (Duque-Acevedo et al. 2020). For these
reasons, a company is considered to produce under the CE model when its produc-
tion process is regenerative with respect to the inputs used and has a low environ-
mental impact, in terms of GHG and WF emissions (Zengwei et al. 2006). The
optimization of the production process and minimization of negative externalities
generated are the aims of the CE model. It is regenerative by design, it uses
renewable energy, and it reduces the use of chemical waste (Argudo-García et al.
2017; Molina-Moreno et al. 2017; Nuñez-Cacho et al. 2018). In the CE, reuse is a
symbol of good management. The 3R concept contributes to reducing the pressure
on the global resource stock (Reh 2013).
The EC is based on biomimetics of the life cycle but in a technological setting.
The cradle to cradle theory drives the imitation of nature in the biological recycling
process but with industrial materials (Ellen Macarthur Foundation 2013). Thus, the
concept of biological and technological nutrients appears. Biological nutrients are
materials that can be renewed without human process, whereas technological nutri-
ents are materials or resources that cannot be processed by the biosphere and natural
digesters. Therefore, humans would be responsible for their industrial digester
process to mitigate its negative externality and ensure the sustainability of the
process (Lieder and Rashid 2016; Nuñez-Cacho et al. 2018). These technological
nutrients require specific human action at each step of the circular flow (Ellen
Macarthur Foundation 2013). The materials will be completely recycled based on
the idea of biomimicry, which implies that a resource is transformed and reintegrated
into the biosphere without the need of any chemical process. The residues,
byproducts, and waste could be converted into technological nutrients which
would contribute to maintaining sustainability from an environmental and industrial
point of view (Zhang and Yuan 2019).
In this way, the CE is constituted as a new paradigm where all companies,
regardless of the sector to which they belong, must incorporate these standards.
Furthermore, enterprises should gradually incorporate them into their production and
service delivery systems. It would require new technological solutions and business
models with increasingly sustainable production, consumption, and waste manage-
ment (Zengwei et al. 2006; Urbinati et al. 2017).
On the other hand, solid waste refers to substances, products, or byproducts in solid
or semisolid state that have gone through a manufacturing, transformation, use, con-
sumption, or cleaning process and are destined for abandonment (Boyle 2000;
Abdulkareem and Adeniyi 2019). Among these, organic wastes stand out as substances
that can decompose in a relatively short time compared to inorganic wastes, which are
materials and elements that do not decompose easily and suffer long degradability
cycles, generating a greater environmental impact (Diaz 2007; David et al. 2020).
The increasing extraction and use of resources, due to the prosperity in many
regions of the world, produces more waste (Narayana 2009; Triyono et al. 2019).
The average citizen generates around 5 tons of waste per year, of which only a
limited amount is recycled. This means that a significant part of the waste is dumped
in landfills or incinerated (Colvero et al. 2019; Tom et al. 2019). Managing increas-
ing amounts of waste, particularly in growing urban areas, represents a significant
cost for institutions and society and puts pressure on the natural environment
(Ayiania et al. 2019). Nevertheless, this discarded material represents a valuable
resource that can be exploited by adopting a CE model that reduces waste and allows
for the reuse of resources (Chu et al. 2019; Meng et al. 2019).
Proper management of the last phase of production is the key in the CE process
(Vivekanand and Prakash 2019). The recovery of energy from waste also plays an
important role. Waste disposal should be carried out gradually and controlled for the
safety of human health and the environment (Gidarakos et al. 2006; Dehghani et al.
2019).
The interest in the CE and solid waste management is linked to the regulatory
changes that have led, since 2015, to the application and implementation of the
SDGs of the 2030 Agenda or to the agreement of the Commission Union to
implement the Circular Economy Action Plan. This plan executes and values the
contribution to the sustainability of EU waste management policies among its
member states (United Nations 2015; European Commission 2018, 2019;
Montalbán et al. 2018). The priority given to the CE policies by the EU has
motivated the Joint Research Centre to support research on waste-related aspects
of the CE. In this sense, they work with stakeholder experts in structured and
transparent consultation processes. The results propose end of waste criteria for
certain waste streams, in addition to safety and quality requirements for recycled
materials. They produce baseline information on best available techniques and best
practices, carry out technical, economic, and environmental evaluations of recycling
processes, and propose options for converting waste into energy and waste disposal
operations (JRC 2020; Sulemana et al. 2020).
Along these lines, different European institutions present innovative solutions
with projects financed by the EU through the Horizon 2020 program that promote
the reduction of waste and the improvement of resource efficiency. These initiatives
focus on industrial symbiosis, a key driver in enabling the next step in a circular
economy with a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, and help to

achieve a climate neutral economy by 2050 (EU-E 2020; IWMCE 2020).
Methodology
This study aims to show a global vision of solid waste management in the CE
context. Bibliometric analysis has been carried out using mathematical, statistical,
and mapping tools. Therefore, the objective of this methodology is to identify,
organize, and analyze the main components within a specific field of research
(Lievrouw 1989). The main elements of the research topic have been identified
and analyzed, representing the metadata available in the different repositories and
determining trends in a specific field of research (Cronin 2001; Xu et al. 2020).
This methodology presents the evolution of interest in the subject matter of this
study reflecting the most relevant authors, countries, journals, and keywords in
recent years. By the same token, the most important links between them are
presented through an analysis of coauthorship and co-occurrence (Sedighi 2016;
Kong et al. 2019).
Several databases of academic and scientific works related to the subject matter
have been consulted (Harzing and Alakangas 2016; Mongeon and Paul-Hus 2016).
Finally, the documents from Scopus have been selected because it is the largest
repository of scientific articles, and has a greater number of peer-reviewed journals
and authors compared to the rest of the databases. Moreover, Scopus provides more
information about each author, institution, and country than other databases, such as
Web of Science or Google Scholar (Harzing and Alakangas 2016).
For the search of articles in the Scopus database on the development of the CE,
the terms “circular economy,” “sustainability,” “management,” and “solid waste”
were used as search parameters. The search has focused on the fields of title, abstract,
and keywords over a period of 27 years, that is, from 1993 to 2019, as it has been
reflected in other bibliometric studies (Abad-Segura et al. 2019; Honoré et al. 2019;
Belmonte-Urenã et al. 2020). The final sample included a total of 1096 articles, with
a wide diversity of variables to analyze for each record, such as the year of
publication, the journal, the subject area, the author and coauthors of the work,
and the institutional affiliation of the authors, as well as the country of affiliation and
the keywords that define the article.
Regarding the scientific production indicators, the evolution of the number of
articles published year by year and the productivity of the authors, countries, and
institutions are presented through the count of works presented in each field, as well
as the count of the number of citations, the h index, and the SJR impact index of the
main works (Scimago Journal & Country Rank (SJR) 2020). Likewise, through the
VOSviewer tool, the collaboration structure of authors and countries is analyzed
through network maps, and research trends were searched based on the use of
keywords (Van Eck and Waltman 2010). Network maps are a widely used technique
for processing and grouping words given their suitability for studies based on
bibliometric analysis (Van Eck and Waltman 2007).
Results
Evolution of Scientific Production
Table 1 shows the main characteristics of the research on CE, sustainability, and
waste management. The study covers all the scientific production related to these
topics. The period obtained is 27 years, and each period analyzed (9) covers 3 years
of research.
A total of 1096 articles make up the sample. The research started with 12 publi-
cations between 1993 and 1995, which represents 1% of the total production. The
last period (2017–2019) has a total of 472 articles and represents 43% of the total
production. The year with the highest number of publications is 2019 with a total of
173 articles. The number of authors who have participated in the research activity is
3318. During 1993–1995, there were 24 authors representing an average of 2 authors
per article. In the last 3 years (2017–2019), 1645 authors are registered and a value of
3.5 in the average number of authors is reached. These two periods represent 0.7%
and 49.6% of the total authors, respectively.
The greatest variation in the number of authors occurs between 1999 and 2001
with an increase of 250%. On the other hand, scientific production is produced by a
total of 97 countries. In 1993–1995, there were 8 countries, compared to 78 countries
in 2017–2019. The 1999–2001 period is again the one with the greatest variation in
the number of authors. The period 1996–1998 is the first to record citations, with a
total of 16. Since then, the number of citations has been increasing until it reached
9620 in the last period. Furthermore, the last two periods represent 80% of the total
citations obtained.
The sample has been published in 349 journals. In the first period (1993–1995),
10 journals published on this line of research, which represents an average of 1.20
articles per journal. The last period analyzed has an average of 2.97 articles per
magazine, addresses 159 journals, and represents 46% of the total. All variables
have experienced growth during the periods analyzed, especially the last one (2017–
2019). However, the second period (1996–1998) stands out for being the only one to
Table 1 Major Period A AU C TC TC/A J

characteristics from 1993
1993–1995 12 24 8 0 0 10
to 2019
1996–1998 9 10 5 16 2 7
1999–2001 16 35 10 50 3 13
2002–2004 21 55 18 103 5 14
2005–2007 60 178 36 293 5 40
2008–2010 105 275 44 920 9 58
2011–2013 163 468 53 1966 12 85
2014–2016 238 818 57 3798 16 118
2017–2019 472 1645 78 9620 20 159
A ¼ articles per period; AU ¼ number of authors; C ¼ number of
countries, TC ¼ total citations in articles; J ¼ number of journals per
period
have lower values in the variables of articles, authors, countries, and journals
compared to the previous period (1993–1995).
Figure 1 shows the evolution of the research and the percentage variation in the
number of articles for each year studied. This figure shows an increasing trend in the
number of articles published. In the first five periods analyzed, there were decreases
in the number of investigations. However, since 2008 the number of publications
began to increase annually.
In 2015, the approval of the 2030 Agenda in favor of the planet was published.
However, the SDGs and this Agenda began to be officially implemented in 2016
(United Nations 2019). Since then, numerous investigations have been registered
trying to know the sustainable measures that are being carried out and the possibility
of efficiently managing waste. For this reason, the last period analyzed (2017–2019)
stands out for having the largest number of publications and exceeding 100 articles
per year.
The highest percentage of variation (300%) occurs from 1993 to 1994, increasing
from one to four articles. 2003 and 2006 are the following years with higher
percentages of variation with values of 200% and 100%, respectively. Finally,
2017 experiences a variation percentage of 59.6%, a value that exceeds the percent-
age of the previous 10 years, which had an average variation of 14.1%.
Analysis of Scientific Production by Subject Area
The publications analyzed allow classifications in the Scopus database (Burnham

2006). Each article can belong to one or more categories depending on the interest of
200 350%
180 300%
Percentage variation of number of articles
160 250%
Number of articles by year
140
200%
120
150%
100
100%
80
50%
60
40 0%
20 -50%
0 -100%
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
Number of articles Percentage variation
Fig. 1 Comparison between the number of articles published and their variation percentage
the authors and the publisher. In this case, the sample of 1096 articles is classified
into 25 subject areas.
In the last period analyzed (2017–2019), there was an exponential increase in
the number of publications. To understand how this last period affects the overall
result of the subject areas, Fig. 2 has been prepared. The green line does not
include the last period (2017–2019), while the blue does. The yellow line
represents the percentage of variation experienced between both periods. All
categories experience an increase in the number of articles with the exception of
the nursing and health professions, which are maintained with five and two
articles, respectively. The order of classification of the subject areas is the
same in both periods.
The figure does not represent the last category (veterinary) because there were
no publications in the period 1993–2016. For a 27-year period of study, 1993–
2019, this category appears in 2018 with an article. The discipline with the highest
percentage of variation (350%) is physics and astronomy. This is the subject
category that has experienced most growth, increasing from two articles in
1993–2016 to nine in 1993–2019. Information sciences with 229% represents
the second highest percentage of variation. These subject areas are followed by
decision sciences with 175%, energy with 160%, and business, management, and
accounting with 160% as well.
Environmental sciences, social sciences, engineering, energy, business, adminis-
tration and accounting and economics, econometrics, and finance are the subject
1000 350%
900
300%
800
700 250%
600 200%
500
400 150%
300 100%
200
50%
100
0 0%
1993-2016 1993-2019 Percentage of variation
Fig. 2 Comparison of the growth trends and the percentage variation of the subject areas between
periods
areas that have the most representation in this line of research. For this reason, in
Fig. 3, an analysis is made of its trajectory over the 27 years studied.
Environmental sciences with 894 articles is the main category and represents
44.5% of the articles published in the entire period studied. This category is one
of the most relevant because it has published articles during the entire 27 years
of study. This is due to the direct link between the research topic (solid waste
management in the CE context) and the subject area (environmental sciences).
This subject category is followed by social sciences, which represents 9.4% with
a total of 182 articles. Since 1995, it has been considered as a category annually.
In this way, its second position is due to its seniority as a category. In fact, in
2019, it has 29 articles, a value that exceeds four of the five categories consid-
ered in Fig. 3. Engineering, with 182 articles (8.9%), and Energy, with 173 arti-
cles (8.7%), are the following disciplines. Both categories have increased the
number of articles in recent periods and especially during 2017–2019. The
business, management, and accounting discipline represents 5.8% of the articles
published and has a total of 112 articles. Finally, the economics, econometrics,
and finance area has 105 articles and represents 5.4%. These six categories
accumulate a total of 1605 articles and represent 82.6% of the research activity
carried out. This total of articles that exceed the analyzed sample allows to
visualize the interrelation between the disciplines and the different approaches
in the investigations.
The categories of agricultural and biological sciences and chemical engineering
have a percentage of variation in articles of 175% and 300%, respectively, in the last
2 years studied (2018–2019). However, these disciplines are not considered in the
figure because they represent less than 3%.
Environmental Science
160
Social Sciences
Engineering
140
Energy
Business, Management and Accounting
120
Economics, Econometrics and Finance
Number of articles
100
80
60
40
20
Fig. 3 Comparison of the growth trends of the main subject areas from the period studied
Most Relevant Journals from 1993 to 2019
The scientific production has been published in a total of 349 journals. Table 2 shows
the 20 most prolific journals in this line of research, in which 75% belong to the first
or second quartile. It shows the main characteristics of the journals such as the
number of articles published, the H index (Hodge and Lacasse 2011), the impact
factor according to the Scimago Journal Rank, or the country. The main character-
istics of the articles are also considered, such as the total number of citations,
the average number of citations per article, the H index, or the ranking according
to the number of articles published in each period analyzed. The journals considered
in the table, which represent 5.7% of the total of the journals, accumulate a total of
593 articles, a value that represents 54.1% of the total research activity. It is
interesting to highlight that between the periods of 1999–2001 and 2002–2004 the
highest percentage of variation in the number of journals was recorded. On the other
hand, journals from the Netherlands and the United Kingdom stand out since 50% of
the most prolific magazines belong to these countries.
The journal that published most of the articles is Waste Management with a total
of 133 articles, 3837 total citations, and an average of 28.85 citations per article. This
British magazine has an H index of 127 and belongs to the first quartile with an
impact factor of 1523. The first article was published in 2004, and the number of
annual publications has risen to a total of 57 in the last period analyzed (2017–2019).
Resources Conservation and Recycling is the journal in second position with
80 articles, 1827 total citations, and an average of 22.84 citations per article. This
journal is from the Netherlands and has a long researcher career since 1995 when it
published its first article. The last period (2017–2019) has a variation percentage of
75% compared to the previous period (2014–2016). The fourth journal in the table is
the Journal Of Cleaner Production which has 59 articles, a total of 1146 citations, an
H index of 150 and belongs to the first quartile. This journal from the Netherlands
that published its first article in 2010 has surpassed the journal Waste Management in
a number of articles in 2019. The journals Wit Transactions On Ecology And The
Environment, Habitat International, and International Journal Of Environmental
Technology And Management belong to the United Kingdom and have in common
that they are among the most prolific journals, even when in the last period analyzed
they had only a single article published. Environmental Science & Technology has
the highest H-index of journals with a value of 345. The Journal of Industrial
Ecology, from the United States, has the highest average number of citations in the
table (83.70) and is the journal that has published the article (Kennedy et al. 2007)
that has received the most total citations of the entire sample analyzed, with a total of
609 citations.
The Most Prolific Authors from 1993 to 2019
The characteristics of the most prolific authors are shown in Table 3. The 10 most
prolific authors represent a total of 63 articles from the total sample and a percentage
48
Table 2 The most active journals during 1993–2019

R (A)
Hi 1993– 1996– 1999– 2002– 2005– 2008– 2011– 2014– 2017–
Journal A TC TC/A (A) Hi (J) SJR C 1995 1998 2001 2004 2007 2010 2013 2016 2019
Waste 133 3837 28.85 36 127 1.523 UK 0 0 0 4(2) 1(7) 1(17) 1(18) 1(32) 1(57)
Management (Q1)
Resources 80 1827 22.84 26 103 1.541 Netherlands 7(1) 0 1(3) 1(4) 3(4) 2(10) 3(14) 3(16) 3(28)
Conservation (Q1)
and Recycling
Waste 77 1054 13.69 18 66 0.527 USA 8(1) 2(2) 12(1) 14(1) 5(3) 6(4) 2(17) 2(22) 4(26)
Management (Q2)
and Research
Journal of 59 1146 19.42 22 150 1.620 Netherlands 0 0 0 0 0 38(1) 7(4) 4(11) 2(43)
Cleaner (Q1)
Production
Sustainability 32 230 7.19 11 53 0.549 Switzerland 0 0 0 0 0 0 78(1) 5(7) 5(24)
Switzerland (Q2)
Journal of 30 490 16.33 13 146 1.206 USA 0 0 0 0 21(1) 4(4) 8(4) 24(2) 6(19)
Environmental (Q1)
Management
Science of the 18 263 14.61 10 205 1.536 Netherlands 0 0 0 0 0 50(1) 9(3) 16(3) 9(11)
Total (Q1)
Environment
WIT 18 46 2.56 4 19 0.125* UK 0 0 0 0 40(1) 7(4) 4(8) 9(4) 158(1)
Transactions on
Ecology and the
Environment
Habitat 16 563 35.19 14 59 1.524 UK 0 1(2) 0 9(1) 2(5) 9(2) 46(1) 8(4) 99(1)
International (Q1)
A. Batlles-de-la-Fuente et al.
2
Environmental 15 182 12.13 7 91 0.623 Netherlands 0 0 0 0 15(1) 27(1) 6(4) 50(1) 11(8)
Monitoring and (Q2)
Assessment
Environmental 14 58 4.14 5 82 0.828 Germany 0 0 0 0 0 0 38(1) 0 7(13)
Science and (Q1)
Pollution
Research
Journal of 14 112 8.00 7 33 0.487 Germany 0 0 0 0 26(1) 42(1) 65(1) 0 8(11)
Material Cycles (Q2)
and Waste
Management
Water Science 14 393 28.07 10 124 0.455 UK 9(1) 0 0 5(2) 4(4) 13(2) 19(2) 17(3) 0
and Technology (Q2)
Bioresource 13 172 13.23 9 251 2.157 Netherlands 0 0 0 0 0 0 25(1) 6(4) 10(8)
Technology (Q1)
Environmental 12 376 31.33 11 345 2.514 USA 0 0 0 8(1) 16(1) 8(2) 39(1) 7(4) 21(3)
Science & (Q1)
Technology
International 12 31 2.58 4 19 0.169 UK 0 0 0 0 7(2) 3(5) 54(1) 13(3) 108(1)
Journal of (Q4)
Environmental
Technology and
Management
Journal of 10 837 83.70 9 85 1.486 USA 0 5(1) 0 0 24(1) 5(4) 64(1) 0 25(3)
Industrial (Q1)
Research Trends of the Management of Solid Waste in the Context of. . .
Ecology
Engenharia 9 63 7.00 4 14 0.198 Brazil 0 0 0 0 0 24(1) 34(1) 12(3) 16(4)
Sanitaria (Q3)
E Ambiental
(continued)
49
50
Table 2 (continued)
R (A)
Hi 1993– 1996– 1999– 2002– 2005– 2008– 2011– 2014– 2017–
Journal A TC TC/A (A) Hi (J) SJR C 1995 1998 2001 2004 2007 2010 2013 2016 2019
Environmental 9 45 5.00 3 31 0.345 Romania 0 0 0 0 14(1) 0 36(1) 46(1) 12(6)
Engineering and (Q3)
Management
Journal
Chemical 8 27 3.38 4 29 0.273 Italy 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 11(3) 14(5)
Engineering (Q3)
Transactions
R ¼ rank position by the number of articles published; A ¼ number of articles; TC ¼ total citations for all articles; TC/A ¼ number of citations by article;
Hi (A) ¼ H index articles; Hi (J) ¼ H index journal; SJR ¼ Scimago Journal Rank (Quartile); C ¼ country; UK ¼ United Kingdom; USA ¼ United States;
* ¼ not yet assigned quartile
Table 3 The most prolific authors

Author A TC TC/A Institution C 1st A Last A H index
Torretta, V. 9 104 11.56 Università degli Italy 2012 2019 7
Studi dell’Insubria
Ragazzi, M. 7 61 8.71 Università degli Italy 2005 2019 5
Studi di Trento
Vaccari, M. 7 72 10.29 Università degli Italy 2012 2018 5
Studi di Brescia
Aldaco, R. 6 86 14.33 Universidad de Spain 2014 2019 4
Cantabria
Ferronato, N. 6 43 7.17 Università degli Italy 2016 2019 5
Irabien, A. 6 51 8.50 Universidad de Spain 2014 2019 4
Cantabria
Margallo, M. 6 86 14.33 Universidad de Spain 2014 2019 4
Cantabria
Wilson, D.C. 6 196 32.67 Imperial College UK 2012 2017 5
London
Arena, U. 5 155 31.00 Università degli Italy 2012 2018 5
Studi della
Campania Luigi
Vanvitelli
Chang, N.B. 5 250 50.00 University of USA 2008 2013 5
Central Florida
A ¼ number of articles; TC ¼ number of citations for all; TC/A ¼ number of citations by article;
C ¼ country
of 5.75% of the total scientific production. In this table, the authors who belong to
Italy and Spain represent 80%. The other two more prolific authors are from the
United States and the United Kingdom.
Vincenzo Torretta is the first author of the table with 9 articles, a total of
104 citations, and an average of 11.56 citations per article. This Italian author
published his first article in 2012 and has an H index of 7 (Hirsch 2005). Marco
Ragazzi, an Italian author, is the second most relevant. He has 7 articles, an
average of 8.71 citations, and an H index of 5. He belongs to the University of
Trento and is the author with the longest research career in the table. However, he
is the third author with the lowest number of total citations and average citations,
61 and 8.71, respectively. Chang Ni-Bin from the University of Florida has
5 articles and an H index of 5. He is the last author of the table but stands out
for being the one with the highest number of total citations and average total
citations, with a value of 250 and 50, respectively. The article “An AHP-based
fuzzy interval TOPSIS assessment for sustainable expansion of the solid waste
management system in Setúbal Peninsula, Portugal” (Pires et al. 2011) was
published in 2011 and has received 96 citations. David C. Wilson (Wilson 2020)
of British Imperial College London is considered a mentor in resource manage-
ment and is the second author with the highest number of total citations (196) and
average citations per article (32.67).
Only two of the ten authors listed in the table published an article before the
2011–2013 period: Marco Ragazzi, in 2005, with the article “Some Research
Perspectives on Emissions from Bio-Mechanical Treatments of Municipal Solid
Waste in Europe” (Rada et al. 2005); and Chang Ni-Bin, in 2008, with the study
“Municipal solid waste characterizations and management strategies for the Lower
Rio Grande Valley, Texas” (Chang and Davila 2008).
Identification of the Most Relevant Institutions
Table 4 shows the characteristics of the most prolific institutions from 1993 to 2019.
These 10 institutions collect 117 articles and represent 11% of the total number of
publications carried out in this line of research.
The first institution in the table is Universidade de Sao Paulo – USP. This
Brazilian university has 21 articles, a total of 139 citations, and an average of 6.62
citations per article. It has an H index of 6 and is the second institution with the
lowest percentage of collaboration index, with a value of 14.3%. This institution
receives more citations in articles without international collaboration than in those
that cooperate with other countries. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro is the
second institution in the ranking with 14 articles. In addition, it has 252 total
Table 4 Characteristics of the most prolific institutions

Institution C A TC TC/A H index IC (%) TCIC TCNIC
Universidade de Brazil 21 139 6.62 6 14.3% 3.67 7.11
Sao Paulo – USP
Universidade Brazil 14 252 18.00 8 21.4% 22.33 16.82
Federal do Rio de
Janeiro
Imperial College United 13 445 34.23 8 76.9% 43.70 2.67
London Kingdom
Università degli Italy 11 170 15.45 7 45.5% 9.00 20.83
Studi di Brescia
Universidad de Spain 10 119 11.90 5 30.0% 19.67 8.57
Cantabria
Universiti Malaysia 10 101 10.10 6 50.0% 8.80 11.40
Teknologi Malaysia
Tsinghua University China 10 230 23.00 8 40.0% 22.00 23.67
Universiteit Gent Belgium 10 198 19.80 7 50.0% 18.60 21.00
Università degli Italy 9 104 11.56 7 55.6% 6.60 17.75
UNESP- Brazil 9 33 3.67 4 11.1% 0.00 4.13
Universidade
Estadual Paulista
C ¼ country; A ¼ number of articles; TC ¼ number of citations for all; IC ¼ percentage of articles
with international collaboration; TCIC ¼ number of citations with international collaboration;
TCNIC ¼ number of citations without international collaboration
citations, an average of 18 citations, and an H index of 8, variables that exceed in

value of the first institution in the ranking (Universidade de Sao Paulo – USP). This
Brazilian institution has a collaboration rate of 21.4% and has a greater number of
citations in those publications that have collaborated internationally with other
countries.
Imperial College London (ICL 2020) stands out for having the highest value of
total citations (445), average citations per article (34.23), collaboration index
(76.9%), and total citations in articles with international collaboration (43.70).
Tsinghua University is from China and has a total of ten articles. It is the third
institution with the highest number of total citations (230) and the second with the
highest number of citations per article. It has a 40% collaboration index and is the
institution in the table with the highest number of citations in articles without
international collaboration, with a value of 23.67. The last position in the table is
occupied by the Brazilian institution UNESP-Universidade Estadual Paulista. This
institution has nine articles and has the lowest number of citations (33), average
citations in the table (3.67), and H index (4) in the table. Furthermore, this
institution stands out for having a value of zero in the total of citations in articles
with collaboration, which indicates that none of the articles that have been
produced with the collaboration of other countries have received citations. Finally,
it is highlighted that most of the institutions in the table have received more
citations in articles made without collaboration compared to those made with the
collaboration of other countries.
Institutions have a collaboration index to know the percentage of articles that
have been done internationally. In this way, the remaining percentage refers to
articles that have been produced nationally.
It is interesting to know how many articles from each institution have been
produced with international collaboration and without collaboration. For this reason,
Fig. 4 indicates in green the articles of each institution that have been done without
collaboration and in blue the articles that have been done with other countries, that is
to say, with collaboration. Universidade de Sao Poaulo-USP, Universidade Federal
do Rio de Janeiro, and UNESP-Universidade Estadual Paulista are the three Brazil-
ian institutions with the fewest international articles. On the other hand, Universiti
Teknologi, Malaysia, Universiteit Gent, and Università degli Studi di Brescia have a
collaboration rate close to 50%. This means that these institutions have published a
similar number of articles with international collaboration and without collaboration.
Finally, Imperial College London has the largest number of articles made with other
countries (10).
Characteristics of the Most Relevant Countries in the Research
Table 5 shows the ten most prolific countries in the period of time analyzed
(1993–2019). These countries cover a total of 766 articles from the total sample,
which represent 70% of the scientific production carried out. The table is led by
the United States with 140 articles, an average of 17.64 citations, and the
Universidade de Sao Paulo - USP

Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
Imperial College London
Università degli Studi di Brescia
Universidad de Cantabria
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
Tsinghua University
Universiteit Gent
Università degli Studi dell'Insubria
UNESP-Universidade Estadual Paulista
0 5 10 15 20 25
Articles without other countries Articles with other countries
Fig. 4 Comparison in the number of articles with international collaboration and without interna-
tional collaboration
highest number of total citations with 2470. The United States and Canada are
the only countries that began their research activity in the first period analyzed
(1993–1995). The last period, 2017–2019, indicates the decrease that has been
experienced in the number of articles since it is the first period analyzed in
which it occupies the third position. Italy, the second country in the table, has
115 articles, 1958 total citations, and an average of 17.03 citations per article. It
has the second best H index, after the United Kingdom. In addition, this country
in the last period analyzed exceeds the United States for publishing ten more
articles.
Brazil is the third country with 108 articles, 729 total citations, and an average
of 6.75 citations per article. This country began its research activity during the
period 2002–2004, and in the last period analyzed it is in the first position, since it
has 63 articles. The United Kingdom, which occupies the fourth position in the
ranking of the most prolific countries, has the highest H index in the table (28). It
is the second country with the highest values in total citations and in the average
of citations per article. Moreover, the United Kingdom, during 1996–1998
published two articles on CE. Therefore, this country is the third with the longest
research trajectory. On the other hand, although China began its research activity
in the period 2008–2010, it is ranked number six for its high number of published
research. Finally, Canada with 42 articles and 1385 total citations, is in eighth
position. This country has the highest average number of citations per article with
a value of 32.98.
The increase in the publication of articles, in the last period analyzed (2017–
2019), causes a variation in the ranking of countries. Figure 5 shows the articles that
the countries had in the period 1993–2016 (green) and the articles published in the
last period analyzed (blue).
2
Table 5 The most relevant countries in number of articles for the 1993–2019 period
R (A)
H 1993– 1996– 1999– 2002– 2005– 2008– 2011– 2014- 2017–
Country A TC TC/A index 1995 1998 2001 2004 2007 2010 2013 2016 2019
USA 140 2470 17.64 26 1(3) 1(3) 2(2) 17(1) 2(6) 1(22) 1(25) 2(29) 3(49)
Italy 115 1958 17.03 27 0 0 6(1) 4(2) 6(4) 6(6) 6(10) 1(33) 2(59)
Brazil 108 729 6.75 17 0 0 0 2(2) 8(3) 8(5) 3(13) 3(22) 1(63)
UK 94 2173 23.12 28 0 2(2) 1(9) 7(2) 1(10) 2(10) 2(16) 6(16) 6(29)
China 67 955 14.25 20 0 0 0 0 0 9(5) 5(10) 8(12) 4(40)
India 66 767 11.62 16 0 0 0 3(2) 5(4) 4(7) 7(9) 9(11) 5(33)
Spain 53 658 12.42 15 0 0 0 0 18(2) 40(1) 19(4) 4(19) 7(27)
Canada 42 1385 32.98 17 2(1) 3(1) 4(1) 1(3) 3(5) 3(7) 4(10) 19(4) 16(10)
Malaysia 42 324 7.71 10 0 0 0 12(1) 27(1) 17(2) 15(4) 5(17) 9(17)
Australia 39 456 11.69 14 0 0 0 0 7(3) 5(6) 12(4) 24(3) 8(23)
A ¼ number of articles; TC ¼ total citations for all articles; TC/A ¼ number of citations by article; R ¼ rank position by the number of articles published
55
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
1993-2016 2017-2019
Fig. 5 Comparison of the articles growth between periods
This figure indicates the exponential growth that has occurred. All countries, with
the exception of the United Kingdom, Canada, and Malaysia, have published more
articles in the last 3 years analyzed than in the other 24 years (1993–2016). An
example of this is Italy, which had 56 articles during the period of 1993–2016 and
only during the period of 2017–2019 published 59 articles. If the percentage of
variation of the last two periods analyzed is compared, that is, 2014–2016 and 2017–
2019, the highest percentage of variation is experienced by Australia because the
articles increased from 3 to 23. This country is followed by China with a variation
percentage of 244% which increased its number of articles from 12 to 40. This
increase positions China in fourth position in the last period. Finally, India with a
percentage of 200% variation in the number of articles is in fifth place in the last
period studied (2017–2019).
Table 6 shows the main characteristics of the most prolific countries. The
countries with the largest number of collaborators are the United States and the
United Kingdom with 40 and 38, respectively. On the contrary, Italy, Canada, and
India are the countries with the lowest number of collaborators. However, it is
interesting to highlight that the number of collaborators is not directly related to
the collaboration index. An example of this is the United States, which being the
country with the largest number of collaborators, does not have the highest collab-
oration index.
The highest percentage of articles with international collaboration is represented
by the United Kingdom and Australia, both with a value of 56.4%. These countries
are followed by China with an international collaboration index of 53.7%. On the
contrary, India and Brazil are the two countries with the lowest collaboration index,
Table 6 The most relevant countries and the international collaboration from 1993 to 2019
TC/A
Country NC Main collaborators IC (%) IC NIC
United 40 United Kingdom, China, Australia, Portugal, 39.3 18.80 16.89
States and Brazil
Italy 12 Romania, United Kingdom, Bolivia, China, 27.8 10.78 19.43
and Greece
Brazil 15 Portugal, United Kingdom, United States, 15.7 9.65 6.21
Austria, and Chile
United 38 United States, Italy, Netherlands, China, and 56.4 25.09 20.56
Kingdom Germany
China 20 Australia, United States, Italy, United 53.7 12.78 15.97
Kingdom, and France
India 13 United States, Japan, South Korea, Australia, 19.7 12.00 11.53
and Brazil
Spain 21 United Kingdom, Chile, France, Italy, and 35.8 18.11 9.24
Germany
Canada 12 United Kingdom, United States, China, Iran, 35.7 17.87 41.37
and Australia
Malaysia 15 Brazil, China, Indonesia, Pakistan, and 31.0 11.00 6.24
United Kingdom
Australia 20 China, United States, United Kingdom, 56.4 8.36 16.00
Bangladesh, and Brazil
NC ¼ number of collaborators; IC ¼ percentage of articles with international collaboration;
TC/A ¼ total citations per article; IC ¼ international collaboration; NIC ¼ without international
collaboration
19.7% and 15.7, respectively. Canada is the country with the highest number of
citations for articles produced without collaboration, with an average of 41.37
citations per article. United Kingdom is the country with the highest number of
citations in articles with international collaboration, with an average of 25.09
citations per article. Except India, all the countries in the table have the United
Kingdom among the five main collaborators. Finally, note that, except Italy, China,
Canada, and Australia, all countries get a higher total number of citations in articles
that have been made in collaboration with other countries.
Figure 6, which shows international cooperation between countries, is made
using the VOSviewer tool (Van Eck and Waltman 2010). This network map is
made up of nine clusters, and all of them are led by the most prolific countries
except the yellow cluster.
The first cluster (brown) is led by the United States and collaborates with Taiwan
and Denmark. Between these 3 countries, they accumulate a total of 164 articles,
which represent 15% of the total research activity. The second (orange cluster) is led
by two of the most prolific countries, the United Kingdom and Spain, which are
joined by the international collaboration of Ireland and Poland. The international
collaboration between these countries brings together 169 articles and represents
15.4% of scientific production. The third cluster (light blue) accumulates 165 articles.
Fig. 6 International cooperation based on coauthorship between countries
This cluster is led by Brazil and has the collaboration of Austria, Mexico, and
Portugal. The fourth group (red), which is led by India and China, is the main one.
This group, which includes countries such as Japan and Thailand, has 205 articles
and represents 18.5% of the total sample.
The fifth cluster is purple and is represented by Australia. This cluster that brings
together a total of 83 articles includes countries such as Nigeria and Turkey. The
green cluster has a total of 92 articles. It is led by Malaysia and collaborates
internationally with countries such as Belgium, Pakistan, and Egypt. The pink
cluster, with 146 articles, is led by Italy and has the participation of Greece and
Romania. The eighth cluster, dark blue, is represented by Canada and collaborates
with France, Iran, Colombia, Singapore, and Chile. This group includes 105 articles,
which represents 9.6% of the total production analyzed. The last cluster, yellow,
includes Finland, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. This group
has 138 articles and represents 12.5% of the total sample analyzed.
The collaboration network includes countries from all continents. In this case, the
analysis carried out shows that the European continent has the largest presence with
a total of 16 countries, followed by Asia with 14 countries. This cooperation between
countries can be represented through its activity over the years. Figure 7 shows a
timeline map based on coauthorship between countries. This map shows in different
colors which countries started collaborating at the beginning of the period analyzed
and which countries have recently joined. In the figure, the United Kingdom and
Canada stand out for being the first countries to collaborate internationally. In the
following periods, countries such as the United States, India, and Japan were
incorporated. Finally, Italy, Brazil, and Spain were the last countries to produce
articles with international coauthorship.
Fig. 7 Timeline map for the international cooperation based on coauthorship between countries
Analysis of the Keywords Used During 1993–2019
Figure 8 shows the 20 most used keywords in the research over the 27 years
analyzed. On the one hand, the blue color shows the number of times each of the
keywords has been used in the period of 1993–2016. On the other hand, the green
color shows the same but for the entire period analyzed (1993–2019). The yellow
line is the percentage of variation between the two periods analyzed.
The concept of EC was used for the first time in 2011. During the period of 1993–
2016, this keyword was used 12 times, while in 2017–2019 it was used 91 times.
This recent interest by the EC in this line of research causes a high percentage of
variation that can be seen in the figure. The rest of the keywords have experienced a
growth in the percentage of variation greater than 50% in the last period, with the
exception of the keywords landfill and economics, both with a variation of 46.5%.
The positions in the ranking for the two periods analyzed are maintained except for
solid waste and waste management. In this case, the term solid waste was used in
400 articles during the first period (1993–2016), while in the complete period
analyzed (1993–2019) it reached 651. Thus, the keyword waste management,
which was used 396 times in the first period analyzed, was used 693 times for the
entire period.
The incorporation of the 2017–2019 period in the analysis allows us to know the
percentage of variation in the use of keywords as well as to identify the new terms
that are introduced as a consequence of the new interests in the research. In this
sense, it is interesting to highlight that during the entire period analyzed, a total of
8818 keywords are obtained, of which 6086 belong to the period of 1993–2016 and
4589 to the last period 2017–2019.
800 800%
700 700%
600 600%
500 500%
400 400%
300 300%
200 200%
100 100%
0 0%
1993-2016 1993-2019 Percentage of variation
Fig. 8 Comparison of the growth trends and the percentage variation of the keywords between
periods
Figure 9 represents a network with the main keywords. Four clusters are differ-
entiated. The first cluster, red, is represented by the terms waste management,
sustainability, and solid wastes. Terms such as economic development, solid waste
management, urban planning, or waste collection are mentioned. Moreover, this
group mentions the countries Brazil, Spain, India, and China in the investigations
carried out. The blue cluster, which is led by the term sustainable development,
investigates concepts related to energy efficiency, environmental impact, carbon
footprint, and climate change. In this cluster, only the country Italy is mentioned.
The third cluster, green, is led by waste treatment and landfill. Terms such as
compost, biodegradation, organic waste, waste disposal, and waste water manage-
ment are used in this third group. The last cluster, yellow, is represented by the
keyword recycling. In this group, the EU and concepts such as electronic waste,
electronic equipment, industries, waste products, and plastics are mentioned. This
keyword map allows us to identify the different lines of research that have been
carried out. Furthermore, it is interesting to analyze this figure in order to identify the
topics that have not yet been studied for future research.
Figure 10 is a timeline used to understand the maturity of each of the keywords.
The terms waste reduction, methane, nitrogen, water supply, sewage, and water
quality were the first terms used (2010–2013). These keywords are directly related to
wastewater pollution concern. The following period, 2014–2016, introduces new
concepts such as biogas, emissions, greenhouse gases, pollutant removal, or toxicity.
In this case, the line of research was focused on the quality of emissions and GHG, as
can be verified according to the occurrence of these terms. In this case, the terms with
the most occurrences (municipal solid waste, waste disposal, landfill, and recycling)
emerged during this period (2014–2016) and stand out for being the most referenced.
Finally, some of the concepts that emerge from 2017 are environmental technology,
waste to energy, electronic waste, cost analysis, or waste disposal analysis. These
terms are directly related to the research of new technologies and the management of
technological waste.
Fig. 9 A network map with the main keywords from 1993 to 2019
Table 7 shows the main keywords from 1993 to 2019. The table is made up of
nine periods, and each one covers 3 years of study. The 20 most prolific keywords
are classified in each period by the number of times they have been used in
publications and the ranking they occupy according to that value. In this case, the
analysis of each period will identify the progress and decline of each of these
keywords. The first term with the highest number of occurrences (693) is waste
management and represents 63.2% of the total number of documents. During the
period 1996–1998, this keyword was in sixth position with a total of three refer-
ences. However, from 2011 to 2019, it has managed to be the most referenced
keyword. Solid waste is the second-most used keyword during the 27 years ana-
lyzed. This term has been used a total of 651 times and represents 59.4% of the total
sample. With the exception of the 1996–1998 period, which was in the 12th position
with two references, during the rest of the years it has managed to be among the first
3 positions in the ranking. The term sustainability occupies the third position in the
table. This keyword has a total of 537 occurrences throughout the period of analysis
(1993–2019) and represents a total of 49% of the documents analyzed. Municipal
Fig. 10 Timeline for the main keywords used
solid waste (435), sustainable development (387), and recycling (369) are the
following keywords with the highest number of occurrences. These occupy fourth,
fifth, and sixth position. These three keywords have been used in the investigations
throughout all the years analyzed, with the exception of recycling in the period
1996–1998, which was not used in any article.
Finally, 2014–2016 was the first period in which all the keywords in the table
were used in the investigations carried out. This is because some terms such as
circular economy and procedures stand out for their late incorporation into this line
of research. In this case, circular economy was used for the first time during 2011–
2013, and procedures during 2014–2016.
Conclusion
The objective of this study was to review global research on solid waste management
in the CE context. A bibliometric analysis has been developed for a sample of 1096
articles published between 1993 and 2019. A productivity, impact, and structure
study was carried out based on the number of articles, journals, subject categories,
authors, affiliations, and countries.
2
Table 7 Main keywords from 1993 to 2019

1993–2019 1993–1995 1996–1998 1999–2001 2002–2004 2005–2007 2008–2010 2011–2013 2014–2016 2017–2019
Keyword A % R (A) % R (A) % R (A) % R (A) % R (A) % R (A) % R (A) % R (A) % R (A) %
Waste 693 63.2% 2(5) 41.7% 6(3) 33.3% 2(8) 50.0% 1(18) 85.7% 2(38) 63.3% 2(66) 62.9% 1(103) 63.2% 1(155) 65.1% 1(297) 62.9%
management
Solid waste 651 59.4% 1(5) 41.7% 12(2) 22.2% 3(8) 50.0% 2(17) 81.0% 1(43) 71.7% 1(87) 82.9% 3(93) 57.1% 2(145) 60.9% 2(251) 53.2%
Sustainability 537 49.0% 101(1) 8.3% 13(2) 22.2% 1(9) 56.3% 4(9) 42.9% 3(27) 45.0% 3(65) 61.9% 2(96) 58.9% 3(120) 50.4% 3(208) 44.1%
Municipal 435 39.7% 11(2) 16.7% 65(1) 11.1% 12(3) 18.8% 22(3) 14.3% 7(18) 30.0% 5(39) 37.1% 4(68) 41.7% 4(102) 42.9% 4(199) 42.2%
solid waste
Sustainable 387 35.3% 3(4) 33.3% 14(2) 22.2% 26(2) 12.5% 6(8) 38.1% 8(18) 30.0% 8(35) 33.3% 6(58) 35.6% 5(91) 38.2% 5(169) 35.8%
development
Recycling 369 33.7% 6(3) 25.0% 0 0.0% 4(5) 31.3% 5(8) 38.1% 5(19) 31.7% 4(44) 41.9% 7(55) 33.7% 7(72) 30.3% 6(163) 34.5%
Waste disposal 324 29.6% 16(2) 16.7% 5(3) 33.3% 6(5) 31.3% 7(6) 28.6% 14(11) 18.3% 7(37) 35.2% 9(45) 27.6% 6(76) 31.9% 7(139) 29.4%
Landfill 281 25.6% 10(2) 16.7% 2(4) 44.4% 21(2) 12.5% 10(5) 23.8% 4(20) 33.3% 6(38) 36.2% 5(63) 38.7% 9(56) 23.5% 11(91) 19.3%
Solid waste 265 24.2% 13(2) 16.7% 1(5) 55.6% 5(5) 31.3% 3(11) 52.4% 6(19) 31.7% 9(33) 31.4% 8(52) 31.9% 11(44) 18.5% 8(94) 19.9%
management
Environmental 187 17.1% 0 0.0% 0 0.0% 0 0.0% 13(4) 19.0% 9(17) 28.3% 13(19) 18.1% 10(33) 20.2% 13(42) 17.6% 13(72) 15.3%
sustainability
Refuse 172 15.7% 86(1) 8.3% 0 0.0% 0 0.0% 14(4) 19.0% 10(17) 28.3% 10(22) 21.0% 11(30) 18.4% 20(30) 12.6% 14(68) 14.4%
disposal
Humans 171 15.6% 0 0.0% 0 0.0% 91(1) 6.3% 11(4) 19.0% 61(3) 5.0% 28(9) 8.6% 31(13) 8.0% 10(49) 20.6% 9(92) 19.5%
Waste 171 15.6% 0 0.0% 0 0.0% 0 0.0% 23(3) 14.3% 17(8) 13.3% 16(13) 12.4% 15(20) 12.3% 14(42) 17.6% 12(85) 18.0%
treatment
Environmental 163 14.9% 7(2) 16.7% 3(3) 33.3% 18(2) 12.5% 40(2) 9.5% 12(14) 23.3% 14(18) 17.1% 13(26) 16.0% 12(42) 17.6% 17(54) 11.4%
impact
Environmental 120 10.9% 8(2) 16.7% 0 0.0% 19(2) 12.5% 137(1) 4.8% 59(3) 5.0% 18(12) 11.4% 18(18) 11.0% 16(33) 13.9% 19(49) 10.4%
management
(continued)
63
64
Table 7 (continued)
1993–2019 1993–1995 1996–1998 1999–2001 2002–2004 2005–2007 2008–2010 2011–2013 2014–2016 2017–2019
Keyword A % R (A) % R (A) % R (A) % R (A) % R (A) % R (A) % R (A) % R (A) % R (A) %
Life cycle 120 10.9% 55(1) 8.3% 0 0.0% 11(3) 18.8% 0 0.0% 38(4) 6.7% 150(3) 2.9% 16(19) 11.7% 17(33) 13.9% 15(57) 12.1%
Procedures 113 10.3% 0 0.0% 0 0.0% 0 0.0% 0 0.0% 0 0.0% 1445(1) 1.0% 0 0.0% 8(57) 23.9% 16(55) 11.7%
Incineration 106 9.7% 0 0.0% 45(1) 11.1% 92(1) 6.3% 47(2) 9.5% 20(6) 10.0% 85(4) 3.8% 20(17) 10.4% 18(32) 13.4% 21(43) 9.1%
Circular 103 9.4% 0 0.0% 0 0.0% 0 0.0% 0 0.0% 0 0.0% 0 0.0% 336(2) 1.2% 78(10) 4.2% 10(91) 19.3%
economy
Controlled 102 9.3% 0 0.0% 0 0.0% 56(1) 6.3% 102(1) 4.8% 16(8) 13.3% 25(9) 8.6% 17(18) 11.0% 23(23) 9.7% 23(42) 8.9%
study
The results obtained point out that research on solid waste management in the
context of the CE achieved exponential growth in the number of articles published
and has become a topic of global interest for study.
The number of scientific articles per year during the period 1993–2019 has
increased, especially in the last 6 years where 710 articles were published,
representing 64.78% of those published in total. Environmental science is the most
important area in terms of article grouping with 44.5% of them, followed by social
sciences and engineering with 9.4% and 8.9%, respectively. Waste management was
the most productive journal on the subject of solid waste management development
in the CE context with 12.14% of the total articles published (133) during the study
period, giving rise to 3837 citations. This journal also presents the highest H-index
for articles published on this topic (36). This H-index is considerably lower than the
one it has for all subject areas (127). International Journal of Environmental Tech-
nology and Management has the highest average of citations per article with 83.70%.
The most productive institutions in this area have been the Brazilian Universidade de
Sao Paulo – USP and Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, with 21 and 14 articles
each, followed by the British Imperial College London, with 13. Italians Torretta,
V. (9), Ragazzi, M. (7), and Vaccari, M. (7) are the authors who have published the
most articles. Torretta, V., has published seven articles which is the highest H index
on this topic. The North American author Chang, N. has published the highest
number of citations on this topic with 250 and the highest average number of
citations per article with 50. The most productive countries were the United States
and Italy with 140 and 115 articles, respectively. In addition, the United States
published the highest number of citations (2470), while Italy has the highest H
index with 27. Furthermore, the United Kingdom and Australia have carried out a
great percentage of their work through international collaboration, followed by
China and the United States.
This work has some limitations, so these could be the basis for future research. In
this sense, it stands out that bibliometric analysis is mainly a method of quantitative
analysis. Certain authors publish few articles with great impact in a specific field.
Likewise, this methodology could be extended with other quantitative or qualitative
tools, in order to seek a different perspective of this research.
Finally, it is necessary to conclude that based on the reviewed literature, future
works should analyze the legislation on reuse and recycling incentives, study the
productivity of resources, and examine how to disassociate economic growth from
the use of resources and their environmental impact.
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Pretreatments of Solid Wastes
for Anaerobic Digestion and Its Importance 3
for the Circular Economy
Sabrina Vieira, Jaíne Schneider, Walter José Martinez Burgos,

Antônio Magalhães, Adriane Bianchi Pedroni Medeiros,
Julio Cesar de Carvalho, Luciana Porto de Souza Vandenberghe,
Carlos Ricardo Soccol, and Eduardo Bittencourt Sydney
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Solid Wastes for Anaerobic Digestion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Organic Solid Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Municipal Solid Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Industrial Solid Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Livestock Manure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Lignocellulosic Biomass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Agro-industrial Solid Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Forestry Solid Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Production of Biogas by Anaerobic Fermentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Production of Biohydrogen by Dark Fermentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Production of Biogas and Biohydrogen from Solid Wastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Pretreatments of Solid Wastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Hydrogen Production by Biomethane Reform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Steam Reforming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Partial Oxidation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
The Role of the Anaerobic Digestion of Solid Wastes in the Circular Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
S. Vieira · J. Schneider · E. B. Sydney (*)

Department of Bioprocess Engineering and Biotechnology, Federal University of Technology of
Paraná – Campus Ponta Grossa, Ponta Grossa, Brazil
e-mail: eduardosydney@utfpr.edu.br
W. J. Martinez Burgos · A. Magalhães · A. B. P. Medeiros · J. C. de Carvalho ·
L. P. de Souza Vandenberghe · C. R. Soccol
Department of Bioprocess Engineering and Biotechnology, Federal University of Paraná,
Curitiba, Brazil
e-mail: adrianebpm@ufpr.br; jccarvalho@ufpr.br; soccol@ufpr.br

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_5
70 S. Vieira et al.
Abstract
Anaerobic digestion is a biotechnological route for the transformation of solid
biodegradable wastes to energy. Two main energetic biomolecules can be directly
produced: methane and hydrogen. Biogas and biohydrogen processes share
technological similarities: both demands pretreatment of solid substrates, occurs
in the absence of oxygen, and results in the formation of a gas which contains
mainly one molecule of high-energy content (CH4 or H2) and carbon dioxide. The
use of solid biodegradable wastes for anaerobic biodigestion is limited due to
the need of preprocessing technologies to optimize the bioconversion and reduce
sedimentation (increase maintenance and equipment life span). The choice of the
pretreatment(s) technology(ies) impacts greatly in the fermentation efficiency,
economics, and sustainability. This chapter covers the strategic importance of
incorporating solid wastes into anaerobic digestion systems to the global circular
economy and the technologies available for the pretreatment of solid biomass for
the production of biogas and biohydrogen.
Keywords
Biogas · Biomethane · Biohydrogen · Dark fermentation · Energy · Bioeconomy
Introduction
Anaerobic digestion is the process of converting organic matter in the absence of

oxygen. It is a complex treatment approach, which is conducted by a population of
microorganisms. Known for being an efficient alternative in waste stabilization, it has
been widely applied in energy production, generating biomethane and biohydrogen,
bioethanol, biobutanol, and bio-based chemicals, such as acids, bioplastics, succinic,
citric, and lactic, among others. The anaerobic digestion technology has the advan-
tages from the environmental point of view because it allows the reduction of
greenhouse gases, leaching and evaporation of ammonia, and solving the problem
of incorrect destination of solid waste. On the economic side, it associates the
treatment of waste with the recovery of energy and nutrients through the generation
of bioenergy and the use of digestate as a natural fertilizer, generating income directly
from the sale of surplus energy and indirectly with the saving of energy and reduction
in the use of chemical fertilizers (Anyaoku and Baroutian 2018).
The two main energy biomolecules produced in anaerobic digestion are methane
and hydrogen, but they cannot be generated concurrently. Biohydrogen is considered
one of the most promising fuels in the future of renewables as it has high energy
value and generates only water in its combustion. It is a product of the acidogenic
phase of the process, requiring the inhibition of the methanogenesis step. Methane is
the main component of biogas (40–75% of the total volume) when anaerobic
digestion is conducted to the methanogenic phase. Biogas can be used directly for
the production of heat, steam, and electricity, without the need for prior treatment.
3 Pretreatments of Solid Wastes for Anaerobic Digestion and Its Importance. . . 71
When the biogas is purified, the removal of the CO2 fraction results in a consequent
increase in methane level. The purified biogas is then called biomethane and can be
used as a vehicle fuel.
Classically, it is the liquid residues that are used in anaerobic digestion, because
unlike solids, they do not require pre-treatments and can be added directly to the
system. Solid residues that can be used in anaerobic biodigestion are classified as
agricultural, urban and industrial. Agricultural residues include vegetables such as
leaves, straw, crop residues, and animal waste. Industrial waste is mainly related to
the processing of food and beverages, such as peels, pies, bagasse, and whole foods,
among others. The solid organic urban waste is mainly composed of food waste.
Each type of waste has an extremely varied composition and should be studied on
a case-by-case basis. In relation to generation, the decentralization of solid waste
generation in urban centers requires policies for separation and garbage collection
and subsequent sorting for use as a substrate for biodigestion. In the case of
agricultural and agricultural waste, production is centralized and in large quantities
so that biotransformation by anaerobic digestion in loco becomes feasible. Com-
monly, solid waste is disposed of in landfills, incinerated, or composted, and these
processes generate environmental impacts, such as soil and groundwater contami-
nation, emission of greenhouse gases, and changes in the soil (Six et al. 2016).
However, the simple disposal of organic matter means loss and misuse of natural
resources, which is unacceptable for a society in transition to a sustainable and
circular production system.
Although advances in the bioprocesses field have taken place in recent years,
there are several technical and economic challenges in the treatment of solid
materials for the production of bioenergy, especially lignocelluloses, which need a
pretreatment for an efficient process of accessibility of microorganisms to ferment-
able sugars. The choice of pretreatment for these materials is a challenge for
sustainability as the processes demand the application of high temperatures,
chemicals, or water and the generation of residues harmful to the environment
(Vieira et al. 2020). This chapter aims to discuss the biotransformation of organic
solid waste (municipal solid waste, industrial solid waste, livestock manure) and
lignocellulosic biomass (agro-industrial, forestry) into methane and biohydrogen
through anaerobic digestion and the role of these technologies in building a more
economic and environmental sustainable and integrated economic system where the
preservation of the environment and the optimization of the use of the natural
resources play a central role.
Solid Wastes for Anaerobic Digestion
Solid wastes are inevitable produced from human activity that can be at different
stages of the production chain, from the extraction and processing of raw materials to
consumption. The amount and complexity of these residues depend on the stages
and levels of transformation of the raw material to product. Every process generates
some type of waste, whether in agriculture, mining, industry, or domestic activity. In
72 S. Vieira et al.
Fig. 1 Main sources of solid

waste for anaerobic digestion
most cases, solid waste has no commercial value, increasing the cost of processing,
when disposal is performed in accordance with environmental laws. Many factories
incinerate part of their solid waste for the energy and steam generation, reducing the
volume of waste discarded. Excess steam is lost, and part of the energy can be sold to
the local power companies. This decreases the treatment cost but does not solve the
whole problem of solid waste. Anaerobic digestion can be fundamental in the
treatment of several by-products, such as municipal, agricultural (harvesting and
processing), forestry and industrial solid waste, and animal manure (Fig. 1).
The characteristics of the waste will determine the best strategy for biogas and
biohydrogen production, such as pretreatment, fermentation controls, and microor-
ganisms used. Pretreatments are necessary before anaerobic digestion which varies
according to the solid residue used. The materials need a selection stage; reduction in
particle size by mechanical, physical, chemical, and/or biological action; suitability;
and, preferably, optimization of the anaerobic digestion system. A well-established
pretreatment is fundamental for an ideal fermentation, generating higher yields of
biogas and biohydrogen. There are several types of physical (mechanical and
thermal), chemical, and biological pretreatment methods used to increase the per-
formance of anaerobic digestion (Sołowski et al. 2020). Table 1 shows the main
methods used. The pretreatment of solid waste can be divided into two major groups:
organic solid waste (municipal and industrial solid waste, and livestock manure) and
lignocellulosic biomass (agro-industrial and forestry solid waste). Table 1 presents
and describes the main groups of solid wastes, as well as the necessary pretreatments
for organic matter solubilization in each case.
Table 1 Different types of pretreatment methods used for various solid waste in anerobic digestion
Pretreatment Method Description
Physical Solid-solid Organic waste separation from bulk materials, such as
separation metals, plastics, and glasses
Milling Increases the surface area, bulk density, and porosity of the
substrate
Reduction of mixture viscosity and operational problems
Ultrasonic Substrate shearing by the hydromechanical force of
cavitation
Disintegration by the oxidizing effect of OH
Homogenization Decrease of the substrate particle size and cellulose
crystallinity
Thermal Solubilization of substrate by heat application
Increases substrate biodegradability
Reduction of pathogens
Microwave Decomposition of the complex substrate structures into small
and uniform components
Increased accessibility and biodegradability
Chemical Oxidative Solubilization of lignin
Detachment of hemicellulose from cellulose
Diffusion of disseminated particles with soluble organic
compounds
Ionic liquid Separation of cellulose from lignocellulose
Alkaline Separation of hemicellulose and lignin from cellulose
Modification of the crystalline and amorphous structure of
cellulose
Decrease in cellulose density
Acidic Solubilization of lignin
Decomposition of hemicellulose
Biological Microbial Degradation of insoluble materials, such as cellulose and
proteins
Enzymatic Hydrolysis of complex substrates
Increase in soluble carbohydrates
Organic Solid Waste
Municipal Solid Waste
Municipal solid waste has, in its composition, organic matter, plastics, paper/paper-
board, glass, and metals and are generated by different activities, such as residences,
community areas, and commercial buildings. With the population growth, it is
estimated that the global municipal solid wastes can reach up to 2.2 billion tons
until 2025 (Logan and Visvanathan 2019). Organic matter is the largest component
of waste composition, which varies greatly depending on the region, income levels,
and consumption patterns (Abdel-Shafy and Mansour 2018). More developed coun-
tries tend to generate less organic waste and more dry waste, which can be recycled.
According to the World Bank, the composition of municipal solid waste is 44% food
74 S. Vieira et al.
and green, 17% paper and cardboard, 12% plastic, 5% glass, 4% metal, 2% rubber
and leather, 2% wood, and 14% others (Kaza et al. 2018). Because of the presence of
leftovers of meat, vegetables, and fruits, the food waste is generally very moist, with
low ash content and many volatile and protein components. Zhou et al. (2014)
evaluated that Chinese organic waste has an average ash content of about 21% and
volatile matter content of 67%, respectively. The elemental composition of food
waste has a predominance of C (32.81–59.95%), followed by O (26.54–59.93%), H
(3.10–18.45%), N (0.82–7.75%), Cl (0.12–2.50%), and S (0.13–1.10%) (Zhou et al.
2014).
The separation of municipal solid waste allows the recycling of various materials and
the appropriate treatment of the biodegradable fraction. The reduction of the amount of
organic waste is fundamental for a viable waste management. Landfills need large areas
that are increasingly expensive and scarce in urban areas. An anaerobic digestion station
takes up less space than landfills, generating profit by producing bioenergy and biofuel,
reducing bad odor, and avoiding soil and groundwater contamination (Laurent et al.
2014). When it is not separated before collection, municipal solid waste must go through
a sorting of materials for the separation of nonbiodegradable waste such as metals,
plastics, and glass. This can be done by manual sorting, magnetic separation of metals,
sieves, and rotary drums. Fibrous materials should be size reduced by grinding to avoid
clogging and agglomeration inside the digester and facilitate the microorganisms’
digestion. The use of mechanical pretreatment can increase the yield of biogas produc-
tion between 20% and 40% (Jain et al. 2015). Another successful pretreatment for
industrial scale application is heat treatment. The heating increases the solubilization of
carbohydrates and proteins, besides reducing the viscosity of the medium and removing
pathogens (Carlsson et al. 2012).
Industrial Solid Waste
Industrial solid waste are materials discarded during the processing of a raw material.
There is a very wide variety of solid waste, the main ones being paper, packaging,
food, oils, solvents, resins, paint, sludge, glass, ceramics, stones, metals, plastics,
rubber, leather, wood, clothes, and abrasives (Speight 2015). Although many wastes
may contain a certain environmental toxicity, large amounts of industrial wastes may
be treated and reusable for another purpose. Organic waste, especially those gener-
ated during feedstock processing, are those with the greatest potential for biocon-
version to different energy sources. Food processing, such as fruit juices, coffee, and
potato chips, generate lignocellulosic biomass, containing high BOD, COD, and
other suspended solids. Oil extraction residues also contain high amounts of organic
matter, such as fat, fatty acids, and suspended and dissolved solids. Oil cakes, such as
canola, coconut, cottonseed, mustard, soybean, palm kernel, and sunflower, consti-
tute 6.3–49.5% crude protein, 5.1–40.0% crude fiber, 4.2–11.8% ash, 0.05–2.45%
calcium, and 0.11–1.30% phosphorus (Kolesárová et al. 2011).
Industrial waste is usually highly biodegradable and does not need screening and
separation steps since it is processed and has a defined production chain. Some solid
waste, such as from slaughterhouses and the dairy industry, needs to be solubilized
through thermal and chemical pretreatments. Keratin, one of the main components of
slaughterhouse and poultry waste, is a protein that is insoluble in water and resistant
to the proteolytic enzymes of microorganisms. Thus, thermal and alkaline pretreat-
ments of keratin are necessary for anaerobic digestion (Salminen et al. 2003).
Livestock Manure
The production of meat, milk, and eggs for human consumption generates a large
amount of waste. Animal manure also includes feces, urine, washing water, and solid
waste such as straw, sawdust, feed, and soil. The composition of farm animal manure
from horse, cattle, swine, and sheep is from 0.3 to 0.8% N, 0.15 to 0.60% K, and
0.05 to 0.60% P (Jackson 2000). Livestock manure is used as organic soil fertilizer in
agriculture. Although there is much discussion as to whether manure can still be
considered a waste, it can cause environmental problems, such as groundwater
contamination. Alkaline pretreatment is mainly performed to disturb the recalcitrant
structure of lignocellulosic biomass, increasing the access of microorganisms to
organic matter (Soltanian et al. 2020).
Lignocellulosic Biomass
Agro-industrial Solid Waste
Large-scale production of agricultural commodities generates a substantial amount

of solid waste or lignocellulosic biomass. The feedstocks with the greatest poten-
tial in waste generation are sugarcane, soybean, corn, wheat, sorghum, oil palm,
rice, cassava, barley, beans, bananas, and cotton (Magalhães et al. 2019). The
main components of lignocellulosic biomass are cellulose (35–55%), hemicellu-
lose (25–40%), and lignin (15–25%). Extractives, proteins, and ashes are also
present in smaller quantities (Kumar et al. 2009). The elemental composition of
agricultural solid waste varies between 40.92 and 61.89% C, 21.66 and 46.90% O,
5.08 and 8.99% H, 0.63 and 8.99% S, and 0.03 and 0.79% Cl (Praspaliauskas et al.
2019). The residues can be subdivided into harvest and processing. Harvest
residues, such as straw, stover, leaves, stalks, empty fruit bunches, and branches,
are usually left in the field. Industrial processing residues, such as sugarcane
bagasse and oil palm empty fruit bunches, are burned for generation of energy
and steam. Magalhães et al. (2019) estimated, in South America, that the biomass
produced from harvesting and industrial processing correspond by about 86 and
14%, respectively. Although in lower production volume, industrial solid waste is
the focus for reuse as it is usually stored in open areas near the plants and can cause
serious environmental problems.
The structural and chemical complexity of lignocellulosic biomass prevents the
enzymatic attack of microorganisms involved in the anaerobic digestion of agro-
76 S. Vieira et al.
industrial and forest solid residues. Lignocellulose biomass requires more rigorous
pretreatment steps to improve the action of microorganisms during anaerobic diges-
tion, which have access to sugar monomers. The first stage involves the reduction of
crystallinity and the reduction of the surface area of the polymers through mechan-
ical action, such as knife mill and hammer mill. The effective particle size may vary
according to the type of residue, but sizes between 0.2 and 2 mm are reported as ideal
for the hydrolysis phase (Bochmann and Montgomery 2013). Acid hydrolysis of
hemicellulose is generally used in the second stage of agro-industrial waste pre-
treatment. The acid reaction is performed under mild conditions by combining
diluted acids and heat treatment to avoid the formation of inhibitory compounds,
such as furfural and 5-hydroxymethyl furfural. During this stage, condensation and
precipitation of lignin also occurs.
Forestry Solid Waste
Solid forest residues, such as branches, leaves, bark, and residual wood, have
composition like lignocellulosic biomass from agro-industrial. The wood industry,
such as pulp, paper, and sawmills, produces a large amount of biomass that could
serve as raw material in anaerobic digestion. The composition of different types of
hardwood and softwood varies between 40% and 52% cellulose, 11 and 22%
hemicellulose, and 15 and 35% lignin (Cao et al. 2017). Softwoods and hardwoods
have differences in the composition of their structures. Xylose and mannose are,
respectively, the main constituents of the hemicellulose fraction of hardwood and
softwood. The lignin structure of hardwood is formed by mixed units of guaiacyl and
syringyl, and softwood has mainly guaiacyl unit (Taherzadeh and Karimi 2007). The
elemental composition of forest residues is about 50% C, 44% O, 6% H, and a small
amount of N (Praspaliauskas et al. 2019).
As well as the pretreatment of agro-industrial residues, the reduction of crystal-
linity, accessible surface area, and lignin and hemicellulose protection are necessary
for an efficient bioconversion of the monomers contained in the biomass. Although
mechanical, acid, and thermal pretreatments can also be used for softwood and
hardwood, an additional alkaline pretreatment can be used on solid forest residues
due to the high lignin content (Ge et al. 2016). Alkaline pretreatment is generally
performed with sodium hydroxide at relatively low temperature and pressure in
order not to cause degradation of sugars contained in hemicellulose and cellulose.
Production of Biogas by Anaerobic Fermentation
The possibilities of using organic waste to produce bioenergy, whether in the form of
electricity, heat, or fuel, replacing traditional nonrenewable sources and promoting
better use of natural resources are the main factors that have made anaerobic
biodigestion a promising technology for the circular bioeconomy.
The process of transforming organic matter into biogas and digestate occurs in
the face of a series of biochemical reactions carried out by anaerobic bacteria,
and it is important to note that all phases are interconnected, with the preceding
phase providing products for the subsequent one. The first phase of the conver-
sion of waste into biogas and digestate occurs by breaking the complex molec-
ular bonds into simpler compounds, such as amino acids and sugars. This
breakdown is performed by hydrolytic bacteria (Clostridium, Micrococci,
Bacteroides, Butyrivibrio, Fusobacterium, Selenomonas, Streptococcus, among
others) (Li et al. 2013). The simplest compounds produced in the hydrolysis
phase are converted into volatile fatty acids by fermentative bacteria (Strepto-
coccus, Lactobacillus, Bacillus, Escherichia coli, Salmonella) (Caruso et al.
2019). In this step, it should be noted that if there is a high concentration of
hydrogen, the accumulation of organic acids can occur, causing a drop in the pH
of the mixture, affecting the biodigestion process. As a result of acidogenesis,
acetic acid, hydrogen, and other short-chain fatty acids, used in the next phase,
are produced. Acetogenic bacteria then use acetic acid and hydrogen as an
energy source and convert them to acetate, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide.
Syntrophobacter and Syntrophomonas represent the main acetogens (Shah et al.
2012). It is in the final stage of the process that methane is effectively generated.
The generation of methane can occur in two ways: the first refers to the
hydrogenotrophic one, where CO2 and H2 are transformed into methane, and
the second via acetoclastic, where acetate is directly converted into methane.
Methanogenic bacteria use the substrates formed in the previous phase, so it is
relevant that all phases occur in balance for maximum biogas production in the last
phase. Different factors can affect the anaerobic digestion process, such as the type
of substrate, characteristics of the biodigester, and operational conditions. Among
the operational parameters, the pH stands out, which must be kept in the range of 6.0
to 8.0 (Ros et al. 2013), the temperature that depends on the microorganisms
involved in the biological process, which can be mesophilic (20 to 40 ° C) or
thermophilic (40 to 60 ° C). The substrate affects productivity as there must be a
balance of nutrients that meets the nutritional requirements of the bacterial commu-
nity involved in the process. The main nutritional parameter quantified and moni-
tored is the C:N ratio, whose ideal value is around 25 (Mane et al. 2015). If the value
of the C:N ratio is greater than 25, acid formation can occur, reducing the pH and
inhibiting methane production. On the other hand, a ratio less than 25 results in the
conversion of nitrogen to ammonium more quickly than can be assimilated to
methanogenic bacteria becoming toxic (Braguglia et al. 2018). Other inhibitory
compounds that can affect the process are the presence of sulfides in the system,
detergent, and chlorine, among others, which are relatively common in liquid
effluents. Regarding the use of solid substrates, the presence of metals and toxic
chemicals, such as pesticides, is the most impactful.
Anaerobic biodigestion requires strict care in its operation because it is highly
sensitive to disturbances in the process. And when it comes to organic waste,
disturbances can occur due to the wide variation in the composition of the waste
constantly. For this, we seek to establish ideal diets with nutrient dosages established
78 S. Vieira et al.
to control the process in order to optimize the production of biogas. Although there
are several types of biodigesters, the most used model is the CSTR, which allows a
continuous process of feeding and production of biogas. Its prominence is given by
the continuous agitation system that provides the best contact of the substrate with
the microorganisms, mixing the entire system in an integral and uniform way. Thus,
it allows the digestion of denser substrates, with a total solid amount of approxi-
mately 15%; however, according to CIBiogás analyses, it is recommended that the
system operate with a maximum ST content of 12% (CIBIOGÁS 2020). However, it
needs a longer retention time because it does not have any biomass retention
mechanism, except for the digestate recirculation.
The anaerobic biodigestion process can be carried out in one or two stages. For
processes that involve the digestion of organic solid waste, the use of two stages
accelerates production. Mao et al. (2015) reported that the ideal would be a reactor
responsible for hydrolysis and acidogenesis, using a thermophilic system (temper-
ature in the range of 55 °C) and the remaining phases (acetogenesis and
methanogenesis) in another reactor in the mesophilic system (temperature in the
range of 35 °C). However, due to costs, most biogas plants are composed of only one
stage, where all phases take place in a single reaction tank.
After the biodigestion process, two products are generated: biogas and digestate.
Biogas is composed of a mixture of gases. Typically, 55–70% corresponds to
methane (CH4), 30–45% corresponds to carbon dioxide (CO2), and the rest corre-
sponds to traces of other gases such as hydrogen sulfides, ammonia (NH3), nitrogen
(N2), carbon monoxide (CO), and oxygen (O2) (Deublein and Steinhauser 2008).
The actual content of the biogas composition depends on the substrate that was used
in its production, as well as the biodigester and the operating conditions.
Depending on the methane content, its calorific value may vary as can its final
destination. For the production of electricity and thermal energy, biogas is
usually partially purified, removing H2S, which is highly corrosive and conse-
quently decreases the equipment’s useful life. In the case of application as a
vehicle fuel replacing natural gas, carbon dioxide and other impurities must also
be removed so that the calorific value of the resulting gas is compatible with that
of natural gas.
The digestate is a product of considerable added value generated at the end of
biodigestion. It is composed of a mixture of microbial biomass and undigested
compounds that can be used as an organic fertilizer or soil conditioner in agricul-
ture, especially due to the high content of nitrogen and phosphorus, which are
essential to plants. In general, a digestate with a C:N ratio between 15 and 20 is
considered safe for application on agricultural land without additional treatment
(Braguglia et al. 2018). However, due to the direct relationship between the quality,
safety, and usefulness of the digestate and the characteristics of the raw material
(organic residues), it is essential that preliminary tests are carried out on its use,
especially in relation to its toxicity to plants or human health. In the case of the use
of animal waste, for example, there is the presence of pathogens that require
treatment of the digestate for its removal, under pain of limiting its application in
the field.
Production of Biohydrogen by Dark Fermentation
Currently, approx. 1 billion m3 of hydrogen are being produced daily (Kumar et al.
2019). However, approximately 96% comes from nonrenewable hydrocarbons.
According to Nikolaidis and Poullikkas (2017), 48% hydrogen comes from natural
gas, 30% from oil, 18% from coal, and only 4% from renewable sources (water
splitting).
The biological process of hydrogen production by fermenting organic com-
pounds using strict or facultative anaerobic bacteria is known as dark fermentation.
In this process, different enzymatic complexes participate, among which the hydrog-
enases stand out. In dark fermentation, pyruvate is synthesized via glycolysis by
bacteria, which subsequently enters in the acidogenic pathway for the production of
biohydrogen. Fermentation can be carried both at mesophilic (25–40 °C), thermo-
philic (40–65 °C), extreme thermophilic (65–80 °C), or hyperthermophilic (>80 °C)
conditions.
To date the industrial production of hydrogen through biological process is yet
not economically feasible. Major challenges are related to the cost of medium,
reason why studies of biohydrogen production from industrial wastes have gained
importance on the last decade. Traditionally, liquid wastes have received greater
attention especially because they do not require pretreatment. However, the avail-
ability of solid wastes, especially the lignocellulosic biomass, has to be considered in
the development of the technology.
Similar to the production of biomethane, the biotransformation of nutrients
through dark fermentation results in solid and liquid products. Because the organic
matter is partially metabolized, the sugar fraction of the biomass is transformed into
carbon dioxide and short-chain fatty acids, with cogeneration of hydrogen. The
short-chain fatty acids have generally between 1 and 7 carbons and are present in
the liquid fraction of the fermented broth. Among the main liquid metabolites,
butyric acid and acetic acid stand out since, for each mole generated from mentioned
compounds, 2 to 4 moles of hydrogen are generated, respectively (Martinez-Burgos
et al. 2020; Sydney et al. 2020). Other metabolites include lactic, propionic, succinic,
ethanol, and methanol. However, the generation of these metabolites is not desirable
since the metabolic pathways for their generation do not result in the production of
hydrogen or, in some cases, hydrogen is consumed (Martinez-Burgos et al. 2019).
Some of the volatile organic acids produced in dark fermentation can be used as
alternative sources of carbon in the production of hydrogen (Martinez-Burgos et al.
2020). However, the yields of hydrogen from organic acids, specifically lactic acid,
are low, approximately 5% (Baghchehsaraee et al. 2009).
The reduction of chemical and biological demand of oxygen (COD and BOD,
respectively) achieved by dark fermentation is considerably lower than the one
achieved with biomethane production. The reason is that in the first case, the original
carbon source is transformed into short-chain fatty acids and carbon dioxide,
while in the latter, only carbon dioxide is produced. Thus, considering the
environmental advantages related to waste disposal, the production of methane is
preferred. However, the possibility to reuse the short-chain fatty acids as platform
80 S. Vieira et al.
molecules for the development of renewable materials to replace traditional fossil-

based materials opens great opportunities in the circular economy. The valorization
of the liquid products from the dark fermentation can be considered essential for the
environmental and economic sustainability of the process.
Beyond H2, other gaseous metabolites are also generated: CO2, CO, CH4, and
H2S. The last two are not desirable because they negatively affect the hydrogen
production because their synthesis requires hydrogen, and they are generally
associated with contamination with metagenomic bacteria (Franke-whittle et al.
2009). The concentration of hydrogen in the produced gas is variable and commonly
not higher than 60%, which is the lower content of methane achieved in biomethane
production. Moreover, the volumetric energy density of methane gas is higher
(12.7 MJ/m3H2 vs. 40 MJ/m3CH4). On the other hand, hydrogen is a more versatile
molecule in terms of number of applications, feeding the energy and the chemical
sector. The development of a hydrogen economy is subject of discussion, but it is
clear that, if not in the mainstream, H2 will play an important role in a medium-term
sustainable world.
Production of Biogas and Biohydrogen from Solid Wastes
The anaerobic digestion of organic matter can be carried using liquid and solid
substrates. While liquid wastes generally do not require sophisticated pretreatments,
when needed, the carbohydrate fraction of solid wastes needs to be solubilized so the
microbial community can access it more easily.
One of the most promising renewable solid wastes for hydrogen production is the
lignocellulosic biomass because it is the most abundant and available carbon source
worldwide (Saldarriaga-Hernández et al. 2020). Indeed, according to Ying et al.
(2016) 9, approx. 4400 million tons of lignocellulosic biomass is generated annually
from agricultural waste from barley, corn, oat, rice, sorghum, wheat, sugarcane, and
oil palm biomass. Lignocellulosic biomass consists mainly of three types of associ-
ated polymers: cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. However, the biodegradation of
lignocellulosic biomass is limited because of the crystallinity of the cellulose, the
available surface area, and the lignin content.
The number and kind of processes involved in solid wastes processing depend
especially on the type of waste and its physical state. Pretreated methods include
physical (size reduction, stream explosion, and gamma rays usage), chemical (acidic,
alkaline, and ozone pretreatments), or biologically (enzymatic pretreatment) or
mixed treatment, which have been subject of many reviews.
Figure 2a presents a traditional process of pretreatment of lignocellulosic bio-
mass. Initially, the lignocellulosic material is dried to remove the water from the
biomass and facilitate the grinding process. Generally, the drying is done by con-
vective flow greenhouses, using temperatures between 50 °C and 70 °C (Lee and
Park 2020). Subsequently, the material is grinded to reduce the size of the biomass
particles, increasing the contact area and reducing the crystallinity of the cellulose.
CO2
a Inoculum
H2
Drying
PSA
Biomass Grinding Bagasse
Milling
Pre-treatment Filtration Fermentation
CO2
Inoculum
b H2
PSA
Effluents Solids
Fermentation
Filtration or
Sedimentation Pre-treatment
Fig. 2 Hydrogen production via dark fermentation. (a) Solid waste. (b) Wastewater
Generally, the particle size used is in the range of 0.2 mm to 2 mm (Lopez-Hidalgo

et al. 2017).
Then, the biomass is pretreated to transform the complex polymers (cellulose,
hemicellulose, and lignin) into simpler and easily fermentable carbohydrates, such as
glucose, mannose, arabinose, cellobiose, and xylose. This can be achieved using
chemical or biological processes. According to Fangkum and Reungsang (2010), He
et al. (2014), and Cavali et al. (2020), the proportion of biomass used varies between
6% and 20% w/v and needs to be optimized case by case. After hydrolysis, the solid
material is removed from the supernatant, using filtration or centrifugation. The pH
of the supernatant is then adjusted between 5 and 7 depending on the type of
inoculum to be used.
The liquid fraction is now the carbon source for the anaerobic digestion and
should be added carefully to the reactor in order to keep the redox potential less to
100 mV, which indicates the existence of an anaerobic environment. In those cases
where such low redox potential cannot be achieved with substrate feeding, the
oxygen of the substrate needs to be removed, which is achieved by purging the
medium with pure nitrogen, argon, or carbon dioxide (Martinez-Burgos et al. 2020).
The production of biomethane is mostly carried with nonsterilized or pasteurized
substrates, especially because the microbial community is generally well established
(however, feeding must be accordingly carried in order to avoid the acidification of
the reactor, which can cause the collapse of the system). The same is observed for
dark fermentation processes that are carried using consortia. On the other hand, in
82 S. Vieira et al.
those cases where the dark fermentation is carried using pure strains, substrate
sterilization/pasteurization is important to avoid contamination. While more stable
production and process control is achieved with pure strains, it is more susceptible to
contamination, especially when working with waste materials as substrates. Con-
sortia are less susceptible to microbial contamination and increases of redox poten-
tial. To date, no consensus on the better choice have been reached, if it will someday.
Both biohydrogen and biomethane processes can be done using batch bioreactors
and continuously. At industrial scale, however, continuous fermentation is preferred.
Among the different bioreactors studied, the most used are continuous stirred tank
reactor (CSTR), Anaerobic Fluidized Bed Reactor (AFBR), Upflow Anaerobic
Sludge Blanket Reactor (UASBR), membrane bioreactor (MBR), and packed bed
reactor (PBR) (Preethi et al. 2019). Biomethane production at large scale is mostly
carried using CSTR and UASB. Fermentation duration or hydraulic retention times
vary from hours to weeks.
At the end, and depending on the final use, the target molecule should be purified.
One of the technologies most used for H2 and CH4 purification is the Press Swing
Absorption (PSA), which achieves purities of up to 99.9%. PSA is based on selective
absorption of impurities, with none hydrogen absorption (Shokroo et al. 2014).
Pretreatments of Solid Wastes
It is possible to produce biohydrogen and biomethane from lignocellulosic materials

without pretreatment, going directly from the milling and sieving to the fermentation
stage. Sheng et al. (2015) obtained a maximum yield of 2.17 mol H2/mol glucose
using Thermoanaerobacterium thermosaccharolyticum as inoculum and five
non-pretreated lignocellulosic substrates, such as wheat bran, rice straw, cornstalks,
cob of corn, and poplar branches. This strategy generally explores the fact that
complex microbial communities are formed within the reactor and work synergisti-
cally. In non-pretreatment digestion, the particle size plays an important role because
it is directly related to the area available for the microbial activity. Tosuner et al.
(2018) evaluated the effect of rice husk particle size on hydrogen production using
Clostridium termitidis and achieved the highest yield (5.9 mL H2/g substrate) with
particles <74 μm. Despite using less energy than those processes where the ligno-
cellulosic material is pretreated, not all the microorganisms are able to access the
fermentable carbohydrates, and the hydraulic retention time is generally much
longer, resulting in lost in productivity.
The pretreatment step aims to facilitate the access of the microorganisms to the
fermentable carbon, resulting in higher productivities and yields. This is considered
the key step for economic production of biofuels through fermentation of solid
wastes. The chemical method, which includes hydrolysis at high and low pH, is
the most traditional. Dilute acid hydrolysis is a fast and cheap method but results in
the formation of inhibitory compounds such as 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, furfural,
phenolics, and acetic acid. These compounds negatively affect the microbial growth
and consequently the production of the desired molecule. Moreover, energy
expenditure is high because the hydrolysis is usually done at high pressures and
temperatures (Rolly et al. 2019). The alkaline hydrolysis results in the efficient
delignification of the biomass, but the reaction between the alkali and the carbohy-
drate fraction severely affects the fermentation productivity. Despite other technol-
ogies are under development, such as hydrothermal degradation, enzymatic,
Organosolv, ionic liquids, and others, none have proved to be economic feasible
up to date. In recent years, the concern about the sustainability of such technologies
was questioned, and this is a hot topic for the establishment of a circular economy
(Vieira et al. 2020).
Tables 2 and 3 present a summary of the conditions used for the treatment of
lignocellulosic material and the hydrogen and methane yields achieved, respectively.
It can be noticed that acid hydrolysis is the most common pretreatment for hydrogen
production, while alkaline hydrolysis is more frequently used for biogas and
biomethane production. This is probably because biogas production is carried
using a microbial community that works in synergy to break complex carbohydrate
into simpler forms to be biotransformed into methane, while dark fermentation is
carried with pure strains or a more restricted group of microorganisms (selected
generally by a heat pretreatment of the inoculum). The scientific literature is not
consistent in the unities used, and the comparison of studies, which would be
difficult due to the variation on the composition of lignocellulosic wastes and
pretreatment methods, becomes even harder. The scientific literature is vast on the
use of the formation of liquid effluents as substrates for anaerobic digestion. The
main advantage of using wastewater is that nutrients are generally soluble and more
available, unlike solid waste. Among the effluents that have been evaluated for the
production of hydrogen via dark fermentation are CPW, vinasse, Corn Step Liquor
(CSL), Whey, POME, equipment cleaning wastewater, sewer, and liquid products
beyond the expiration date, such as soft drinks, juices, etc. Many of these substrates
also contain complex substances that need to be hydrolyzed prior fermentation,
demanding a pretreatment step. Martinez-Burgos et al. (2019), for example,
improved the hydrogen yield in approx. 40% in comparison to untreated cassava
processing wastewater (CPW) as a substrate. Rosa et al. (2020) increased the yield
(LH2/L medium) up to 3.3 times, hydrolyzing the Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME).
Table 4 shows some results and conditions used in the production of hydrogen via
dark fermentation using different effluents as substrates.
The hydrogen production process with liquid effluents is similar to the process
used with solid waste, and the main differences are observed in the first stages of the
process (Fig. 2b) because substrate pretreatment is carried at the very beginning of
the process.
Hydrogen Production by Biomethane Reform
Because of the thermodynamic limitation for the production of biohydrogen from

dark fermentation, which is limited to 4 mol H2 per mol of glucose equivalent, and
considering that several studies have reached productivities close to this theoretical
84
Table 2 Dark fermentative biohydrogen production from lignocellulosic biomass

Lignocellulosic Medium H2
biomass Biomass pretreatment Inoculum supplements Bioreactor Conditions production References
Rice straw Grinding, acid hydrolysis Pretreated sludge: 95–100 ° (NH4)2SO4, Batch T: 37 °C 446.5– Sen et al.
(HCl 1.0–3.0 M), and C/1 h KH2PO4, and volume: pH: 5.5 771.0 mL (2016)
enzymatic hydrolysis % Inoculum: 15 MgSO4 0.25 L H2/L
(cellulase 1% v/v from
Trichoderma reesei ATCC
26921)
Rice husk Grinding, acid hydrolysis Clostridium and Micronutrient Batch T: 35 °C 473 mL Rolly et al.
(H2SO4 5% w/v), enzymatic Enterobacter solution volume: pH: 7.0– H2/g (2017)
hydrolysis (commercial % Inoculum: 12.5 0.1 L 7.5 biomass
enzyme)
Corn stover Grinding and enzymatic Rhodospirillum rubrum, Micronutrient Batch T: 30–35 ° 36.08 mL Zhang
hydrolysis (commercial Rhodopseudomonas solution volume: C H2/g et al.
cellulose) capsulate, 0.1 L pH: biomass (2020)
Rhodopseudomonas
palustris, Rhodobacter
sphaeroides, and
Rhodobacter capsulatus
% Inoculum: 30
Sorghum rusk Milling, acid treatment Clostridium beijerinckii Yeast extract Batch T: 35 °C 1.05 mol Saratale
(H2SO4 0.1–0.4% w/v), and and volume: pH: 6.5 H2/mol et al.
enzymatic hydrolysis micronutrient 0.15 L reducing (2015)
solution sugar
Pine tree wood Milling and acid treatment Pretreated sludge: 90 °C/ Micronutrient Batch T: 35 °C 1.27 mol Rolly et al.
pellet (H2SO4 5% w/v) 30 min solution volume: pH: 7.0– H2/mol (2017)
% inoculum: 12.5 0.1 L 7.5 sugar
S. Vieira et al.
Table 3 Biogas and methane yields from solid wastes

Substrate Pretreatment Conditions Yields References
Wheat Cutting and alkaline treatment T: 37 °C 315 (2) mL CH4/ Mancini
straw (NaOH 1.6% w/w) g VS et al. (2018)
Stalk Cutting and alkaline treatment T: 37 °C 168.17 6.87 mL Zhurka
residues (4 g NaOH 100 g1 TS) pH: 7.0 CH4 g1 VS et al. (2020)
Rice Crushed and alkaline treatment T: 38 °C Biogas production Dai et al.
straw (NaOH 6%) pH: 7.0 yield: 318.5 mL/g (2018)
VS
Maximum methane
yield: 7.652 L
Cotton Milled and alkaline T: 38 °C 246.4 mL CH4/g Ghasemian
plant pretreatment (NaOH 8% w/w) pH: 7.0 VS et al. (2016)
wastes
Corn Crushed and enzymatic T: 37 °C 241.3 mL/g VS Wang et al.
stover treatment (cellulase generated pH: 7.5 (2018)
by Aspergillus niger)
TS Total solids; VS Volatile solids
maximum, it is worthy to discuss about other promising methods to produce

it. Biogas and biomethane production are economic viable at commercial scale
and are established technologies.
A promising alternative for the production of hydrogen from renewable sources is
the reform of biogas as the technology for the production of biogas and the reform
processes for the production of hydrogen are widely known. According to
Chuichulcherm et al. (2016), crude biogas is composed of a mixture of gases such
as CH4 (50–75%), CO2 (25–45%), and H2S (3000–4000 ppm). However, before
making the reform of the biomethane, it must have a purity 95% for which it is
recommended to use a modified water absorption system (Worawimut et al. 2019).
Biomethane reform is the process in which biogas is converted to hydrogen using
reform techniques, such as steam reforming, partial oxidation, and autothermal
reforming.
Steam Reforming
Steam reforming is a catalytic method where biomethane and water vapor are
transformed into hydrogen and carbon monoxide. The process starts with
hydrodesulfurization of the gas, where the traces of H2S are removed from the
biomethane to avoid damaging the reaction catalyst, which is usually Ni or
Co. Then the gas is reformed at high pressure (3.5 MPa) and temperatures
(800–900 °C) (Eq. 1) (Ersöz 2008). Thereafter, the gases are sent to a unit of
water-gas shift reaction (WGSR) where the CO reacts with water vapor to produce
excess hydrogen (Eq. 2). Finally, the gas mixture goes through a PSA process to
obtain hydrogen with a purity of around 100%. Figure 3a shows the simplified steam
reforming process for the production of hydrogen from biomethane. According to
86
Table 4 Hydrogen production via dark fermentation using wastewater

Effluents Pretreatment Inoculum Medium supplements Bioreactor Conditions H2 production References
Palm Oil Hydrolysis with Microbial Sucrose and L-cysteine Batch T: 37 °C 4.62 LH2/L Rosa et al.
Mill 1% v/v HCl, 121 ° consortia and volume: pH: 7.0 medium (2020)
Effluent C, 1 h, 15 atm Clostridium 0.016 L
beijerinckii
% inoculum: 20
Cassava Hydrolysis with Microbial Yeast extract and L-cysteine Batch T: 36–37 ° 21.82 mLH2/ Martinez-
processing 1% v/v HCl, 121 ° consortia volume: C h/L and 16.62 Burgos et al.
wastewater C/1 h 0.016 L pH: 6.0 mLH2/h/L) (2020)
Pulp and Hydrolysis with Microbial CuSO4, NaHCO3, MnSO4, Batch T: 36–37 ° 55.4 mL/g Vaez et al.
paper mill H2SO4 (1 N) and consortia MgCl2, CoCl2, MnSO4, volume: C COD remove (2017)
effluent NaOH (1 N) % inoculum: 25 FeSO4, and NiSO4 0.118 L pH: 6.0
Paper mill – Microbial – UASBR T: 35 °C 1.22 mmol H2/ Vaez et al.
wastewater consortia volume: pH: 5.0 g COD initial (2017)
6L
HRT:9.6 h
Beverage – Microbial NH4CO3, NaHCO3, Batch T: 37 °C 3.76 mol H2/ Sivagurunathan
wastewater consortia K2HPO4, MgCl2, MnSO4, volume: pH: 5.5 mol-sucrose and Lin (2020)
FeSO4, CuSO4, and CoCl2 0.125 L
Dairy – % inoculum: 30 C6H12O6 AFBR T: 24–30 ° 2.56 mol H2/ Silva et al.
industry volume: C mol (2019)
wastewater 0.905 L pH: 3.7– carbohydrate
5.3
Vinasse – Microbial Cysteine–HCl and sucrose Batch T: 37 °C 7.14 mol H2/ Sydney et al.
consortia volume: pH: 7.0 mol sucrose (2014)
0.016 L
S. Vieira et al.
Water steam
CO2
Shift conversion
Desulfurization
Reformer
Bio-CH4 H2
Water steam PSA
b O2
O2
CO2
Shift conversion
Air
Desulfurization Reformer
N2
Bio-CH4
H2
Water steam
PSA
Fig. 3 Biomethane reform for the production of H2 from (a) steam reforming and (b) partial
oxidation
Nikolaidis and Poullikkas (2017), steam reforming is the most common method for
the production of hydrogen from methane on a large scale, achieving conversion
efficiencies of 74–85%.
CH4 þ H2 O ! CO þ 3H2 ð1Þ
CO þ H2 O ! CO2 þ H2 ð2Þ
Partial Oxidation
The partial oxidation of biomethane involves the conversion of water vapor, oxygen,
and biogas into hydrogen and carbon oxides (Cortés Ortiz et al. 2020). Generally, the
catalytic process is carried out at a temperature of approximately 950 ° C. However,
currently, Al2O3, MgO, and MgAl2O4 nanomaterials are being developed, which, in
addition to lowering the reaction temperature, can achieve conversion efficiency
>90% (Özdemir and Faruk Öksüzömer 2020).
The process begins with the elimination of H2S moths. Subsequently, biomethane
is partially oxidized with oxygen (Eq. 3), this being the main difference with the
88 S. Vieira et al.
steam reforming method (Fig. 3b). The subsequent steps are similar to the steam
reforming method. The fact that you need pure oxygen in one step of the process
increases production costs and is a disadvantage of this technique concerning steam
reforming (Nikolaidis and Poullikkas 2017).
1
CH4 þ O2 ! CO þ 2H2 ð3Þ
2
Finally, autothermal reforming uses partial exothermic oxidation to provide heat
and steam endothermic reform to increase hydrogen production. Autothermal
reforming is based on Eq. 4. Like partial oxidation, the fact that it requires pure
oxygen in the process adds to the costs concerning steam reforming.
1 1 5
CH4 þ H2 O þ O2 ! CO þ H2 ð4Þ
2 4 2
The Role of the Anaerobic Digestion of Solid Wastes

in the Circular Economy
The most widespread economic system model is linear, and the practice of “extra-
cting-producing-discarding” uses undefined resources and results in the production
of large volumes of waste. These wastes represent a lot of energy, natural resources,
and workforce used, directly resulting in social, environmental, and economic
impacts. Recycling showed up as an important strategy for reducing waste genera-
tion, however, as it is limited to some types of nonorganic materials, and thus, it is
not enough to solve many of the problems related to the need to optimize the use of
natural resources.
The circular economy emerged as a solution that seeks to minimize
(or even eliminate) waste from systems through the maximum use of materials
(Hussain et al. 2020). Thus, the waste generated is preferably reprocessed and
included in production systems. In this context, technologies that associate the
reduction of the polluting load with the generation of bioproducts with commercial
value are of enormous importance. In view of the growing concerns about the excess
generation of organic waste, scarcity of natural resources, increased global warming,
and increasing demand of energy, the concept of circular economy and investment in
Waste-to-Energy (WtE) technology has been discussed as a strategy to these prob-
lems. WtE includes a group of technologies to treat waste aiming at energy recovery
in the form of heat, electricity, or alternative fuels (Mutz et al. 2017). Anaerobic
digestion is one of the technologies that promote the reduction of waste and the
recovery of organic waste through the production of energy molecules, renewable
chemicals, and biofertilizer.
Energy production is probably the wildest technology within the circular
economy since virtually all human activities require some form of external energy
supply. The transformation of traditional effluent treatment plants, which have very
large operating costs (equipment, area, and labor) into a system for transforming
waste into energy that can be used again in the production system, tends to be a
standard strategy in a circular economy society. Biogas also has a great advantage in
terms of versatility to be used for the production of thermal energy, electricity, and
transportation fuel or converted into hydrogen. Still, it is a process that naturally
requires control but is not technologically complex. The production of biogas results
in the complete decomposition of organic matter into CO2 and CH4 so that the
digestate generated is poor in organic matter but rich in nutrients and acts as a
fertilizer. In this way, anaerobic digestion for the production of biomethane and
digestate has great potential for integration in a circular economy in both urban and
rural environments. While in the latter the application of the digestate is quite logical,
in urban environments, it can be applied in urban gardens and public green spaces
(parks, squares) and/or distributed to small producers.
When solid wastes are to be digested, they most commonly passed through a
pretreatment where the fermentable fractions are solubilized prior fermentation. The
solids are removed or diluted to meet the maximum solid concentration to avoid their
accumulation and the system collapse. For this reason, solid wastes are frequently
co-digested with a liquid substrate. There is lack of information on the number of
biogas plants processing solid wastes. Urban solid wastes processing plants, in 2020,
represents approx. 8% in Brazil (https://mapbiogas.cibiogas.org/), 3% in the United
States (American Biogas Council, https://americanbiogascouncil.org/), and 12% in
the EU (https://www.europeanbiogas.eu/). In the EU, Italy and Finland are the
countries where the biogas plants using urban solid wastes are most common.
Fermentative hydrogen production is a process that requires more operational
control when compared to biomethane because the acidogenic microorganisms are
more sensible to oxygen and microbial contamination. H2 also has great versatility in
applications such as biomethane. The great advantage of hydrogen is the fact that its
burning results only in the production of water. This means that it is easier to mitigate
the emission of greenhouse gases, which occurs essentially during their production.
The CO2 generated in hydrogen production facilities can be recovered by chemical
or biological fixation, and also mitigated by underground storage. Also, the short-
chain fatty acids produced as coproducts in the liquid fraction (acetic, butyric,
propionic, lactic, valeric, and others) can be directed toward the production of
renewable chemicals that may replace materials produced with raw materials from
fossil sources.
The technical development and execution of the concept of a multi-waste plant
enables the reduction of costs related to waste treatment processes and improves its
management from an ecological and financial point of view (Hidalgo et al. 2019).
Due to budget constraints, the solid waste management infrastructure still suffers
from improper treatment in most cases in developing countries, and even in devel-
oped countries. Therefore, a challenging factor is the implementation of an econom-
ically sustainable, socially and legally and technically feasible process (Wainaina
et al. 2020). Waste biorefineries, especially for developing countries, are tools to
achieve sustainable management of these materials, generating economic and envi-
ronmental benefits. Benefits include energy recovery and value-added products, land
savings, new opportunities and business development, cost savings from landfills,
90 S. Vieira et al.
greenhouse gas emissions, and savings in natural resources from land, soil, and
groundwater (Nizami et al. 2017).
Anaerobic digestion can be integrated with gasification to provide more benefits.
The digestate from anaerobic digestion would be used in gasification or the biochar
coproduced in gasification used to stabilize anaerobic digestion and improve nutrient
retention in the digestate (Pecchi and Baratieri 2019). Purification of crude biogas by
removing CO2 is an opportunity to capture and use this chemical compound, but the
necessary technology still has a higher cost than the penalty for carbon emissions, so
there is no incentive to use it (Sherwood 2020). Still, the production of hydrogen
from biomethane also appears as an interesting alternative since biological produc-
tion via dark fermentation still has economic and technical challenges to be
overcome.
Conclusion
The versatility of biomethane and biohydrogen for the production of heat, electricity,
and transportation fuel from wastes is the rising importance giving to them in the
circular economy context. In addition to optimizing the use of natural resources,
anaerobic digestion reduces water waste, generates bioproducts to replace non-
renewable sources, creates jobs, improves life quality of people, and protects the
environment. The social-environment-economic advantages are enhanced as the
technology to process solid wastes produced in the agriculture, industry, and cities
advances.
Because of their lignin content, solid wastes should be pretreated to facilitate the
access to the carbohydrate fraction by the microorganisms. However, the pre-
treatment technologies greatly impact in the process of economics and sustainability.
The anaerobic digestion is a mature technology for biogas and biomethane produc-
tion but faces many technical and economic challenges for the production of
hydrogen. Considering the thermodynamic limitation of the production of hydrogen
through fermentation, its production from biomethane can be considered the most
promising strategy for the near-future circular bioeconomy.
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Understanding Circular Economy in Solid
Waste Management 4
Monika Patel, Sweta Kumari, Neetu Kumari, and Arkendu Ghosh
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Types of Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Circular Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Linear Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Principles of Circular Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Preservation and Strengthening of Natural Capital (Reduce) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Resource Yields Optimization (Reuse) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Negative External Factors Identification (Recycle) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Characteristics of Circular Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Designed Out of Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Diversity as Strength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Renewable Energy Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Systematic Thinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Transparency in Real Expenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Circular Economy as a Development Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Development of the Circular Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Entrepreneurship and CE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Current Practices of Circular Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
M. Patel (*)
Department of Floriculture Landscape Architecture (Floriculture), Horticulture College, Khuntpani,
Chaibasa, Birsa Agricultural University, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India
S. Kumari
Department of Floriculture Landscape Architecture (Flower Breeding), Horticulture College,
Khuntpani, Chaibasa, Birsa Agricultural University, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India
N. Kumari
Department of Social Science, Horticulture College, Birsa Agricultural University, Ranchi,
Jharkhand, India
A. Ghosh
Department of Fruit Science, Horticulture College, Birsa Agricultural University, Ranchi,
Jharkhand, India

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_7
96 M. Patel et al.
The Case of China as a Single and Major CE Implementer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Other Practiced Cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Assessment of Circular Economy Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Challenges and Barriers to Implementation of a Circular Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
From a General Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
From an Entrepreneurial Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
From an Innovation Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
As a Part of Entrepreneurial Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
As an Innovative National Level Development Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
General Policy Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Abstract
Circular economy is gaining steady momentum from last few years. On the other
hand it widely varies depending on the problems being addressed. Looking
beyond the current exhaustive industrial model, it aims for sustainable growth
focusing on positive society-wide benefits. This economy model is based on three
principles, that is, designing out of the polluted waste material, keeping the
materials in use, and regenerating natural sustainable ecosystem. Guided by
these principles, novel technologies can create more opportunities for the society.
This is a complex system where many real-world elements such as people, plants,
business, and ecosystem are strongly linked to each other leading to some viable
consequences. Circular systems encourage biodegradable elements or biological
nutrients to reenter the biosphere safely for decomposition for a new cycle. Here
designing of products are done with main attention to regenerate new resource
value with reusable materials through restorative economy. The energy required
to boost circular economy should be always renewable in nature requiring
threshold energy level. The environmental impact includes reduction of negative
consequences with attention to green emissions, consumption of waste materials,
and improvement of land productivity. This chapter discusses about the origin,
principles of circular economy, characteristics, development strategies, assess-
ment, practices, challenges, and barriers of circular economy in detail.
Keywords
Circular Economy · Principles · Characteristics · Assessment · Challenges
Introduction
The circular economy is a regenerative economy that seeks to keep resources and
goods at their greatest usefulness (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2017). In other words,
the idea of a circular economy is almost waste-free with the goal of reducing waste and
pollution. The circular economy is referred to as an industrial economy that differen-
tiates biological and technological cycles from each other. Biological nutrients are
redesigned to enter the biosphere safely while technological nutrients are not returned
4 Understanding Circular Economy in Solid Waste Management 97
to the biosphere because they are designed to circulate in the manufacturing process/
system with their maximum usefulness (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2017).
The circular economy is meant to generate waste free production and consump-
tion. Such an economic model involves continuous cycle of production and use of
products, which can constitute a closed-end turnover of substances returning to
production without affecting the environment. Companies can develop goods in
anticipated ways in which they are used or recycled (Perman et al. 2003). Our
environment in the circular economy is handled respectfully. The use of a waste-
free economy means taking care of our future politically, socially, financially, and
environmentally.
The urban population of world increased to more than 50% of the total population
in 2015. It is further expected to rise to approximately 70% of the total world’s
population by 2050. Maximum population growth will be in developing countries.
The urban population in Africa was 470 million in 2015 (UNDEA 2014). It is
expected to be 1.2 billion by 2050 (UNDEA 2008). With this urban population and
further development, cities produce an ever-increasing amount of solid waste. The
World Bank estimates that the amount of solid waste generated by urban areas is
growing more faster than the rate of urban population. In 2002, 2.9 billion urban
population generated about 0.64 kg of municipal solid waste per person per day (0.68
billion tons per year) (World Bank 2012). By 2012, 3 billion urban population
generated 1.2 kg solid waste per person per day (1.3 billion tons per year). Further
the urban population is expected to reach about 4.3 billion by 2025 and so the
generation of solid waste of 1.42 kg each day (2.2 billion tons per year) (World
Bank 2012).
In many developing and low-income countries, solid waste disposal is the most
neglected area. This creates subsequent environmental and health hazards. Disposal
of waste is costly and beyond the financial capacities of these countries. Poor
institutional capacity and low political will are another two major drawbacks for
safe disposal of solid waste. Most common disposal practice includes uncontrolled
dumping in the cities. Uncontrolled dumping of waste also has negative conse-
quences like greenhouse gas emissions. The waste sector contributed third highest
level of non-CO2 greenhouse gases in 2005, which is 13% of total greenhouse gas
emissions. Landfilling of solid waste and wastewater are two major sources of
emissions. Methane gas generation from landfills is an average of 58% of waste
emissions. So increase in population and waste generation both are directly propor-
tional to each other (US EPA 2012).
Economics and environment are closely related with each other. Concept of
circular economy was first introduced by Pearce and Turner in Economics of Natural
Resources and the Environment (1990). They elaborate the importance of environ-
ment and described the theories of economics of natural resources and their interac-
tions. They clearly mentioned that ignoring of surrounding environment means
ignoring of economy. This is a linear economy based on open-ended system without
an in-built system for recycling, that is, circular economy. Circular economy
includes three principles of reducing, reusing, and recycling waste material and so
creates strong linkages between the environment and economics.
98 M. Patel et al.
According to first law of thermodynamics the amount of resources used in

production and cannot be destroyed and are equal to waste that ends up in the
environmental system. The circular economy model proposed by Pearce and Turner
(1990) is further extended by Boulding. The essay The Economics of Coming
Spaceship Earth describes earth as a closed economic system. In this economy and
the environment have a circular relationship where everything is input into every-
thing else (Boulding 1996).
Some countries developed policies laws for reducing the negative impacts of on
the environment. Some countries have formulated acts and laws related to circular
economy. In 1996, Germany became the forerunner country in implementing circu-
lar economy. This enactment of law “Closed Substance Cycle and Waste Manage-
ment Act” came into existence. The law provides a proper framework for
environmentally compatible waste disposal and assimilative waste capacity. Japan
also has started implementing circular economy. It has developed legal framework in
year 2002 for recycling-based societies (Morioka et al. 2005). According to this law
it gives quantitative targets for recycling solid waste and long-term dematerializa-
tion. China is the third country that is serious about implementing circular economy.
Unlike Germany and Japan, the China first introduced the framework in a smaller
scale which provided better basis for establishing large scale. Sweden has also
successively introduced various incentive programs related to circular economy.
They have done public awareness and education programs for effective recycling.
Policymakers and environmentalists are satisfied by this policy.
Germany, Sweden, and some other European countries have incorporated green
political parties in their political systems and thus encouraged the processes of
decision making toward a circular economy. A major step was taken by European
Commission is European Resource Efficiency Platform (EREP) – Manifesto and
Policy Recommendations and this supports the business, labor, and civil society
leaders for moving toward circular economy. It provides framework for a resource-
efficient Europe by preventing further environmental deterioration. It can be
achieved by conserving scarce resources through effective use of renewable energy
and managing production and consumption wastes, especially through integrated
solid waste management.
Reusing and recycling residual waste materials are main concept of circular
economy which includes energy, water, and different byproducts (Park et al.
2010). Industrial symbiosis is an extended concept which states that the overall
benefits come from integrated economic and environmental aspects. Economic
benefits are attributed to firms’ agglomeration attracting pools of common pro-
duction factors such as capital, labor, energy, materials, and infrastructure reduc-
ing unit costs and raising factor productivity. Other economic benefits resulting
from firms’ proximity include gains from transportation and transaction costs and
technology spillovers between firms. The environmental benefits arise from
reduced discharged waste and reduced use of virgin materials (Andersen 2007).
A third dimension, social is added to the economic and environmental aspects by
Zhu and Huang (2005). According to him an ecological economy is required to
bring about a fundamental change in the traditional way of open and linear
development. The three aspects jointly promote competitiveness through efficient

resource allocation and higher productivity by redesigning industrial structures
reducing negative externalities and finally by improving the overall well-being in
society.
Circular economy (CE) in solid waste management has numerous positive
benefits:
• Affordable waste collection services to all income areas

• Increase in the amount of waste collected and recycled
• Improved health at household levels
• Reduction in GHG emissions
• Direct and indirect job creation
• Increase in the application of compost to improve agricultural soil fertility
Types of Economy
There are two types of economy, circular economy (modern concept) and linear
economy (traditional concept) (Fig. 1).
Circular Economy
The origin of the circular economy is late 1970s and this credit cannot be referred to
a single author. The concept of such a notion was born with the input of many
scholars, businesspeople, and innovators. A few excellent scholars played major role
in the growth of the circular economy.
Pearce and Turner are the founders of environmental economics (Pearce and
Turner 1989). They have researched and discussed the theory of circular economics,
Fig. 1 Types of economy

100 M. Patel et al.
its concepts, benefits, and other significant aspects in their various books and papers.
However, due to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation economic report, the real boost in
promoting the concept was started in 2012 which included the idea of circular
economy (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2012). The organization researched theories
such as industrial ecology, biomimicry, and cradle to cradle, which provided the
undeniable basis for the significance and necessity of the circular economy for the
modern world.
In addition, there are two other names to mention: Stahel and Parker. Stahel was
an architect and economist from Switzerland and the father of industrial sustainabil-
ity. He is one of the key drivers in the field of sustainability. The “service-life
extension of goods – reuse, repair, remanufacture, upgrade technologically” mani-
fests his popular ideology (Product-life Institute 2017). He is also the founder of the
well-known term “Cradle to Cradle,” which demonstrates the modern way of
consuming things, which is the reverse of the idea of “Cradle to Grave.” One of
the first to propose restructuring of the existing economy and closing the material
cycles was Stahel. As early as 1972, he acknowledged that the economic model
developed was not sustainable, since the demand for raw materials and the con-
sumption of raw materials were growing each year and the resources were only
decreasing (Meadows and Behrens 1972).
In the agricultural industry, Parker was a British scientist and researcher who
studied waste as a resource. He also worked on closed loop systems, developing new
ones that can be exploited in the agriculture in Great Britain. The works of Parker
were more helpful in the advancement of the theory of circular economics (Wharton
School 2017).
Linear Economy
It is difficult to talk about the circular economy without understanding its contrast-
linear economy. While the circular economy aims to remanufacture or reuse goods,
the linear economy is what we have: manufacturing, using, disposing, or throwing
away. The goods are produced from raw materials, and their product life can last at
most from few minutes to a few years, and then return to landfills or incinerators.
This way of using stuff has now been expanded and used all over the world,
producing millions of tonnes of waste every year. The linear economy model is
based on large amounts of cheap and easily available materials and resources (Ellen
MacArthur Foundation 2015).
About 2.8 billion tonnes of technical waste is produced every year. Two million
tonnes of waste is highly toxic. As a result, eight million tonnes of plastics end up in
the ocean by polluting fresh water. According to numerous reports, given usage and
urban population growth rates, the amount of municipal waste generation can double
by 2025 (World Bank 2017).
Households have historically been leaders in the production of per capita waste in
developing countries (in the USA, for example, 733.7 kg, while in Russia it is 340 kg
per person per year). Again 65% of urban waste was recycled in Germany in 2013,
35% in the USA, and 3–10% in Russia (Kornilova 2016). The linear economy model
generates a resource shortage and follows the idea of making profit in the nearest
future only leading to cost increment.
In comparison to the linear economy, the circular economy is looking for ways to
respect natural boundaries by increasing the index of renewable resources and
thereby reducing the use of raw materials. Emissions would be reduced as well
and the commodity can be used to reduce waste at its maximum degree of utility
(European Environment Agency 2016). For instance, clothing made by some brand
is thrown away after using it. However, with the circular economy, we can recycle it
and wear it in some other form again and again.
Principles of Circular Economy
We should explore its core concepts in order to provide a better understanding of the
model of the circular economy. The circular economy is based on three principles:
preserving and strengthening natural resources (reduce), maximizing resource yields
(reuse), and defining natural external factors (recycle). Such considerations separate
the circular economy from the linear economy. It is also popularly called as 3R
principles of circular economy (Fig. 2).
Preservation and Strengthening of Natural Capital (Reduce)
Due to the fair management of limited stocks and renewable resource flows, con-
servation and strengthening of natural resources is possible. Firstly, it is important to
reduce or dematerialize the utilities. In the case of required resources, the circular
Fig. 2 3R Principles of
circular economy
102 M. Patel et al.
system chooses them correctly by using smart technology for choosing renewable
resources. Besides this, the circular system improves regeneration processes by
improving the natural resources and providing the nutrients inside the system. For
instance, because of the principles of the circular economy, the soil can be
regenerated or businesses can achieve better profit by using recycled materials in
their manufacturing (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2015).
Resource Yields Optimization (Reuse)
Optimization of the resource generation occurs at its highest utility through the
circulation of resources, goods and components. Circulation happens in both bio-
logical and technological cycles. The system must be redesigned in order to support
the components and resource circulation in the economy. In addition to this, the
system increases the number of cycles by changing and prolonging the product life
and reuse. Circular systems should also encourage nutrients to re-enter the biosphere
to decompose and become new raw material for future cycles as safely as possible
(Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2015). In case of biological materials, it is important
to generate additional utility from products. Both the linear and circular economies
require the defined structure to be built and improved, but the circular economy does
not sacrifice performance (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2015).
Negative External Factors Identification (Recycle)
It is important to recognize the negative external factors that impact our system and
cause harm in order to create change. Systems such as education, health, shelter,
entertainment, and food may be influenced by negative variables. It is also essential
to regulate such resources as air, water, land use, pollution protection, and the release
of toxic substances. These behaviors would achieve the productivity of the system
and point out the elements that need more effort and work. All these benefit can be
achieved by recycling of used products (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2015).
Characteristics of Circular Economy
The circular economy also has its own features that differentiate the circular econ-
omy from the linear economy, making it the future economy (Fig. 3).
Designed Out of Waste
A circular economy is structured to minimize waste to the maximum extent possible.

Biological products that are nontoxic can be easily restored to the soil through
composting. To save value and minimize the necessary energy for changing
Fig. 3 Characteristics of circular economy
materials, unnatural materials (plastics, polymers, rubbers) should be redesigned and

modernized, as their return to the soil would be very harmful to the environment
(Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2015).
Diversity as Strength
The primary point that brings resilience and versatility between different systems
may be diversity. Economies should balance the various types of enterprises for
long-term survival. Big companies carry the economy with productivity and higher
production volumes. When there is a critical and crisis situation in the world, the
goal of the smaller companies is to provide the solution (Lacy and Rutqvist 2015).
Renewable Energy Sources
In order to minimize or remove the company’s capital and increase the stability of the
system, the circular economy must make use of renewable energy sources like air,
hydro, and solar energy. It would also allow the economy to circulate and to be
balanced (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2015). This can be accomplished by reduc-
ing the threshold energy demand and increasing the use of solar panels, tidal power,
wind turbines, and other renewable energy sources.
Systematic Thinking
All should act as a system in a circular economy and be focused on system-thinking.

Individuals, suppliers, firms, and plants are part of various systems, but at the same
time they all have integrated and tremendous effect on the other classes. Therefore,
all the processes that exist and operate according to their interests are taken into
account by an efficient circular economy (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2015).
104 M. Patel et al.
Transparency in Real Expenses
Negative external factors must be established for the transition to a circular economy
and they must be open and consistent. Full costs should be reported and measured as
the prices in the circular economy. This represents the real expenses. A shadow
economy is not feasible in a circular economy. Otherwise, the linear economy is not
the circular economy (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2015).
Circular Economy as a Development Strategy
In a review of CE as a development strategy in China which aims at improving

efficiency of material and energy use, reducing CO2 emissions, promoting enter-
prises’ competitiveness and removing green barriers in international trade, Su et al.
(2013) evaluate the implementation of the strategy in a number of pilot areas. The
rich Chinese literature on CE’s practical implementation is seen as a way of tackling
the urgent problems of environmental degradation and resource scarcity in the
country. Evidence suggests that CE presents a unique policy strategy for avoiding
resource depletion, energy conservation, waste reduction, land management, and
integrated water resources management. It also considers low demand and consump-
tion, low emissions and high materials, water and energy use efficiency in produc-
tion, and maximizes uses of renewable resources as core characteristics. Reduction
refers to minimizing inputs of primary energy and raw materials which can be
achieved through improvements in production efficiency. Reuse suggests using
byproducts and waste from one stage of the production in another stage. This
includes the use of products to their maximum use capacity. Finally, recycling of
used materials substitutes consumption of virgin materials (Zhu et al. 2010).
In another related research Li et al. (2011) schematically illustrate the agricultural
development of CE and compare it with traditional agriculture. The important
theoretical models of China’s agricultural circulation economy practice are: multi-
industry, ecological protection type, and agricultural waste recycling development
models. The main differences in these are in the conservation of resources and
recycling. The authors recommend implementing the agro-circular economy devel-
opment models accounting for these modes in the context of the Erhai Lake Basin.
The 12th five-year plan (2011–2015) for the nation’s economic and social
development is evidence of the government’s determination to continuously imple-
ment and further develop CE. Motivation for this comes from a number of reasons
attributed to the problems of land degradation, expansion of desertification, defor-
estation, water depletion, air pollution, loss of biodiversity, and waste generation.
First, China is facing great environmental challenges due to large-scale and rapid
industrialization and urbanization which combine with lack of strong environmental
regulations and oversight. Chinese national statistics suggest a 7.5% annual growth
rate in CO2 emissions (Guan et al. 2012).
The second reason for continuously implementing and further developing CE is
severe shortage of resources and energy to meet growing demands and high rate of
economic growth so that a pathway to sustainable development can be found

(Li et al. 2010). CE is an alternative way of reducing the large gap in resource
requirements and supply shortages in relation to the population and industry struc-
ture. The boom in economic growth and surge in the output of heavy and energy-
intensive industries have implied a doubling of energy consumption over the last
decade (Guan et al. 2012).
The third strong argument for CE as a development strategy in general and for
China in particular is the recent decade of strict production and environmental
standards, regulations in international trade, and tendencies toward implementation
of higher labor standards. These are called “green barriers” which are expected to
hurt developing countries’ competiveness and export earnings. Implementation of
these standards requires acquisition of advanced technologies and implementation of
green reforms in production and transportation. In this regard Wang and Liu (2007)
view CE as providing a fundamental solution for removing green barriers and for
China to gain enhanced national competiveness in its international trade relations.
The fourth reason for investing in a new development strategy is that CE strengthens
national security because it promotes alternative primary energy resources and
because of its saving and efficiency in the use of materials. The effects are reflected
in sustainable energy and material supplies. In addition, positive environmental
effects help improve the health and overall well-being in society and advance
knowledge, technology, and modernization (Heck 2006). The positive effects spill
over national borders and impact global well-being. This discussion indicates that
urgent environmental problems, resource shortages and scarcity and potential strong
competitiveness in international trade and overall well-being benefits of CE in the
short and long-run for a country like China support the new national level develop-
ment strategy. The strategy which aims at changing and saving materials and energy
use induces radical changes in education, technology, and regulations.
Development of the Circular Economy
The circular economy is in the process of being implemented by some industries, or

some of its general or particular components. The results of such implementations
are reviewed in this section. Industrial structures, iron and steel, papermaking, new
technologies, service industries, process engineering, leather tanning, mining,
chemicals, the construction industry, the printed circuit board industry, circular and
eco-friendly agriculture, the extraction of oil and gas, energy, the green supply chain,
and tourism management are linked to the industries. Iron and steel is an industry
that is energy intensive and highly polluting. Ma et al. (2014) are researching the CE
mode in this industry. Zhao et al. (2012) discuss the model of mining CE at different
levels according to the mineral resource recycling situation. As an example they
suggest constructing a CE system in coal mine enterprises and in the mineral value
chain. As part of the CE framework in the construction industry, there is a tendency
in the European Union (EU) to preserve the added value of goods so as to reduce
waste. A shift is needed for the value chains of CE and again that needs adjustments.
106 M. Patel et al.
Energy efficiency is a double-dividend choice to reduce energy usage and tackle

environmental issues. The processing industry examines energy conservation with a
focus on energy efficiency, the mode of energy use and waste emissions (Li et al.
2010). Three cases of CE growth in the chemical, metallurgical, and electric power
industries have been studied for CE compliance and energy conservation. The
review of CE’s rate of growth in Chinese chemical companies shows that, from
the conventional development model to the circular mode, the petrochemical indus-
try is in a transitional stage (Li and Su 2012). The findings show that the industry has
made notable progress in developing new processes for energy saving, resource
management, and waste heat recovery.
The relation of agriculture with natural ecosystem allows for a harmonious
process in which material can circulate in the natural ecosystem. A circular flow
between materials and resources is accomplished by the efficient implementation of
eco-agriculture. Han and He (2011) proposed improving community understanding
of environmental protection and resource management, environmental product cer-
tification, and the development of an overall strategy for CE and its implementation.
Li et al. (2011) expressed the importance of introducing an agro-circular economy in
the Erhai Lake Basin with a view of achieving comprehensive energy usage,
ecological breeding, comprehensive use of agricultural waste, and trends of agricul-
tural eco-tourism. Modern eco-agriculture is central to the sustainable growth of
circular and low-carbon farming.
Jiang and Zhou explained the difference between green and conventional supply
chain management (Jiang and Zhou 2012). They find that the implementation of
green supply chain management maximizes resource use, decreases resource con-
sumption, and improves picture, organizational efficiency and usability, thereby
helping to achieve sustainable growth. The information management system has
been substantially developed. Appropriate infrastructures are in place in developed
countries. Information can be used in the tourism supply chain to improve supply
and consumer relations and to enhance CE-friendly satisfaction. For example, China
has the ability to become a big node in the global supply chain of tourism manage-
ment networks by bridging Europe and the USA (Hua 2011).
Entrepreneurship and CE
Entrepreneurship is the process of starting a business, a start-up company, or an

enterprise. An entrepreneur creates a business strategy in the process and acquires
the capital needed and is entirely responsible for the results. It has facets such as
social, political, and knowledge-based enterprises. The key drivers of economic
growth, breakthrough technologies, and job development are known to be small
companies and entrepreneurships. Governments finance various agencies and invest
in setting up business incubators and science parks to help business-related activities
and future entrepreneurs and their successful inventions, in order to encourage risk-
taking and entrepreneurship. Literature on the relationship between entrepreneurship
and CE is in its infancy. As a large social objective, many studies concentrate on
entrepreneurship and sustainable growth (Edler and James 2015; Hall et al. 2010;
Iyigun 2015; Pacheco et al. 2010; Stefanescu and On 2012; Uslu et al. 2015). Parker
(2012) presents a detailed survey of entrepreneurship, creativity, and business cycle
theories, while Kohler (2012) describes Kondratiev waves’ neo-Schumpeterian
theory and the multilevel perspective on environmental innovation and social
transitions.
As a result of technological advances, the expansion of knowledge, globalization,
and the movement of capital and the evolution of new cultures, entrepreneurial
practices have become an important source of social and ecological sustainability.
Hall et al. (2010) reviewed emerging research relevant to sustainable development
and entrepreneurship. They claim that entrepreneurship is a big channel for sustain-
able goods and processes and a potential solution to many social and environmental
problems. They address uncertainties about the position of entrepreneurship and
current ideas for future study. According to Brundtland’s report sustainable devel-
opment is defined as a development that meets the needs of the present generation
without jeopardizing the capacity of the future generations to meet their own needs
(WCED 1987). This research is of great importance given the relationship between
entrepreneurship and the circular economy.
York and Venkataraman (2010) consider entrepreneurship as supplementary
efforts made by states, NGOs, and established firms to provide solutions to the
causes of environmental degradation. Entrepreneurs can help to solve environmental
challenges by helping institutions to achieve their objectives and by developing
environmentally friendly goods, services, processes, and institutions. The authors
present a model that demonstrate how entrepreneurs can solve environmental uncer-
tainties, provide solutions to innovation, and participate in resource allocations for
addressing environmental degradation. The effectiveness of entrepreneurship in the
process of transformation from a linear to a circular structure undoubtedly depends
on the quality of the market incentives that are offered.
Pacheco et al. (2010) term this constraint a “green prison” where entrepreneurs
are forced to act in an environmentally damaging way because of a disparity
between individual incentives and collective sustainable development objectives.
The state plays a crucial role in promoting the transition of entrepreneurs from a
green prison by establishing or modifying the conditions for competitive gambling.
Pacheco et al. (2010) include evidence of these behaviors and address their
consequences.
The Manifesto and the Policy Recommendation of European Resource Efficiency
Platform form the basis for a resource-efficient Europe with circular economy
(EC 2012). The value of entrepreneurship and sustainable development for social
and economic development is well known. The 2008 international economic crisis
has impacted national economies in various ways with varying degrees of severity.
Stefanescu and On (2012) described the connections between, before, and after the
crisis in European countries, the indices of entrepreneurial activity, and sustainable
growth. Awareness of the changes in the entrepreneurial and socioeconomic mea-
sures of sustainable development and the role of economies provide a useful
information basis for national economic policies.
108 M. Patel et al.
Latest research on entrepreneurship and sustainability has applied a range of

dimensions to existing awareness. Entrepreneurship is seen as an alternative to
unemployment and poverty in many cases. It can serve as a source of renewal and
also as an impact on the output and growth of market economy. Some researchers
uncover the reasons for sustainable development using a corporate social responsi-
bility approach and explore the potential underlying aspects of decision-making and
entrepreneurship that lead to sustainable development (Iyigun 2015). A rise in
entrepreneurship, environmental degradation, and corporate social responsibility
offers an opportunity to improve the green eco-system of entrepreneurship. In this
respect, numerous inventive projects have been launched to promote the application
of green entrepreneurship in Turkey to green companies and local entrepreneurs.
Uslu et al. (2015) suggest a range of policy recommendations, like support for
environmentally sustainable goods, increased knowledge of green products through
projects of social responsibility, cooperation between national and international
businesses, universities, and industry, access by green entrepreneurs to low-cost
technology, and desired regulatory levels. They stress the role of cooperation in the
growth of entrepreneurship for the creation of new opportunities and entrepreneur-
ship for a sustainable energy system in renewable energy field. Heshmati et al. (2015)
discuss the growth and importance of renewable energy sources for the climate and
outline the key support structures for funding the production of renewable energy.
Current Practices of Circular Economy
The Case of China as a Single and Major CE Implementer
China is the only country that has developed the concept of CE and has practiced it
as a development strategy on a large scale. This explains the reason for the emphasis
that is placed on the case of China in investigating current CE practices. Ideally,
successful implementation of the CE policy must take place simultaneously at all
three levels of aggregation: micro, meso, and macro. This is emphasized in a number
of studies (Geng and Doberstein 2008; Su et al. 2013; Zhu and Huang 2005). Su
et al. (2013) categorize ongoing CE practices into four areas of production, con-
sumption, waste management, and other support. The authors maintain that the
complexity of practices increases with the aggregation level suggesting that the
micro and meso levels are vibrant as compared to the macro level.
Other Practiced Cases
Besides China, many individual industrialized countries, newly industrialized, and

emerging economies partially apply the 3R principles (reduce, reuse, and recycling
of material). The reduce component is mostly practiced in production process as a
result of competition and necessity of achieving high input use efficiency. Recycling
of glass, plastic, paper, metal, and burnable solid waste is becoming more prevalent
in households in developing nations. Municipalities are responsible for the disposal

and reuse of household waste water, solid waste, recycling of cars, household
appliances, etc. Industrial waste water treatment is regulated, but material reuse
direction is less explored. Practically greater attention is paid to the consumption
stage rather than the production stage. Regulations remain one step behind the
development of environmentally hazardous technology and monitoring of the
responsibilities of producers.
Europe has developed concepts and mechanisms for a common environmental
policy for its members and regions. These cover all aspects including production,
consumption, waste management, and environmental policies. It is not necessarily
called a circular economy but the patterns are closely in line with the circular
economy’s principles. The European resource efficiency platform (EREP): Mani-
festo and policy recommendations (EC 2012) is a call on labor, business, and civil
society leaders to support resource efficiency and to move to a circular economy. The
document presents a manifesto for a resource-efficient Europe, lists actions for a
resource-efficient Europe and suggests ways toward a resource-efficient and circular
economy. This effort is a result of the growing pressure on resources and on the
environment to embark on a transition to a resource-efficient and ultimately regen-
erative circular economy.
It is anticipated that a circular resource-efficient and resilient economy can be
accomplished in a socially equitable and responsible manner by fostering innova-
tion, targeted investments, smart regulations, creating market conditions for
CE-friendly goods, incorporating resource scarcity and vulnerability into broader
policy areas. It is estimated that EU reduce its material requirements by 17–24% and
generate 1.4–2.8 million jobs by using resource productivity as an economic strategy
(EC 2012). The manifesto on the European Parliament was an attempt to deliver
wise, sustainable, and inclusive economic development, to make resource conser-
vation and the circular economy an important building block of the Europe 2020
agenda. As an efficient method for pushing society toward a resource-efficient
economy, product service systems (PSS) have been heralded. In a study of product
services for a resource-efficient and circular economy, Tukker (2015) sheds light on
customer relations and PSS inflexibility as the explanation why the scheme has not
yet been widely implemented.
Kalmykova et al. (2016) investigated resource consumption drivers and pathways
for resource efficiency and reduction. They analyzed the economic, political and
lifestyle impacts on the dynamics of resource usage at the national (Sweden) and
urban (Stockholm and Göteborg) levels between 1996 and 2011. Empirical
resources (domestic material consumption, fossil fuels, metals, nonmetallic mate-
rials, biomass, and chemicals and fertilizers) consumption trends show that the
policies implemented have not reduced resources and energy to the desired levels.
The bias toward energy efficiency has reduced the consumption of fossil fuels, but
the production of waste exceeds the increase in the recycling of materials that
hinders the growth of a circular economy. Policies that have been introduced have
tackled efficiency in usage but not the reduction of demand for energy, including
non-fuel resources (Kalmykova et al. 2016).
110 M. Patel et al.
Assessment of Circular Economy Practices
A system of indicators is required to assess the successful development and imple-

mentation of CE. The indicators are expected to be metric measures of CE’s
development and outcomes to provide guidelines for decision makers to further
develop and assess the effectiveness of various used policy instruments. Environ-
mental and other government agencies and scholars in different countries have made
efforts to develop and promote a unified set of indicators. However, in practice
implementation approaches and the heterogeneity of enterprises, industries, and
regions and their characteristics and operational environments have implied that
different sets of assessment indicators need to be concurrently developed. As
mentioned earlier developments have taken place at different levels of aggregation
such as micro, meso, and macro and in different areas of activities including
production, consumption, waste management, and policies. The set of indicators
should account for heterogeneity in different dimensions.
Depending on their characteristics and circumstances, various sets of firm-
specific indicators are being established at the lowest level namely, micro level to
introduce CE in different businesses. Ideally, a similar set of companies in an
industry and another firm specific set should be strictly included in the set of
indicators. For one iron and steel company, a set of indicators was developed by
Chen et al. (2009). The collection contained four primary level indicators, 12 sec-
ondary-level indicators, and 66 tertiary-level indicators. Some other researchers have
concentrated on indicator systems at the meso level or industry level (Du and Cheng
2009). With nine input-output metrics and the Malmquist productivity index, Du and
Cheng (2009) used the DEA efficiency analysis tool to analyze cleaner production
performance of steel and iron industry enterprises. The efficacy of the CE policy
using DEA was analyzed by Wu et al. (2014). Other researchers (Shi et al. 2008)
used 22 metrics to estimate cleaner barriers to development, including political and
market barriers, financial and economic barriers, technological and knowledge
barriers, and management and organizational barriers. To assess the overall
eco-efficiency of one industrial park, Geng et al. (2010) developed an energy-
based indicator framework while Wang et al. (2008) looked at the interactions
between energy-saving barriers.
At the meso level, two sets of partially overlapping assessment indicator systems
aimed at eco-industrial parks (EIPs) have been released by the Chinese government
agencies NDRC and MEP (Li 2011). There are 13 indicators grouped into four main
dimensions of the NDRC indicator system: resource production rate, resource
consumption rate, integrated resource usage, and waste discharge reduction rate
(Su et al. 2013). The output rate refers to the productivity of the resource whereas
the input rate dimension refers to the intensity or efficiency of input usage. The third
dimension explores the rate of reuse of industrial waste and ultimately the last
dimension is based on the 3R theory of industrial waste reuse, reduction, and
recycling. The MEP indicator system consists of 21 indicators grouped into the
same four dimensions as the NDRC system with different forms. It includes eco-
nomic growth, material reduction, recycling, pollution control, and pollution
management and administration. The MEP framework has divided industrial parks
into three sector-integrated classes and has established three sector-specific indicator
sets (Geng et al. 2009). The biological principle was also applied to establish two
eco-connectivity indices and by-products and waste recycling in an EIP and the use
of a globally standardized environmental management framework.
Improved data availability at the aggregate macro level allows further measure-
ment studies. The NRDC meso level method is often used at the macro level, but
there is an additional dimension to account the value of recycled materials at the
regional level. This added dimension is directly in line with the CE principles. It
demonstrates the government’s dedication to CE-compliant promotion of resource
production and conservation. Scholars have proposed enhancing the structures of the
indicators as they have a restricted emphasis on the values of 3R and cover only
environmental aspects.
Several scholars are proposing a more comprehensive assessment framework so
that it can also integrate indices of economic, technical growth, and social growth
aspects. Zhu and Zhu (2007) argued for an eco-efficiency indicator system. And they
emphasize the sustainability in the use of materials and waste management. This can
be used in the evaluation, preparation, and generation of pollutants for energy
consumption.
Challenges and Barriers to Implementation of a Circular Economy
From a General Perspective
Su et al. (2013) emphasize the importance of lack of accurate data and knowledge,
lack of innovative technology, inadequate or absent economic incentives, poor
legislation implementation, poor leadership and growth plan management, lack of
public understanding of CE’s necessity and promises, and lack of a robust standard
framework for evaluating the success of CE. Let us take the example of four pilot
cities and diverse industry studies of China for a promising future for CE imple-
mentation at wider commercial, regional, and national levels. Mega-cities are the
largest of the pilot cities in China. CE, however, can be applied equally at the
business, industry, and city levels in Sweden and elsewhere at the levels described
earlier, but on a smaller scale. Literature has identified a variety of problems and
obstacles that may discourage or slow down the introduction of CE.
Su et al. (2013) emphasize importance of lack of accurate data and knowledge,
lack of advanced technology, inadequate or absent economic incentives, poor law
enforcement, poor leadership and growth plan management, lack of public under-
standing of CE’s need and promises, and lack of robust uniform framework for
evaluating the success of CE.
In its advanced phases, technology and technical skills are critical factors in the
successful application of the concepts of CE at various levels and in various fields.
To develop the CE strategy and to upgrade production facilities and equipment, a
combination of advanced technology, expertise, management, finance, policy, and
112 M. Patel et al.
governance is required. Conditions in China are assessed as insufficiently designed

to sustain multidimensional and simultaneous environmental development initia-
tives with regard to these variables and their interrelationships. There are currently a
few incentive programs that encourage a large number of SMEs to participate in the
CE implementation process. Shi et al. (2008) describe their lack of interest due to the
high costs associated with such involvement and the few direct benefits associated
with such transition for businesses. In the transition to CE, Xing et al. (2011) see
importing technology as a response to the low speed at which indigenous technology
is evolving. There is concern, however, that such a policy will lack impact as it will
rely on international experts to function and fix technological failures. In order to be
able to develop and introduce environmentally sustainable innovations and solu-
tions, public incentive programs for finance, technology, regulatory and administra-
tive support are required to support companies so that they can obtain financial and
tax incentives and participate in creative activities. A low level of public intervention
in the areas mentioned earlier acts as a constraint; initiatives with opposite effects
reinforce this.
For example, successful public initiatives to preserve low-level factor prices
such as energy and water minimize the incentives of businesses and households
to adopt CE policies to use energy, materials, and water supplies to reduce, reuse,
and recycle. Overall, public policies have been skewed toward heavy industry,
investment in infrastructure, and energy-intensive manufacturing sectors, thus
limiting the general flexibility of the CE transition process. Moreover, in the
absence of effective regulations, producers could pass the higher cost of
resource-saving measures to consumers through pricing, thereby reducing their
incentives for the adoption of expensive and advanced production and distribu-
tion technologies. Environmental policy and government pricing policies are
supposed to be related to macroeconomic policies and aimed at the welfare of
low-income communities.
Germany and Japan are among the few active countries having successful case
studies on the introduction and further growth of CE. Success of these two countries
is attributed to the awareness and participation of the general public in the imple-
mentation of the strategy. The complex nature of the concept, the large and diverse
populations, and the lack of human and institutional capabilities are identified by
Geng and Doberstein (2008) as the main contributors to current deficiencies in
Chinese environmental management programs, low public awareness rates, and
poor understanding of participation in CE programs. In pilot cities with more
homogeneous structures, limited progress is mainly attributed to the vision of
leadership rather than institutional capabilities and public awareness. Liu (2012)
proposes rewriting economics as long as any resource is important, including water,
sunlight, and fresh air. In developing a modern circular economy, knowledge of the
living system that is practiced by the traditional Hakka people in southern China
should therefore be applied. Bilitewski (2012) shows with examples that CE
exchange on a global scale is not acceptable without internationally accepted risk
assessments for current and newly produced chemicals and products in order to
reduce the risks of CE.
From an Entrepreneurial Perspective
As mentioned above, the process of starting a company or organization is entrepre-

neurship. Management, social, political, information, technology, legal, financial,
manpower, and economics have several dimensions in the development process.
Each of these can be seen as a challenge. Several challenges are faced by entrepre-
neurs as well. Many public initiatives are aimed at promoting entrepreneurship and
its activities, sustainability and success, such as setting up business incubators and
science parks.
The relationship between entrepreneurship and sustainable development is
discussed in numerous studies. A systematic overview of emerging research in the
area, past achievements, and future directions is given by Hall et al. (2010).
Entrepreneurship is a significant conduit for sustainable goods and processes and a
panacea for social and environmental concerns. There remains, however, confusion
as to the essence of entrepreneurship and its position. To understand entrepreneur-
ship and further sustainable growth, Iyigun (2015) uses an approach focused on
corporate social responsibility. Sustainable entrepreneurs are supposed to have a
clear vision of direction of balancing social, economic, environmental impacts, and
sustainable growth.
These serve as catalysts for the transition from the current linear economy to a
sustainable economy and face multiple types of threats, obstacles and barriers for
entrepreneurs. Iyigun argues that sociocultural factors and institutional realities. The
focus of Schaltegger and Wagner (2007) is on the types of sustainable entrepreneur-
ship and sustainable innovation conditions. Their emphasis is on overcoming the
technological difficulties involved in managing opportunities. Management is seen
as a burden for them to comply with legislation and strict regulatory structures and
business requirements. In developing industry innovations and in their promotion
and execution, business leaders play a role.
In an empirical study, Uslu et al. (2015) highlighted the benefits and drawbacks of
the transition to a green economy and green entrepreneurship in Turkey. Low levels
of operation, restricted support programs, lack of green ability, access to private
capital, the educational system, cultural norms, shortcomings in implementation and
control, novelty of green entrepreneurship, lack of public knowledge, and lack of
buying green goods are the drawbacks that constitute the challenges and barriers. In
a related report, Vaghefpour and Zabeh (2012) address the role cooperation plays in
the growth of entrepreneurship in the field of renewable energy. The creation of
fundamental developments in this field and the establishment and growth of a culture
of entrepreneurship and the creation of the frameworks needed are seen as chal-
lenges. In the commercialization process of emerging technology, these are consid-
ered to be essential solutions.
The European Resource Efficiency Platform called on leaders of business, labor,
and society to support resource efficiency and move to CE in its December 2012
manifesto (EC 2012). In response to key policy challenges, it recommends generat-
ing growth and employment; providing incentives to overcome barriers and increase
resource efficiency; valuing resources; providing information and progress; and
114 M. Patel et al.
promoting creative business models. Recommendations to be made by individual

members include setting targets, measures and progress reporting; enhancing
decision-making knowledge on the environment and resource impacts; phasing out
environmentally damaging subsidies; moving toward a CE and encouraging high-
quality recycling; improving resource productivity in business-to-business relations;
advancing to resource-efficient product policy framework; delivering stronger and
more coherent implementation of green public procurement. The barriers empha-
sized in EC (2012) include those that stop entrepreneurs from innovating; legal,
financial, and the obstacles outlined in EC include those that stop innovation by
entrepreneurs; legal, financial, and structural barriers to new business models;
private funding barriers; and investment guidance barriers to accounting systems.
Edler and James (2015) argue for an awareness in the context of the European
Framework Programme of the emergence of new science and technology policies.
The trilemma of the global economy, the financial crisis, and ecological sustainabil-
ity was explored by Altvater (2009). The trilemma involves a higher rise in labor
productivity than GDP, a real interest rate that exceeds the real GDP growth rate, and
an increase in real GDP growth that breaches environmental sustainability condi-
tions. Stefanescu and On (2012) consider entrepreneurship and sustainable devel-
opment as two key factors for social-economic development in an up-to-date
assessment. They research the link between the two factors before and during the
global economic crisis in European countries and compare efficiency-driven and
innovation-driven economies.
There are six papers on sustainable development and entrepreneurship in the
special issue of JBV, edited by Hall et al. (2010). They are a mixture of theoretical,
analytical research, case studies, and data econometric analysis concentrating on
individuals and organizations. Drivers of sustainable entrepreneurship and their
application to development policy are mutual interest. The first research by York
and Venkataraman (2010) using canonical theories of entrepreneurship proposes a
model outlining how entrepreneurial actions should approach environmental degra-
dation, representing opportunities and new profitable projects to find solutions to
environmental degradation as a complement to legislation, corporate social respon-
sibility, and environmental advocacy of individuals.
A game-theoretical methodology is used in the second study by Pacheco et al.
(2010) to explore sustainability choices in which the cost of pursuing sustainability
plays a key role before rivals and before defining criteria, regulations, and institu-
tions. Third study models the entry of sustainable entrepreneurs that influence the
sustainable practices of incumbents (called greening Goliaths) during the transfor-
mation of the industry (Hockerts and Wustenhagen 2010). The successful survival of
industry and successful transition relies on the interplay between business entry and
transformation of incumbent players. In the fourth report, Meek et al. (2010)
explored how the effect of sustainable entrepreneurship is affected by the structural
context, in particular the position of government incentives and social norms.
In the US solar energy market, societal norms beneficial for sustainability targets
have contributed to higher levels of entrepreneurial outcomes. In an effort to
examine entrepreneurs’ incentive to pursue sustainable projects, the fifth study by
Parrish (2010) illustrates the gap between opportunity-driven and sustainable-driven

entrepreneurs. The primary goals of entrepreneurs here are to create successful
projects and contribute to profitable sustainability. So, sustainability-driven entre-
preneurs have sustainability in organizations that differ from conventional types of
entrepreneurs by putting a greater weight on resource-efficiency. Finally, Kuckertz
and Wagner’s (2010) sixth research examines the relationship between the sustain-
ability focus of individuals and their entrepreneurial intentions. University student
data suggest that sustainability orientation affects some groups’ entrepreneurial
aspirations, but the optimistic interaction is cancelled by business experience.
From an Innovation Perspective
Hall et al. (2010) outline emerging research related to sustainable development as a

less controversial concept in business and policy in their executive summary of the
JBV special issue on the relationship between sustainable development and entre-
preneurship. They argue that it is now understood that a fundamental transformation
of the economy is needed to reduce the harmful and social effects of unsustainable
business practices. They draw a range of conclusions. First, entrepreneurship is seen
in this sense as a conduit for transforming sustainable goods and processes to resolve
social and environmental issues. It is a means of exploiting possibilities to meet
social needs. Secondly, research is needed to resolve the very prescriptive relation-
ship and gaps in information about the process of change. There are information gaps
regarding the ability of entrepreneurs for building sustainable economies, their
motivation, their promotion, the nature of systemic obstacles, capturing and explor-
ing economic rents and public policies, and increasing their effect on sustainable
entrepreneurship. Third, research is required to examine the conditions for entrepre-
neurial enterprises to provide sustainable goods and processes rather than incumbent
firms and the consequences of welfare development and welfare destruction as well
as unsustainable rent-seeking by entry into dirty businesses. Finally, research into
circumstances of economic development, advance environmental goals, and
strengthen social conditions for disadvantaged communities are the obstacles for
environmental changes. Such findings consider creativity as a key to the phase of
transformation.
Sustainable development means the use of renewable resources and their use
under conditions of reduction, reuse, and recycling of nonrenewable resources to
extend their sustainability for future generations. Conflicts related to economic,
social, and environmental considerations occur on circumstances such as trade-offs
between economic development and resource depletion. Large-scale social and
economic transformations could be accomplished by innovation in order to prevent
the devolution of growth and achieve sustainability. This panacea theory assumes
that renewable, clean, and low-carbon entrepreneurs are driving force behind crea-
tivity and the delivery of goods and services that are sustainable. Despite the premise
of entrepreneurship to encourage sustainable growth, confusion remains as to the
position of entrepreneurship and its potential effects. The presumption is based on
116 M. Patel et al.
the role played by entrepreneurship in the developmentally unsustainable changes of

the society in past. There is little or no proof of how entrepreneurs can discover and
grow possibilities for achieving sustainable goals. In entrepreneurship literature,
sustainable development is not investigated. Therefore, information differences on
how the mechanism unfolds remain; this is a significant constraint. The Journal of
Business Venturing’s special issue (Hall et al. 2010) was aimed at solving this void.
Literature was examined and the role of entrepreneurship in sustainable development
was discussed. The review of the studies in the special issue helps to gain a deeper
understanding of the gaps and to recommend further analysis on the sustainable
development nexus of entrepreneurship.
Business policy includes the corporate social responsibility and its connection
with sustainable growth. Any type of corporate sustainability strategy is
implemented by the majority of big corporations. Universities have also responded
with new schools and services that are educationally green and sustainable. Well-
known publications have been regularly conducting articles on corporate and uni-
versity sustainability in diverse research fields. Much of the published studies are
connected to the efforts of existing corporations to reduce environmental impacts by
going green and their effects on competitiveness.
In comparison to Hall et al. (2010) report on the financial benefits of sustainable
investments in becoming green including greater access to some markets, differen-
tiated goods, green technology sales revenues, better risk management, lower
resource costs, lower capital costs, and lower labor costs. Sustainable development
from an entrepreneurship orientation side has not been much studied. At present,
sustainability-driven entrepreneurial economics and management literatures are
slowly evolving. It provides limited insights about how entrepreneurship is supposed
to generate new profitable opportunities for correction of market failures related to
social and environmental problems.
More research and institutional development is required for supporting the
efficient allocation of scarce resources, sustainable production activities, and viabil-
ity of environmentally sustainable technologies. Zahra et al. (2009) summarize a
similar source of social entrepreneurship literature that include practices to discover
and leverage opportunities inherent in environmental market failures. The aim is to
increase social wealth by developing new projects and existing organizations. It
emphasizes that market imperfections are the outcome of producing opportunities
for sustainable entrepreneurs. It is unclear how sustainability intentions impact
entrepreneurial intentions in view of the two-way causal relationship between
sustainable development entrepreneurs and environment (Kuckertz and Wagner
2010).
As a Part of Entrepreneurial Strategy
This analysis shows that the sustainable development is not a route to reversal. Hall
et al. (2010) provide a framework for possible future research directions in the field
of sustainable and entrepreneurial growth. There have been more prescriptive and
constructive current studies. Future research should provide information and

answers to the degree to which it is possible for entrepreneurs to build sustainable
economies that need insight into at least five related issues. First, the conditions
under which entrepreneurial projects turn markets into competitive structures that
provide sustainable goods and services rather than existing companies or their
combinations. Second, incentivized circumstances lead entrepreneurs to seek sus-
tainable projects. The main factors here are developing of the theory, removal of
systemic obstacles to economic rent capture, differences between
sustainability-oriented and conventional entrepreneurs, and differences in actions
and risk preferences. Third, importance should be given to the conditions under
which entrepreneurs can simultaneously generate economic growth while following
social and environmental objectives. It should be noted that entrepreneurship
dynamics for sustainable development can be a hindrance to environmental invest-
ment in deprived communities within developed and emerging economies. Fourth,
factors that weigh all externalities in the welfare-creation versus welfare-destruction
of entrepreneurship should be taken into account. Potential negative externalities,
unanticipated problems, emerging social and environmental issues, and potential
unsustainable rent pursuits by entrepreneurs are key factors. Finally, the conditions
under which public policy can influence the sustainable entrepreneurship in a
positive way. To all the questions raised here, the policy and practice should provide
answers. It is important to establish an optimal combination of policies for the
allocation of innovation support to incumbents or new ventures, the heterogeneity
of sector support, the structure and dynamics of the industry, and the provision of
demand-side tax and supply-side R&D subsidies. An optimal mix of sustainable
entrepreneurship policies will be determined by the interplay and trade-offs between
competing social, environmental, and economic objectives.
The position of incumbents (greening Goliaths) and new entrants (emerging
Davids) in sustainable entrepreneurship has been theorized by Hockerts and
Wustenhagen (2010). Age, height, and goals define the two groups of players. In
the process of creating market equilibrium, sustainable entrepreneurship is charac-
terized as the discovery and exploitation of economic opportunities linked to market
failures. The goal is to turn industries into states which are environmentally and
socially sustainable. Sustainable entrepreneurship thus defines practices that reflect
transformative innovations rather than incremental ones. Incremental advances in
environmental or social processes such as the implementation of sustainable man-
agement systems, eco-efficiency, or corporate social responsibility programs are
involved in current and large businesses (Schaltegger 2002). In the other hand,
“sustainable entrepreneurs” or “socio-bricoleurs” or “bioneers” are the latest
entrants. The dissemination of sustainable goods and services is a typical S-shape
case and covers the phases of implementation, early development, take-off, and
maturity. Two powers evolve over time and the co-evolution of start-ups in sustain-
ability and business incumbents toward industry’s sustainability transition comes
from various initial roles. Emerging Davids have high environmental and social
performance but low market share by having a sustainability niche, whereas the
greening Goliaths have low environmental and social performance but a high market
118 M. Patel et al.
share. As an outcome of the sustainability transition of the industry at the maturity

stage, they both target high environmental output and market share. The pace and
outcome of change and the distribution of market share will be affected by legisla-
tion, environmental and health awareness, and various sustainable innovation policy
incentive programs. Examples of such sectors are the organic retailing of whole food
markets, electric vehicles, smart cars, development of solar panels, production of
renewable energy, etc. and these provide some basic details on transition process,
interaction between companies in the industry, impact of different public policies,
and possible negative externalities.
As an Innovative National Level Development Strategy
A study released by the offices of the Swedish government entitled “Sweden’s

National Sustainable Development Plan” describes sustainable development as the
overall policy goal of the government. In a move toward more sustainable develop-
ment in Sweden, the plan brings together social, cultural, economic, and environ-
mental goals. The report outlines the efforts of the government in the form of goals,
initiatives, and strategies implemented and expressed in sustainable development
policies. The EU, OECD, the Nordic Council of Ministers, and numerous other
organizations and countries have also formulated sustainable development policies.
Wijkman and Skånberg (2015) examine the potential for a substantial improvement
in resource utilization and analyze social benefits in the form of carbon emissions
and job gains. Important emission reductions along with employment generation and
trade balance effects from renewable, energy-efficient, and material efficiency
sources are seen in the modeling exercise. Using the Swedish economy as a case,
the authors propose lowering taxes on work and increasing taxes on use of natural
resources and white certificates as policy steps to encourage the shift toward the CE
and increasing its benefits for society.
A positive net effect on employment is found after studying the relationship
between the green economy and green jobs in power generation in China. Mehmet
(1995) studied the creation of employment and the strategy for green development.
He highlighted the employment versus environmental dilemma for densely popu-
lated developing countries. Mehmet suggests that the North should finance job
creation in the South using funds raised through ecotaxes and international trade
levies.
The Swedish National Sustainable Development Strategy defines the long-term
vision and values of a sustainable society. It also defines the policy instruments,
tools, and processes necessary for implementation of the change process, as well as
the monitoring and evaluation of its implementation. Various players are called upon
to participate in a broad participation that is based on public consultations. The
national development strategy is expected to encompass all three dimensions of
sustainability, namely, ecological, social, and economic. It makes prudent use of
natural resources, and conserves and invests in human and environmental resources.
The sustainable development strategy is based on a democratic system of
government institutions that promote resource-efficient patterns of production and

consumption. It also includes the learning of public goods including knowledge,
health, and the environment.
Balanced combination of social welfare, economic development, and a sound
environment are three major areas of the Swedish vision and sustainable develop-
ment policy. The Swedish government has prioritized eight key strategic areas
encompassing key elements of a sustainable society: the future environment, climate
change limitation, population and public health, social cohesion, welfare and soci-
ety; employment and learning in a knowledge-based society; economic growth and
competitiveness; regional development and cohesion and community development
(GOME, 2002).
Environmental pollution is a global problem, not just a national problem. In order
to promote the environment, human health, and well-being, the task of the twenty-
first century is to foster and enhance democratic collaboration on sustainability at the
international level. Since 2001, the European Council has encouraged members to
formulate their national sustainable development strategies in such a way that this
can lead to the development of a sustainable development strategy worldwide in
collaboration with the UN framework. In terms of combining ecological, economic,
and social sustainability, Sweden is a significant contributor. This is accomplished by
shared responsibility for the creation of sustainable sectors with special needs
including manufacturing, working conditions, regional growth, agriculture, forestry,
fisheries, and a well-built environment. Natural resource security, effective resource
management, and increased productive utilization of energy are the three facets of
sustainability. These take social and economic sustainability into account and pro-
vide a clear image and scope for the national sustainability strategy. Sustainability of
family and working life is one of the main social and economic problems of the
future. As a technologically advanced country with a strong capacity for creativity in
environmental legislation, green taxes and standards, Sweden should explore the
entrepreneurial and business opportunities in which Swedish companies could take
part in the transition of advanced waste management and technology. Waste man-
agement is an old but exacerbated problem that demands new strategies to create a
sustainable and accelerated urbanization climate in the form of public investments in
cleaner and more efficient waste-removal systems. The Swedish business Envac is
an example of successful entrepreneurial companies seeking to exploit the possibil-
ities of creating new technologies and methods focused on a circular economy, such
as quantum system technology (Törnblom 2014).
A number of tools and incentives are required for implementation of a sustainable
development policy (GO-EM, 2002). These include environmental legislation to
support efforts toward a sustainable society. Role of community spatial planning,
synergies in mutually supportive economic, environmental, and social actions, and
programs in an integrated product policy are important parts for life-cycle manage-
ment of goods and services. Economic instruments are the driving force behind
development. Evaluation of the impact of policies at different levels provides a better
basis for decision-making. Progress in setting standards for regular monitoring and
evaluation is generally slow. Development of a national system of sustainable
120 M. Patel et al.
development strategy Indicators, research, education, dissemination of information,

and dialogue between actors are essential elements of a sustainable society. Lastly,
institutional capacity is crucial for the integration of development issues in all policy
areas and at all decision-making levels. Effective coordination and the complex task
of combining short and long-term processes is a challenge that calls for active
leadership in achieving the CE objective as an innovative national development
strategy.
Responsibility for sustainable development lies with individual states. Climate
change, environmental degradation, and globalization have increased the mutual
dependence. Sustainable development calls for action at the local, national, regional,
and global levels. Key international organizations include the UN, EU, OECD,
WTO, the Nordic Council of Ministers, and other environmental organizations, for
example, the Stockholm Environmental Institute (SEI), and Global Green Growth
Institute (GGGI). Ensuring environmental sustainability is one of the eight Millen-
nium Development Goals. Developing environmentally sustainable energy systems
and efficient transport systems that reduce emissions and greenhouse gases are
important measures for sustainable consumption and production. Agreements
under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change have been
reached to support developing countries in their economic and technological
transition.
Key initiatives for global sustainable development are global water partnership,
peace and security, EU and OECD sustainable development strategies as well as
local and national activities. OECD Green Growth Studies (OECD 2014) have
developed a green growth framework and an indicator for monitoring progress
toward green growth. Green growth aims to foster economic growth and develop-
ment while ensuring that natural assets continue to provide the resources needed for
improving our well-being. The set includes indicators that cover the socioeconomic
context, growth characteristics, environmental productivity, economic resource pro-
ductivity, nature of the asset base, environmental quality of life, economic opportu-
nities, and policy responses. The indicators are useful for policy design and
evaluation.
General Policy Recommendations
Literature on CE assessment has not yet been well developed and the experience
gained from the four Chinese pilot cities provides limited guidance on the imple-
mentation of CE at the macro level. Various index number methodologies are used to
aggregate individual indicators into composite and multidimensional indices to
measure CE performance in different recognized dimensions and levels. In areas
of development research, the issue of optimal weighting in aggregation of indicators
is far from being resolved. Other challenges include lack of reliable information, lack
of advanced environmental technology, poor governance, weak economic incen-
tives, enforcement of legislation, and lack of public awareness. This review defined
the standardized quantitative measurements and targets in order to provide a clear
picture of China and some European countries in CE adaptation process. Implemen-

tation of a range of policies is proposed to overcome these challenges and provide a
guideline for designing of optimal future development strategy to prevent a reversal
of old practices and standards. The assessment data of China’s 12th five-year plan
can help shed light on the old and new challenges that may require a changed set of
policies.
The lack of reliable information and data is one of the key challenges identified
above. The provinces of China have a relatively high degree of autonomy. In recent
years, a number of comprehensive surveys and databases have been developed and
generously made available to researchers without much restriction on their access.
This openness applies to a wide range of areas including the collection and dissem-
ination of statistics. However, data is generally collected by the National Statistical
Agency. At the same time, provinces and major municipalities also collect and
publish local statistics. The way in which data is collected, processed and made
available for research is still managed and controlled in the old fashion. It has a
strong influence on the content and the way in which it is presented and dissemi-
nated. Radical changes are needed to improve the public’s confidence in the accu-
racy and quality of the research data. New standardized databases covering all levels
and provinces are need to be compiled and used for the evaluation of the implemen-
tation of CE. This applies to all countries with an enhanced focus on the environ-
ment. The OECD (2014) green growth studies proposed a measurement framework
and provided a range of topics and indicators.
China is industrializing at a very rapid pace. The technological capabilities have
developed significantly, but not homogeneously across different sectors and loca-
tions. The lack of advanced technologies is a key limitation in the efficient manage-
ment of the environment and coping with the rapidly deteriorating environmental
conditions of the country. The development of such technologies is not feasible as
the relatively low level of available indigenous technologies. Improved global
environmental and climate change awareness has developed channels and mecha-
nisms to facilitate related and advanced technology transfer for developing countries.
China has been able to facilitate the transfer of the technology needed through such
cooperative channels and its own joint venture regulations for corporations to gain
access to the Chinese market. It is worth mentioning here that the current level of
technology is below the optimum level and that investments in environmental
technology innovations are needed to develop the technologies needed. This will
further increase the production cost and in general, it is considered as harmful to the
competitiveness of firms. However, it promotes energy and material savings as
dividends in production and green trade. For central and regional governments and
municipalities in China, new and advanced environmental technologies adapted to
CE’s 3R principles should be a priority.
Sweden is a technologically advanced nation with a strong capacity for creativity
and is also a major donor of foreign aid for development. The Swedish state and
municipalities with strong environmental, green tax, and standard-setting capabili-
ties could promote entrepreneurs and business companies to engage in advanced
waste management and growth technology in China or elsewhere. One of the
122 M. Patel et al.
possible exportable services that put Sweden and its companies at the forefront of
environmental practitioners is Scandinavian and its expertise in data collection,
grassroots participatory decision-making, cooperation in the exchange of welfare
and transparency. The Green Wave and the Nordic view of environmental justice are
in line with this (Lehtinen 2007).
In view of their beneficial environmental and climate effects, there are no planned
public constraints on the growth and implementation of production and consumption
technologies. These approaches may be created, as in the case of medicines and their
health and side effects. Legislations are being implemented regardless of their form
and source for dealing with polluting technologies. Legislation is frequently
implemented long after the technology has been developed and launched on the
market. Their enforcement is thus more or less a problem of fixing losses that have
already occurred and their origins may not be within the reach of the law. Even if
laws are enacted to avoid damage to the environment, their effective compliance is a
precondition for the efficient implementation of legislation on the use of environ-
mental and advanced costly technology.
Investment in infrastructure growth has been the key priority of central and
regional governments in developing countries in general, and in China in particular.
Expensive environmental issues and their adverse impacts on competition were not
priorities. Therefore, limited resources have been allocated in the context of eco-
nomic incentives for the promotion of CE production and implementation. Interna-
tional practices show that public economic benefits remain an efficient means of
protecting the environment and wealth. Economic incentive policies encourage
producers’ and consumers’ actions to bring them into line with CE’s 3R values.
Examples include public support for R&D, innovation, renewable energy alterna-
tives, material recycling, pricing, tax policies, environmental policy, health policy,
insurance policies, cap-and-trade systems, support for energy-saving research, green
and environmental labeling of products.
Company and organizational and management approaches are globally devel-
oped. It is much simpler and easier to pass finance, management, expertise, and
technology than to design and enforce environmental regulations. Soft knowledge is
often developed indigenously and in response to market failures, with long lags.
Combined with problems such as corruption, this phenomenon leads to weak
governance of the public sector and its obligations. For reasons like creating job
opportunities, there is a need to attract the establishment and activity of businesses.
These restrict the regulatory impact.
Improvements are required about the enforcement of laws and the management
structure along with the system of government and corporate governance, auditing
mechanisms, transparent monitoring, reform of judicial management systems, and
transparency. The involvement of green political parties, civil society, and NGOs in
inclusive decision-making processes and the rich political experience of conven-
tional market economies in developed countries promote the adoption of a green
growth and sustainable development strategy.
Public awareness of the ability of business owners, workers, and customers is just
as important as the components of production, consumption, and waste
management. For enhancement of business awareness of the environment, it is

essential to enforce the regulations. Countries vary according to the level of educa-
tion and general environmental knowledge. A change from socialism to China’s
market economy has provided space for experimentation. However, the uncontrolled
desire to manufacture, export, and accommodate has been highly detrimental to the
environment in an unsustainable manner and under minimum regulations. It needs
tremendous resources to achieve an optimum level of public education and raise
understanding for achieving the required level of knowledge that is conducive to the
environment. Substantial investments at all levels and in all areas are necessary.
Media channels can be used to facilitate close cooperation in the field of environment
and materials management between producers, consumers, and regulators.
Conclusion
CE concept is introduced in 1990, with its 3R principles of reducing, reusing, and

recycling of energy, materials, and waste. In order to alleviate tensions between
desired national economic growth and environmental issues, CE is seen as providing
a viable alternative development strategy. It also helps to solve current issues of
resource scarcity and pollution. It also encourages companies and industries to
increase their competitiveness by eliminating green barriers to their foreign
trade ties.
Like the circular economy, a series of metrics is also being developed to measure
the activities of the sustainable development policy in Europe and elsewhere. Again,
the systems of assessment are extremely fragmented and far from standardization.
Coordination efforts are needed to harmonize and standardize the micro-, meso-, and
macro-level assessment systems accounting for industry heterogeneity and country
specificity is needed. This promotes a comparison across businesses, sectors,
regions, and countries for resource use and environmental performance. In collab-
oration with academia, the United Nations Environmental Protection Agency, EU
Environment Agency, the Stockholm Environmental Institute, and the Global Green
Growth Institute should coordinate efforts to establish general circular economy
evaluation systems, sustainable development, and green growth strategies. These
multidimensional composite indices and outcome-oriented metrics, such as indices
of human development and environmental sustainability, can help to track CE
components and advances in their implementation. This data can be of great benefit
to politicians, environmental scientists, organizations, agencies, and general public.
The long-term vision of a prosperous society and its core values are clearly outlined
in the Swedish National Sustainable Development Plan. It sets out different policy
instruments, tools, and processes needed to enforce the change process as well as to
track and review its implementation.
As a consequence, essential information has been established about the ecosys-
tem and its preservation. Therefore, Sweden should explore entrepreneurial/business
opportunities through Swedish companies and municipalities. As a technologically
developed country, these can engage in implementation of advanced waste
124 M. Patel et al.
management and technology creation in China, India, and elsewhere with strong
innovation capabilities in areas of environmental legislation, green taxes, and devel-
opment of standards. This is consistent with the current orientation of development
aid provision along with strong emphasis on local education, research capacity
building, and promotion of entrepreneurship in recipient countries.
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Greenways for Solid Waste Management
5
Amrita Kumari, Anita Roy Aich, Sweta Kumari, and
Samanyita Mohanty
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Global Scenario of Solid Waste Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Projected Waste Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Different Categories of Solid Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
General Principles for Solid Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Waste Hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Life Cycle of a Waste Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Resource Efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Polluter Pays Principle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Key Method for Solid Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Handling and Separation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Transportation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Processing and Transformation of Solid Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Disposable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
A. Kumari (*)
Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Vishwavidalaya Mohanpur,
Nadia, West Bengal, India
A. R. Aich
Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya,
S. Kumari
S. Mohanty
Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya,

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_8
130 A. Kumari et al.
Effects of Poor Solid Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Litter Surroundings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Hazardous Impact on Human Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Pests and Disease . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Environmental Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Soil and Groundwater Pollution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Emission of Toxic Gases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Impact on Land and Aquatic Animals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Green Technology: A Novel Approach for Solid Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Why Green Methods Are Required . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Best Practices Within Green Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Policies Responsibilities and Public Awareness to Support the Greenways for Solid Waste
Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Future Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Abstract
Solid waste is defined as the useless solid materials generated from human
activities in residential and industrial areas. In the developing world, there is a
growing problem of managing solid waste and finding alternatives to landfill
disposal particularly for food waste. Solid waste management reduces or
eliminates the adverse impact on the environment and human health. Green-
ways are a good approach for solid waste management feasibly. Recycling is
one of the best green approaches for solid waste management strategies. It is a
safe method to utilization or disposal of electronic wastes. Bioremediation is a
novel green technique that is used to treat polluted media including soil,
subsurface material, and solid waste by modifying the environmental condi-
tions to stimulate the growth of microorganisms and also degrade the target
pollutants. It is the process where organic wastes are biologically degraded
under controlled conditions. Composting is another option for the aerobic and
anaerobic decomposition of organic materials by microorganisms under con-
trolled conditions. To extract toxic heavy metals including cadmium and lead,
from solid waste, earthworms can be used. Greening on dumping sites can be a
major step toward the prevention of the accumulation of solid waste in the area
by modifying the physical characteristics. Nowadays, genetic engineering
techniques are mostly used for the development of a new organism with
beneficial properties that apply to the bioremediation of pollutants. Novel
strains with desirable properties of microbes are developed through genetic
engineering.
Keywords
Solid waste management · Greenways · Recycling · Bioremediation · Genetic
engineering techniques
5 Greenways for Solid Waste Management 131
Introduction
With the rise of the global population, urbanization, and industrialization, the
amount of solid waste is also increasing. Human activities generate waste materials
that are mostly discarded. This type of waste is usually solid, and the word waste
shows that the material is useless and unwanted for life. Nowadays, waste is used as
a valuable resource. According to UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme),
waste is objects, which are disposed of or are required to be disposed of by the
provisions of national law.
In other words, solid waste can be defined as “organic or inorganic waste
materials produced from household or commercial activities of human of any kind
of life form, that have reduced their value in the first owner’s perspective but which
may be of great worth to somebody else somewhere” (Robinson 1986). Mostly,
definition of solid waste is not limited to physically solid wastes. Many solid wastes
are liquid, solid, or semisolid and gaseous material.
The quantity and characteristics of the solid waste generated in a region are not
only a function of the living standard and economic development of that region’s
inhabitants but also the occurrence and type of the region’s natural resources. Its
effect on the environment and different life forms affects the pollution of air, water,
and soil. Due to poverty and population explosion leading to rapid and uncontrolled
urbanization, the waste situation reached such an unsustainable point around the
world. The generation of solid waste along with the high organic residue may cause
widespread ecological pollution, which is mainly based on the emission of gases that
contribute to the greenhouse effect, such as methane and carbon dioxide. Also, the
lead, mercury, and infectious agents from healthcare facilities as well as dioxins and
other types of harmful emissions released from e-waste not only affect the health of
waste pickers but contribute to air, land, and water contamination as well. Due to this
type of environmental threat, different authorities are currently urged to implement
the economic and political solutions of higher efficiency to manage the growing
quantities of municipal solid waste.
Solid waste management (SWM) includes a collective activity involving seg-
regation, collection, sorting, processing, transportation, and disposing of various
types of solid waste. Improper waste management is one of the major causes of
environmental pollution. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that
about a quarter of the diseases faced by human today occurs due to the prolonged
exposure to environmental pollution and improper solid waste management.
Greenways are a good approach for solid waste management feasibly. These
approaches can be achieved through strategic planning, institutional capacity
building, fiscal incentives, techno-economically viable technologies, public-private
partnerships, community participation, and adopting eco-friendly methods for
solid waste management. Many researchers projected that the solid wastes will
reach over 2 BT per year by 2025. So this will create a high demand for new
innovative technologies and processes for an effective solid waste management
program.
So the main objectives of this chapter are to:
(a) Provide a clear picture of solid waste statistics globally.

(b) Provide an overview of the best green practices in solid waste management and
the foundation for the information on specific technologies like green technol-
ogy and green management option for solid waste.
(c) Propose policy measures to catalyze the shift to a green waste management
sector.
Global Scenario of Solid Waste Statistics
As the population increases and economies expanded, various countries around the
world will keep generating large amounts of waste. In 2018, the World Bank
estimated that around the world, 2.01 BT of solid waste are generated annually by a
7.7 billion population, in which 33% of waste is not managed environmentally safe.
Based on the World Bank database, it is expected that global waste will rise to
3.40 BT from 2.01 BT, i.e., up to 70% by 2050. As per the worldwide report, waste
generation per person per day ranges from 0.11 to 4.54 kg, and the average is 0.74 kg.
In the 2019 Global Waste Index, Latvia, Turkey, and New Zealand have been
named the top 3 largest producers of waste. This global index is created each year by
Slovakian waste management firm Sensoneo. An index is based on total waste
generation (per capita) and how the material is processed. It ranks the 36 countries
within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
according to total waste generation (per capita) and how the material is processed.
Among these countries, the United States (ranked 12th) is the biggest producer of
waste per capita worldwide, with each citizen producing an average of 808 kg per
year. In 2019, market data by Verisk Maplecroft indicated that the United States
generates 12% (around 239 MT) of global municipal solid waste. Similarly, China
and India generate 27% of global municipal waste. India generates 62 MT of solid
waste each year. East Asia and the Pacific generate the highest amount of waste in
absolute terms, with an estimate of 468 MT in 2016, and the Middle East and North
Africa region generate the least, at around 129 MT (Fig. 1). Canada, Bermuda, and
500 468
Millions of tonnes per year
450 392
400
334
350 289
300
231
250
200 174
129
150
100
50
0
Middle East Sub-Saharan Latin America North America South Asia Europe and East Asia and
and North Africa and the Central Asia Pacific
Africa Caribbean
Different global region
Fig. 1 Amount of solid waste generated by region (2016). (Source: World Bank Group (2018))
2050 3.4
Years
2030 2.59
2016 2.01
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
Billions of tonnes
Fig. 2 Projected global solid waste generation. (Source: World Bank Group (2018))
the United State in the North American region contribute to the production of the
highest average quantity of waste per capita, at 2.21 kg per day. So as the world
progresses toward its urban future, the rate of solid waste generation is getting even
faster than the rate of urbanization.
Projected Waste Generation
The global waste generation in 2016 was projected to have reached 2.01 BT
according to the latest data available. The world is expected to generate 2.59 BT
of waste annually by 2030. Moreover, waste generation across the world is estimated
to reach 3.40 BT by 2050 (Fig. 2).
Different Categories of Solid Waste
Solid wastes are categorized by the sector of the economy responsible for producing
them, such as mining, agriculture, hospital, manufacturing, and municipalities. Solid
waste may be classified by the source as residential, industrial sector, commercial sector,
institutional, municipality, processing sector, and agriculture sector. Solid waste from
residential sectors consists of paper, cardboard, food wastes, plastics, textile rags, leather,
yard waste, glass, lignocelluloses metals, ashes, etc. This waste is generated from single
and multifamily habitations. Solid waste of industrial sectors is generated from the light
and heavy manufacturing companies, fabrication, power and chemical plants, and
construction sites. These sectors consist of housekeeping waste, different packaging
materials, food waste, construction, and demolition materials. Commercial and institu-
tional sectors consist of the same type of solid waste which are paper, cardboard,
plastics, wood, food wastes, glass, metals, special wastes, and hazardous waste. This
waste is generated from the stores, markets, gastronomy, hotels, office buildings,
schools, universities, kindergartens, hospitals, and other health and medical institutions.
Biomedical waste comes under institutional waste which is produced in the course of the
treatment, diagnosis, or immunization of humans/animals or research activities in these
fields. It comprises wastes like disposables, syringes, sharps, stained waste, anatomical
waste, cultures, chemical wastes, discarded medicines, and many more. Solid waste
which is generated from municipalities is street sweepings; landscape; tree and bush
trimmings; different waste accruing in parks, beaches, riversides, and other recreational
areas; and sludge after flooding events. This waste is generated from street cleaning,
parks, landscaping, beaches, groves, playgrounds, sports facilities, and other recreational
areas, and wastewater treatment plants are the main source of these type of waste. Other
than these municipalities waste, household waste, construction/demolition debris, and
sanitation waste also contribute a major portion of waste. Waste generated from the
agriculture sector consists of spoiled food wastes, plant waste, and animal residues
(slaughterhouse waste). Other than this, fertilizer, pesticides, and chemicals used in
agriculture and waste formed from this cause severe land and water pollution. Among
the pesticides, chlorinated hydrocarbons, endrin, dieldrin, lindane, parathion, malathion,
and endosulfan are absorbed by the soil and contaminate the crop.
Other than this, solid waste is classified based on its biological, chemical, and
physical properties. These are biodegradable, nonbiodegradable, and hazardous waste.
Biodegradable waste or wet waste includes the kitchen, cooked and uncooked, flower
and fruit waste, juice peels, houseplant waste, and garden sweeping or yard waste, i.e.,
green/dry. Nonbiodegradable or dry waste includes paper and plastic, all kinds of
cardboard and carton packaging, glasses and metals, rubber, etc. Hazardous wastes are
generated from the industries or institutes that cause damage to human health and the
environment. Hazardous waste is chemical, biological, explosive, or radioactive
wastes, which are highly reactive and toxic and cause severe danger to humans, plants,
or animal life. Some examples of hazardous wastes are lead, mercury, cadmium,
chromium, many drugs leather, pesticides, dye, rubber, and effluents from different
industries. Hazardous wastes could be highly toxic to animals, plants, and even
humans. They are highly inflammable/explosive and react when exposed to certain
substances, for example, gases. Hospital waste and industrial waste are considered
harmful as they may contain toxic substances. Other than this, electronic waste or
e-waste is one of the fastest-growing areas of the international market, and nowadays,
these are increasing at a much higher rate than all other waste streams. Fast-growing
industries and communication technologies play a major role in e-waste generation.
Computer disks, cassettes, printed board assemblies, mercury switches, and other
electronic items come under the electronics waste categories. Another category of
14 12.73
12
Kg/Capita/day
10
8
6
3.35
4
1.68
2 0.32 0.25 0.02
0
Industrial Agricultural Construction Hazardous Medical waste Electronic
waste waste and demolition waste waste
waste
Different wastes
Fig. 3 Global average waste generation. (Source: World Bank Group (2018))
2% 2%
12%
44%
17%
14%
4% 5%
Food and Green Glass Metal Other Paper and Card Board Plastic Rubber and leather Wood
Fig. 4 Global waste composition in percentage. (Source: World Bank Group (2018))
waste is nanowaste. Nanowaste is the waste that is generated by nanodevices or during

the nanomaterials manufacturing process. It can float easily in the air and easily
penetrate animal and plant cells and produce unknown effects in living organisms.
Figure 3 indicates that industrial waste contributes more to global waste generation
than other common waste like agricultural waste, construction and demolition waste,
hazardous waste, medical waste, and electronic waste or e-waste.
Globally, food and green waste come under the largest waste category, contrib-
uting to 44% of global waste (Fig. 4). Dry recyclables (paper and cardboard, plastic,
metal, and glass) amount to 38% of waste.
The waste composition differs across income levels, i.e., it depends on the income
level of countries that reflect varied patterns of consumption. High-income countries
generate less amount of food and green waste at 32% of the total waste but generate
more amount of dry waste (plastic, paper, cardboard, and metal) at 51% of total waste.
Likewise, countries with low and middle income generate about 53% and 57% food
and green waste, respectively. About 50% or more organic waste is generated by all
regions around the world except for Europe, North America, and Central Asia which
produce higher portions of dry waste. It shows that with the increase in the income
level of a region, the share of organic waste generated tends to increase.
General Principles for Solid Waste Management
There are four main principles for solid waste management:
Waste Hierarchy
Waste hierarchy means 3 R’s, i.e., reduce, reuse, recycle, which classifies waste
management strategies in terms of availability and reducibility. These are the
cornerstone of waste minimization strategies. Among these, reduce means taking
measures that help to cut down wastes. This is a primary step toward the lowering of
wastage. Reuse means putting an item into use again and again. It implies when we
can use an object again or in a different way compared to what it is envisioned to

do. Recycling can be interpreted as transforming waste and non-useable objects into
raw materials that can be used to make new objects. The waste hierarchy signifies the
development of a product or material through the chronological stages of the
pyramid of waste management.
Life Cycle of a Waste Product
The life cycle of waste constitutes the manufacturing, distribution, and waste
hierarchy’s stages like reduce, reuse, and recycle. Each step offers the opportunity for
policymaking and intervention, rethink, and redesign to minimize waste production.
Resource Efficiency
On a worldwide scale, we are extracting more resources to produce goods that the
earth can replenish. Resource efficiency means the reduction of environmental impact
from the consumption of these goods. These are useful to understand the global
impact of waste material from raw material extraction to the last use and disposal.
Polluter Pays Principle
This is a very good approach that mandates that the polluting party or country should
pay for the impact on the global environment. This is generally referred to as the
waste generators should pay for appropriate disposal of the unrecoverable material.
Key Method for Solid Waste Management
Generation: Waste generation means those types of activities in which materials are
identified as no longer being of value or gathered together for disposal. The
identification step is important in this process.
Handling and Separation
Various activities are involved in handling and separation like managing waste until
they are placed in storage containers for collection. Handling of waste encompasses
the movement of waste containers from the point of collection to the deposition site.
Separation is an important step for the handling and storage of solid waste.
Collection
The gathering of solid wastes and recyclable materials from the initiation point is
called a collection.
Generation Separation Collection Processing Disposal
Fig. 5 The value chain for solid waste management
Transportation
Transport or transfer involves two steps like the transfer of waste materials from the
initiation site to the dumping site through the vehicle. The transport vehicle mostly
used in the transfer process are common rail, cars, trucks, and barges.
Processing and Transformation of Solid Waste
Processing and transformation processes are used to reduce the weight and volume
of waste materials. The organic fraction of solid waste can be usually transformed by
the use of different chemicals and biological processes. Mostly, combustion is used
for the chemical transformation process.
Disposable
Mostly, solid waste is disposed of by conventional methods like landfilling or land

spreading. But nowadays, different methods are evolved for solid waste disposal
which is not hazardous to public health (Fig. 5).
Effects of Poor Solid Waste Management
Poor waste management ranges from improper collection systems to ineffective

disposal which leads to air, water, and soil pollution and contamination. Open
dumping and unsanitary landfills contribute to the contamination of drinking water
and can cause infection and transmit various types of infectious diseases. The
dispersal of waste and debris pollutes ecosystems. Dangerous substances from
electronic waste or industrial process waste put a strain on the health of urban
dwellers and the environment. Here, some point is highlighting the consequences
of poor solid waste management:
Litter Surroundings
Due to improper waste disposal systems, wastes heap up and become a menace.
While people clean their homes and workplace, they litter their surroundings, which
affects the environment and the community.
Hazardous Impact on Human Health
Improper waste disposal can affect the health of the living population near the
polluted area or landfills. Exposure to wastes that are handled improperly can
cause different types of skin irritations, respiratory problems, blood infections,
growth problems, and even reproductive issues.
Pests and Disease
Throwing away waste materials forces biodegradable materials to decay and decom-
pose under improper, unhygienic, and unrestrained conditions. After a few days of
decomposition, a foul smell is produced from these dumped materials, and it
becomes a breeding ground for different types of disease-causing insects as well
as infectious organisms.
Environmental Problems
Solid wastes from industries and factories are a major source of contaminated metals,
hazardous wastes, and chemicals. When these are released to the environment, the
solid wastes can cause biological and physicochemical problems to the environment
that may affect or alter the productivity of the soils in that particular area.
Soil and Groundwater Pollution
Toxic chemicals may leach into the soil and pollute the groundwater. During the
process of gathering solid waste, toxic wastes blend with ordinary garbage and other
combustible wastes, making the disposal process even tougher and risky.
Emission of Toxic Gases
When hazardous wastes like pesticides; batteries containing lead, mercury, or zinc;
cleaning solvents; radioactive materials; plastics; and e-waste mixed up with paper
and other nontoxic scraps are burned, they produce dioxins, furans, polychlorinated
biphenyls, and other toxic gases. These types of toxic gases have the potential of
causing various diseases, including cancer.
Impact on Land and Aquatic Animals
Improper management of solid waste can also affect animals, and they suffer the
effects of pollution. Animals are also at risk of poisoning while consuming grasses
near contaminated areas or landfills as the toxins leach into the soil. Aquatic animals
are also at great risk of exposure to hazardous waste.
Green Technology: A Novel Approach for Solid Waste

Management
Globally, best practices have arisen through the development of novel concepts and
technologies focused on pollution abatement and resource productivity. After con-
siderations of the interaction between society and the environment, some different
green concepts and technologies have been generated over the past few decades
(Bass et al. 2009) that are briefly discussed below.
Concepts
Green technology or sustainable technology is a combined approach to science and

technology to protect the environment globally. Green practices consist of different
process-oriented environmental practices that will use less energy and resources
and which will reduce the production of waste products and their dangerous effects
with toxic emissions. Energy efficiency, reprocessing, health and safety worries,
renewable resources, and many more are required to make a green product or
technology. Therefore, “greening” requires the enterprises or companies that will
transform new production technology and create a positive green image. The main
goal of green solid waste management is to meet public health and environmental
concerns by conserving resources through reuse and recycling of the waste mate-
rials. So the greening of any sector means that organizing businesses and infra-
structures to deliver better returns on natural, human, and economic capital
investments while at the same time helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,
extracting and using fewer natural resources, creating less waste, and reducing
social dissimilarities.
Why Green Methods Are Required
Many conventional methods are widely used for the treatment and management of
solid waste including deposition in landfills and incineration. But these methods
come with some disadvantages. Open dumping and burning of solid wastes are no
longer standard practices from a health or environmental perspective. Landfills cause
severe environmental issues such as the unrestrained release of methane gases into
the atmosphere. Methane is a gas having 20–23 times higher global warming
potential than carbon dioxide. Furthermore, pollution of soil and the groundwater
leads to the production of leachate, gives unpleasant odors, and helps to spread
pathogenic microorganisms. Another method is incineration which is generally used
for solid waste management, which is the major cause of air pollution (as dioxins and
similar persistent organic pollutants can be produced). So usually, landfill or incin-
eration is the least attractive waste management option. But green technology is a
somewhat sustainable approach for solid waste management. Green approaches can
elucidate different eco-friendly methods for sustainable management and cleanup of
the environment.
Best Practices Within Green Technology
Due to the increase in population and economic activity, solid waste management is
turning into a severe issue. Hazardous gas emissions, air pollution, and particulate
matter formation are the typical phenomena in urban and rural regions. Best prac-
tices have arisen through the development of novel concepts and technologies which
are focused on pollution abatement and resource productivity. Considerations of the
different types of interaction between society and the environment have generated
several significant developments in green concepts and technologies over the past
few decades (Bass et al. 2009). Solid waste management solutions must be finan-
cially sustainable, technically feasible, socially and legally acceptable, as well as
environmentally friendly. So waste management requires the use of multi-
disciplinary methods from engineering, sociology, humanities, and biology. Here,
some green methods for solid waste management are discussed.
Recycling
Recycling is one of the best solid waste management strategies. The meaning of
“recycling” refers to the widespread collection and reuse of everyday waste materials.
Recycling is a noteworthy way to keep huge quantities of solid waste to save resources
and save energy. Precycling is a good option that is gaining widespread recognition in
this country. Precycling refers to the consumers making environmentally sound
choices at the point of purchase. The precise technology of recycling includes
collection, separation, preparing the material according to buyer’s requirements, sale
to markets, processing, and reuse of materials. Recycling collection methods may
vary, but the curbside collection is the most popular and has the highest participation
rates. These are collected and arranged into common types so that the raw materials
from which these items are made can be recycled into new products. Material for
recycling may be gathered separately from overall waste using dedicated bins and
collection vehicles or arranged straight from mixed waste streams. The common
consumer products recycled comprise food in steel containers, aluminum, and aerosol
cans, newspapers, magazines, glass bottles/jars, cartons, and corrugated fiber boxes.
The recycling of complex products such as e-waste is tougher due to the additional
disassembling and parting. For some wastes, recycling consists of difficult technical
processes and requires specialized machinery, but others can be recycled easily and on
a small scale. All kinds of organic waste are eligible for recycling by composting,
which can be done at home or on a larger scale. Many types of programs have
contributed to an increase in the rate of recycling. Some benefits of recycling are
pollutant reduction, energy savings, job creation, resource conservation, and a reduced
need for landfills and incinerators. However, there is a need for incentives to encourage
people to participate in recycling programs. To improve the recycling rates, the local
government must encourage the markets for the recycled materials and should help in
the growth of the number of professionals in the recycling companies. So at a
particular place, studying the composition and the categories of solid waste is impor-
tant for integrating different technologies including recycling and resource regaining
concerning solid waste management systems.
Recycling Is a Good Option for Electronic Waste Management

Reusing and recycling are good approaches for electronic wastes management.
These are more preferable because they can increase the life span of the products
and therefore imply less waste over time. Recycling is a safe method to utilize or
dispose of electronic wastes. Since e-waste may contain many valuable and rare
materials, recycling is a significant solution.
But the reuse of secondhand electronic goods in the developing world including
India falls in those types of categories, where the waste ends up locally and where
there is no acceptable facility and competence to deal with them appropriately.
Recycling of Electronic Waste Consists of the Following Two Steps

Pretreatment: In this phase, different technological processes are used for separating
the valuable content from the product so that different fractions of material can be
directed to the recycling process. It consists of many key components like disas-
sembly, size reduction, magnetic separation, electric current separation, density
separation, and disposals (Table 1).
Feedback to Market
After recycling, materials that are separated by pretreatment have the potential to
create a new product. So firstly, these materials fractions are sold to the same
companies which are producing those materials from both primary raw material
sources and secondary sources resulting from recycling. In some precious metals like
copper, integrated copper smelters have high recovery yields of more than 95%.
Organic materials are utilized as substitutes for coke as a reducing agent and as an
energy source. Mostly, electronic components are diverse in composition and struc-
ture. So it is challenging to develop advanced recycling technologies that are suitable
for all the different types of products.
Green Concrete: A Recyclable Product of Solid Waste

Cement manufacturing processes like crushing, transporting of limestone, heating of
kilns, and crushing these all are polluting the environment. So there is an alternative
Table 1 Different process during the pretreatment of e-waste. (Source: Kang and Schoenung
2005)
Method Description
Sorting and For those complex electronic equipment, which contains the valuable
disassembly parts and that will render profit when being separately recycled
For example, printed wiring boards and mercury-containing lamps
Size reduction Mostly, shredders are used for the size reduction process.
Magnetic Ferrous metals are separated from the shredded material.
separation
Electric current Nonferrous metals like aluminum are separated.
separation
Density separation Plastics, copper, and precious metals are separated.
Disposal Left material that has no use
option in place of cement, i.e., green concrete which is cheaper than the raw material of
cement. Green concrete is an eco-friendly material that is made from waste material.
The waste products can be reused and recycle directly as a partial substitute for cement
and save energy consumption during the production of cement. Plant-based agricul-
tural wastes materials like rice husk ash, sawdust ash, rubber crumb, plastic waste,
coconut husk and shell, textile waste (sludge and fiber), etc. can be used in cement
manufacturing processes and green concrete structure. Green concrete can reduce the
quantity of cement used and carbon dioxide emission and reduce global warming. It
can reduce the environmental and ecological problems and also improves the micro-
structures and durability properties of concrete. Other than this, the nanoparticles can
also be used in the concrete structures which act as a filler and activator to promote the
hydration process, and thus, it can develop the microstructures of concrete. Nanosilica
is a good option that can be added to concrete. It can improve the particle packing
structure, reduces the permeability problems in concrete, and enhanced mechanical
properties. Titanium dioxide nanoparticles can also be used in cement manufacturing
processes. It can accelerate the rate of hydration of cement and thus enhance the
strength of the concrete because of its filler effects. Thus, the uniform distribution of
nanoparticles increased the compressive strength in cement mortar. Hence, the cement
manufacturing industries should buy the waste materials from those vendors which
they want to incorporate and substitute in their manufacturing process.
There are some advantages of green concrete like:
• It can reduce environmental pollution.

• It has good thermal and acid resistance.
• Mostly, compressive and split tensile strength are better with some materials
compared to conventional concrete.
• It can reduce the consumption of cement overall.
So green concrete is economical compared to conventional concrete (Table 2).
Bioremediation
Bioremediation is one of the novel methods which can destroy the various waste
contaminants using natural biological activity. It is a process that is used to treat
contaminated media, including soil, subsurface material, and solid waste, by altering
environmental conditions to stimulate the growth of microorganisms and degrade the
target pollutants. Microbes, energy sources, moisture, pH, nutrients, and temperature
Table 2 Some replacement materials for green concrete are listed below
Traditional
ingredients Solid waste as a replacement material for green concrete
Coarse aggregates Waste ready-mix concrete, waste glasses, and recycled aggregates with
crushed glasses
Cement Eco-cement, municipal solid waste fly ash, and sludge ash
Fine aggregates Demolished brick waste, quarry dust, waste glass powder, marble sludge
powder, rock dust, pebbles, fly ash, and mica
are required for the bioremediation process. Bioremediation is less expensive, more
sustainable, eco-compatible, and eco-friendly than other remediation alternatives.
The majority of the bioremediation systems are run under aerobic conditions.
Running a system under anaerobic conditions, however, may allow microbial
creatures to decompose the waste materials. Biodegradation of solid waste is often
a result of the actions of multiple organisms.
The bioremediation method can be broadly divided into two categories, i.e., in
situ bioremediation and ex situ bioremediation. In situ bioremediation provides the
treatment at contaminated sites and avoiding the excavation and transport of con-
taminants. Oxygen and nutrient are provided to the contaminated site in the form of
an aqueous solution in which bacteria grow and help to degrade the organic matter.
In Situ Bioremediation Are of Two Types
Bioventing
Bioventing can be used to degrade any aerobically degradable compounds. In this,
oxygen and nutrient like nitrogen and phosphorus are injected into the
contaminated site.
Biosparging
Biosparging is a method in which air is injected below the groundwater under a
pressure to increase the concentration of oxygen. Enough oxygen is injected for
microbial degradation of pollutants.
Ex Situ Bioremediation
In ex situ bioremediation, the contaminated soil excavates, and that can be treated at
another place. This can be further subdivided into the following categories:
Biopiling
This system comprises a treatment bed, an irrigation system, an aeration system, and
a leachate collection system. Proper degradation depends on moisture, heat, nutri-
ents, oxygen, and pH. Soil is covered with plastic which leads to a reduction of
evaporation and volatilization, and it promotes solar heating.
Land Forming
In this method, waste materials are placed as a layer on the ground surface. This
waste is tilled and mixed with nutrients to increase the microbial biodegradation
process. Oxygen, nutrition, moisture, and pH should also be maintained near pH 7
by the use of lime.
Composting
Composting is the best and easiest method of green technology. Composting is a
biochemical method which is based on an enzymatic decomposition of organic
matter by microbial action to produce methane gas or alcohol. In composting,
organic components are broken down by the naturally occurring bacteria (both
aerobic and anaerobic microbial decomposition may be used). In composting,

humus-converted compost is obtained by the consumption of organic matter and
oxygen by microorganisms. The main purposes of composting are to convert the
separable organic material into the biologically desired suitable material; destroy
pathogens, insect eggs, other unwanted organisms, and weed seeds that may be
found in solid wastes; and produce a product that can be used as soil remediation and
to obtain nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in the maximum amount which is
available for the use of plants (Tosun 2003) (Fig. 6).
Composting is another form of recycling. So composting is a natural tech-
nique of recycling organic wastes into new soil used in flower and vegetable
gardens, landscaping, and many other things. This is a controlled biological
decomposition of organic matters, such as food and yard waste, human waste,
and soil-like materials. Composting products are a very rich inorganic com-
pound, which is used for soil improvement by adding nitrogen and phosphate.
Nowadays, professional growers are discovering that compost-enriched soil can
also help suppress diseases and ward off pests. This type of beneficial use of
compost can help growers to save money, reduce their use of pesticides, and
conserve natural resources.
The composting process consists of the preparation of solid waste, decomposi-
tion, and product preparation for marketing. The first step of the composting activity
is the decomposition of the wastes. However, decomposition should be carried out in
a controlled environment. Production of compost by windrows or static piles can
take from 6 months to 1 year depending on the environmental controls applied and
also the composition of the organic fraction. In this process, mechanical digesters are
used with forced aeration, moisture, seeding, and nutrient fine-tuning to quicken
compost production within a week. The composting of organic fraction of wastes
such as domestic waste and sewage sludge in a landfill produces a gas consisting
mainly of methane which can be collected in a measured and planned way and can be
used in an appropriate process to form energy. Composting takes place quickly when
appropriate conditions are maintained for the growth of microorganisms. The most
important conditions for composting are:
Heat
Particle size
Carbon dioxide
Water
Time
Oxyzen Compost pile
Organic materials Product compost
Microbes
Fig. 6 Different components of the composting process

(i) Proper mixing of organic materials to provide nutrients required for microbial
activity and growth, including the appropriate carbon and nitrogen (C:N) ratio
(ii) Presence of sufficient oxygen for aerobic microorganisms
(iii) Sufficient moisture content should be present, which provides biological activ-
ity without inhibiting ventilation
(iv) Suitable temperatures that provide strong microbial activity
The physical properties of mixing ratios, organic materials, and processing

characteristics are affected by the choice of the composting method. Biodegradation
or composting can be done by using aerobic, anaerobic, and vermicomposting
methods. All types of composting methods are described in Table 3.
Other than this method, mechanical-biological composting is a novel approach
for the composting process. Mechanical-biological composting consists of several
different processes dealing with the biological treatment of waste. It is the combi-
nation of both biological and physical processes, which can be organized in many
different ways. In many European countries such as Germany and Austria, MBT is a
recognized waste treatment technology. These are mostly designed to process
commercial and industrial wastes. Mainly, two steps are necessary for mechanical-
biological composting.
Mechanical Sorting
Various mechanical types of equipment are used to remove recyclable elements from
a mixed waste stream (metals, plastics, glass, and paper). The mechanical sorting
system consists of the different types of industrial magnets, conveyors, eddy current
separators, shredders, trommels, and other tailor-made systems, or the sorting is
manually done at handpicking stations.
Biological Processing
Biological methods are a more convenient method for solid waste management. It
includes composting or biodegradation, anaerobic digestion, and biodrying.
Composting is the usual biological management option (almost 95% of current
biological treatment operations). It is best appropriate for green waste and wooden
materials.
Some Bioremediation Process Is Involved in Special Solid Waste
Bioremediation of Heavy Metals

Among all other environmental problems, soil contamination through heavy metals
becomes a major problem. Heavy metals like cadmium, copper, argon, silver, etc.
can contaminate not only the soil but also groundwater through leaching. Removal
of heavy metals is very important due to their capacity of entering into the food chain
causing adverse effects to human beings that accumulate into the body. These types
of metals can be removed by the use of various biological agents like yeast, fungi,
bacteria, algae, etc. These can act as biosorbents for sequestering the metals.
Biosorption is a reaction between positively charged heavy metals and negatively
Table 3 Different types of composting processes

Types Methods Description
Aerobic composting Composting is a This type of methods is very simple and is
passive stack. mostly suitable for the small- and medium-sized
settlements.
First organic materials are pelleted and waited
for their conversion into a stable product.
Composting in the These are the most commonly used methods.
transitional stack Air is provided for homogeneous mixing of
waste stacks which facilitate the heat movement
and biologically active surface area.
Time duration is 3–9 months for composting
which is dependent on the composition of
compounds.
Passive ventilation Perforated pipes are placed in the stacks to
system provide air inflow into the stack. The ends of
these pipes are open.
The height of the compost pile should be
0.9–1.2 m.
Compressed In this method, ventilation is maintained
ventilation system regularly which reduces the composting time
and odor.
In proper intervals, perforated pipes are placed
under stacks.
The height of pressurized vents is stacked
varying between 2 and 5 m.
Aerated static pile Composting piles are aerated by adding the
composting loosely piled bulk agents like wood chips and
shredded newspaper so that air can be passed
from the bottom to the top of the pile.
These methods are suitable for organic waste as
well as compostable municipal waste.
Time duration is 3–6 months for proper
composting.
Aerated (turned) In this method, waste is laid out in rows of long
windrow piles which is called windrows.
composting It can be aerated by turning the pile periodically
manually or mechanically.
Ideal pile height should be between 4 and 8 ft
with a width of 14–16 ft.
This method is suitable for the large volume of
diverse waste like yard trimmings, grease,
liquids, and animal by-products.
Anaerobic Bokashi It is a special anaerobic technique that involves
composting (absence composting fermenting food waste in a closed container for
of oxygen) a few weeks.
In an anaerobic closed environment,
microorganisms can break down the food
materials.
(continued)
Table 3 (continued)
Types Methods Description
Submerged In this method, composting materials are
composting submerged in water. This will prevent unwanted
odors from fermentation.
Higher moisture content, i.e., 80%, can trap
offending gases and release them slowly.
This method can be used with an open container
and a closed system.
Composting in a A tightly closed container is used for
closed container composting purposes.
Compost raw materials are subjected to an
enclosed setting reactor for decomposition.
Inside the reactor, organic materials first
undergo rapid fermentation (active
composting).
Closed container composting or active
composting can take 1–2 weeks depending on
the selected reactor type.
There are different types of composting in the
closed reactor or container. These are:
Piston stream vertical reactor
Piston flow horizontal reactor
Silo-type reactor
Horizontal rotary drum reactor
Vermicomposting In the presence of Vermicompost is an eco-biotechnology method
an earthworm in which various earthworms like red wigglers,
white worms, and other earthworms are used for
the decomposition of various organic solid
waste.
Vermicompost contains a large number of
nutrients, so it can be used as a commercial plant
medium.
The product of vermicomposting can be applied
for the treatment of sewage.
charged microbial cell membranes. With the help of a transporter, protein metals are
transported to the cell cytoplasm through the cell membrane and get bioaccumulated.
It can sequester dissolved metal ions very quickly and which is more effective.
Microbial species like Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Aspergillus niger remove
almost every toxic heavy metal. Some microbes which are involved in heavy
metal bioremediation are listed in Table 4.
Bioremediation of Xenobiotic Compounds

Xenobiotics are organic chemicals which are foreign to a biological system present at
high concentration in nature and mostly pollute the environment due to the slow rate of
degradation or nonbiodegradable nature. These leads to biomagnification or
Table 4 Showing the name of microbial species and removal elements (application of
bioremediation)
Microbial
group Name of the species Heavy metals References
Protozoa Tetrahymena rostrata Mercury Muneer et al.
2013
Bacteria Bacillus species Cadmium, copper, and zinc Gunasekaran
et al. 2003
Cellulosimicrobium Chromium Chatterjee et al.
cellulans, Micrococcus sp., 2011
and Stenotrophomonas sp.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa Cadmium, lead, iron, copper, Jayashree et al.
uranium, radium, nickel, and 2012
silver
Micrococcus roseus Cadmium Motesharezadeh
2008
Escherichia coli Zinc and vanadium Grass et al. 2002
Fungus Saccharomyces cerevisiae Uranium, lead, mercury, and Chen and Wang
nickel 2007
Trichoderma viride and Mercury Javed et al. 2007
Humicola insolens
Aspergillus niger Cadmium, zinc, thorium, Guibal et al.
uranium, silver, and copper 1995
Aspergillus fumigates Uranium Wang et al. 2010
Algae Oedogonium rivulare Chromium, nickel, zinc, iron, Chatterjee et al.
manganese, copper, lead, 2011
cadmium, and cobalt
Spirulina sp. Chromium Mane and
Bhosle 2012
Chlorella vulgaris Cadmium, copper, and lead Goher et al. 2016
Nostoc sp. Nickel and iron Kumaran et al.
2011
bioaccumulation of xenobiotic compounds. These compounds are divided into differ-

ent groups like halocarbons, synthetic polymers, alkyl benzyl sulfonates, oil mixture,
etc. The majority of xenobiotic compounds are of commercial importance and are used
as solvents, insecticides, flame retardants, dielectrics, a paint-removing compound
(dichloromethane), etc. In some cases, xenobiotics are not acted as a source of energy
for microbes, so they are not degraded by microbes. Only the presence of a suitable
substrate, i.e., co-metabolite, can induce its breakdown, and the process is called
co-metabolism. Other than this, there is another process for xenobiotic metabolism,
i.e., gratuitous metabolism present in nature. In this metabolism, xenobiotics only serve
as a substrate. Sometimes, on continuous exposure of xenobiotic to the microbial
population, it generates mutant condition or mutant allele in microbes. So some mutant
conditions are important for the developing new enzymatic pathway for xenobiotic
degradation. For an effective breakdown of the xenobiotic compound, different mixed
populations of microbe can be used. It gives an effective result of xenobiotic
degradation. Nowadays, certain genes of microbes are modified to break xenobiotic

effectively. The algae proved to be effective in hyperaccumulation of heavy metals as
well as degradation of xenobiotics. Some microbes which are involved in the biore-
mediation of xenobiotics are listed in Table 5.
Bioremediation of Agricultural Waste: Vermiremediation

Agricultural waste is the undesirable waste created as a result of agricultural pro-
cedures (i.e., manure, fertilizer, silage plastics, pesticides and herbicides, poultry
houses and slaughterhouses, wastes from farms, and veterinary medicines). Disposal
and eco-friendly management of these wastes have become a global priority.
Therefore, vermiremediation is an efficient technology that can convert such
nutrient-rich organic wastes into value-added products for sustainable land and
resource management. Vermiremediation is an earthworm-based bioremediation
technology in which the earthworm or vermin-endophyte interacts intensively with
the microorganism that accelerates the stabilization of organic matter and results in
improved growth and yield of crop plants. Mostly, vermiremediation is carried out
through vermicomposting or bio-oxidative process. This has been renowned as a
potential method for solid waste management and has gained considerable interest
in China, Italy, the Netherlands, Philippines, Nigeria, Thailand, Hong Kong,
Singapore, and India. Vermicomposting is a kind of composting technique in
which specific species of earthworms and microorganisms are used to improve the
Table 5 Some microorganism group involved in bioremediation of xenobiotics

Microbial
group Name of species Xenobiotic compounds References
Bacteria Arthrobacter sp. Endosulfate compounds Weir et al.
2006
Pseudomonas putida Naphthalene Habe and
Omori 2003
Mycobacterium PYR-1 Pyrene Kanaly et al.
2000
Rhodococcus RHA1 Polychlorinated biphenyl Kimbara et al.
2005
Fungus Echinodontium taxodii Azo dyes: brilliant violet 5R Han et al.
and direct red 5B 2014
Clavariopsis aquatic Endocrine disruptor: Junghanns
nonylphenol et al. 2005
Peniophora incarnata Polycyclic aromatic Lee et al.
hydrocarbons 2016
Phanerochaete chrysosporium Polychlorinated biphenyl Chen et al.
2,4-dichlorophenol 2011
Algae Selenastrum capricornutum Benzene, toluene, and Gavrilescu
naphthalene 2010
Chlamydomonas reinhardtii Herbicide (prometryne) Jin et al. 2012
Chlorella sorokiniana and Phenanthrene Munoz et al.
Pseudomonas migulae 2003
process of organic waste conversion and produce a better end product. Earthworms
that are used for vermiculture can extract toxic heavy metals, including cadmium and
lead, from the agricultural solid waste. Here, microorganism helps in degradation of
organic matter, and earthworms drive the process and conditioning to the substrate
and altering the biological activity. Eisenia fetida, Eisenia tetraedra, L. terrestris,
L. rubellus, and Allolobophora chlorotica are some species of earthworm that were
reported to remove heavy metals, pesticides, and lipophilic organic micropollutants
from the soil.
During the process of rotting, the worm’s digestive system can separate heavy
metal ions from the complex aggregates between the ions and humic substances in
the waste. By the action of various enzyme-driven processes, metal ions are assim-
ilated in worm’s tissue rather than released back in the compost and worm cast. Due
to the various types of enzyme processes, metal ions are assimilated and locked up in
worm’s tissue rather than being released back into the compost as worm casts. So a
huge amount of agricultural waste can be converted to biofertilizer by the
vermicomposting process. A high level of humus with reduced phytotoxicity is
produced through the vermicomposting processes. These compost products can be
used in growing human food without the risk of accumulating heavy metals in crops.
Vermicompost can also act as a buffering material by the biostabilization of waste
and work as a biofilter by the removal of heavy metals from the solid waste.
Moreover, vermicompost can act as a buffering material by limiting the acid phase
and enhancing waste biostabilization. Vermicompost can also be a biofilter by
removing heavy metals from the leachate by adsorption (Table 6).
Bioremediation of Plastic and Rubber

In solid waste, rubber and plastic both constitute a major amount. Due to the physical
composition of rubber, it cannot be degraded or recycle fast as compare to another
constituent of solid waste. On the burning of rubber and plastic, a large number of
Table 6 Some studies concerning vermiremediation of some pollutants in earthworms

Species Active component Contaminants References
Lumbricus Di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate Disposed of in dumps and Albro et al.
terrestris landfills 1993
Lumbricus Dichlorvos Insecticide Ahmed
terrestris and Chlorpyrifos et al. 2020
Eudrilus
eugeniae
Eisenia fetida Fenamiphos Insecticide Caceres
et al. 2011
Eisenia andrei Polycyclic aromatic Dead organic matter Stroomberg
hydrocarbons et al. 2004
Eisenia fetida Diniconazole A systemic chiral fungicide Wang et al.
2014
Eisenia fetida Perfluorooctanesulfonamide Industrial and commercial Wen et al.
products (synthetic 2015
organofluorine compound)
toxic fumes along with carbon monoxide are produced which are the major envi-
ronmental problem (Adhikari et al. 2000). A toxic chemical composition like zinc
oxides of rubber mostly inhibits the growth of sulfur-oxidizing and other naturally
occurring bacteria which slows down the natural degradation process of rubber. The
degree of plastic and rubber biodegradation in natural ecosystems is affected by the
nature of the substrate to be degraded and by environmental and microbiological
factors. Several environmental pollutions by synthetic polymers, such as waste
plastics and water-soluble synthetic polymers, are a large problem in soil and
water bodies. So bioremediation is a great approach for plastic and rubber degrada-
tion and management.
Bioremediation can give knowledge about the recycling of rubber and plastics,
and we can reuse these high-quality compounds. There are so many microbes that
are involved in the bioremediation process in rubber and plastics. Some are
discussed below in Tables 7 and 8.
Phytoremediation
Phytoremediation is a novel, attractive, emerging, and cost-effective technology in
which specific plants are used to absorb and biomagnify various elements from a
Table 7 Microbes involved in plastic degradation

Types of plastic
Bacteria Fungus degraded References
Rhodococcus rube Rhodococcus rube Polyethylene (synthetic Gilan et al.
polymers) 2004
Pseudomonas stutzeri Penicillium sp. and Polyhydroxyalkanoates Ghosh
and Alcaligenes faecalis Aspergillus sp. (bacterial polyesters) et al. 2013
Alcaligenes faecalis and Fusarium Polycaprolactone Oda et al.
Clostridium botulinum (synthetic polyester) 1997
Bacillus brevis Fusarium moniliforme Polylactic acid Kim and
and Penicillium Rhee 2003
roqueforti
Table 8 Microbes and enzymes involved in rubber metabolism

Microbes Gordonia polyisoprenivorans and Gordonia westfalica Linos et al. 2002
Pyrococcus furiosus and Thiobacillus ferrooxidans Stevenson et al.
2008
Streptomyces coelicolor strain 1A natural rubber latex Adhikari et al.
2000
Xanthomonas sp. strain 35Y natural rubber Tsuchii and
Takeda 1990
Nocardia sp. (strain 835A), NR, SR, and cross-linked NR. Tsuchii and
Tokiwa 1999
Enzyme Lcp (latex-clearing protein) Ibrahim et al.
2006
RoxA (rubber oxygenase A) Xanthomonas sp. both natural and Rose and
synthetic polyisoprene material Steinbuchel 2005
polluted environment and metabolize them into various biomolecules in their tissue.
It is sustainable, compatible, and eco-friendly and constitutes one of the main
components of green technology. It is a plant-based technology, which uses green
plants to remediate contaminated and polluted sites (Sadowsky 1999). Some plants
possess the natural ability to degrade numerous recalcitrant xenobiotics and are thus
called green livers which act as an essential sink for environmentally obnoxious
chemicals. Different processes like phytoextraction, phytostabilization, hemofiltration,
and phytofiltration are used in phytoremediation processes which can help to reduce
the pollutants from contaminated regions. Under a certain condition, this type of
technique offers an excellent system for the development of plants with the potential
for cleaning metal-contaminated soils and polluted areas by using adequate crop
management systems. Other than this, certain plant roots and their exudates increase
microbial numbers and activity in the soil. So plants and bacteria are known to form
mutual associations in which the plants provide the bacteria with a specific carbon
source that induces the bacteria to reduce the phytotoxicity of the contaminated soil.
So to develop a new crop, species which have capabilities of metal extraction from a
polluted environment, different breeding techniques like hybrid generation through
protoplast fusions, and the production of mutagens through radiation and chemicals
are all in progress (Table 9).
Microbial-Assisted Phytoremediation System

Only decontaminating properties of the plant are not sufficient to remediate the
polluted site. So mutually endophytic bacteria play a major role in enhancing
bioremediation process. Endophytic bacteria also protect plants from the toxic
effects of pollutants accumulated in them. Endophytic bacteria have metal resistance
and sequestering system through which it lessens the metal toxicity in host plants
and enhances the metal translocation to aerial parts, hence minimizing the stress in
the niche. Some examples of endophytic bacteria and their corresponding plants are
enlisted in Table 10.
Greening on Dumping Site

Greening on dumping sites can prevent the accumulation of solid waste in the area
by modifying the physical characters of that dumping site. Mostly, plants secrete
cationic chelators, organic acids, or some enzyme-like phosphatase which will
increase the nutrient availability in soil. Some degrading and non-degrading species
compete for these nutrients, and it will influence contaminant degradation. Other
than increasing nutrient availability, root exudates of plants can increase the bio-
availability of contaminants by competing with the contaminant for binding sites on
the soil matrix. The increasing bioavailability of contaminants by plants leads to a
degradation process. For remediation and rehabilitation of dumpsite, endemic spe-
cies of the plant should be selected for greater results. Species diversity also plays a
major role in the remediation and rehabilitation of dumpsite. It depends on the nature
of the waste origin, the local flora, and the conditions prevailing at the landfill.
5
Table 9 Types and processes involved in phytoremediation (Nagendran et al. 2006)

Mechanism Definition Media Contaminants Plants
Phytoextraction Uptake and translocation of Contaminated soils Metals such as nickel, zinc, and Hyperaccumulators, for
(phytoaccumulation) contaminants in the soil by plant copper example, Thlaspi, Alyssum,
roots into the aboveground biomass and Brassica
(shoots, leaves, etc.)
Rhizofiltration Sorption of contaminants from Groundwater, Copper, lead cadmium, zinc, and Aquatic plants (e.g.,
aqueous solutions onto plant roots surface water, and nickel duckweed, pennywort), also
or absorption of contaminants in the wastewater Brassica, and sunflower
solution surrounding the root zone
Phytovolatilization Plants take up contaminants from Soil, sediment, or Mercury, volatile organic Trees for VOCs in
the soil, transforming them into water compounds, and (trichloroethene) groundwater; Brassica,
volatile forms and volatilize them inorganic chemicals in the volatile grasses, and wetlands
Greenways for Solid Waste Management
from the foliage. form

Phytotransformation Sorption, uptake, and Soil, groundwater, Organics, including chlorinated Grasses and trees
transformation of contaminants landfill leachates, aliphatics and nitroaromatics
and fuel spills
Phytostabilization Mostly, plants can immobilize Soil, sediment, and Lead as well as cadmium, Metal-tolerant species and
contaminants in the soil and sludge chromium, arsenic, copper, grasses
groundwater through absorption and zinc.
and accumulation by roots,
adsorption onto roots, or
precipitation within the root zone of
plants.
Phytodegradation Refers to the degradation of Soil, sediment, or Organic contaminants, such as Poplar trees (Populus spp.)
complex organic molecules to groundwater chlorinated solvents, herbicides,
simple molecules or the and munitions
incorporation of these molecules
into plant tissues
(continued)
153
154
Table 9 (continued)
Mechanism Definition Media Contaminants Plants
Rhizodegradation Breakdown of contaminants within Contaminated soil Organics, for example, polycyclic Grasses, alfalfa, and many
(phytostimulation) the plant root or rhizosphere area aromatic hydrocarbons, chlorinated other species including trees
solvents, pesticides, and
polychlorinated
Hydraulic control Removal of large volumes of water Soil, sediment, or Inorganics, nutrients, and Phreatophytic trees and plants
plume capture/ from aquifers by trees groundwater chlorinated solvents like Poplar and willow
phytotrans
Phytorestauration Refers to revegetation of barren Soil and sediments Fly ash and mine waste deposits Grasses and legumes, shrubs,
areas by fast-growing resistant and trees
species that efficiently cover the
soil
Phytocapping Plants consume rainwater and Soil, sediments, Landfill sites Trees like Acacia mangium
decrease leaching and pollutant and sludge and grasses
movement.
Constructed Engineered systems that use natural Contaminated soils Metals, acid mine drainage, and Free-floating, emergent, or
wetlands functions, vegetation, soil, and and surface water industrial and municipal submergent vegetation; reeds,
organisms to treat wastewater. wastewater cattails, and bamboo
Removal of large volumes of
groundwater by trees
A. Kumari et al.
Table 10 Endophyte-assisted phytoremediation of different contaminants

Plant
species Microbes Contaminants References
Brassica Rhizobium leguminosarum and in combination Zinc Adediran
juncea with Pseudomonas brassicacearum et al. 2015
Enterobacter aerogenes Nickel and Kumar et al.
chromium 2009
Bacillus subtilis strain SJ-101 Nickel Zaidi et al.
2006
Salix alba Pseudomonas putida PD1 Cadmium Khan et al.
2014
Zea mays Gordonia sp. strain S2RP-17 Diesel oil Hong et al.
2011
Pseudomonas sp. strain UG14Lr and Phenanthrene/ Chouychai
Pseudomonas putida strain MUB1 pyrene et al. 2009
Hordeum Pseudomonas fluorescens and Pseudomonas Phenanthrene Anokhina
vulgare aureofaciens et al. 2004
Thlaspi Arbuscular mycorrhizal colonization Cadmium and Vogel-Mikus
praecox lead et al. 2005
Landfill Capping (Clay and Photocopying)

Biodegradation of solid waste or organic matter in a landfill site happens more
swiftly when water comes into contact with the dumped waste. Landfill capping is
the most common and less expensive remediation process for the degradation of
dumped waste than other technologies. Landfill caps can be used to minimize
exposure on the surface which prevents the vertical infiltration of water into wastes
that would create contaminated leachate, control gas emissions from underlying
waste, and create a land surface that can support vegetation and is used for other
purposes. Clay cap can reduce the infiltration of rainfall and the production of
leachates.
But according to most of the researchers, clay capping is an ineffective
method for degradation. In arid regions, clay caps become dried that produce
cracks, and these cracks allow the water to easily percolate into landfills. Hence,
a new technique evolved which is known as phytocapping or vegetative capping.
It is a long-term, self-sustaining cover of plants growing in or over materials that
threaten the environment. In this technique, particular plant species are
established on an unconsolidated soil located over the waste. Unconsolidated
soil acts as “storage” and “sponge,” and the plants act as “bio-pumps” or
“rainfall interceptors.” The vegetative cap can reduce that risk to an acceptable
level and requires minimal maintenance. Vegetative caps are also called “alter-
native covers” and “evapotranspiration landfill covers.” The main purpose of this
type of vegetative cap is to increase evapotranspiration from the landfill surface
which enhances bioremediation. The vegetative cap can also stabilize waste
rapidly and reduce the production of greenhouse gases like methane and carbon
dioxide. Some disadvantages are also related to vegetative capping like pests and
tree-destroying capacity.
Genetic Engineering Technique in Bioremediation

Nowadays, genetic engineering techniques are mostly used for the development of a
new organism with beneficial properties that apply to the bioremediation of pollut-
ants. Due to the enhanced degradative capabilities of these modified genetically
engineered organisms, they are used for bioremediation in soil and in activated
sludge environments. Genetically engineered microorganism possesses an enzyme
that degrades the contaminants which are present in pollutants. Microorganisms
have the potential to reduce various pollutants like chloroaromatics, nitroaromatics,
biphenyls, polycyclic aromatics, and polychlorinated biphenyls. To enhance the
capabilities of bacteria for efficient biodegradation, several strategies are followed.
There are different types of strategies that are present like designer biocatalysts,
protein engineering, and pathway modification for the full degradation of a substrate.
Designer biocatalysts mean artificially designed catabolic pathways. Through
genetic modulation, several microorganisms are modified to make them a potent
biocatalyst. These types of biocatalyst can generate novel, improved, and efficient
degradation activities. For example, this technique has been used to alter the
substrate specificity of a biphenyl dioxygenase enzyme which is involved in PCB
degradation in Pseudomonas sp. LB400 and Pseudomonas alcaligenes KF707 19.
Another approach, i.e., protein engineering, is exploited in microorganisms to
improve an enzyme’s stability, substrate specificity, and kinetic properties. Site-
directed mutagenesis is used to understand the structural and functional relationship
in a protein molecule. For the biodegradation process, various types of chimeric and
protein variants are produced by DNA-shuffling methods. The third approach is
pathway modification in which pathways for the substrate are modified for proper
metabolism. A complete pathway for a particular substrate may not be present in a
single organism. The partial or complementary pathway may be present in a different
organism. So new organisms develop with a complete pathway for a substrate by
combining complementary pathways segments from a different organism in a single
organism. A complete pathway is needed because end metabolites produced by
incomplete pathways may be toxic. Different categories of a genetically modified
organism, which are applicable in bioremediation, are discussed below (Table 11).
Genetically Engineered Fungi for Mycoremediation

Genetic engineering can be a good approach to modify the enzyme activities and
affinities of target compounds and for the development of new techniques in fungal
adaptation. Cloning of fungal genes can be done to meet the objectives of
mycoremediation. Designed a mutant gene and the mutant fungal gene can be used
for the treatment of wastes and wastewaters. Recently, 30 fungal species have been
screened for a gene that encodes lignin peroxidase. Genome sequencing also plays a
pivotal role in the remediation process. So different approaches like the extraction of
genetic material (RNA and DNA), gene cloning, and genetic engineering of fungi are
used for mycoremediation. The growth of biotechnology for consuming white-rot
fungi for environmental pollution control has been applied to treat various refractory
wastes and to remediate polluted soils. By the use of biotechnological modification,
white-rot fungi are used for environmental pollution control.
Table 11 Genetically engineered bacteria involved in the remediation of some pollutants

Gene Source Bacteria Target pollutant References
Toluene Pseudomonas Deinococcus Toluene, Lange et al.
dioxygenase putida F1 radiodurans chlorobenzene, and 1998
3,4-dichloro-1-
butene
Polyphosphate Pseudomonas Pseudomonas Uranyl group Renninger
kinase aeruginosa aeruginosa et al. 2004
Metallothionein Neurospora Escherichia Cadmium Pazirandeh
gene crassa coli et al. 1995
Metallothionein Mouse Ralstonia Cadmium Valls et al.
I (MT) protein eutropha 2000
CH34
merC Acidithiobacillus Escherichia Mercury (radioactive Sasaki et al.
ferrooxidans coli waste sites from 2005
nuclear weapons)
Transgenic Plants for Remediation of Heavy Metals and Pollutants

Bacteria can only transform metals from one oxidation state to another but not
extract these metals from the polluted soil or degrade these pollutants. Plants are
mostly hyperaccumulators. Nowadays, more than 400 hyperaccumulator plants like
Asteraceae, Brassicaceae, Cyperaceae, Cunoniaceae, Fabaceae, Lamiaceae,
Poaceae, and Euphorbiaceae have been reported. Among these Brassicaceae family
is a very important hyperaccumulator group. Plants consist of a family of meta-
llothionein genes that encode cysteine-rich peptides. These are generally composed
of 60–80 amino acids and 9–16 cysteine residues (1997). These metallothionein
genes can protect plants from toxic metals like cadmium, cobalt, copper, mercury,
and nickel. So these metallothionein genes have been introduced into several plant
species. So the introduction of genes for the degradation of metals or pollutants from
microorganisms or eukaryotes to the plant is a good option for waste management.
Similarly, another group of metal-binding proteins like phytochelatins is involved in
heavy metal sequestration. Phytochelatins group can store these metal complexes in
vacuoles. Nowadays, genetic engineering is used for the synthesis of metal chelators,
which will improve the plant metal uptake capacity. Transgenic Brassica juncea can
express different enzymes which involve in phytochelatin synthesis. These trans-
genics can accumulate more cadmium and zinc from the polluted soil. Breeding or
genetic modification is also another option for heavy metals remediation. Some
transgenic plants with their target pollutants are discussed below (Table 12).
Role of Nanotechnology in Solid Waste Management:

Nanobioremediation
Nanotechnology is used to control and manipulate materials that are less toxic and
renewable. This can be used to build up raw materials into products using only the
material that is needed. The removal of pollutants by enhancing microbial activity
(e.g., heavy metals, organic and inorganic toxins) using nanoparticles/nanomaterials
shaped by plants, fungi, and microbes with the assistance of nanotechnology is
Table 12 Genetically engineered plant involved in the remediation of some pollutants

Gene Source Plant Target pollutant References
Glutathione Rice Indian mustard Cadmium Zhu et al.
synthetase tolerance 1999
MT2 gene Human Tobacco and oilseed Cadmium Misra and
rape tolerance Gedamu
1989
Se-cys lyase Mouse Arabidopsis sp. Selenium Pilon et al.
tolerance and 2003
accumulation
γ-ECS Escherichia Poplar tree hybrid Higher He et al. 2015
coli (Populus tremula accumulation of
P. alba) cadmium
CYP1A1, Homo Oryza sativa Herbicide Kawahigashi
CYP2B6, and sapiens (atrazine, et al. 2006
CYP2C19 metolachlor)
NfsA Escherichia Arabidopsis thaliana Trinitrotoluene Kurumata
coli et al. 2005
GstI-6His Zea mays Nicotiana tabaccum Alachlor Karavangeli
et al. 2005
called nanobioremediation. These nanoparticles are produced either intracellular or

by an extracellular method. Nanoparticles can utilize and degrade the heavy metals/
pesticides/insecticides (organic/inorganic pollutants) from the polluted environment.
So combining the effect of nano-biotechnology along with bioremediation can be an
efficient, effective, and sustainable solution for a clean environment. For example,
the removal of organic pollutants like herbicides (i.e., atrazine, molinate) and
pesticides (i.e., chlorpyrifos) is degraded directly using nZVI (zerovalent nano ions).
Source Reduction Technique

Nanotechnology is used to control and manipulate materials that are less toxic and
renewable. Nanotechnology can be used to build up raw materials into products
using only the material that is needed. For example, cathode ray tubes (CRT), which
contain many toxic materials (primarily lead), have been replaced by newer liquid
crystalline displays that are smaller and consume less power than CRT display
monitors. One of the major features that nanotechnology offers is the ability to
produce and manipulate substances at the nanoscale. Nanomaterials coatings for
corrosion protection, antifouling agents, and self-cleaning surfaces are a few leads
reported in limiting the solid waste in the complete environment cycle.
Green and Renewable Energy

With the increasing population, energy demand is increasing day by day globally.
Most of the developing countries depend on natural fossil fuels like coal and
nuclear energy to fulfill their energy demand. Scientists estimated that the
exhaustion of oil and gas reserves is present on earth by near 50–60 years if
consumed at current rates. So it generates the need for green and continuum
energy sources. A biofuel is a good option for this. Biofuel is a total amount of
energy that can be produced from living organisms or biomass. Biofuel production
processes either use photosynthesis pathways by the use of microorganisms or
some opting chemical oxidation/reduction reaction techniques. Chemical reactions
based on oxidation and reduction are generally endothermic. It demands the need
for an intermediate activator or catalyst. So nanotechnology plays a major role in a
catalytic reaction. Nanomaterial which contains a high aspect ratio and more
surface area and is highly active to thermal dissipation provides space for a
chemical reaction. For example, iron and nickel nanoparticles as catalytic mixtures
of iron carbonyl, and nickel carbonyl, are used in the oxidation of cyclohexane for
the conversion of biomass to biofuel. It boosts up the process by 40% of previ-
ously reported works. Other than this, recently, scientists evolve a method to
extracted algal biofuel by using nanocatalysts without rapturing the membranes
of algae.
Waste Treatment and Recycling Using Nanotechnology

Plastics are a major solid waste, and disposal of plastic products can damage the
soil characteristics. To prevent such adverse effects, researchers have identified
some nanocomposites to improve biodegradable plastic wrap for food materials.
Polymer nanocomposites can add a small number of nanoparticles during poly-
merization. It enhances plasticity without increasing the plasticizing contents.
Nowadays, cement-producing companies have been adopting nanofillers and nano-
composites to increase the strength and durability of cement products. By adding
various types of nanomaterials to cement can enhance the ability to absorb air
pollutants. Due to the reactivity and catalytic properties of nanoparticles, these are
used to absorb air pollutants, for example, use of zerovalent iron (ZVI) in
wastewater treatment. Other than this, scientists have been exploring and evolving
various biological-inspired organic polymers and dendrimers for solid waste treat-
ments. These dendrites are branched organic macromolecules with the free end,
medical groups. These types of medical groups provide reactive sites and surfaces.
Different studies show that the use of a nanomaterial as catalytic converters can
remove heavy metal ions from the soil. In Table 13, some nanoparticles are
discussed with their removal of contaminants.
Green Manufacturing
Green manufacturing is mainly related to the producers. It is a producer’s responsi-
bility to develop a product that will not be a threat to the environment after its end-of-
life state. It is concerned over the development of sustainable products by enhancing
the quality of the product and also restricting the use of hazardous components. The
approach of green manufacturing follows the following aspects:
Table 13 Application of different nanoparticles in environment remediation

Nature of the Contaminant to be
contaminant removed Nanoparticles References
Organic dyes Malachite green Zinc Kumar et al.
2014
Methylene blue Copper Sinha and
Ahmaruzzaman
2015
Metal/ Zn2+ and Cu2+ from Gold coated with chitosan Sugunan et al.
nonmetal aqueous solutions polymer 2005
Fluoride Carbon nanotubes/Al2O3 Li et al. 2001
nanocomposite
Lead Polyacrylic acid – stabilized Esfahani et al.
zerovalent iron nanoparticles 2013
Zerovalent iron Hexachlorocyclohexanes Elliott et al. 2008
nanoparticles
Microorganism Escherichia coli and MgO nanoparticles Samadi et al.
Listeria monocytogenes 2016
Bacillus subtilis Mg-doped ZnO Auger et al. 2019
(A) Lean design: The main approach of this method is the reduction of non-value-
added resources. Lean manufacturing can enhance an organization’s environ-
mental performance.
(B) Quality control: One of the quality control measures like six sigma gives a
solution for sustainable product development with a longer product life
cycle. It can remove the process variations. Reducing the level of process
variation can lead to reduced waste, fewer inputs required, and lesser energy
expenditure.
(C) Restrictions on hazardous substances: Hazardous substances should be
restricted or limited in the manufacturing process for proper eco-friendly
management.
(D) Multipurpose design: This type of strategy limits the manufacturing process of
many devices, which leads to a decrease in solid waste generation up to a
significant level.
“Green Manual”: This is a user manual that is associated with the guidance to
users about the handling of devices after its end-of-life. It contains the take-back
policies, information of all types of constituents and materials used, a list of
hazardous components contact details, and procedures for solid waste handling.
Green Conversion of Solid Wastes (Waste to Energy)

Green conversion of solid waste into valuable fuel and chemicals is an alternative
solution that has gained the interest of both scientific and public opinion. The green
conversion methods include both biological (e.g., anaerobic digestion) and thermo-
chemical conversion (e.g., gasification, pyrolysis, torrefaction) methods. The main
Table 14 Different green conversion processes for solid waste with description, by-product, and
their uses
Green conversion
process Description By-product Uses
1) Biotechnological In the presence of Ethanol (liquid Mostly used as a vehicle
process (enzymatic microorganisms, an biofuel) fuel (blending with
hydrolysis) organic fraction of solid gasoline at different
waste is converted into ratios)
different molecules. Methane Used as a vehicle fuel
(biogas:
anaerobic
digestion)
Hydrogen It is an alternative to
(gaseous and traditional fuels.
eco-friendly It can be directly used
fuel) for the production of
electricity through
hydrogen fuel cells.
2) Thermochemical Elevated temperatures
processes with fast conversion rates
a) Gasification Reacting the solid waste Syngas (carbon Used as a clean fuel gas
at high temperatures monoxide, in a conventional
(>700 C), without hydrogen, burner or coupled to a
combustion, with a carbon dioxide, boiler or a steam
controlled amount of methane) turbine
oxygen
b) Pyrolysis The thermochemical Char and Used to produce
decomposition process is condensable charcoal and coke.
conducted under oxygen- gases Char may be used in
deficient conditions with energy production as a
temperatures ranging soil amendment and
between 300 C and for long-term carbon
650 C. sequestration.
The pyrolytic liquid
can be used as a fuel
product (bio-oil).
c) Torrefaction It is mild and slow Char Used as a water
pyrolysis, operated at purification adsorbent
ambient pressure with an and for in situ soil
inert atmosphere at remediation
temperatures ranging
between 200 C and
350 C
objective of these methods is to promote the recycling of solid waste and the
conversion of waste to efficient energy and valuable chemicals. So many valuable
by-products are produced that are ethanol, biogas, hydrogen, biopesticides, oils from
microalgae, enzymes, char, and condensable gases from these green conversion
methods (Table 14).
Policies Responsibilities and Public Awareness to Support

the Greenways for Solid Waste Management
Economic sustainability and economic growth are two major objectives that should
be incorporated in solid waste management. For profitable investment in the waste
management sector, different policies and incentives should be developed. There are
some constrains or barriers for proper solid waste management in this section like
increasing quantities and changing composition of solid waste, rapid increasing of
cost of waste management, limited and less developed waste management policy
framework, lack of political priority in solid waste management, lack of proper
planning for solid waste management, shortage of well-trained staff and technical
expertise in solid waste management, and lack of public awareness for solid waste
management. Different policies should be proposed to overcome these types of
constraints in solid waste management. Some policies are:
(a) Promotion and adoption of sustainable integrated solid waste management

(ISWM) strategies with a special focus on the waste management hierarchy
(b) There should be the development of policy and institutional frameworks to
support the ISWM.
(c) C. Financial framework should be proper, and it should reflect full-cost
accounting.
(d) For the recycling industry, there should be proper market incentives.
(e) Promoting awareness regarding waste avoidance, reuse, and recycling (3Rs) by
waste generators
(f) Developing an effective capacity for the safe management of hazardous waste
(g) Promoting the active participation of regional corporations in research and
development related to solid waste management
(h) For proper solid waste management, there should be development and imple-
mentation of sustainable public awareness campaigns like the promotion of
clean week where public, service provider, and government officials should
participate in solid waste management.
Future Research
Waste, which is caused by public and industrial sectors, is harmful directly or

indirectly to the standard of living and health of the public. Uncontrolled and
uncollected waste may create various infectious diseases. Site selection should be
done usually based on the understanding of potential effects on surface and under-
ground water resources because dumping can affect both water and health quality of
people and habitant animals. Mostly, rural and urban areas are at high risk where
uncontrolled dumping occurs. The presence of drugs, chemicals, and poisonous
spoiled food can create a hazardous situation for people. So these problems are not
only related to the environment but also the public health sectors. To overcome these
problems, precaution should be systematic, eco-friendly, and cost-effective.
Accurate waste reporting methods should be implemented to get uniform knowledge

about solid waste. These can help in recycling targets to be set and responses
measured and also the diversion of different waste types from the disposal. If
waste data is correct, it becomes easy to choose/implement the correct technology
at the correct time. Different technology related to clean and eco-friendly should be
developed to manage solid waste properly. Other than this, future studies should be a
focus on the genetically engineered microorganisms for in situ and ex situ bioreme-
diation strategies and also the applicability and adaptability of these genetically
engineered microorganisms in all the possible adverse conditions. Bioremediation
and phytoremediation can be good treatment strategies for solid waste, but other than
this, more research information and techniques are required to prepare different
methods for the treatment.
Conclusion
With the increase in population, economy, and commercialization of the world, solid
waste is increasing in an unstoppable way. So waste management is a challenging
issue at the global platform. Traditional methods of waste management like com-
bustion and landfills harm the environment and society. So the greenway is a novel
approach for solid waste management that turns a waste product into a valuable form
of energy resource. Three R’s, i.e., reuse, recycle, and reduce, are the backbone of
green management technology. Many practices like recycling, bioremediation,
genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and green manufacturing are adopted to man-
age solid waste in a greenway. Recycling can transform the wastes into valuable
resources and generates a host of environmental, financial, and social benefits. Other
than this, recycling can reduce the demand for raw materials by extending their life
and maximizing the value extracted for them. The bioremediation technique is an
eco-friendly and cost-effective approach to manage solid waste effectively. So
microorganisms play a crucial role in the bioremediation process. It can remove or
detoxify solid waste from the environment. Other than these, green plants can also
remove, inactivate, or degrade harmful environmental contaminants (generally
termed phytoremediation) as an emerging technology. On the other hand,
vermiremediation provides an instrumental solution for managing waste. Earth-
worms are used to convert solid organic materials and wastes into vermicompost
which acts as a soil conditioner and nutrient-rich manure for plant growth. A
combined approach of phytoremediation and vermiremediation can enhance the
removal rate of contaminants. So this approach is a boon to waste management
strategies. A biotechnological approach like genetically engineered organisms for
bioremediation would be an eco-friendly and cost-effective alternative for the
management and remediation of pollutants in contaminated sites. By the use of
recombinant DNA and RNA technologies, various microorganisms have been
developed and utilized for the removal of heavy metals and toxic substances from
contaminated sites. Other than these, transgenic plants which are developed through
genetic engineering can also mobilize or degrade chlorinated solvents, xenobiotic
compounds, explosives, and phenolic substances which are major constituents of

solid waste. Green manufacturing is also a good approach to reduce the product
which contains plenty of waste directly with the help of producers. Other than this,
green conversion is also a novel approach that can convert different solid wastes into
a valuable product or energy. Sustainable integrated solid waste management
(ISWM) strategies are also a good approach to waste management. From this, it is
clear to understand that waste management is not only a technical issue but also a
political and economic issue. So in the area of waste management, education and
awareness play a pivotal role. So there is a need to reorganize the priorities and take
necessary measures to manage solid waste in a greenway. The development and
implementation of national and local waste management strategies, policies, legis-
lation, and financial incentives focus on a life cycle (cradle to cradle) approach.
Sound investment in waste management infrastructure, equipment, and services that
support the local economy, utilize local expertise, and minimize environmental and
social costs can be costly, but their absence can be equally as costly.
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Waste Management in the Changing
Climate 6
Chanathip Pharino and Nuchcha Phonphoton
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Climate Change Impact to Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Disasters Impact from Climate Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Waste Situation Under the Flooding Risk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Flood Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Challenges in Waste Management Under Flooding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Flood Waste Management in Different Phases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Flood Waste Mitigation and Adaptation Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Impact Evaluation to Mitigation and Adaptation Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Identifying Appropriate Alternative for Mitigation and Adaptation Measure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Lesson Learned from Bangkok Major Flood 2011 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Guideline for Developing an Action Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Abstract
Municipal solid waste management service system has been one of the most
important functions in urban areas. Continuous and efficient operation of
municipal solid waste management services indicates the sustainability of a
city requires a well-designed plan. Flooding is a major natural disaster in many
regions of the world and poses a challenge affecting any part of the waste
management system. Flood mitigation plans are intensely important for miti-
gating impact during crisis situations for communities to have no disruption in
waste management service.
This book chapter aims to explain potential impact of flooding to waste
management services in cities and relevant stakeholders. Practical approaches
for impact mitigation and preparedness of MSWM services during floods are
C. Pharino (*) · N. Phonphoton

Department of Environmental Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
e-mail: chanathip.p@chula.ac.th

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_9
170 C. Pharino and N. Phonphoton
presented. Appropriate impact mitigation alternatives from relevant case studies

are provided. The decision support system for planning and operation for any
municipality is suggested based on the principles of sustainable development,
considering environment, society, and economic factors. This information can
help increase understanding to develop an appropriate mitigation management
plan for waste management systems during floods toward sustainable cities and
communities’ development.
Keywords
Municipal solid waste management · Urban flooding · Climate impact ·
Mitigation and adaptation
Abbreviations
AHP Analytic Hierarchy Process
BMA Bangkok Metropolitan Administration
MCDA Multicriteria Decision Analysis
MSW Municipal Solid Waste
MSWM MSW Management
SD System Dynamics
SDGs The Sustainable Development Goals
Introduction
Municipal solid waste management (MSWM) is a key public service in the city. It
indicates the city’s sustainability level and is also one of the goals in the 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals #11 (SDGs#11) on building a compre-
hensive, safe, resilient, and sustainable city. However, achieving sustainability in
MSWM is challenging due to the complex and dynamic characteristics of waste
management in terms of stock and flow of waste amounts (Pharino 2017), particu-
larly in case of a disaster. Flooding is a major natural disaster that directly impacts
infrastructures and business inside the flooded area and indirectly disrupts public
services outside the flooded area in a networked system. Each stage of the flood
situation exhibits different characteristics of waste, which causes a different condi-
tion that must be managed. The during-flood period is an emergency phase where
flooding begins, which causes immediate threats to public health and safety. There is
a need to plan for managing and mitigating its impact. The process of evaluating
strategies helps improve the understanding of flood impacts and better prepare for
flood mitigation planning to move toward sustainable cities. Mitigation plans are
necessary to prepare for action under the climate change crisis, especially waste
management during flooding that may cause disruptions in the city. Therefore, this
chapter explains dynamics analysis concept which is the key technique to charac-
terize the dynamic impact of waste management under flooding. It is an important
step in finding alternative approaches to dealing with the impact of flooding.
6 Waste Management in the Changing Climate 171
Mitigation approaches for adopting local disaster risk reduction strategies are
applied with specific guideline by local governments.
Climate Change Impact to Waste Management
This section explains types and frequency of climate change impact in urban areas.
Flooding in particular has been a central focus of this chapter that post high risk to
municipal service. The chapter gathers and provides statistical review of current
scale and frequency and distribution of floods worldwide. Together, urban areas have
very vulnerability to be affected by flooding. Nevertheless, regular municipal
services including waste management directly affect by flooding.
Disasters Impact from Climate Change
Urban expansions are projected to increase urban areas accommodated to 68% of the
world’s population by 2050 from 55% in 2018 (United Nations 2019). Besides rapid
urbanization with unplanned processes intensify vulnerability to disaster impact
(IPCC 2012), the impact management of intense climatic conditions such as heat
stress, storm surges, and extreme rainfall are challenging problem to urban devel-
opment (IPCC 2014). As is apparent from the goal#11 in the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of sustainable cities and communities is
defined sustainable development should be considered in normal and disaster situ-
ations. Decreasing the economic losses caused by disasters disruption of basic
services is defined as an important target, including reducing the number of people
who are affected by disasters in 2030 with a focus on people protecting in vulnerable
situations. Moreover, it also indicates tangibly the number of cities and human
settlements by adopting and implementing resilience measures to disasters with
holistic disaster risk management at all levels by 2020.
Flooding is a major natural disaster in many regions of the world. From 2001 to
2010, floods and other hydrological incidence have become more than 50% of all
global natural disasters (Guha-Sapir et al. 2011); as found 53% of global natural
disasters were floods in 2012. In particular, Asia is the most frequently suffered
hydrological disasters, occurring 52.1% of total natural disasters in 2011 (Guha-
Sapir et al. 2012). Urban floods usually occur when rain overwhelms drainage
systems and waterways flow into basements and streets (CNT 2014).
A flood’s impact is defined as hazardous physical events interacting with vulner-
able social conditions, leading to widespread adverse human, material, economic,
and environmental effects. Typically, a framework for assessing a flood’s and other
disasters’ impact consists of three factors: hazard, exposure, and vulnerability
assessment.
Flood impact is thus a function of the hazard and vulnerability (susceptibility) of
the receptor exposed to the hazard (Foudi et al. 2015). The character and severity of
impacts from climate extremes depend not only on the extremes themselves but also
on exposure and vulnerability. Hazard is defined as the potential occurrence of a

natural or human-induced physical event that may cause loss of life, injury, or other
health impacts as well as damage and loss to property, infrastructure, livelihoods,
service provision, and environmental resources. Exposure and vulnerability are
dynamic, varying across temporal and spatial scales (IPCC 2012).
Flooding directly impacts infrastructures and business inside the flooded area and
indirectly disruption of public services outside the flooded area (Schumann 2011).
The expansion of urban areas to floodplains and coastal strips has resulted in raise in
exposure of populations to riverine and coastal flood impact (McGranahan et al.
2007). Indeed, it is difficult to prevent flooding entirely, and there is a need to plan
for managing and mitigating the impacts of flooding. At least, it requires planning for
managing and mitigating the impacts. Various implements have been used for flood
management, such as flood risk mapping, flood hazard zoning, site selection of flood
mitigation measures, prioritization of flood mitigation strategies, and integrated
assessment of long-term flood management scenarios (Ahmadisharaf et al. 2016).
According to the IPCC, impact management is a process for designing,
implementing, and evaluating strategies, policies, and measures to improve the
understanding of disaster impact, foster disaster impact reduction and transfer, and
promote continuous improvement in disaster preparedness, response, and recovery
practices, with the explicit purpose of increasing human security, well-being, quality
of life, resilience, and sustainable development (IPCC 2012). The flood impact
evaluation is an highlight process that possibly reflects the individual characteristics
of all elements at risk of flood management (Scheuer et al. 2013). Improving flood
resilience should span multiple techniques, including urban planning and design,
urban drainage, building construction, and asset management of infrastructure
networks (Escarameia 2016). Furthermore, it should be systematically considered
by the principle that the city is composed by a different component, not only a set of
a building (Lhomme et al. 2013) but formed a system by different sectors as urban
services and infrastructures (i.e., waste, water, power, and telecommunication).
Mitigation plans for MSW services from flooding impacts are incredibly impor-
tant and urgent need to redesign the municipal service system to prepare and ready to
operate under climate change crisis, especially during flooding that has the potential
to city disruption (Phonphoton and Pharino 2019b).
Waste Situation Under the Flooding Risk
Urban flooding impacts not only in flooded areas but also outside the flooded areas in
a networked system, especially public utilities, and city services such as the munic-
ipal solid waste management (MSWM) services. The MSWM service system is an
exposed system which is directly and indirectly affected by the flooding that
interrupts service inside and outside flooded areas (Phonphoton and Pharino
2019b). MSWM is a critical service for any city (Hoornweg et al. 2013), in low-
and middle-income countries comprise the largest portion of the city budget and hire
the most employees, also occupies the main position in high-income countries’
expenditure on disposal (World Bank 2012). There were also trends to increase the
Fig. 1 A global review of waste generation by income level and year. (Adapted from World Bank
2012)
waste generation rate higher than twofold in low-income and lower-middle income
countries by 2020 compared to 2010 as shown in Fig. 1. Particularly, the process of
waste collection and transportation are the main expenses and include complicated
operations (Sukholthaman and Sharp 2016). Therefore, the efficiency and quality of
MSWM services indicate whether cities and communities are sustainable as it is a
key public service provided in cities. It is a major management challenge for many
cities in developing and transitional countries (Habitat 2010).
Asia has the fastest-growing amounts of waste, mostly organic waste, and paper in
the waste stream. The East Asia and Pacific regions have the highest percentage of
organic waste (62%) compared to OECD countries, while developed countries have
the least (27%) (World Bank 2012). However, in the past, it has been a neglected
problem in developed and developing countries (Sam 2002). There are many studies
on sustainable MSWM, but most are conducted under normal circumstances, such as
the cycling of solid residues, management of electronic waste, and investigations into
forecasting, planning, and management of collection and transport routes in normal
situation (Vitorino de Souza Melaré et al. 2017). In contrast, waste management in
period of crisis is critical to sustainable development as well as normal situation.
Flood Waste Management
This section explains the challenge of future waste management system needs to
incorporate the concept of waste management under flood. This section addresses
concerns happening during the disaster that may or may not happen during business-
as-usual condition such as types of wastes that generate during disaster. Moreover,
pros and cons and timeline for development and relevant issues of concerns are
discussed for better understanding.
Challenges in Waste Management Under Flooding
The MSW is considered as a serious cause of many problems in flood risk manage-
ment (Lamond et al. 2012). Poor waste disposal can block the drainage which
obstructs the flow of water and leads to flooding; flood debris damages property,
increasing the negative impact on the economy; and the accumulation of waste after
flooding causes toxic buildup and disease, and leaching toxins into underground
water. However, further studies on the reverse side of climate change and flood
impact on the solid waste sector are interesting (Martínez-Gomariz et al. 2019). It is
critical to conduct an MSWM systematic impact evaluation under pressure of
extreme external conditions to provide a better understanding of the interlinking of
a sophisticated and dynamic waste management system.
The MSWM service is a complex system in terms of stock and flow of MSW
amounts that vary over time. Dynamics of the individual parts of the system, including
waste collection, transportation, and disposal process, are all interconnected to spatial
management. In general, complex and dynamic system characteristics of MSWM
become quite a challenge in the path to achieving sustainable management. If any
part of the waste management system is disturbed by a natural disaster, it can affect
other parts of the system (such as emergency operations). For many developing cities
and transitional countries, it becomes a major challenge to provide better waste
management during and after flooding (Habitat 2010).
The impact of floods on the waste management system is complex because it
impacts the internal flooding and networked areas outside the flood, especially during
the flood phase, which affects the livelihoods due to the collection and transportation
service processes. Therefore, understanding and identifying the impacts of flooding
on the municipal solid waste system is important to investigate approaches for the
mitigation of the impact situation to the move toward sustainable cities.
Flood Waste Management in Different Phases
Disaster loss is determined not only by the post-disaster relief but also by the
pre-disaster mitigation plans and degree of preparedness (He and Zhuang 2016).
However, developing countries set a low priority in response for waste management
systems in case of crises only a temporary solution for an unexpected problem
(Brown et al. 2011).
Disaster management is usually divided into four phases: mitigation, prepared-
ness, relief, and recovery (He and Zhuang 2016). Flood waste management follows a
different set of interrelated phases during a disaster: mitigation, preparedness, during
a flood, and after a flood (Kubota et al. 2015). During the mitigation and prepared-
ness phases, municipal waste processes are carried on as in normal circumstances,
Fig. 2 Waste management on flooding phase cycle. (Nuchcha, 2019b)
while free time is used to prepare for flood management. The during and after flood
phases are when damage from a flood occurs. Each of the phases has different
characteristics of waste and circumstances, which present management challenges
on different conditions, as shown in the cycle of flood waste management in Fig. 2.
The mitigation phase starts after complete recovery from a flood, when a resilient
waste management system is developed that attempts to decrease societal impact
from the next flood. The preparedness phase requires that measures be taken to
prepare for and reduce the impact by developing a preparedness plan and strategy
(He and Zhuang 2016). The during-flood phase is an emergency phase that begins
with floods, the daily generation of municipal waste continues, which causes imme-
diate threats to public health and safety (Brown et al. 2011). Finally, the after-flood
phase is a period of demolition and management of construction waste generated by
the flood.
Flood Waste Mitigation and Adaptation Plan
This section provides options for mitigating (reducing future impacts) and adapting
(redesign/adjust system lifestyle to cope with this incident as business-as-usual
operation) to appropriately address various waste situations from flood impact.
Impact Evaluation to Mitigation and Adaptation Plan
Mitigation plans for MSW services from flooding impacts are incredibly important
and urgent need to redesign the municipal service system to prepare and ready to
operate under climate change crisis, especially during flooding that have the poten-
tial to city disruption (Phonphoton and Pharino 2019b). An integrated analysis of
impacts, appropriate alternatives, and governance arrangements to be used to flood
waste mitigation is shown in Fig. 3.
The flood impact evaluation includes direct and indirect evaluations processes.
Direct evaluation is focused on flooded areas such as building density and building
structure (Foudi et al. 2015; Prawiranegara 2014; Tingsanchali 2012; Zhou et al.
2012), population density and characteristic (Camarasa-Belmonte and Soriano-
García 2012; Foudi et al. 2015; Suroso et al. 2013; Tingsanchali 2012), and land
usage (Camarasa-Belmonte and Soriano-García 2012; Canters et al. 2014; Foudi
et al. 2015; Suroso et al. 2013), but some consider as network systems evaluated out
of flooded areas, in which case the exposure is dynamic like a waste management
system.
The MSWM service is a complex system in terms of stock and flow or MSW
amounts that vary over time. Therefore, in dealing with floods affecting waste
management should evaluate impact dynamic to be aware of the situation before
taking technology and alternative approach to deal with impacts. The system
dynamics (SD) model is an effective technique used to characterize dynamic systems
as MSWM (Phonphoton and Pharino 2019b).
System dynamics (SD) was first theorized in America by Jay W. Forrester from
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1961. SD is used to observe the
management systems behavior by using feedback information features in conjunc-
tion with a model of the system to improve the system management and to guide
policy making (Forrester 1961). It is used for analyzing the structure and behavior of
the system as well as for designing efficient policies for managing the system
(Mirjana Perjic-Bach 2007). It is mostly used as a strategic than an operational
tool but can be used to integrate policies across organizations where analysis of
variations and behavioral feedback are important (Wolstenholme 2005). The SD
model is constructed by using computer software where variables act as system
elements. The variables are linked with mathematical mapping via relative equa-
tions, which are developed steadily. Most computer simulation applications of SD
modeling rely on the Vensim and Stella software while the Powersim software is
used for business applications (Kollikkathara et al. 2010). However, the choice of
software should take into consideration the use of theoretical dynamics, user com-
prehension, and simplicity of use, checking whether there is a system to set the
model, and whether the system facilitates the debugging of simulation, is simple to
experiment with, easy to apply, and presents a model that can be amplified (Coyle
1996). Processes in SD are viewed in terms of “stock” and “flow.” Stock is the
measurable accumulation of physical (and nonphysical) resources, while flow is the
rate of change, which indicates the speed of change in the system. The process of SD
modeling is presented by focusing on the problem-solving process with simulations.
Fig. 3 Flood impact mitigation conceptual
The processes begin with problem identification and definition. While the final
process is different in some conceptions, the real system is adjusted to be based on
the model, which leads to improvement (Forrester 1961), new policy design to find
the optimal policy (Coyle 1996) (Starr 1980), and policy implementation (Richard-
son and Pugh 1981). Moreover, it has supporting tools offering a useful modeling
approach to simulate scenarios in a wide array of disciplines such as agricultural
development (Saysel et al. 2002), sustainable coral reef management (Chang et al.
2008), business systems (Sterman 2000), desertification expansion of Ordos in
China (Xu et al. 2016), and determination of the energy performance of buildings
(Horvat and Dović 2016).
In the area of waste management, system dynamics have been extensively applied
in the forecasting of municipal solid waste (Dyson and Chang 2005), the optimiza-
tion of solid waste scheduling and routing (Johansson 2006), the evaluation of
municipal solid waste generation, landfill capacity and related cost management
(Kollikkathara et al. 2010), the reduction of construction and demolition waste (Ding
et al. 2016; Yuan et al. 2012), collection scheme for portable battery waste
(Blumberga et al. 2015), evaluation of municipal solid waste source separation
(Sukholthaman and Sharp 2016), and the prediction of waste generation (Johnson
et al. 2017). Phonphoton and Pharino (2019b) studies evaluating the flooding
impacts on municipal solid waste management service with SD to study the rela-
tionship systematically inside and outside floodplain in term of spatial and quanti-
tative, it is apparent that the areas in the system can be the most vulnerable to the
impact, although not in a flood zone. Therefore.
Consequently, flood impact in MSWM requires systematic evaluation to priori-
tize impact according to scale of impacts and coverage areas for idenfiying appro-
priate solutions to mitigate the impacts for that situation, especially during floods
that affect the daily life of people and businesses.
Identifying Appropriate Alternative for Mitigation and Adaptation

Measure
Establishing appropriate approaches to implementing flood mitigation plans should

be prioritized for decision-making. Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) techniques
have been applied to minimize the conflicts in reducing the number of alternatives to
facilitate convergence and achieve an optimal alternative. It is the approach to
decision-making by arranging the important components of a problem into a hierar-
chical structure like a family tree with mathematical techniques (Saaty 1980). The
hierarchical structure is divided into three levels: the top level is objective, the
second level is the criterion to determine the appropriate alternatives, and the third
level represents the alternative options as shown in Fig. 4. The considered method-
ology involves five main steps: (1) goal setting, (2) alternative identification,
(3) criteria identification, (4) decision alternative comparison, and (5) relative weight
calculation. Therefore, the AHP has been widely used in MSWM planning to
incorporate the preferences of different actors in the field of decision-making for
an MSWM plan (Contreras et al. 2008), to manage the solid waste problems of a city,
to present opportunities involved in approaching (Coban et al. 2018) community
groups for waste paper management decision-making (Hanan et al. 2013), and to
compare different waste management solutions in Sahrawi refugee camps (Garfì
et al. 2009). It is also used to determine the most appropriate location for an MSW
site in a waste management system so as to rank suitable MSW facility sites with
Fig. 4 Priority setting of Analytic hierarchy Process (AHP)
stakeholders’ involvement (Feo and Gisi 2010) and to evaluate the suitability of the
study region as an optimal site for a landfill for MSW Karaj using AHP and GIS
techniques (Moeinaddini et al. 2010). Evaluation of the suitability of alternatives
requires stakeholder directly involved with the problem or the experts to consider
together to integrate their opinions. There is also a relative validation process for
calculating its consistency ratio (CR) to indicate inconsistent judgment (Saaty and
Vargas 2013).
Lesson Learned from Bangkok Major Flood 2011
Since 2011 flooding in Thailand was the national disaster of the century, the impacts
of the disaster were invaluable. Lessons learned from the event can be significantly
helpful to make a better future. This section describes the impacts of waste-related
issues, scales, and how the country handles the incidents during various phases. The
information was extracted from an extensive review of reports and relevant archives.
The learned lessons are analyzed and discussed in this section.
Bangkok is the capital of Thailand. The city features as a financial and residential
center, with an administrative area of 1568.74 km2 and is comprised of 50 districts.
Bangkok has 2,753,972 households and 5,696,409 people, excluding the
non-registered population (BMA 2015c), generating waste of around 9940 tons/
day as of 2014 (BMA 2015b). This amount of waste generation is in a similar range
to other Asian megacities such as Hong Kong and Beijing (Laohalidanond et al.
2015).
The BMA’s MSWM service system is illustrated in Fig. 5. MSW is collected by
local municipalities from containers in front of houses, buildings, or designated
180
Fig. 5 The service system of BMA’s MSWM

C. Pharino and N. Phonphoton
locations on specific dates and times. Bangkok’s waste collection service is operated
separately by local districts and divided into sub-service areas. After collection, the
MSW is transported to three main transfer stations in Bangkok, OnNuch, Non-
gkhaem, and Sai-Mai. The OnNuch transfer station handles MSW from 16 districts,
while the Nongkhaem and Sai-Mai transfer stations handle waste from 22 and
12 districts, respectively.
In 2011, Thailand experienced exceptionally heavy rains, causing the worst
flooding since 1942. Approximately 800 deaths and 9.5 million victims were
reported, with widespread damage and losses to homes, factories, businesses, trans-
port and energy infrastructure, social service facilities, and agricultural crops and
livestock (ADB 2012). Bangkok’s floods are caused by both natural and physical
factors. The natural factors are seasonal precipitation with peak frequency from
mid-August through October, run-off water from the north and east caused by a
slope, upstream run-off from the Chao Phraya basin, high tides during October to
December, changes in natural phenomena such as higher rainfall than usual from La
Nina, and heavy rainfall in some areas despite low total rainfall from El Nino. The
physical factors are urban planning problems due to rapid urbanization, conse-
quently decreased space to absorb water as open land is replaced by buildings,
drainage problems because canals are encroached upon, and land subsidence prob-
lems (BMA 2015a). Presently, Bangkok analyzes its surrounding flood-prone areas
by local rainfall and the area’s drainage system, determining that there are a total of
19 points of data. These data are used as baseline information for determining the
area of Bangkok flood management (BMA 2016). Moreover, Bangkok’s Department
of Drainage and Sewage produces an annual action plan for preventing and mitigat-
ing flooding, which determines measures and plans for flood management, including
structural and nonstructural measures (BMA 2015a). However, some issues, such as
a vulnerability assessment (Yuddhana 2012) and the linking of flood impact man-
agement plans into strategic plans of other services, such as the MSWM (BMA
2015b), are not covered in flood management strategies.
Bangkok’s MSWM was affected by the massive flooding in Thailand in 2011; the
flood impacts were widespread and affected areas both inside and outside the
floodplain. Many areas that faced waste management at that time could not function.
The waste collection truck cannot reach the area, resulting in a large amount of waste
remaining. In addition, the problems of transporting through the flooded areas also
take more time to collect waste than usual. The BMA provided many actions to
mitigate the problem during and after the flood period. During the flood period,
Bangkok approved the hiring of volunteers by 40% increase than normal to drag
solid waste from alleyways including the used boats to collect solid waste and stored
them and adjusted some waste collecting trucks’ exhausted. During after-flood
period, Bangkok assigned the district office not affected by the flood to support
the collection of waste in the flood-affected areas and also received cooperation from
the Ministry of Interior to allow provinces to assist with vehicles and officials as well
as coordinate with the community to set storage area and accelerate the implemen-
tation of solid waste collection with backhoe loader, tractors, and trucks which
would not be used to collect solid waste in a normal situation. After the situation
returned to normal, it was found that there was a large amount of waste from
continuous generation during and after the flood. The management was difficult
and exceeded the capabilities of the district office, especially in the sudden flood-
impacted area (BMA 2012). From past experience, the emergency response from
waste management systems in case of 2011 Bangkok flooding is only a temporary
solution for an unexpected problem. This parallels other developing countries that
give waste management low priority (Brown et al. 2011). Consequently, the man-
agement of MSW under floods should be systematically considered to successfully
implement appropriate mitigation measures. The past situation can be used to
improve flood waste impact as a guideline for impact evaluation to find appropriate
options for establishing mitigation approaches that are consistent with different
stages of flooding and impact level.
Guideline for Developing an Action Plan
Since waste management and flooding happen and affect local communities, it
requires local institutions to get ready and be in charge of this issue at the frontline.
This section explains roles and responsibilities of the local government body as a
team leader to set up the action plan with multi-stakeholder engagement. This
section describes step by step how local government can prepare and develop their
own action plan for waste management system service during flooding.
The characteristics of impact is a key issue in the analysis of mitigation alterna-
tives to develop a guideline for flood mitigation in the MSWM service system that is
consistent with the authority and responsibility structure. The mitigation guidelines
will be most useful in crisis when they have been tested for implementation and
detailed into a local action plan; as a result the local governments are the target
groups for adopting and implementing local disaster risk reduction strategies in line
with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 (Nations 2015).
Hence, reducing the flood impact of MSWM is key to the development of sustain-
able cities at all levels, particularly at the local government level.
For the proper implementation of the situation, flood mitigation on MSWM
guideline approaches should integrate (1) the emergency management concept that
must relieve a sudden incident and (2) concepts of disaster waste management that
are specific and consistent with the situations. One of well-known emergency
management guidelines for impact mitigation application of emergency situation is
mitigation strategy development guidelines of the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA 2013), where the disaster waste management guidelines of the Joint
UNEP/OCHA environment unit (UNEP/OCHA 2013) is widely applied to manage
disaster waste management in various disasters.
The implementation of flood mitigation guideline should be applied specifically
by local governments to ensure compliance with the regulatory authority structure.
In this regard, the local government ought to experiment with the guidelines for
developing action plans for vulnerable areas from impact evaluation results with the
participation of local government organizations under the relevant authority and

responsibility.
Waste management during flooding in Bangkok has been studied by Phonphoton
and Pharino (2019a, 2019b) to develop a tool to increase understanding about the
impact of flooding on Bangkok’s MSWM systems with simulation and prediction of
the situation. It helps to recommend an appropriate alternative for the impact of
MSWM guideline improving during-flood events. Bangkok has a high increased
generation rate of MSW (Laohalidanond et al. 2015). The process consists of three
sessions: (1) analysis and evaluation of spatial impacts and residual waste, (2) a
study of mitigation options appropriate to the situation and conditions of the city and
(3) feasibility study in the context of authority and relationship of relevant agencies.
1. Analysis and evaluation of spatial impacts and residual waste: The concept of
system dynamics (SD) was applied through a model to understand and evaluate
flood impacts on waste management system. It has been designed to investigate
management patterns of the system and evaluate the impacts of flooding on the
waste management service in Bangkok, Thailand. The model illustrates waste
generation trends and collection and transfer network patterns to predict potential
flood-affected areas with 11 different flood-prone location scenarios.
2. A study of mitigation options appropriate to the situation and conditions of the
city: The impact evaluation has been applied to provide the mitigation impact
approaches with the multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) technique through
the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) for multicriteria decision-making. The flood
impacts on municipal solid waste management are classified into three situations
with the problematic characteristics of flood impact including as follows: (1) can-
not collect wastes from generating sources, (2) cannot transfer wastes to final
disposal, and (3) cannot collect from sources and transfer wastes to final disposal.
The decision support system based on the principles of sustainable development
considers the impacting criteria, namely, environment, society, and economic
factors. There is different weighing of environment, society, and economy
criteria. The weight of each criterion influences the mitigating alternative
approach in different problems and causes. The high priority score of alternatives
for flood mitigation in all three situations is the modified truck, which is consis-
tent with information gained from interviews about operations during the 2011
flooding. Transfer station changing, using boats to collect, and storing waste are
alternatives that score close to the high priority. Therefore, appropriate mitigation
measures should be differentiated according to the cause of the impact as shown
in Fig. 6.
3. Feasibility study in the context of authority and relationship of relevant agencies:
This process is critical to creating mitigation guides. It is related to the study of
the mechanisms and authorities of the relevant agencies, both local government
and central government, as well as the private sector in the system. The action of
mitigation with various alternatives depends on the authorities and responsibili-
ties; it is an important mechanism in mitigation actions. Example of Bangkok, the
authority and responsibility structure of flood mitigation in Bangkok’s MSWM
Fig. 6 Mitigation approach measure
system is outlined under the Public Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Act,
B.E. 2550. The BMA headquarters is responsible for carrying out tasks assigned
by the central government director and preparing a prevention and mitigation plan
with the Department of Defence and higher educational institutions as advisors.
They must coordinate with various government agencies to report and receive
support. They are responsible for the provision of vehicles, supplies, equipment,
and MSWM facilities in the form of transfer stations and disposal sites during
floods. Meanwhile, the district officer is responsible for prevention and mitigation
operations such as collection, transportation, and temporary storage sites. The
district government can use the facilities, equipment, and vehicles of both the
public and private sectors in the district area as necessary for prevention and
mitigation, as shown in Fig. 7.
The information obtained from the integration of alternatives and the authority
and responsibility structure has been applied to flood mitigation in the MSWM
guideline. The flood mitigation in MSWM guidelines includes objectives, scope,
definitions, responsibilities, and operating procedures. The operation starts at the
time of the flood; the districts report the flood situation to the BMA for impact
evaluation. Therefore, the mitigation guideline is based on applying the mitiga-
tion approach to the authority and responsibility structure as shown in Fig. 8.
Moreover, the guidelines are used to develop the local administrative mitigation
action plan for vulnerable areas from impact evaluation results. This process
involves the participation of local government organizations under the relevant
authority and responsibility according to the current management situation. Most
Coordinate Coordinate
Central Bangkok Metropolitan Administration Ministry of
government Director: Governor of Bangkok Defence
Order Consultation
- Prepare prevention and mitigation plans
Chairman: Governor of Bangkok Coordinate
Vice Chairman: Permanent Secretary
University
- Prepare vehicle equipment and supplies Consultation
as prescribed in the preventive and
Inform mitigation plan. Inform
Other - Prepare waste management facilities Other local
government (e.g., transfer station, disposal site) government
Support Support
Order Report
Inform Bangkok District Officer Order, inform MSW

Private
- Prevention and mitigation operation operators
sectors in
Support and
district area - MSW operation (e.g., collection, Support/report volunteers
transportation, separation, temporary
storage site in district area, temporary
truck parking in district area, and
public relations.
Fig. 7 Authority and responsibility structure for MSWM under flooding of Bangkok. (Nuchcha,
2019b)
of the MSW trucks of Radburana District have to pass through the flood-prone
area before reaching the service area MSW service in the Radburana District will
have the most impact from flooding. However, even if collection is possible, it also
affects the transfer process to the transfer station. Therefore, the mitigation
approaches for this area should be divided into two step processes of collection
and transfer as follows:
A. Collection process
Step 1) The MSW trucks park near Nongkhaem transfer station, when the
transportation is completed in each round, and to be maintained until
the next transportation cycle follows the designated route. In case of
risky transportation, nearby routes should be used, i.e., Kanchanapisek
Road and Taweewattana– Kanchanapisek Road. The total distance is
30 kilometers, increasing from the original distance of 5 kilometers.
Step 2) In case the overall route cannot be reached by MSW truck, Bangkok
should coordinate with truck charter companies to temporarily permit
replacement truck parking. The district director should coordinate with
private owners of land near the district office, located next to the
Wilaiwan Mansion, Bangpakok, with an area of 26 rai, for a temporary
parking request during the flood.
B. Transfer process
Step 1) Bangkok should make an agreement with truck charter companies to
modify trucks for use in transportation through flooded areas. MSW in
Fig. 8 Flow of flood mitigation in the MSWM of Bangkok
various areas should be collected by all types of trucks to full load to

reduce the number of cycles per day in transit.
Step 2) Transportation between 21.00 and 06.00 to deliver MSW to the
OnNuch transfer station will reduce traffic problems. The Rama IV
Road through Sukhumvit 77 Road is the appropriate route, and its total
distance is 20 kilometers. It is the shortest route but has heavy traffic
and goes through community areas; it must be avoided during
rush hour.
Step 3) Use temporary storage sites when the route to Nongkhaem and OnNuch
transfer station is not transported by MSW truck. The district director
should coordinate with the owner of the land under Rama 9 Bridge at
Thonburi, beside Kasikorn Bank Head Office, Radburana, with an area
of 5 rai (supported by approximately 2500 tons of MSW).
Conclusion
The challenges of MSWM during flooding depend on various factors, including the
town planning and its topography, waste management process and logistics, and the
flood conditions. Setting a risk management and mitigation plan is essential and
different from that of normal situations. Therefore, mitigation approaches must
consider the characteristics of the impact and supporting factors for appropriate
mitigation management. A dynamic evaluation of the flood impact on the MSWM
in terms of spatial and quantitative impact helps to identify a vulnerable area as “hot-
spots” of the situation to develop appropriate mitigation approaches. Alternatives in
each flood impact situation on MSWM are also needed. Flood impact situation
characteristics used to develop a guideline for flood mitigation in the MSWM service
system should synergy with the management structure of responsible authority. The
engagement of key stakeholders to demonstrate and practice the mitigation guidelines
and details as local action plans for capacity building and preparedness in time of
crisis.
Acknowledgments This work was supported by Ratchadaphiseksomphot Endowment Fund of

Chulalongkorn University. The authors would like to thank the experts and the local authorities for
their support.
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Future Perspective of Solid Waste
Management Strategy in India 7
Samanyita Mohanty, Sushanta Saha, Gour Hari Santra, and
Amrita Kumari
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Solid Waste Generation Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Categories of Solid Wastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Industrial Wastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Agricultural Wastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Municipal Solid Wastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Radioactive Solid Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Biomedical Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
E-Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Composition of Solid Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Evolution of Solid Waste Management Policy and Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Solid Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Basic Principles of Solid Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Integrated Solid Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Hierarchy of Waste Management Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Waste Minimization/Reduction at Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Recycling and Recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
S. Mohanty (*)
Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya,
S. Saha
Department of Agricultural Chemistry and Soil Science, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya,
Mohanpur, West Bengal, India
G. H. Santra
Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Institute of Agricultural Science,
Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan, deemed to be University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
A. Kumari
Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Vishwavidalaya Mohanpur,

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_10
192 S. Mohanty et al.
Waste Processing with Recovery of Useful Products and Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Waste Disposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Factors Governing Choice of Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Green Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Need of Green Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Goals of Green Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Categories of Green Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Applications of Green Technology in SWM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Future of Green Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Waste Valorization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Impacts of Improper Solid Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Gaps for Sustainable Solid Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Abstract
Increased industrialization in the wake of green revolution coupled with
population explosion has paved its way to enormous solid waste generation.
Inadequate techniques and paucity of technical expertise have led to genera-
tion of heterogenous categories of waste. The per capita waste generation is
escalating, continuously challenging the global sustainability. Most of the
waste produced in India is directly disposed of to the landfills without any
proper sorting and segregation, which later produces greenhouse gases, posing
risk to human health and environment. Thus, there is a need to implement
strict laws, increase awareness, and utilize innovative as well as latest tech-
niques in order to cope up with the growing threat of solid waste. Integrated
solid waste management is a critical aspect of environmental hygiene which
can be incorporated into environmental planning. Environment friendliness,
cost-effectiveness, and social acceptability are major attributes which sum up
to achieve efficient waste management system. Moving toward “zero-waste
production” and “waste prevention” aims at reduction of gaseous emissions,
solid residues, and pollution, contributing to the protection of climate and
environment. Green technology approach is the stepping stone to waste man-
agement that seeks solutions that are environmentally and ecologically
benign. Recycling and composting are the easy to go techniques which are
helpful in minimizing the volume of the waste generated and producing
valuable products with multipurpose utility. Waste valorization is an attractive
concept gaining increased popularity due to the rapid increase in waste
residues generation.
Keywords
Solid waste · Valorization · Integrated solid waste management · Green
technology · Recycling and recovery
7 Future Perspective of Solid Waste Management Strategy in India 193
Introduction
In the twenty-first century, one of the most concerning issues is protection of human
civilization from the threatening effect of man-made wastes. Wastes are the residual
part of raw materials, which are generally unwanted after primary utilization. Among
different waste materials, solid wastes are generated in our society through various
humans activities. With the trending economic growth and rapid industrialization,
waste generation has enormously heightened globally. In a developing country like
India, population explosion, standard of living, and literacy extent of the people play a
vital role in contributing significantly to the total amount of solid waste generated (Joshi
and Ahmed 2016). Additionally, as India is striving to attain an industrialized nation
status in near future, it has further aggravated the waste quantity proportionally.
Achieving sustainable development with such obstacles poses challenge to
human race. Although India has made a tremendous drift in different social, eco-
nomical, and environmental aspects, solid waste management (SWM) area still
remains to be explored. It is among the most poorly rendered services, and the
systems applied are unscientific, outdated, and inefficient to control the waste load.
There is an urgent need to shift from improper disposal of solid waste to effective
sustainable management strategy that aims to conquer the problems with holistic
approaches. Managing waste in an environmentally sound, socially satisfactory, and
techno-economically viable manner is sustainable waste management which can be
achieved by strategic planning, institutional capacity building, fiscal incentives,
public-private partnerships, and community participation.
SWM is an important ecosystem service having direct linkage with environment
and public health. It encompasses activities that tend to minimize health, environ-
mental, and aesthetic effect of solid wastes. Generally, one- to two-thirds of the
solid waste generated are not collected and are dumped indiscriminately in the
streets and drains causing serious implications for public health, environment, and
economy, resulting in emergence of different unforeseen adversities like outbreak
of diseases, environmental degradation, emission of greenhouse gases, etc. Even
the collected waste is often disposed of in uncontrolled dumpsites or burned,
collapsing the natural resources. This alarming situation needs immediate action
for improvement.
Unfortunately, Indian administration has ignored one of the major public ser-
vice, i.e., waste management, while paying much attention toward other services
such as water, electricity, and food for the growing population. The amount of
waste generation has increased exponentially with the advancement in human
activities, inventions, and discoveries. Decomposing these waste materials through
sustainable waste management strategy is a very tough task in India because of its
complex composition and varying generation rates. Previously, only engineered
and technical aspects of waste management were taken into consideration which at
present are incapable to ensure environmentally sound and sustainable ways of
dealing with waste generation, collection, transport, treatment, and disposal. A
sustainable solid waste management system which is environmentally,
economically, and socially sustainable is the need of the hour. Waste-to-energy

(WtE) generation options seem to be an appealing alternative approach for sus-
tainable management of these waste and will be beneficial in tackling such huge
quantity of waste (Gupta et al. 2018).
This chapter elaborates on the existing scenario of waste management in India,
highlighting the major categories of solid wastes, prime challenges that people
encounter, causes of deficient SWM for the handling of solid waste, alternative
approaches for treatment and management of waste sustainably, current govern-
ment’s policies, as well as gaps of existing SWM strategies. Furthermore, it recom-
mends steps for accomplishment of pertinent SWM along with the future alternatives
which would help to boost the present management approaches.
Solid Waste Generation Status
With increasing population and changes in the living standard of people, the rate of
waste generation is estimated to be increased by ~5% on yearly basis. Thus, the
waste generation will get increased from 164 million tonnes/year to 735 million
tonnes/year within the year 2001–2051 (Planning Commission Report 2014). India
is getting buried under mounds of garbage as it has been generating around 1.52 lakh
tonnes of solid waste every day. Approximately 98% (1.50 lakh tonnes per day) of
this total amount is collected, and the remaining part of garbage is being exposed
every day. Of the total collected waste, only 27% (55,000 tonnes per day) is
processed, and the remaining 73% (1,08,000 tonnes per day) is dumped in landfill
sites (CPCB Report 2018–19). The data issued by Central Pollution Control Board
(CPCB) pertaining to waste generation, collection, and treatment in some selected
Indian states is presented in Fig. 1.
Waste generated (T/day) Waste collected (T/day) Waste treated (T/day)
Uttar Pradesh
West Bengal
Uttarakhand
Telangana
Tamil Nadu
Punjab
Rajasthan
Odisha
Maharastra
Madhya Pradesh
Kerala
Karnataka
Haryana
Delhi
Andra Pradesh
0 10000 20000 30000 40000 50000 60000 70000
Fig. 1 Average waste generation, collection, and treatment (tonnes per day) of some selected
Indian states (CPCB 2018–19)
Categories of Solid Wastes
Solid waste can be defined as nonliquid unwanted materials generated from human
activities that is devoid of economic value after utilization. They cannot be reused
directly for welfare of the society because of their adverse impacts on environment as
well as human health. They may be classified into three broad categories based on
their (a) origin (domestic, industrial, commercial, or institutional), (b) contents
(organic items, glass, metal, plastic, paper, polythene, etc.), and (c) hazard potential
(toxic, radioactive, infectious, etc.)
In India, solid waste (SW) can be organic, nonorganic, or recyclable in nature. It
includes industrial, agricultural, municipal, hospital, radioactive, and electronic solid
wastes which affect mankind and environment at different magnitudes. Industrial solid
wastes (ISW) mainly comprise of hazardous materials, whereas agricultural solid
wastes (ASW) include toxic organic materials and metals which pose indirect effects
on groundwater and soil quality. Municipal solid wastes (MSW) contain organic or
nonorganic and hazardous or nonhazardous materials which hold the maximum share
of total solid wastes. Biomedical solid wastes (BMW) are the most infectious and
hazardous type of waste generated which are capable enough to cause various human
and animal diseases. Radioactive solid wastes (RSW) are of nuclear origin which have
severe detrimental effects on human health. Electronic waste (e-waste) is a type of
solid waste generated due to the rapid developments in electronics sector at present. In
short, different categories of solid wastes have varied levels of impact on human and
environment; thus, improper management and disposal of these solid waste can cause
serious threat to present as well as future generations. A proper management strategy is
necessary to minimize the adverse effect of growing quantity of solid wastes.
Industrial Wastes
Industrial operations lead to generation of considerable amount of hazardous waste,

and in a rapidly industrializing country like India, the contribution to hazardous
waste from industries is maximum. ISW can be categorized as hazardous and
nonhazardous waste depending on the source and composition. The major contrib-
utors of hazardous ISW are the thermal power plants, the integrated iron and steel
mills, sugar industries, pulp and paper industries, and allied industries. These
industries generate major hazardous compounds like cyanides, complex aromatic
compounds, heavy metals, pesticides, and high chemical reactivity products. Due to
presence of several industrial units in the country, it becomes crucial to handle these
wastes to safeguard the natural resources. About 10–15% of waste produced
by industries are hazardous, and there is an increase in generation of hazardous
wastes at the rate of 10–15% per year. Annually, around 7.46 million MT of
hazardous waste is generated from various industries, of which approximately 3.41
million MT (46%) is landfilled, 0.69 million MT (9%) is incinerated, and 3.35
million MT (45%) is recycled (ASSOCHAM 2017). Gujarat, Rajasthan, Odisha,
Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and
Uttar Pradesh contribute about 91% of the total hazardous waste generated in India
Generation of hazardous waste(%)
Gujarat
8.66
2.6 Rajasthan
3.86 Odisha
3.94 Jharkhand
39.2
4.7 Tamil Nadu
Maharashtra
5.32
Karnataka
5.34 Andhra Pradesh
Telangana
8.07
Uttar Pradesh
8.3 10.01
Others
Fig. 2 Contribution of different states to total hazardous waste generation in India (CPCB
2018–19)
(Fig. 2). Nonhazardous or ordinary ISW (recyclable and nonrecyclable), although

generated by industrial or commercial activities, have composition similar to house-
hold waste such as fly ash, packaging waste, lime sludge, metal scrap, glass, etc.
They are nontoxic in nature requiring no special handling technology.
Agricultural Wastes
Waste materials derived from different agricultural operations are defined as agricul-
tural wastes. Expansion of agricultural production has naturally resulted in increased
quantities of livestock waste, agricultural crop residues, and agro-industrial
by-products. Agricultural waste otherwise called agro-waste includes livestock waste
(manure, animal carcasses), food processing waste, crop residues (cornstalks, sugar-
cane bagasse, drops and culls from fruits and vegetables, pruning), green manures (sun
hemp, cowpea, dhaincha, etc.), and hazardous and toxic agricultural waste (pesticides,
insecticides, fertilizers, herbicides, etc.) (Pal et al. 2014). These wastes are mainly
composed of cellulose (35–50%), lignin (25–30%), and hemicellulose (25–30%)
(Behera and Ray 2016). Since major portion of the agricultural waste are organic in
nature, it is used as fertilizer or for other soil enhancement activities. The residue
materials are burned as a source of energy, so a very small portion of this waste is
disposed in landfills. However, when excess agro-waste is produced in one place, there
may not be enough land available to accept the agricultural waste, thereby causing
problems of pollution and groundwater contamination.
Municipal Solid Wastes
Rapid industrialization and population explosion in India have led to the migration of
people from villages to cities, which generate thousands of tonnes of MSW daily.
Population boom and ongoing industrialization are driving forces for the large
amount of MSW generation in India. Of the total municipal solid waste (MSW)
generated in urban areas of India, only 21% was processed in 2017 (MoHUA 2019).
With the inadequate processing of waste and presence of a few sanitary landfills,
almost 79% of MSW is estimated to be dumped unscientifically in open landfills or
burned. According to the estimates, GHG emissions from disposal of MSW
amounted for 11.67 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2015 (Kolsepatil et al. 2019).
As per the reports released by government of India, it is projected that by the year
2031, the MSW generation shall increase to 165 million tonnes and to 436 million
tonnes by 2050 (Planning Commission Report 2014). The major categories of waste
generally found in Indian MSW are (Jha et al. 2003; Sharholy et al. 2008):
• Biodegradable waste: food and kitchen waste, green waste (vegetables, flowers,
leaves, fruits), and paper
• Recyclable material: paper, glass, bottles, cans, metals, certain plastics, etc.
• Inert waste matter: dirt, debris, etc.
• Composite waste: waste clothing, Tetra packs, and waste plastics such as toys
• Domestic/household hazardous waste and toxic waste: waste medicine, e-waste,
paints and varnishes, chemicals, fluorescent tubes, spray cans, fertilizer and
pesticide containers, batteries, shoe polish, etc.
Radioactive Solid Waste
Radioactive waste is defined as by-product of different nuclear technology pro-

cesses. It includes any material that either is intrinsically radioactive or has been
contaminated by radioactivity and has no further utility. Industries generating radio-
active waste include nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power, nuclear
reactors, manufacturing, construction, coal and rare earth mining, and nuclear
weapons reprocessing (Giusti 2009). The major contents in radioactive wastes are
uranium and plutonium along with other heavy metals like cerium and strontium.
These heavy metals emit radiation which has serious effect on human health and
environment (Giusti 2009).
Biomedical Waste
Biomedical waste is defined as waste that is generated during the diagnosis,

treatment, or immunization of human beings/animals and research activities
pertaining to the testing in health camps and hospitals (Himabindu et al. 2015).
About 85% of this waste – called “general waste” – is noninfectious and can be
managed, whereas the remaining 15% is infectious and hazardous and hence is
required to be treated with considerable precautions.
Presently, the total generation of biomedical waste is about 710 tonnes per day
(consisting of 609 tonnes/day of regular biomedical waste and 101 tonnes/day of
COVID-19-related biomedical waste) (Fig. 3). All COVID waste comes under the
Odisha COVID-19 BMW (in TPD)

Punjab
Haryana
Karnataka
Kerala
Andhra Pradesh
Rajasthan
West Bengal
Uttar Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh
Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Gujarat
Maharashtra
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Fig. 3 Status of biomedical waste (tonnes/day) arising from COVID-19 treatment in some selected
Indian states (CPCB status report 2020)
hazardous BMW category. Discarded PPE (personal protective equipment) kits, face
mask, and gloves along with the waste that came in contact with blood or body fluids
of patients including the persons suffering from COVID-19 are treated as biomedical
waste.
E-Waste
Electronic waste (e-waste) refers to the electrical and electronic equipment that have
exhausted their utility value to the users or no longer satisfy their original purpose
through obsolete, discarded, replacement, or breakage (Monika 2010; Bhutta et al.
2011). It broadly covers “white goods” such as refrigerators, washing machines, and
microwaves as well as “brown goods” such as televisions, radios, computers, and
cell phones. This waste contains elements like cadmium, lead, antimony, nickel, and
mercury along with potentially harmful substances such as chlorofluorocarbon and
hydrochlorofluorocarbon (CFCs/HCFC) gases which have high ozone depletion
potential.
The information technology industry in India has witnessed unprecedented
growth in recent years, and upgradation of technical innovations in the electronics
industry has led to huge increase in the amount of e-waste generated. The Associated
Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) and KPMG study
(2016) titled “Electronic Waste Management in India” stated that computer equip-
ment accounts for almost 70% of e-wastes, followed by telecommunication equip-
ment phones (12%), electrical equipment (8%), and medical equipment (7%) with
remaining from household e-wastes. Dumping these items in open dumpsites gives
rise to environmental and health hazards.
According to the joint study conducted by ASSOCHAM-NEC in 2018 on
“Electricals and Electronics Manufacturing in India,” among the different states,
Maharashtra contributes the largest share of 19.8% to total e-waste generation,
E-waste share (%)

25
20
15
10
0
Maharastra Tamil Nadu Andhra Uttar West Bengal Delhi Karnataka Gujarat Madhya
Pradesh Pradesh Pradesh
Fig. 4 Percentage share of e-waste generation in some selected Indian states (ASSOCHAM-NEC
joint report 2018)
followed by Tamil Nadu (13%), Uttar Pradesh (10.1%), West Bengal (9.8%), Delhi
(9.5%), Karnataka (8.9%), Gujarat (8.8%), and Madhya Pradesh (7.6%). Since 2019,
India has generated more than three million tonnes of e-waste annually, and it is
expected to increase to five million tonnes in 2021 (Fig. 4).
Composition of Solid Waste
The waste composition has a significant impact on waste management practices. The
SW generated in India possess a mixed composition. Around 40–50% of the SW in
India is organic in composition, 30% is inert, and remaining is recyclable waste
(Planning Commission Report 2014). The calorific value of Indian SW is low which
varies from 1500 to 2200 Kcal/kg, whereas the moisture content is higher than other
developing countries. High level of moisture and inerts makes it difficult to derive
power from it.
Evolution of Solid Waste Management Policy and Programs
Previously, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) was in control for the
issues related to solid waste management together with Central and State Pollution
Control Boards. Various rules were framed under Environment Protection Act of
1986 for improving management of solid waste. Various umbrella rules framed for
“environmental conservation” under the Environment Protection Act of 1986 are in
Table 1.
For adopting effective waste management practices, policies related to the envi-
ronment, health, and solid waste management are the key elements (Table 2). With
the passage of time, waste management practices are shifting from traditional
methods to modern ones which are based on relevant technology adoption and
Table 1 Progress of SWM rules in India

Year Rules
1989 Hazardous wastes (management and handling) rules (last amended in April 2016)
1998 Biomedical waste (management and handling) rules (last amended in March 2016)
2000 Municipal solid wastes (management and handling) rules (last amended in April 2016)
2011 Plastic waste (management and handling) rules (last amended in March 2018)
E-waste (management and handling) rules (last amended in March 2018)
Table 2 Evolution of programs for promoting SWM in India

Year Programs for promoting SWM
2012 Program on energy recovery from solid waste
2014 Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM)
National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG)
2015 Smart Cities Mission
Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT)
waste hierarchy concept. For achieving sustainable waste management, careful

investigation of policies acts as a precursor. Existing waste disposal facilities in
India are inadequate to deal with the quality and quantity of waste generated.
The management of solid waste in India is a complex problem with multiple
challenges. According to Article 48-A of the Indian Constitution, the state has the
prime responsibility to manage the solid wastes properly to assure public health and
natural resources. Presently, waste management falls under the purview of the Union
Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change (MoEF&CC).
Generally, India follows a basic waste management system with collection,
storage, transport, and disposal rule, i.e., waste generation, collection, storage,
segregation, reuse, and recycling at the household and community level, transport
to the waste disposal sites, and its disposal in landfills. Management of solid waste
may be defined as the study that deals with the control of generation, processing, and
disposal of solid waste in a specified manner which is in line with the principles of
public health and environmental conservation.
The MoEF&CC and GoI released the solid waste management (SWM) rules,
2016, in supersession of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Rules 2000 to improve the
collection, segregation, recycling, treatment, and disposal of solid waste in an
eco-friendly approach. The modern rules focus on source segregation of wet, dry,
hazardous, plastic, e-waste, and biomedical waste with definite treatment options.
These rules reflect modern frameworks, technology advancements, and ideas for
integrated solid waste management.
Solid Waste Management
It is the process of collecting, treating, and disposing of discarded solid materials that
have already served their purpose or are no longer useful.
Basic Principles of Solid Waste Management
(a) 3Rs: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle

(a) Reduce: This means to minimize the waste quantity being generated during
production, distribution, and utilization by practicing rational consumption
and sustainable use of resources. Use of green components as raw materials,
diversification of product life cycle, and process designing, minimizing heat
and energy losses, and replacing the raw materials by lighter material can
help to tackle the amount of waste generation.
(b) Reuse: This means enhancing the utility of objects that were previously consid-
ered as “garbage” by selecting multipurpose objects or products instead of
single-use entities or by using them more than once creatively. It is a step up
from recycling.
(c) Recycle: Reusing an object means using it without modifying it or favoring
multipurpose objects and products over single-use ones, whereas recycling
means bringing an object back to a condition from where it can be purposed
for other use.
(d) Segregation at source: It refers to the waste-sorting concept in which various
types of waste are separated with respect to their composition with minimum
labor and cost, for example, storing of organic or biodegradable and inorganic or
nonbiodegradable solid waste in different collection bins.
(e) Distinct treatment approaches for different types of solid wastes: Application of
divergent waste treatment technology for wastes with varied composition. The
techniques should be suitable, feasible, and cost-effective for the given type of
garbage. For example, the technology suitable for general market waste may not
be adopted for slaughterhouse waste.
(f) Treatment at origin or nearest possible point: The solid waste should be treated in
a decentralized manner. The garbage generated should be treated preferably at
the origin of generation, i.e., every household.
(g) Transfer and transport: The principal element of transfer and transport involves
two steps: (i) the transfer of wastes from smaller collecting vehicle to the larger
transport system and (ii) the subsequent transfer of wastes, usually over long
distances, to a processing or disposal location.
(h) Disposal: The final segment in the solid waste management system is disposal.
Today, landfilling or uncontrolled dumping are the ultimate fate of all solid
wastes, whether they are household wastes collected and transported directly to a
landfill site or residual materials and rejects from combustion/composting/other
processing facilities.
(i) Unfortunately, no city in India can claim 100% segregation of waste at dwelling
unit, and an average 95% of waste produced is being collected (Fig. 5), while the
remaining is again assorted up and lost to the environment. Out of total waste
collected, only about 35% waste is scientifically processed, and rest is disposed
in open dumps (CPCB Report 2018). Environment friendliness, budget effec-
tiveness, and social acceptability by the local community are major attributes to
achieve efficient solid waste management system.
120.00
Waste collection eff iciency (%)
100.00
80.00
60.00
40.00
20.00
0.00
Fig. 5 Waste collection efficiency of some selected Indian states (CPCB 2018–19)
Solid waste management practices in India are still at nascent stage due to a lack of
technical experience, financial constraints, and regulatory legal framework. In a
broader sense, solid waste management is a very complicated task due to minimal
social, economic, and cultural cooperation among households, communities, enter-
prises, and municipal authorities. In addition, lack of awareness on environmental
concerns as well as poor resource base has led to heighten the situation. Although
India has already developed legislations relating to municipal solid, hazardous, and
biomedical waste, the acceptance of rules among citizens is lagging behind.
Some of the deficiencies present in the current SWM system in India are:
(a) Lack of waste storage at source – There is no facility for storing the waste at
source in a scientifically segregated way. People are not enough educated to
maintain domestic and institutional bins for waste storage purpose.
(b) Lack of primary collection system from the doorstep – There is no public system
for primary collection of waste from the source. The waste discharged inade-
quately is later collected by municipal sanitation workers through street sweep-
ing, drain cleaning, etc.
(c) Irregular street sweeping – Street sweeping is not carried out on a daily basis in
most cities and towns of India. Generally, commercial roads are given more
priority over rest of the streets that are swept occasionally. The tools being
employed for street sweeping are inefficient and outdated which poses problem
for collection and handling of the wastes.
(d) Waste storage depots – As collection of waste is done by traditional and unscientific
process, a very small volume of waste is being collected at a time. Provision for
temporary bulk storage of waste is facilitated by using round cement concrete bins,
masonry bins, or concrete structures, which results in inadequate handling of waste
and creates both unsightly and unhygienic conditions.
(e) Ineffective transportation of waste – Transportation of waste from the waste
storage depots to the disposal site is facilitated through a variety of vehicles such
as bullock carts, three-wheelers, tractors, and trucks. Most of the transport

vehicles are usually open and loaded manually which does not synchronize
with the waste collection and storage facilities and results in inefficient waste
handling.
(f) Partial segregation of recyclable waste – There is no organized and scientifically
planned segregation of solid waste. Sorting of waste is mostly carried out under
unsafe conditions, and the effectiveness of segregation is reasonably low as
unorganized sector segregates only valuable discarded products from waste
stream that guarantees them higher economic return in the recycling market.
(g) Inadequate processing of waste – Processing of solid waste is at initial phase
with limited scale implementation of decentralized or centralized composting in
few cities. In some large cities, aerobic or anaerobic composting plants as well as
vermicomposting is in function.
(h) Inappropriate disposal of waste – Disposal of waste is the most ignored area of
SWM services, and the current practices are unscientific in nature. Almost all the
solid waste is discharged at dump-yard sites situated within or outside the city
haphazardly, and there is no provision to spread and cover the waste with inert
materials. These sites release gases with different composition which aggravates
the global warming situation.
Integrated Solid Waste Management
No single process can handle all of the solid waste; therefore, a number of integrated
methods for effective waste management should be taken into consideration. In
reality, the current circumstances need sustainable, cost-effective, as well as inte-
grated approaches for better risk management and resource recovery from waste.
Therefore, proper integrated solid waste management (ISWM) is essential for
ensuring healthy and clean environment rather than conventional SWM which
only involves waste collection, treatment, and disposal processes. Unlike SWM,
the ISWM approach is economically feasible and environmentally sustainable and
involves community participation.
ISWM is a complex multidimensional waste prevention, recycling, and disposal
strategy which encompasses techniques of how to inhibit, recover, and manage solid
wastes that are most effective in combating this ever-growing solid waste problem
(Sharma and Chandel 2017). ISWM is driven by transparent objectives where waste
minimization is given the highest priority. The hierarchy of waste management
continues with 3R, i.e., reduce, reuse, recycle, along with addition of a fourth “R”
representing recovery, composting, and waste to energy or recovering energy before
disposal. Waste diversion options are then followed by different biological and
mechanical processes such as composting, incineration, landfill, or other disposal
alternatives, and last on the list is dumping waste into sanitary landfills. Institutional,
legal, financial, and public participation are other important elements of the ISWM
(Fig. 6).
Fig. 6 Components of integrated solid waste management (ISWM) includes technical, institu-
tional, legal, social, and financial framework along with inclusion of various advanced waste
diversion technologies which ensure environmental protection
Hierarchy of Waste Management Options
The methods to deal with waste management is broadly accepted and delineated by a
“hierarchy of waste management” (arrangement on the basis of ranking) which
presents a priority listing of different waste management options available (Fig. 7).
The hierarchy provides general guidelines on the relative desirability and suitability
of the different management options (CPHEEO 2016). The hierarchy commonly
adopted is (a) waste minimization or reduction at source, (b) recycling, (c) waste
processing with recovery of resources (composting, digestion), (d) waste processing
without recovery of resources, and (e) controlled dumping/disposal on land
(landfilling).
• The highest rank of the ISWM hierarchy corresponds to on-site services, i.e.,
waste minimization or reduction at source, which involves reducing the amount
of the wastes produced. It is the most effective and reasonable way to reduce the
quantity of waste, the expense associated with its handling, and its environmental
consequences.
• The second rank in the hierarchy is recycling and recovery, which involve
(a) the segregation of waste materials, (b) the arrangement of these materials
for reprocessing or reuse purpose, and (c) the reuse and reprocessing of these
materials. Recycling is an important element which helps to reduce the burden
on existing resources and the amount of waste that require disposal by
landfilling.
Fig. 7 ISWM adopts a hierarchy of waste management options, initiating with waste minimization
as the most preferred option of waste management and waste disposal as the least preferred.
Recycling and material recovery, waste processing (composting, vermicomposting), and resource
recovery options form the intermediate steps of the hierarchy
• The third rank in the ISWM hierarchy is waste processing (composting,

vermicomposting) to retrieve useful products (e.g., compost). The processing of
waste materials usually results in reduced utility of landfill capacity.
• The fourth rank in the ISWM hierarchy is waste processing with recovery of
products or energy. This includes different waste-to-energy (WtE) technologies
like bio-methanation, incineration, pyrolysis, etc., which involve recovering
energy in different forms before final disposal of waste.
• The fifth rank in the ISWM hierarchy is waste disposal, i.e., landfilling, which
involves the controlled disposal of wastes on or in the earth’s surface. It is the
most common method of ultimate disposal for waste residuals because of its
economical nature. This technique is used for (a) the solid waste that can neither
be recycled nor be used in future, (b) the residual materials remaining after solid
wastes have been presorted at materials recovery facility, and (c) the residual
matter remaining after the recovery of conversion/transformation products or
energy. Landfilling is the lowest rank in the ISWM hierarchy because it represents
the least desirable means of dealing with society’s wastes.
Waste Minimization/Reduction at Source
The ISWM hierarchy concentrates on waste minimization as it is the most

effective way to reduce the waste quantity, the cost associated with its handling,
and its environmental effects. Waste minimization strategies require policy inter-
ventions at the national, state, and local level, depending on the type and scale of
the intervention, for example, minimizing the use of packaging material, pro-
moting use of refill containers, repurchase of reusable or recyclable packing
material, etc.
Some waste minimization initiatives that need be implemented and followed are:
(a) Developing and encouraging at-source reduction programs: The promotion

of different programs stating the importance and advantages of waste minimi-
zation at source in the community. For example, household/backyard
composting programs can reduce the volume of food waste, domestic waste,
leaves, and garden trimmings entering the city-level collection system.
(b) Prohibition of product at community/city level: Replacing the use of a
nonrecyclable product with recyclable and reusable material, for example,
banning the use of polythene bags.
(c) Awareness and education programs: Programs that address the importance of
waste management should be implemented to increase public awareness and
participation in at-source waste reduction programs. Campaigns relating to
promotion of material substitution (e.g., promoting the use of rechargeable
batteries instead of single-use batteries, repurchasing of products, etc.) should
be organized.
(d) Supermarkets and retail stores: These are the most effective partners for a
waste minimization program. They provide the basis for consumer knowledge
on how to avoid overpackaging and collect recyclable waste.
(e) Promoting product exchange and reuse programs: These help in diverting
material from the waste stream before going to the landfill. It is the program that
link sellers of used products with potential secondhand buyers.
(f) “Pay as you throw” principle: This principle can be established at city/town level
with the support of urban local bodies (ULBs) and municipalities. ULBs can specify
variable charges based on the quantities of waste being disposed per household.
Variable tariff rates can be fixed for predefined amount of waste quantities and then
progressively increasing with increased waste generation rates.
(g) Development of voluntary action: Business groups should be encouraged to
reduce volumes of packaging. The business groups can ensure that the packag-
ing of the supplied product is taken back by the supplier and is reused.
Recycling and Recovery
It is defined as the reprocessing of waste materials which can gainfully be retrieved

for making new useful products. Recycling of SW is considered as the “most
environmentally sound” strategy for dealing with the huge density of waste being
generated. It should be adopted before planning for any waste processing or treat-
ment facilities.
In recent years, India’s abrupt economic growth has established a larger consumer
base, leading to increased demand for both natural resources and material goods.
Consumption need is expected to increase threefold by 2025, and recycling ensures a
viable and sustainable option for catering the growing material demand of the
country. India has made a huge progress in the recycling market, but it is not utilized
as per the prescribed marks (Bhattacharya et al. 2018).
Waste from industrial, municipal, agricultural, biomedical, and other sectors
normally contain materials like ferrous metal, nonferrous metals, plastics, and
glass. In India, recycling rates are very low, for example, for packaging paper
(27%), plastics (60%), and metals (20–25%) which need significant attention
(Samaddar and Bandyopadhyay 2018). But the system is practically incapable to
manage such wastes due to various organizational, infrastructural, financial, and
legislative constraints. Indian recycling rates are low for a variety of reasons:
(a) Lack of social awareness and political will to promote recycling

(b) Unorganized waste collection and segregation mechanism leading to environ-
mental resource contamination
(c) Outdated infrastructure facilities and inadequate collection and transportation
processes
(d) Inappropriate technologies to maximize recovery from recycling
Community-based approaches, social awareness, and adoption of 4R policy for

SWM can promote more sustainable development.
Materials recovery facility (MRF) refers to a facility where non-compostable solid
waste is stored temporarily to facilitate segregation, screening, sorting, and recovery of
recyclables from mixed waste (MRFT Review 2009). This is done before the waste
processing or disposal stage. Material recovery starts at the primary level by house-
holds that segregate recyclables like newspapers, cardboard, plastics, bottles, etc. from
discarded waste and sell such material to local recyclers. The item that cannot be sold
to them is discarded and becomes part of the MSW. Well-segregated recyclables can
directly be transported to processing site or to the recyclable market.
Waste Processing with Recovery of Useful Products and Energy
Due to rapid development in infrastructural facilities, the land availability is diminishing

progressively. On the contrary, due to proliferation in waste generation rates, the land
requirement needs to get increased in coming years in urban areas. Therefore, before
undergoing ultimate disposal of waste through landfilling, volume and toxicity of solid
waste must be reduced by different treatment alternatives (Mor et al. 2006).
SWM through suitable waste management technologies greatly depends upon the
composition of the solid wastes. A sustainable waste management scenario is difficult
to be accomplished in India because of the varying waste composition as well as their
generation rates. Indian solid waste mostly comprises of large proportions of organic
matter (~50%) as well as inert materials. The energy stored in this organic fraction can
be gainfully recovered through the adoption of suitable waste processing and treatment
technologies. The technology followed for recovery of energy from solid waste in the
form of heat, power, or fuel is called waste-to-energy (WtE) technology. There are
different WtE technologies available depending on the basis of type, quantity, and
characteristics of raw material, required method of the energy, economic conditions,
environmental standards, and specific factors (Kalyani and Pandey 2014). It includes
mechanical-biological treatment (MBT) methods like composting, vermicomposting,
bio-methanation, and thermal treatment (TT) methods like incineration, gasification,
pyrolysis, and production of refuse-derived fuel (Gupta et al. 2018). In India, different
treatment methods are practiced depending on the type of waste, amount of residues
generated, cost, and other environmental aspects.
Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT)

It involves technology which combines biological treatment with mechanical treat-
ment (sorting). Organic solid waste materials such as plant material, food scraps, and
paper products can be recycled using biological composting and digestion processes
to decompose the organic matter present in them. The resulting organic material is
then recycled as mulch/compost for agricultural or landscaping purposes. Further-
more, waste gas liberated from the process (such as methane gas) can be captured
and used for generating electricity. The objective of MBT is to regulate and facilitate
the natural process of organic matter decomposition. Composting and
bio-methanation methods are generally adopted in India (Chinwan and Pant 2014).
(i) Composting – Composting is defined as the biological process of degradation

and stabilization of organic contents present in the solid waste by microbes
under carefully controlled conditions. Microbes metabolize the organic waste
materials and reduce its volume. The stabilized end product is called compost
or humus which has high nutrient value (Banwari et al. 2011). It can be either
labor-intensive (generally carried out in smaller towns and villages) or mechan-
ical/power driven (in metropolitan cities). There are many composting plants
operating in India (Table 3).
Advantages
• It supplements for micronutrient deficiencies and improves soil texture.
• It maintains the soil health by increasing moisture-holding capacity and
recycling nutrients into soil.
Table 3 Number of composting plants in some selected states of India

State Number of plants State Number of plants
Andhra Pradesh 23 Haryana 14
Bihar 11 Karnataka 143
Chhattisgarh 489 Maharashtra 302
Goa 9 Telangana 63
Gujarat 39 Uttar Pradesh 12
Source: CPCB (2018–19)
• It is a simple as well as cost-effective technology.

• It reduces the dependency on expensive chemical fertilizer in agriculture.
Limitations
• It is not applicable for all types of waste.
• It requires huge, open land.
• It emits methane gas and bad odor and harbors flies.
• It can contaminate soil by release of toxic materials.
• Lack of awareness and proper marketing of compost material
(ii) Vermicomposting – Vermicomposting is a safe and cost-effective technique
carried out by using earthworms to feed on organic contents of solid waste and
convert them into cast, rich in plant nutrients (Manyuchi and Phiri 2013). Some
widely used earthworm species for vermicomposting are Pheretima sp., Eisenia
sp., Perionyx excavatus sp. In small towns, vermicomposting is more preferred to
composting as it requires less mechanization and is easy to operate. India’s largest
vermin-composting plant with a capacity of 100 million tonnes/day is located in
Bengaluru (Asnani 2006), while there are small-scale plants in Hyderabad, Ban-
galore, Mumbai, and Faridabad (Table 4).
Advantages
• It provides essential nutrients for plant growth and improves soil properties.
Limitations
• It requires large area for operation.
• Introduction of toxic materials in waste can kill the earthworms.
(iii) Bio-methanation – It is the process of transformation of organic waste matter
into stable residue by microbes in an oxygen-free environment. The waste mass
undergoes decomposition due to microbial activity, thereby generating biogas
comprising mainly of 50–60% methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) and
also digested sludge, which is almost stabilized but may contain some pathogen.
Due to the anaerobic environment, hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is generated with
varying percentage depending on the sulfur content in the system (in the form of
protein, sulfate, etc.). The methane-rich biogas can be used for heat and energy
generation as well as cooking purpose, and the inert residues rich in nutrients can
be used as manure (Joshi and Ahmed 2016; Kalyani and Pandey 2014).
Bio-methanation plant requires a consistent source of degradable organic matter
free from inert material as well as a sustainable demand for the generated biogas at
appropriate economic conditions. The overall performance of it is greatly
influenced by the input feed specification, and the plant requires segregated
Table 4 Number of vermicomposting plants in some selected states of India
State Number of plants State Number of plants
Andhra Pradesh 29 Karnataka 38
Bihar 1 Kerala 16
Delhi 3 Maharashtra 75
Gujarat 48 Tamil Nadu 261
Haryana 10 Telangana 31
Table 5 Number of energy recovery plants (RDF and BG) in some Indian states
No. of RDF plants/biogas No. of RDF plants/biogas
State/UT (BG) State/UT (BG)
Andhra Pradesh 7 BG Karnataka 5 BG, 2 RDF
Arunachal 1 BG, 1 RDF Madhya 1 BG, 1 RDF
Pradesh Pradesh
Chandigarh 2 BG, 1 RDF Maharashtra 52 BG, 13 RDF
Delhi 1 BG, 3 RDF Puducherry 2 BG
Gujarat 6 BG, 5 RDF Punjab 2 RDF
Haryana 3 RDF Tamil Nadu 104 BG, 6 RDF
biodegradable MSW for optimal performance. Government of India imparts more

focus on bio-methanation technology for optimal utilization of industrial, agricul-
tural, and municipal wastes (Table 5). In India, several cities like Delhi, Bangalore,
Nagpur, Pune, Lucknow, and Indore have adopted this technology for harnessing
methane (renewable energy) from MSW (Swachh Survekshan 2019).
Advantages
• Efficiency and energy recovery of bio-methanation are better than composting.
• The plant requires need less land area.
• As the process occurs in a closed system, it is free from bad odor, rodent
menace, and visible pollution.
Limitations
• It is suitable only for biodegradable organic waste.
• It is more capital intensive than aerobic composting.
• Biogas leakage can cause fire hazard.
Thermal Treatment (TT)

The main objective of this treatment is to reduce the waste toxicity and treat residual
part for different energy generation and resource recovery techniques (Gupta et al.
2017). It can be accomplished by incineration, pyrolysis, and gasification.
(i) Incineration – Incineration is a process of combustion of waste in presence of

excess oxygen, at higher temperature ranging from 980 C to 2000 C (Sharholy
et al. 2007), liberating heat energy, CO2, and H2O in vapor form and ash (Zaman
2010). It can reduce the mass and volume of the waste by up to 70% and 90%,
respectively, and can recover energy from waste for electricity generation (Tan
et al. 2015). It is suitable for waste having high calorific value like paper, plastic,
packaging material, pathological wastes, etc. Delhi was the first city to install a
large-scale MSW incineration plant in 1987 at Timarpur, bearing a capacity of
300 t/day by Miljotecknik volunteer, Denmark. But due to its poor performance,
the plant was shut down after 6 months of operation (Sharholy et al. 2007).
Advantages
• It reduces waste volume by over 90% and converts them to energy.
• It is a hygienic, noiseless, and odorless technology.
• The plant requires less land.
Limitations
• It liberates potential pollutant like dioxins, furans, and PAHs.
• It requires high-operation and high-maintenance cost requiring skilled
personnel.
(ii) Pyrolysis – Pyrolysis is a thermal degradation process in which destructive
distillation of the solid waste is done to recover its constituents and energy. It is
a form of incineration that chemically decomposes organic materials at high
temperature (600–1000 C) in the absence of oxygen to yield three products
(Rajput et al. 2009):
(i) A gas phase (H2, CH4, CO, CO2, etc.)
(ii) A liquid/oil phase (methanol, acetone, acetic acid, etc.)
(iii) A solid residue (carbon char and inert materials)
It is mainly performed for wastes having less moisture content such as paper,
cloth, plastic, yard wastes, etc. It yields different products depending on the
final temperature. It produces solid residues at low temperatures (less than
450 C) when the rate of heating is slow and yields gases at high temperatures
(greater than 800 C) with rapid heating rates. At an intermediate temperature
with high heating rates, the main product obtained is a liquid fuel known as
bio-oil. Pyrolysis of wastes begins with mechanical separation of glass, metals,
and inert materials prior to processing the remaining waste in a pyrolysis
reactor. The process requires an external heat source to maintain the required
high temperature.
Advantages
• Reduction in volume of the waste
• Production of solid, liquid, and gaseous fuels from waste
• Transportable fuel or chemical feedstock is obtained.
• Least environmental problem
• Capital cost is comparatively less than incineration process.
Limitations
• Product stream is complex compared to other alternatives.
• Product gas produced contains significant amount of carbon monoxide.
(iii) Gasification – It refers to partial combustion of organic- or fossil-based
carbonaceous material, plastics, etc. into carbon monoxide, carbon diox-
ide, hydrogen, and methane. This is achieved at high temperature (650 C
and above) with a controlled amount of air, oxygen, or steam. The
process is largely exothermic, but some heat may be required to initialize
and sustain the gasification process. The main product is syngas, which
contains carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and methane. The other main
product produced by gasification is a solid residue of noncombustible
material (ash), which contains a relatively low level of carbon. After
gasification, the solid noncombustible residual part needs proper handling
and disposal.
In India, few gasifiers were installed which was mostly used to burn agro-
biomass. Two different designs of gasifiers are present in India. The first one
(NERIFIER gasification unit) has been installed at Nohar, Hanumangarh,
Rajasthan by Navreet Energy Research and Information (NERI) for burning
of agro-wastes, sawmill dust, and forest wastes. It operates with an efficiency of

about 70–80%, and the waste treatment rate is nearly 50–150 kg per hour. The
other one is the Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI) gasifier installed at Gaul
Pahari campus, New Delhi (Sharholy 2007).
Advantages
• By-products of the process are nonhazardous and marketable and can be
used for production of methanol and chemicals like ammonia and urea,
which form the prerequisite for many fertilizers.
• Operating cost is lower than conventional coal-fired plants and requires less
pollution control equipment.
• It can potentially process both mixed waste and plastic-only fraction of
waste.
• The total process uses a smaller amount of air, resulting in higher energy
recovery efficiency and limited formation of pollutants like nitrogen oxides.
Limitations
• The process needs high amount of financial support and power source.
• Production of high viscosity product may cause transportation problem.
(iv) Refuse-Derived Fuel – Refuse-derived fuel (RDF) is defined as the fuel
derived from combustible waste fraction of solid waste like plastic, wood,
pulp, or organic waste, other than chlorinated materials, in the form of pellets
produced by drying, shredding, dehydrating, and compacting of solid waste. It
is an upcoming alternative technology, which can be effectively used to pro-
duce thermal energy from solid wastes (especially MSW), thereby minimizing
the load on landfilling. RDF plants are in emerging stage in India. It is basically
a processing method for mixed MSW (nonrecyclable and nonhazardous
possessing high calorific value), which can be very effective in preparation of
enriched fuel feed for thermal processes like incineration or industrial furnaces.
Although it is an expensive technology which requires well-trained exper-
tise for maintenance and operation, its efficiency in energy recovery process has
paved its way to many developing countries in large number (Jha et al. 2003;
Asnani 2006). The government of India has made a rule for industries to utilize
at least 5–15% replacement fuel from the RDF. In India, few operational RDF
plants are present and many are under planning process (Table 5).
Advantages
• It is capable of reducing pollution and recovering more energy by producing
power.
• It acts as prominent fuel when mixed with coal or other conventional fuel.
Limitations
• It is an energy-intensive process and is not desirable for processing of wet
MSW during rainy season.
• If RDF pellets are contaminated by toxic/hazardous materials, the pellets are
not suitable for burning in the open environment or for domestic purposes.
• It is an expensive technology requiring well-trained expertise for mainte-
nance and operation.
Waste Disposal
Globally, landfilling forms an integral part of waste disposal process in a planned

SWM system. It is economical and does not require any skilled workers. But
unsanitary landfilling poses immense risk to public health and environment by
emitting carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases (GHGs). Methane
is the second most abundant greenhouse gas which accounts for 14% of the global
GHG emissions and is 21 times more powerful than CO2 in causing global warming.
Hence, it is necessary to execute more eco-friendly SWM techniques to attenuate the
hindrances caused by mere landfilling.
The sizes of landfills in India is constantly increasing which is a major concern.
Landfilling usually advances from open dumping, controlled dumping, controlled
landfilling to sanitary landfilling. In India, waste is disposed in an open area without
any precautions. More than 90% of MSW in cities and towns are directly disposed of
in the outskirts of the city area without any prior treatment in an unsatisfactory
manner which leads to environmental degradation.
Open dumping of solid waste leads to percolation of leachate to underground
water resulting into excessive water pollution. These waste disposal sites rarely
follow compaction, levelling of waste, and covering by soil or other earth materials
(Talyan et al. 2008; Mor et al. 2006; Tan et al. 2015). In addition, they are devoid of
leachate collection system or landfill gas monitoring and collection equipment,
which multiplies the problem being faced. Thus, secure and sanitary landfills must
be included as a necessary component of the ISWM to overcome this barrier.
Sanitary landfilling is an acceptable and recommended technique for final disposal
of SW.
“Secure landfill” refers to the specific sites allocated for management of hazard-
ous wastes, whereas “sanitary landfill” refers to the sites allocated for management
of municipal solid wastes (Masters and Ela 2008). According to SWM rules 2016,
sanitary landfilling is defined as “the safe disposal of residual solid and inert waste
on land designed with protective measures against water pollution, air dust, wind-
blown litter, bad odor, fire hazard, animal and bird threat, pests/rodents, greenhouse
gas emissions, persistent organic pollutants slope instability, and erosion.” There are
many landfill sites operating in India (Table 6), but their efficiency toward pollution
mitigation is still unknown.
To achieve favorable waste disposal system, landfills should be provided with
composite liners for restricting leachate percolation to underground water. It must be
well equipped with proper collection and ventilation system to recover the gas
produced. Under the MSW rules, government of India has made it mandatory to
install landfill gas (LFG) control system, which can be used for either energy
generation or direct recovery of heat to avoid air quality degradation (Talyan et al.
2008). Due to certain improvements that have been made to ensure proper sanitary
landfilling, it appears that landfilling would continue to be the most widely adopted
practice in India in the coming few years (Dayal 1994).
Table 6 Number of State/UTs Landfill in operation Landfill capped

operating and capped
Chhattisgarh 1 0
landfill plants in some
selected states of India Chandigarh 1 1
Delhi 1 0
Goa 4 –
Gujarat 3 1
Karnataka 91 2
Madhya Pradesh 4 0
Maharashtra 18 1
Puducherry 3 –
Tamil Nadu 3 1
Telangana 1 1
West Bengal 2 0
Advantages
• No requirement of highly skilled personnel
• It is an economical waste disposal system
• It holds the potential to recover landfill gas, which can be uses as alternative
source of energy.
Limitations
• Huge transportation cost to dumping land sites
• Chokes the drainage system and can contaminate both surface and
groundwater
• Major source of greenhouse gases
• Need a large area of land for dumping
• Source for insect and origin of various diseases
Factors Governing Choice of Technology
The selection for implementation of any particular technology for solid waste
treatment needs to be based on its economic viability, sustainability, and technolog-
ical and environmental implications, keeping in view the local conditions and the
available physical as well as financial resources (Asnani 2006). The key factors
include:
• The genesis and composition of the waste

• Presence of hazardous or toxic constituents in the waste
• Availability of infrastructural outlets for the energy produced
• Marketing facility and utility of the compost produced
• Cost of substitute technologies
• Land, labor, and capital expenses
• Capabilities and experience of the technology-handling personnel
It needs to be ensured that the proposed facility fully complies with the environ-
mental regulations as laid down in the SWMR 2016 issued by the MoEF&CC.
Green Technology
In the past, traditional waste management strategies were focused only on the
disposal of toxic by-products, whereas at present, efforts have been shifted to
eliminate waste from the source itself. It is an environment-friendly innovative
technology developed to protect and conserve the natural resources by reversing
the negative impacts of human activity on environment. It utilizes renewable natural
resources in addition to new and innovative energy generation techniques (Anastas
et al. 2000).
Green technology covers the broad aspect of production and consumption
technologies. Its adoption includes application of technologies for environmental
monitoring and assessment, pollution control, prevention, remediation, and resto-
ration. Monitoring and assessment technologies are used to monitor the condition
of the environment, including the release of any harmful natural/anthropogenic
materials. Prevention technologies avoid the production of environmentally haz-
ardous substances as well as alter the human activities that cause damage to the
environment.
Green technology can effectively change waste generation pattern in a way that does
not harm the environment. Among the broad areas which contribute to safe disposal of
waste are green energy, organic agriculture, green building constructions, eco-friendly
textiles, and manufacturing of related products. Green nanotechnology that uses green
engineering and chemistry is one among the newest in green technologies.
Green chemistry, also termed as sustainable chemistry, focuses on the reduction,
recycling, and/or elimination of the use of toxic and hazardous chemicals in pro-
duction processes by searching innovative, alternative routes for preparing the
desired products that curtail the impact on the environment by minimizing the
generation of hazardous pollutants. Thus, it can be described as a combination of
important elements, i.e., environmental enhancement, economic performance, and
social responsibility to address environmental problems.
Need of Green Technology
The world has a definite amount of natural resources, with certain amount of it being
already depleted. For example, industrial waste dominantly contains dangerous
chemicals that pollute the groundwater after disposal, contaminating the soil and
water with chemicals. Additionally, the crops grown on such contaminated sites pose
serious risks to human health, thereby causing severe hindrance to biodiversity and
ecosystems. Green technology refers to the system which reduces environmental
degradation, minimizes greenhouse gas emission, conserves energy and natural
resources, and produces alternative fuels, thereby reducing dependency on the
conventional fossil fuels.
Goals of Green Technology
The important goals involve (Banerjee and Akuli 2014):
• Conservative use of renewable and natural resources

• Development of reusable or recyclable product
• Reducing environmental waste and pollution by modifying the production
patterns
• Adopting alternative practices which minimize risk for environment and human
Categories of Green Technology
Green technologies have two main categories as follows:
(a) The technology which is intended to monitor global warming either by reducing
greenhouse gas emissions or by utilizing alternative techniques to lessen its
potential harmful effects on ecosystem
(b) The technology which is associated with establishment of an “economic sus-
tainable growth” system which includes recycling and resource reduction.
Applications of Green Technology in SWM
(a) Environment-friendly process: Government research and innovations search for

products whose contents and methods of productions have the slightest possible
impact on the environment and public health.
(b) Green chemistry: It includes the invention, design, and application of chemical
products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use and generation of
hazardous waste and substances.
(c) Green nanotechnology: It is the study of the system in which nanotechnology
can benefit the environment by its ability to recycle waste products after use. It
aids to provide proper waste management and environmental remediation
technology, etc.
Future of Green Technology
In the coming years, the use of green technology will extend into vast areas of waste
management. The future economic activities will focus on developing new recycled
products from the waste that are safer and beneficial to the environment. The
governments of various countries have recognized the need of using green technol-
ogy and thus are promoting use and purchase of items produced by using it. The
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 2011 declared India has one of
the fastest-growing economies in the world by making a huge progress toward
greener economy. With such development in this field, there will be creation of
awareness among people about the use of green energy and environment-friendly
products that will improve the scope of this technology further. From producing
“green energy” to enhancing “recycle and recover” technology, it has a great
potential to help our communities become environmentally, economically, and
socially sustainable. The greener practices not only fulfill the demands of the society
but also preserve the resources for future use. So green technology focuses on
environmental sustainability on one hand allowing the fulfillment of current neces-
sities on the other.
Waste Valorization
Waste valorization is a new technique which has received significant recognition for
managing waste in the most sustainable way. This concept had already been pre-
vailed for a long time in relation to waste management. But recently, it has been
reintroduced into the society to alleviate the pressure caused due to rapid depletion of
natural and primary resources, increased waste generation rates, and large-scale
landfilling practice.
Valorization is the solution for sustainable and cost-efficient waste management
protocols. Although it is an attractive approach for long-term sustainability, the
purification, processing, and degradation of stable natural waste material polymers
into simple usable chemicals still remains a significant challenge. The waste-to-
wealth concept targets to promote a sustainable lifestyle in a long run where waste
valorization is not only used for its integral benefits to the environment but also to
develop further new technologies, livelihoods, and employment opportunities.
The concept of waste valorization and recycling or reuse technologies go hand in
hand. Defining the term, valorization is a process of modifying waste materials/
residues into products that have greater significance. The products include quality
chemicals, materials, fuels, and energy along with many other intermediate products
beneficial for local economy and industrial demands (Abdel-Shafy 1999). The basic
valorization strategies include composting, recycling, and burning (for energy
recovery) which are well known and largely accepted worldwide; however, they
are not satisfactory for treatment of organic waste as they are capable of recovering/
converting only 50 wt.% or less of the waste into valuable products (Lin et al. 2013;
Arancon et al. 2013). The disadvantages include high energy consumption, libera-
tion of toxic methane gas, and bad odor, as well as slow reaction kinetics.
Researchers are making efforts to initiate a novel technology for standardized
decomposition of organic waste. Till now, no such technology has been recognized
that will yield valuable product from such decomposition process. Thus, the recent
research has laid focus for production of energy from the solid organic waste instead
of disposal and decomposition techniques (e.g., bioethanol and biodiesel
production).
Advanced valorization strategies based on green chemical technologies are more
desirable from practical, economic, and sustainability perspective as they can
Fig. 8 The process of waste valorization involves different processing technologies such as
pyrolysis, solid-state fermentation, incineration, etc. for recycling and reusing of waste materials
and converting them to high-value chemicals (bioplastics, organic acids, etc.) and fuels
(bio-alcohols, biogas, biofuel, etc.) that ensures environmental sustainability in a long run
generate multiple products from a single feedstock combining bio-/chemo-techno-

logical protocols. These include microwave-assisted extraction of useful compo-
nents, biological (e.g., fermentation) and combined chemo-enzymatic approaches
for the production of useful bio-derived products and flow technologies that are able
to separate/isolate valuable chemicals, etc. (Fig. 8). However, they are yet to be
employed and explored to maximum capacity in India.
Beneficial organic chemicals/products can be created from organic waste via
biorefinery or white biotechnology (e.g., bioplastics) as well as by developing
sustainable green production strategies (Arancon et al. 2013). Microwave-assisted
extraction (MAE) is an effective alternative technique that helps in recovering
bioactive compounds from agro-industrial wastes. It has an advantage of shorter
extraction time, higher extraction rate, less requirement of solvent, and lower cost
over traditional method of extraction of compounds (Delazar et al. 2012). Another
promising waste valorization strategy is to include flow chemical technology for
processing waste into valuable products. Further, valorization also employs pyroly-
sis process for the synthesis of energy or fuels. Although pyrolysis of solid waste is a
traditional process for char generation, it is recently involved to produce useful
smaller molecules from larger stable biopolymers. This process has been used
extensively for the production of bio-oil, which is a complex mixture of short-chain

ketones, aldehydes, and carboxylic acids.
Organic solid-state fermentation (SSF) is indicated as a promising technology for
organic waste. The utilization of household organic wastes to produce high yield of
ethanol by SSF valorization is achieved via bioconversion. Microorganisms play an
important role in degrading the organic wastes into their respective constituents and
convert them into high value-added products (Holker and Lenz 2005). Valorization
of organic constituents of solid waste can also be achieved from composting and
anaerobic digestion.
Despite these early promising techniques, much work needs to be done for
establishing a combined effort from different partners of legislative and other
government agencies. Particular emphasis should be provided for promoting social
awareness campaigns to challenge the traditional understanding of waste as some-
thing that needs to be disposed of without any value. In India, the industrial waste
being discarded is enormous which creates serious waste disposal problem. Organic
wastes generated from industries are hazardous to the environment and can be used
as a potential bioresource for extraction of different bioactive components.
Impacts of Improper Solid Waste Management
Negative effects of improper waste management affect the overall growth and economy
of a country. In India, inadequate treatment of waste is a serious issue due to the limited
financial resources. The adverse consequences of improper SWM are significant.
Unfortunately, there is no clear linkage between a cause (improper SWM) and an effect
(problems faced due to improper SWM). In addition, people don’t have a clear
understanding of the risks associated with random dumping or burning of SW. The
creation of public awareness and development of suitable linkage between current SWM
and undesirable health problems are necessary for implementation of an effective SWM
program. Health risks from mismanagement of solid waste are caused due to:
(a) The nature and composition of solid waste material, which may contain different
toxic and infectious substances
(b) The nature of waste during and after decomposition (such as the generation of
gas and leachate at disposal sites) and the change in its ability to cause negative
health effects in receptors
(c) The nature of handling of waste (such as the danger faced by solid waste workers
and waste pickers due to exposure and improper handling of solid waste
materials)
(d) The nature of waste disposal process (which can cause odor, noise, instability of
waste piles, air and water emissions, groundwater and surface water contamina-
tion, fires, etc.)
Dumping on open land and direct exposure to hazardous waste cause all types of
environmental pollution as well as affect human health (Rathi 2006; Sharholy et al.
2005). Waste from agricultural and industrial sectors can also cause serious health
risks. Co-disposal of industrial hazardous waste with municipal waste can manifest
chemical and radioactive hazards. Disposal of hospital and other biomedical waste
requires special attention since this can cause severe health hazards. The infectious
waste generated from hospitals, health-care units, and medical laboratories such as
discarded syringe needles, bandages, swabs, plasters are often disposed with the
regular noninfectious waste which multiplies the contamination scenario.
Uncollected SW can interrupt water runoff, resulting in the formation of stagnant
water bodies that serve as the breeding ground of pests/insects. Waste dumped near
water sources also cause contamination of the groundwater resources. Direct dump-
ing of untreated waste into rivers, seas, and lakes results in the accumulation of toxic
substances in the food chain which poses risk to plants and animals that feed on
it. Improperly constructed and operated incineration plants cause air pollution, and
improperly designed landfills attract all types of insects and rodents. Ideally, these
sites should be planned and constructed at a safe distance from all human settle-
ments. Landfill sites should be well lined and covered to ensure that there is no
leakage into the nearby groundwater sources. Recycling too, if not properly under-
taken, can carry severe health risks. Workers dealing with waste containing
chemicals and metals may experience toxic exposure (Arafat et al. 2013; Fan et al.
2018). Certain chemicals if released untreated, for example, carbon monoxide,
carbon dioxide, cyanides, mercury, arsenic, and polychlorinated biphenyls, are
highly toxic, and exposure to it can lead to serious health implications or death
(Ahamed et al. 2020). Open burning of organic fraction of MSW leads to biogas
emissions and cause atmospheric pollution by contributing to the greenhouse effect
and global warming (Sridevi et al. 2012). Greenhouse gases are emitted not only
while the waste is managed (as during transportation) but also when it is left to decay
in dumpsites (Bogner et al. 2017). Methane and hydrogen emitted during anaerobic
digestion are highly flammable and, if not collected and valorized to a renewable
energy form, will led to a potential risk of fire or explosion (Slagstad and Bratteb
2013).
Gaps for Sustainable Solid Waste Management
(a) Awareness to improve segregation: In India, composition of solid waste is

largely dominated by organic waste fraction (45–50%) which creates a barrier
for technology adoption. There is no separate collection and segregation system
for different categories of SW, and this results to the development of huge
amount of garbage in the states. Such a scenario indicates huge gaps in planning
and policies programs. Segregation of waste into organic and nonorganic com-
ponents helps in easy processing and operation, as well as it creates employment
opportunity for the urban poor. Moreover, segregation helps in yielding good
quality standard compost. Community awareness and citizen participation to
segregate waste at source, door-to-door collection, and disposal in appropriate
collecting bin play a crucial role in SWM and thus intensify its efficiency. It is the
most critical phase in the whole process of SWM. Therefore, segregation of SW
should be a compulsory step to be undertaken at every level of waste collection
(comprising both organic and nonorganic waste) for further treatment and
processing technology.
(b) Unsystematic and erroneous data collection: The data on generation, processing,
and disposal of solid waste produced by different agencies are inconsistent. The
absence of systematic and periodic data collection regarding quantity and
composition of waste leads to an ineffective waste management system. These
data are useful in development of infrastructure investment and help in making
effective planning by each municipality. Therefore, reliable and accurate data
relating to waste generation is important to properly plan the facilities to be
undertaken.
(c) Urbanization and insufficient funding: With the population explosion, challenge
to provide adequate infrastructural facilities in urban areas and selecting new
landfill site is important. Presently, most of the landfills are running above their
desirable capacity in metropolitan cities. Inadequate financial support to cater to
waste management problem further aggravates it. Due to financial crunch,
adequate infrastructure facilities are not available to provide suitable solutions.
(d) Implementation of rules at grassroot level: Inability of the ULBs to furnish
appropriate government reports (as per MSWR) makes it difficult to manage
the SW properly. There is a need to form a specialized group of officers and
skilled staffs for ULBs. Adequate training sessions would enable them to identify
bottlenecks at implementation level and take suitable action (Gupta et al. 2015).
(e) Lack of coordination among center and state: There is communication gap
between the central and state government. Delay in submission of reports from
state to center delays the appropriate level of implementation at ground level.
Poor performance at implementation level by ULBs is the main obstacle.
(f) Appropriate technological solution and public private partnership (PPP):
Eco-friendly practices are the need of the hour to cope with the exponential
growth of SW. Appropriate technological solutions through PPP are required to
handle it. Capacity building, availability of skilled labor, familiarity with new
and best practices available for SWM, financial incentives for identifying new
techno-feasible solutions, and appropriate and quick decision at local level for
smooth implementation of SWM are real challenges.
(g) Failure of waste-to-energy projects: India is still striving to make waste-to-
energy project a success story because of the improper handling of waste
(Kumar et al. 2017). There is a need to import economically feasible and proven
technical know-how. Apart from this, appropriately characterized and segre-
gated waste needs to be supplied to waste-to-energy plants as per its
requirement.
(h) Involvement of organized sector: Organized sectors should be engaged for
improving SW collection efficiency and source segregation. However, due to
absence of recycling industries, this vast potential has been neglected.
Some recommendations that should be implemented for improving SWM status in

India are:
(a) SW should be segregated at the source to reduce the waste quantity for disposal
and to increase the recycling rate. Waste possessing high calorific value needs to
be dissociated from organic waste having high moisture content.
(b) Recycling and recovering of waste for making useful products through suitable
treatment options will provide new employment opportunities.
(c) Recycling industries in India should be upgraded. Color-coded containers pro-
vided with named waste varieties should be publicized to encourage segregation
and recycling behaviors of the citizens.
(d) At present, there is no restriction on the quantity of SW generation, and the waste
disposal techniques are responsible for the production of more waste. Increasing
waste collection and disposal charges can recover the costs and raise capital for
investment into new facilities.
(e) The present SWM crisis in India needs to be addressed with PPP as a whole by
preparing long-term solutions and focusing on rectifying the existing problems
in it.
(f) The community should increase their knowledge about the impacts of SW on
human health and environment and thereby raise awareness about it by practicing
community participation.
(g) The branch of waste valorization and green technology should be properly
explored and executed to obtain better management options.
Conclusion
Management of solid waste is one of the important challenges to the environment.

Population increase, rapid urbanization, booming economy, and the rise in the living
standard have greatly accelerated the quantity and quality of the solid waste gener-
ation. The inadequate waste management causes alteration of the ecosystem includ-
ing air, water, and soil pollution; thus, it renders a real threat to human health. SW
generated in India are highly heterogeneous in composition. The improper bin
collection practices, segregation, transfer, and disposal systems greatly affect char-
acteristics of the solid wastes and indirectly have severe environmental and public
implications. The elevating generation of solid waste poses huge burden on the costs
of government budget. Policies regarding solid waste management is already present
in India but has still not achieved any great success. They have remained dormant
because of poor implementation of social, technical, institutional, and financial
factors. But with the recent amendment in SWMR (2016) and its integration with
Swachh Bharat Mission, the government has seriously considered the policies to
overcome this challenge. Therefore, appropriate planning and implementation of
SWMR are crucial for achieving and maintaining sustainable development. India
needs to innovate and evolve an efficient management system with enough incen-
tives and provisions for which would be viable as well as socially acceptable. Since
the main concern is heterogeneity of mixed solid waste, effective separate collection
should be seen as an alternative route in India. It helps in improving the recycling
rate and can be seen as a resource for economic, social, and environmental benefit.
Awareness, political will, and public participation are prerequisites for successful
implementation of policies/rules, by which a balanced sustainable solid waste
management can be achieved.
There is a need of a paradigm shift from the depletive “produce-consume-dispose”--
based economy to a “reduce-recover-reuse-recycle-redesign-remanufacture”-led circu-
lar economy which is more regenerative and restorative in nature. Waste-to-energy
concept along with waste valorization has gained popularity with different mechanical,
biological, and thermal technologies like composting, bio-methanation, incineration,
pyrolysis, gasification, and production of refuse-derived fuel which aids to recover
energy from waste materials. Green technology, an environment-friendly innovative
technology which focuses to eliminate waste from the source, is an attractive alternative
option which ensures sustainability of the environment by reducing pollution. These
technologies are still in initial stage of implementation because of lack of financial and
economic stability. To achieve financial security, socioeconomic feasibility, and envi-
ronmental sustainability goals, there is a need to systematically evaluate the strengths
and weaknesses of the community as well as the municipal corporations along with
participation of various stakeholders. The public interest can be altered by building
awareness campaigns and educational measures. Lastly, involvement of private and
government agencies is important to tackle the waste management challenges and
convert them to potential opportunities in India.
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Assessment of Quality of Compost Derived
from Municipal Solid Waste 8
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Composting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Materials for Composting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Microbiology of Composting Wastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Variables Controlling Compost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Types of Composting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Quality of Compost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Classification of Compost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Case Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Abstract
In general, MSW in Indian cities contains about 40–50% biodegradable matter
permitting gainful composting after segregation. However, the end product of
compost needs to be put to use in horticulture or arboriculture to make the MSW
cycle meaningful. This requires due process of certification of the compost before
releasing into the consumer market. In this respect, the available test protocols
rely on parameters such as C/N ration, clean index (CI), and fertility index (FI).
Assessment of these parameters requires an elaborate testing procedure with high-
end instruments like flame photometer, CHNS, ICP MS, and equipment like
digester fume cupboards, etc. which are just not popularly available at all
municipalities. This chapter attempts to provide an alternative to arrive at the
quality of the compost for use as soil conditioner or otherwise. The commonly
followed methods of windrow/aerobic composting, vermicomposting, and
M. Chandra Sekhar (*)

Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Warangal, India
G. Venkatesam
Municipal Administration, Hyderabad, India

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_13
228 M. Chandra Sekhar and G. Venkatesam
inoculated microbial composting were used to compost the MSW from GMR
Township, Shamshabad. The quality of compost was calculated using quality
control indices such as FI and CI. The probability percentage of getting best
quality and very good quality compost through windrow/aerobic composting
method in the small-scale setup is 66.6%. The probability percentage of getting
best quality and very good quality compost through vermicomposting method in
small-scale setup is 100%. The probability percentage of getting best quality and
very good quality compost through inoculated microbial composting method in
the small-scale setup is zero percentage. Assessment of quality of compost is of
great importance especially in planning composting facilities as part of municipal
solid waste management in urban areas. In addition, monitoring quality of
compost is of great significance in deciding the use of compost and its marketing
especially while large-scale composting with MSW.
Keywords
Compost · Municipal solid waste · Fertility index · Clean index · Soil nutrients
Introduction
Solid waste, in general, refers to nonliquid wastes that arise from a community.
Excreta is not a component of solid wastes. In terms of layman’s words, solid wastes
are those used/unused materials that are discarded into the dustbin. The amount of
solid wastes generated in urban areas are dependent on living standards, habits, and
public awareness. Municipal solid wastes generation rates vary from 0.2 kg/c/day to
about 4.5 kg/c/day, and the indications are that the rates of generation are increasing
over the years. High-income countries generate higher quantities of wastes while the
average waste generated is 0.74 kg/c/day. Positive correlation is reported between
waste generation rates and per capita income. Estimates indicate that the global
waste generated will increase to 3.4 million tons by 2020, which is greater than
double the population growth over the same time (Fig. 1).
Municipal solid wastes include several components which can be recovered and
recycled. In the USA, proper segregation of materials can result in 35.2% of wastes
being recycled and composted, 12.7% of wastes being incinerated, and about 52% of
wastes being landfilled (EPA Report 2017). Similar observations are possible in
other countries too with variations in percentages, if municipal waste management is
properly regulated. Waste composition also differs across the globe, with high-
income countries generating more dry waste that can be recycled and less food
and green waste. The middle- and low-income countries generate 53–57% food and
green wastes, and there is not much change in these generation rates among nations
with similar income levels.
Waste collection is a service offered by local bodies in number of countries, and
the efficiency of collection is highly variable across the countries. Waste collection
and segregation go together, and in many of the middle- and low-income groups,
waste management becomes complicated as segregation waste at the source is not
8 Assessment of Quality of Compost Derived from Municipal Solid Waste 229
Fig. 1 Projected waste generation across the globe (in million tons/year). (Source: https://
datatopics.worldbank.org/what-a-waste/trends_in_solid_waste_management.html)
very effective. Also, waste collection is substantially greater in urban areas when
compared with rural areas. Waste disposal depends mostly on collection and segre-
gation, and hence, most countries face difficulties in achieving the higher efficiencies
of collection and proper segregation. Sustainable waste management is one of the
tasks for several countries to prosper economically.
Open dumping is still a prevalent method in low- and middle-income countries.
Landfills are better options when compared with open dumps. However, with the
current trends in solid waste generation rates, even landfills cannot be recommended
without considering the other options of composting, recycling, and recovery. Use of
landfills in conjunction with recycle and recovery is recommended in several developed
countries as it reduces the space required for landfills in urban areas, and revenue is
generated by recycling and recovery options. If recyclable wastes like paper, glass,
metal, plastic, etc. are removed and the food and green wastes are composted, the
amount of wastes to be landfilled drastically reduces. Also, the recovery of energy from
wastes with good heating value is another option used in several countries. The above
also complies with solid waste hierarchy principle given in Fig. 2.
Source reduction is also referred to as waste minimization advocates reducing
wastes at the point of generation, and it is most preferred option in solid waste
management. Source reduction generally happens by reuse of materials for similar or
associated purpose. Waste can be minimized by changes in design, manufacturing
process, reducing packaging, etc., and popular business strategies are being
experimented. The popular benefits of source reduction include conservation of
natural resources and energy, reduction in pollution, and economy for both manu-
facturer and consumers.
Recycling refers to identification of waste materials that can be used as raw
materials for making new products. It includes a sequence of activities like collection
of items which otherwise are considered as waste and sorting and processing the
Fig. 2 Waste hierarchy Waste Management Hierarchy

(Source: www.epa.gov)
Mo
st
Source Reduction & Reuse
Pr
efe
rre
d
Recycling / Composting
Energy Recovery
Treatment
& Disposal
Le
as
tP
ref
err
ed
materials for conversion into new products that are marketable. Success of recycling
embraces identification of wastes that are recyclable and marketable economically.
Recyclable materials in municipal solid wastes mostly include paper, metal, glass,
and food and green wastes (organic). The proportion of food and green wastes is
considerable in municipal solid waste making composting a viable option for many
cities. Advantages of recycling include reduction of GHGs, energy savings, supply
of raw materials to industry, employment, resource conservation, and reduction of
wastes to be landfilled.
Energy recovery is generally referred to as waste to energy (WTE) wherein conver-
sion of nonrecyclable wastes is converted into usable heat and electricity. Wastes are
converted to heat, electricity, or fuel by processes like combustion, gasification,
pyrolysis, anaerobic digestion, and landfill gas recovery. Ash derived from energy
recovery process is generally inert and send to landfill. This is a renewable energy
option, and it also reduces the carbon emission by reducing the use of fossil fuels.
Treatment of disposal is the least preferred option in municipal solid waste
management. Treatment includes shredding, incineration, and anaerobic digestion.
Landfills are considered to be the popular option for waste disposal and are essential
components of integrated waste management. Properly designed and operated land-
fills comply with the prescribed regulations and are accepted engineered solutions for
waste management. Landfills satisfying stringent design, operation, and closure
requirements are reclaimed for parks, playgrounds, and parking lots after closure.
Composting
Composting refers to natural process of biological decomposition of organic com-

ponent of solid wastes by living organisms under controlled conditions. Food and
green wastes which comprise about 40–50% of municipal solid wastes are suitable
for composting. Compost is rich source of organic matter and is a popular soil
conditioner for use in agriculture. Compost is combination of stable end products of
biological decomposition, biomass of both dead and living microorganisms, and
leftover, nondegraded organic matter. Compost enhances the physicochemical and
biological properties of soil in addition to improving soil fertility. Composting is
possible by both aerobic and anaerobic processes.
Aerobic Process: Composting occurs in abundant oxygen conditions wherein
organic matter undergoes degradation to produce carbon dioxide, ammonia, water,
and heat in addition to compost. The end products are stable though the compost is
slightly unstable due to the presence of cellulose and hemicellulose. The process is
much quicker and destroys pathogens due to higher temperature (70–800 C). As the
compost is more efficient in agricultural production, aerobic process is more popular
than anaerobic process for composting. The process requires macro- and micro-
nutrients, oxygen, water, C/N ratio, and suitable temperature and pH.
Composting occurs in two phases: (1) active composting and (2) curing. During
the first phase, microbial reactions break up the readily degradable organic material
and small portion of complex organic matter. In the curing stage, microbial activity is
low, and decomposition of products from active phase occurs. When curing stage
is complete, the compost is mostly stabilized. During composting, significant
changes in temperature occur as indicated in Fig. 3. In active phase, both mesophilic
(24–40 C) and thermophilic (above 40 C) organisms transform the bulk of the
nutrient and energy containing materials, and the process continues for several
weeks depending on the properties of solid wastes. In the active thermophilic
stage, temperatures rise, pathogens are killed, and weed seeds are destroyed. At
high temperatures, the phytotoxic compounds are also broken down. Remaining
materials decompose during curing stage, where mesophilic organisms are active
and the compost matures at low temperatures. Compost reaches maturity during
curing phase. Time required for curing mostly depends on type of waste, composting
Fig. 3 Temperature changes in a compost pile

process, climate, and use of the final product. Studies have reported the importance
of achieving maturity to ensure fertilizing capacity and control of pathogens that can
affect the plant (Fuchs 2002; Noble and Coventry 2005).
Anaerobic Process: Anaerobic process occurs in an environment with less or no
oxygen by anaerobic microorganisms. During the process, products like methane,
organic acids, hydrogen sulfide, and others accumulate which results in objection-
able odor. Anaerobic composting is a low-temperature process and takes longer time
than the aerobic process.
Materials for Composting
Traditionally, raw materials for composting are manure and agricultural residues or
wastes. Materials that are difficult to handle and manage economically and those that
pose environmental issues are used along with manure. The materials generally
include crop residue, peanut shells, rice hulls, hay, and other kinds of straw. Nonfarm
sources of material for composting are generally from municipal solid wastes and
commercial establishments (hotels, groceries, restaurants, food processing indus-
tries, etc.). In this context, composting municipal solid wastes is practiced for the
organic wastes segregated in several places successfully. In broad sense, the com-
ponents for composting are substrate, amendments, and bulking agent. Substrate is
the waste material, while amendment is the material to maintain C/N ratio, pH, and
moisture content. More than one amendment can be used for better compost.
Bulking agent maintains structure and porosity in the pile, and it is a decay-resistant
material. Bulking agents are later screened from the finished compost.
High rate of microbial activity is possible when C/N ratio, moisture content, and
aeration are maintained. Though natural decomposition is possible even otherwise,
but the rate is too slow, and it is highly odorous. Composing materials and the
conditions are designed to result in higher rate of decomposition, reduce odor
problems, and destroy pathogens, weed seeds, and fly larvae. The favorable condi-
tions for composting include C/N ratio, oxygen supply, moisture content, mixing,
and suitable pH and temperature.
Microbiology of Composting Wastes
Microorganisms: Bacteria and fungi are the two major groups that play an important
role in composting process. Bacteria though smaller than fungi, the bacterial popu-
lation is very effective in decomposing organic matter such as sugars during the first
stage. Actinomycetes is the specific filamentous bacteria that decompose complex
substances like starch, hemicellulose, and lignin. Their population increases after the
initial stage of composting where the easily degradable organic matter is exhausted.
Fungi is active at the later stages of composting when the resistant substances like
hemicellulose, lignin, and pectin are degraded. Microorganisms are present in the
substrate, but the species and numbers present vary depending on the waste material
that is being composted. Many times, specific wastes are mixed with substrate to
populate the material used for composting. These microorganisms decompose

wastes to derive energy and nutrients for their survival and growth. Organic sub-
stances in municipal solid wastes are hence decomposed by microorganisms as they
need organic carbon compounds for their growth. During the process of respiration,
microorganisms release significant amount of heat as the use of energy is not that
efficient like the bigger organisms/animals. As a result, there is significant increase
in temperature of the compost as dissipation of heat is limited in piles/drums/
windrows. The increase in temperature depends on the complexity of and energy
content in the wastes along with oxygen and moisture content.
Literature reports the findings of research on microbiology of composting process
(Cahyani et al. 2003; Schloss et al. 2003; Ryckeboer et al. 2003). Schloss et al.
(2003) identified two types of microorganisms: one active during the initial hours up
to 1 day and the other active during 3–4 days of active phase. Thermophilic stage is
dominated by bacterial population, while the others, fungi, Streptomycetes, and
yeasts, were not significantly in action. Bacilli was dominant during the thermophilic
phase during the composting of fresh wastes. The gram-positive and gram-negative
bacterial population increased during the later stage of composting (Ryckeboer et al.
2003). Cahyani et al. (2003) identified Alphaproteobacteria in fresh wastes, bacillus,
and Actinomycetes during thermophilic stage and Cytophaga and clostridial during
the later phase of curing. Chen et al. (1989) reported that microorganisms use
hemicellulose and cellulose as substrate during the maturation process as the less
complex organic material is consumed during the active phase of composting.
However, subsequently, it is reported that decomposition of organic matter in curing
phase resulted in reduction of C/N ratio, diversity of microorganisms, and their
activity (Tang et al. 2006). The phytotoxicity decreases as the activity of
Actinobacteria increases during the curation phase.
Variables Controlling Compost
Composting is influenced by several parameters, and these generally depend on the

raw materials mix (C/N ratio, pH, particle size, porosity, and moisture content) and
process variables (aeration, temperature, water content, and compaction). The pro-
cess variables of composting are indicated in Fig. 4. In addition to the above,
composting also depends on waste degradability, chemical constituents of the
waste, microbial population, and prevailing climatic conditions.
Aeration: Aeration is a critical aspect of composting that provides oxygen
required for decomposition of organic matter. Aeration is also instrumental in heat
dissipation and removal of water vapor and other gases like carbon dioxide from the
pile. Adequate aeration results in complete conversion of carbon to carbon dioxide
and reduced methane emissions, hence reducing odor nuisance. However, excessive
aeration adversely affects the rate of decomposition rate and maturity of compost
(Zhang and Sun 2016). Typically, adequate oxygen supply for composting should be
in the range of 15–20%. Aeration is achieved by controlling the particle size and
moisture content of waste, pile size, ventilation, and frequency of mixing.
Fig. 4 Process variables of composting
Moisture Content: Metabolic activity of the microorganisms in composting

process is influenced by moisture content. Ideal moisture content for composting
is in the range of 40–65%, and moisture content above 65% results in anaerobic
conditions (Bernal et al. 2009). Moisture content reduces as the temperature rises
during the composting process as higher temperatures lead to higher rate of evapo-
ration (Varma and Kalamdhad 2015). Hence, it is essential to monitor the moisture
content of the pile and add water as and when the moisture content drops.
Nutrients: Microorganisms responsible for composting require nutrients (N, P, K)
and carbon for effective growth and, hence, decomposition of organic matter. In
particular, C/N ratio is a critical parameter that governs the amount of carbon
conversion to CO2 during the composting process. Microorganisms require
30 parts of C for utilization of one part of N, while typical C/N ratio of 25–35 is
ideal for composting (Kutsanedzie et al. 2015). Higher C/N ratio limits the growth of
microorganisms, and hence, longer duration is required for composting. Lower C/N
ratio results in underutilization of N, and the excess is lost as ammonia and other
undesirable salts and odors (Mohee et al. 2015; Onwosi et al. 2017). Bulking agents
(sawdust, rice husk, peanut shells, wood chips, etc.) are generally used as additives
to maintain optimum C/N ratio. Ranges of C/N ratio of different components in
MSW are given in Table 1.
Temperature: Composting process is accomplished by mesophilic and
thermophilic temperature ranges. During the initial stage, temperature in the range
of 20–450 C and in the later stage temperature in the range of 50–700 C are ideal
for the composting process. Temperature of 550 C is effective in destruction of
pathogens, while temperature of 620 C can result in elimination of weed seeds.
Temperatures higher than 700 C for longer time are detrimental to growth of
microorganisms (fungi, actinomycetes, and bacteria) (Varma and Kalamdhad
Table 1 C/N ratio of Organic material type C/N

different organic material
Food waste 14–17
in MSW
Grass clippings 9–25
Kitchen organic waste 15–25
Garden waste 20–35
Coffee grounds 20–30
Fruit waste 25–40
Nutshells 35
Tree leaves 40–70
Straw 50–100
Sawdust 200–500
2015). Temperature in the pile is regulated by aeration and turning operations

(Chowdhury et al. 2013).
pH: Composting process exhibits natural buffering, and raw materials with wide
range of pH are acceptable. However, ideal pH range for effective composting is
5.5–8 (Zhang and Sun 2016). Higher pH, above 8, leads to release of ammonia gas
and hence odor problems. Also, higher pH values significantly affect the survival of
pH-sensitive microorganisms (Hachicha et al. 2009). Temperature and pH collec-
tively can influence the coexistence of several microbial communities and hence the
composting process.
Particle Size: Particle size influences the surface area, and higher surface
area results in quicker microbial decomposition and hence effective composting.
Shredding and chipping is adopted to modify the particle size of wastes. Particle size
also improves porosity and aeration in the pile. Smaller size particles than the normal
can lead to compaction and anaerobic conditions, while larger size particles can lead
to slower decomposition of wastes (Verma and Marschner 2013). Optimum range of
particles for composting of MSW is usually between 1.2 and 5 cm diameter.
Types of Composting
Windrow/Aerobic Composting (WC): Windrow/aerobic composting is a process in

which the biodegradable material/municipal solid waste is used as raw material, and
it undergoes composting in the presence of oxygen. Raw materials are thoroughly
mixed, and the piles are made. Windrow shape depends on the materials to be
composted and climate and equipment used. Typically, windrows are 2–3 m height
and 5–7 m wide, and length can vary to serial meters depending on the space
available at the composting site. The process generally is done in windrows or in
vessels and aerated through forced aeration, or it is kept in the open and aerated
naturally. Windrow/aerobic composting utilizes oxygen biologically decompose
waste materials in a controlled condition until it stabilizes. Within a fortnight, the
composting process can be completed without unpleasant odor.
Windrow/aerobic composting generally generates a lot of heat which in turn kills
human and plant pathogens which might be harmful. The heat generated also breaks
down the proteins, fats, cellulose, and hemicellulose content of the organic material.
The organic material gets converted to oxides of nitrogen and CO2. The nitrogen
gets recycled, and carbon becomes an energy source for microbial activity. Windrow
composting, also referred as mechanical biological treatment (MBT), is a popular
method of composting in developing countries including India.
Vermicomposting (VC): Vermicomposting is a process in which earthworms are
used to decompose biodegradable matter/municipal solid waste into compost rich in
nutrients. Earthworms are capable of consuming organic matter five times the weight
of their body weight every day and excrete in the form of vermicast that is rich in
macro- and micronutrients. After initial decomposition of biodegradable organic
matter in enzymatic extracellular activity known as primary decomposition, earth-
worms are released on the partially decomposed matter. Stabilization of organic
matter happens through joint action of earthworms and aerobic microorganisms.
Enzymatic degradation of organic matter takes place while its matter passes through
the digestive system of earthworms. Vermicomposting is generally suitable for
composing municipal solid wastes up to 100 TPD, while larger quantities of wastes
are handled in windrow composting units. Also, decentralized composting facilities
are recommended for vermicomposting in large cities for economic reasons.
Inoculated Microbial Composting (IMC): Composting is a natural process that
can be catalyzed by use of microbial inoculants. Enzymes produced by different
types of microbial inoculants result in higher rate of waste decomposition. Inoculants
are generally microbes that are proved to be efficient in degradation of specific
wastes. These microbes are either isolated microbial communities or developed
through culture mixtures such as soil, cow dung, straw, etc. (Liu et al. 2011).
Major portion of organic matter in municipal solid waste is plant biomass rejected
from the kitchen. These rejects are typically decomposed by hydrolysis microorgan-
isms that produce cellulase enzyme (Gautam et al. 2012). Bacteria and fungi that
produce cellulase enzyme are Cellulomonas, Pseudomonas, Bacillus spp., Thermo-
actionmycetes, Aspergillus, Trichoderma, Sclerotium, and white-rot fungi (Awasthi
et al. 2015). With controlled inoculation and proper control of the composting
process, good-quality compost is produced within a reasonably short time than
traditional composting methods. However, microbial composting works under con-
trolled conditions; therefore, close monitoring of the process is essential.
Quality of Compost
Quality of compost refers to the overall productivity of the end product after
decomposition of the waste in the process. In general, maturity and stability are
the parameters that describe the compost quality. Maturity refers to the suitability of
the compost as a soil conditioner for agricultural practices and its biological and
chemical impacts. Stability describes the organic fraction and its effects on biolog-
ical activity while compost is applied to soil. Studies indicate compost quality
depends on physiochemical properties, C/N ratio, microbial activities, biomass,
phytotoxicity, cation exchange capacity, etc. (Santos et al. 2016; Tiquia et al. 1997;
Tiquia and Tam 1998).
Improper solid waste management can significantly affect the quality of compost.
Heavy metals in compost are result of improper segregation of municipal solid
wastes. Heavy metals in compost derived from mixed wastes can contaminate
agricultural soils with heavy metals. Contaminated soil is prone to incorporate
heavy metals in the food chain and leading to biomagnification.
Fertility Index: Compost is known to be a good soil conditioner since historic
time with good quantities of macro- and micronutrients (N, P, K, Zn, Fe, Cu, etc.)
and organic matter required for plant growth (Ingelmo et al. 2012). Nutrient content
in the compost depends on the type of waste used for the process and the additives.
Nitrogen in compost is mostly in organic form (amino acids) and small portion as
inorganic form (ammonium and ammonia). Organic N is easily available for plant
uptake through roots, but soil microorganisms convert organic nitrogen to inorganic
forms (nitrite N and nitrate N) (Ge et al. 2009; Owen and Jones 2001). Ammonium N
is also readily available for plant uptake while the quantities of other inorganic forms
(nitrite N and nitrate N) present in more mature compost are low. As nitrite N
exhibits phytotoxicity, its concentration should be minimized. When compost is
applied to soil, plant available N is released during microbial reactions with organic
matter in compost. Some amount of N is also lost from soil due to denitrification,
volatilization, and leaching. Along with elemental composition of compost, respira-
tion activity (mg CO2-C/g VS d) is also used in assessment of fertility index.
Compost respiration decreases as composting progresses toward maturity. Hence,
compost respiration indicates biological activity and the rate of weight loss in
compost over time. Compost respiration and C/N ratio are not correlated as C/N
depends on composition of wastes used for composting and not biological activity
(Sullivan and Miller 2001).
Fertility value of compost used for improving the soil productivity is influenced
by total C, N, P, and K content and also C/N ratio and respiration activity of compost.
For determination of fertility index, the above parameters are assigned a score value
as indicated in Table 2. Fertilizing parameters of source-separated biogenous com-
posts are considered for assigning the score values. Higher values of the fertilizing
parameters were assigned higher score value, while smaller values were assigned
Table 2 Criteria for weighing factor to fertility parameters and score value to compost
Score value (Si) 5 4 3 2 1 Wi
Total organic carbon (TOC) >20.0 15.1–20.0 12.1–15.0 9.1–12.0 <9.1 5
(% dm)
Total N (% dm) >1.25 1.01–1.25 0.81–1.00 0.80–0.51 <0.51 3
Total P (% dm) >0.60 0.41–0.60 0.21–0.40 0.11–0.20 <0.11 3
Total K (% dm) >1.00 0.76–1.00 0.51–0.75 0.26–0.50 <0.26 1
C/N <10.1 10.1–15 15.1–20 20.1–25 >25 3
Respiration activity <2.1 2.1–6.0 6.1–10.0 10.1–15 >15 4
(mg CO2-C/g VS d)
with lower score value. Composts with respiration activity less than 2 and range
2–8 mg CO2-C/g VS d are considered to very stable and stable, respectively (Leege
and Thompson 1997). Hence, lower values of respiration activity are assigned
highest and moderate score values.
Weighing factor is assigned based on the influence of fertilizing parameter in
improving the soil productivity. Organic carbon influences soil parameters like
water-holding capacity, porosity, soil structure, nutrient reserves, and biological
productivity of soil, and hence, compost with higher TOC results in higher crop
yields. Also, TOC in compost is reported to have higher residence time in soil as it
forms clay humus complex. In view of the above, TOC in compost is assigned
highest weighing factor of 5. C/N ratio and respiration activity parameters of
compost immobilize N and other nutrients, and hence, they are assigned higher
weighing factor. Based on the functional importance of the major nutrients (N, P, K)
in crop growth and productivity, these parameters are assigned different weights.
Equation 1 is used to assess the “fertilizing index” of the compost prepared by using
different MSW using different composting methods and wastes.
X X
Fertilizing index ¼ Wi Si= Wi ð1Þ
where “Si” is score value of analytical data, and “Wi” is weighing factor. The values
of Si and Wi for fertilizing index are given in Table 2.
Clean Index: Heavy metal content in the solid wastes is incorporated into the
compost produced. Heavy metals in compost are absorbed by the plant when
compost is added as soil conditioner, and at low concentrations, plant growth and
yield are not significantly influenced by the heavy metals. The concentrations of
heavy metals in compost depend on the source and type of wastes used for
composting. Stringent source segregation of MSW can reduce the presence of
heavy metals in compost. Several countries have prescribed standards for heavy
metals in compost that result in significant impact on the soil and crop (Briton 2000;
FAI 2007). The maximum concentrations of heavy metals in compost (mg/kg of dry
matter) prescribed by different countries is presented in Table 3. However, there is no
universal classification of composts based on different regulations across the globe.
Also, there is a lot of variation in average concentrations of heavy metals in
composts prepared using MSW around the world (He et al. 1992; Herity 2003).
Table 3 Maximum permissible limits stipulated by various countries for heavy metal concentra-
tion in compost (mg/kg dry compost)
Heavy metal Germany Belgium Canada France Sweden India
Zn 400 1000 500 – 500 1000
Cu 150 100 100 – 150 300
Cd 2 5 3 8 3 5
Pb 200 600 150 800 150 100
Ni 50 50 62 200 50 50
Cr 150 150 210 – 150 50
Source: ECN Report 2008
Table 4 Score values for clean index

Sj value 5 4 3 2 1 0 Wj
Zn (mg/kg dm) <151 151–300 301–500 501–700 701–900 >900 1
Cu (mg/kg dm) <51 51–100 101–200 201–400 401–600 >600 2
Cd (mg/kg dm) <0.3 0.3–0.6 0.7–1.0 1.1–2.0 2.0–4.0 >4.0 5
Pb (mg/kg dm) <51 51–100 101–150 151–250 251–400 >400 3
Ni (mg/kg dm) <21 21–40 41–80 81–120 121–160 >160 1
Cr (mg/kg dm) <51 51–100 101–150 151–250 251–350 >350 3
Concentration of heavy metal in compost was critical while assigning the score
value. Higher heavy metal concentrations in compost are detrimental for crop growth
and yield. Hence, higher concentration of heavy metals is given low score value,
while low metal concentrations were assigned higher score value. Higher score is
assigned for less heavy metal content in compost, and thus, composts with less heavy
metal concentration attain higher value of “clean index.” Compost quality control
limits reported by Saha et al. (2009) for India and those in European countries
(Amlinger et al. 2004) are taken into consideration for assigning the score values.
Majority of the European countries adopt score value of less than 3 for heavy metals
in compost. Weighing factors are assigned to metals based on the biological func-
tion, phytotoxicity, and mammalian toxicity potential of the specific metal in com-
post. Cadmium is assigned weighing factor 5 as it exhibits high mammalian toxicity
and moderate phytotoxicity. Zinc and nickel are assigned lowest weighing factor as
these metals are functionally important in biological growth. Also, these two metals
present low to moderate mammalian toxicity and phytotoxicity. Equation 2 is used to
assess the clean index of the compost prepared using different methods and raw
materials in MSW.
X X
Clean Index ¼ Wj Sj= Wj ð2Þ
where “Sj” is score value of analytical data, and “Wj” is weighing factor of the “j”th
heavy metal (Saha et al. 2009). The values of Si and Wi for clean index are given in
Table 4.
Classification of Compost
Compost prepared using municipal solid waste is required to meet the regulatory
standards in terms of presence of nutrients and absence of heavy metals. Several
stakeholders are involved in preparation of compost from MSW, viz., farmers,
municipal authorities, private compost manufacturers, public departments, and envi-
ronmental and public health authorities. Farmers are interested in the fertilizing
elements present in the compost, while agriculture, environmental, and public health
authorities view the toxicity caused by the heavy metals in compost. For sustainable
use of compost prepared from MSW, clean index is of great concern in addition to
fertility index. The toxicity induced by presence of heavy metals in compost

prepared using MSW is certain to have long-term environmental impacts. Compost
manufacturers consider composting as business proposition and aim at maximizing
the profits. Grading MSW compost attains importance as it can reveal the presence
of fertilizing elements (fertility index) and heavy metals (clean index). These indices
can also be used for regulating the use of composts with high concentrations of
heavy metals into the environment. Different classes of composts are proposed
considering the fertility index and clean index of composts prepared using MSW
and are presented in Table 5 (Saha et al. 2009). The quality of the compost is also
indicated along with the suitability of the compost in different applications.
Compost grades A, B, C, and D can be allowed for bulk marketing; however, they
are required to comply with regulatory requirements in terms of heavy metal
concentrations. Classes A and C have maximum fertilizing index (> 3.5), while
classes A and B pose minimum threat to environment in terms of heavy metal
content (clean index >4).
Compost samples with low fertility index and not complying with regulation in
terms of heavy metal concentration are not to be recommended for marketing and
hence are place in restricted use (RU) category.
Table 5 Classification of MSW compost for their marketability and uses

Quality control
Class FI CI compliance Remarks
A >3.5 >4.0 Complying for all Best quality
heavy metal High manure value potential and low heavy
parameters metal content and can be used for high-value
crops, like in organic farming
B 3.1– >4.0 Complying for all Very good quality
3.5 heavy metal Medium fertilizing potential and low heavy
parameters metal content
C >3.5 3.1– Complying for all Good quality
4.0 heavy metal High fertilizing potential and medium heavy
parameters metal content
D 3.1– 3.1– Complying for all Medium quality
3.5 4.0 heavy metal Medium fertilizing potential and medium
parameters heavy metal content
(Restricted use category)
RU- < – Complying for all Should not be allowed to market due to low
1 3.1 heavy metal fertilizing potential. However, these can be
parameters used as soil conditioner.
RU- >3.5 >4.0 Not complying for all Should not be allowed to market. Can be used
2 heavy metal for growing nonfood crops. Requires periodic
parameters monitoring of soil quality if used repeatedly
RU- >3.5 – Not complying for all Restricted use. Should not be allowed to
3 heavy metal market. Can be used only for developing
parameters lawns/gardens (with single application) and
rehabilitation of degraded land
Source: Saha et al. (2009)
RU-1 class MSW composts comply with heavy metal concentrations but with
low fertility index; hence, it cannot be allowed in market but can be used as soil
conditioner.
RU-2 class composts do not comply regulation in terms of heavy metal concen-
tration though their clean index is high. Likely possible if one or two heavy metals
concentrations are higher than the regulatory standards. These are also in restricted
use category even though their fertility index is high; however, these can be used for
growing nonfood crops with regular soil monitoring.
RU-3 class composts also do not comply with heavy metal concentrations but
have higher fertility index; hence, it can be recommended for one-time application
for developing lawns/gardens, afforestation, wasteland reclamation, etc.
Case Study
Compost was prepared with municipal solid waste collected from GMR Town-
ship, Hyderabad, in small-scale setup using a plastic container (50 cm diameter
and 40 cm deep). Compost was prepared using windrow/aerobic, vermi, and
inoculated microbial composting. As it was difficult to simulate windrow pile
with 3 kg solid waste, plastic containers were used. Three containers were used
for each method with appropriate labels: windrow compost (WS1, WS2, and
WS3), vermicompost (VS1, VS2, and VS3), and inoculated microbial compost
(MS1, MS2, and MS3). For preparation of the compost, 3 kg of MSW was used
with different proportions of 1-week-old cow dung. In first sample, 1 kg of cow
dung is used; in the second sample, 2 kg; and in the third, no cow dung. Cow
dung is used to initiate to speed up the composting process. Moisture content
(50–60%) was maintained by sprinkling water at least twice a day depending on
ambient temperature. To drain excess water and leachate, small holes (2.5 mm)
are made at the bottom of the container. For ventilation, holes are made in the
sides of the plastic container. The waste was manually mixed periodically to
maintain aerobic conditions all through the pile. After 60 days, compost was
removed from containers, air-dried and sieved with 4 mm sieve, and sealed in
plastic cover for subsequent laboratory analysis. All the nine samples of compost
were analyzed for fertility and heavy metal parameters to assess the fertility and
clean indices. The scores and weights assigned to compost samples prepared
using different methods based on the physical and chemical parameters of
compost are presented in Table 6.
Scores and weights assigned to compost samples prepared by using MSW from
GMR Township are used to find the fertility and clean index. Equations 1 and 2 are
used to find the indices of the compost samples and are presented in Table 7. Based
on the indices obtained, compost samples are classified and presented in Table 7.
Compost samples are graded indicating the quality and suggesting appropriate use of
the compost based on their fertility and toxicity in terms of heavy metal
concentrations.
242
Table 6 Scores and weights assigned to compost samples

Windrow compost Vermicompost Inoculated microbial compost
Score values Weight Score values Weight Score values Weight
Parameter WS1 WS2 WS3 Wi VS1 VS2 VS3 Wi MS1 MS2 MS3 Wi
TOC 4 5 5 5 3 3 3 5 1 1 1 5
Total N 5 4 3 3 5 5 5 3 3 3 5 3
Total P 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 3
Total K 4 4 3 1 5 5 4 1 3 3 3 1
C/N Ratio 5 2 1 3 5 5 5 3 5 5 5 3
C – Respiration 5 5 5 4 5 5 5 4 5 5 5 4
Zn2+ 5 5 5 1 5 5 5 1 5 5 5 1
Cu2+ 5 5 5 2 5 5 5 2 5 5 5 2
Cd2+ 5 5 5 5 3 3 5 5 5 5 5 5
Pb2+ 5 5 5 3 5 5 5 3 5 5 5 3
Ni+ 5 5 5 1 5 5 5 1 5 5 5 1
Cr3+ 5 5 5 3 5 5 5 3 5 5 5 3
Table 7 Classification of compost samples based on fertility and clean indices

S. no Sample FI CI Class Quality Remarks
1 WS1 4 5 A Best High manure value potential and low
quality heavy metal content and can be used for
high-value crops, like in organic farming
2 WS2 3.4 5 B Very good Medium fertilizing potential and low
quality heavy metal content
3 WS3 3 5 RU- Low Should not be allowed to market due to
1 fertilizing low fertilizing potential. However, these
potential can be used as soil conditioner.
4 VS1 3.8 4.3 A Best High manure value potential and low
quality heavy metal content and can be used for
5 VS2 3.8 4.3 A Best high-value crops, like in organic farming
quality
6 VS3 3.7 5 A Best
quality
7 MS1 2.3 5 RU- Low Should not be allowed to market due to
1 fertilizing low fertilizing potential. However,
potential compost can be used as soil conditioner.
8 MS2 2.3 5 RU- Low
1 fertilizing
potential
9 MS3 2.6 5 RU- Low
1 fertilizing
potential
Windrow compost samples (WS1 and WS2) were of best quality with medium to
high fertilizing content and acceptable heavy metal concentrations; however, with
the compost sample (WS3) wherein no cow dung was added, the fertilizing elements
were less, and the fertility index was 3. Hence, WS3 was classified as RU-1, while
WS1 and WS2 composts were classified as A and B class, respectively. Compost
samples obtained from vermicomposting process were of best quality and classified
as A class compost, with high fertility and low heavy metal content. Compost
obtained using inoculate microbial composting was classified under restricted use
1 (RU-1) category due to low fertilizing potential (FI < 3.1). However, in terms of
heavy metal concentrations (CI ¼ 5), the compost is not objectionable, so it can be
used as soil conditioner. The results of the small-scale studies indicate that
vermicomposting samples give good grade compost than windrow composting,
while inoculated microbial composting gives compost with low fertility content.
However, in terms of clean index, all the samples are good with low metal concen-
trations as the MSW is collected from a township where the wastes are thoroughly
segregated at the source which may not be possible in municipalities. There is likely
possibility of clean index going little down while handling large quantities of solid
wastes in urban areas as segregation is not that perfect. Also, though
vermicomposting gives better results, it is difficult to operate these facilities when
compared with windrow composting. In decentralized facilities, vermicomposting
gives better results as relatively small quantities of wastes are handled.
Conclusion
Compost is considered to be safe in agricultural applications when compared with the

use of inorganic fertilizers and the impacts on the environment. Organic manure using
farming wastes in rural areas is a component of integrated nutrient management as it is
rich in nutrients (Acharya and Saha 2003). In reality, across the globe, there is not
enough organic manure to meet the ever-increasing agricultural demands for nutrients
and soil conditioner. In this context, compost from municipal solid waste is consid-
ered to have tremendous potential as source of organic manure for agricultural
practices. In several countries, increasing urban population and wastes generated
demand for sustainable solutions in municipal solid waste management. Composting
organic wastes in MSW is considered as one of the sustainable practices in several
countries. For example, considering the present urban population in India, per capita
waste generation, and the existing collection efficiency, it is estimated that 4.3 million
tons of compost can be produced per year which contains about 45,000 t of N, 11000 t
of P, and 23,000 t of K (Sharholy et al. 2008). However, the success of composting
MSW depends on the quality of the compost and its impact on the soil and crops.
The challenges in composting MSW include proper source segregation, collection,
and composting methods while aiming at large-scale composting. In addition, the
marketing of compost is a critical issue, and it solely depends on the quality of compost
and its acceptability by the farming community. Poor quality of composts was the main
reason for failure of composting facilities in several cities, and this was mainly
attributed to presence of several components such as glass, metal, plastic, etc., in
compost due to improper segregation. All these had influence on the farming practices,
and the farmers rejected these composts even when they were given free or at
subsidized cost. In this regard, the present study emphasizes the need for assessment
of quality of compost and creating market by ensuring regulatory standards. Mixed
wastes are certain to influence the heavy metal concentrations and hence the clean
index. Even if the fertility contents are less, the compost can be used as soil conditioner,
while heavy metal concentrations are detrimental to crops and soil microorganisms.
Hence, there is an urgent need to monitor and assess the waste collection practices,
composting process, and quality of the compost before it is made available in the
market for agricultural use. Suitable classification and certification will promote the use
of compost prepared from municipal solid waste management facilities.
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Current Waste Management Status
and Trends in Russian Federation: Case 9
Study on Industrial Symbiosis
Amani Maalouf, Vladimir A. Maryev, Tatiana S. Smirnova, and

Antonis Mavropoulos
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Materials and Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Results and Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Current Status and Trends of Waste Management in Russia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Background of CE in Russia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Case Study on Eco-industrial Park in Novokuznetsk District . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Circular Economy Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
Abstract
In the last decade, waste management problems show a continuously growing
trend in the Russian Federation. The country generated a total of 7.8 billion
tonnes of waste in 2019, which is expected to reach up to 54.9 tonnes per capita in
A. Maalouf (*)
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, American University of Beirut, Beirut,
Lebanon
e-mail: ahm22@mail.aub.edu
V. A. Maryev
R&D Center for Waste and Secondary Resources Management, Ecological Industrial Policy
Institute under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Moscow, Russian Federation
T. S. Smirnova
R&D Center for Waste and Secondary Resources Management, Ecological Industrial Policy
Institute under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Moscow, Russian Federation
Department of Industrial Ecology, Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas (National
Research University), Moscow, Russian Federation
A. Mavropoulos

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_15
248 A. Maalouf et al.
2024. The extraction of fuel and energy minerals (mainly mining and coal
enterprises) constitutes the largest contributor (93.6%) to the total amount of
waste generated. To date, disposal on land remains the main method of
waste management in the Russian Federation, which is affecting the quality
of the environment, public health, and sustainable development. Evidently,
the Russian Federation continues to face a serious challenge toward the
implementation of its national 2030 targets. Noteworthy, that municipal solid
waste (61 million tonnes) only accounted for 0.8% of the total amount of waste
generated. Therefore, the development of an efficient national waste management
focusing on the industrial sector (including mining enterprises) becomes a pre-
requisite toward circular economy (CE).
This chapter provides a general understanding of the CE approach in the
Russian Federation. We present a case study of Novokuznetsk industrial district,
located in Siberia, Russia, on the development of an eco-industrial park (EIP) as
an example of industrial symbiosis. The total amount of accumulated waste
(including industrial and municipal) in the Novokuznetsk district is ~258 million
tonnes (prior to 2019). This amount includes industrial waste, mainly from coal
mining, metallurgical industries, and other polluting industries. This project is
expected to produce more than three million tonnes of various types of products
annually from industrial waste-recovered materials contributing to a total revenue
of 63 million USD. The main objective of this EIP Project is the reduction of
resource consumption and environmental impact by providing an industrial
symbiosis between different enterprises. The results from this study can be used
to guide decision-makers toward the viability of implementing new EIPs projects
in other Russian Federation’s industrial district.
Keywords
Waste management · Industrial waste · Industrial symbiosis · Eco-industrial
park · Circular economy
Introduction
One of the main trends in the sustainable development of modern society is a

change of the economic paradigm. The traditional model of economy based on
linear supply chains and often described as “take, make, and dispose,” which
includes activities for exploration, processing, and production, as well as waste
management, including disposal, has become obsolete. It has been replaced by a
circular economy model aimed at creating a closed system of resource consumption
in which resources go through this cycle anytime. The idea of creating closed loops
with resources is not new. Circularity is a fundamental aspect of industrial ecology
(Meadows et al. 1972). However, aspects of current research and action in the
circular economy could reveal new perspectives for ensuring the sustainability of
industrial systems.
9 Current Waste Management Status and Trends in Russian Federation: Case. . . 249
The circular economy concept was developed in the late 1970s (Murray et al.
2017). A prerequisite for the formation of the concept of a circular economy is the
description of the economic system as a closed-loop system with limited assimilation
capacity, organized according to the principles of ecosystems. The authors in “The
potential for substituting manpower for energy. Report to the Commission of the
European Communities” (Stahel and Reday 1976) developed a circular economy
concept to describe industrial strategies for waste prevention, regional job creation,
and resource efficiency and decoupling the dependence of economic growth on
resource consumption. In another work, the same author (Stahel 1982) emphasizes
the use of a leasing mechanism instead of ownership of goods as the most relevant
sustainable business model for a circular economy, allowing industries to profit
without externalizing the costs and risks associated with waste management,
which subsequently transformed into the way of development of “sharing technol-
ogies.” The modern understanding of circular economy and its practical application
to economic systems and industrial processes has evolved, and through the years, it
included various features and contributions from other concepts. Some of the most
significant conceptual approaches include “life cycle assessment,” “environmental
laws,” “greening the economy,” “ecodesign,” “industrial ecology,” “biomimicry,”
“eco-industrial parks,” (Gibbs and Deutzba 2007; Chertow and Ehrenfeld 2012;
Bilsen et al. 2015) “industrial symbiosis,” (Changhao et al. 2015; Chertow 2000,
2007; Smirnova et al. 2018), and others. One tool for limiting waste generation is the
concept of extended producer responsibility (Webster and Mitra 2007).
The authors (Geng and Doberstein 2008), focusing on the practice of implementing
the concept in China, describe the CE as “the implementation of a closed cycle of
material flows throughout the economic system.” Webster (2015), in his study, defines a
circular economy as an economy that is restorative in nature and aims to ensure that
products, components, and materials always have maximum utility and value. Accord-
ingly, Yuan et al. (2008) argue that “the core [of a circular economy] is a circular
(closed) flow of materials and the use of raw materials and energy in several cycles.”
Bocken et al. (2016) characterize the circular economy, defining it as “a strategy for
designing and creating a business model in which material flows are used cyclically.”
This can be achieved through a longer product life cycle (“design for circularity”),
repair, reuse, refurbishment, upgrade, and recycling.
The authors Pearce and Turner (1990) attempted to model economics based on
material balances and the first and second laws of thermodynamics. In a general,
circular economy is a solution that harmonizes economic growth with environmental
protection (Lieder and Rashid 2016).
The term “circular economy” has increased significantly in use in policy and
business since being advocated in a 2011 joint study by the Ellen MacArthur
Foundation (EMF) and McKinsey and Company (Ellen MacArthur Foundation
[EMF] 2012). The most famous definition of circular economy has been formulated
by the EMF, which describes CE as “an industrial economy that is regenerative on a
planned basis” (Ellen MacArthur Foundation [EMF] 2012).
Circular economy is the subject of increased attention in academic research, with
a number of reviews on this topic (Andersen 2007; Ghisellini et al. 2016; Lieder and
Rashid 2016; Su et al. 2013; Kalmykova et al. 2018; Dorokhina and Kharchenko
2017; Geissdoerfer et al. 2017; Gaustada et al. 2018). Research focuses on closed
value and supply chains (Guide and Van Wassenhove 2009; Wells and Seitz 2005;
Govindan et al. 2015), circular business models (Bocken et al. 2016), and design for
circularity (Bakker et al. 2017). In this context, a number of studies carried out by the
Ellen MacArthur Foundation should be mentioned again. The concept of a circular
economy, formulated by the EMF, was adopted as the basis for the formation of
policies of governments and intergovernmental agencies at the local, regional,
national, and international levels.
In this context, definitions of CE have been extensively reviewed by academics
and scholars. Leading CEPS scholars (Rizos et al. 2017) have found that there is a
wide range of interpretations and definitions of CE that represent the diverse goals
and opinions of the various stakeholders concerned. Definitions start by relying
entirely on material flows and resources, heading to a massive restructuring of the
economic system that extends well beyond waste and resource management. They
concluded that “the circular economy is a complex concept and it is unlikely that in
the short term there can be an international consensus on its meaning.” Homrich
et al. (2018) analyzed 327 academic papers and concluded that there is a lack of
agreement on the use of various definitions and terms for the CE among academics,
policymakers and practitioners examining the patterns, trends, differences, gaps, and
convergence of the CE literature. Two different clusters are also shown in the
literature analyzed. One cluster focuses on eco-parks and industrial symbiosis,
mostly in China. The second class includes supply chains, material closed loops,
and business models. Similarly, Kirchherr et al. (2017) reviewed 114 circular econ-
omy definitions which were coded on 17 dimensions. In this chapter, within addition
to acknowledging the conceptual blurriness, the writers have established a unifying
and synthesized definition that aims to resolve the differences they have found. It
should be noted that the above list of definitions is not exhaustive; however, some
commonality of approaches can be established. The idea behind the circular econ-
omy is to create a so-called cyclic metabolism that allows materials to maintain their
resource status for as long as possible. And effective waste management plays a
significant role in this matter (Maalouf and El-Fadel 2020). To conclude, there is no
generally agreed definition of the term “circular economy,” but various interpreta-
tions reflect the general principle of decoupling natural resource extraction and
utilization from economic output, with improved resource productivity as a primary
outcome. We recognize that we potentially exclude possible meanings by including
only one CE definition. Nevertheless, in order to identify the indicators, we need to
specify the boundaries of the various CE approaches (Moraga et al. 2019).
In 2008, the People’s Republic of China was the first to enact a particular law:
“Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Development of the Circular
Economy” (Lieder and Rashid 2016; CIRAIG 2015). This country contributes to a
significant part of CE-related literature (Ghisellini et al. 2016; Homrich et al. 2018).
In addition, the shift to a circular economy, which is the official Chinese policy for
almost 15 years, requires more clean cycles and thus more final sinks to depollute
material cycles (Mavropoulos and Nielsen 2020). In concrete policies, Germany and
Japan were also pioneers in the promotion of CE.
Germany integrated the circular economy into national legislation as early as

1996. German Resource Efficiency Programme II, a program for the sustainable use
and conservation of natural resources, was later adopted. Japan passed on the Basic
Law on the Establishment of a Resource Conservation Society (METI 2004). The
European Commission has also adopted circularity as a new economic paradigm for
Europe, starting with the launch of its first EU Circular Economy Action Plan in
2015 and its revision in 2020 (European Commission 2020).
In Russia, although many laws and regulations were adopted in the early 1970s
for particular waste streams during the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)
period, the collapse of post-Soviet Russia created a major void in the legal
and institutional aspects, leading to a substantial fall in the waste management
industry. However, in accordance with the circular economy strategy, the Russian
Government has introduced a range of “green” initiatives aimed at controlling and
eliminating waste, primarily from large-scale state-owned companies, and adopting
best practices in the EU wherever possible. Moreover, a serious reform of municipal
solid waste infrastructure, recycling and institutional development is on the way
(Fedotkina et al. 2019). This highlights the importance of the waste sector toward the
shift to circular economy globally (Maalouf et al. 2020).
The beating heart of human society is the cities. They are the world drivers’
economic activity, vibrant centers of innovation, and home to much of the population
of the world. Cities are an engine of growth and production but also of consumption.
People in cities have a higher average income and higher per capita consumption
than their rural counterparts. The economic activity of cities is substantial. They
generate approximately 80% of the global GDP. Cities cover just 3% of the total
global land area but house more than half of the world’s population, consume about
60–80% of energy and available raw materials, and generate about 75% of human-
induced greenhouse gas emissions (United Nations 2020). In 2018, 55% of the
world’s population lived in cities (4.2 billion people). It is expected that by 2050,
these percentages will further increase to reach 6.5 billion people (about 70% of the
world’s population will live in cities) (UNDP 2020). This increase in urbanization
enhances expansion of the city limits, an increase in infrastructure development, as
well as an increasing need for products and services within cities. This provides both
the opportunity and the obligation of cities, regions, and districts to play a leading
role in the transition to a sustainable circular economy.
The industrial sector plays the most important role of the Russian economy. The
share of industry in the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) is approximately
40%. Industrial production employs about 32% of the population. The most devel-
oped fields of the Russian industry are the oil and gas sector, ferrous and nonferrous
metallurgy, general and transport engineering, and food production. Currently, more
than 349,527 industries and enterprises are developing in Russia, generating about
7,690 million tonnes of industrial waste, which constitutes about 99.22% of the total
waste generated in the country.
This chapter presents an analysis of the current status and trends in waste
management in the Russian Federation. The ultimate purpose of this chapter is to
evaluate to what degree the waste management, as a part of the CE, is implemented
in Russian Federation and if it can solve the issue of reducing the environmental
impact of the industrial sector through the implementation of the network of

eco-industrial parks. The functioning of eco-industrial clusters is called industrial
symbiosis, currently defined as the collaboration of different business entities that
establish a cooperative network to achieve competitive advantages through the
physical exchange of materials, energy, water, and/or by-products and services and
infrastructures (Baldassarre et al. 2019). For this purpose, the development of the
eco-industrial park in Novokuznetsk district is taken as a case study. This district is
one of the ten most environmentally neglected industrial districts in Russia and
generating the highest amount of industrial waste. A set of indicators were developed
to assess the CE performance and develop an action agenda to move itself
toward increased circularity. The study highlights some limitations and presents
recommendations for future research, as well as policy implications toward guiding
decision-makers for future improvement of the CE in the Russian Federation and
potential collaboration among the different districts.
Materials and Methods
This chapter used a qualitative method of analysis that was implemented in three
steps.
Step 1: A literature review of the principles, effective factors, and challenges
associated with the implementation of the CE in the Russian Federation was
conducted.
Step 2 was based on Step 1 and offered a conceptual basis for implementing and
assessing the development between 2010 and 2019 of the regulation and control of
the waste management systems. This step was focused on a review of state legisla-
tion and state development strategies and policies focusing on waste reduction
priorities.
The main purpose of this step was to assess the current status and trends of waste
management in Russia in order to identify the most significant waste stream. We
used different sources such as Federal Statistic Service, the state report “On the
Condition and Environmental Protection of the Russian Federation in 2019,” the
electronic database “Consultant” in Russia, and the database “Joint information
resource” provided by the ecological industrial policy center (EIPC) for searching,
selecting, and analyzing regulatory documents and design documents of the
eco-industrial park project in Novokuznetsk as well as published state reports,
official public documents, and interviews with consultants in the industrial sector.
Step 3 was based on a case study of best available techniques in Novokuznetsk
industrial district. The rationale behind the case study was to select a case that
is likely to be replicated or extended as it contains the best practices of waste
management performed by a specific district toward closing the loops of specific
waste streams. Table 1 presents the amount of generated and characteristics of the ten
most polluting industrial districts in Russian Federation. Moreover, a successful
implementation of the eco-industrial park in Novokuznetsk district will allow to
replicate it in other industrial districts with similar characteristics and environmental
problems. It should be noted that all these districts do not have any existing
eco-industrial park project.
The ten most environmentally neglected industrial districts listed in Table 1
generated about 368 million tonnes of industrial waste in 2019. Novokuznetsk
district generated the highest amount of industrial waste (about 203 million tonnes)
in comparison to other districts in 2019 and thus contributed to about 55% of the
total waste generated from all 10 listed districts.
Results and Discussion
Current Status and Trends of Waste Management in Russia
According to the latest state report “On the Condition and Environmental Protection
of the Russian Federation in 2019” published by the Ministry of Natural Resources
and Environment, Russian Federation (2020), about 7.8 billion tonnes of waste is
generated in the country in 2019, equivalent to 52.8 tonnes per capita per year.
Figure 1 shows an overall increasing trend of total waste generated between 2010
and 2019, whereby the total waste generated has increased by twofold during this
period from 3.7 to 7.8 billion tonnes. At the beginning of the period under review
(till 2012), there was an increase in total waste generated by about 15–16% a year;
further till 2015, a relative stability was observed, with minor changes ranging from
4% to 3%; in the period of 2017–2019, waste generation increased by 14% and
7%, respectively.
Moreover, the results show that the degree of waste generation depends
substantially on the economic growth (Fig. 2). This result supports the observations
of other scholars that the growing standard of living subsequently increases
consumption and increases waste generation (Minelgaitė and Liobikienė 2019;
Malinauskaite et al. 2017).
Forecasting of waste generated per capita to the year 2024 was carried out
using the regression model (presented in Fig. 2) that correlates the GDP per capita
with the waste generation, based on GDP per capita forecasting retrieved from the
official “Forecast of the socioeconomic development of the Russian to 2024” report.
The forecasting results are presented in Fig. 1, which shows that the total waste
generation per capita will reach up to 54.9 tonnes in 2024, equivalent to 8.02 billion
tonnes per year. It is worth noting that the GDP growth per capita and the total waste
generated per capita follow a similar trend.
Figure 3 presents the amount of waste generated in the Russian Federation by
type of economic activities from the different sectors. In 2019, a major part (93.6%)
of total waste generated was attributed to the extraction of fuel and energy minerals
(mainly coal enterprises), and this is due to the fact that during the extraction
and enrichment of the mineral deposits, the largest amount of waste, mainly over-
burden grounds, are generated. This sector includes mining of coal that contributed
to 67% of the total waste generated, mining of metal ores (21.1%), as well as waste
generated from mining of other natural resources that contribute to 10.7% of the total
Table 1 Total waste generated and characteristics of the selected case study in comparison to other regions
254
Total Total Total

Number accumulated waste Total waste industrial
of waste prior to generated generated per waste Total
industries 2019 in 2019 capita in 2019 generated in municipal
Main polluting and (million (million (million tonnes 2019 (million solid waste
District Population industries enterprises tonnes) tonnes) per capita) tonnes) (tonnes)
Novokuznetsk 549,103 Ferrous metallurgy, 10,580 974.8 203.2 370 203.008 192,186.1
machinery construction,
and metalworking
industry
Norilsk 182,496 Ferrous and nonferrous 2,108 522.8 13.0 71 12.936 63,873.6
metallurgy and
chemical industry
Magnitogorsk 413,261 Ferrous and nonferrous 8,575 428.2 16.7 40 16.555 144,641.4
metallurgy, engineering
and machinery
construction,
metalworking, and
metal construction
Cherepovets 314,834 Ferrous metallurgy and 11,885 103.5 13.3 42 13.190 110,191.9
chemical industry
Krasnoyarsk 1,094,548 Nonferrous metallurgy, 45,472 91.6 110.6 101 110.217 383,091.8
engineering and
and wood processing
Nizhiy Tagil 351,565 Ferrous metallurgy, 6,250 79.9 3.4 10 3.277 123,047.8
and metalworking
industry
A. Maalouf et al.
9
Omsk 1,154,507 Petrochemical and oil 32,332 76.4 2.2 2 1.796 404,077.5
refining industry,
chemical industry, and
machinery construction
Chelyabinsk 1,191,994 Ferrous metallurgy, 47,375 42.4 1.4 1 0.983 417,197.9
and metalworking
industry
Bratsk 226,269 Nonferrous metallurgy, 3,598 9.9 2.2 10 2.121 79,194.15
engineering and
and wood processing
Lipetsk 508,573 Ferrous and nonferrous 12,799 5.7 3.9 8 3.722 178,000.6
metallurgy, machinery
construction, and
chemical industry
Total 5,987,150 180,974 2,335 370 655 368 2,095,502.5
Note that the total waste generated in each region includes industrial waste, municipal solid waste, and other by-products of economic activities and sectors. The
total number of industries and enterprises include manufacturing companies, fuel industries, electric power generating industries, food industries, agriculture,
forestry, woodworking, pulp and paper industry, mining industries, mining and processing of minerals, and all kinds of SME, among others
Source: Data on the number of enterprises in districts is taken from the database of the International Information Group Interfax for 2019. Available at: https://
www.sparkinterfax.ru/ru/statistics/region/32000000000
Current Waste Management Status and Trends in Russian Federation: Case. . .
255
9 60
52.8 54.9
8 49.5
54.8 54.9 50
53.0 54.7
(tonnes per capita per year)

7 42.4
(billion tonnes per year)
37.1
Waste generated
Waste generated
6 35.0 35.9 36.1 34.6 40
5 30.1
26.0 30
4
3 20
2
10
1
3.7 4.3 5.0 5.2 5.3 5.1 5.4 6.2 7.3 7.8
0 0
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Total waste generated (billion tonnes per year)
Total waste generated (tonnes per capita per year), historic
Total waste generated (tonnes per capita per year), forecast
Fig. 1 Historical (2010–2018) waste generated and forecast (2019–2024) amounts of yearly waste
generated per capita as predicted by the regression model presented in Fig. 2 (based on GDP per
capita forecasting)
60
2018
(tonnes per capita per year)
50 2017
Total waste generated
2016
40 2015
2013
2014 2011
30 2012
20 y = 0.0033x - 45.333
R² = 0.8554
10
0
23500 24500 25500 26500 27500 28500 29500
GDP per capita, PPP (current international $)
Fig. 2 Annual relationship between waste generation and GDP per capita between 2011 and 2018
(Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment Russian Federation 2020; World Bank’s World
Development Indicators 2020; Forecast of the socio-economic development of the Russian Feder-
ation 2019)
waste generated in 2019. The share of the other sectors to the total amount of waste
generated was not significant, 2% was attributed to metallurgy production, 0.6% was
attributed to the agriculture sector (including forestry, hunting, fishing, and fish
farming), 0.5% was attributed to the chemical industry, and 3.2% was attributed to
other sectors, including other industries, housing, communal services, and energy
production. Municipal solid waste (MSW) contributed to about 0.8% of total amount
of waste generated (61 million tonnes) in 2019, or at an average of 1.14 kilogram per
capita each day.
In 2019, nonhazardous waste amounted to 7.63 billion tonnes, or 98.45% of all
waste generated in Russia. It is important to note that nonhazardous waste constitute
the major share of total waste recovered. Wastes are categorized into five hazard
Other sectors (industrial and food production and

167.9
services)
Energy production (power generation, electric energy,
20
gas and steam supply)
MSW (housing, and communal services) 61
Metallurgical production 155
Chemical industry 42
Agriculture, forestry, hunting, fishing and fish farming 48

7,257
Extraction of fuel and energy minerals (mainly coal
enterprises)
- 2,000 4,000 6,000 8,000
Total waste generated (million tonnes)
Fig. 3 The amount of waste generated in the Russian Federation distributed by the type of
economic activity in 2019, million tonnes (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment
Russian Federation 2020)
classes, according to the attachment to Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian

Federation Order No. of 30 July 2003, “Amendment to the Federal Waste Classifi-
cation Catalogue.” The total amount of the hazardous industrial wastes generated in
2019 was about 108 million tonnes (1.4% of total waste generated in the Russian
Federation). Russian classification of wastes differs from the European classifica-
tion. The environmental legislations in the Russian Federation require that all types
of waste generated during production or industrial activities must be taken into
account and reported in the waste statistics. This explains the relatively high amount
of total waste reported in comparison to other countries. In reality, the nonhazardous
wastes generated during the mining could be utilized as a product during the
backfilling or reclamation of quarries and landfills processes. Moreover, the enter-
prises must pay penalties for the wastes generated or to find the solution for recycling
and recovering in order to avoid the penalties.
Table 2 displays the current waste management practices including disposal,
recovery, and neutralization in Russian Federation in accordance with Article 1 of
the Federal Law of 24.06.1998 No. 89-FZ “On production and consumption waste.”
The total waste generated includes municipal solid waste, industrial waste, and
by-products of other economic activities and sectors.
In 2018, 93 new facilities for the recovery and neutralization of waste materials
operating with a total capacity of 475.69 thousand tonnes per year were put into
operation. This number of enterprises is devoted to the waste recovery, neutraliza-
tion, and special landfilling (especially for the extremely and high hazardous wastes
of the I and II class of hazard) operating facilities and their capacity in the Russian
Federation.
The country has a total of 1,000 MSW landfills, 15,000 authorized and 17,000
illegal landfills, and 13,000 illegal waste disposal sites with a total area of four
million hectares. This amount is increased by 300,000–400,000 hectares each year.
Moreover, 50–70%t of the existing infrastructure is ineffective, and many formal
collection systems do not exist in rural villages in Russia.
Table 2 Current waste management practices including disposal, recovery, and neutralization in
Russian Federation in 2019
Waste management Amount of total waste Share of total waste generated (%
method (million tonnes) by weight)
Total waste recovereda 3,927 50.7
Total waste neutralized 23.9 0.31
Total waste disposed or 3,800 49
landfilled
Total 7,750
Source: Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Russian Federation (2020)
a
Mainly constitute of overburden material
The amount of the recovered waste in the Russian Federation made up 3.93
billion tonnes in 2019, which is 50.7% of the total amount of waste generated during
this year (Table 2). Waste recovery (mainly of overburden) was carried out mainly
for the purpose of land reclamation (e.g., quarries and landfills), considered as
recycling, which constitutes about 70.2% of the total amount of recovered waste.
The types of waste recovered mainly include drilling fluids during oil wells drilling
(low-hazard waste), drilling slurry of cuttings associated with base oil extraction
(low hazard), base non-granulated blast furnace slag, converter slag, and steelmak-
ing slags.
The total amount of waste neutralized (such as mercury, mercury quartz, lumi-
nescent lamps, and other materials that lost their consumer properties) was about
23.9 million tonnes in 2019, which is 0.31% of the total waste generated (Table 2).
The largest amount of waste neutralized was attributed to the agriculture sector
(19.6%), followed by the extraction of fuel and energy minerals (mainly coal
enterprises) sector (18.2%).
The remaining amount of waste after recovery and neutralization is sent for the
disposal and landfilling. The total amount was about 3,800 million tonnes, which
constitutes 49% of the total waste generated (Table 2), and it was mainly attributed to
the extraction of fuel and energy minerals (mainly coal enterprises and mining of
metal ores sector).
In 2019, about 18.2 million tonnes of mixed MSW (30% of total MSW generated
in the Russian Federation) was transported to sorting facilities, 8% after sorting are
recycled as secondary materials, and 2% are sent to the incinerating plants. The
remaining 70% are transported directly to landfills. The amount of MSW collected
and transferred to recycling plants in 2019 has been increased by 12% between 2010
and 2019. The main problem for the recycling enterprises is that MSW collected is
mostly without any presorting at sources, which reduces the quality and quantity of
waste fractions that can be extracted for the further recovery of secondary resources
(such as textiles, paper, plastic bottles, and polymer waste), and this ultimately
increases the load on landfills. Waste disposal remains the most commonly adopted
waste management method in the Russian Federation whereby more than 90% of
MSW is sent to landfills.
Background of CE in Russia
The transition to the circular economy principles implies a complete systemic

change and development of innovative solutions not only in technological processes
but also in the manufacturing organization, institutional structures, and culture of
waste management in societies. Under such conditions, timely government support
becomes a key one, whether for providing general guarantees to reduce the risks for
investors; cofinancing research and development works; reducing debt burden
during the creation or acquisition of fixed assets, including the creation of environ-
mental engineering facilities; as well as providing benefits to customers of such
equipment, organizing a system of state procurement of the manufactured products
with the use of secondary resources.
Starting in 2010, the Russian Federation has been consistently implementing a
policy aimed at resolving the accumulated and annually arising environmental
issues. This is reflected in the formation of environmental policy papers and legis-
lative and regulatory acts that determine the movement vector aimed at the sustain-
able development of the Russian Federation.
By order of the Government of the Russian Federation No 84-P of January
25, 2018, a “Strategy for the development of industry for sorting, recycling, and
treatment of waste for the period until 2030” (hereinafter referred to as the Strategy)
was adopted (Russian Strategy 2018). The Strategy implementation is the most
important step in the strategic course development toward the revival of the waste
recycling branch in Russia, which will make it possible to implement the principles
of resource saving in terms of returning secondary resources to production and back
to the economy.
The main Strategy objectives are the formation and prospective development
of the domestic recycling, recovery, and neutralization, ensuring the maximum
involvement of the industrial and consumption waste into production and the
systematic minimization of waste amounts that are not subject to recycling with
the use of the “3R” framework. At the same time, the Strategy considers the circular
economy principles, the main of which is resource saving, as a priority development
guideline.
Considering the international experience in this field, the Strategy focuses on
the maximum reduction of landfill waste disposal through the formation of an
integrated management system and encouraging the recovery of industrial
waste.
According to the main instructions of the Russian Government (Russian Strategy
2018), the new waste management concept must include the following:
– MSW management based on a closed-cycle economy

– Stimulate production from secondary material resources
– Implement a separate collection of MSW
– Develop eco-industrial parks
– Create a unified state information system for waste accounting
In the process of fulfilling the Strategy’s objectives, it is planned to achieve

different targets between 2018 and 2030 including core indicators of sustainable
waste management as presented in Table 3.
However, for some measures, the target dates have already passed, and for others,
the timelines are unachievable. Moreover, based on the 2019 figures of the different
waste management indicators presented in detail in section “Current Status and
Trends of Waste Management in Russia,” we can deduce that the 2018 target was
not achieved except for the amount of MSW sorted in total amount of MSW
generated that reached up to 30% in 2019 (Table 3).
These target indicators correlate with the target indicators laid down in the
National Project “Ecology,” the road map of which was approved on September
24, 2019, by the Presidium of the Presidential Council for Strategic Development
and National Projects of the Russian Federation. However, in the middle of 2020, the
key indicators of the National Project “Ecology” were revised. Today, the main
target in accordance with the National Project “Ecology” is to create a sustainable
system for the management of municipal solid waste, ensuring the sorting of waste in
the amount of 100% and reducing the volume of disposal in landfills waste by half
by 2030, adopted by Presidential Order in July 2020 (National Development Targets
2020).
The Strategy and National Project “Ecology” provide the investment mechanisms
for the creation and development of a waste recycling infrastructure, construction of
new high-tech waste sorting plants with a share of the secondary resources extraction
of 60–70%, waste recovery and neutralization capacities, and infrastructure for the
safe collection and neutralization of hazardous waste. In addition, financing will be
Table 3 Current status (2019) of sustainable waste management indicators in comparison to the
national targets set by the waste management Strategy of the Russian Federation by 2030
Current status Targets
Waste management
indicators 2019 2018 2020 2025 2030
The amount of the recycled 51% (3,927 million 60% 65% 75% 86%
materials in a total amount tonnes out of 7,750
of waste (including generated)
industrial)
The amount of MSW sorted 30% (18.2 million 10% 15% 50% 80%
in a total amount of MSW tonnes sorted out of
61 million tonnes
generated)
The reduction of waste +6.7% (from 7,266 1.9% 1.8% 1.8% 3.7%
generation million tonnes in 2018 to
7,751 million tonnes in
2019)
WM industry share in GDP – 0.08% 0.09% 0.10% 0.11%
of Russia
Number of eco-industrial 0 4 12 30 70
parks
Source: Russian Strategy (2018)
directed to the modernization of the existing manufacturers in all industries to

achieve other target indicators of the Strategy.
The circular economy principle that formed the basis for the development of the
above policy papers is a reflection of the principles of the natural systems existence
in which one generated waste becomes a resource for another process. It is important
to note that the circular economy concept includes not only the (material) waste
recycling but also the reuse, repair, and refurbishment of products. Thus, the
products should be initially designed in such a way as to correspond to material
cycles in which they retain their additional value as long as possible and designed so
that raw materials can ultimately return to the biosphere as a safe object. For
example, in a circular economy model, the industrial products can be repaired for
further use, modernized, restored, or, ultimately, recycled, and industrial processes
may be oriented more toward the reuse of products and raw materials and the use of
the restoration capabilities of the natural resources, while innovative business
models can create new relationships between companies and consumers in product
design sphere with planned life cycle.
It is important to note that although the benefits of a circular economy are difficult
to question, there is a number of risks that limit its development, including a lack
of practice of implementation and investment in the development and production of
the “circular economy products”; the level of current prices for resources, which
does not encourage the efficient use of the resources and the limited use by
consumers and businesses of the potentially more efficient service-oriented business
models; problems in obtaining the necessary financing for such projects; and lack
of special state support measures for investment projects in the field of waste
management. The most important factor that impedes the introduction of the circular
economy principles in the Russian Federation is the conflict between environmental
and industrial policies, which, in fact, have different aims.
Therefore, one of the main tasks in creating the conditions for implementing the
circular economy principles in the Russian Federation is the harmonization of
industrial (stimulating) and environmental (conservation) policies, interdepartmental
collaboration formation, creation, coordination, and monitoring of the environmen-
tal industrial policies implementation. The implementation of the environmental
policy paper provisions of the Russian Federation during the next 1–2 years is
expected to ensure a mutual coordination of priority projects in the field of industrial
development and green production, and to give an opportunity to make additional
efforts to introduce the best available techniques (BAT). This will also offer industry
additional incentives for sustainable development, from supporting “green bonds” to
concluding special agreements and contracts with pilot companies in the most
important regions of the Russian Federation.
The Strategy determines that the priority attention of interdepartmental and
interregional collaboration should be aimed at creating the conditions necessary to
achieve national goals:
– Secondary resources should be enshrined in legislation as a factor in sustainable

economic growth and transition to a closed-loop economy; the replacement of
newly mined natural resources with secondary ones should become mandatory
in the cases where such secondary resources are available and, moreover,
accumulated by industry (as so-called technogenic deposits).
– The industrial resource efficiency should be the subject of accounting, an
indicator of the enterprise efficiency; the procedure for calculating resource and
energy efficiency indicators should be clearly defined.
– Support for the development and implementation of technologies, technical
solutions, and equipment offered by domestic companies and aimed at ensuring
sustainable economic growth should be of systematic nature.
Among several approaches to implementing the circular economy concept

and achieving sustainable green economic growth, the projects for the industrial
symbiosis networks development should be highlighted. The industrial symbiosis
provides a significant contribution to the circular economy development by facili-
tating the efficient cooperation of companies through the organization of mutually
beneficial relations with the goal of:
– Maximum use of natural raw materials – minimize the amount of waste generated
during the industrial process
– Maximum use of secondary material (and energy) resources – their repeated
involvement in the economic turnover
– Creation of final production products – the properties of which imply their
harmless assimilation by ecological systems
– Reducing the amount of consumption waste, suggesting the possibility of their
complete disposal before entering the environment.
The industrial symbiosis center may associate between the industrial and con-
sumption waste management formed outside of its own industrial or consumer
process. The mechanism for industrial symbiosis implementing is the exchange of
resources between companies. There are three main types of exchanges that may be
specified:
– Reuse of secondary resources (exchange of materials specific to a particular

production between two or more parties to replace the use of commercial products
or primary raw materials)
– Joint use of utilities/infrastructure facilities (sharing and management of
resources such as energy, water, electricity, and heat, as well as joint treatment
of gas emissions, wastewater)
– Joint services provision (meeting the general needs of companies within the
association (technology park, cluster) in relation to auxiliary types of activities,
such as ensuring fire safety and utilities, transportation)
The state and government participation and support for the development of
industrial symbiosis and legislative initiatives that promote the development of
eco-innovative projects in the industrial zones are also of great importance. The
financial incentives, economic instruments, and provision of the access to finance
help overcome economic barriers and support the measures on eco-innovation

planning and implementation. Other initiatives supporting the implementation of
circular economy principles in Russian Federation include the ban on the disposal of
waste containing useful components (Government Order № 1589, 2017) and the
introduction of extended producer responsibility for certain types of goods and
packaging (Federal Law №458-FZ, 25.12.2014).
It is important to add that in September 2020, an analytical report about the
“Actual situation with waste management for 3rd class hazard waste” made by the
Control Department of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation
was published, following that the President of the Russian Federation signed the
Orders (№ 1489, by 16.09.2020). These orders stressed that circular economy,
eco-industrial parks, resource efficiency in the industrial sector, and secondary
resources turnover are the main accents for Russia toward achieving the sustainable
development goals (SDG) 2030 and circular economy principles.
Case Study on Eco-industrial Park in Novokuznetsk District
The development of eco-industrial parks is one of the main goals of the

Russian Federation Strategy whereby it is planned that by 2030, 70 eco-industrial
parks must be developed within all districts of the country (see Table 3).
These parks will be specialized in processing municipal solid waste recycling
in addition to industrial waste. The latter constitute a major concern particularly
for the ten most polluting districts within the Russian Federation (see Table 1).
Novokuznetsk district is located in Kemerovo region in Siberia, Russia, is identified
as one of the most polluting industrial districts in the country, and is the first to
plan for the implantation of an eco-industrial park project within its region as
requested under the Federal Project “Clean Air” and the complex plan of action
for Novokuznetsk city (adopted by the Government of Russia in December 2018.)
The eco-industrial park will consist of several modules including a complex for
processing waste of iron ore and coal, a complex for processing metallurgical slags,
a complex for processing waste of electronic and electrical equipment, and a
complex for processing waste from a coke-chemical production connected by energy
flows.
Figure 4 presents the organizational structure of the Novokuznetsk Eco-industrial
Park and interaction with external stakeholders as well as the exchange of generated
energy and recycled waste from ore dressing and metallurgical production and
municipal solid waste generated from Novokuznetsk district.
The eco-industrial park project consists of creating technological interaction
between the production facilities through the resources exchange (interchange) and
waste-recovered materials. The main benefits of the eco-industrial park are the
reduction of the resources consumption and decrease in the environmental impact
by organizing exchange links between the industrial symbiosis participants,
obtaining economic benefits from such cooperation, and sustainable development
of the districts. In addition, the creation of these complexes will lead to the
Material recovery
Municipal solid waste facility
recyclers
Iron and steel works

/Sludge dump
/Dumping site
Coal preparation plant

/Dumping site
Industrial
was
waste recyclers
Ferroalloy plant
Thermal power station
/Sludge dump and boilers
/Ash-disposal area
Aluminum plant
/Dumping site Concentration plant Municipal solid waste
/Sludge dump
Products from municipal solid waste
/Tailing dump
Products from industrial waste
Industrial waste
Fig. 4 The organizational structure of the Novokuznetsk Eco-industrial Park showing the
exchange of energy generated and recycled waste (source compiled by authors)
generation of new job opportunities of different skill levels, energy savings, and
reduction of environmental impacts. It also induces the generation of heating and
electric power and production of a wide range of chemical, construction, metallur-
gical, and other types of products.
Novokuznetsk district’s economy is based for more than 80 years on the primary
coal and ore processing, which pollute the urban environment with toxic gases and
industrial waste. This district has all characteristics for creating and testing the model
of implementing an innovative eco-industrial park (hereinafter referred to as
eco-industrial park), including:
– The presence of pollution-prone production – ore dressing and metallurgical ones

(metallurgical complex JSC “EVRAZ ZSMK,” OJSC JSC “EVRAZRuda”),
aluminum plant OJSC “RUSAL Novokuznetsk,” ferroalloy plant OJSC “Kuz-
netsk ferroalloys,” four coal preparation plants (three heat treatment plants), three
heat and power plants (three heat-generating plants), and heat power engineering
facilities (three central heating and power plants and many coal boiler stations)
– A significant raw material base of accumulated technogenic resources (waste)
– Operating waste recycling enterprises engaged in the processing of accumulated
waste
– Commercial organizations engaged in the field of waste recycling are merged into
Kuzbass Waste Recycling Association.
– A complex of administrative support measures at the regional and local levels has
been developed.
– Waste recycling is one of the key positions in the Strategy for socioeconomic
development of Novokuznetsk district by 2035.
– The presence in the district territory of the developed industrial and transport
infrastructure
– High crowding with the metallurgical enterprises – potential consumers of the
technogenic resources and products based on them
– The engineering base development, which will ensure the production of equip-
ment for the waste recycling industry
– The existence of a scholarly tradition as a center for generating innovations in the
field of waste recycling (Smirnova et al. 2019)
The increased concentrations of pollutants such as dust, benzopyrene, and other

carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), as well as industrial waste,
pose adverse health impacts on Novokuznetsk residents and surrounding. The
industrial wastewater generated as by-product from coke processes is disposed
into “pitch lake” and ultimately evaporates back into the atmospheric air, causing
enormous damage to the environment and health of Novokuznetsk residents.
The total amount of waste accumulated prior to 2019 was about 257.5 million
tonnes, which consists of various waste having been accumulated in industrial waste
and sludge storage areas in the district territory (Table 4).
Circular Economy Benefits
At present, the construction of the eco-industrial park in the Russian Federation is at

the introductory stage. The amendments to the Federal Legislation Act 488-FZ
(about the industrial policy) have been prepared by the ministry of industry and
trade and are undergoing approval by the government, and the following findings
can be attributed to the planned results of its implementation in the industrial
district of Novokuznetsk. The implementation of eco-industrial park project in
Novokuznetsk district will allow the processing (for recycling) of more than five
million tonnes of waste annually into various types of products (such as iron ore
concentrate, pyritic concentrate, garnet concentrate, construction sands, fuel bri-
quettes, coal concentrate, metal slag scrap, reclamation feedstock, zinc concentrate,
crushed stone, ferrous metals, nonferrous metals, precious metals, plastic, sleeper
impregnation oil, briquettes binders, heating oil, technical carbon, sorbents). The
eco-industrial park products are in demand by the enterprises of the district and
beyond.
The estimated economic and environmental benefits when using these coopera-
tion principles within the framework of the eco-industrial park are 1.5–2.0 times
higher in comparison with the situation when every enterprise works as an autono-
mous producer due to the following most significant combined effects:
– A high degree of the potential use of raw material and fuel in obtaining the final
product
Table 4 The amount of accumulated waste by 2019 from different industries in Novokuznetsk
district
Industrial Total amount of
Type of industrial waste storage accumulated waste prior
waste Source of waste generation area (hectares) to 2019 (million tonnes)
Finely divided Tailing dump №1 of 100 90
slag of iron ore Abagur sintering plant
beneficiation
Slag of Dumps of the 176 20
steelmaking Novokuznetsk
Metallurgical Complex
(NKMK OJSC)
Finely divided Dumps of the 20 1
blast furnace Novokuznetsk
sludge Metallurgical Complex
(NKMK OJSC)
Finely divided Slag storage of JSC 300 140
waste of “EVRAZ ZSMK”
metallurgical
production
Liquid waste of Dump of coke and 10 0.5
coke production by-product process
Ash and slag Dumps of thermal power 50 1
waste station and boilers
Finely divided Tailing dump of JSC 15 5
waste of coal TSOF “Abashevskaya”
beneficiation
Total 683 257.5
Source: Smirnova et al. (2019)
– A significant reduction in the costs of using the external energy sources and
certain types of raw materials
– High added value due to the implementation of deep recycling of the raw
materials
– High environmental performance of production due to the elimination of
intermediate stages, a significant reduction in emissions of solid and gaseous
substances, and recycling the secondary resources
In this context, the implementation of eco-industrial parks in the industrial

districts of the Russian Federation might enhance the economic development
through the development of complex recycling processes of the natural raw materials
and technogenic wastes.
Table 5 displays the estimated economic benefits from the development of
innovative technologies within the framework of implementing the experimental
innovative eco-industrial park project in Novokuznetsk district. The estimated
total amount of industrial waste recovered materials is about three million tonnes
contributing to a total revenue of about 63 USD million from selling products
produced from waste-recovered materials. It is worth noting that the price of material
Table 5 Estimated economic benefits from the development of innovative technologies in the
experimental innovative eco-industrial park “Novokuznetsk” at its first stage of implementation
Price of
Estimated products/ Total
Type of waste- Type of quantities recovered revenue
Technology processing generated (million materials (million
name/process facility products tonnes) (USD/tonne) USD)
Waste Factories for iron Iron ore 0.02 44 0.66
recycling and ore and coal concentrate
iron ore and dressing Pyritic 0.01 81 0.73
coal dressing concentrate
Garnet 0.03 108 3.23
concentrate
Construction 0.07 7 0.46
sands
Fuel briquette 0.11 23 2.36
Coal 0.02 70 1.05
concentrate
Recycling fine Slag dumps of Iron ore 0.20 44 8.53
powder metallurgical concentrate
fractions of complexes Metal scrap 0.18 65 11.70
metallurgical Technical soil 0.23 3 0.56
slag for
remediation
Construction 0.66 7 4.54
sands
Recycling Metallurgical Iron ore 0.10 44 4.38
metallurgical productions JSC concentrate
productions “EVRAZ Zinc 0.01 108 1.34
sludge ZSMK” concentrate
Reclamation 0.08 3 0.19
feedstock
Complex of Sludge collector Iron ore 0.24 44 10.50
recycling of metallurgical concentrate
sludge complexes JSC Crushed 0.42 8 3.41
collector waste “EVRAZ stone
JSC “EVRAZ ZSMK” Construction 0.24 7 1.65
ZSMK” sands
Reclamation 0.12 3 0.30
feedstock
Recycling of Population and Ferrous 0.00 150 0.45
electronic and industrial metals
electrical enterprises of Nonferrous 0.00 250 0.75
equipment Novokuznetsk metals
waste city Precious 0.00 625 0.19
metals
Plastic 0.00 125 0.56
(continued)
Table 5 (continued)
Price of
Estimated products/ Total
Type of waste- Type of quantities recovered revenue
Technology processing generated (million materials (million
name/process facility products tonnes) (USD/tonne) USD)
Recycling Ash and dust Sleeper 0.03 106 3.19
ashes of the disposal plants of impregnation
central heating the central oil
and power heating and Briquettes 0.01 10 0.08
plant and power plant and binders
boiler stations boiler stations
Recycling Ash and dust Ferrous and 0.03 44 1.09
ashes of the disposal plants of nonferrous
central heating the central metals
and power heating and concentrates
plant and power plant and Construction 0.15 7 1.00
boiler stations boiler stations materials
Total 2.93 21.5 62.9
Source: Smirnova et al. (2019)
produced has varied between 3 and 625 USD per tonne, depending on the type of
industrial waste recovered material and the type of the technological process
whereby the higher the level and the more advanced the technology, the higher the
price. Moreover, the price can be affected by the market demand to the total amount
of material produced from recovered industrial waste.
Involving technogenic waste in the recycling will allow liquidating the objects of
their placement as the sources of atmospheric air pollution and will reduce the
extraction volumes of the natural resources, replacing them with technogenic
resources, while the social tension in the region will be reduced, which is caused
by the negative environmental situation.
Thus, the practical implementation of the circular economy principles in a
particular region will lead to positive results in both environmental and industrial
policies. Moreover, the solutions obtained may be used not only in the Russian
Federation but also abroad.
Due to the industrial symbiosis organization of the waste recycling enterprises
with the companies in which waste is generated, new waste recycling enterprises
may be created, the capacities of the existing enterprises may be increased, and new
types of products based on waste may be produced for the use as technogenic
resources of the city industrial enterprises, primarily for metallurgical enterprises.
The partial natural resources replacement by technogenic ones will contribute not
only to saving natural resources, reducing the energy consumption of the
technological processes and the amount of the buried waste, but also solving a set
of environmental problems.
At its core, an eco-industrial symbiosis will be organized by analogy with the
natural one – mutually beneficial cooperation of the waste recycling enterprises,
operating industrial enterprises, consumers of the waste-based products, equipment

manufacturers, scientific and engineering companies, educational institutions and
public organizations, service companies, and testing laboratories, the activities of
which will be aimed at ensuring the creation and development of new environmen-
tally friendly branches of the economy, gradual reduction of the consumed natural
resources, and amount of and the emission’s amount into the environment.
Conclusion
The analysis of waste management generation in Russia Federation for the past
decade showed a continuously growing trend from 2010 to 2020. In recent years,
minor changes have been achieved in the waste management system whereby
disposal on land remains the main (49%) method of waste management in the
Russian Federation despite the small increase in the share of waste recovered and
neutralized (51% of total waste generated in 2019). In 2019, the country generated a
total of 7.8 billion tonnes of waste, at an average of 52.8 tonnes per capita each year,
which is expected to reach up to 54.9 tonnes per capita in 2024. The extraction of
fuel and energy minerals (mainly mining and coal enterprises) constitutes the largest
contributor (93.6%) to the total amount of waste generated. It is worst noting that the
municipal solid waste (MSW) contributed to about 0.8% of total amount of waste
generated (61 million tonnes) in 2019, or at an average of 1.14 kilogram per capita
each day.
From the above analysis, it is clear that the main goals of the Russian Federation
“Strategy for the development of industry for sorting, recycling, and treatment of
waste for the period until 2030” were not met in 2018, and 2030 target is not on
track. This shows the importance of studies on the project approach to the creation of
eco-industrial parks aimed at decreasing waste flows to landfills and increasing the
recycle and reuse of secondary materials/resources. In this context, the development
of an efficient national waste management focusing on the industrial sector (includ-
ing mining enterprises) becomes a prerequisite toward circular economy (CE).
Industrial symbiosis (IS), implemented in the form of eco-industrial parks, is a
cooperative strategy to competitive advantage through which a cooperative network
to share resources, energy, water, and/or by-products is generated by different
industries. Eco-industrial parks play an important role in the circular economy,
which is known as the most resource-efficient and energy-efficient form of economy.
Despite many recent initiatives in the political, legal, and institutional frameworks of
the Russian Federation toward encouraging the industrial symbiosis through the
development of 70 eco-industrial parks by 2030, the introduction of best available
techniques (BAT), and the organization of separate waste collection systems, many
of these effective tools toward a circular economy are currently not widely adopted.
At present, the construction of the eco-industrial park in the Russian Federation is at
its first stage of planning and development.
Subsequently, the aim of this chapter is to facilitate potential research and practice
aimed at developing new IS clusters and amplifying eco-industrial parks in the
Russian Federation’s industrial district. The findings presented in this chapter are
attributed to the famous example of the innovative eco-industrial park project of
Novokuznetsk industrial district (at its first phase of development). The project
implementation reduces air pollution in Novokuznetsk district by eliminating areal
sources of pollution with dust, benzopyrene, and other carcinogenic polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons, mainly due to avoiding the extraction of natural raw mate-
rials, which are substituted with the technogenic material or products from the
industrial enterprises. Moreover, it is estimated that about three million tonnes of
waste-recovered materials (mainly metallurgical slags which are recovered from
industrial landfills) will be processed into different kinds of products. Therefore,
the total economic benefit or revenue from implementing this project is estimated
about 62 million USD. It is worth noting that the price of material produced has
varied between 3 and 625 USD per tonne, depending on the market demand, the type
of industrial waste-recovered material, and the type of the technological process
whereby the higher the level and the more advanced the technology, the higher the
price.
The findings of the study are of practical interest to the public authorities, current
and future partners in eco-industrial parks, waste management professionals, envi-
ronmental scientists, and economics scholars.
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A Transition Toward a Circular Economy:
Insights from Brazilian National Policy 10
on Solid Waste
Luís Paes, Barbara Bezerra, Rafael Deus, Daniel Jugend, and

Rosane Battistelle
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Brazilian Waste Solid Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Brazilian Socioeconomic Context Faced with the Worldwide Solid Waste
Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Solid Waste Classification According to the National Policy on Solid Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
The Brazilian National Policy on Solid Waste from the Circular Economy
Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Barriers for the Adoption of an Efficient Solid Waste Management in Brazil from the CE
Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
SWOT Analysis: Brazil’s National Policy on Solid Waste from the Circular Economy
Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
Strengths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
Opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Weakness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Threats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
Abstract
This chapter discusses how the actual Brazilian National Policy on Solid
Waste (BNPSW) – Law n. 12.305/2010 – aligns with the circular economy
(CE) principles considering, especially, its potential to close the loop in solid
waste production. This study’s emphasis is to recognize the main points to
L. Paes · B. Bezerra (*) · D. Jugend · R. Battistelle

São Paulo State University (UNESP), School of Engineering, Bauru, SP, Brazil
e-mail: luis.paes@unesp.br; barbara.bezerra@unesp.br; barbarabezerra@feb.unesp.br;
daniel.jugend@unesp.br; rosane.battistelle@unesp.br
R. Deus
São Paulo State University (UNESP), School of Engineering, Bauru, SP, Brazil
Faculdades Integradas de Jahu (FIJ), Jaú, SP, Brazil

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_16
274 L. Paes et al.
enable the CE with the aid of already existing Brazilian environmental

policies, using tools as the waste hierarchy, reverse logistics, and shared
postconsumer responsibility for a more efficient waste management. To
contribute to this discussion, this chapter has set on four-part contributions:
Part 1 begins by laying out a theoretical systematic understanding of
how BNPSW contributes to the CE thinking implementation in Brazil.
Part 2 presents and discusses all potential barriers to the adoption of
solid waste management from a CE perspective. Part 3 develops a SWOT
(strength, weakness, opportunities, and threats) analysis from BNPSW under a
CE perspective. Finally, Part 4 presents a conclusion with the main findings
and recommendations to assist the transition to CE in waste management
legislation.
Keywords
Municipal solid waste · Developing countries · Public policies · Reverse
logistics · Solid waste legislation
Introduction
The unbridled consumerism boosts the pressure on natural resources resulting in

countless negative impacts on the environment. According to the World Bank,
humanity produces about 2.1 billion tons of waste per year and estimates that this
number will approach 3.4 billion tons in 2050, reflecting a 62% rise in current waste
production. This increase is closely linked to population growth and the urbanization
process (Kaza et al. 2018). Nowadays, 55% of the global population lives in urban
areas, and the projections expect estimates to overtake 68% in the next 30 years,
representing an addition of 2.5 billion people to the urban surroundings areas
(United Nations 2019).
The average amount of municipal solid waste (MSW) generated per capita in
developing countries is comparatively low to more developed nations. However,
some challenges such as lack of technical knowledge on part of those responsible
for the management, reactive policies, budget constraints, and corruption become
systemic obstacles for these countries (Calderón Márquez and Rutkowski 2020;
Cetrulo et al. 2018). In some low-income nations, recent environmental studies
reveal that approximately 90% of waste is often disposed of irregularly or burnt in
the open air (Kaza et al. 2018) (The World Bank classifies low-income economies
as those with gross national income (GNI) per capita of $1,025 or less; low-income
economies range from $1,026 to $3,995 per capita; high-middle-income econo-
mies range from $3,996 to $12,375 and high-income economies are those with
GNI per capita of $12,376 or more). Inadequate disposal of solid waste is a risk to
health and increases environmental degradation, which affects the citizen’s quality
of life. Therefore, regulation and the adequate construction of landfills are essential
(Deus et al. 2019).
10 A Transition Toward a Circular Economy: Insights from Brazilian National. . . 275
Furthermore, in general, countries build up their solid waste management

frameworks based on the guidelines established in their national policies that
are connected to their institutional, legal, political, and economic settings (United
Nations 2013). Thus, the waste management governance emerges among several
sectors and levels of government with different political alignments. This way,
the coordinating across those sectors and various levels of government becomes a
multifaceted issue through fragmented policies in waste management.
The current linear economic model (extract-produce-use-discard) does not
have the capacity to simultaneously provide sustainable development that
encourages economic prosperity, without degrading the environment and/or
reducing social equity (Büchs and Koch 2017). This issue raises the pressure
for improvements, pushing waste management and resources from a linear
economy to an alternative and more sustainable economic model. A promising
alternative model is the CE. The CE caught the policy maker’s attention in view
of the fact the core idea is to step away from linear processes and substitute them
with cycling and “cascading,” which is the residue of a process becomes input
from another (Blomsma 2018). According to Kirchherr et al. (2017, p. 229)
“circular economy” is defined as “an economic system that replaces the concept
of ‘end of life’ by reducing, alternatively reusing, recycling and recovering
materials in the processes of production/distribution and consumption. It aims
to achieve sustainable development, while simultaneously creating environmen-
tal quality, economic prosperity and social equity for the benefit of current and
future generations.”
Despite the presence of viewpoints on improving social welfare and environ-
mental integrity through CE, only a limited number of countries have taken
tentative steps to enforce it (Ghisellini et al. 2016). This confirms the need to
identify barriers and drivers as well as to strengthen actions in developing coun-
tries. The main purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of the socioeco-
nomic scenario and to describe how the BNPSW links to the CE ideas, as well as
the country’s potential to overcome the linear production model. The study also
details the major barriers and drivers for the solid waste management in Brazil,
which aid to understand how to promote more efficiently through circularity
principles. Furthermore, Brazil does not yet have a specific law for the CE, and
the BNPSW presents aspects that may contribute to the adoption of the CE in this
country.
This chapter has set on four-part contributions: Section “Brazilian Waste Solid
Waste Management” begins by laying out a theoretical systematic understanding
of how BNPSW contributes to the CE thinking implemented in Brazil.
Section “Barriers for the Adoption of an Efficient Solid Waste Management
in Brazil from the CE Perspective” presents and discusses all potential barriers
to the adoption of solid waste management from a CE perspective.
Section “SWOT Analysis: Brazil’s National Policy on Solid Waste from
the Circular Economy Perspective” develops a SWOT analysis from BNPSW
under a CE perspective. Finally, Section “Conclusions” presents the conclusions
of this chapter.
276 L. Paes et al.
Brazilian Waste Solid Waste Management
This section will describe the Brazilian socioeconomic context, the main aspects of
solid waste management, and the national policy background.
Brazilian Socioeconomic Context Faced with the Worldwide Solid

Waste Generation
The global average of MSW produced is 0.74 kg per capita/per day and ranges from
0.11 kg to 4.54 kg. High-income nations represent only 16% of the world’s popu-
lation; however, they account for more than a third of all urban waste generated
worldwide (Kaza et al. 2018) – in a projection, the numbers for 2020, that amount
would be close to 714 million tons. The United States is the main producer of MSW
per capita (2.5 kg per capita per day) with 12% of global MSW – more than three
times the global average – representing just 4% of the world’s population
(Maplecroft 2019).
In contrast, China and India together make up over 36% of the global population,
but generate 25% of global municipal waste (Kaza et al. 2018). The average
production of MSW in Europe is 1.38 kg per capita per day, with some countries
such as Denmark (2.14 kg per capita per day), Switzerland (1.79 per capita per day),
and Iceland (1.45 kg per capita per day) which stand out and raise this average for
production of MSW in the continent (Eurostat 2020). Table 1 shares the global
population, municipal solid waste, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capital,
and status for G20 countries.
Brazil has 5570 cities and roughly 211 million inhabitants. Brazilian MSW is the
fourth biggest amount in the world. Its average per capita of MSW production differs
from most emerging countries, and it is quite similar to some developed countries
(Cetrulo et al. 2018). Nevertheless, the MSW production and management are
unequal along its territory, mainly due to its significant complexity of cultural and
socioeconomic contexts. Brazil, in average, produced 1,039 kg per capita per day
(ABRELPE 2019).
Among five Brazilian regions, the Brazilian’s southeast is the second smallest
geographic region (only bigger than the south); however, Brazilian Institute for
Geography and Statistics (mostly known in Portuguese by the acronym IBGE)
estimates that 42.2% of the total 211 million people in the country live in the
southeast region. It is composed of four states: Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais, Rio
de Janeiro, and São Paulo, being the most developed region, responsible for
55.2% of the Brazilian GDP and the region that has the highest rate of urbaniza-
tion – 92.1% (IBGE 2020). These numbers reflect directly on the production of
municipal solid waste. The southeast and northeast regions were those that
produced the most MSW, corresponding, respectively, to 50% and 25% of
the country’s total MSW generation. Figure 1 represents the generation per capita
of MSW (kg per capita per day) in the different regions of Brazil (ABRELPE
2019).
Table 1 Municipal solid waste produced by G20 countries

GDP per Municipal waste generation Country
Country Population capita (US$) (million tones/year) status
China 1.397,715,00 10.261,70 330.7 Developing
India 1.366,417,75 2.104,10 256.2 Developing
Unites 328.239,52 65.118,40 252 Developed
States
Brazil 211.049,53 8.717,20 84 Developing
Indonesia 270.625,57 4.135,60 78.7 Developing
Russia 144.373,54 11.585,00 46.2 Developing
Mexico 127.575,53 9.863,10 45.1 Developing
Japan 126.264,93 40.246,90 44.1 Developed
Germany 83.132,80 46.258,90 42 Developed
France 67.059,89 40.493,90 37.8 Developed
Canada 37.589,262 46.194,70 36.7 Developed
United 66.834,405 42.300,30 36.1 Developed
Kingdom
Italy 60.297,40 33.189,60 35.9 Developed
Turkey 83.429,62 9.042,50 35.7 Developed
South Korea 51.709,10 31.762,00 21.2 Developed
South Africa 58.558,27 6.001,40 18.9 Developing
Australia 25.364,31 54.907,10 18 Developed
Saudi 34.268,53 23.139,80 17.9 Developing
Arabia
Argentina 44.938,71 10.006,10 15.7 Developing
a
This table was compiled using indicators from the World Bank database, OECD Report, Global
Waste Index 2019, and Maplecroft Report for the year 2019
The country is experiencing two distinct issues regarding the correct final
disposal of solid waste. The first issue has to do with the high amount of MSW
produced in large cities. More than half of the Brazilian population (120.2 million
inhabitants) lives in only 5.7% of the municipalities (317), and municipalities
with more than 500,000 inhabitants (46) concentrate 31.2% of the country’s
population (65.8 million inhabitants). And the second issue is attributable to
most Brazilian municipalities (about 68.4%) having up to 20,000 inhabitants
and constituted only 15.4% of the country’s population (32.5 million
inhabitants) (IBGE 2020). Despite, they face several challenges with waste
production, budget constraints, and landfill construction and operation (Deus
et al. 2017).
The first issue has to do with the amount of MSW produced in large cities and
with urban development. The rise in population and the deficient housing policy in
some regions have forced many people to occupy the urban land in a disorganized
manner (Azevedo et al. 2019). The household access to waste collection is precar-
ious in some regions and especially in the poorest neighborhoods. The second issue
is attributable to the fact that 90% of Brazilian municipalities have less than 50,000
278 L. Paes et al.
Fig. 1 Generation of MSW per capita according to each Brazilian region. (Source: Adapted from
ABRELPE (2019))
inhabitants (IBGE 2020). Despite their less waste production, these cities usually
suffer from budget constraints that hinder the landfill construction and management.
The smaller the landfill, the more expensive the operating costs become. The cost per
ton of a small landfill can often be more than double that of a large landfill (SELURB
2019).
Solid Waste Classification According to the National Policy on Solid

Waste
The term “solid waste” is generic and used to describe low-value materials, where
the disposal becomes more viable than recycling. However, the definition of the
term “solid waste” is important because it is the basis for developing environ-
mental management policies that can differ from country to country (Periathamby
2011).
The BNPSW defines solid waste as “all material, substance, object or
discarded good resulting from human activities in society, whose destination
final whether it proceeds, proposes to proceed or is obliged to proceed, in solid
or semi-solid states, as well as gases contained in containers and liquids whose
particularities make its release into the public sewer network or into bodies
of water unviable, or require this technically or economically unviable solutions
in view of the best technology available” (Brasil 2010, article 3, subsection
XVI). In other words, solid waste is a by-product of a solid or semisolid material

process that can be treated or recovered. The BNPSW also classifies the solid waste
by its sources. Figure 2 illustrates the sources and types of waste through a
diagram.
Table 2 describes and exemplifies the main types of waste according to BNPSW.
In addition to the classification according to the origin, the Brazilian Technical
Standard (NBR 10.004) conceptualizes hazardousness of a waste as a “characteristic
presented by a waste, which, depending on its physical, chemical or infectious
properties” (ABNT 2004). The hazardousness of waste depends, in general, on
Fig. 2 Waste source diagram

280 L. Paes et al.
Table 2 Sources and types of waste according to BNPSW

Source Typical waste generators Types of solid wastes
Household Domestic activities in urban Food wastes, paper, cardboard,
waste residences plastics, textiles, leather, yard wastes,
wood, glass, metals, ashes, and special
wastes (electronics, batteries, oil, tires,
etc.)
Urban Street cleaning, landscaping, parks, Street sweepings; landscape and tree
cleaning waste beaches, and other recreational areas trimmings; general wastes from parks,
beaches, and other recreational areas
Commercial Markets, stores, hotels, restaurants, Paper, cardboard, plastics, wood, food
establishments office buildings, shopping, etc. wastes, glass, metals, and special
wastes
Basic Water and wastewater treatment Liquid waste/wastewater sewage and
sanitation plants human and animals’ activities manure
waste
Industrial Production processes and industrial Light and heavy manufacturing,
facilities fabrication, construction sites, and
power and chemical plants
Health service In Brazil, regulated by National Hospitals and other health facilities,
waste Environmental System (SISNAMA) laboratories and research centers,
and the National Health Surveillance mortuary and autopsy centers, animal
System (SNVS) research and testing, laboratories,
blood banks, and collection services
Construction New construction sites, road repair, Wood, steel, concrete, dirt, etc.
and renovation sites, and demolition of
demolition buildings including resulting from
the preparation and excavation of the
land
Agro- Crops, orchards, vineyards, dairies, Rest of agricultural crops and
industrial feedlots, and farms agricultural wastes including
waste hazardous inputs used in these
activities (e.g., pesticides)
Mining waste Waste generated during the Coagulants/flocculants; sulfide-free
extraction, beneficiation, and flotation reagents; viscosity modifiers;
processing of minerals grinding aids flotation concentration
dumping of ferrous and nonferrous
metal ores, sulfur ores, etc.
a
MSW includes residential, institutional, commercial, and municipal waste
some factors, nature, concentration, mobility, degradation, persistence, and

bioaccumulation, and classified as:
(I) Dangerous: flammable, corrosive, reactive, toxic, and/or pathogenic

(II) Not dangerous
(II-a) Nonhazardous and non-inert (can be combustible, biodegradable, and/or
soluble in water)
(II-b) Not dangerous and inert, not soluble in water (with bricks and glass)
Waste Origin Known?

YES NO
It appears in Annexes A and B of NBR 10004?
Is it flammable, corrosive, reactive, toxic or pathogenic?
YES YES NO
Hazardous Waste - Class I Non-Hazardous Waste - Class II
Does it have constituents that are solubilized

in concentrations higher than those of Annex G?
YES NO
Non-Inert Waste - Class IIa Inert Waste - Class IIb
Fig. 3 Flowchart for waste hazardousness classification
Figure 3 illustrates the flowchart for the waste classification according to its
hazardousness.
The discussion about a national solid waste policy dates back from the middle of
the last century. The discussions continued for more than 20 years (since 1990)
before a plan for a national waste program was put forward, 29 years since the start
of the National Environment Policy (Law No. 6938/1981) and the creation of the
National Environment System (SISNAMA) and the National Environment Council
(CONAMA). Figure 4 provides a timeline of main steps of BNPSW implementation.
Nowadays, the discussion is concentrated to the proper disposal of solid waste and
reverse logistics.
However, yet 10 years after the BNPSW publication, the end of Brazil’s dumps
is still far from happening. Comparing the years 2018 with 2017, there were an
increase of 2.4% of total waste disposed in landfills, representing 59.5% of MSW
collected (43.3 million tons) (ABRELPE 2019). Nevertheless, inadequate units
such as open dumps and uncontrolled landfills represented 23% and 17.5%,
respectively, of disposed waste. In addition, 17.8 million Brazilians do not have
waste collection in their homes, and only 3.7% of waste is recycled (SELURB
2019).
New deadlines were set through a law from the public ministry of sanitation to
close the open dumps. The new legislative mechanism for sanitation (Law
No. 14.026 of 15 July 2020) set the final environmentally sustainable waste disposal
deadlines:
(I) Until August 2, 2021, for capitals of states and municipalities that are part of the
Metropolitan Region or of the Integrated Development Region of capitals
282 L. Paes et al.
Fig. 4 Timeline for the Brazilian National Policy on Solid Waste consolidation
(II) Until August 2, 2022, for cities with population over 100,000 inhabitants in the
2010 Brazilian Census, as well as for municipalities whose urban area of the
municipal headquarters is located less than 20 km from the border with neigh-
boring countries
(III) Until August 2, 2023, cities with a population between 50,000 and 100,000
inhabitants in the 10 Brazilian Census
(IV) Until August 2, 2024, cities with a population of less than 50,000 inhabitants in
the 2010 Brazilian Census
The proposals of the federal government, states, and municipalities must have to
set down the terms under which the policy’s main goals can be accomplished,
according to statute and legislative order. The plans have a structuring aspect that
incorporates analysis, priorities, guidance, strategies, and, most importantly, mea-
sures to integrate and improve performance for the better management of solid waste
(Campos et al. 2015).
The Brazilian National Policy on Solid Waste from the Circular

Economy Perspective
The principles of CE applied to supply chains in order to reduce waste generation

and its attempts to reuse, repair, and recycle waste that cannot be avoided has been
widely accepted theoretically (e.g., Govindan and Hasanagic 2018; Bressanelli et al.
2019). Nevertheless, it needs to be supported by empirical evidences to make a real
contribution to sustainable development. The general basis of the CE begun with the
articulation of the umbrella concept (Homrich et al. 2018), in which preexisting
definitions were grouped, and a new framework presenting standard definitions was
provided as CE (Blomsma and Brennan 2017).
Brazil does not yet have any specific legislation that relies strictly on the ideals of
the CE (Jabbour et al. 2020b). However, some fundamental elements of CE concept
may be identified in the BNPSW that establishes five key points:
(i) Evaluate the life cycle assessment that considers all production stages from its
design, raw materials, production, storage, recycling, and final disposal.
(ii) Reverse logistics, with companies’ obligation to establish postconsumer return
systems, independent of public waste collection services
(iii) Packaging must facilitate reuse and recycling, restricting volume and weight.
(iv) Shared postconsumer responsibility between manufacturers, importers, distrib-
utors, traders, and consumers
(v) Creation and development of cooperatives and workers’ associations in recy-
clable materials as part of the processes of reverse logistics and social inclusion
Waste Hierarchy
The waste hierarchy is an important step in shifting the “end-of-pipe” production
economic culture toward the principle of resource management, with a desire to
close the loop (Wilson 2007) (“End-of-pipe” methods are used to remove contam-
inants from a stream of air, water, waste, product, etc. These techniques are
normally implemented as a last stage of a process before the stream is disposed.).
The principle of the waste hierarchy establishes choices that reflect the successive
management actions that a material must follow before reaching the end of its life
cycle.
In 2008, the concept of waste hierarchy was introduced in the Waste Framework
Directive (WFD) by the Council of the European Parliament and subsequently
transposed into the national legislation of the Member States of the European
Union. The European WFD describes the waste hierarchy as the order of priority
for waste management activities to be followed: prevention, preparation for reuse,
recycling, other recovery (including energy recovery), and disposal. In 2015, the
Europe Union CE Strategy defended the position of the waste hierarchy as a means
of obtaining the best overall environmental result and returning useful resources to
the economy (European Commission 2015).
The BNPSW considers the hierarchy to be followed in the solid waste manage-
ment, which gives priority to the following order: the non-generation, reduction,
284 L. Paes et al.
reuse, recycling, solid waste treatment, and the environmentally sustainable final
disposal of residues (Brasil 2010, article 9).
Figure 5 compares the priority hierarchy for a sustainable solid waste manage-
ment, according to the principles of CE zero waste and the hierarchy established in
BNPSW (The zero-waste hierarchy framework aligned with the circular economy
principles differs from the European Union waste hierarchy at the upper (refuse,
rethink, redesign) and lower (unacceptable) levels, thus maintaining the intermediate
level of reuse and recycling planning.).
Reverse Logistics
Logistics is a key factor for all segments of society and play a special role to
promote CE values (Govindan and Hasanagic 2018). Logistics has the ability to
monitor circular flows of goods, link markets, and make supply chain’s clearness.
As a result, logistics companies, especially those with a global network, infra-
structure, and reverse logistics expertise, are the major enablers to accelerate CE
development. Reverse logistics is a significant step toward capturing the end-of-
life products value and allows the reuse and recycle basis on circular model
foundations. This includes different types of value-added activities like improve
transparency on demand for returning goods and associated secondary markets,
establish integrated logistics, increasing the resilience of the supply chain, and
strengthening and scaling up the circular approach of the business to optimize
economic opportunities.
The BNPSW defines reverse logistics as an “instrument of economic and social
development characterized by a set of actions, procedures and means designed to
enable the collection and return of solid waste to the business sector, for reuse, in its
cycle or in other cycles. Productive or other environmentally appropriate final
destination” (Brasil 2010, article 3, subsection XII).
It is important to point out that the BNPSW also established the obligation to
implement reverse logistics for several types of wastes: pesticides and their
residues and packaging; batteries; tires; lubricating oils and their residues and
packaging; fluorescent, sodium, and mercury vapor and mixed light bulbs; and
electronics products and their components. In addition, reverse logistics systems
must be incorporated and operated by terms of sector agreements (contracts
agreed between government and manufacturers, importers, dealers, or traders)
regulations issued by the government or terms of commitment (Brasil 2010,
article 15).
The BNPSW also points out well that suppliers, importers, dealers, and retailers
are responsible for structuring and applying the reverse logistics schemes for such
wastes. Merchants must install specific locations for the collection (returned). Those
goods must be withdrawn, recycled, or reused by companies through a logistics
system (Brasil 2010, article 33).
After analyzing the BNPSW definitions and responsibilities, Fig. 6 provides
an original framework to summarize the main elements of combining reverse
logistics and the CE principles for solid waste management in a more holistic
manner.
Fig. 5 Comparison between BNPSW and CE zero-waste hierarchy

286 L. Paes et al.
Fig. 6 Framework for convergence reverse logistics and CE principles
Shared Responsibility
The collectivist responsibility presupposes that the stakeholders are situated in
particular contexts, in which their individualistic responsibilities, attributed by
formal and informal norms and behaviors, shape their positions among them-
selves. At the same time, it indicates that these stakeholders spontaneously
engage in relation to various shared contextual issues and obligations (Machin
2012). Shared responsibilities, especially on environmental issues, are essential
to public policy. Nevertheless, the environmental responsibility is usually man-
datory due to cultural upsets, and the society is unwilling to exercise this shared
responsibility and fulfill their role as citizens (Azevedo et al. 2019; Savini and
Giezen 2020).
In addition to common responsibilities, the CE also suggests a shared economy of
products and services (Jabbour et al. 2020a), reducing primary raw materials extrac-
tion and waste outputs and dividing aggregate costs. Sharing activities can inspire
long-term consumer behavior changes, change personal choices, and promote sus-
tainable development.
BNPSW promotes the principle of shared responsibility for the product

(or service) life cycle (Brasil 2010, article 33) according to which stakeholders
(manufacturers, importers, distributors and traders, and consumers) are responsible
for gathering and supporting the appropriate destination of post-consumption prod-
ucts. It is also important that public authorities and consumers are also responsible
for the effective use and disposal of solid waste. In this sense, through specific and
interrelated tasks, consumers are responsible for the conscious purchase and proper
disposal of waste, while the private sector is responsible for incorporating waste into
the production chain and innovating in products in order to have socio-
environmental benefits.
The BNPSW also delimits the attributions, specifying the responsibilities for its
implementation and operation, including the phases of the Waste Management Plan
carried out by the government, outlining the ways and limitations of local govern-
ment participation in selective collection and reverse logistics while upholding the
requirements of shared responsibility for the product life cycle (Brasil 2010, article
20).
Barriers for the Adoption of an Efficient Solid Waste Management

in Brazil from the CE Perspective
The historical background of inadequate solid waste management in Brazil

suggests an environmental passive, which causes effects on human well-being
due to the pollution of the land, air, and groundwater, among others (Lima et al.
2018). Even after establishing a specific policy for solid waste, there might be
political barriers through institutional gaps and resistance among stakeholders
(dos Muchangos et al. 2015). The barriers can be classified as internal and
external (Abdulrahman et al. 2014). Considering the barriers for efficient solid
waste management based on CE principles, it can be hard to decide the distinction
between what is an internal and an external barrier. When the object of analysis is
a country, the macroenvironmental components that would be an external barrier
for an organization become an entire barrier for a nation (Helms and Nixon
2010).
The study classifies the main internal and external barriers for an efficient solid
waste managing according to the Brazilian socioeconomic context and the CE
principles. Table 3 presents the internal barriers dimension.
Proper and favorable conditions in working environments are relevant to improve
performance and productivity, advance the well-being and health of laborers, and
advance a model of sustainable development (Moreira et al. 2019). Technology
updates to assist on identify, screening, decontaminate, and supply processes are
vital to the efficiency of recycling a great hurdle. The lack of technology that assists
in the reuse of materials is a main barrier to low recycling rates of solid waste in the
country, especially those of low-added value.
As in most developing countries, in Brazil, the correct final destination and
recycling are directly related to the handcraft workmanship capacity (Fuss et al.
288 L. Paes et al.
Table 3 Internal barriers dimension according to the stipulated categories

Category Barrier References
Technology Lack of data and information for the de Fuss et al. (2020); Guarnieri
supply chain et al. (2020); Jugend et al. (2020);
Lack of an efficient indicator system that Moreira et al. (2019); Rossi et al.
assists performance measurement (2020)
Lack of technical knowledge to support
reverse logistics practices
Lack of recent technology in equipment
and tools
Infrastructure Lack of waste collection points Alfaia et al. (2017); Azevedo
Lack of cooperatives for waste pickers et al. (2019); Conke (2018)
and recycling industries
Irregularity in waste collection
Insufficient reverse channels
Insufficiency of screening centers
Financial High initial and operational cost for the Alfaia et al. (2017); Guarnieri
implementation of reverse logistics et al. (2020); Jabbour et al. (2014,
There is a burden between taxes and 2020b); Lima et al. (2018)
service quality.
Insufficient investment by the public and
private sector
Economic uncertainty (market risks and
return on investment)
Lack of an economy of scale
Lack of financial support for investments
in new technologies, research, and
training
Informality in waste pickers’
remuneration
Organizational Low involvement of top management in de Oliveira et al. (2018, 2019);
strategic planning Jabbour et al. (2020b); Jugend
There is no sharing of responsibilities et al. (2020); Rossi et al. 2020
between stakeholders.
Lack of knowledge and qualification of
employees in CE principles and practices
Top management’s resistance to change
Little communication skills
Lack of coordination, support, and
sharing of practices
2020). The recurrent lack of technical resources for the solid waste sorting infra-
structures is the main cause of this problem. This is due to that legislation made
mandatory that sorting facilities for recycling must be managed and operated by the
cooperatives (organization of waste pickers) and not by entrepreneurs.
Another technological barrier that deserves highlight is the lack of data and/or
incompatibility of information and efficient metrics to evaluate the present status of
solid waste management in Brazil and the establishment of CE goals for all stake-
holders in the value chain (Rossi et al. 2020).
The main infrastructure barriers related to the lack of implementation of solid
waste collection points, as well as the establishment of recycling industries, sorting
facilities, and business model arrangements, are in regions far from industrial centers
(Guarnieri et al. 2020) that correspond to the less developed regions in the country.
As indicated by ABRELPE (2019), there is still a great deal of work to do, and 1.500
urban areas of the 5.570 municipalities in the country still did not have any selective
collection initiatives.
Moreover, it is important to consider financial barriers in order to create an
efficient solid waste management framework. In numerous cities and regions in
Brazil, the collection of recyclable waste is almost exclusively carried out by waste
pickers that work in various stages of the solid waste recycling cycle. The national
movement of recyclable material waste pickers projects that there are about 800,000
waste pickers active in Brazil, and the majority live in informality and have empha-
sized the great desire of waste pickers to be paid by companies and/or the state and to
leave informality (Guarnieri et al. 2020). Even though the company’s coalition
invested in waste picker cooperatives infrastructure, the efforts do not seem to be
sufficient to repay crafted work made by the waste pickers.
Another financial barrier is that the government and local authorities often try to
emulate successful waste management systems from developed countries. The
significant high costs of these systems contrast to the available budgets in developing
countries, often more restricted (Alfaia et al. 2017). In many cases, lack of consid-
eration for the local socioeconomic aspects generates disappointments in the
implantation.
There is also no significant involvement of supply chain stakeholders (de Oliveira
et al. 2019). The absence of influence and participation of the stakeholders forestalls
successful adoption for CE improvement (Ritzén and Sandström 2017). Top man-
agement of an organization comprises the stakeholders and partners that can imple-
ment and pressure the government for adoption of responsible waste management in
a local context that it has not created legal structures yet. However, organizations
face many challenges to adopt CE, such as communication issues between the public
and private sectors, shared interests and lack of trust that delays the development of
mutually beneficial connections, as well as unclear duties and responsibilities
(Jabbour et al. 2020b).
Table 4 characterizes the external barrier dimension in as well as the main
categories and their references for solid waste management in accordance with CE
principles in Brazil.
Among political and legislative barriers in Brazil, it is essential to comprehend
that the sector agreement or the Implementation of the Reverse Logistics System
does not expressly incorporate guidelines and targets in the BPSW. The difficulty of
integration between different political and administrative spheres for the formulation
and implementation of policies has always been present, especially with regard to the
relations between federal government that formulate public policies at national level
and the municipal policies at local level (Maiello et al. 2018).
290 L. Paes et al.
Table 4 External barriers dimension according to the stipulated categories

Category Barrier References
Political and Lack of specific laws that promote circularity da Silva and Bolson (2018);
legislative through ecological design to facilitate the Ferri et al. (2015);
recovery of end-of-life products Guarnieri et al. (2020);
Need for a systematization of all laws, Jabbour et al. (2014, 2020b)
regulations, and guidelines that may be
applicable in practice
Presence of loopholes in legislation
(responsibilities, costs, environmental liabilities)
Reactive policies
Lack of economic policies to support the state for
the informal sector
Lack of intersectoral agreements
Lack of state monitoring for reverse logistics and
recycling practices
Willingness and ability to take on long-term
strategies
Sociocultural Challenges related with populace awareness in Alfaia et al. (2017); Conke
making the right separation and disposal of waste (2018); da Silva and Bolson
Consumer market prejudices regarding (2018); da Silva et al.
remanufactured and recycled products (2019); Fuss et al. (2018);
Lack of knowledge of the environmental impacts Jabbour et al. (2020b)
created by the incorrect disposal of solid waste
Lack of knowledge on the part of organizations
regarding reverse logistics practices
Lack of knowledge on the part of organizations
about taxation on returned products
The difficulty in finding dumps influences the
likelihood of choosing to collect the waste
correctly.
Market Little recognition of competitive advantage de Andrade Junior et al.
competition The lack of intersector agreements preclude the (2017); Florencio de Souza
utilization of secondary raw materials and the et al. (2020); Guarnieri
section of recycled products to certain markets et al. (2020); Vieira et al.
Lack of networks for remanufactured products (2020)
sale
Difficulty entering as recycled material supplier
for industries
Process and Lack of support for the development of industrial Azevedo et al. (2019);
supply chain symbiosis de Oliveira et al. (2019);
Poor coordination between supply chain partners Guarnieri et al. (2020);
Lack of structuring of cooperatives Jabbour et al. (2014,
2020b); Singhal et al.
Supply chain uncertainties regarding the quality
(2020)
and quantity of waste
The BNPSW poses various gaps for its successful execution, among which the
low availability of the budget and the poor administrative and institutional capability,
particularly in the small municipalities. The latest regulatory milestone for waste
management (Law 14.026/2020) may further increase the number of dumps in the
country even more. This initiative would encourage each mayor to determine what to
do about the dumps in their city. The commitment of Brazilian customers to the
separation and environmentally friendly disposal of solid waste is a cultural barrier
and a significant obstacle to the adoption of the principles of the CE since this
requires a shift in the behavior of millions of individuals. In Brazil, 30% of all solid
waste generated has potential for recycling, but only 3% is directly recycled or
reused in some form (ABRELPE 2019). These statistics indicate that there is a
significant wastage from an environmental, economic, and/or social viewpoint.
In the same line as international studies (Jesus and Mendonça 2018; Kirchherr
et al. 2018; Ritzén and Sandström 2017), many companies in Brazil also do not seem
to have competitive advantages through product design that reduces the environ-
mental impact (or circular product design), sustainable production, and efficient
solid waste management, which are barriers that stand out. Waste management
requires a new vision and drastic improvements for a transition to a zero-waste
economy model, and the weak alignment between supply chain partners can be
highlighted as a process and as a supply chain barrier. Waste management strategies
affect organizational decisions, with an emphasis on product design and recovery
processes at multiple levels of the supply chain. As a result, the system handles and
adapts to a complex environment by processing knowledge that promotes environ-
mental quality, societal acceptability, and efficiency (Zhang et al. 2019).
SWOT Analysis: Brazil’s National Policy on Solid Waste from

the Circular Economy Perspective
The SWOT acronym derives from strengths (internal and positive attributes envi-
ronment), weakness (internal and negative attributes environment), opportunities
(external and positive factors that could help to develop the environment), and
threats (external and negative factors that could disable development in the
environment).
SWOT analysis is a tool associated with the activities of competitive intelligence
and strategic planning and can be used for companies, governments, and in the
industrial sectors. Its central purpose is to show the strengths and weaknesses of the
internal environment and opportunities and threats from the external environment
(e.g., macroenvironment and specific economic sectors). The benefit of this
approach is its ability to integrate internal and external factors to promote the
planning and implementation of strategies. Therefore, planned focus on competen-
cies and resources may enrich the SWOT analysis and establish an internal perspec-
tive while preserving an external perspective at the same time (Dyson 2004).
SWOT aims to present this information visually through matrices, which have the
potential to facilitate the diagnosis of strengths and weaknesses, opportunities, and
threats. Based on these diagnoses, the tool is usefully applied to indicate the needs
for improvement and the market opportunities that the company or sector can follow
to achieve its objectives. The search for the information needed to perform the
SWOT analysis can be done through different practices, e.g., meetings with
292 L. Paes et al.
specialists from various departments/multifunctional team, brainstorming and/or

brain writing sections, and virtual discussions, among others.
Following this line of thought, Paes et al. (2019) elaborate and analyze a SWOT
matrix on organic waste management from the CE approach. Although the BNPSW
does not have a specific focus on the CE, there are several points of this law
applicable, considering this concept as previously described (section “The Brazilian
National Policy on Solid Waste from the Circular Economy Perspective”). Based on
the BNPSW and CE concepts and approaches, it was raised and interpreted possible
strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities of this law that are related to the CE
approach.
Strengths
• BNPSW incorporates and aligns important current concepts for solid waste
management such as the principles of sustainable development, eco-efficiency,
shared responsibility for the product life cycle, and the idea of reverse logistics.
• BNPSW became a legal regulatory structure, which established solid waste as an
economic resource of social value that generates income and promotes citizen-
ship. The idea revolves around the prospect of partnerships with different sectors
of society aiming at a new culture of sustainable development, where waste needs
to be recycled and reused and that its incorrect disposal in landfills and dumps
approaches zero.
• BNPSW establishes a link between different public administration levels and
encourages technical and financial cooperation between public and private sectors
for research into new products, processes, recycling technologies, reuse, treat-
ment, and final disposal of waste.
• BNPSW establishes a hierarchy of priority for solid waste management in which
preventing the generation is a priority. Specifically, the sequence identified is
non-generation, reduction, reuse, recycling, and treatment of solid waste, as well
as the environmentally appropriate final disposal of waste.
• BNPSW stimulates the assessment of the life cycle of products, as well as
sustainable consumption. In the enforcement of public policies and sustainable
consumption practices, the use of life cycle assessments provides opportunities
for advising, selecting areas of action, and defining trends of use, amount of waste
generation, and the most sustainable approaches, offering recommendations to
consumers and evaluating the efficacy of the steps taken.
• BNPSW aims and encourages the adoption, development, and improvement of
clean technologies. Clean technology represents any process, product, or service,
which reduces impacts on environment. These technologies can be produced by a
wide variety of businesses and implemented by all sectors of the economy.
Through designing and implementing cleaner technology, businesses and busi-
ness controls coasts manage prices, satisfy current regulatory internal and global
standards, increase global competitiveness, and reduce the impact on the climate,
water usage, land, and CO2 emissions.
• BNPSW proposes investments in environmental education and environmental

science and technology research, which will favor the rise of education and the
average increase in community knowledge and skills.
• It relies on the cooperation of different institutions, such as the National Fund for
Scientific and Technological Development, the National Basic Sanitation Infor-
mation System, the National Environmental Information System, among others.
• Establishes shared responsibility for the life cycle of products among manufac-
turers, importers, distributors and traders, consumers, and agents of public ser-
vices for urban cleaning and solid waste management
• BNPSW promotes the incorporation of waste pickers and recyclable materials
into activities that require shared responsibility for the products’ life cycle that
promotes the establishment and advancement of cooperatives or other types of
partnership for the recyclable waste pickers or reused materials and prioritizes
federal funding for municipalities adopting selective waste collection.
• Establishes that the public administration may institute inductive measures and
financing lines to attend the prevention and reduction of solid waste generation in
the production process; development of products with less impact on human
health and environmental quality in new product development; assistance in
infrastructure and acquisition of equipment to cooperatives, collectors, and
low-income individuals; and structuring of selective collection systems and
reverse logistics and development of research focused on clean technologies
applicable to solid waste.
Opportunities
• Through the principle of shared responsibility, enhancing public and private

sector partnerships to develop plans for efficient collection of solid waste in
difficult to access places (e.g., peripheral areas and slums) to boost the services
quality in these locations
• Through the principle of shared responsibility, establishing local partnerships
between municipalities and academic institutions to implement processes of
recycling and recovery of materials
• Increase formal jobs for recyclable waste pickers, which would be a key factor in
increasing the potential for reuse and recycling in the country.
• With some fundamental principles of CE, such as virtualization, it is possible to
consolidate the dematerialization of materials directly (e.g., digital books, use the
cloud for data storage) and dematerializing indirectly (e.g., online shopping,
Internet uses) and exchange to new technologies (e.g., 3D printing, additive
manufacturing) that replace old materials with advanced nonrenewable materials.
These alternatives have the potential to reduce solid waste generation throughout
the products’ life cycle.
• Implement clean energy projects using solid organic waste treatment (e.g., anaer-
obic digestion, biowaste plants) and soil nutrient recovery for degraded areas
(e.g., composting).
294 L. Paes et al.
• Develop, in partnership with a higher-education institution, low-cost and safe

technologies for the energy reuse of organic waste through the production of
biogas and domestic compost.
• Use of advanced technologies in equipment for the recovery of materials associ-
ated with data transfer (e.g., big data, machine learning) that would facilitate all
processes in the solid waste management chain, in addition to increasing trans-
parency for both society and stakeholders, generate frequently updated gravimet-
ric data, as well as monitoring the truck fleet and the regularity of the waste final
destination
• Structuring projects that involve the society and the industry in a hybrid “top-
down and bottom-up” approach that accelerates the end of the irregular destina-
tion of solid waste in dumps and seeks to completely deactivate it (Public
institutions from top-down and through industry from bottom-up. The motive
for proposing a concurrent top-down and bottom-up approach contains the
assumption that inverse motivations exist among the stakeholders of CE, which
need to be aligned and converged.)
• Create projects, process flows, strategies, and municipal strategies that can be
replicated by specific local or regional adjustments in order to speed up the
accomplishment of BNPSW objectives.
Weakness
• From the point of view of CE, the lack of skills for integration among supply
chain stakeholders makes the complexities during the implementation of reverse
logistics practices hamper the recovery and reuse of end-of-life materials.
• Specific targets to be achieved are vague (Jabbour et al. 2014). The BNPSW does
not explicitly incorporate guidelines and targets for municipalities, where most of
the objectives of the BNPSW not only are disregarded but also do not have
instruments at the local level to develop efficient models for solid waste
management.
• The unclear targets set out in the BNPSW and the lack of integration between
municipal plans encourage actions on the part of municipalities such as straying
of the infrastructure and environment budget for other purposes.
• The lack of BNPSW-specific targets is aggravating factors for inefficient man-
agement of solid waste that companies take advantage of, to avoid liability, which
goes against the concept of shared responsibility for the product life cycle.
• Despite BNPSW establishing the principles of shared responsibility among man-
ufacturers, importers, distributors and traders, consumers, and agents of public
services, it is not clear what the mechanisms should be for the implementation of
this shared responsibility.
• There is a lack of cooperation between manufacturers, distributors, and traders for
an effective process of storage, collection, and recycling. The distribution of costs
through the supply chain and stakeholders is an important step so that public
policies can be applied in practice.
• There are conflicting interests between government and society. The state con-
siders that legislation is the most important factor for an efficient management of
solid waste, mainly valuing the reactive behavior of companies. However, in
countries where solid waste management is highly efficient, the first essential step
was to change the behavior of citizens through awareness projects and proactive
measures.
Threats
• The social isolation measures due to the quarantine of the COVID-19 outbreak
increased the generation of biomedical waste such as surgical masks, nitrile
gloves, and test kits and are the main responsible for this increase in the volume
of waste (Ilyas et al. 2020). Combined with poor basic sanitation and cultural
issues in Brazil, it has become a major aggravating factor for the increase in the
irregular final disposal of solid waste.
• Dependence on different levels of government (national, state, and municipal)
with different political, economic, and environmental approaches and views
• The high level of socioeconomic inequality contributes to poor schooling and low
environmental education among many Brazilian families. These socioeconomic
issues make it difficult to adopt a waste hierarchy and selective collection for the
final destination of domestic waste with capacity for reuse, remanufacturing, and
recycling.
• Socioeconomic and cultural issues, mainly related to low purchasing power and
lack of knowledge, mean that the majority of the Brazilian consumer market does
not choose to purchase products that are reused, recycled, or remanufactured
(Cosenza et al. 2020).
• The large extension of Brazil’s territory, combined with some precarious road and
low investments in alternative transport modes, makes the logistic and reverse
logistics chains and the symbiosis between industry and skilled suppliers difficult
to cope with for reuse, recycle, refuelling, or secondary raw material.
Table 5 presents a summary of the SWOT analysis.
Conclusions
One of the main areas of study of the CE has been waste management (Kirchherr
et al. 2017; Petit-Boix and Leipold 2018) and strategies for designing public policies
in the solid waste management field (Cainelli et al. 2020). However, it should be
noted that despite the emphasis on “waste management,” the theme in isolation does
not represent all the possibilities and potential behind the CE concept. The CE needs
to be a holistic economic model that embraces sustainability and a systemic
approach, resulting in a new way of designing and using products/services, and
needs the collaboration of all sectors of society.
296 L. Paes et al.
Table 5 Summary of the Brazilian National Policy on Solid Waste SWOT analysis
Strengths Weakness
Alignment of waste management concepts Lack of skills for integration among supply chain
Legal regulatory structures stakeholders (for circular economy)
Link between different stakeholders The unclear targets set out in the Brazilian
Establish hierarchy of priority of solid waste National Policy on Solid Waste and the lack of
management integration between municipal plans
Stimulus to life cycle assessment of products It is not yet clear which mechanisms should be
and sustainable consumption used for shared responsibility implementation.
Establish shared responsibility for Lack of cooperation between manufacturers,
production, consumption, and reverse distributors, and traders for an effective reverse
logistic logistic
Inclusion of waste pickers in the shared Reactive behavior of the companies due to the
responsibility focus of the government be legal and not
Public administration finance for WM, educational
product design, and reverse logistic studies
Opportunities Threats
Shared responsibility can enhance public and Generation of biomedical waste due to COVID-
private partnership for: 19
Efficient collection of solid waste Dependence of different levels of government
Recycling and recovery materials and Socioeconomic problems to raise the population
organic waste for energy recovery researches awareness and education about selective
Use of advance technology for material collection
recovery (e.g., big data, machine learning) Road infrastructure problem for reverse logistic
Implementation of clean energy projects chains and industrial symbiosis
Formal jobs for waste pickers can raise the
amount of recycling materials.
Ponte and Sturgeon (2014) define value chains as a complex arrangement of

multidimensional issues composed of unknown factors that must be optimized. In
organizations, solid waste management and supply chain management through
narrower, slow, and closed cycles are two different tasks but dependent and com-
plementary (Lüdeke-Freund et al. 2019). The project stage of the product design in
the CE model is an essential stage for waste management since products and services
are created for the purpose to reduce waste generation during their life cycles and to
consider material and sustainable energy use while planning (Geisendorf and
Pietrulla 2018). It is important to understand that circularity is only recognized if
resources and value are recovered from products/services at the end of their life cycle
and end of use through recycling, repair, reuse, renovation, and/or remanufacturing
(Reike et al. 2018).
The linear economy model presses the environment for the depletion of non-
renewable resources, and while there are several public entities and companies that
are seriously concerned with this sustainable development, the current global context
still allows some companies to benefit from the unrestrained use of raw materials,
without consideration for the scarcity of future resources. Furthermore, organiza-
tions generally exploit loopholes in legislation and judicial impartiality and/or
passivity on environmental issues to refrain from being held accountable, which
conflicts with the idea of shared responsibility and the product life cycle, one of the
principles of BNPSW. The CE does not have the capacity to solve all environmental,
social, and economic problems without the commitment of all sectors of society,
mainly through legal channels. Brazil, thus far, has an “institutional void” in respect
to CE development policies (Jabbour et al. 2020b). Despite this institutional void,
this chapter shows that BNPSW has several aspects that already incorporate the CE
and, therefore, can serve as base legislation for the advancement of future laws
focused on CE in Brazil.
In public policies, the main government entities that develop national norms and
guidelines as well as the executive authorities are geographically and functionally
distanced. Expanded by the problem of efficient cooperation between separate
departments of government, this gap transforms into problems of political alignment,
both vertically intermediately between the various levels of government and hori-
zontally at the same governmental level, between sectors of public policy that are
inherently complementary, like sanitary and environmental policy. Solid waste is a
constant theme issue in the academic environment, in the industry, and in the
government schedules. However, the current efforts, in practice, are insufficient.
Despite the legal obligation to ensure the final environmentally appropriate disposal
of tailings, Brazil already has more than 3,000 open dumps and controlled landfills
that receive waste and tailings every day (ABRELPE 2019).
In this perspective, a top-down and bottom-up hybrid approach is necessary for
sustainable development to be the focus. Society defends (should defend) a common
conscience on environmental and social issues via government entities and public
policy makers. On the other hand, manufacturing companies are theoretically aware
of the effects that their industrial practices have on the environment. However,
environmental impacts are quite likely to stay disregarded due to competitive
pressure as the main emphasis is put, in many cases, on economic gains. This will
result in hesitation when it comes to implementing CE strategies, provided the
situation in which industrial companies do not see the CE’s economic advantages.
In order to avoid prioritizing economic growth to the detriment of and environmental
benefits and vice versa, this situation makes a conflicting cycle mandatory to
converge and compromise the interests of public institutions (top) and multiple
industrial stakeholders (bottom) (Lieder and Rashid 2016).
Despite the BNPSW having made mandatory that municipalities carry out the
priorities of the Municipal Strategies on Integrated Solid Waste Management for
reduction, reuse, selective collection, and recycling with a view to reduction of waste
disposal for final disposal (BRASIL 2010, art. 36, subsection II), in most Brazilian
municipalities, the sorting of MSW is typically not formal (Zolnikov et al. 2018).
The waste composition is complex, and it is important to implement in-depth
inspection and technologies that are normally not found at Brazilian sorting
facilities.
Limited waste separation is one of the main barriers to effective solid waste
management in all developing countries (Yukalang et al. 2017), and although some
cities in Brazil have selective collection services for recycling, many cities do not
provide this service, and selective collection is almost exclusively carried out by
waste pickers. According to SNIS data, 96.65% of the reporting municipalities, with
298 L. Paes et al.
more than 1,000,000 inhabitants, had selective collection programs, while among the
municipalities with less than 30,000 inhabitants (that represents most cities in the
country), only 31.5% reported having initiatives in this regard (SNIS 2018).
In this complex solid waste management scenario, structures of cooperation, and
collaboration among industries, public and private sectors must be encouraged so
that the objectives proposed by the BNPSW are met. Therefore, the tools derived
from the concept of “shared responsibility,” such as sector agreements, regulations,
and commitment terms, are the foundation for the establishment of an effective waste
management program with less “bureaucracy” among sectors (Sectoral agreements
are contractual acts that aim to ensure that waste returns to the linked manufacturer
through and product life cycle assessment and reverse logistics.; Terms of commit-
ment are instruments for encouraging the adoption of consortia or other forms of
cooperation between federated entities, with a view to increasing the scales of use
and reducing the costs involved.). However, the sector agreements or the Implemen-
tation of the Reverse Logistics System proposed in BNPSW does not expressly
incorporate realistic guidelines and goals (de Oliveira et al. 2019). Thus, there is
generally no significant involvement of actors in the supply chain, including the
community.
Related issues, such as negative behavioral attitudes on the part of the population,
are one of the main barriers in Brazil. The individual choice to recycle is the result of
a complex decision behind many motivations and is the consequence of a set of
factors that change from individual, educational, and distinct socioeconomic con-
texts (Crociata et al. 2015).
Changes in individual perceptions and behaviors are the root of transformation
processes – like the transition to a CE model. Therefore, it is important to create a
perception and reflect on how organizational and society actors, by means of their
acts, become part of collective practices. Practice transforms structural forms (e.g.,
production systems, institutions, communities, patterns, markets, and power struc-
tures) and is constantly subject to challenges as “disruption” becomes an instrument
for the evolution of customs (Jones and Murphy 2011), although transitions toward
sustainability are long-term transformation processes (Markard et al. 2012). The
actors/network can provide the basis for stipulating the best practices in relation to
their social dimensions and time space, being an important factor, as much as the
pressure on public agencies and awareness of the population.
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WASMAN.2018.08.047
Analysis of the Implantation of a System
for the Sustainable Management of Solid 11
Urban Waste in Brazil
Antonio Marco-Ferreira and Reginaldo Fidelis
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
Systems for the Management of Recyclable Urban Solid Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
Description of the Londrina Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
Constitution and Composition of the Portfolio of Products from Selective Collection . . . . . . . 309
Critical Successful Factors for the Effectuation of Management Programs for Solid Waste
with the Participation of Collectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
Synthesis of the Program’s Main Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
Abstract
The issue of the management of recyclable urban solid waste in developing
countries goes beyond the economic and environmental domains because
it involves the figure of the collector. Improving the management of solid
waste, reintegrating them to the supply chain without the exclusion of the
collector, is a challenge faced by developing countries. Therefore, this study
aims at prospecting a set of actions for the effective implementation of municipal
waste collection programs with recyclable potential, given the implementation of
the National Policy for Solid Waste, through a case study. The main results
obtained were description of aspects relevant in the constitution of recycling
cooperatives, among which the key role of the public sector in its federal, state,
A. Marco-Ferreira (*)
Department of Production Engineering, Federal University of Technology of Paraná,
Campus Londrina, Londrina, Brazil
e-mail: marcoferreira@utfpr.edu.br
R. Fidelis
Department of Mathematics, Federal University of Technology of Paraná, Campus Londrina,
Londrina, Brazil
e-mail: reginaldof@utfpr.edu.br

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_17
304 A. Marco-Ferreira and R. Fidelis
and municipal levels stands out; the constitution and composition of the
“recycling” product; and a synthesis of the system’s main benefits divided into
(a) economic, the closing of the supply chain cycle, valuation of raw materials,
and reduction of management costs of landfills; (b) environmental, reducing the
consumption of virgin raw materials and increased service life of landfills; and
(c) social, reintegrating people into society, reducing of extreme poverty, and
increasing self-esteem.
Keywords
Municipal solid waste systems · Selective waste pickers · Pickers · Brazil
Introduction
The themes environmental management and sustainability are gaining space in

academia (Jabbour et al. 2013), in companies (Özkir and Iigil 2013), and in society
(Fergutz et al. 2011; Marco-Ferreira and Jabbour 2019); however, one link in the
productive chain might be threatened, and this is the link with the lowest economic
power, generated by social exclusion, and that, to this day, has been a fundamental
axis for the collection system of post-consumption solid waste with the potential for
recycling in developing countries (Paul et al. 2012). This link is the collector who,
for years and years, has done the collection of urban post-consumption waste with
the potential for recycling in Brazil even though informally (Fidelis et al. 2020;
Bringhenti et al. 2011). These people are directly responsible for the high index of
recycling in some productive chains such as aluminum, where 98.6% of the cans
produced are recycled (BRASIL 2010).
However, the increase in economic opportunities originating from recycling
and from the implantation of law number 12.305/2010 regarding the National
Policy for Solid Waste (PNRS) (Jabbour et al. 2013) may cause this individual to
be once again excluded from the system even with their inclusion as a central
figure in the management of municipal plans for the management of solid
municipal waste, an action foreseen in the PNRS (BRASIL 2014a). Given that,
under the logic of the market, it should be efficient to guarantee its competition
with companies.
This way, there’s a need to (1) establish parameters of excellency for the activity
of collection of urban post-consumption waste with the potential for recycling done
with the effective participation of cooperatives formed by collectors and (2) find
alternatives for the inclusion of collectors in the recyclable urban post-consumption
waste system, aiming at meeting the requirement from law number 12.305/2010 that
foresees it and, consequently, is consolidated as an alternative for the reduction of
social inequality.
This is due to the fact that in the big cities of Brazil, more than 800,000 people
make a living from the collection and selling of solid waste (IPEA 2015), facing
terrible work conditions, which results in the extremely low income, making them an
11 Analysis of the Implantation of a System for the Sustainable Management of. . . 305
economic class that, in its majority, lives below the line of poverty, excluded from
society (Fergutz et al. 2011).
The collection activity (characterized by the retrieving of recyclable solid
waste, like paper, aluminum, glass, and so on) can be formalized due to its contri-
bution for public cleaning and the subsequent reduction in the volume of waste
dropped in landfills and, mainly, so that the public administration to pay for this
service, making it economically viable (Bringhenti et al. 2011; Fergutz et al. 2011).
Given this context, the integration of the collector in the formal management of
solid urban waste is a challenged offered to many developing countries (Imam et al.
2008; Paul et al. 2012), including Brazil (De Oliveira et al. 2012).
Therefore, this study aims at prospecting a set of actions for the effective imple-
mentation of municipal waste collection programs with recyclable potential, given the
implementation of the National Policy for Solid Waste (PNRS), through a case study.
The study is subdivided into methodological procedures, a brief referential concerning
municipal post-consumption waste collection programs with potential for recycling, a
description of the management system for urban post-consumption waste of Londrina
(PARANÁ), an analysis of the results, and a conclusion.
Systems for the Management of Recyclable Urban Solid Waste
The characteristics found in the collector’s activity are similar in developing coun-
tries (Tirati-Soto and Zamberlan 2013). These characteristics include thousands of
informal workers, including women, children, and the elderly, who rely on the
collection of waste as a means of subsistence (Paul et al. 2012).
Even though Brazilian law forbids the collection in landfills and dump sites, the
absence of other means of subsistence and access to formal employment forces
individuals to turn to collecting (Bringhenti et al. 2011). Informal work is not
regulated under the law, a fact that prevents the access of workers to their legal
rights. The workers, in some cases, constitute cooperatives as a means of formalizing
their work; however, they said cooperatives have financial difficulties to subsist
(De Oliveira et al. 2012).
Besides, they do not have enough physical space or adequate facilities where
they can work in healthy safety conditions (Tirati-Soto and Zamberlan 2013). They
are vulnerable to health risks, resulting from extended exposition to waste, from working
with toxic, dangerous, and infectious materials, among others (Paul et al. 2012).
Other points to be approached are related to the fact that municipalities, in
general, do not encourage this economic activity, not directing efforts and financial
resources to the collection and elimination of residues with recyclable potential, in
addition to the absence of qualified operators, of separation in the generating source
of waste and the high transport costs (Ferreira et al. 2017; Suttibak and
Nitivattananon 2008).
Thus, it becomes important to recognize that the efficient management of
cooperatives in operational activities such as the selection of trucks with a low
level of fuel consumption, the adoption of routing systems, and the separation, at
the source, by the population are essential elements for the efficacy of the selective
collection system (Lino et al. 2010; Tirati-Soto and Zamberlan 2013; Fidelis et al.
2015).
It is equally important to report that the results indicate the urgent need
for intensive and continuous campaigns of public awareness and environmental
education, as well as an adequate preparation of a set of public integrated actions
for the efficient control of the operation. Even though the current quantity
of collected recyclable materials is relatively small (BRASIL 2014b), an intense
campaign directed toward the population, in conjunction with a small incentive in
tax collection, may benefit the state, the population, and the environment (Lino et al.
2010).
Given this scenario and adding to the fact that Brazil is implementing law number
12.305/2010 that regulates the National Policy on Solid Waste (BRASIL 2014b),
a law that foresaw, among other aspects, the end of the work of collection in
“dump sites” in 2014 (BRASIL 2014a, b), an aspect of the law that still hasn’t
been completely fulfilled by approximately 59.70% of Brazilian municipalities.
As evidenced in Fig. 1.
Destination Number of
Reading municipalities Score
Sanitary 2243 40,3

Landfill
Controlled 815 14,6

Landfill
Dump 2507 45,1
Fig. 1 Data on the disposal of solid waste in Brazil. (Source: Based on Brasil 2015, Comitê
Interministerial de Inclusão Econômica e Social dos Catadores de materiais recicláveis – CIISC)
Table 1 Reduction of waste to be disposed in landfills sanitary

Region Plan goals
Goal Brazil 2015 2019 2023 2027 2031
Reduction of dry recyclable waste 22 26 29 32 36
disposed of in landfills sanitary, North region 10 13 15 17 20
based on national characteristics in Northeastern 12 16 19 22 25
2012 region
South region 43 50 53 58 60
Southeast 30 37 42 45 50
region
Midwest 13 15 18 21 25
region
Source: Brazil (2014b)
In this sense, the municipal, state, and federal governments have made several
investments in the organization of these activities. Among them, we can mention the
federal programs CATAFORTE I, CATAFORTE II, and CATAFORTE III. These
programs foresee the capacitation and funding of infrastructure for the collectors,
where it will be invested, in the CATAFORTE III program alone, which began in
2013, 62 million dollars (FBB 2011) (3,324 is considered real exchange rate to the
dollar.). Considering the following reservation, of the almost 600,000 existing
collectors in Brazil, 16,000 have participated in the programs (IPEA 2015). Another
point to be highlighted is the reduction targets of dry recyclable waste contained in
the National Plan of Solid Waste for Brazilian to be disposed of in landfills. Table 1,
reduction of waste to be disposed in landfills sanitary, presents this scenario.
IPEA (2010) states that if all the recyclable waste that is currently sent to landfills
and dumps in Brazilian cities were recycled, it is estimated that the amount recovered
could be two billion, five hundred million dollars per year, and of this total, only
2.4% is recovered. The goal of the Brazilian government for 2015 was to recover
22% of recyclable dry waste. It can be said that this target was not met, and to meet it,
the socio-organizational pickers and scavengers are fundamental since this is one of
the goals is National Policy on Solid Waste, the integration of pickers of reusable and
recyclable materials in actions involving shared responsibility for the life cycle of
products.
Another aspect to be highlighted concerns the strengthening of enterprises targets
containing pickers (Table 2).
The productive social inclusion of waste pickers goals predicts that by 2015,
280,000 pickers were formalized in solidarity economy enterprises. These would be
the basis for municipalities had deployed its separate collection of recyclable waste
programs.
For these goals of socioeconomic inclusion of collectors are met, approximately
150 million US dollars of funds for investment in strengthening programs ventures
formed by pickers were involved, and approximately 200,000 pickers have
benefited. Investment in each collector is approximately $ 800. This number can
be considered small since there are still 400,000 collectors to be included in training
Table 2 Inclusion and strengthening of organizational pickers

Plan goals
Goal Region 2015 2019 2023 2027 2031
Inclusion and Brazil 280.000 390.000 440.000 500.000 600.000
strengthening of North region 7.745 10.764 12.144 13.800 16.560
600,000 pickers Northeastern 63.160 87.984 99.264 112.800 135.360
organization region
South region 68.602 95.550 107.800 122.500 147.000
Southeast 109.564 152.607 172.172 195.650 234.780
region
Midwest 30.929 43.095 48.620 55.250 66.300
region
Source: Brazil (2014b)
and strengthening programs. So the investment of the Brazilian government may

reach 500 million dollars.
Description of the Londrina Case
The municipality to be studied presents significant results, as reported by Fergutz,

Dias, and Mitlin (2011), where they state that there is, in Londrina, a partnership
between the municipal authorities and the waste collectors, with national recogni-
tion, reaching the highest levels of recycling in the country. Another factor that
justifies the choice of the municipality of Londrina is the fact that the municipality
received several accolades, among them the prize “Del Água, América Latina Y El
Caribe” in 2009, promoted by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and by
the Mexican company of economic funding, FEMSA, held in Mexico, with the
presentation of the project “proposta de reestruturação da coleta de lixo: Londrina
Recicla,” in which an innovative way of selective collection of recyclable materials
was presented, involving the municipality and the collectors of recyclable materials.
In 2014, the municipality received the award “CIDADE PRÓ-CATADOR,” which
is awarded by the General Secretary of the Republic of Brazil to cities that privilege
the social inclusion of collectors and their selective collection programs. The
accolade follows the following aspects and criteria of evaluation and judgement:
(a) social and economic inclusion of collectors; (b) sustainability; (c) innovative
character; (d) replicability; (e) impact on the target audience; (f) integration with
other policies; (g) community participation; (h) existence of partnerships; (i) range;
(j) formalization of partnerships; and (k) scope of the project, with Londrina’s
program being a national reference in the collection of solid urban waste with
potential for recycling, with the collector’s participation.
This partnership between the municipality of Londrina and the collectors began in
2001, with the initial function of removing the collectors from the city’s landfill. To
do so, 29 triage centers where 500 collectors were installed worked in a group, who
should perform the classification activities and the selling of the recyclable material.
The creation of these centers was fundamental for the success of this partnership.
The centers were utilized for the temporary storage of the collected materials which,
then, were sent to trucks that carried out the transportation for unities responsible for
pressing and selling.
The success of this initiative can also be measured by the increase on the number
of industries for the pressing of recyclable materials in the metropolitan region of
Londrina. One of the challenges the organizers face right now is to guarantee
services to the population, given the increase on the demand for selective collection
(Fergutz et al. 2011).
Constitution and Composition of the Portfolio of Products from

Selective Collection
The product of the collection of solid recyclable waste is defined, in this study, by the
established description of product coined by Kotler et al. (2013), who define it as the
portfolio of businesses of a company is constituted in the set of businesses and
products that constitute it.
The cooperative presents, in its set of businesses, some processes like the logistics
of supplies, internal logistics, distribution logistics, commercialization, capitation of
federal resources, and social management, environmental management, among
others. These processes are synthesized on Fig. 2.
Thus, the portfolio of products of the collection of recyclable solid waste for
collector’s cooperatives is constituted by:
• The basic product: It includes the collection activities for solid post-consumption
waste with the potential for recycling.
• The real product: It includes the activities of environmental education, collection,
triage, pressing, and reverse logistics. Problems in these activities cause a
direct impact in the municipal selective collection system, indicating that the
cooperatives are service providers, both downstream the supply chain and
upstream. The activity of environmental education and collection must be paid
by the public administration, whereas the triage and pressing activities are
activities linked to commercialization. Failures in these activities may result in
fines for nonfulfillment of the collection or in lower prices for commercialization.
• The enlarged product: It brings environmental benefits for (1) decrease in the
quantity of residues in landfills, extending their service life, and (2) activity of
selective collection post-consumption being an integrant part of the closing of the
supply chain, including, in this stage, the economic benefit, for providing an
aggregate value to what before its implementation would be garbage and would
culminate only in costs. The economic benefit is represented by the generation of
income to the collectors, a factor that makes these individuals to become
resocialized, finding in this point the main benefit generated by the effective
implantation of the system. The social benefit represents the fact that these
Real Product Enlarged

Product
Environmental Benefit
environmental
education
Triage
Collection activities
for solid post-
Reverse
consumption waste logistics
with the potential for
recycling
Pressing collection
Economic Benefit Social Benefit

Basic Product
Fig. 2 Portfolio of products of the collection of recyclable solid waste for collector’s cooperatives.
(Source: The authors themselves (2015))
individuals are brought from the margins of society into the formal society,
beginning to enjoy the rights and obligations of the state.
Based on this portfolio of the product of the selective collection of recyclable

solid waste, one can state that this is one possible example of an economically
sustainable activity since it has economic, environmental, and social benefits at
its core.
Critical Successful Factors for the Effectuation of Management

Programs for Solid Waste with the Participation of Collectors
The formation of networks for collectors of material with recycling potential is a

social process that requires the support of other actors, and there must be an
economically viable project. To do so, the economic efficiency and the development
of a social politic structure are indispensable for the network’s operation (Tirati-Soto
and Zamberlan 2013; Pinhel 2013).
The Londrina case demonstrates (Fig. 3) that for the effectuation of management
programs for solid urban waste involving collectors to happen, it is necessary to
follow some procedures, with them being:
Time
Continued
Sources of education and
funding identification of
leaderships
Self-management
of collector's
cooperatives and
mitigation of
environmental,
economic and
social impacts
Trust Legislation
Technological
adaptation
Fig. 3 Critical successful factors for the effectuation of management programs for recyclable solid
urban waste with the participation of collectors. (Source: The authors themselves (2015))
• Time: The collectors, due to a life of exploration (the collectors suffered years of
economic exploration by their middlemen, who processed the material and resold
it to the transformation industries, a fact that is still recurrent in many Brazilian
municipalities, due to the fact that they do not possess an organized category),
tend to take a relatively high amount of time to assimilate and implement the
proposed technologic procedures.
• Trust: It is necessary to establish a relationship of trust with the members of the
cooperatives for the analysis, implementation of technologic processes, and the
self-management, given that the cooperatives tend to not possess efficient con-
trols over their operational procedures.
• Technology adaptation: There is a great deal of accumulated knowledge on self-

management, cooperatives, logistics, reverse logistics, operational management,
and so on; however, these must be adequate to the specific realities of the
recycling cooperatives.
• Legislation: The making of laws that favor this sector is paramount during the first
years of the system implementation because the activity must be protected from
the oligopolistic competition once its individuals are still being capacitated to
work. Competition during the initial period can cause the public initiatives for the
formalization of collectors to fail.
• Continued education and identification of leaderships: For self-management to
happen, it is necessary to identify, among the collectors, informal leaders, and
there also needs to be a continued education for the leadership and other collec-
tors. The education ranges from basic educational processes, like literacy, to the
technologic formation in management processes.
• Sources of funding: In order to make all previous stages happen, it is necessary to
invest in research, continued education, equipment, facilities, forms of commer-
cialization, environmental education for the separation at the source, and so on.
Synthesis of the Program’s Main Results
With the implementation of the municipal system for the management of solid waste
in Londrina with the effective participation of collectors through the formation and
self-management of cooperatives, the results synthesized in Fig. 4 were obtained:
• Economic
Closing of the supply chain: Because with the collection and the triage, the
waste is returned to the productive chain.
Valuation of raw materials previously discarded: Considering that the waste
would be discarded and that they are now commercialized, discounting the cost to
operate the system, one can consider that there has been an increase in the value
of the waste.
A decrease in the management costs of landfills: Considering that the waste
stopped going to the landfill, it increases its service life.
• Environmental
A decrease in the consumption of virgin raw materials: Considering that the
materials are reintegrated to the productive chain, one can state that there is a
reduction in virgin raw materials.
An increase in the service life of landfills: One can consider that there is an
increase in the service life of the landfills.
• Social
Reintegration into society: People who live from and in the waste are margin-
alized by the Brazilian society, not having work routines, not having rights, and
not fulfilling basic duties as citizens. The implementation of the municipal system
for the management of solid urban waste with the participation of collectors in the
• Closing of the cycle of supply chains

• Valuation of raw materials that used to be discarded
Economic • Reduction in the management costs for landfills
• Reduction in the consumption of virgin raw materials

• Increase in the service life of landfills
Environmental
• Reintegration of people into society

• Reduction of extreme poverty
Social • Increased self-esteem
Fig. 4 Results generated by the implementation of the program of recyclable solid urban waste
with the participation of the collectors. (Source: The authors themselves (2015))
selective collection of materials with the potential for recycling allows these
people to be reintegrated into society.
Reduction of extreme poverty: These people, before the system, who lived
from the collection of waste, collection, and triage were not valued. With the
implementation of the system by the municipal administration, these stages of the
work process are valued, the workers’ income rises because they are in cooper-
atives, and to work for the municipality, these people must pay their INSS
(National Institute for Social Security, which means the formalization of work
in Brazil). This way, these people can have access to basic rights, like retirement.
Increase in self-esteem: Over the three years involvement in researches, one
can state that the collectors had their self-esteem recovered.
Conclusion
The results here obtained involve the constitution and composition of the portfolio of
products from the collection of recyclable solid urban waste, the description of the
critical successful factors for the effectuation of management programs for solid
waste with the participation of collectors, and the synthesis of the main results
obtained.
Thus, in the constitution and composition of the portfolio of products from
selective collection, the results point that the activity of selective collection of
recyclable urban waste has as a basic product, the selective collection; however, its
enlarged product brings social, economic, and environmental benefits. Another
significant result is that these benefits are detailed in closing of the cycle of supply
chains, valuation of raw materials that used to be discarded, reduction in the costs for
the management of landfills, reduction in the consumption of virgin raw materials,
increase in the service life of landfills, reintegration of people into society, reduction
of extreme poverty, and and increase in self-esteem.
For the effectuation of the programs of selective collection with the participation
of collectors, the main aspects to be considered are time (the collectors tend to need a
relatively high amount of time to assimilate and implement the proposed technologic
procedures), trust (it is necessary to establish a relationship of trust with the members
of the cooperatives), technological adaptation (technology must be adapted to the
specific realities of the recycling cooperatives), legislation (the making of laws that
favor this sector), continued education and identification of leaderships (for the self-
management to happen, it is necessary to identify informal leaders among the
collectors, and also there must be a continued education for the leaderships and for
the other collectors), and sources of funding (to make all previous stages happen,
funding is needed).
Overall, there is a latent gap in literature regarding the proposed topic since it is a
topic that takes the sustainable tripod in its essence.
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Thermal Utilization of Municipal Solid
Waste in the Central Region of Mexico 12
Francisco Gutierrez-Galicia, Ana Lilia Coria-Páez,
Ricardo Tejeida-Padilla, and Víctor Ramón Oliva-Aguilar
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Circular Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
Coprocessing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
Abstract
The Latin American and Caribbean region are the most urbanized of the devel-
oping countries, with around 80% of its population living in urban areas. Mexico
City, with 19 million inhabitants, is the most populated agglomeration in Latin
America, concentrating 30% of the national population, and more than 60% of
municipal solid waste (MSW) is sent to landfills. In 2014, to reduce the MSW
sent to landfills, the city government set a goal to increase the inorganic waste
sent to cement kilns. As a result of an agreement with a national cement company,
during 2018, 4% (280,736 t per year) of the MSW of Mexico City was sent for
cogeneration in cement kilns. Besides that, one of the main strategies for miti-
gating climate change in Mexico is increasing the production of Refuse-Derived
Fuel (RDF) from waste in cement kilns from 10% in 2017 up to 30%. The
F. Gutierrez-Galicia (*)
Instituto Politécnico Nacional, UPIIH, Pachuca, Mexico
e-mail: fgutierrez@ipn.mx
A. L. Coria-Páez
Instituto Politécnico Nacional, ESCA-Tepepan, Mexico City, Mexico
e-mail: acoria@ipn.mx
R. Tejeida-Padilla · V. R. Oliva-Aguilar
Instituto Politécnico Nacional, EST, Mexico City, Mexico
e-mail: rtejeidap@ipn.mx; voliva@ipn.mx

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_18
318 F. Gutierrez-Galicia et al.
purpose of this work is to show the benefits, in terms of reduced greenhouse

gases, of using cement kilns to process the MSW that cannot be recycled or
composted in the principal urban centers in the central region of the country
instead of sending it to landfills. The method to be used considers making a
comparison between the average values of greenhouse gas emissions in sanitary
landfills and cogeneration in cement kilns, including transport, and that the
cement industry is one of the most important in the country.
Keywords
México · MSW · Treatment · Circular economy · Refuse-Derived Fuel (RDF)
Introduction
Municipal solid waste management (MSWM) is a major issue in countries world-

wide. The world generates 2.01 BT of municipal solid waste (MSW) annually, with
at least 33% of that not managed in an environmentally safe manner. Worldwide,
waste generated per person per day averages 0.74 kg but ranges widely from 0.11 to
4.54 kg (Kaza et al. 2018). This problem is more sensitive in developing countries
because the total amount of MSW has increased dramatically due to rapid urbani-
zation and industrialization in the cities of these countries (Manaf et al. 2009).
Economic power and global production are shifting from the traditionally indus-
trialized countries to new global hubs in developing and transition countries. In
2050, it is expected that the global population will have grown by more than 50%
compared to 2007 and that two-thirds of the world’s population will live in urban
areas (Mavropoulos and Velis 2014). As countries develop from low-income to
middle- and high-income levels, their waste management situations will also evolve.
Growth in prosperity and movement to urban areas are linked to increases in per
capita generation of MSW (Kaza et al. 2018). Furthermore, rapid urbanization and
population growth create larger population centers, making the collection of all
waste and the procurement of land for treatment and disposal more and more
difficult; in developing countries, the aim is to increase the coverage of the waste
collection service and to minimize uncontrolled or illegal dumping (upgrading to
sanitary landfilling) (Wilson et al. 2012).
Currently, trends in the waste management sector are being aimed at attaining
what is known as a circular economy, especially in the European Union with its
circular economy package and in China with its circular economy promotion.
Circular economy focuses on boosting reuse and reducing landfilling, in order to
make the most out of previously exploited resources and expand their life span
(Margallo et al. 2019). In contrast, the situation in developing and emerging econ-
omies is substantially different. While developed countries seek more integrated and
sustainable waste management systems, emerging nations are still basically strug-
gling to switch from the disposal of residues, including those of urban origin, in open
dumpsites to disposing of them in controlled landfills (Abarca Guerrero et al. 2013).
12 Thermal Utilization of Municipal Solid Waste in the Central Region of. . . 319
This is of particular interest considering that these countries are currently experienc-
ing high urban population growth and sustained economic expansion, leading to
higher rates of MSW generation (Bhada-Tata and Hoornweg 2012). Even though
landfilling has a higher overall environmental impact than other MSW treatment
alternatives, such as recycling or incineration, it is still the backbone of MSW
management in developing countries. This is due to the fact that landfilling is a
cheap and well-known technology, with lower environmental, economic, and social
impacts when compared to uncontrolled dumpsters (Manfredi and Christensen
2009).
With this in mind, it is fundamental that stakeholders in the waste management
sector are aware of the implications of landfilling, as well as the associated benefits
linked to implementing good practices in the sector, in order to improve the sector’s
efficiency and its environmental profile. In fact, Margallo et al. (2019) identified the
challenges that more 30 cities are addressing in 22 developing countries throughout
four continents and concluded that municipal action must be coordinated with
stakeholders, national governments, and educational institutions in order to improve
the existing precarious situation of waste disposal.
The regions of Latin America and the Caribbean are the most urbanized of the
developing countries, with around 80% of its population living in urban areas, in
which waste management represents the most important municipal service
concerning the people and the one with the biggest budget. The World Bank
estimated in 2012 that worldwide, 205.4 billion dollars is allocated to waste man-
agement and that this amount will increase to 375.5 billion dollars in 2025, having
the highest growth rates in low- and medium-income countries (Bhada-Tata and
Hoornweg 2012).
Management of MSW is a great challenge in Latin America, where its generation
is continuously increasing in diversity and quantity. Although collection of waste
can be considered better than the global average (Hettiarachchi et al. 2018), there is
inadequate waste disposal, financial insufficiency in urban systems, and the presence
of an informal recycling sector (Calderón Márquez and Rutkowski 2020), and the
situation appears to be relatively homogeneous, with most countries struggling to
eradicate dumpsters while shifting to landfilling technologies. A considerable per-
centage of residues is disposed of in “sanitary landfills” or “controlled landfills.”
However, waste disposal in open dumpsites remains high throughout the region.
Regardless of the environmental issues related to inadequate disposal, this sector is a
significant contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and therefore critical in
complying with the related climate change commitments of Latin America and
Caribbean (LA&C) countries (Kahhat et al. 2018). It appears evident that if these
compromises are met, this will have been accomplished with a formalization of the
waste management sector and an improvement of final disposal technologies. Taking
into consideration demographic sprawl, improving living standards, and environ-
mental concerns, it seems clear that waste management is a critical sector to focus on
in developing countries. Hence, regardless of the economic and social pillars
intrinsic to waste management, it is imperative for the waste management sector to
be studied and improved from an environmental perspective with adequate and
holistic proposals (Cámara-Creixell and Scheel-Mayenberger 2019; Margallo et al.

2019).
In LA&C, the main final waste disposal option is landfilling: 36% of waste is
disposed of in sanitary landfills and 25% in controlled landfills. Overall, 33% of
waste is still disposed of in uncontrolled dumpsters. Although the number of sanitary
landfills has increased significantly in the region over the past decade, many of these
face significant operational and environmental issues. The operation of these land-
fills in most cases lacks leachate treatment and landfill gases treatment and recovery.
Leachate recirculation is a common practice in well-managed landfills in the region.
Best available technologies for landfills are being implemented in the region, such as
in Brazil (Costa et al. 2019).
Other treatments such as incineration, anaerobic digestion, and composting but
also formal recycling are emerging techniques for waste treatment, presenting
relatively low rates as compared with other regions of the world. For instance, in
the case of anaerobic digestion, the development of this technology is considerable
in countries such as Chile, Brazil, and, to a lesser extent, Colombia. Although a
significant potential to foster anaerobic digestion in the region exists, only timid
efforts have arisen in other countries such Nicaragua, Peru, and Costa Rica
(Margallo et al. 2019).
Incineration provides several advantages such as a reduction in waste mass and
energy recovery; however, this technique has a poor reputation related to environ-
mental impacts because of its emissions of GHG, acidifying gases, dioxins, and
furans. Environmental experts agree that the goals set for the waste utilization rate
would never be achieved without energy recovery; the implementation of an MSW
incineration facility or a Waste-to-Energy (WtE) plant in a developing or poorly
developed waste management system without proper planning can lead to environ-
mental and economic failure. Therefore, a complete evaluation of the technical and
economic aspects of the incineration site is required. In fact, the key risks and
limitations of incineration are the minimum requirements in terms of lower calorific
value, the need for skilled operation and maintenance staff, financial support, and
appropriate choice of technology (Kahhat et al. 2018).
Recycling presents a variety of environmental, sanitary, social, economic, and
educational benefits. This approach reduces the use of raw materials and amount of
waste landfilled, creating new job opportunities and income. However, recycling has
not yet been fully spread in LA&C (Conke 2018), and only a few countries have
sorting plants. Therefore, most recyclable materials end up in landfills and
dumpsites, creating a window of opportunity for the informal sector (Hettiarachchi
et al. 2018), which reduces waste inflow into the landfill, providing a service to the
community. Only 2.2% of MSW is formally recovered and recycled in LA&C.
Therefore, most efforts currently focus on improving recycling to reduce informal
waste picking and to upgrade pickers into community-based organizations (Bhada-
Tata and Hoornweg 2012).
Nonetheless, some countries such as Mexico have reached a recycling rate of
10%, whereas in Santiago de Chile’s metropolitan area, the recycling rate increased
to 12% in one decade. The best recycling rates are observed for paper and cardboard,
steel and aluminum cans, glass bottles, and PET packaging. The main barriers to
waste recycling development are a lack of knowledge about recycling programs,
competition between the formal and informal sectors, deficient infrastructure, and a
shortfall of professional management. Regarding organic matter, the high content of
this type of waste in LA&C MSW, around 50%, is ideal for composting. However,
waste separation at the source is not common in the region. Hence, MSW streams
contain increasing quantities of glass, plastics, metals, and hazardous materials,
contaminating the finished compost and diminishing its quality (Bhada-Tata and
Hoornweg 2012).
Mexico is facing waste management problems. According to the National Insti-
tute of Statistical Geography (INEGI), the agency in charge of all statistical and
geographic information that characterizes Mexico’s territory, from 1992 to 2012,
total Mexican waste generation doubled from 21.9 MT per year to 42.1 MT per year,
with 65% disposed of in sanitary landfills, 30% disposed of in uncontrolled and open
dumps (sites where solid waste accumulates illegally without technical control), and
5% recycled (INEGI 2014).
In Mexico, the General Law for the Prevention and Integral Management of
Solid Waste published in 2003 outlined a uniform regulation for MSWM, defining
the services necessary to handle the MSW in an appropriate form, from its
generation to its final disposal or treatment so that, throughout, this process causes
no harm to health or the environment, and including the principles of prevention,
protection, and shared responsibility (SEMARNAT 2003). In order to carry out
MSWM in an appropriate way, the General Law for the Prevention and Integral
Management of Waste (GLPIMW) establishes that each municipal government
must implement a Municipal Program for the Prevention and Integral Management
of Municipal Solids Waste (PMPGIMSW). This includes a basic diagnosis of the
capacity and effectiveness of the available infrastructure, the policy on MSW, the
definition of objectives and goals, the means of financing, and the mechanisms to
promote the link between corresponding municipal programs, in order to create
synergies. Of the 2350 municipalities in the country that have MSW and final
disposal services, only 74 have a PMPGIMSW where the policies are established
regarding MSWM. They are mainly those municipalities where the main economic
activity is tourism, which is why the protection and preservation of the environ-
ment are among their priorities. This makes it evident that at the municipal level,
there are no well-defined public policies for proper MSWM (Gutiérrez-Galicia
et al. 2019).
Also, the insufficiency of the existing infrastructure and inadequate monitoring of
compliance with waste treatment regulations are part of the problem. There are no
robust policy instruments that encourage waste reduction and recycling at the
metropolitan level. Besides that, the lack of planning puts conservation land in
Mexico at risk due to the spread of irregular settlements, uncontrolled landfills,
and deforestation. Less than 20% of MSW is recycled or treated, and the rest is
buried in landfills or garbage dumps (OECD 2015).
According to the waste management hierarchy, landfilling is the least preferable
option and should be limited to the necessary minimum. Unfortunately, it is the
dominant method in developing countries and is one of the major obstacles to

sustainable development (Shumal et al. 2020).
Nevertheless, in Mexico, incineration is not used, and municipal waste manage-
ment remains behind due to the lack of integral waste management systems,
including waste utilization according to its characteristics, appropriate treatment
and final disposal methods, correct sorting, and selective collection. Therefore,
environmental, economic, and socially viable waste management strategies must
be analyzed (Güereca et al. 2015).
As shown in the following, Fig. 1, in Mexico, most of the MSW is sent for final
disposal in sanitary landfills or garbage dumps; less than 20% of the waste receives
some treatment or is recycled. In contrast, in the European Union, most MSW is
treated or recycled. Up to 20% of MSW is sent for thermal use; in Switzerland, more
than 40% of MSW is sent for thermal use. Because of that, MSW treatment in
Mexico is an area that still has excellent development potential, including thermal
use.
The Valle de México Metropolitan Area (ZMVM) is the third largest metropolitan
area of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and
the largest in the world outside Asia. According to Mexican delimitations, the
ZMVM covers around 7866 km2 (almost five times the size of Greater London
and three times that of Luxembourg), comprising 76 municipalities of Mexico City,
the state of Mexico, and Hidalgo (OECD 2015). Although the ZMVM only
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
France Germany Italy OECD-EU Spain Sweden Switzerland United México
Kingdom
Recycling Composting Incinartion with energy recovery Landfill Dunp sites
Fig. 1 Management and use of MSW in Mexico compared to some countries of the Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and European Union (INECC 2012; OECD
2019)
Fig. 2 Analyzed region
represents 0.4% of the national territory, Mexico’s economic, financial, political, and
cultural center concentrates 17.48% of the inhabitants of the country. Figure 2 shows
Mexico City and the states of Hidalgo, Mexico, Morelos, Puebla, and Tlaxcala that
form the Megalopolis, the region created to coordinate and address the environmen-
tal problems of the ZMVM and its neighboring states.
According to the OECD, the ZMVM represents 18% of Mexico’s employees who
produce 23% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). Other metropolitan
areas with a similar population to that of ZMVM, such as London and Paris, produce
around 30% of national GDP. Likewise, the economic growth of the ZMVM has not
met expectations. The GDP of the Valley of Mexico increased by 1.7% annually
between 2003 and 2010, mainly driven by population growth. However, the average
annual per capita economic growth was only 0.5%, an intermediate level among
OECD metropolitan areas but well below the potential economic growth of a similar
agglomeration in an emerging economy. Among 275 metropolitan areas of the
OECD, the ZMVM remains in the 10% with the lowest GDP per capita. In 2010,
the average GDP per capita in the ZMVM was USD 16,060, a figure that does not
reflect the marked variations between the levels of Mexico City (USD 26,550) and
the municipalities of the state of Mexico (USD 7140) (OECD 2015).
The ZMVM has a very fragmented governance structure, which negatively
affects its productivity levels. Many administrative actors increase the degree of
complexity of designing and implementing public policies that require coordination;
this can hinder urban agglomerations’ productivity. The problem is aggravated by a
lack of strategic regional planning frameworks that apply at the metropolitan scale
and have sufficient financial support due to the ambiguity of the constitutional
definitions of “metropolitan areas” and the weak coordination and collaboration
between governments at state and municipal levels for urban development (OECD
2015).
Despite the physical conurbation between the municipalities of the ZMVM,
attention to the problems generated by the collection, transportation, and final
disposal of MSW is not metropolitan, so there is no corresponding program.
Currently, the ZMVM does not have an urban solid waste management program.
In 1991, the Metropolitan Program for Solid Waste Control was jointly defined by
Mexico City and Mexico State as a precedent. With the Ministry of Finance and
Public Credit’s contribution of extraordinary resources, open dumps, sanitary land-
fills, and transfer stations were constructed. This program ended in 1993, with only
site closures taking place and infrastructure construction suspended. In many munic-
ipalities of the ZMVM, there is a shortage of professional and technical personnel for
cleaning services, and there are no operational personnel assigned to the final
disposal of waste. In those municipalities where some personnel have been assigned,
they do not have the necessary training. Most of the operating personnel hired by the
ZMVM for waste management have low levels of education. In town councils, in
many cases, educational deficiencies are also present at the managerial level. In
general, the salaries and incentives of personnel working in the solid waste sector at
the operational level are insufficient. This situation becomes critical in cleaning
service workers; the salary problem is more significant, and low salaries encourage
staff to accept tips when carrying out activities outside of their function, an aspect
that affects the quality and efficiency of the service. In summary, the environmental
problems of the ZMVM have not received sufficient attention from the coincident
governments (Comisión Ambiental Metropolitana 2010).
The ZMVM is one of the cities that generate the most MSW in the world, which
represents an enormous sanitary danger for the population that materializes in
sanitary landfills both within the metropolitan area and outside it. The largest
sanitary landfill in Latin America, Bordo Poniente, with 70 MT of MSW buried in
375 hectares, was closed in 2012 due to its saturation and poor management. The
metropolitan area continues using 12 sanitary landfills to bury MSW, which still
represents one of the largest environmental liabilities in this city since they generate
methane gas and leachate lagoons that are potential pollutants, among others. The
main danger posed by leachates is the contamination of the soil and subsoil into the
aquifers which are the principal source of drinking water. Methane gas represents an
explosion hazard if not treated properly, in addition to being a precursor gas for
global warming (Padilla-Pérez 2019).
The Ministry of the Environment of Mexico City (SEDEMA), which is respon-
sible for environmental protection and policies, annually evaluates MSW manage-
ment in the city. It calculates that Mexico City generates 4745 MT per year, 500 kg
per capita (SEDEMA 2019). On the other hand, the Ministry of the Environment and
Natural Resources (SEMARNAT), the government agency responsible for environ-
mental protection and environmental policies at the national level, considers that the
annual generation of MSW in the ZMVM reaches 7.9 MT per year (378 kg per capita
per year), representing 18.03% of the national total (Consejo Nacional de Población
2018; SEMARNAT 2020).
Of the areas in the ZMVM, Mexico City has made the most remarkable progress
in the treatment of MSW. In 2017, the Mexico City environmental standard NADF-
024-AMBT-2013 established new criteria for selective separation and waste
recovery at source. The efficiency of organic waste separation increased by 13%.
Separating organic waste from the rest is essential to improve MSW management
and increase reuse, thus reducing leachate and methane gas generation. Mexico City
has an organic waste separation efficiency of 46%, that is, the rest is collected mixed.
The infrastructure that Mexico City has for the separation and treatment of inorganic
MSW is two separation plants where MSW is separated both manually and auto-
matically to recover and revalue on average 4% of MSW materials (SEDEMA
2018). In the San Juan de Aragón separation plant, there are two lines for forming
compact bales from the waste not recovered in the previous phases for its energy use.
For organic MSW, there are eight plants for the adequate transformation of organic
MSW into nutritious compost usable in soils of green areas, including the Bordo
Poniente plant which receives 506,916 t per year (SEDEMA 2019).
Finally, MSW that cannot be used in the selection and compaction plants is sent to
sanitary landfills so that its confinement has the least possible environmental impact,
under the official Mexican standard NOM-083-SEMARNAT-2003. Currently, the
city has its MSW in five sanitary landfills, four in the state of Mexico and one in
Morelos; these five in 2018 confined 3,046,145 t of MSW per year (SEDEMA
2019).
In the state of Mexico, the General Directorate of Integral Waste Management is
in charge of managing MSW through environmental standards such as NTEA-013-
SMA-RS-2011, which establishes the criteria for separation and collection of waste
at source. However, unlike Mexico City, which has centralized management, the
municipalities have responsibility for collection and separation infrastructure and
staff. Besides that, of those landfills used by Mexico City, at least six receive
municipal waste from the rest of the metropolitan area, located in the east and
north (Padilla-Pérez 2019).
As shown in Fig. 3, in the entire metropolitan area, only 64% of households
separate their organic waste (INEGI 2015). Figure 3 shows that in the states in the
ZMVM, 80% of the MSW is not treated. Only Mexico City treats part of its MSW,
16.9% of the organic MSW, the majority in a large-scale compost plant in Bordo
Poniente, and 21.4% of the inorganic waste. In the other two states, practically all
MSW is sent for final disposal in sanitary landfills or dumps (INEGI 2014).
There are no areas available to construct a new landfill in Mexico City or its
surroundings. In fact, the Mexico City government has interest in eliminating the use
of landfills and implementing new facilities to separate, treat, and dispose of waste
and recover energy (Durán et al. 2013); because of that, the Mexico City government
and the cement company Cemex agreed to incinerate waste daily at the cement plants
in Huichapan, Hidalgo, and Tepeaca Puebla. The cost of incinerating the waste is
140 pesos for each ton received for incineration, plus 160 pesos for transporting the
Fig. 3 Treatment of MSW in the ZMVM (INEGI 2014)
garbage to the cement plants (Gallegos and Vargas 2015). The project to coincinerate
waste at the Tepeaca cement plant was approved as a Clean Development Mecha-
nism (CDM) in January 2011, after Cemex decided to double cement production at
the plant; in the case of Huichapan, the project is pending approval as a CDM
(UN Framework Convention on Climate Change 2012, 2014).
Circular Economy
Currently, world leaders are focusing on an increase in the production of renewable

energy and adoption of the circular economy (CE). The concept of CE was first
presented in 1966 by the economist Kenneth Boulding in his essay The Economics of
the Coming Spaceship Earth. It was further discussed by the environmental econo-
mists Pearce and Turner in their book Economics of Natural Resources and the
Environment (Jensen 1998). As per the European Union (EU), the CE is supposed to
“enhance global competitiveness, substitute sustainable economic growth and create
new jobs” (European Commission 2015). CE applies the Resource, Recovery, and
Reuse (RRR) system which involves a flow loop of resources for the sustainable
utilization of resources while enhancing the economy. Simultaneously, it also
reduces the environmental pollution and cost of a production system while increas-
ing waste recycling (Rathore and Sarmah 2020).
The vision focused on moving toward a CE aims to replace the currently linear
economy of “take, use, and discard” with another in which resources circulate at high
value, avoiding or reducing the need for primary resources and minimizing waste,
pollutants, and emissions. The CE’s main drivers are increasing price volatility and
restricting the supply of primary resources; environmental policies, such as regula-
tions on producer responsibilities; and possibly a new consumer culture (Mutz et al.
2017).
Conventional waste management approaches (such as landfilling) have been
linked to penetration and evaporation of leachates, ecological damage, infections,
nuisance odors, the presence of UV quenching substances in leachate, and contam-
inated streams. Alternatively, resource recovery from waste streams is a more
promising approach than conventional waste management practices to facilitate
cities’ transition into a CE (Bagheri et al. 2020).
One of the best methods for MSW management and closing the loop in the CE is
to use the high calorific value components of MSW as a fuel (Shumal et al. 2020).
Rather than burning waste as it comes, one can convert it into storable fuel,
following a suitable sequence of operations to convert MSW into more manageable
and storable Refuse-Derived Fuel (RDF). RDF is produced from MSW through a
number of processes to meet requirements for particle size, moisture content, and
noncombustible content dictated by the thermal unit that will receive the RDF. At its
simplest, MSW is shredded to a maximum particle size to produce RDF. More often,
additional steps are taken to remove noncombustible materials and control the
particle size (Buekens 2013). A more precise definition indicates that RFDs can be
solid, liquid, pasty, or gaseous fuels obtained from hazardous, nonhazardous, or inert
waste for energy use in incineration or cogeneration plants and that usually meet
specifications established between the fuel producer and user (Costa Posada et al.
2017).
RDF production starts with the separation of noncombustible waste such as metal
and glass from combustibles. Larger items must be broken into smaller pieces. The
next stage is the collection of unsegregated municipal waste, including organic waste
(primarily food waste) and materials like paper, cloth, plastic, and wood that provide
the calorific value required to burn. Ideally, during the separation stages, hazardous
materials are removed completely, but unfortunately, this is rarely possible. Another
serious challenge in making RDF, particularly in less developed or tropical coun-
tries, is moisture. Since organic materials are not separated out at the source, MSW
has a very high moisture content. Many RDF plants separate out some of the organic
matter and sell it as compost.
Production of RDF includes a series of steps, the sequence of which may differ
depending on the waste characteristics, climatic conditions, technologies available,
and final treatments planned in a given location. The separation of waste mostly
happens based on its physical properties such as size, weight, moisture content, and
electromagnetic properties. The preparation of RDF may proceed according to very
simple schemes or more complex ones promising higher quality and requiring more
investment and operating costs. Figure 4 explains some of the processes used in the
processing of MSW. The inclusion and sequence of the stages described depend on
the waste characteristics and final product quality or application.
Manual separation. Bulky items such as large pieces of wood, rocks, and long
pieces of cloth are removed by hand before mechanical processing begins.
Fig. 4 Generic process for RDF generation
Equipment involved in manual separation usually includes a sorting belt or table.

Handpicking of refuse is perhaps the most prevalent MSW handling technique; it is
also the only technique for the removal of PVC plastics.
Air separation. In this step, fans are used to create a column of air moving
upward. Low-density materials are flipped upward, and dense materials fall. The
air carrying light materials like paper and plastic bags enters a separator where these
items fall out of the air stream. Air separation quality depends on the strength of the
air currents and how materials are introduced into the column. Moisture content is
also critical as water may weigh down some materials or cause them to stick
together.
Ferrous metal separation. Electromagnets are used in this step to allow the
removal of collected metal. However, not all metals can be removed by magnets.
Nonferrous metals do not have iron and do not respond to the magnetic field.
Stainless steel, copper, and aluminum, for example, are only weakly magnetic or
are not magnetic at all. A further limitation of this technique is that small magnetic
items will not pick up if buried in nonmagnetic materials. Larger magnetic items can
drag unwanted items like paper, plastic, and food waste along with them.
Nonferrous metal separation. Eddy current separators, or nonferrous separators,
use the current induced in little swirls (“eddies”) on a large conductor and separate
nonmagnetic metals. An eddy current is a swirling current set up in a conductor in
response to a changing magnetic field. If a sizeable conductive metal plate moves
through a magnetic field that intersects perpendicularly to the sheet, the magnetic
field will induce small “rings” of current, which will create internal magnetic fields
opposing the change. Eddy current separators have high handling capacity because
the conveyor belt separates and carries away nonferrous metals continuously and
fully automatically. An important factor for good separation is an even flow of
material supplied by a vibrating feeder or conveyor belt, for example, to provide a
uniform monolayer of materials across the belt. It is especially important with
smaller fraction sizes.
Size reduction. Two types of device are commonly used for this process: hammer
mills and shear shredders. Hammer mills consist of rotating sets of swinging steel
hammers through which the waste is passed, and shear shredders are used for
materials that are difficult to break apart, such as tires, mattresses, and plastics. Both
are energy- and maintenance-intensive. Hammer mills shatter items such as fluores-
cent light bulbs, compact fluorescent lamps, and batteries.
Size separation. A trommel screen, also known as a rotary screen, is a mechanical
screening machine used to separate materials. It consists of a perforated cylindrical
drum generally elevated at an angle at the feed end. In an inclined drum, objects are
lifted and then dropped with the help of lifter bars to move them further down the
drum; otherwise, the objects roll down slower. Furthermore, the lifter bars shake the
objects to segregate them. Lifter bars are not considered in the presence of heavy
objects as they may break the screen. Physical size separation is achieved as the feed
material spirals down the rotating drum. Undersized material, smaller than the screen
apertures, passes through the screen, while oversized material exits at the other end
of the drum. Trommel screens classify sizes of solid waste. By removing inorganic
materials such as moisture and ash from the air-classified light fraction segregated
from shredded solid waste, trommel screening improves the fuel derived from solid
waste. Another trommel screen design available is concentric screens, with the
coarsest screen located at the innermost section. Trommel screens can also be placed
in parallel, where objects exit one stream and enter the following one. A trommel in
series is a single drum whereby each section has a different aperture size, arranged
from the finest to the coarsest. One of the competitors in the screening process is
vibrating screens. Trommel screens are vibration-free, which causes less noise than
vibrating screens. Trommel screens are also cheaper to produce than vibrating
screens. Trommel screens are more mechanically robust than vibrating screens,
allowing them to last longer under mechanical stress. However, trommel screens
have a lower capacity for processing material than vibrating screens because only
part of the trommel is utilized during the screening process whereas the whole
vibrating screen is used.
The drying process reduces the moisture content of the waste and prevents
leachate production. Dried materials are biologically inactive and easier to store.
The result is a homogeneous RDF. Partially decayed waste should be dried, either
under the sun or by hot air or both. This critical step in the process differs in each
facility, depending on the investment or land availability. Solar drying is not possible
during rainy seasons, and most facilities run at a fraction of their capacity during the
rains, sending most of the waste to landfills. On the other hand, mechanical drying
requires significant amounts of energy that could easily render RDF plants unprof-
itable without huge government subsidies.
Once all of the separating and size reduction steps are complete, the final RDF
product can be formed into bricks or pellets or left as fluff. Each form is derived from
material separated at a particular stage in the process. Large pieces that escape the
trommel screening stage and lighter materials like plastic bags that get blown off
during air separation are baled together as RDF bricks. The shredded material from
the hammer/flail mill and medium-size rejects from the trommel screens are used for
RDF fluff. Finally, the residual waste is mixed with binders like agricultural husks
and passed through a pelletizing machine that converts the waste into pellets (Rezaei
2018).
Coprocessing
Coprocessing is the use of waste-derived materials (RDF) to replace natural mineral

resources (material recycling) or traditional fossil fuels such as coal, fuel oil, and
natural gas (energy recovery) in industrial processes (Mutz et al. 2017).
Coprocessing is applied worldwide, mainly in the cement industry, thermoelectric
plants, and the steel and lime industry. In thermoelectric plants where only energy
recovery takes place, it is known as coincineration. In the European cement industry,
the thermal replacement rate of fossil fuels by waste is around 39% and can reach up
to 80% in certain facilities (average over a year) (Mutz et al. 2017). It should be
mentioned that it has been paid more attention in recent years, and RDF production
has grown more rapidly. The reason for this extent of using RDF is its higher heating
value, higher physical and chemical uniformity compared to solid waste, and lower
pollution. Considering the merits of RDF, its use has also been growing in develop-
ing countries. A great number of RDF production plants have been established in
countries such as Egypt, Turkey, and Pakistan, and many studies have been carried
out to evaluate the potential of RDF resources in other developing countries (Shumal
et al. 2020).
As an alternative to landfilling, energy recovery (WtE) is being paid more
attention throughout the world. Today, more than 130 million metric tons of wastes
is incinerated in more than 600 WtE plants. Thus, approaches to sustainable devel-
opment and energy production using modern technologies for waste management,
such as anaerobic digestion, thermal processing, and RDF production, have been
paid growing attention (Shumal et al. 2020).
It could be said that cement kilns are one the best places for RDF energy recovery,
so the main features of the RDF quality standard are based on the demands of the
cement industry. RDF, as an alternative to fossil fuels in the cement industry, reduces
energy consumption and CO2 emissions (Shumal et al. 2020).
The RDF is typically added to the combustion process through a separate dosing
system as shown in Fig. 5. Coprocessing in cement kilns offers the advantage that
clinker reactions at 1450 C allow the total incorporation of ash and the chemical
union of metals with the clinker material. Toxic organic compounds are destroyed
completely in the flame at temperatures above 2000 C. The direct substitution of
primary fuel in the production process represents much more efficient energy
recovery than that of other technologies using energy from waste, generally reaching
85–95% depending on the properties of the waste (Mutz et al. 2017).
Cement kilns are more efficient than other common incinerators. The combustion
conditions in cement kilns are perfect for the use of alternative fuels made from
waste. The most important conditions are the high temperatures; long residence time;
surplus oxygen concentrations during and after combustion; good turbulence and
mixing conditions; thermal inertia; dry scrubbing of the exit gas by alkaline raw
materials; fixation of the trace heavy metals in the clinker structure; lack of gener-
ation of by-products such as slag, ashes, or liquid residues; and complete recovery of
energy and raw material components in the waste. To foster complete combustion,
especially of high molecular weight hydrocarbons, high kiln temperatures and
Fig. 5 Clinker process (Fyffe et al. 2016)
adequate residence times are required. Therefore, the clinkering zone temperature is
higher than 1427 C, and the flame temperatures are approximately 1627–1827 C,
while gas flow velocities from 12.1 to 13.5 m/s result in residence times of approx-
imately 2.7 s when the temperature is above 1397 C. Lower temperatures are
associated with an increase in the residence time up to 5.0 s at 1197 C. The
temperature and residence time are especially important in the case of dioxin and
furan (PCDD/Fs) emissions, especially those from animal waste. While the maxi-
mum quantities of these substances are detected at 700 and 800 C, cement com-
bustion conditions produce minimal emissions from these compounds. Presently,
cement kilns can achieve an emission level of 0.1 ng I-TEQ/m3. Hence, the proper
replacement of fossil fuels by waste, even hazardous materials, is not a significant
problem in terms of the formation of PCDD/Fs. Another advantage of cement
production is that fuel combustion in rotary cement furnaces is a non-waste process
because no residues are generated as the ashes can be incorporated into the clinker
(Aranda Usón et al. 2013).
Cement is the second most consumed material in the world after water. It is a
finely ground, inorganic, and nonmetallic powder and the most important ingredient
of concrete. It is necessary for the construction industry and essential for the
development in any country so that that cement plants are not uniformly distributed
worldwide, and cement production depends on several social, economic, and geo-
graphical factors. According to the data of the European Cement Association, a total
of 3.6 billion metric tons of cement was manufactured in the world in 2011; in the
case of developing countries in Asia and South America, production has increased
slightly (Aranda Usón et al. 2013).
Cement manufacture is a resource- and energy-intensive industry. Producing a
metric ton of cement needs 1.5–1.7 t of raw materials and 60–130 kg of fuel oil as
well as around 105 kWh of electricity. About 5% of global anthropogenic CO2
emissions originate from the cement industry (Karagiannidis 2012). Thus, using
cheap alternative fuels (like RDF) in the cement industry in developing countries has
an important role in terms of economic and environmental issues (Shumal et al.
2020).
In the last 20 years, the cement industry has reduced its energy consumption by
around 30%, which is equivalent to saving approximately 11 million metric tons of
coal per year. The substitution of fossil fuel and virgin raw materials for waste
(alternative fuels and raw materials) will reduce total CO2 emissions more than if the
raw materials used had been burned or disposed of without energy recovery
(GTZ-Holcim 2006). The cement industry has a key role in alternative waste
management treatment, offering a waste treatment option while avoiding the use
of fossil fuels. Furthermore, using alternative fuels and raw materials should help
reduce the consumption of natural resources and energy without compromising the
quality of the cement produced or increasing the environmental impact (Güereca
et al. 2015).
The availability of adequate infrastructure for waste management in Latin Amer-
ican countries is one of the leading environmental challenges that governments face
today. A culture based on the final disposal of waste in open dumps or poorly
controlled landfills is still the main route to removing waste materials. Coprocessing
offers the advantage of using basic infrastructure existing in practically all countries,
such as cement kilns, often managed by companies that already have experience and
knowledge of this type of development, thanks to their international presence
(Jensen-Velasco 2016).
Mexico is the second largest cement market in Latin America and the thirteenth
largest in the world. Six cement groups are present in the country with 34 cement
plants, among which is the only non-European cement company that is part of the
group of the five largest companies in the world: Cemex. The National Institute of
Ecology and Climate Change (INECC), commissioned to carry out studies and
research projects on climate change and environmental protection, estimates that
the cement industry consumes around 6.5% of the coal used in the country and an
equivalent of 2.3% of the oil used at the end-user level. The sector is responsible for
around 2.1% (14 million metric tons of CO2/year) of the country’s total CO2
emissions (683 million metric tons of CO2/year) (INECC 2018).
The Mexican cement industry has been a pioneer in Latin America in the
coprocessing of waste as an alternative source of fuels and raw materials for the
cement production process. Since the late 1990s, relevant capacity has been developed
for the pre- and coprocessing of different types of waste, highlighting industrial waste,
used tires, and some liquid waste such as used oils and solvents (in the early stages of
development). Currently, the Mexican cement industry presents coprocessing levels
close to 13% in terms of average thermal substitution, with the companies Cemex and
Holcim (now Lafarge-Holcim) as the clear leaders (Jensen-Velasco 2016). The com-
panies concentrate most of their operations in the center of the country, specifically in
the states of Mexico, Hidalgo, and Puebla (Gallegos and Vargas 2015).
One aspect to highlight in favor of energy substitution projections of around 30%
is that the Mexican cement industry generally has BAT (Best Available Technology)
furnaces which allow adequate coprocessing of classified MSW. This is reinforced
by extensive experience in coprocessing. Mexico is the most advanced country in
Latin America in this field, with a current average energy substitution rate of
12–13% at the national level (Jensen-Velasco 2016).
In Mexico, around 42.1 million metric tons of MSW is generated annually, and
there is the potential for up to 30% replacement of thermal energy in the cement
industry, that is, the use of 3.1 million metric tons of MSW annually, equivalent to
8.2% of the total of this type of waste generated in the country (Equipo técnico
EnRes 2018).
The pioneer in this field in Latin America, Cemex has coprocessed the inorganic
materials from urban solid waste since 2012. Paper, plastics, and textiles that cannot
be recycled are sorted, shredded, and then used as an alternative fuel in Cemex’s
cement kilns. In 2013, 84,000 metric tons of inorganic MSW were coprocessed in
eight cement plants, and they aim to roll out the system to the other seven Mexican
cement plants by 2016 (Stafford et al. 2015). Besides this enhancement by the
private sector, the Camara Nacional del Cemento (National Cement Chamber,
CANACEM) has signed individual accords with the environmental ministry
(SEMARNAT) and the national oil company (PEMEX) in respect of using waste
from the petroleum industry in cement production (Coordinación General de
Mitigación del Cambio Climatico 2018).
In the ZMVM, two plants produce RDF for cogeneration in cement kilns. The
first one is the San Juan de Aragón plant that began operating in 2012 and receives
MSW from the municipalities of Benito Juárez, Azcapotzalco, Venustiano Carranza,
and Gustavo A. Madero. The second is the Iztapalapa plant, which started operations
in July 2014 and receives MSW from the Iztacalco, Gustavo A. Madero, and
Iztapalapa municipalities and the central market. These plants were installed within
transfer stations to reduce land acquisition costs and MSW transportation costs. The
plants have a weighing area, reception yard, discharge pit, two selection lines,
magnetic separators, organic matter separator, and a compactor and packer.
The production process, shown in Fig. 6, consists of depositing the waste in a pit
and then using an initial conveyor belt along which the waste is led to a magnetic
separator, followed by two manual selection lines on which is spread the recyclable
waste that is bulky and unsuitable for cogeneration, such as PVC, glass, rubble,
leather, diapers, and metal (Fig. 7).
The remainder is sent to the compacting plant where the MSW is processed for
use as an alternative fuel in the cement kilns. In this plant, the MSW goes through
a magnetic separator. Later, the organic fraction is separated by a splitter separator.
Fig. 6 Process for RDF generation in Mexico City
Fig. 7 MSW separation and

classification (SEDEMA
2018)
Finally, the volume of the MSW is reduced by employing a closed press compactor,
and it is bagged to be transported to the cement kilns, forming bales of between 1400
and 1520 kg (Fig. 8).
Through this agreement, the two compacting plants produced 280,736 metric tons
during 2018; 4% of Mexico City’s MSW was sent for cogeneration in cement kilns
in Tepeaca Puebla and Huichapan, 172 km and 161 km, respectively, from the
separation plant in San Juan de Aragón (SEDEMA 2019).
Through the recovery of material and energy, coprocessing contributes to reduc-
ing the environmental impacts of cement production, an intensive process in terms of
resource consumption, and generates various air emissions that must be monitored
and further decreased according to legally prescribed limits using appropriate tech-
niques. Potential emissions from cement kilns include dust, nitrogen oxides (NOx),
sulfur dioxides (SO2), dioxins and furans, carbon oxides (CO, CO2), volatile organic
compounds, hydrochloric acid (HCI), hydrofluoric acid (HF), and heavy metals
(Equipo técnico EnRes 2018).
Climate change is one of the main challenges facing humanity. According to the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the principal contribution to
Fig. 8 MSW compaction (SEDEMA 2018)
this climate phenomenon comes from the increment in CO2 concentration in the
atmosphere. CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion and industrial processes
accounted for 78% of total GHG emissions from 1970 to 2010 (IPCC 2014). The
cement industry is a polluting industry in addition to being costly. About 5% of all
CO2 generation worldwide is generated by the cement industry. Thus, using cheap
alternative fuels in the cement industry in developing countries has an important role
in terms of economics (Shumal et al. 2020).
Net GHG emissions can be reduced drastically by replacing traditional fuels
with other materials such as agricultural biomass, MSW, or meat and bone animal
meal. The main reason is that the carbon contained in alternative fuels is consid-
ered carbon-neutral. However, some alternative fuels, such as plastics, oils, or
used tires, are not entirely approved as carbon-neutral by the IPCC although the
impacts of these fuels are lower than those of traditional fuels (Aranda Usón et al.
2013).
However, the degree of alternative fuel use differs depending on the country.
Replacement ratios of fossil fuels by alternative fuels between 2010 and 2011 in the
European cement industry consumed 9.8 million metric tons alternative fuels, which
is equivalent to an average substitution rate of 36%. However, it is estimated that
technically, the cement industry in Europe could reach a replacement rate of 60% by
making investments and adaptations to its processes. While in 2003 in the United
States, on average, plants met 25% of their energy requirements with alternative
fuels (GTZ-Holcim 2006).
Mexico is highly vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change, particularly
those related to rising sea levels, as well as increases in average temperatures and the
increased frequency of severe weather events such as hurricanes and droughts.
Mexico’s CO2 emissions profile is heavily slanted toward transport, which
accounted for 32% of the energy-related emissions in 2013. Further, 25% of
energy-related emissions are from the power sector and 21% from the industrial
sector, mainly cement, chemical, and petrochemical industries accounting for 10%
of total emissions (Castrejón et al. 2018).
The Mexican government has launched a voluntary commitment to reduce its

GHG emissions in the long term. The General Law of Climate Change sets the
following indicative targets to reduce national emissions: 30% by 2020 compared to
the baseline and 50% by the 2050 compared to those issued in 2000 (about 600 Mt
CO2e); this goal will be reached with the contribution of all economic sectors
(SEMARNAT 2012). The cement sector is considered one of the most important
within the framework of the CO2 emission reduction strategies undertaken by
Mexico and is the objective of the recent carbon tax and the design of an Appropriate
National Mitigation Action (NAMA), promoted by CANACEM (Jensen-Velasco
2016).
One of the main strategies to mitigate climate change in Mexico is to increase the
production of RDF for use in cement kilns. Reflecting the complexity implicit in
implementing the measure, execution deadlines have set alternative fuel substitution
targets of 20% for the period 2018–2025, 25% for 2025–2030, and 35% for
2030–2050 (Coordinación General de Mitigación del Cambio Climatico 2018).
When using RDF, the emissions should be equal to or less than those without the
use of RDF. To this end, use of state-of-the-art technologies and procedures such as
direct feeding of the RDF to the high-temperature zones in the furnace is mandatory.
Modern cement plant design often already meets international standards. When this
is already assured, there are fewer requirements to improve emission control for
coprocessing (Equipo técnico EnRes 2018).
The Mexican cement industry has modern facilities that offer the best available
technologies. It is estimated that the potential volume of urban solid waste managed
through its coprocessing is 3.1 million metric tons per year, corresponding to 8.2%
of the total generated. This amount of waste is based on replacing thermal energy in
the cement industry (substitution of fossil fuels such as petroleum coke or coal),
equivalent to 30% of the total (Jensen-Velasco 2016).
A relevant impact of replacing 30% of fossil fuels in cement clinks is GHG
emissions, with a total theoretical reduction of 3.2 million metric tons of CO2
annually. However, it is necessary to ensure that this power is not the same
throughout the country as it exists. A limiting factor is the transport of waste from
municipalities to the cement plant. Distances greater than 200 km take away all the
operation’s attractiveness in the financial and ecological sense (Mutz et al. 2017).
Results
One of the biggest environmental problems faced by local governments in the

ZMVM is reducing the amount of MSW sent to landfills for final disposal without
any treatment, thereby reducing the environmental pollution caused by MSW. A
viable option due to the region’s characteristics is to increase RDF production and
take advantage of the calorific value of inorganic waste that cannot be recycled and
use it as an alternative fuel in cement plants to facilitate the transition into a
CE. Within the ZMVM and its neighboring states, there are 13 cement plants, as
shown in Fig. 9. Together, they have an installed capacity of 16,633,000 metric tons
Fig. 9 Cement plants in the central region of Mexico

per year, all at a distance of less than 200 km, considered attractive from environ-
mental and economic aspects. Of these 13 plants, 11 have experience in treating
MSW or industrial waste. Only the three Cementos Fortaleza plants in Vito
Atotonilco, Atotonilco de Tula, and Santiago de Anaya do not use any waste as an
alternative fuel.
With an installed capacity of 16,633,000 metric tons of cement per year (Vásquez
and Corrales 2017), corresponding to a total of just over 12,474,750 metric tons of
clinker per year (assuming an average clinker factor of 75%), which demands an
average thermal consumption of 830 kcal/kg clinker (as established in the NAMA
CANACEM), the nine plants in the central region at their maximum capacity have
an energy requirement of 10,354 million Mcal as shown in Table 1.
The General Law of Climate Change sets the following indicative targets to
reduce national emissions: 30% by 2020 compared to the baseline and 50% by
2050 compared to those issued in 2000. Given that the cement industry is considered
the most important within the framework of the CO2 emission reduction strategies
undertaken by Mexico, it considers that these 13 plants can replace 30% of fossil
fuels with alternatives such as RDF. Table 2 shows that this requires the substitution
of 3,106,212,750 Mcal/year from alternative fuels such as RDF. It assumes a
calorific value of 3500 kcal/kg (which corresponds to a characteristic amount for
treated MSW) (Jensen-Velasco 2016). The potential volume of urban waste selected
as alternative fuel is 887,489 metric tons per year, three times more than what is
Table 1 Energy requirements

Installed Cement/ Energy
capacity clinker Clinker requirement Energy
Plant Ton/year % Ton/year Mcal/ton Mcal/year
Cemex- 883,000 0.75 662,250 830 549,667,500
Tlalnepantla
Holcim-Apaxco 1,000,000 0.75 750,000 830 622,500,000
Cemex-Atotonilco 1,500,000 0.75 1,125,000 830 933,750,000
de Tula
Cemex-Huichapan 3,250,000 0.75 2,437,500 830 2,023,125,000
Cementos 600,000 0.75 450,000 830 373,500,000
Fortaleza-
Atotonilco de Tula
Cementos 400,000 0.75 300,000 830 249,000,000
Fortaleza-Vito
Atotonilco de Tula
Cementos 1,000,000 0.75 750,000 830 622,500,000
Fortaleza-Santiago
de Anaya
Cruz Azul-Tula de 3,500,000 0.75 2,625,000 830 2,178,750,000
Allende
Cemex- 4,500,000 0.75 3,375,000 830 2,801,250,000
Cuautinchán
Total 16,633,000 12,474,750 10,354,042,500
Table 2 Capacity for MSW coprocessing

MSW
Replacement Alternative heat
of fossil fuels fuel capacity MSW MSW
Cement plant % Mcal/year Mcal/ton Tons/year Tons/day
Cemex-Tlalnepantla 30.0 164,900,250 3500 47,114 129
Holcim-Apaxco 30.0 186,750,000 3500 53,357 146
Cemex-Atotonilco de 30.0 280,125,000 3500 80,036 219
Tula
Cemex-Huichapan 30.0 606,937,500 3500 173,411 475
Cementos Fortaleza- 30.0 112,050,000 3500 32,014 88
Atotonilco de Tula
Vito Atotonilco de
Tula
Santiago de Anaya
Cruz Azul-Tula de 30.0 653,625,000 3500 186,750 512
Allende
Cemex-Tepeaca 30.0 840,375,000 3500 240,107 658
ZMVM 3,106,212,750 887,489 2431
currently sent for cogeneration, equivalent to 11.2% of the total MSW generated in
the ZMVM (Consejo Nacional de Población 2018; SEMARNAT 2020).
Considering that the coprocessable fraction of the MSW (after separation
activities for recycling) corresponds on average to 11.2% of the total volume,
equivalent to 887,489 metric tons per year (Consejo Nacional de Población 2018;
SEMARNAT 2020), it can be concluded that the generation of MSW in the
ZMVM will not be, in any case, a limitation to satisfy the potential demand of
coprocessing.
As shown in Table 3, a reduction of 0.59 million metric tons CO2e/year would be
achieved by substituting 30% of the fossil fuels with MSW in cement kilns in
ZMVM and its neighboring states instead of depositing it in sanitary landfills.
Considering that the final disposal of waste generates 3.2% (22 million metric tons
of CO2e/year) of the total emissions in Mexico, this strategy would mean a reduction
of 4% of GHG due to MSW disposal (INECC 2018).
Conclusion
The mandatory separation of waste into organic (including only food and garden
waste) and inorganic fractions in Mexico City has allowed the formulation of RDF
coprocessing in cement kilns at the Iztapalapa and San Juan de Aragón transfer
stations. The inorganic fraction of waste received in transfer stations contains a
minimum amount of recyclables, food, and garden waste.
Table 3 Reduction of greenhouse gases (GHG) (Johnke 2001; Ministry for the Environment 2019)
Cement
Landfill clink Reduction Total
Installed emission emission of emission reduction
capacity rate rate rate of GHG
Tons Tons Tons
CO2e/tons CO2e/tons CO2e/tons Tons
Cement plant (Tons/year) MSW MSW MSW CO2e/year
Cemex-Tlalnepantla 43,973 1.13 0.415 0.715 31,441
Holcim-Apaxco 49,800 1.13 0.415 0.715 35,607
Cemex-Atotonilco 74,700 1.13 0.415 0.715 53,411
de Tula
Cemex-Huichapan 161,850 1.13 0.415 0.715 115,723
Cruz Azul-Tula de 29,880 1.13 0.415 0.715 21,364
Allende
Cementos 19,920 1.13 0.415 0.715 14,243
Fortaleza-
Atotonilco de Tula
Cementos 49,800 1.13 0.415 0.715 35,607
Fortaleza-Vito
Atotonilco de Tula
Cementos 174,300 1.13 0.415 0.715 124,625
Fortaleza-Santiago
de Anaya
Cemex-Tepeaca 224,100 1.13 0.415 0.715 160,232
ZMVM 828,323.400 592,251
Given the similarity in waste management in the ZMVM, these experiences can
apply in the other states that make up the region, and simple separation can be
implemented without affecting the other elements of waste management such as
replacing collection vehicles or affecting the informal sector. With the separation of
waste into two fractions, the nonrecyclable inorganic fraction can be converted to an
alternative fuel for use in cement kilns. After recycling, incineration with energy
recovery is the most used treatment in the EU countries.
The main challenges for using MSW as an alternative fuel in cement kilns
correspond to ensuring the supply chain of materials determined by adequate
management of waste from its generation, transport, storage, and treatment to its
use in cement kilns, complying with the technical and economic conditions that
make this activity a sustainable management model for all stakeholders
(GTZ-Holcim 2006). The ZMVM is considered viable in terms of the volume of
MSW and good communication routes from urban areas to cement kilns at distances
less than 200 km, which is an economically and environmentally attractive distance
in terms of polluting emissions and transportation costs.
Besides that, the use of MSW as alternative fuel in cement clinks has the
advantage that the cement industry is one of Mexico’s most important. Cemex is
one of the five largest cement companies worldwide and continuously invests in
upgrading its cement plants to maximize alternative fuels; its alternative fuel sub-
stitution rate was 28% worldwide in 2018. The cement industry in Mexico has
committed to replacing 30% of fossil fuels with waste. This commitment to replace
fuels with MSW in the ZMVM would have the benefits of reducing the total volume
of MSW that is sent for final disposal by 11.2%, equivalent to 887,489 metric tons
per year, and reducing GHG by 4% due to MSW disposal.
This type of treatment would help reduce the amount of MSW sent for final
disposal without any previous treatment. In the states of Mexico and Hidalgo, all
waste is collected and buried in sanitary landfills or controlled dumps (see Fig. 3).
The lack of treatment is due to cultural, social, and economic factors. Among the
cultural factors, it stands out that in the ZMVM, the population does not have the
habit of separating their waste at source; only in Mexico City is the separation of
waste mandatory. However, according to the CDMx waste inventory, separation
efficiency is 42%. Therefore, much of the waste that can be recovered is contam-
inated when mixed with other types of waste, such as organic waste, making
its possible treatment difficult. Recyclable waste of higher value is separated
manually in containers or collection vehicles by cleaning staff or the informal
sector. The commercialization of recyclables such as aluminum, metals,
glass, bond paper, cardboard, and some plastics is an essential income source.
Therefore, the waste that enters the final disposal sites is a heterogeneous
mixture of waste from which the higher-value recyclables have already been
removed.
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Developing “Zero Waste Model” for Solid
Waste Management to Shift the Paradigm 13
Toward Sustainability
Sudipti Arora, Jasmine Sethi, Jayana Rajvanshi, Devanshi Sutaria,

and Sonika Saxena
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
Solid Waste: Composition, Sources, and Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
Current Practices of Solid Waste Management and Its Consequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Legal Framework for Solid Waste Management in India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
Governance for Solid Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
Solid Waste Management Rule, 2016 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
Role of Economy in the Solid Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
From Eco-effectiveness to Eco-efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
Zero Waste Model: A Visionary Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
Case Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
Indore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Thiruvananthapuram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
Dr. B. Lal Institute of Biotechnology, Jaipur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
Abstract
The current consumption-driven society produces an enormous volume of waste
every day. Continuous depletion of natural finite resources is leading the globe to
an uncertain future. Therefore, to prevent further depletion of global resources,
sustainable consumption and a strategic waste management system would be
required. Human activities generate tremendous amounts of solid waste, and the
amounts tend to increase as the demand for quality of life increases. Today’s
waste generation rate in the country is alarming, posing a challenge to govern-
ments regarding environmental pollution. The expectation is that eventually
S. Arora (*) · J. Sethi · J. Rajvanshi · D. Sutaria · S. Saxena

Department of Biotechnology, Dr. B. Lal Institute of Biotechnology, Jaipur, India
e-mail: jasmine@blalbiotech.com; jayana@blalbiotech.com; sonika@blalbiotech.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_20
346 S. Arora et al.
waste treatment and waste prevention approaches will develop toward sustainable
waste management solutions. Zero waste model is a visionary concept for
confronting waste problems in our society. The zero waste models for solid
waste management have been embraced by policymakers because they stimulate
sustainable production and consumption, optimum recycling, and resource recov-
ery. For building and paving operations, a nonbiodegradable fraction of solid
waste could be used. Overall, the analysis highlights the paradigm change
following the “zero waste” idea in solid waste management principles from linear
to circular economies. The circular economy (CE) is a conceptual model used in a
closed-loop approach to better resource use and waste minimization that could be
suitable for waste management. The study also describes the policies of the
circular economy for solid waste management, which boosts the country’s econ-
omy and identifies ways of optimizing local resources.
Keywords
Solid waste management · Zero waste management · Sustainable development ·
Circular economy
Introduction
Background
Continued population growth, a booming economy, rapid urbanization, and

increasing community living standards have greatly accelerated the worldwide
generation of solid waste, particularly from developing countries (Guerrero et al.
2013). Residues after consumption are often perceived as waste, generally solid
in nature, resulting from human and animal activities. Solid waste generation
ranges from sludge produced during wastewater treatment to perhaps other
abandoned material resulting from manufacturing, commercial activities, mining,
agricultural activities, and community activities (RCRA EPA 2020). Solid waste
management is a multidisciplinary pursuit of urbanization, which refers to the
controlled generation, on-site segregation, collection, transport, storage, and final
disposal of the solid waste in accordance with the fundamentals of public health,
financial aspects, and conservation of natural resources. The waste production at
the consumer end is limited as compared to the tremendous amount of waste
generated during the mining of natural resources and industrial processing for
production. Around the world, waste generation rates are rising. In 2016, the
worlds’ cities generated 2.01 billion tonnes of solid waste, amounting to a
footprint of 0.74 kg/person/day (World Bank 2019). With rapid population
growth and urbanization, annual waste generation is expected to increase by
70% from 2016 levels to 3.40 billion tonnes in 2050. Rapidly growing economies
like India, with escalated levels of population supported by industrialization and
urbanization, are getting buried under the heaps of garbage due to the improper
13 Developing “Zero Waste Model” for Solid Waste Management to Shift the. . . 347
waste management practices. India annually produces 1.50 million metric tonnes
of solid waste. Only 20% (27,000 MT total daily) of the collected waste receives
treatment, while the rest 80% (1,08,000 MT total daily) is discarded in landfills,
leading to severe environmental and human health problems (India Today 2019).
Initially, waste production declines at the developing economies and then rises at
a higher rate than at developed economies for gradual revenue adjustments at
low-income levels (World Bank 2020a). The depletion of global finite resources
also requires us to take into account resource and inventory management. There-
fore, one solution to zero waste (ZW) was suggested to resolve these concerns.
Due to the great environmental stresses, a state of zero waste may eventually
become a requirement in the world with limited resources. Some strong zero
waste practices have currently been proposed and implemented in cities, indus-
tries, individuals, and waste recycling sectors (GAIA 2013). This can be achieved
in two ways: one is the circular model, a “cradle-to-cradle” approach, by
recycling and refining the entire waste so that there is no release of waste into
the environment, and, two, by retrieving essential resources from the waste and
using them for further development. Sustainability “kicks in” because there is no
waste carried on to the next generation. Not only does each generation take care
of all the waste they generate, but they also reduce the use of resources by
recycling waste resources for further development. This leads to transfer of linear
to circular economy.
Solid Waste: Composition, Sources, and Types
Solid waste can also be defined as the useless and unwanted products in the solid
state, that is, garbage, derived from the activities of and discarded by society; thus,
it is one of the important challenges to the environment. Anthropogenic activities
in different sectors contribute to solid waste generation in enormous amounts.
Insights on the composition and characterization of the solid wastes aid in
accessing the requirement of sustainable practices like essential alternative equip-
ment, systems, regulatory programs, and plans, which reduce the burden on the
landfills. As types and composition of the solid waste are described in Fig. 1, this
variance depends primarily on the lifestyle, economic condition, legislation on
waste management, and industrial structure. For the determination of the proper
handling and management of these wastes, the quantity and composition of
municipal solid waste (MSW) are important. The physical composition of the
solid waste is indicative of the resource and energy that can be recovered from
the solid waste. The elements of the municipal solid waste vary with the many
factors like socioeconomic status, seasons, location, etc. For evaluating alternate
processing and recovery actions, knowledge on the chemical composition of the
solid waste plays an important role.
The solid waste can be classified into two different categories based on its source
of generation as shown in Fig. 2. The broad categories of solid waste are mainly
defined as hazardous and nonhazardous. Different types of solid waste are
348 S. Arora et al.
Fig. 1 (a) Types of waste and its weightage. (b) Composition of solid waste and its percentage
Fig. 2 Categories of solid waste
categorized into food waste, rubbish, ashes and residues, demolition and construc-
tion, treatment plant waste, agricultural waste, hazardous waste, and special waste
that includes street sweeping, road litters, etc.
Current Practices of Solid Waste Management and Its Consequences
Basically, waste management involves collecting, storing, disposing, handling, and

tracking waste materials. Waste management considers all materials, be they solid,
liquid, gaseous, or hazardous compounds, as a single class. It also aims to reduce the
adverse environmental impacts of each of the most suitable approaches. The measure
of waste management to be implemented would rely on the sources, as waste
characteristics and composition vary from source to source (Tchobanoglous et al.
1993). It is not necessary to overemphasize the issue of solid waste management in
developing nations. Solid waste management is an important public health facility,
but it is not delivered to the full satisfaction of people in many developing countries
(Addo-Yobo and Ali 2003). This is because waste management schemes have not
been completely taken into account by the consumers of the management systems.
The composition of activities ranging from collection, transportation, recycling, and
disposal of the waste products are all an integral part of the waste management
system. Waste management system is designed with the aim to ensure efficient
removal of solid waste from the source of generation to the point of treatment
through proper handling. Marginal attention paid to the proper treatment of the
municipal solid waste in developing countries like India has created serious threat
to the environment causing contamination of natural resources, which is causing
climate change, global warming, and severe impact on the existing life forms
causing diseases like typhoid, malaria, cholera, lung infections, and vascular infec-
tions. As per the World Bank report 2020, about 5% of the greenhouse gases were
emitted through the solid waste management activities apart from the automobile
emissions in 2016. Rapid industrialization supported by urbanization in developed
and developing countries like India is creating ample opportunities for the rural
residents to shift from the low-paid rural opportunities to better-paid urban areas (Vij
2012), which has increased per capita generation of MSW to billions of metric
tonnes to maintain the social status (Devi et al. 2016). According to CPCB reports
2016, the annual production of municipal solid waste in India is approximately
52 MT, on an average producing 0.144 MT of waste per day. Out of the total waste
generated, 23% of the waste is treated in landfills and through other technologies.
The major fraction of the waste generated in Indian cities includes the organic waste.
Depletion of available resources induced due to improper management of the
municipal solid waste using conventional methods of waste management is a
major issue to be considered during formulations of policies. Moreover, the linear
economy model focusing on take-make-use-dispose approach has a unidirectional
flow of material and energy hence creating an imbalance between the ecosystem and
human economic subsystems, making it unsustainable in terms of economy, ecology,
and social attributes.
Current Treatment Strategies

Solid waste management encompasses all bureaucratic, monetary, regulatory, plan-
ning, and technological roles engaged in the entire spectrum of solutions to solid
waste challenges placed on the society by its occupants. In the beginning of the
350 S. Arora et al.
century, the conventional methods employed for the treatment of solid waste
included open dumping on land, dumping in water bodies, reduction, incineration,
and plowing into the soil. Though these methods were utilized for specific types of
wastes, like the food waste was either fed to animals or plowed into the soil. Open
dumping of the waste was soon realized as an inefficient method of waste disposal
and was banned in several countries because of its ill-effects on nature. This
haphazard disposal of waste in the open dumps deteriorates the soil quality and
groundwater quality while serving as a breeding ground for vector-borne diseases.
Dumping in streams was commonly practiced in coastal areas, which was later
prohibited due to its detrimental impact on the local ecosystems. The dumping of
waste in water bodies results in bioaccumulation of toxic chemicals in the ecosys-
tems which has hazardous effects on all the life forms involved in the process.
Incineration method became prominent in the later part of the century due to its
advantages of volume reduction or energy conversion. This method also had the
limitations due to the gaseous emissions released during the process.
Open Dumping
Open dumping was an age-old method employed for the disposal of municipal solid
waste, which is now banned by several countries due to its adverse effects on the
environment. The dumping sites served as a breeding ground for the microbes and
rodents that led to serious health complications in humans. The open dumpsites often
faced rainfalls, which led to the leaching of toxic materials down through the soil to
the groundwater contaminating the soil and groundwater both. The groundwater
contamination along with the release of gases like carbon dioxide and methane led to
global warming (Sharma et al. 2018; Srigirisetty et al. 2017). The open dumpsites
were replaced with landfills, which are properly lined to prevent the leaching of toxic
chemicals through the soil to the groundwater.
Open Burning
Open burning requires the combustion of solid waste, with the destruction of
hazardous contaminants, in a controlled atmosphere that contributes to energy
recovery. Waste burning is a major source of toxic carcinogens, such as dioxins
and furans, and black carbon, a short-lived climate pollutant that contributes to
climate change, increased soot and black carbon melting in polar regions on snow
and ice, and numerous human health problems (Raghav and Kumar 2020). Waste
may be intentionally burned in communities with insufficient waste management
systems to free up space at dumpsites and to encourage the scavenging of
non-combustible materials such as metals for benefit or for use as a source of fuel.
Waste can also spontaneously combust in unregulated landfills and dumpsites as
a result of a variety of factors, including emissions of flammable methane gas from
biodegrading waste (Mohamed et al. 2009; Williams 2005).
The conventional waste management system, which relies predominantly on
sites, greatly pollutes our environment and therefore needs, with a small exception
in developing countries, an enhanced and effective waste management system. Via
sustainable design, consumption practices, and efficient waste recovery, zero waste
is also concerned with waste prevention (Zaman 2015). ZW advocates the reduction
and elimination of waste rather than the treatment and disposal of waste. Thus, using
industrial symbiosis, recycling, or upcycling, the zero waste goal is to use and use
energy in a circular economic model with minimal environmental destruction, based
on the concept of “no waste” from nature.
Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan
With the advancements in the societies and standards of living, solid waste manage-
ment has evolved as a massive problem due to the diverse nature and complexity of
the waste generated in the developing countries. In order to solve this, integrated
solid waste management plan is implemented as follows:
Minimum Waste Generation

The products with no or minimal utilization are either discarded or collected for
disposal. This action results in generation of solid waste. The most important step in
waste generation is the correct identification of the resources which leads to con-
trolled waste generation and recovery of materials which can be recycled and reused
into other high-value products.
On-Site Storage
Minimal generation of the waste should necessarily be accompanied by source
segregation. Heterogeneous waste storage is commonly observed in developing
countries due to the lack of awareness among the population. Source segregation
involves identification of the waste based on the physical and chemical nature of
the waste. These actions reduce the complexity of waste collected by the munic-
ipality and lead to appropriate treatment, hence reducing burden on the
environment.
Waste Collection
Waste collection deals with the accumulation of waste from various sources and the
transfer of waste from the point of generation to the site (transfer station/processing
station/disposal site) where the collection van is emptied. Usually collection of waste
includes different management frameworks, ranging from municipal services to
franchised services performed under diverse categories of contracts. There are
numerous waste collection services for industrial wastes. Some industrial waste
receives the same treatment as residential waste, while some industries have their
specific treatment facilities, including mineral waste conveyor belts and agricultural
wastewater slurry transportation.
Relocation and Transportation

The waste collected from various sources is transferred to the processing site through
the collection van. Eventually, the waste reaching the processing site is transported
through vehicles to the disposal site, usually away from the cities.
352 S. Arora et al.
Processing and Recovery

All the techniques, facilities, and equipment used to somehow improve the efficiency
of other functional elements and to recover valuable products, conversion products,
or solid waste resources are included in the specific components of processing and
recovery. For the recovery of valuable resources from the waste, separation opera-
tions are performed over the mixed solid waste. The excluded waste is transferred for
the final disposal to the transfer station or the disposal site. Separations based on size
and density, generally performed by air classifiers, are the primary separation
operations. Further separations are based on the nature of the metals to be separated,
for example, separation of iron from the waste is done by magnetic devices, eddy
currents that aid in aluminum separation, and screening for glass separation.
Disposal
Disposal of the solid waste in the engineered landfill sites, after processing and
recovery, is the final step in the hierarchy of solid waste management. It is crucial to
monitor the engineering principles of constraining the waste to the smallest possible
area, reducing it to the lowest practical volume by on-site compaction, and covering
it after daily operation in order to minimize exposure to vermin. Depending on the
source of activity, the waste collected from the landfills can be solid or semi-solid in
nature. Disposal in landfills being commonly practiced in developing countries like
India, with mixed waste dumped in the landfills, is causing serious environmental
and human health issues. Unsanitary landfilling is the biggest source of environ-
mental pollution as it releases carbon dioxide, methane, and many other gases into
the atmosphere, majorly constituting 50% of the gases released from the landfill sites
(Cointreau-Levine 1995), which cause global warming; the leachate formed pollutes
the groundwater. All these activities pollute the environment and ultimately lead to
climate change (Wanichpongpan and Gheewala 2007).
Legal Framework for Solid Waste Management in India
With India being one of the first countries in the world in the formulation of
constitutional amendments for environmental protection and preservation, Indian
Constitution offers a broad framework of powers and functions in relation to
ensuring the safety and security of environment for people and other life forms.
The list of articles governing environmental protection is specified in Table 1.
The two relevant criminal laws dealing with solid waste management are the
Indian Penal Code, 1860, and the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973. The Indian Penal
Code, 1860, for solid waste management offenses affecting public health, protection,
comfort, decency, and morality, Chapter XIV. Solid waste is equated with “public
nuisance” under this code, enforced during the British era. It was viewed and
prosecuted as “public nuisance” because solid waste causes different kinds of
diseases and is dangerous to public health. The regulations deal with the “removal
of nuisance” under Section 133 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973, and empower
Table 1 Legal framework for solid waste management in India

Constitutional
provisions Designated law within the nation
Article 243W. This article defines the power, jurisdiction, and liability of municipal
governments to carry out operations relevant to the management of solid
waste, the public health, the conservation of sanitation and the protection of
the environment, the protection of the interests of weaker sectors, and the
alleviation of urban poverty
Article 38 The article emphasizes on the government to ensure social order for the
promotion of people’s welfare
Article 47 This article lays down the mandate on the state to improve the standard of
living and public health
Article 21 This article states that “A person shall not be deprived of his life or personal
liberty except in accordance with the procedure provided for by law”
Article 48-A The article seeks to protect and improve the environment and the
preservation of the country’s forests and wildlife
Article 51-A (g) The article states that “'It is the responsibility of India to conserve and
improve the natural environment, including forests, lakes, rivers and
wildlife, and to have compassion for living creatures”
the Sub-Divisional Magistrate or any Executive Magistrate to obtain data to order the
removal of public nuisance and to refrain from carrying on any business that causes
public nuisance.
Governance for Solid Waste Management
India’s history of solid waste management goes back to the 1960s, when the
government’s main emphasis was on public health and sanitation. As shown in
Table 2, the solid waste legislation in India is divided into three separate stages,
emphasizing public health and sanitation, the conservation of the environment, and
climate change due to Municipal solid waste management (MSWM).
Solid Waste Management Rule, 2016
This act was developed in the context of lessons learned in 2000 from 14 years of
experience gained after notification of the MSW rules. Consequently, the rules
explicitly state the need for the planning mechanism to be followed by the urban
local bodies (ULBs) for the preparation, revision, and implementation of the
MSWM plans. In order to ensure effective implementation, CPHEEO (2015)
established a seven-step MSWM planning process for ULBs with a special empha-
sis on community or stakeholder contribution and interdepartmental cooperation at
the level of local authorities. However, it should be noted that such an approach
requires effective coordination among different stakeholders to achieve the desired
outcome.
354 S. Arora et al.
Table 2 Stages of solid waste legislation in India

Phase I: public health and sanitation
1960 To promote composting of the urban solid waste, the Ministry of Food and
Agriculture offered concessional funding to the local authorities
1969– The MSW composting grant was issued to the state governments in the fourth five-
1974 year plan
1974 In cities with more than 0.3 million population, an amendment was introduced by the
Government of India to urban waste composting
1975 The first high-power committee was appointed in the fifth five-year plan who
identified 8 areas of waste management and made 76 recommendations
Phase II: environmental protection
1986 The Bhopal gas tragedy in 1984 drew the attention of the government toward the
casualties and environmental damage caused due to the abrupt discharge of toxic
chemicals into the environment. This led to the formulation of Environment
(Protection) Act, 1986, by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
(MoEF&CC)
1989 Hazardous Waste (Management & Handling) Rules, 1989
1995 Spasmodic spread of plague in Surat in the 1990s due to the inefficient management
of solid waste that led to the appointment of the high-power committee under the
chairmanship of Prof. J.S. Bajaj (Bajaj Committee 1995)
The national environmental health and sanitation mission was undertaken by the
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
Under the Ministry of Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation, the Central
Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organization (CPHEEO) has drawn
up a policy paper outlining SWM problems and financial criteria in India
1999 In 1999, the Committee submitted a report
The Technology Advisory Group was set up by the Ministry of Urban Development
MoEF published a provisional Municipal Waste (Management and Handling) Law
2000 Implementation of Municipal Waste (Management and Handling) Rule 2000
Phase III: climate change due to MSWM
2005 The Technology Advisory Group on Solid Waste Management 2005
2006 The National Environment Policy: The National Environment Policy aims to
preserve vital environmental resources and transform them into social and economic
development policies, programs, and projects for the nation. It also emphasizes
recycling and waste reduction techniques, but these have still not been structured
into a cohesive waste management strategy with a multidisciplinary mandate for the
waste hierarchy
2008 The National Urban Sanitation Policy: A policy document encouraging the
integrated availability of water, sanitation, solid waste management, and drainage
facilities in India was prepared by MoUD’s CPHEEO. This policy primarily
encompasses aspects of urban sanitation, with a special emphasis on the reduction of
open urban defecation
2009 The National Action Plan for Climate Change: The policy to resolve the impacts of
climate change was introduced across eight missions at the center of the National
Action Plan. Among the eight national action plans, the Sustainable Habitat National
Mission highlighted the importance of improving energy efficiency of buildings,
improving public transport, and managing solid waste in the region. Other
components of the action plan were the development of technologies for electricity
generation, sewage usage, and optimal recycling
(continued)
Table 2 (continued)
2013 Formulation of MSW rule
2014 Swachh Bharat Mission: With the mission to clean India, the Swachh Bharat Mission
was launched in 2014. The reduction of open defecation, the eradication of manual
scavenging, the modern and scientific management of urban solid waste, and the
impact of behavioral improvement in healthy sanitation practices were the objectives
of the project
2016 Solid Waste Management Rule
Role of Economy in the Solid Waste Management
In the way our economies and industries are organized, sustainable development
needs disruptive changes. The model of a circular economy (CE) provides new
possibilities for creativity and convergence between natural environments, com-
panies, our everyday lives, and the management of waste. Ninety billion tonnes
of primary materials were collected and used worldwide last year with just nine
percent recycled (United Nations Environment Programme 2019). It is econom-
ically unsustainable and has substantial adverse effects on human health and
the environment. The creation of new industries and employment, reducing
pollution, and increasing the productive use of natural resources could be enabled
by a “circular economy” model that utilizes not only waste management but
also reuse, recycling, and responsible production (including energy, water,
and materials). Since the circular economy concept has gained attraction since
the late 1970s (EMF 2013b). Multiple authors, such as Andersen (2007),
Ghisellini et al. (2016), and Su et al. (2013), attribute Pearce’s implementation
of the notion to Turner and Turner (1989). By explaining how natural resources
affect the economy, by supplying both output and consumption inputs and
acting as a drain. They analyze linear and open-ended outputs in the form of
waste.
A circular economy is an industrial system that by nature and design, is restorative or

regenerative. It replaces the idea of end-of-life with regeneration, moves towards the use
of renewable energy, removes the use of hazardous chemicals that hinder the biosphere’s
reuse and return, and seeks to reduce waste through the superior nature of materials, goods,
processes and business models.
As described in Fig. 3, the circular economy varies fundamentally from a

linear economy. In a linear economy, to put it simply, we produce raw materials
that we refine into a commodity that is thrown away after use. We shut down the
processes of all these raw materials in a circular economy. It takes much more to
close these loops than just recycling. It alters the way value is produced and
sustained and how output is made more sustainable and the business models are
used.
356 S. Arora et al.
Fig. 3 Linear versus circular economy
From Eco-effectiveness to Eco-efficiency
In a circular economy, the outlook on sustainability is different than in a linear

economy. The emphasis is on eco-efficiency when working on sustainability
inside a linear economy. This is to mitigate the effect of the same production
on the environment. The time in which the machine becomes overwhelmed will
therefore be extended (Di Maio, Rem, Baldï, and Polder 2017). Sustainability is
pursued within a circular economy in order to improve the eco-effectiveness of
the system. This implies that the ecological effect is not only reduced but that
the cultural, economic, and social impact is also positive (Kjaer, Pigosso
et al. 2019).
The 3R strategy is followed by a circular economy: reduce, reuse, and recycle.
Usage of resources is reduced (reduce). Maximizing the reuse of goods and com-
ponents is (reuse). And last but not the least, to a high standard, raw materials are
reused (recycled). This can be accomplished by using items, such as shared cars,
with more people. Items may also be turned into utilities, such as listening licenses
that Spotify sells instead of CDs. Value is generated in this method by concentrating
on the preservation of value.
In the manner in which value is generated or retained, the circular system and
the linear system vary from each other. A linear economy historically follows the
step-by-step plan of “take-make-dispose.” This implies the processing of raw
materials and then the transformation into goods that are used before they are
eventually discarded as waste. Through making and selling as many goods as
possible, profit is produced in this economic system. At its heart, a circular
economy model has the goal of designing out waste. In reality, a circular economy
is based on the principle that there is no such thing as waste. Things are made to
last (good-quality materials are used) to achieve this and are optimized for a
disassembly and reuse cycle that will make it easier to manage and turn or renew
them as described in Fig. 4. The role of the economy in solid waste management
leads to sustainable development.
Fig. 4 The role of economy in solid waste management

358 S. Arora et al.
Zero Waste Model: A Visionary Concept
One of the approaches for the transition toward a low-carbon and less polluting
economy is the implementation of evolving paradigms such as circular economy
(CE) concepts within environmental sustainability. Although the concept of CE is
relatively new, the CE theory is closely related to various other approaches to
economic sustainability, such as industrial ecology and industrial symbiosis, which
ultimately seek to circularize linear value chains.
The idea of CE is near to nature, imitating the principle of sustainability of
nutrient recycling by cyclic uptake, digestion, and release. It is possible to
classify the materials in CE either as biological materials or as technological
materials. Biological materials, such as food, soap or shampoo, or wear-off
during use such as clothes or shoes, are used to produce the so-called consump-
tion items that are consumed during use. They are intended to be healthy for
human and environmental health and can safely return to the natural biological
cycle as such. Technical components, such as computers, telephones, washing
machines, automobiles, etc., are used to produce service goods. Since they are
non-renewable and therefore detrimental to human health and the environment,
they are retained within the industrial technological cycle, where they are used
for the production of new goods. The CE approach encompasses ecological
consumerism and focuses on the zero waste concepts. The 5R theory used in
the circular economy allows business to redesign its operations for sustainability.
It ensures sustainable integration of biological nutrients into the biosphere and is
designed to re-circulate technical nutrients into the production system without
touching the biosphere (Yaduvanshi et al. 2016). The concepts of the circular
economy thus broaden the boundaries of the management of the green supply
chain by designing methodologies to support the circulation of capital within a
quasi-closed structure on an ongoing basis. The latter consequently decreases the
need for industrial production for virgin materials (Andersen 2006; Genovese
et al. 2015). The present linear take-make-dispose resource model that generates
substantial waste is opposed to this economic paradigm (Ellen MacArthur Foun-
dation 2015). As per the hierarchy of solid waste management outlined in Fig. 4,
the most critical steps are to reduce, reuse, recycle, and compost, with the desired
order to handle waste to minimize the environmental impacts. The next step,
which refers to recovery, is to recover. The CE definition prioritizes the reuse,
remanufacture, and refurbishment of goods that require less energy and material,
making them more economical. Compared to traditional cycling activities down
there. Correspondingly, the second last alternative to disposal is the conversion to
electricity. In the product supply chain and life cycle thus maintain the highest
value and quality possible for as long as possible and are therefore energy-
efficient (Korhonen et al. 2018) (Fig. 5).
Refuse
Sustainability characterizes refuse as denial to purchase or support products which
are hazardous to the environment. Refusing the use of certain products like single-
use plastics and disposable utensils like coffee cups, plates, straws, spoons, forks,
Fig. 5 Representation of paradigm shift of traditional technologies to zero waste
etc. which can be recyclable or non-recyclable and switching to cloth bags and steel
and glass utensils aid in reducing the burden on landfills.
Reduce
Being realistic about the needs and mindful purchasing of products reduce the
amount of waste produced. Purchasing high-quality products rather than cheap
products also help reduce the waste as they last longer. Another option to reduce
the amount of waste generated from the household is to swap the products which
generated maximum waste with environmentally friendly products.
Reuse
Before replacing a damaged electronic good or any other product at home, it is
important to think about the reuse or repair options. The products which are no
longer used can be sold through auctions where they can be reused by other people
rather than ending in the landfills. Before replacing the mobile phones, laptops, or
desktops, one should consider the repairing option as it might fix the problem while
reducing the financial burden, hence conserving nature. Plastic soil paver blocks
made by reuse of plastic along with timber products are used in construction of non-
load-bearing structures. Reusing the glass material provides products such as tiles,
bricks, and paver blocks. Concrete, commonly identified waste material from
the construction and demolition sites can be reused for temporary structures.
Frameworks prepared by reuse of ferrous and non-ferrous metals are quite stable
structures and used several times.
Recycle
Recycling of waste materials denotes reprocessing further so that they can be used
for manufacturing new products. However, the reprocessing of the waste has an
360 S. Arora et al.
impact on the environment and public health, but these repercussions are signifi-
cantly lower as compared to the ones involved with manufacturing of goods from
raw materials. Recycling of the waste provides a new approach in which waste is
considered as a valuable resource. The upcyling an dhigh grade crecylcing can
transform the products of the circular economy into equally valued products, while
recycling of the products is important to ensure the cleaning and sorting of the waste
as per the local recycling guidelines.
Repot or Compost
The organic fraction of the waste generated from the households, hotels, and
restaurants are often dumped in the waste collection van. The waste which reaches
the landfills often rots and smells which disturb the local aesthetics and serve as a
breeding ground for many diseases. Instead of disposal to the landfill sites, the
organic fraction of the waste can be converted into resources by composting.
Aerobic decomposition of the organic waste generated manure or organic fertilizer
which can be fed in the gardens and farms making the soil healthy and in turn
supports the plant growth. The anaerobic decomposition of the organic fraction not
only provides the manure but also generated biogas which acts as a biofuel to meet
the energy demands, thus reducing the dependence on natural resources.
Final Disposal
The aim of circular economy is to design the products in a way that they can be
utilized to their maximum limits through repurposing, recycling, and reusing so that
minimum amount of raw materials are required and minimum waste enters the
sanitary landfills, thus focusing on the concept of zero waste.
Case Studies
For the period from 2014 to 2019, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA) or Swachh
Bharat Mission (SBM) is a nationwide campaign in India aimed at cleaning the
streets, roads, and infrastructure of the cities, towns, and urban and rural areas of
India. Swachh Bharat’s goals include eliminating defecation by building
household-owned and community-owned toilets and creating an accountable
toilet-use monitoring system. The mission, run by the Government of India,
seeks to achieve “open defecation free” (ODF) in India by 2 October 2019,
Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birthday, by building 100 million toilets in rural India
at a projected cost of 1.96 lakh crore. The mission will also contribute to the
achievement by India of the Sustainable Development Goal, set by the UN
in 2015.
The campaign was officially launched by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi in
Raj Ghat, New Delhi, on 2 October 2014. With 3 million government employees and
students from all parts of India participating in 4043 cities, towns, and rural areas, it
is India’s largest cleanliness campaign to date. The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’s main
goal was to eradicate or decrease open defecation. One of the major causes of death
for thousands of children each year is open defecation. Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has
also taken an initiative to create an accountable system for monitoring the use of
latrines, not just latrine construction. It was developed to speed up the coverage of
sanitation in rural areas. The job was to clean and remove the dirt and dust from
them. In India, it is vital to show high standards of hygiene and cleanliness in order to
change the overall global perception that people have of our country. The Swachh
Bharat Mission led to the conclusion that people recognized the value of cleanliness.
India is undergoing rapid urbanization and must use the benefits of agglomeration
economies with extensive urban planning. Urban India generates approximately 1.4
lakh tonnes of waste every day and manages about 65% of it. Before the Swachh
Bharat Mission, waste management potential was just about 14%, and India has
made progress in this sector like never before in the past 6 years. This was possible
because of the government’s call, and particularly the Prime Minister’s, to make
cleanliness a mass movement. Recent data also shows that waste generation in the
country is on a decreasing trend. India positively adopts the 3R (reduce, reuse,
recycle) concept, which positions reduce at the top of the waste management
pyramid. Several cities, such as Indore, Surat, Navi Mumbai, Ambikapur, and
Mysuru, have successfully adopted circular economy principles and demonstrated
excellent models for effective waste management.
Indore
The Indore Municipal Corporation has pioneered the art of social innovation and
behavioral transformation by exploiting technical innovations and diligently engag-
ing NGOs and private companies. Daily morning inspection visits by officials and
the municipal commissioner, careful planning for every project, and extensive
stakeholder consultation also dominated the process.
The foundation of the planning process was a systematic gap assessment to
determine the needs for infrastructure and human resources. A comprehensive
route plan was created to achieve 100% door-to-door waste collection. Because of
this, the company was able to provide timely service to all households with a
standard deviation of just about 5–10 min. The requirement of vehicles for each
ward was determined on the basis of the number of households, and knowledge of
the vehicles and the time for waste collection were widely disseminated to all. “This
removed the need for collection bins at secondary or community level and helped
Indore become a ‘Bin-Free City’.” Several garbage transfer stations have been
installed at various locations where garbage vehicles can unload waste and return
to their predefined route for optimum output in minimal time. Geotagged vehicles
and route plans are tracked from the central control and command center. In case of
any deviation, the command center, ward member, and liable ULB officer receive
immediate notification to investigate the matter. Even the general public can now
track their region’s vehicles through a smartphone application. A successful waste
management system imparts greater resistance to the area’s emissions. Even in times
of disasters such as the Covid-19 pandemic, when firefights were fought by several
other cities to deal with hazardous waste and new regulations came into force by the
362 S. Arora et al.
Central Pollution Control Board, hazardous waste was already segregated by people
in Indore.
Thiruvananthapuram
Thiruvananthapuram (also Trivandrum), the capital of the state of Kerala, India, is a

swanky metropolis renowned for its cultural elegance, holy temples, and mesmeriz-
ing beaches. The city was in the eye of a storm in 2011, when Vilappilsala’s only
municipal dump yard was forced to shut down following local protests over the
mismanagement of the waste at the site. In the face of public criticism,
Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation (TMC) introduced a decentralized
waste management scheme, which later led to a sustainable model where waste is
neither burned nor buried. Thiruvananthapuram decentralization offers an excellent
lens for understanding the implementation challenges, the policy of goals, and the
different stakeholders’ positions on the road to zero waste. As far as possible, the
decentralized source waste management model of Thiruvananthapuram is also a
lesson for other parts of the world and the globe, where waste-to-energy plants are
failing due to lack of segregation. It is also clear that any management attempt will be
reduced to mere displacement if segregation is not achieved, ultimately leading to
burning or burying. In this situation, segregation at source is the imperative of
successful solid waste management strategies. This is where, at or near its source,
Thiruvananthapuram became a pioneer in waste management. This waste manage-
ment model, which encourages source isolation and in situ management to mitigate
the negative impacts of waste on the environment, the human health, and the
economy, is the only way forward for developing countries.
Dr. B. Lal Institute of Biotechnology, Jaipur
At the Educational Institution, Dr. B. Lal Institute of Biotechnology, Jaipur, the zero
waste model was launched, which contributed to Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and Shri
Narendra Modi’s smart city idea, the zero waste model. The study indicated that
waste management is an effective method for mitigating the issue of waste produced
in our climate, which is a problem of concern. The same technique is used for waste
management at the Dr. B. Lal Institute of Biotechnology in order to recover the waste
generated at the Institute.
Waste, such as plastic, paper, glass, metal, and organic waste, was classified based
on content. Threat risk, like nuclear, flammable, contagious, hazardous, or non-toxic
waste, was also dependent on categorization. In order to tie up with them and
manage the waste produced, surveys of different industries were done. The tour
included the Kalpana Handmade Paper industries, the Royal Paper Board Industries,
and the Poonam Recycling Industry. There was a tie-up with the Royal Paper Board
industry that recycled and turned the paper waste into a handmade mat. Paper is
taken from the bin and stored along with paper from other recycling bins in a big
recycling tub. The paper is taken to a recycling facility where it is divided into kinds
and grades. To extract ink, plastic film, staples, and glue, the separated paper is then
washed with soapy water. In a large holder, the paper is placed where it is mixed with
water to produce “slurry.” Different paper items may be produced by adding
different materials to the slurry, such as cardboard, newspaper, or office paper. The
slurry is distributed into large, thin sheets using large rollers. The paper is left to dry,
ready to be cut, and sent back to the stores, and then it is rolled up. The color-coded
binding and incinerator were established to ensure proper waste disposal. In the
institute, green bin, yellow bin, and blue bin were set up that will be further taken to
the industry to recycle them.
An effort to recycle paper, plastic, and e-waste to promote the quality and
protection of the environment was planned during the report. It will serve as a
model for other educational institutions to facilitate a zero waste chain after the
successful implementation of this initiative.
Conclusion
Rapid population growth and urbanization are increasing both the production of
solid waste and the demand for natural resources. Furthermore, the more compli-
cated and daunting issue is induced by increasing demand and fixed quantities of
natural resources available. We certainly should not leave behind waste and a linear
economic paradigm “cradle to grave” where resources are depleting at a pace that
will not leave anything for them and the generations to come. The current practice is
landfilling and open burning, which leads to many environmental and health issues.
In all forms of economies, the only approach that can function is a “zero waste” and
circular model economy that eliminates the burden on scarce resources, follows the
“cradle-to-cradle” model of the circular economy, and leaves “zero landfills” for
future generations. Overall, in solid waste management concepts from linear to
circular economies, the study illustrates the paradigm shift following the “zero
waste” concept.
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Food Waste Management Practice
in Malaysia and Its Potential Contribution 14
to the Circular Economy
Leong Siew Yoong, Mohammed J. K. Bashir, and Lim Jun Wei
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
Solid Waste Generation and Management in Malaysia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
Current Scenario on Food Waste Management in Malaysia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
Landfilling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
Composting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
Macroorganism-Based Bioconversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
Anaerobic Digestion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
Managing Food Waste Transformation Through Circular Economy Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384
Efforts in Managing Food Waste for Sustainable Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
Opportunities and Challenges in Food Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
Abstract
Food wastages are mainly contributed from overpurchasing of food and
food stores’ and outlets’ overstocking. The amount of food waste generated in
Malaysia is at the alarming rate. Over 17,000 tonnes of food wastes are generated
on a daily basis. The generated food waste is causing serious problems to the
L. S. Yoong (*)
Department of Petrochemical Engineering, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman,
Kampar, Perak, Malaysia
e-mail: leongsy@utar.edu.my
M. J. K. Bashir
Department of Environmental Engineering, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman,
Kampar, Perak, Malaysia
e-mail: jkbashir@utar.edu.my
L. J. Wei
Fundamental and Applied Science Department, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS,
Seri Iskandar, Perak, Malaysia
e-mail: junwei.lim@utp.edu.my

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_23
366 L. S. Yoong et al.
socioeconomic and environmental aspect. Encouraging industries, businesses,

and consumers to implement the 3R (reduce, reuse, and recycle) concepts is an
important target to achieve “Goal 12: Ensure Sustainable Consumption and
Production Patterns.” Nevertheless, the application of circular economy princi-
ples to food waste management could represent a valuable impact to Malaysia
economy performance optimization. This chapter draws a closer look on the
current scenarios on food waste management, opportunities, challenges, and
efforts of achieving the sustainable development goal. In addition, we aim to
investigate the potential contribution of resource recovery from food waste to
circular economy which can support sustainable economic growth and reduce
environmental burdens.
Keywords
Food waste · Circular economy · Bioconversion · H. illucens · Composting
Introduction
In all businesses and the economy as a whole, globalization, industrialization,

modernization, and urbanization have an important role to play. These concepts
are the cornerstones of business development and are interrelated in order to create
an economic surplus and better management (https://www.urbangateway.org). As a
result, employment is rising enormously, raising people’s living standards, increas-
ing the population, and utilizing the best possible natural resources, to mention just a
few. But it is no longer sustainable to leverage on these developments. There is an
increase in environmental issues related to energy and pollution, such as waste
management, public hygiene, natural resource exploitation, and massive greenhouse
gas emissions, which are the major obstacles to sustainable development.
In Malaysia, organic waste is the most abundant municipal solid waste (MSW)
disposed to landfill. Out of the total waste fraction, 45% is contributed by food
waste. Food waste refers to food from uneaten leftovers to spoiled produce and food
scraps from processing operations. Food waste is one of Malaysia’s main waste
sources, and the amount of food that Malaysians waste each day is enough to feed 12
million people. Traditionally, food waste is discarded by landfilling, incineration,
anaerobic digestion, and composting (Trivedi et al. 2020).
According to a recently published study by Solid Waste Management and Public
Cleansing Corporation (SWCorp), it was reported that 38,000 tonnes of wastes were
generated, and out of this, 16,688 tonnes of foods were discarded on a daily basis in
2018 (New Straits Times 2019). In addition, during festive seasons, the amount
increases by about 15–20%. Malaysia’s record has reached a critical level of food
being the highest waste disposed of at landfill. The average Malaysian throws away
1.64 kg of waste daily, compared to the worldwide average of 1.2 kg (Ravindran
2015). In order to manage waste more effectively and efficiently, the Malaysian
government has invited a few parties to participate in waste management, such as
14 Food Waste Management Practice in Malaysia and Its Potential Contribution. . . 367
Federalization of Solid Waste Management, Privatization of Solid Waste and Public

Cleansing Services, Enhancement on Awareness Program, and Waste Technology
Utilization for Effective Services and Recovery.
Recycling is the best option for effectively avoiding and managing food waste.
Resource recycling and regeneration has been an alternative approach to some of the
issues of organic waste (Nayak and Bhushan 2019). Recycling provides a viable and
feasible economic activity that minimizes the use of landfill spaces and recovery of
valuable resources. Bioconversion is a natural way of transforming waste into
valuable resources using a biological agent such as insect larvae. Hence, this book
chapter draws a closer look on the current scenarios on food waste management,
opportunities, challenges, and efforts of achieving the sustainable development goal.
In addition, we aim to review the potential contribution of resource recovery from
food waste to circular economy, which can support sustainable economic growth and
reduce environmental burdens.
Solid Waste Generation and Management in Malaysia
Solid wastes are comprised of garbage, refuse, and sludge that are discarded as
useless or unwanted materials. Wastes are produced and abandoned as a few
categories including municipal, hazardous, industrial, medical, universal, radioac-
tivity, as well as construction and demolition wastes. Basically, all of the human and
animal activities do leave some wastes but vary in quantity. As compared to several
decades ago where disposal of human and other wastes did not pose a significant
problem, the amount of municipal solid waste (MSW) today has increased due to
global urbanization and growth of human population. Meanwhile, the area of land
available to assimilate the wastes has reduced due to rapid land developments,
making the solid waste management to be more challenging. Indeed, MSW is one
of the by-products of the human urban lifestyle due to the high economic activity
level and higher purchase income where the accumulation of wastes became a
consequence of life. According to Hoornweg and Bhada-Tata (2012), there were
2.9 million urban residents in 2002 who produced about 0.64 kg of MSW per capita
per day which is equivalent to 0.68 billion tonnes per year; in 2012, the number of
urban residents has increased to about 3 billion who generated about 1.2 kg per
capita per day which is equivalent to 1.3 billion tonnes of MSW per year. Hoornweg
and Bhada-Tata (2012) predicted a 70% global rise in MSW quantity by 2025, with
4.3 billion urban residents producing around 1.42 kg per capita per day, equivalent to
2.2 billion tonnes of MSW per year, resulting in an increase in annual global MSW
management costs from US 205 billion in 2012 to US 375 billion in 2025.
In fact, the quantity of global solid wastes was resulted by collecting the current
available data throughout the countries worldwide, which are categorized by country
income level into high-, upper middle-, lower middle-, and low-income country
groups. Malaysia, with the gross national income (GNI) per capita of around US$
8906 or RM 39, 656 (based on the exchange rate of US$ 1 to RM 4.45 by March,
2017), is categorized as upper middle-income country and contributed a part of the
Fig. 1 The Malaysian solid waste generation from 2015 to 2020 (MHLG 2015)
19% of waste in the world according to the Hoornweg and Bhada-Tata (2012).
Figure 1 shows the Malaysian solid waste generation from 2015 to 2020.
The typical municipal solid waste (MSW) composition in Malaysia is summa-
rized in Fig. 2. Since Malaysia is not only a developing country, but also a multiracial
country with people from different cultures and lifestyles, various waste types or
categories were discovered in the composition.
Municipal solid waste (MSW) is one of the most critical issues in Malaysia with
an enormous quantity in the present and projected incremental quantity in the future
due to increasing urban residents with higher level of purchase income and con-
sumer-based lifestyle (Agamuthu and Fauziah 2011). The huge amount of MSW is
either uncollected, abandoned in open dumping site, or delivered to landfills.
Hoornweg and Bhada-Tata (2012) stated that uncollected waste can be homes for
disease-carrying vectors such as insects and rodents by providing breeding areas and
foods to them, leading to health and nuisance issues. In addition, the practice of open
dumping of MSW triggered the problems of odor, vermin, and flies at sites. Locally,
waste collection vehicles are large sources of air pollutant emissions which lead to
air pollution issue.
Solid waste management (SWM) is concerned with the discipline associated with
the control of generation, on-site storage, collection, transfer and transport, pro-
cessing and recovery, as well as ultimate disposal of solid wastes, in accordance with
Fig. 2 Composition of municipal solid waste in Malaysia (MHLG 2015)
the best principles of public health, economics, engineering, conservation, aes-

thetics, and other environmental considerations. Failure in practicing of efficient
SWM is usually due to inability to reuse the materials as well as the use of improper
method of disposal of solid waste, which leads to depletion of natural resources as
well as serious hazards to public health and the environment, respectively. In order to
fully utilize the technology and management program to excel the current waste
management, the EPA Agenda for Action of 1989 has developed a system known as
integrated solid waste management (ISWM) with a hierarchy, in the order of
preference, including reducing the quantity and toxicity of waste, reusing materials,
recycling materials, waste transformation (including composting, incineration with
energy recovery, and incineration without energy recovery), and, lastly, sanitary
landfilling. In fact, Malaysia is very dependent on landfills where most of wastes
collected are delivered and disposed at landfills, regardless if it is a less preferred
method of waste management option which is usually meant for final disposal place
for unrecovered wastes (Bashir et al. 2018). Figure 3 illustrates the chain of
five stages of municipal solid waste management in Malaysia and in other Asian
countries which are generation, collection, transport, recycling, and disposal. As
mentioned above, the disposal of MSW in Malaysia is rather dependent on the least
preferred method, landfilling, where source reduction, recycling, and waste trans-
formation are seldom practiced (Yong et al. 2019).
According to Manaf et al. (2009), since 1996 and until today, SWM in Malaysia
was privatized and taken care by Southern Waste Management for southern regions,
Idaman Bersih Sdn. Bhd. for northern regions, and Alam Flora Sdn. Bhd. for central
Municipal Solid Waste

Generation
Municipal
Solid Waste
Household Collection Municipal
Commercial SolidWaste
Recycling
Institutional
Industrial
Municipal
Solid Waste
Transportation
Municipal Solid
Waste Disposal
(Landfills)
Fig. 3 Chain of municipal solid waste management in Malaysia and Asian countries
regions. However, local authorities of Malaysian government are still responsible to

manage the wastes generated as stipulated in Section 72 of the Local Government
Act 1976. Different forms of waste are managed by various local governments. The
Ministry of Housing and Local Government, for example, is in charge of MSW, the
Department of Environment (DOE) is in charge of hazardous waste, and the Ministry
of Health (MOH) is in charge of clinical waste (Manaf et al. 2009).
Current Scenario on Food Waste Management in Malaysia
Landfilling
There are many MSW disposal methods in Malaysia; however, landfill and open
dumpsite are the most frequent ways among the methods. Figure 4 shows the actual
site condition at Sahom landfill where MSW is being disposed directly on the ground
by incoming dump trucks and scavengers are ready to scavenge valuable items.
Landfill is the most preferable method applied for management of disposing
wastes in Malaysia due to availability of large territorial areas for landfill capacity
and low operation cost for landfill, although in recent year, Malaysian government is
considering to explore other methods for waste disposal. Open dumpsites without
engineering design and sanitary considerations are traditionally applied to manage
disposal waste in Malaysia, and these non-sanitary landfills are considered as threats
of our environment (Azmi et al. 2016). Therefore, the Ministry of Housing and Local
Government (MHLG) had created four targeted levels of landfill site improvements
in Action Plan 1988 as summarized in Table 1 (Noor et al. 2013).
Table 2 summarises the quantity and distribution of different levels of landfill in
each Malaysian state in 2001. There are a total of 17 level 3 and 4 sanitary landfills.
Four of the sanitary landfills, however, had been closed (Noor et al. 2013).
Fig. 4 Overview of the

current operating site of
Sahom landfill, Kampar
Disposal by sanitary landfilling, in fact, is the lowest rank in ISWM but a

dominant way of waste disposal in Malaysia. However, there are only 10 sanitary
landfills in Malaysia, out of the total of 157 non-sanitary landfills as shown in
Table 2. This indicates that landfills in Malaysia are only at infant level as most of
the landfills in Malaysia are not even sanitary but only at level 0: open dumpsites.
Open dumping is a dangerous method of waste disposal for both living organisms
and environment due to the absence of proper daily soil cover, landfill liner, biogas
collection system, leachate collection system, as well as leachate treatment system.
Table 3 shows that the second most common disposal method in Malaysia is
controlled tipping, followed by controlled landfill with bund and daily cover soil
and lastly sanitary landfill without and with leachate treatment system. Besides, the
table shows that the state of Sarawak has the most open dumpsites, followed by
Johor, Sabah, and Kelantan. Different from open dumpsites and control landfills,
sanitary landfills are constructed with gas monitoring probe, landfill liner system,
Table 1 Target levels of landfill site

Level Condition (Noor et al. 2013) Description (MHLG 2015)
0 Open dumpsite –
1 Controlled dumping Primitive level required for basic landfill sanitation
2 Sanitary landfill with daily Minimum level that should be maintained for
cover landfill
3 Sanitary landfill with leachate Elementary-level semi-aerobic landfill equipped
circulation with leachate collection and circulation systems to
reduce environmental impact
4 Sanitary landfill with leachate Advance level equipped with leachate treatment and
treatment seepage control construction to protect groundwater
and control pollutions
Table 2 The latest update of the number of all landfills in Malaysia (MHLG 2015)
Landfill in operation Landfills not in Total number of disposal
State Sanitary Non-sanitary operation sites
Johor 1 13 23 37
Kedah 1 7 7 15
Kelantan – 13 6 19
Melaka 1 2 5 8
Negeri – 7 11 18
Sembilan
Pahang – 16 16 32
Perak – 17 12 29
Perlis – 1 1 2
Pulau Pinang 1 2 1 4
Sabah – 19 2 21
Sarawak 3 46 14 63
Selangor 3 5 14 22
Terengganu – 8 12 20
WP Kuala – 0 7 7
Lumpur
WP Labuan – 1 0 1
Total 10 157 131 298
groundwater monitoring well, biogas capturing system, daily cover operations, as

well as leachate collection and treatment system. Without proper management of
waste disposal and presence of huge amount of open dumping sites as in Malaysia,
problems will be arising including leachate contamination to surface water and
groundwater and emissions of environmentally toxic gases into the atmo-
sphere (Yong et al. 2018; Azmi et al. 2016). Therefore, landfills must be managed
Table 3 Factors that influence landfill leachate characteristics

Factor Sources Descriptions
Quantity of Climate and The local climate and weather determine the amount and
leachate hydrocycle speed of precipitation, surface runoff, and groundwater
activities infiltration (Miao et al. 2019); the hydrocycle activities
may affect the quantity of leachate
Quality of 1. Parameter Generally characterized by basic parameters such as pH,
leachate suspended solids (SS), chemical oxygen demand (COD),
color, biological oxygen demand (BOD), ammoniacal
nitrogen (NH3–N), and so on (Miao et al. 2019)
2. Landfill age Generally classified into three phases: young,
intermediate, and stabilized; parameters vary at different
landfill age, and their classifications are summarized in
Table 4 (Liu 2013)
properly and sustainably to hinder the potential risks imposed to both the public and
environment.
In Malaysia, landfilling with wastes under the cover soil without air circulation
is not only causing the emission of methane gas, one of the greenhouse gases
(GHG), but produces another detrimental waste known as landfill leachate due to
the lack of leachate collection and treatment systems. Landfill leachate is a type of
dangerous liquid which can be formed as stormwater drains and precipitates and
percolates through layers of wastes in landfills. It is usually dark in color which
contains dissolved or suspended organic and inorganic chemicals as well as
pathogens (Azmi et al. 2016). Without the leachate treatment system in landfills
except several sanitary landfills in Malaysia, the leachate formed is directly in
contact with the surface water as well as groundwater as it filtrates through soils
underneath, causing pollution to the water, groundwater, and soil (Azmi et al.
2016). This allows the organic and inorganic pollutants as well as heavy metals to
be introduced into the food chain and poses severe health problem to all of the
living organisms.
Landfill leachate usually implies as liquid produced from landfill wastes due to
rainwater percolation (Yong et al. 2018). The landfill leachate characteristics are
mainly influenced by two main factors, quantity and quality of leachate, as summa-
rized in Table 3. The quantity of landfill leachate is affected by climate and
hydrocycle activities, whereas the quality of landfill leachate is determined by
various parameters and landfill age: the leachate parameters and landfill age are
interrelated as shown in Table 4.
Sustainable solid waste management aims to manage and treat anthropogenic
waste with minimal adverse environmental and social impacts while at the same time
ensuring economically sound practices. Figure 5 illustrates the hierarchy of the
sustainable solid waste management framework where ideally world government
and society should be following.
As shown in Fig. 5, the most preferable waste management is to first avoid,
prevent, or reduce the generation of waste as much as possible. The sustainable
solid waste management hierarchy encourages world countries to practice source
Table 4 Landfill leachate classification according to landfill age (Liu 2013)

Leachate parameter Young Intermediate Stabilized
Age of landfill (years) <5 5–10 >10
pH <6.5 6.5–7.5 >7.5
BOD5/COD >0.3 0.1–0.3 <0.1
COD (g/L) >15 3–15 <3
NH3–N (mg/L) <400 Not specified >400
TOC/COD <0.3 0.3–0.5 >0.5
Kjeldahl nitrogen (g/L) 0.1–2.0 Not specified Not specified
Heavy metals (mg/L) >2 <2 <2
Fig. 5 The sustainable solid waste management hierarchy framework (Shaikh 2017)
reduction which is the most preferred method toward environmental sustainabil-

ity. If source reduction is not possible to be achieved, then the waste must be
reused, followed by recycling of waste into new raw material for good produc-
tion. If recycling is not possible for some types of waste, then the waste had to go
through technological means to recover precious resources from waste, for
instance, metals, nutrients, etc. via material and energy recovery. The second
least preferred option is incineration where waste volume is largely reduced by
combustion. Hence, the residue from incineration will be landfilled. The least
option is landfilling of waste. Ideally, wastes that are ultimately unable to be
treated must be landfilled. The technology used in waste management differs in
developing and developed countries, rural to urban areas, and residential to
industrial zones (Shaikh 2017). This is because countries which have different
economic, cultural, and resources background determined the different routes
toward solid waste management style. The framework of sustainable solid waste
management is in line with urban circular economy and metabolism as illustrated
in Fig. 6.
Figure 6 shows the difference between linear and circular metabolism in cities
and urban areas. The linear, open-loop approach is utterly unsustainable (Girardet
2017). Unfortunately, 89% of the Malaysian MSW generated directly enters
landfills with minimal treatment where only 1% of the total incoming MSW
receive proper treatment (MHLG 2015). The direct disposal of waste into landfill
goes against the sustainable solid waste management hierarchy as according to
Fig. 5, landfilling is the least preferred method as there are significant negative
impacts of landfilling toward the environment (land, water, and air pollution) and
to public health. As the key method of disposal in Malaysia, the practice of
landfilling characterizes the non-sustainable linear economy, which is a wasteful
urban metabolism mechanism in which many useful resources are “lost” to
landfills. Shifting from linear to circular urban metabolism will possibly enhance
the effective use of energy with minimal waste produced. Therefore, the
waste management hierarchy directly complements the circular metabolism of
cities as reducing waste generation at source and the reuse and recycling are
processes which reduce resource extraction and reduce pollution toward the
environment.
Composting
Composting of organic waste is carried out either aerobically or anaerobically.

Similarly, vermicomposting is also a method of biological decomposition of
organic waste, but with earthworms added to accelerate the process of biodegra-
dation. These processes produce and restore cleaner and safer, more usable,
organic materials to the soil. The agricultural waste-based composts and
vermicomposts can be reused as nutrient-rich organic fertilizers or for land use
(Wu et al. 2014). Composting is one such method for biofertilizer production,
where the combination of high organic content in MSW and the suitable treatment
condition provides an alternative for composting treatment (CIWM 2010).
Composting consists of two phases, namely, thermophilic and mesophilic. The
thermophilic composting process is preferred because of the ability of the enzyme
to ferment organic waste into organic fertilizer in a short time (30–45 days) and
better stability at room temperature, confirming the rapid degradation and matura-
tion of food waste after thermophilic treatment (Waqas et al. 2018; Awasthi et al.
2016). It worked at a temperature higher than that of the mesophilic phase (70–
80 C) (Waqas et al. 2018). Thermophilic phase microbial is capable of degrading
complex compound such as lignin more than 2/3 as compared to mesophilic
microbial (Rashid et al. 2016).
Food waste has the potential to turn into revenue. Common feedstocks for the
manufacturing of compost are food waste and garden waste where these waste
materials will be processed and treated biologically. Composting is a method for
376
Fig. 6 Moving from linear to circular urban metabolism as a key component toward achieving sustainable cities which assures the most efficient possible
resource use and least generation of waste back into the biosphere (Girardet 2017; Yong et al. 2019)
L. S. Yoong et al.
handling natural waste resources that is in line with “zero waste management
scheme” (Lim et al. 2015). It completes the loop of the biological material cycle,
reducing the linear economy of landfilling and incineration of organic waste. The
compost produced includes nutrients and humic substances that directly contribute
to the soil organic matter (SOM). Applying compost to agricultural land contrib-
utes to increased soil quality (Unger and Razza 2018) and lowering the depen-
dency on chemical fertilizer. Moreover, the capital and operational costs for
composting are generally lower than other waste treatment options suitable for
organic waste. By routing the disposal of food waste from landfill, this could ease
the overburdening of the landfill capacities, thus minimizing the greenhouse gas
emissions.
In Malaysia, a very limited amount of the collected organic waste was treated
by a small-scale composting. For example, there is a pilot-scale food waste
composting center shown in Fig. 7 which receives 100 kg of food waste per
day, and the interior of the pilot scale composting center is being shown in
Fig. 8. The food waste is later converted into organic fertilizer without any
sales profit and currently is being used for potted plants in Kampar administrative
offices.
Fig. 7 The exterior of the pilot-scale food waste composting center which receives food waste
from few selected commercial restaurants and hotel
Fig. 8 The interior of the pilot-scale food waste composting center consisting of a packaging and a
mixing machine
Macroorganism-Based Bioconversion
Bioconversion is a process of transforming organic materials, such as plant or

animal waste, into energy sources via biological metabolism, such as certain
microorganisms or macroorganisms. The transformation of organic waste into
insect larval biomass from waste has significant advantages over landfilling and
incineration as waste management methods. The problem of direct landfill dis-
posal raises the question of land use for construction versus landfilling. Further-
more, waste incineration releases toxic gases such as dioxin, which contribute to
greenhouse gas emissions. Nutrient recovery by an organism during the biocon-
version process will be the best practice to consider as part of pretreatment before
decreasing the amount of organic material released to landfill. Recovering valu-
able content from waste would reduce foul smelling, minimize methane gases
emitted during anaerobic degradation, and reduce the cost of transporting waste
to landfill.
Bioconversion of organic waste into valuable product has given the waste a
value instead of being discarded. The concept of bioconversion seems to be an
attractive solution that can address both these issues of organic waste management
and energy scarcity concomitantly. Being a natural process, bioconversion is
sustainable where the process uses insect larvae to transform organic waste. The
Fig. 9 Advantages of H. illucens larvae as decomposer
larvae undergo metabolic pathways to produce favorable metabolic processes,

which will in turn increase their biomass. Most importantly, energy harness from
the larval biomass does not derived from any fossil fuel sources, and it is a much
cleaner source of energy. This cost-effective concept is an appealing approach
which offers an alternative to deal with disposal, incineration, and landfilling as
well as providing an alternative feedstock for renewable energy. The transforma-
tion of organic waste is also known as “upcycling.” Upcycling is a process of
transforming waste into higher-value or higher-quality product (Vats 2016; Wise
et al. 2013). One particular example is the H. illucens larvae. There are several
reasons to use larvae of H. illucens over other insect’s larvae. Figure 9 summarizes
the advantages of H. illucens larvae as waste decomposer. By nature, this species
of Diptera is a decomposer which fed on organic waste. H. illucens larvae is well
known to be self-harvesting in nature and does not feed during the adult stage but
relies on the energy stored during the larvae stage. Therefore, it is not considered as
pest (Sheppard et al. 1994; Sheppard et al. 2002; Tomberlin and Sheppard 2002;
Newton et al. 2005).
There are four stages of metamorphosis of H. illucens. It starts with the insect
hatching from the larva’s eggs. At each stage, as the larva develops, it sheds its
skin. This suggests that ecdysone event is triggered in every instar of a larval-larval
or the pupal that are preparing for ecdysis. It is a common mechanism for the
invertebrates to shed their exoskeleton including their mouthparts once a particular
size is reached. The larvae are voracious eaters during this process. Cessation of
feeding, wandering, and isolation of H. illucens larvae from their feed were
observed during the late period of the larvae stage. This indicates the sign of
pupation and is part of a metamorphosis process to become adult flies. The larva
will find a dry place for pupation. The development of the hard exoskeleton is
formed by the larva as it emerges into pupation and will develop into pupae. This
stage will last for weeks, months, or even longer depending on the pupation
conditions. Compared to beige, the color of the larvae will turn dark brown.
Food stored during the larval stage was used for flight and muscle development
during the pupae stage before fully transforming into an adult. The development stages
of H. illucens are shown in Fig. 10a–g.
Presently, H. illucens larvae are used for transformation of vegetable waste
(Supriyatna et al. 2016; Bonso 2013), restaurant food waste (Zheng et al. 2012;
Salomone et al. 2017), fruit waste (Leong et al. 2016), palm decanter cake (Leong
et al. 2016), and animal manure (Li et al. 2011). H. illucens is chosen as the
decomposing agent owing to the high bioconversion rate of various food wastes
(Fowles and Nansen 2020); it is sustainable, environmentally friendly, and cost-
effective.
The nutrient content presence in this larva presents a great opportunity for the
establishment of circular economy. Several studies have shown that H. illucens
larvae are high in lipid and protein content (Jucker et al. 2020). Lipid extracted
from the larvae provides an alternative feedstock for biodiesel production (Leong
and Kutty 2020; Zheng et al. 2012; Li et al. 2011), while the protein content can
be used in pet food and livestock feed, in particular for fish and poultry (Makkar
et al. 2014; Cappellozza et al. 2019). Lastly, the frass which is the by-product
from the larvae rearing can be used as biofertilizer. Therefore, the current
research has shown a circular economy system that insects can be used to manage
organic waste while providing an alternative source of animal protein and gen-
erating biofertilizer (Jucker et al. 2020; Cappellozza et al. 2019).
Anaerobic Digestion
AD is the technology that supports the urban circular economy framework by

converting 100% of organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) into end
products of renewable electricity and organic fertilizer which have economic value
to be sold back to the grid and to local agriculture industries, respectively. Figure 11
summarizes the various pathways of energy and material recovery from the sorted
MSW.
Figure 9 shows MSW treatment based on waste separation technology. It is
inevitable that waste is still generated despite the efforts to reduce waste generation
at source due to the nature of high living standard with high purchasing power and
other economic activities within urban areas which encourage consumerism of
material goods and the generation of solid waste. Several kinds of wastes from
residential and commercial (garden, sewerage sludge, and food and kitchen waste),
agricultural (animal and plant wastes), and industrial (dairy, tanneries, slaughter-
houses, pulp and paper, sugar refinery, and confectionary waste) sectors are
potential renewable energy sources to achieve sustainability and toward waste-
to-energy (WTE) programs (Paulraj et al. 2019). In order to complement the
(a) Mating of adult fly
(b) Eggs of H. illucens (5X magnification) (c) Larvae of H. illucens
(d) Molting in progress (e) Exoskeleton after molting
(f) Pupae of H.illucens (g) Exoskeleton of H. illucens pupae
Fig. 10 (a, b, c, d, e, f, g) Development stages of H. illucens fly (Leong 2016)

Fig. 11 Pathway to treat and fully utilize the energy and material potential from municipal solid
waste (MSW) via waste separation technology (Kothari et al. 2014)
circular metabolism toward a more sustainable urban metabolism, municipal solid

waste can be either source segregated by the community or separated at a waste
segregating facility into biodegradable fraction, combustible fraction, metals,
heavy materials, and plastic. Biodegradable fraction which consists of high organic
content, for instance, food and kitchen waste and others, can be used to generate
electricity and fertilizer via anaerobic digestion process. The combustible fraction
which consists of wastes that are not able to be recycled can be used as feedstock
for various thermal treatment technologies to produce electricity, secondary fuels,
and heat, namely, incineration, pyrolysis, gasification, and others. Therefore, the
use of these MSW as a source for renewable energy supports the circular city
metabolism by recycling at the same time recovering energy and material from
organic and inorganic waste stream which can be diverted from landfills. As
a result, the total amount of waste streams produced within cities that enter
the natural environment is reduced, while pollution of the environment is
minimised.
Anaerobic digestion (AD) is one of the many pathways in terms of waste
treatment and the recovery of energy and material from waste. The aim of WTE
technology is to minimize the solid waste volume to be disposed into existing
landfills despite the many differences of WTE technologies that are available in
today’s market. Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a biological waste treatment mechanism
that converts organic matter into two useful products: energy-rich biogas and
renewable fuel that can be used to produce electricity or heat or to supplement

natural gas and transportation fuel and nutrient-rich digestate that can be used
directly or composted prior to use in agriculture or landscaping (Yong et al. 2020).
Various organic wastes from agriculture, industry, and the communities such as
biosolids, livestock manure, and wet organic materials and MSW at large can be used
as a feedstock for AD process to generate electricity and fertilizer (Yong et al. 2020).
It was concluded by Yong et al. (2019) that the best waste-to-energy technology in
dealing with wet MSW, which contains higher amount of organic waste (food
waste), is AD as AD can fully utilize the feedstock by effectively converting nearly
all forms of organic waste into both forms of biogas which later can be converted
into electricity and biofertilizer. AD had several advantages compared to other
technologies in treating waste as indicated in Table 5.
Table 5 concluded that AD is considered as one of the most flexible systems
compared to other systems. AD can adsorb a wide range of feedstock loading from
25 tonnes per day (TPD) to more than 500 TPD while maintaining its optimal
operation. As a result of these technological feasibility assessments of the AD
system in comparison to other waste management systems, organic waste can be
effectively exploited by AD for generating multiple benefits to the environment,
electricity, and the economy in terms of revenue generation. The following session
discusses the AD mechanisms and system layout of a typical AD biogas power plant
in more detail.
In Malaysia, municipal solid waste was included as one of the potential sources of
renewable energy to decarbonize the energy sector in Malaysia to achieve higher RE
mix in the electricity grid. Biomass and biogas energy are emphasized in the 9th
Malaysia Plan (9MP) where the government supports the adoption of sustainable
waste management through the reduction, reuse, and recycling with the use of
appropriate equipment, facilities, technologies, and service standards. Small-scale
Feed-in Tariff (FiT) have been implemented in Malaysia in the Small Renewable
Energy Power (SREP) program which was launched by the Malaysian Government
on the 11 May 2001 to encourage the participation of private sectors in RE sectors,
and the possible sources recognized under this program include biomass and biogas
other than solar and mini-hydroenergy (Wong et al. 2015). The electricity generated
from OFMSW can be sold back to utility company the RE Power Purchase Agree-
ment (REPPA). The REPPA mechanism was established through the RE on selling
electricity by RE project developers and purchase by the national utility companies.
Where the REPPA will grant RE electricity producers to have a tenure license of 16–
21 years effective depending on the type of RE on selling back electricity at a
premium FiT rate to the utility companies from the date the plant is commissioned.
Table 6 shows the FiT rate for biogas.
In addition, SEDA recently reviewed and revised the tenure of REPPA biogas
from 16 to 21 years in order to facilitate and support further biogas projects in
Malaysia. On 25 October 2018, SEDA announced a decision on the extension of the
tenure of the biogas FiT scheme to facilitate further growth of the biogas project in
Malaysia. Despite all the advantages, there is still no large-scale anaerobic digestion
facility in Malaysia for the treatment of MSW.
Table 5 The various types of WTE technologies and the technical parameter suitability indicators
(Aich and Ghosh 2016)
Legend/indicator: √, most suitable; M, moderate; , not suitable
Type of WTE technologies
Anaerobic Mass Landfill gas
Technical digestion combustion/ Plasma extraction
parameters (AD) incineration Pyrolysis gasification (LFG)
Waste characteristics
High calorific value, 3 √ √ √ 3
>1200 Kcal/kg
High biodegradable √ M M √ √
matter, >50%
Fixed carbon, <25% √ N/A N/A √ √
Total inert, >25% 3 3 √ M
C/N ratio, 20–30:1 √ N/A M √ N/A
Mixed with all types 3 M M √ M
of waste
Climate
Hot climate, >35 C √ √ √ √ √
Moderate climate, M √ √ √ √
15–25 C
High moisture √ 3 M √ 3
content, >55%
High rainfall area √ 3 M √ 3
Plant size
Up to 25 TPD √ 3 3 3 3
25–50 TPD √ 3 3 3 3
50–100 TPD √ 3 3 3 3
100–500 TPD √ √ M √ 3
>500 TPD √ √ √ √ √
Economic condition
Capital cost Low to High High Very high Very high
moderate
Resource √ √ √ √ √
conservation
Carbon credit √ M M √ M
advantages
Managing Food Waste Transformation Through Circular Economy

Framework
The acceleration of growth in the economy and transformation, globalization, rapid

urbanization, and climate change, relying on scarce and yet non-renewable natural
resources, has forced society to venture and practice circular economics. The
principle of circular economy has given waste a value where waste is again used
Table 6 The detail biogas (landfill/agricultural waste) feed-in tariff rates as of 30 March 2019
(SEDA 2019)
FiT rates (RM/
Biogas (landfill/agricultural waste) kWh)
(a) Basic FiT rates of installed capacity of:
(i) Up to and including 5 MW 0.2210–0.2814
b) Bonus FiT rates having the following criteria (one or more):
(i) Use of gas engine technology with electrical efficiency of above 40% +0.0199
(ii) Use of locally manufactured or assembled gas engine technology +0.0500
(iii) Use of landfill, sewage gas, or agricultural waste including animal +0.0786
waste as fuel source
for further production as the raw materials (input). The conversion of waste or the
reuse of discarded materials has provided a twist to the society’s mentality over the
idea that waste is deemed worthless, no benefit, filthy, as well as polluting to the
environment. Practicing circular economy as a core model has paved the way by
helping manufacturers minimize production costs, increase profitability, decrease
energy usage, and alleviate contamination of the environment. One must bear in
mind, however, that there is no single model that can fit all size.
Circular economy has been an ancient activity of scavengers, peasants, and
poverty-stricken and low middle-income communities. The word “circular econ-
omy” implies the reinvention, rebirth, and/or transformation of discarded goods by
the upcycling or recycling of used materials and items into new materials or
products. However, much of the economic structure still follows a linear process
which means that the stimulus of economic growth is harvesting-manufacturing-
consumption-disposal. Moreover, most industrial sectors still consider the catalyst
for economic growth based on the abundance of natural resources and waste disposal
(Jurgilevich et al. 2016).
Food wastages occurred at the very beginning from the incoming raw materials,
preparations of raw materials, in-process, packaging, quality control, finished goods,
retails, and all the way to consumers. Consequently, the approach to the circular
economy model can be incorporated at all these stages by creating a closed-loop
system and ensuring sustainable production. The food system’s circular economy
means reducing the amount of waste created in the food system, the reuse of food,
the use of by-products and food waste, the recycling of nutrients, and shifts in dietary
habits toward a more balanced and productive diet (Jurgilevich et al. 2016).
In Malaysia, a greater understanding of what the circular economy means and
how companies are effectively implementing circular models is required. For exam-
ple, as an alternative source of protein, food waste resulting from poultry processing
such as animal offal, feathers, and blood can be transformed into aqua feed. In the
management and upcycling of waste into a higher-value commodity, the application
of the circular economy model to poultry processing will have a special advantage
for this sector. In addition, the nutrient content remaining in the waste of poultry can
be retained. In addition, upcycling of poultry wastes resulted in better environmental
and public health performance than other forms of disposal such as composting and
anaerobic digestion. By transforming food waste through a circular economy model,

there are numerous advantages to be gained for business, communities, and the
ecosystem.
Efforts in Managing Food Waste for Sustainable Development
In an effort to reduce poverty and inequality, encourage economic growth, and

recognize environmental impacts, the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals include
a target of halving food waste by 2030. With respect to the 11th Malaysia Plan, green
growth will be the game changer in bringing Malaysia toward a sustainable socio-
economic development path, where improvements in quality of life are in harmony
with the sustainability of the environment and natural resources (11th Malaysia
Plan). To achieve these, the government will introduce a transformative green
growth strategy framework. Under this framework, there are four key areas; one of
the key areas in pursuing green growth for sustainability and resilience is to shift the
management of waste toward a comprehensive reuse, reduce, and recycle (3R)
approach that will reduce development of new landfills.
Additionally, the Petaling Jaya City Council or Majlis Bandaraya Petaling Jaya
(MBPJ) has pioneered the home composting program through funding given by the
Danish International Development Assistance (DANIDA) Solid Waste Management
(SWM) Community Initiatives Project. The program was designed to voluntarily
conduct home composting for 50 households from different regional and demo-
graphic backgrounds to generate compost that can be used as a soil conditioner while
reducing the amount of waste to be disposed of (Department of National Solid Waste
Management 2010).
Along with this, academia has also embarked on recycling projects by reaching
out to school and university students, aiming to instill a shared responsibility to
protect the environment through sustainable consumption and production practices
and impart the right behavior and mindset. To support the elimination of food loss
and food waste in Malaysia, the MYSave Food Programme has been initiated. The
Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) and the
Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry (MOA) have made an effort to
reduce the accumulation of food waste through this initiative. Along with this line,
the Government of Malaysia has taken the initiative to reduce waste generation
and has concentrated on businesses, manufacturing, and educational institutions
engaged in environmental protection activities, especially the recycling of
these food wastes. In addition, the Government issued green technology tax incen-
tives through Budget 2014. The incentive aims at achieving more integrated waste
management approaches, encouraging businesses to rethink their approach by inte-
grating a variety of waste management strategies like collection, storage,
composting, and disposal with other core recycling, recovery, or waste treatment
activities. Such initiatives will improve Malaysia’s green technology ecosystem and
enhance the operations of companies to provide a more comprehensive waste
management approach (MIDA 2019).
Some private businesses, apart from government programs, have embarked on

zero waste management as a move toward a sustainable environment. For
instance, Mentari Alam EKO (M) Sdn Bhd, or MAEKO, is the company that
focuses on solving food waste by composting (Mentari Alam EKO (M) Sdn
Bhd 2020). The aim of the company is to help “close the sustainability loop,”
allowing the food waste from the farms to return to the farms as fertilizer for
future food.
Promise Earth (M) Sdn Bhd is a biotechnology firm specializing in the treatment
of organic waste by fermentation and composting processes. This company
has successfully developed Bio-Mate ON-SITE, an innovative, highly efficient
high-speed on-site recycling process, through technological collaboration with its
Japanese business partner, which transforms organic waste within 24–48 h using
aerobic high-temperature microbial enzymes (Inozyme) technology (https://www.
biomate.com.my/about-us).
ShenceGreenTech is an organic waste management company implementing envi-
ronmentally sustainable organic waste recycling service, recovering valuable
organic waste. The end product of composting process will be targeted toward
fertilizer manufacturers, nurseries, landscapers, and farmers (https://www.
shencegreentech.com/index.html).
Opportunities and Challenges in Food Waste Management
Malaysia is facing numerous opportunities as well as challenges in sustainably

managing waste. With limited land space for landfilling and raising cost of waste
disposal, there is an increase in pressure to tackle some of the challenges. There is
an urgent need to tackle the waste management issue and reduce the impact on the
environment and general well-being of the population. Imparting good virtues
such as civic consciousness and right mindset on recycling requires great effort
from various parties to join hand in making this participation a success. Besides
that, changing the consumer buying behavior or food consumption behavior is a
challenging task to achieve. At buyer’s level, it is important to identify the needs
and wants when purchasing food. Buying foods that are essential along with the
adequate quantity is important to minimize overpurchasing that leads to
food wastages if the food is not consumed. Adopting the circular economic
model for waste management requires the change in the linear processing
such as take, make and dispose. The shift of linear to circular process is chal-
lenging due to the revamp in the equipment design and process, and it’s not cost-
effective.
Nonetheless, with the advancement of science and technology taking place, new
opportunities have arisen to mitigate waste generation as indicated below:
1. Bioconverting the waste into high-value products. This will pave way for waste
reduction to landfill and provide closed-loop waste management.
2. Producing biofuel and biochemical that derives from waste which can replace
fossil-based products such as mineral fertilizers, peat, and fossil fuels. This will
help to reduce the dependency of fossil fuel and other finite resources.
3. Providing alternative income to the middle-class society by establishing biocon-
version infrastructure.
4. Malaysian government has taken initiative to enhance solid waste management
by privatizing and centralizing its solid waste management.
5. Public awareness: Real on-site effort in collaborating with public and enhancing
their awareness is needed. Impose strict law and regulation with strong enforce-
ment on household food and non-food waste segregation with incentives and
rewards given to those who fully comply.
6. The Malaysian government has taken steps in its 11th Malaysia Plan to achieve
the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) by pursuing green growth for sustain-
ability and resilience.
7. Along with this work, the government has granted an incentive scheme in the
form of the Green Investment Tax Allowance (ITA) for the purchase of green
technology assets and the Income Tax Exemption (ITE) for the use of green
technology services and systems to investors who have set up services, including
integrated waste management, renewable energy system integration, energy
services, etc. (MIDA Investment Performance Report 2019).
Conclusion
Every one of us has an important key role to play in making Malaysia a better nation.
A nation’s advancement does not depend in particular on economic growth and
development, country’s GDP, foreign direct investment, human resources, physical
capital, natural resources, and technology. Maintaining sustainable growth, however,
is the main factor for progress in the country. It is essential for all living things that the
natural ecosystem is preserved sustainably. Science and technology advancement that
enhances living standards, while not jeopardizing the environment, should be intro-
duced. Promoting the use of organic compost over chemical fertilizer for plants would
help the agricultural sector to reduce the harmful effect of chemical fertilizer on the
waterway contamination, acidification of the soil, and mineral depletion of the soil.
Adopting waste management in a circular way through recycling and upcycling can
extend the product’s life cycle. The purpose of this economic system is to increase the
productivity of these resources through the use of durable materials and the creation of
long-lasting goods that can be repaired and reused at the end of their life cycle.
Furthermore, the implementation of resource recovery from food waste can
contribute directly/indirectly to ten United Nations Sustainable Development
Goals, namely, No. 1, No Poverty; No. 3, Good Health and Well-Being; No. 6,
Clean Water and Sanitation; No. 7, Affordable and Clean Energy; No. 8, Decent
Work and Economic Growth; No. 11, Sustainable Cities and Communities; No. 12,
Responsible Consumption and Production; No. 13, Climate Action; No. 14, Life
Below Water; and No. 15, Life on Land.
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Life Cycle Assessment to Support Waste
Management Strategies in a Circular 15
Economy Context
Lineker Max Goulart Coelho and Rafaella de Souza Henriques
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394
Circular Economy and Life Cycle Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
Eco-Efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
Industrial Ecology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
Industrial Symbiosis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
Reverse Logistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398
Zero Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398
LCA and Circular Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
Life Cycle Assessment and Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
Circular Economy and Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
Perspectives and Topics for Further Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406
Case Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
Abstract
Waste management is a complex activity which involves several environmental,
economic, and social issues. In the context of a circular economy approach, life
cycle assessment (LCA) could be an interesting approach to support decision-
making in waste management strategies. Actually, LCA is a largely used tool to
evaluate environmental impacts of systems, activities, and processes considering
the whole chain of materials and energy involved in the case analyzed. Indeed,
LCA allows considering effects related to the full life cycle of a process from raw
material extraction and production to final disposal of waste. So, in the field of
waste management, LCA could provide a robust instrument to support decision-
making related to the investigation and selection of waste management (WM)
L. M. Goulart Coelho (*) · R. de Souza Henriques

Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica de Minas Gerais – CEFET-MG, Belo Horizonte, MG,
Brazil
e-mail: lineker@cefetmg.br; rafaella@cefetmg.br

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_87
394 L. M. Goulart Coelho and R. de Souza Henriques
strategies allowing the comparison of different scenarios using a holistic and

quantitative tool. By the way, in a circular economy, a pragmatic and systemic
overview is required to fulfil the requirements of this approach. So, in this
chapter, applications involving LCA applied to waste management in the light
of circular economy are provided. Firstly, an overview of practices and methods
normally used in LCA studies in WM context is presented. After, perspectives for
future works and applications involving circular economy and waste management
focusing on life cycle thinking are discussed. Moreover, areas of research in this
topic in which further development is required are highlighted. Finally, a practical
application is performed, and results from a case study of LCA used to support
WM strategies for a Brazilian city are presented.
Keywords
Waste management · Life cycle assessment · Circular economy · Environmental
impact
Introduction
In a world where a linear chain formed by extraction, production, usage, and

disposal still predominates, in which environmental degradation was by decades
neglected, new perspectives focusing in a more sustainable way of living and
interacting with nature arise in an attempt to find an equilibrium among economic
growth and social and environmental issues. Nowadays, sustainability, sustainable
development, and circular economy are concepts that have gained more and more
attention all over the world, and in this chapter, the link of these approaches and
waste management was presented using life cycle assessment as a supporting tool
to the discussion provided.
Indeed, a society that wants to move toward a circular economy thinking needs
to perform a radical mind shift in population as a whole, changing from a short-
term consumption and discard behavior to a long-term closing the loop approach,
in which natural resources are explored and reused as much as possible to maxi-
mize raw materials usage, minimizing extraction of virgin materials. In this
context, waste management presents a remarkable and crucial role, as strategies
and practices adopted in planning and operation of waste are decisive into the
transition to a society based on a circular economy perspective. Indeed, according
to Paes et al. (2019), the incorporation of circular economy concept in waste
management strategies provides positive impacts to the environment, economy,
and society. Among several existing approaches, life cycle assessment presents
several characteristics that make it an excellent tool to be used in circular economy
studies involving waste management scenarios. So, in this chapter, discussions on
this topic are provided, which include potential themes for further research, and
one application involving LCA applied to waste management in the light of
circular economy is presented.
15 Life Cycle Assessment to Support Waste Management Strategies in a Circular. . . 395
Circular Economy and Life Cycle Assessment
The circular economy is basically a new way of thinking of waste as a resource rather
than a burden, i.e., to consider residues from an activity as a resource for another,
reinserting the material in a new value chain and constructing a society in which
resource is optimized to provide social, environmental, and economic benefits. So,
the main idea behind CE is thinking in all human activities, working as a fully
systemic society, interconnecting resources among process, and closing the loop on
materials management.
It is important to note that there is a high range of circular economy definitions.
According to Kirchherr et al. (2017), which revised 114 papers to investigate the
differences and similarities of the circular economy concepts, papers published
before 2012 in general adopted a CE definition more related to environmental quality
and economic prosperity, whereas after 2012, the CE concept became strongly
related to a systems perspective. From the aforementioned research, Kirchherr et
al. (2017) formulate the following definition:
Circular economy is as an economic system that replaces the “end-of-life” concept with
reducing, alternatively reusing, recycling and recovering materials in production/distribution
and consumption processes. It operates at the micro level (products, companies, consumers),
meso level (eco-industrial parks) and macro level (city, region, nation and beyond), with the
aim to accomplish sustainable development, thus simultaneously creating environmental
quality, economic prosperity and social equity, to the benefit of current and future genera-
tions. It is enabled by novel business models and responsible consumers (Kirchherr et al.
2017).
Since this concept for CE was defined based on a large review of terms adopted from
several studies, this definition will be adopted in this chapter as a reference for the
discussions and information provided. Indeed, this definition aligns with the concept
proposed by Morseletto (2020), which considers a CE as an economic model
focused on optimizing resource use, by waste minimization, life cycle product
increase, reduction in the demand for virgin materials, and closed loops of materials
taking into account environmental and socioeconomic issues. Based on this concept,
Morseletto (2020) recommended the adoption of the ten comprehensive strategies
(10R) proposed by Potting et al. (2017), which presented a framework that could be
synthetized by the following actions: refuse, rethink, reduce, reuse, repair, refurbish,
remanufacture, repurpose, recycle, and recovery.
However, it is important to note that even in terms of the so-called R-strategies,
there is no consensus in literature. Actually, Reike et al. (2018) carried out a literature
review and reported 38 different R-imperative words used by previous studies in
waste management and circular economy papers, evidencing the variability of
terminology involving this theme. From this analysis, Reike et al. (2018) selected
10R words, which are in good agreement with Potting et al. (2017) and Morseletto’s
(2020) suggested framework, the only difference being one R-strategy: the former
included re-mine in the list instead of rethinking adopted by the latter. Despite
differences in structure and even in nomenclature, globally, the conceptualization
of circular economy involves a set of common practices dedicated to give directions

to a new way to deal with raw materials and products from a short-term to a long-
term perspective to achieve a more efficient resource management and find a good
compromise among economic, environmental, and social aspects.
By the way, these aspects are acknowledged as the pillars of sustainability,
forming the so-called triple bottom line, and means that achieving sustainable
development is necessary to find ways to promote an equilibrium among economic,
environmental, and social issues. In this context, circular economy approach will
present a crucial role in providing a path to guarantee a new perspective in terms of
resource management, engaged in environmental preservation, economic growth,
and social benefits.
In addition, when the subject of sustainable development arises, it is always
important to remember one of the most largely used definitions for this complex
idea, which could be summarized as “development that meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs” (World Commission on Environment and Development – WCED 1991).
From this concept, the importance of CE becomes even more evident, providing an
alternative to the current development model, by increasing concerns on resource
consumption and improving the efficiency of raw materials usage.
After the relation of these concepts was pointed out, it is important to note that
beyond the link between circular economy and sustainability, it is also possible to
highlight several approaches normally required for the implementation of circular
economy initiatives, such as eco-efficiency, industrial ecology, industrial symbiosis,
reverse logistic, value retention, and zero waste. For Zhang et al. (2019), the main
purpose of circular economy is the incorporation of the aforementioned approaches
to support societies toward sustainability.
Eco-Efficiency
The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) describes eco-
efficiency as follows:
Being achieved by the delivery of competitively priced goods and services that satisfy
human needs and bring quality of life, while progressively reducing ecological impacts
and resource intensity throughout the life cycle, to a level at least in line with the Earth’s
estimated carrying capacity (Madden et al. 2005).
Eco-efficiency also can be addressed as a way to create additional value by better

meeting customer’s needs while maintaining or reducing environmental impacts
(De Simone and Popoff 2000). In one hand, the first part of the expression “eco”
relies on the sustainable and economic references. On the other hand, the second
one refers to make more with less. The concept of eco-efficiency is used to measure
a comparative environmental performance, rather than applies absolute approaches
as pollution levels. Then, the index can be obtained by the ratio of the added value
and the generated waste from the creation of that value (Derwall et al. 2005). The
Ehrenfeld (2005) alerts about the difficulty of quantification of this index, since the
choice of the aspects that should be included, the simplification of the methods,
and the availability of data can be barriers to this. However, this study points out
that this approach can be preferred over poorer ones, helping in making decisions.
Then, in order to mitigate its shortcomings, it must be coupled with other indicators
and tools.
Industrial Ecology
According to Britannica Academic (2020), the industrial ecology is a “discipline that

traces the flow of energy and materials from their natural resources through manu-
facture, the use of products, and their final recycling or disposal.” In this field, the
industrial system can be an ecosystem which has distribution of materials, energy,
and information flows. There are three key elements of the industrial ecology
(ERKMAN 1997):
1. The systemic, comprehensive, integrated approaches of the industrial economy

components and their relationships.
2. The consideration of the complexity of the flows in both directions, within and
outside the industrial systems.
3. The consideration of the long-term technological evolution.
Here, the industrial systems can be seen as a set of agents that interact with the
natural systems. With the aim to evaluate these activities, it approaches the product
design and manufacturing processes due to the industrial environmental impacts,
which are significant (Ayres and Ayres 2002). So, the industrial systems can be in
line with the other systems; the industrial ecology is the way to approach and
maintain sustainability, given the continued economic, cultural, and technological
evolution (Graedel and Allenby 2010).
Industrial Symbiosis
In symbiosis, two living beings associate and at least one of them benefits from this
relationship. In industrial systems, this approach can also be applied, as two or more
organizations can establish a relationship that benefits all. Often, one enterprise’s
waste can be other enterprise’s raw material. This approach can give waste final
destination for the first one and minimize raw material costs for the second one. In
industrial environment, there are several symbiotic relationships, e.g., utilities,
infrastructure, and service sharing (Graedel and Allenby 2010).
According to Chertow (2000), industrial symbiosis is a relationship between
industries which involves physical exchange of materials, energy, water, and by-
products. This study also emphasizes that geographical proximity is the main
promoter of collaboration between companies. In this context, three approaches are

considered (Chertow 2007):
1. Material reuse – using materials from some company instead of a new material.
2. Utility or infrastructure sharing – the common use of inputs or facilities.
3. Services sharing - the common use of ancillary activities.
The main motivation for doing industrial symbiosis is the cost reduction or
revenue increase, guaranteed long-term supply of resources, and the obligation to
be more efficient and reduce environmental impacts (Chertow 2007).
Reverse Logistics
For many years, goods flowed from suppliers to the final consumer in a supply chain.
However, due to issues such as product support services and product recovery, the
reverse flow in the supply chain has increased significantly in recent decades. The
reverse logistics is defined by the European Working Group on Reverse Logistics as
follows (Dekker et al. 2013):
The process of planning, implementing and controlling backward flows of raw materials, in
process inventory, packaging and finished goods, from a manufacturing, distribution or use
point, to a point of recovery or point of proper disposal.
The products return in the supply chain for reasons such as sales rights, warranty,
quality problems, product recalls, end of use, and end of life (De Brito et al. 2005).
This same study also highlights that the growth of e-commerce significantly
influenced the increase in the flow of product returns in the supply chains.
In the modern supply chain, the boundary between direct flow and reverse flow is
not always well established due to the difficulty of defining who the final consumer
is and who has the raw material. Thus, a more holistic approach is suggested, such as
the closed-loop supply chain concept (Dekker et al. 2013). In this sense, the research
and development and logistics management areas must prioritize product cycle-
oriented approach, regarding supply, recycling, and disposal in a sustainable view,
which can be called as closed-loop management (CLM) (Dyckhoff et al. 2013).
Zero Waste
Nowadays, society faces the problem of minimizing its generated waste. One of the
alternatives is to convert waste into resource, which is the principle of zero waste
(Worrell and Vesilind 2011). Zero waste aims to eliminate all wastes using material
restoration and biological cycles. To this end, it requires the identification of the
waste origins, material reuse or recycle, and new ways to reduce the waste (Murray
2002).
For the systems which operate in “zero waste mode,” the product from one
process must be consumed by another one to return and become an input for the
first process. This is a behavior of the natural processes, and then, to emulate nature
is essential for this approach (Khan and Islam 2016).
So, on the one hand, the 10R and similar frameworks give some general strategies
for implementing circular economy. On the other hand, eco-efficiency, industrial
ecology, industrial symbiosis, reverse logistics, value retention, and zero waste are
specific approaches, each one more directed to one or more of the R-imperatives that
could be embedded in a broader system to support the circular economy
development.
All of the aforementioned CE-related practices and approaches are closely
involved with the way the material resources are handled, particularly in terms of
waste management, as will be further described in the next section. Indeed, all the so-
called R-imperatives previously cited are related to material flows and waste man-
agement practices. Velenturf and Jopson (2019) and Leder et al. (2020) argue that
further studies dedicated to assess the contribution of waste valorization to sustain-
ability are recommended and desired, as they will support the transition to a circular
economy. Dawson (2019) also endorses the importance of waste management to
circular economy and suggests that the conception of products must be concerned by
their end of life, striving to provide appliances that facilitate deconstruction to
optimize material recovery. It is important to point out that one of the keys of circular
economy is to face waste as a resource rather than a burden (Veleva et al. 2017),
which means that WM presents a central role in CE.
LCA and Circular Economy
Another important issue involving CE refers to assessment tools, since to evaluate

the suitability of any process or approach it is essential to develop new instruments
or to adapt existing tools aiming to determine the success of a CE initiative. In this
respect, Kalmykova et al. (2018) developed a study dedicated to investigating
adequate tools to support CE implementation and assessment, recommending mate-
rial flow analysis (MFA), as an important approach to be included in circular
economy-related studies, particularly MFA-LCA hybrid method. MFA briefly
takes into account all mass flows involved in the process or system, whereas LCA
offers a robust way to perform an environmental impact assessment of the system
analyzed. Actually, LCA is a largely used tool to evaluate environmental impacts of
systems, activities, and processes considering the whole chain of materials and
energy involved in the case analyzed. According to the International Organization
for Standardization – ISO 14040 (2006), life cycle assessment (LCA) is a method
applied to the evaluation of environmental impacts from an assessment of the
potential impacts associated with the inputs and outputs of the system analyzed.
Indeed, LCA allows considering effects related to the full life cycle of a process from
raw material extraction and production to final disposal of waste. So, LCA offers a
robust tool to assess environmental impacts based on a systemic point of view, a

characteristic that perfectly meets the requirements of circular economy studies.
According to Haupt and Zschokke (2017), LCA could be used to verify the
achievements of a circular economy initiative concerning the targets established in
terms of environmental performance not only for product designs but also to large-
scale systems. Another important point indicated by the aforementioned study refers
to the fact that LCA could even determine if a circularity proposal could lead to less
or more environmental impacts. Indeed, if a process required to implement circular
economy results in a high demand for materials or energy, at the end, the conclusion
obtained from an LCA study could indicate that the implementation of this circular
approach could not be less impacting than the conventional processes. On the other
hand, LCA could also reinforce how the adoption of circular economy could lead to
a reduction in environmental impacts. Briefly, LCA is a robust tool to evaluate
systems in terms of environmental impacts and could be an important instrument to
support decision-making in the context of circular economy planning and policies.
In addition, variations of LCA adopt a similar approach to study social and
economic impacts. Social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) uses life cycle thinking to
assess a system in terms social aspects, whereas life cycle costing (LCC) incorpo-
rates life cycle reasoning in an economic analysis. So, life cycle thinking could
support circular economy planning, performing assessments aligned to the triple
bottom line premises of sustainability. In other words, LCA enables a systemic
analysis that, depending on the objectives of the assessment, could incorporate
economic, environmental, and social aspects. So, that’s why this chapter was
dedicated to better explore LCA approach and how to use this powerful assessment
tool in the context of circular economy and waste management.
Life Cycle Assessment and Waste Management
Waste management is a complex activity which involves several environmental,

economic, and social issues. In the context of a circular economy approach, life cycle
assessment (LCA) could be an interesting approach to support decision-making in
waste management strategies. According to Allesch and Brunner (2014), life cycle
assessment (LCA) is a methodology largely used to evaluate environmental impact
of waste management alternatives. Indeed, LCA could provide a robust instrument to
support decision-making related to the investigation and selection of waste manage-
ment (WM) strategies allowing the comparison of different scenarios using a holistic
and quantitative tool. As already discussed, in a circular economy, a pragmatic and
systemic overview is required to fulfil the requirements of this approach. These
characteristics are perfectly met by LCA methodology, which was mainly developed
to perform a broad analysis of all impacts involved in an activity incorporating
effects from the whole life cycle of the materials involved. In addition to fulfil the
premises of circular economy, special importance must be given to waste manage-
ment. As stated by Rigamonti et al. (2017), environmental assessments must con-
sider a multicriteria analysis, because it is not possible to characterize nature
degradation based only on one aspect, such as energy demand or greenhouse gas
emissions. This issue is addressed by LCA approach which adopts several impact
categories aimed to evaluate environmental burdens in terms of different
perspectives.
To support LCA studies in waste management, several LCA tools dedicated to
this subject have been developed; among them, the following models could be
highlighted: IWM-1 (White et al. 1995), ORWARE (Dalemo et al. 1997), MSW-
DST (Weitz et al. 1999), IWM-2 (McDougall et al. 2001), WASTED (Diaz and
Warith 2006), EASEWASTE (Kirkeby et al. 2006), WISARD (Buttol et al. 2007),
LCA-IWM (Den Boer et al. 2007), FENIX (Margallo et al. 2012), SWOLF (Levis
et al. 2014), and EASETECH (Clavreul et al. 2014). Details about insights and
shortcomings of the aforementioned tools and several others were presented by
Gentil et al. (2010) and Blikra Vea et al. (2018), which presented interesting reviews
of LCA tools specifically developed for the field of waste management. Concerning
previous works, the huge majority of LCA applications in the field of waste
management involve the system planning, i.e., the assessment of several scenarios
with different waste management strategies using LCA to identify the least
impacting alternative in terms of environmental burdens. The main features offered
by this LCA models specifically focused on WM sector refer to their ability to
facilitate the realization of waste management scenarios, providing a user-friendly
tool that contributes to the dissemination of this methodology in waste management.
Several authors already provided interesting reviews about LCA studies in waste
management. Table 1 presents some information of these reviews.
Table 1 Description of existing review studies on LCA applications on waste management

Number of
papers
Review paper analyzed Scope of the studies recorded Main contribution
Cleary (2009) 20 LCA studies in WM at a Overview of LCA studies in
global level WM
Laurent et al. 222 LCA studies in WM at a Overview of LCA studies in
(2014a) global level WM
Laurent et al. 222 LCA studies in WM at a Suggestions of practices for
(2014b) global level LCA studies in WM
Yadav and 91 LCA studies in WM for Asian Challenges for LCA studies
Samadder countries in Asian countries
(2018)
Khandelwal 153 LCA studies in WM Overview of LCA studies in
et al. (2019) published after 2013 at a WM
global level
Istrate et al. 27 LCA applied to waste-to- Overview of LCA
(2020) energy studies conclusions of waste to
energy
Iqbal et al. 79 LCA studies in WM at a Overview about the best
(2020) global level practices of LCA studies in
WM
Yadav and Samadder (2018) investigated 91 studies involving LCA applications

in WM in Asian countries and highlighted that the main challenges for the dissem-
ination of LCA studies are probably mainly related to a lack of awareness of LCA in
the scientific community, the scarcity or lack of reliable inventory data, and socio-
economic issues.
Iqbal et al. (2020) performed the most recent review study, including 79 articles
of LCA applications in WM, and also highlighted that despite the importance of
sensitivity analysis to give reliability to studies, less than 40% of the paper they
reported presented such procedure. Furthermore, they concluded that an integration
of recycling, treatment, and disposal technologies globally resulted in the most
appropriate strategy for waste management and highlighted the importance of
adopting a systemic approach in waste management. Another important conclusion
of Iqbal et al. (2020) is the necessity to provide local solutions aligned and compat-
ible with technological and socioeconomic contexts.
Khandelwal et al. (2019) carried out a review comprising 153 papers published
after 2013 on the subject of LCA in WM, focusing on analyzing the geographical
distribution of LCA works around the world, as well as the scope of the studies. This
study also reported a concentration of publications on this field from European and
Asian countries. The absence of sensitivity analysis for the most part of studies
compiled was also a concern indicated by this review. Another important observa-
tion of this chapter is the scarcity of life cycle-based studies using LCA variants as
LCC and S-LCA. This chapter also argues that the promotion of initiatives aiming to
develop the awareness about waste management issues of society as a whole,
encompassing the population, public organizations, and private and nongovernment
institutions, is an important way to improve LCA studies in WM. Indeed, lack of
information about inventory of technologies and process involved in an LCA study
could limit the applicability of results and its robustness. So, the engagement of
people in WM-related trends is a good approach to mobilize the society to the
importance of creating datasets on this subject. Concerning circular economy-spe-
cific studies, this is also an important concern; the availability of data and their
accuracy could be a barrier to the development of LCA studies. So, the development
of inventories involving CE initiatives is extremely important to support future
works on this theme.
As indicated by Yadav and Samadder (2018) and Iqbal et al. (2020), a common
conclusion in several studies is that the worst scenario involves the predominance of
waste landfilling. This was expected, as a system based only to send waste in
landfills follows the conventional linear model of product, consume, and discard,
which is the opposite way of a circular economy perspective that advocates for
resource use optimization.
On the other hand, considering less impacting strategies, Laurent et al.’s (2014a)
study pointed out that there is no agreement in the findings of previous works, i.e.,
there is not a general best strategy that fits to all situations, due to regional specific-
ities such as electricity mix and waste composition. Indeed, Laurent et al. (2014a),
which carried out a review which included 222 papers, recommend LCA as a way to
avoid generalizations on waste destination hierarchies, providing a tool to identify
what was named by them as “context-specific waste hierarchies” adapted to local

characteristics, that is, the definition of waste management priorities established
according to regional issues. Similar affirmations were made by Belboom et al.
(2013) and Vossberg et al. (2014), which consider LCA as an alternative to the direct
use of the classical waste destination hierarchy, highlighting the influence of local
conditions over general frameworks.
Istrate et al. (2020) presented a recent study involving LCA applications focusing
on waste-to-energy studies. The main findings of the aforementioned paper indicate
that according to previous studies, incineration as a substitute for landfilling offers an
overall reduction in environmental burdens, but human health consequences of this
strategy are all still controversial.
Cleary (2009) performed a review reporting 20 studies from 2005 to 2008 and
indicated a lack of transparency in LCA assumptions and suggest the convergence of
premises used in LCA studies in WM to provide comparability among them. From
the information provided by the reviewed studies, Cleary (2009) concluded that it is
not possible to endorse or reject the classical waste management destination
priorities.
The discussions presented above reinforce the features of LCA as a methodology
to carry out a detailed environmental performance analysis of waste management
systems, detaching decision-making from a linear perspective to a more broad
analysis, essential to the implementation of circular economy practices.
Laurent et al. (2014b), in turn, based on the reviewed papers, presented sugges-
tions for best practices in performing LCA studies in waste management. Their study
reveals a lack of procedures to assess sensitivity and uncertainty of results in
previous papers recorded, which could lead to a loss in reliability of conclusions.
In addition, the same study also recommends a better description of objective and
scope of the study to improve the transparency of the investigation and clearly state
the aim of the research as well as the system boundaries of the LCA application.
Another important finding of Laurent et al. (2014b) is the lack of detailed description
about destination of secondary materials from recycling and reuse strategies. So, the
correct definition of flow materials adapted to local context is a recommendation
particularly useful for future studies in the context of circular economy.
It is important to note that none of the previous reviews were particularly
dedicated to circular economy applications in waste management. Actually, for the
most part, the term circular economy does not even appear at these review studies.
So, in the next section, a short review of LCA studies in waste management with a
focus on circular economy was provided.
Circular Economy and Waste Management
Waste management is acknowledged as major challenge for societies aiming to

move from linear system to a circular economy approach.
The implementation of circular economy thinking in waste management strate-
gies generates positive effect in the triple bottom line, that is, in the environment,
economy, and society (Paes et al. 2019). According to Jacobsen et al. (2018), one of
the most serious trends faced by waste management planners is the increasing
amount of waste to handle as well as the inefficiency of current WM systems. So,
LCA could help decision-makers to find more effective strategies to deal with the
challenges faced by authorities from this sector.
So, this section presents a short review encompassing studies linking LCA,
circular economy, and waste management. The review process consisted of three
steps: articles selection, data classification, and critical analysis. The papers com-
piled in this research were obtained from three electronic databases: SAGE Journals,
ScienceDirect, and SpringerLink. The papers were selected based on a keyword
research in which the following keywords were used: “waste,” “LCA,” and “circular
economy.”
For each article selected, the year of publication and data related to LCA model
were recorded. The information obtained from each study was classified considering
their main aspects in terms of the main steps of an LCA. The classification process
for each paper was based on a double independent analysis carried out by two
researchers. The results of both were compared, and in case of disagreement,
discussions were performed to achieve a consensus. Table 2 presents a list of studies
involving LCA, circular economy, and waste management. First of all, it was found
that only seven papers meet the research criteria, which indicates a scarcity in
publications on this topic.
Concerning LCA model, a predominance of Recipe approach in the studies
compiled was noted. The preference by this method is probably related to the fact
that it is a largely used model that was updated recently and that meets the
requirements of the analysis by providing a large range of impact categories and
covering midpoint and endpoint point of views. In terms of functional unit, the
adoption of a mass of waste as reference to determine environmental impacts was the
most common functional unit used. This behavior only changes in specific cases, e.
g., Colangelo et al. (2020) that preferred to use 1 m3 of concrete. Indeed, this makes
sense as they were studying the effect of use of recycled aggregates in the overall
environmental impact of concrete.
Geographically, almost all papers recorded were from European countries, an
exception was Monsiváis-Alonso et al. (2020) from Mexico. This concentration of
publications from Europe was expected; as already discussed in the previous section,
LCA studies in waste management mostly come from this continent, and this
tendency was also noted in papers dedicated to circular economy involving waste
management and LCA.
A diversity in the type of waste involved in the studies recorded was noted,
which includes e-waste, CDW, food waste, oil waste, and plastics. An important
observation is the lack of a study encompassing the whole waste fractions from
municipal solid waste. The consideration of glass, metals, plastic, paper,
and organic and other fractions in the same study could give an important
contribution to this field of research, showing the complexity to define different
strategies of circularity considering a large range of options for each material
from MSW.
15
Table 2 Description of existing studies involving LCA applications on waste management in the context of circular economy
Type
of Research Functional ISO LCA Sensitivity
Study Country waste scope unit standards approach LCA model Normalization analysis
Fort and Cerny Czech CDW Destination 1 ton of No Midpoint Impact 2002+ Yes Yes
(2020) Republic strategies waste and
endpoint
Colangelo et al. Italy CDW Recycled 1 m3 of No Midpoint Impact 2002+ Yes No
(2020) aggregates concrete and
endpoint
Rigamonti et al. Italy E- Destination 1 ton of Yes Midpoint AADP, CML, EPS, No Yes
(2017) waste strategies waste EDIP, ILCD, recipe
Meys et al. Germany Plastic Destination 1 kg of Yes Midpoint Recipe No Yes
(2020) waste strategies waste
Laso et al. Spain Food Destination 1 ton of No Midpoint Environmental Yes No
(2016) waste strategies waste sustainability
assessment
Monsiváis- Mexico Oil Destination Year No Endpoint Recipe Yes No
Alonso et al. waste strategies
(2020)
Slorach et al. United Food Destination 1 ton of No Midpoint Recipe Yes Yes
(2020) Kingdom waste strategies waste
Life Cycle Assessment to Support Waste Management Strategies in a Circular. . .
405
Normalization followed by aggregation of results was used for the most part of
the studies reviewed; the authors adopted this approach arguing that this procedure
offers a simple way to have a global result of the environmental performance of
each scenario accessed and facilitates scenarios comparison, simplifying decision-
making (Laso et al. 2016). Indeed, normalization is a good approach to obtain a fast
overview of a system studied. Iqbal et al. (2020) also consider normalization and
aggregation of results an important way to facilitate results interpretation and to
present the LCA findings to stakeholders. However, this practice needs to be used
with parsimony, since there is still no consensus about normalization factors,
which could increase the uncertainty of the interpretations, as different sets of
normalization factors can completely change results and consequently the
conclusions.
Complementing this aspect, sensitivity analysis could support and improve the
reliability of the study and conclusions, by accessing the uncertainty involved in
results. In this sense, it was noted that several papers investigated carried out
some type of sensitivity analysis, which differs from previous reviews that
assessed LCA applications not only to circular economy context but also to
WM in general, as reported in the previous section. This is likely due to the
fact that the reviewed studies are very more recent and they were developed
probably addressing the gaps of previous studies indicated in the reviews previ-
ously discussed. Rigamonti et al. (2017), particularly, presented the results of a
study dedicated to highlight the importance of sensitivity analysis to the inter-
pretation of LCA results involving circular economy studies in the field of
electronic waste management.
According to Rigamonti et al. (2017), LCA results must be critically analyzed, to
ensure consistency and robustness. In fact, ideally, a sensitivity analysis must be
carried out for inputs, LCA models, and any other aspect of the study involving
uncertainties, to provide a better understanding about the stability of results
depending on changes in the assumptions made or in the models used.
It is important to note that for the most part, studies are turned to assess
scenarios of classical waste management practices, such as incineration,
landfilling, composting, recycling, and reuse. There was no study involving
other circular economy strategies such as improvements in durability of materials
instead of recycling. So, a lack of studies involving more complex scenarios is
observed that consider ways to reinsert waste from a process to another value
chain, changing the way of viewing the residues of an activity as resource rather
than a reject.
Perspectives and Topics for Further Research
This section will discuss some topics that need to be further explored in future
research. Actually, there is still several aspects involving circular economy and waste
management focusing on life cycle thinking that must be better investigated, such as
the following:
• Comparison for recycling solutions with improve product durability, i.e., included
in the scenarios focusing on environmental performance of long-term value
retention practices.
• Development of life cycle inventories (LCI) dedicated to key process involved in
circular economy.
• Investigations with case studies dedicated to countries outside Europe, particu-
larly developing countries.
• Incorporation of economic and social aspects in the life cycle assessments, i.e.,
LCC and S-LCA studies, involving waste management in circular economy
perspective.
• Inclusion of sensitivity analysis in all the future studies to provide reliability of
the results and conclusions.
As described in this chapter, circular economy involves several resource man-

agement practices that have been addressed in different levels in earlier research.
Recycling and reuse are the most common subjects, involving circular economy and
waste management. However, there are several other strategies that could be even
more efficient to optimize materials management and minimize waste generation,
such as long-term products value retention, i.e., how to increase durability of
products and consequently prolong their life cycle. The inclusion of this scenarios
allows to analyze the contribution of this practice to reduce waste generation and the
demand for new products from primary resources. In this context, LCA studies
compare environmental impact generated from conventional alternatives for waste
management as recycling and value retention solutions to improve durability of the
same product. According to Bocken et al. (2016), the implementation of service
cycles will enable to increase life cycle of products by means of a combination of
several R-initiatives, such as reuse, repair, and reconditioning. New studies involv-
ing applications dedicated to such practices could provide a valuable contribution to
open new frontiers in circular economy strategies.
Alongside the aforementioned topic, it is necessary to create new LCI data
involving process required to support this new approaches that will be considered
in waste management; otherwise, the lack of inventories available could limit the
different types of circular economy options considered. Actually, the lack of LCI
data is not a specific problem of circular economy-related problems; LCI that reflects
local conditions for waste management process in general is still a challenge that
offers numerous opportunities for new studies. Indeed, LCI is a key aspect of LCA
and could directly influence the results obtained as input and output flows have a
central role in this methodology. In terms of circular economy, studies are dedicated
to the current gaps for process involving items from 10R frameworks. Moreover,
LCI for process required to better characterize common CE approaches, such as
reverse logistics and value retention, is an interesting subject for new LCI studies.
Concerning geographical coverage, the huge majority of LCA studies in waste
management involves European countries followed by Asian countries. So, to
promote the dissemination of this practice around the world, case studies involve
other regions of the world like the United States, Africa, and Oceania. LCA studies
in this continents could give interesting information, showing that these regions
could present different conclusions observed in studies from Europe and Asia.
Another aspect to be further explored involves the adoption of variants of LCA to
consider economic (LCC) and social aspects (S-LCA). This recommendation does
not mean to prioritize LCC and S-LCA and to abandon environmental aspects. On
the contrary, environmental issues need to be included in future works, but it is
important to incorporate the other aspects that compose the triple bottom line. After
all, to implement circular economy initiatives that really will contribute to a sustain-
able development, it is necessary to assess the equilibrium among environmental,
social, and economic aspects to provide a complete evaluation of the scenarios
considered.
Sensitivity analysis inclusion in LCA studies was recommended in almost all
review papers presented in this chapter, which reinforce that the incorporation of
uncertainty analysis in future papers is a common concern of scientific community in
this field. So, the analysis of sensitivity of results due to inputs, methods, assump-
tions, and premises of the study is strongly suggested and must be seem as a crucial
step in upcoming research.
So, these suggestions presented above comprise only a short list of numerous
opportunities for future research. It is important to keep in mind that circular
economy implementation is still under development and several challenges will
arise in the next years. So, methodology adaptation and technology development
are to fill the requirements that will be faced by society’s transition to CE, which will
probably open new fronts for further studies in the field of LCA applied to support
waste management.
Case Study
This section describes a practical application from a case study of LCA used to
support WM strategies for a Brazilian city incorporating circular economy concepts.
The main purpose of this case study is to show an example on how to use LCA to
support the analysis of circular economy options in the field of waste management.
This case study is addressed to Juiz de Fora, a city located in the southeast of
Brazil in the state of Minas Gerais. This city presents an urban area of 446.5 km2 and
a population of 573,285 inhabitants (IBGE 2020). The climate is humid subtropical,
characterized by a dry winter and hot summer; the average temperature is 19.5 C;
and the average rainfall rate is 1360 mm/year (INMET 2020).
In terms of waste characteristics, Juiz de Fora presents a daily per capita waste
generation rate of 0.7 kg/inhabitant/day (Prefeitura de Juiz de Fora 2018).
Concerning municipal solid waste composition, according to the same source, this
city presents the following waste fraction distribution: 3.1% glass, 1.2% metal,
12.9% paper, 16.3% plastic, 43.1% organics, and 23.4% others. Waste management
in Juiz de Fora basically involves landfilling, which is the destination of 99.2% of all
MSW generated; only 0.8% of recyclables are sent to sorting plants (Prefeitura de
Juiz de Fora 2018).
LCA was carried out in four steps: goal and scope definition, life cycle inventory
(LCI), life cycle impact assessment (LCIA), and results interpretation. The main goal
of this LCA case study is to assess waste management strategies to Juiz de Fora. The
scope of this study comprises the impacts related to the treatment and disposal
facilities, as well as collection and transport of waste. LCI involving raw materials
and emissions for waste treatment technologies and collection and transport of
materials was performed using the LCA-IWM methodology developed by Den
Boer et al. (2007). It is important to note that this study considers the extraction of
virgin materials avoided by material recovery from waste and by reverse logistics
practice. Impacts related to electricity consumption were determined considering the
Brazilian electricity mix, using the LCI presented by Goulart Coelho and Lange
(2018).
In this study, different waste management scenarios were evaluated and compared
using LCA approach. A total of six scenarios were investigated. Scenario 1 repre-
sents the current waste management adopted in Juiz de Fora, with 99.2% of MSW
landfilled and 0.8% recycled.
Scenario 2 consists of a strategy based on waste to energy as an alternative to
landfilling, with 99.2% of MSW sent to incineration and 0.8% recycled. Rejects
generated by incineration were sent to landfill.
Scenarios 3 and 4 comprise conventional strategies to support material recovery
from waste. Scenario 3 focuses on sorting plants, considering that 30% of recycla-
bles (glass, plastic, metal, and paper) are source separated collected by public system
and sent to recycling; the rest of waste are assumed to be landfilled. A recovery rate
of 70% of waste sent to sorting was adopted. Scenario 4 is similar to the previous one
but includes composting of 30% of organic waste fraction.
Scenario 5 involves the adoption of reverse logistics for packing materials
(glass and plastic). This scenario assumes that packing is source separated and
voluntary delivered at collecting points. So, it was assumed that materials managed
by reverse logistics do not require public collection. On the other hand, a distance
of 250 km was adopted for transportation of materials from collecting points of the
industrial plant that reinserts the product in the production line. In scenario 5, it
was considered that 30% of packing materials are managed by reverse logistics and
the rest of waste are landfilled. Materials managed by reverse logistics are assumed
to be fully used in the same function. Scenario 6 is similar to scenario 5 but
considers a lower percentage of packing materials being managed by reverse
logistics; instead of 30%, a value of 15% was considered in this scenario. It is
important to note that the current percentage of materials sent to recycling (0.8%)
was kept in scenarios 5 and 6. Table 3 presents waste material flow destination for
each scenario.
Referring to LCIA, it was performed using LCA-IWM methodology (Den Boer
et al. 2007), which is based on the CML 2001 method (Guinée et al. 2002).
Characterization factors were updated according to Oers (2016). Six CML 2001
impact categories were included in this study as preconized by LCA-IWM model.
The following LCA impact categories were considered: abiotic depletion (kgSbeq),
acidification (kgSO2eq), eutrophication (kgPO4eq), global warming (kgCO2eq),
Table 3 Waste material flows for each scenario

Material flows(ton/year)
Scenario Composting Incineration Landfill Recycling Reverse logistics
1 – – 145,808 393 –
2 – 145,808 – 393 –
3 – – 136,170 14,721 –
4 18,939 – 122,912 14,721 –
5 – – 137,557 393 8525
6 – – 141,819 393 4262
Table 4 Normalization factors related to world emissions in 2000 (adapted from Guinée et al.
2001; Sleeswijk et al. 2008; Oers 2016)
Impact category Normalization factor Unit
Abiotic depletion 2.63E+01 kgSbeq/yr./capita
Global warming 6.94E+03 kgCO2eq/yr./capita
Human toxicity 1.46E+03 kg1.4-C6H4Cl2eq/yr./capita
Photochemical oxidation 6.05E+00 kgC2H4eq/yr./capita
Acidification 3.93E+01 kgSO2eq/yr./capita
Eutrophication 3.37E+01 KgPO4eq/yr./capita
human toxicity (kg 1.4-dichlorobenzeneeq), and photochemical oxidation

(kgC2H4eq). In terms of results interpretation, scenarios were compared considering
the results of each impact categories. In addition, normalization of results and
aggregation were used to provide a global performance analysis. Scenarios were
classified considering each impact category and in terms of aggregated results.
Normalization was based on factors related to the world emissions in 2000 presented
in Table 4.
Table 5 presents LCIA results for each scenario, in which positive values repre-
sent an environmental burden and negative values indicate an environmental credit
(impact avoided). To facilitate results interpretation, each impact category was firstly
separately analyzed. First of all, an analysis about abiotic depletion was carried out,
the impact category related to resource consumption. Results for this impact cate-
gory are presented in Fig. 1. As expected, scenarios with the higher amounts of
material recovery presented the best results. Indeed, scenarios 3 and 4, with higher
recycling rates, presented the major quantities of environmental impact avoided
(negative results). Scenarios 5 and 6 focused on reverse logistics and presented
very good results.
By the way, scenario 5 showed results practically as good as scenarios 3 and 4,
with much less rates of recycling recovery. This behavior is associated with the fact
that reverse logistics does not increase demand by fossil fuels, since the collection of
waste is supposed to be made in recycling points instead of door to door. On the
contrary, scenarios 3 and 4, despite promoting high material recovery from waste,
also cause increase in fossil fuel consumption, as it requires the implementation of
source separated collection that occurs in parallel to conventional collection (mix
Table 5 LCIA impact category results for each scenario: abiotic depletion (AB), acidification
(AC), eutrophication (EU), global warming (GW), human toxicity (HT), and photochemical
oxidation (PO)
Environmental impact category results
AB AC EU GW HT (kg1.4- PO
Scenario (kgSbeq) (kgSO2eq) (kgPO4eq) (kgCO2eq) C6H4Cl2eq) (kgC2H4eq)
1 1.64E+03 1.09E+06 1.73E+05 2.39E+10 3.79E+08 1.27E+04
2 5.63E+04 1.08E+06 1.53E+05 2.39E+10 3.79E+08 4.93E+03
3 1.43E+05 1.00E+06 1.60E+05 2.47E+10 3.92E+08 7.29E+03
4 1.43E+05 9.16E+05 1.64E+05 2.18E+10 3.46E+08 5.97E+03
5 1.39E+05 9.27E+05 1.50E+05 2.24E+10 3.56E+08 8.66E+03
6 7.05E+04 1.01E+06 1.62E+05 2.31E+10 3.68E+08 1.07E+04
Fig. 1 LCIA results for abiotic depletion impact category
collection). So, from these results, it is noted that fuel consumption from collection
could be highly impacting in source separation options, limiting the benefits of
material recovery. However, it is clearly noted that scenarios based on circular
economy premises looking for increase in material reuse or recycling were less
impacting alternatives, since these avoid the demand of new primary materials.
Concerning the worst scenarios, 1 and 2, the latter presents better results for this
impact category as it allows at least energy recovery from waste, instead of scenario
1, in which landfilling predominates.
For acidification impact category, results are presented in Fig. 2. Landfill and
incineration emissions are important sources of impact for this category. Organic
fraction treatment also generates emissions that directly increase burdens related to
acidification. Indeed, in scenario 4, composting increases the impacts from the
Fig. 2 LCIA results for acidification potential impact category
release of ammonia, NOx, and SO2, but this scenario also presents important waste
recycling quantities. So, the increases in impacts related to organic fraction treatment
were compensated by material recovery, which prevents impacts in this category,
principally by avoiding emissions of SO2 and NOx from the production of paper and
plastics by virgin materials.
Concerning eutrophication impact category, results are provided in Fig. 3.
Landfilling and composting technologies are the main technologies responsible by
the impacts related to this category due to leachate emissions from landfill and
micronutrient release from compost applied as fertilizer; for this reason, scenarios
1 and 4 achieved the higher impacts in this category.
Figure 4 shows the results for global warming; an interesting observation refers to
the comparison between scenarios 3 and 4, and both presented the same amount of
waste send to recycling. However, while the former obtained the worst results in this
category, the latter produced the lowest environmental burden. This occurs because
scenario 4 beyond recyclables also considers composting of organic waste, which
was decisive in this difference, as waste composted prevents greenhouse gas emis-
sions from waste landfilled. Comparing scenarios 1 and 3, the latter presents higher
impacts for this category because it requires an increase in fossil fuel consumption
due to source separated collection occurring alongside to mixed collection, resulting
in a worst result compared with the reference scenario, which is based only on mixed
collection.
Referring to human toxicity, as presented in Table 5 and in Fig. 5, globally,
scenarios achieved very similar results, with a slightly difference for scenario 4,
mainly due to composting and avoiding organic wastes to be landfilled. So, in terms
of this impact category, all scenarios are almost at the same level, indicating that
human toxicity was not a decisive category, as all scenarios resulted in high emission
Fig. 3 LCIA results for eutrophication potential impact category
Fig. 4 LCIA results for global warming impact category
levels impacting this indicator. However, this consideration is limited to this case
study and could not to be generalized.
Concerning photochemical oxidation, air emissions from landfill were the main
source of environmental impact. Indeed, scenarios 1, 5, and 6, which have the large
amounts of waste sent to landfill, presented the worst results for this impact category.
On the other hand, scenario 1, focused on landfilling minimization by incineration of
Fig. 5 LCIA results for human toxicity impact category
residues, was the one that achieves the lowest environmental impact for this cate-
gory, followed by scenario 4, the second one with lower landfilling quantities.
Scenarios 3 and 4 also presented low levels of impacts due to the prevention of
landfilling thanks to the high material recovery quantities (Fig. 6).
Figure 7 shows the global aggregated results obtained by the summation of the
normalized impact category values. The high global impact observed in scenario 3 is
mainly linked to the increase in fossil fuel demand for waste separated collection.
Furthermore, the good performance of scenario 4 highlights the importance to pay
attention to organic fraction destination. Scenarios 5 and 6, dedicated to reverse
logistics, provide good examples of different ways to consider other circular econ-
omy initiatives beyond the classic ones as recycling and organic valorization.
Table 6 shows a classification of scenarios according to results of each impact
category and considering aggregation of the normalized results. It is important to
highlight that scenario 1, based on landfilling, was classified in the last position in
four impact categories. It is important to highlight that the aforementioned scenario
corresponds to the existing waste management strategy in Juiz de Fora, which means
that it is highly recommended to rethink the way the authorities are conducting
MSW planning in this city. On the other hand, scenario 4 reached the first position in
three impact categories and also the top position, considering aggregated results. It is
important to note that the good results obtained by this scenario are likely related to
the fact that material recovery involves both recyclables and organic waste. Scenario
5, also based on reverse logistics, presented an overall good position for the most
part of impact categories.
An important concern refers to the fact that even after normalization, the
magnitude of results for global warming is much higher than for other impact
Fig. 6 LCIA results for photochemical oxidation impact category
Fig. 7 Normalized results aggregated for each scenario, presented in terms of inhabitants equiv-
alent (IE)
categories, masking the results that in fact represent basically the same graphic
showed in Fig. 4, and was here presented to emphasize that, despite facilitating
the interpretation by condensing results, normalization could also provide an
overview that hyper-estimates burdens from scenarios for what normalization
factors are higher.
Table 6 Classification of Scenarios classification

scenarios according to
Scenario AB AC EU GW HT PO Global
impact category results:
abiotic depletion (AB), 1 6 6 6 4 5 6 5
acidification (AC), 2 5 5 2 5 4 1 4
eutrophication (EU), global 3 1 3 3 6 6 3 6
warming (GW), human 4 2 1 5 1 1 2 1
toxicity (HT), and
5 3 2 1 2 2 4 2
photochemical oxidation
(PO) 6 4 4 4 3 3 5 3
Conclusion
Concerning the case study, interesting features about LCA applications in waste
management were observed from the results and discussion, clarifying the use of the
method by means of a practical example. It is important to note that the conclusions
presented in this case study could not be generalized to other cases, because LCA is
highly influenced for local characteristics, as already discussed throughout this
chapter.
The information provided in this chapter aims to present an overview of circular
economy perspective applied to waste management using a life cycle assessment
approach. However, the background presented here must be considered an introduc-
tion to the theme, showing the main trends involved and highlighting the complexity
of the subject and requiring further studies to obtain more information and details
about LCA steps and procedures and about circular economy initiatives. Finally,
closing the loop could not be viewed as a panacea that will solve all environmental
problems without any exception; rather, it is an alternative to the current production
system that needs to be considered as a potential way to contribute to sustainable
development.
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Circular Economy Approach to Address
the Industrial Solid Waste Management 16
Salman Raza Naqvi, Bilal Beig, and Muhammad Naqvi
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422
Classification of Industrial Waste in the Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424
Opportunities, Challenges, and Trade-Offs of Industrial Waste Recovery and Recycling
Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427
Waste Recycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
Composting and Anaerobic Digestion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432
Energy Recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433
Circular Economy Tools and Framework for Industrial Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
Level(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
Environmental Technology Verification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
Product Environmental Footprint and Organization Environmental Footprint . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
Ecolabel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
Eco-management and Audit Scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
GPP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437
Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438
Abstract
Industrial activities continuously generate diverse characteristics of various types
of wastes. Industrial wastes varied from various process residues, wastes from
pollution, or decontamination from operations and materials resulting from activ-
ities for contaminated soil remediation, ashes, oil, acidic wastes, plastic, paper,
wood, fiber, rubber, metals, and glass.
S. R. Naqvi (*) · B. Beig
School of Chemical and Materials Engineering, National University of Sciences and Technology,
Islamabad, Pakistan
e-mail: salman.raza@scme.nust.edu.pk
M. Naqvi
Department of Engineering and Chemical Sciences, Karlstad University, Karlstad, Sweden
e-mail: raza.naqvi@kau.se

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_62
422 S. R. Naqvi et al.
The circular tools indicate a restorative and regenerative system in which the
streams of materials and products take place in a circular way. Considering social
pressures, major industrial enterprises perceived the need for readjusting their
production chains according to circular chains, which are more sustainable and
consider the generated waste.
This study aims to present the factors for sustainable waste management
in major industrial enterprises based on the circular economy approach. The
available data of a waste company is considered, and the model of circular
economy such as fault tree analysis is applied to figure out the implementation
of a circular process to industrial waste, especially those of lower value that have
greater difficulties in being processed. The last section will propose a framework,
opportunities, challenges, and trade-offs promoting circulatory industrial waste
management.
Keywords
Waste management · Recycling · Industrial waste · Circular economy
Introduction
The main theme behind circular economy (CE) is to follow the alternative approach
of the traditional linear economy. The traditional linear economy comprises three
major steps, i.e., make, use, and dispose as shown in Fig. 1. On the other hand, in CE
the materials are kept in use for a long period of time, with the extraction of
maximum usable material content as shown in Fig. 2. At the end of their life span,
the materials are reused by recycling and converting them into some other useful
products (Bonviu 2014). CE helps to maintain a balance between the industry and
the ecosystem by recognizing the effectiveness of recycling the materials in the
natural environment (Andersen 2007). CE creates a lot of new opportunities for jobs
and businesses along with the reduction in waste by saving materials and costs
associated with it. CE also helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions due to
Fig. 1 Process scheme of

traditional linear economy Resource
Make
Use
Dispose
Waste
16 Circular Economy Approach to Address the Industrial Solid Waste Management 423
Fig. 2 Process scheme of

circular economy Manufacture
Reproduce Use
Recycle Dispose
continuous recycling of used materials. Furthermore, CE will enhance the resource

productivity by 30% till 2030 which helps to improve the gross domestic product
by 1%. This increase in GDP creates nearly two million new jobs (Ghisellini et al.
2016). The CE moves many nations from the conventional approach of “take-make-
dispose” process. Recent studies show that the conventional system reduces the
profits while environmental hazards and material costs increase (Preston 2012).
The CE is directly linked with sustainable development. Sustainable development
is generally expressed as the improvement and development which fulfill the present
needs of humans without affecting the natural resources for future generation
(Sviluppo et al. 1987). The strong sustainability focused on the natural capital
without its replacement with human resources. On the other hand, weak sustainabil-
ity states that natural resources can be substituted with the human capital (Andersen
2007). The CE under sustainable development goals aimed for the reduction of input
resources along with energy by using the recycling principle and follows the
renewable materials and cascade-type energy patterns within the conventional sys-
tem. Furthermore, many authors called CE as a tool for sustainable development.
Geissdoerfer et al. (2017) presented three connections which linked CE with sus-
tainable development. These connections include (i) CE is essential for sustainable
development, (ii) CE is helpful for sustainability, and (iii) both CE and sustainability
are mandatory for each other. Sustainable development defines the goals and
objectives for the improvement in any system due to problems, while CE acted as
a tool which addresses those problems and removes the hurdles that arise due to it
(Bonviu 2014). The thermodynamic parameters limit the adaptation of CE to a
conventional system. The cost of transformation from a linear system to a circular
pattern is another major constraint (Korhonen et al. 2018). The goals of sustainable
development will evaluate the advantages and cost associated with CE for its
practice for any conventional system. The CE goals are originated from sustainable
development targets which clearly segregate the two input materials to any cycle
which are renewable and nonrenewable resources. The sustainable development
emphasized more on the regeneration of renewable resources in comparison with
its extraction and utilization (Daly 2008). Nonrenewable resources are consuming
very fast within the past few decades. So, to achieve sustainability, the consumption
rate of conventional resources must be lower than that of the establishment of its
renewable counterparts (Daly 1990). The other disadvantage of nonrenewable
resources is their contribution towards greenhouse gas emission and environmental
pollution as waste, whereas the waste generated by renewable resources is very less
or negligible (Deng et al. 2020). In this perspective, there is a need to differentiate
between two types of waste, i.e., biological and technical waste (MacArthur 2015).
The biological waste is biodegradable in nature coming from biogeochemical
sources which are transformed into natural resources after degradation. According
to the operational scheme of (Daly 1990), the emissions from biological waste must
be cut down within the limits of ecosystems so that nature will take it easily without
any harm. On the other hand, technological waste is categorized as non-
biodegradable material. This waste material required some unit operation and
process for its conversion into some reusable product. Therefore, this waste must
be reduced to make the environment cleaner and greener (Riechmann et al. 1995).
The CE concept includes the processes which generate zero waste and promote the
utilization of resources for a longer period of time within the circular path. It also
gives special importance on water and energy inputs coming from renewable sources
(Scotland 2013). This chapter aims to elaborate the classification of industrial
waste in the economy. Also different opportunities, challenges, and trade-offs of
industrial waste recovery and recycling processes are discussed. The major contri-
bution of this chapter is to determine the circular economy concept to address
industrial solid waste management.
Classification of Industrial Waste in the Economy
The beginning of industrialization around the world creates lots of jobs and started
new businesses but also left some negative impacts on the environment as well.
These drawbacks include greenhouse gas emissions along with lots of waste gener-
ated during the operation of industrial plants. Every production plant needs some
basic raw materials which after processing are converted into finished products.
Along with products, waste is also generated during these industrial activities. This
industrial waste materials include waste paint, metallic chips, ash, fiber, spent
catalyst, slag, and radioactive materials (El-Fadel et al. 2001). The word “industrial
waste” is defined as any material in the form of liquid, solid, or gas coming out from
any manufacturing facility which is not treated as a product. Without any
proper arrangement of disposal plan, the wastes can create a severe hazard to the
surrounding humans and environment (Demirbas 2011). Due to this reason, a
proper classification of industrial waste is required. Industrial wastes are generally
classified into two major types which are nonhazardous and hazardous.
Nonhazardous waste is the waste generated which poses no threats to the near
ecosystem. This includes wooden cartons, plastics, metallic chips, broken glass
pieces, rocks, and organic waste. On the other hand, hazardous waste, as the name
suggests, is the resultant product of industrial processes which may be harmful for
the near environment and humans. Examples of hazardous waste are flammable
Fig. 3 Classification of
industrial waste
Industiral Waste
Hazardous Non-Hazardous
Flammable liquids, Wooden cartons,

corrosive fluids,spent Plastics Metallic
catalyst and toxic shavings ,Broken glass,
substances Rocks & organic waste
liquids, corrosive spent catalysts, and toxic substances (Millati et al. 2019). The
classification of industrial waste is shown in Fig. 3. Generally, the amount of
nonhazardous waste produced per year is very large in comparison with hazardous
waste (Allen and Behmanesh 1992). Only 3.8% of industrial waste was categorized
as hazardous according to Europe (EU-28) (Baldé et al. 2017).
Additionally, the industrial waste can either be in different forms like solid, liquid,
or gas depending upon the nature of the industry. Industrial solid wastes normally
comprise a variety of materials including used papers, plastics, wooden chips,
cardboards, packaging materials, scrap metal, and many others which are unable
to fulfill further needs. But one thing is important which came from CE that the waste
of one industry can be adopted as a raw material for other industry to convert it
into some useful product. Liquid waste is also produced by many industries which is
the most harmful and threatens the life of humans and surrounding environment. A
large amount of water is used for cooling, heating, and cleaning purposes in
industries. This water acted as a carrier for a lot of harmful chemicals like radioactive
metals, acids, alkalis, organic compounds, detergents, waste oils, etc. Due to
improper treatment and waste effluent system, this liquid waste mixed with nearby
water bodies like oceans, rivers, or lakes and created several health risks. Gaseous
waste is also generated due to combustion activities within industries for power
generation and heating purposes. Coal and hydrocarbons are normally used to
generate power and heat within the industry. All these activities generate lots of
waste in the form of smoke, toxic fumes, soot, and ash. All these wastes must be
handled in a proper way since it generally contains dangerous chemicals which
directly affect human, animal, and plant life (Sell 1992). The characteristics of
industrial waste produced by different industries are shown in Table 1.
The composition of industrial waste can vary greatly and is totally dependent
upon the nature of the industry. Also the quantity of waste and type of waste are
highly influenced by the nature of raw materials and process technology. The latest
Table 1 The characteristics of industrial waste by different industries

Name of industry Explanation Type of waste
Mining and metallurgy Blasting Waste rocks
Extraction Blast furnace slag
Crushing, grinding Wash slimes
Roasting, smelting Coal refuse
Chemical leaching Mill tailing
Energy and power Electricity Ash, soot, carbon black, particulate
generation Heating and cooling matter
Steam generation Boiler slag
Waste oils
Steam condensate
Chemical and Petrochemical Exhaust catalyst
manufacturing plant Fertilizer Solvents
Food Reactive substances
Textile Acids and alkalis
Paper and pulp Oils, ashes, soot, carbon black
Paint Plastics, packaging material
Pigments, thinners, peroxides,
organic liquid
Wooden pulp, wooden chips
Particulate matter, dust
Construction and building Construction Used concrete and bricks
Destruction Asphalt
Metallic rods
Glass and plaster
Tree stumps
Electric wiring
Rubble, dirt, and rocks
Water filtration and Water treatment plants Exhausted resin
purification Industrial waste treatment Sludge
plants Sediments
Microplastics
Oils
Organic and inorganic chemicals
Membrane filters, etc.
plants are designed in such a way that favors to lower the waste and yield better
products without any loss of raw materials (El-Halwagi 2017). Since there is a wide
range of waste industries can generate, it is very important to categorize them on the
basis of their source and origin, i.e., raw materials. Some countries are following the
practice of mixing construction waste with municipal solid waste. Each waste stream
has its own composition, so it is very important to separate it handled it. This strategy
will help to recognize the nature of waste whether either it is under a hazardous or
nonhazardous category. Also it facilitates in better understanding of whether
by-products can be reused or recycled. Such information can also help in deciding
how to best manage and reduce facility waste (Pipatti et al. 2006).
The waste from the construction industry mainly contains nonhazardous mate-
rials like concrete and bricks, asphalt, metallic rods, glass and plaster, tree stumps,
electric wiring, rubble, dirt, and rocks. But among these, degradable organic carbon
(DOC) is also present in wood and some fossil carbon in plastics. So, proper data is
required for recycling and reducing waste into useful products prior to final disposal
in landfills or incineration.
The nature and composition of nonhazardous waste are very much similar to
those of the daily household waste. The toxicity level of nonhazardous waste is very
less, and it can be easily recycled and even disposed of very safely without any
treatment. On the other hand, the hazardous waste needs excessive treatment prior to
disposal, and it harms the surrounding vicinity. The hazardous waste also pollutes
the other waste if it gets in contact with it. Hazardous waste once produced needed a
proper mechanism during its transportation, storage, and final disposal or recycling.
The physical and chemical properties of hazardous waste play a vital role related to
fire, corrosion, toxicity, and reactivity during all these abovementioned activities.
These properties will also help to evaluate the hazard potential of each waste
generated through industrial processes. Also it helps the government in regulating
agencies to prepare laws which restrict the production of waste at a minimal level
(Gupta and Babu 1999).
Various methods are available to evaluate the hazard potential associated with
different industrial wastes. In most cases, industrial wastes are a mixture of
chemicals. Generally, the hazardous waste comprises multiple compounds in
which the property of individual species is suppressed due to mixture. The overall
property of waste is thus evaluated by checking its composition and the properties of
each component. All the final properties will help to choose and finalize the storage,
transport, recycling, and dumping procedures for hazardous waste. A research study
proposed a hazardous waste index (HWI) to evaluate the hazard potential associated
with the waste mixture. This index will help to make procedures and guidelines
while dealing with any kind of hazardous waste. The HWI consists of five param-
eters including flammability, reactivity, toxicity, corrosion, and pH value. This index
will help to identify the potential hazard of each waste (Gupta and Babu 1999).
Opportunities, Challenges, and Trade-Offs of Industrial Waste

Recovery and Recycling Processes
In most developing countries, the quantity of industrial waste especially solid waste
is tremendously increasing in line with population growth, industrialization, and
economic expansion. Very few countries are managing their waste generation by
recycling or converting them into useful products and contributing them
towards socioeconomic developments. The amount and composition of
industrial waste produced greatly vary depending upon the country, but overall
solid industrial waste is mostly produced worldwide. Suitable industrial waste
recovery and management have become a hot topic for the past few decades.
This is because of achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs) for making
the big cities cleaner, safer, flexible, and sustainable (Lenkiewicz 2018).
Waste Collection
Transportation
• To Useful products
• Raw Materials for other processes
• Packaging Recycling
• Size Reduction
• To Energy Recovery
• For Composting Separation and
• Anerobic Digestion Processing
• For Landfills
Fig. 4 Different steps of waste management
Solid industrial waste is considered as a resource and has a significant economic

value under CE concept. The issue of industrial solid waste management is that there
are no stringent policies of government which force the industries to find a proper
solution to their waste generated during manufacturing. Asian countries like China,
India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Bangladesh generate a lot of industrial
solid waste, but they process a little fraction of it (Guerrero et al. 2013). Waste
management comprises the following major steps as shown in Fig. 4 (Jassim 2017).
Table 2 briefly explains the advantages, disadvantages, and barriers of various
methods used to handle industrial solid waste.
Different processes and options are available for the treatment of industrial solid
waste as shown in Fig. 5. Among all, recovery, reuse, and recycling are the most
suitable and desirable options. These methods are used to recover the valued material
from solid waste. Additionally, these conserve the resources which are considered to
be finite. In this way, lots of waste from landfills and incinerators are reused and
come back again in the economy by following the CE concept. Other methods of
waste recovery and recycling include biophysical pretreatment, composting, incin-
eration, and anaerobic digestion. And the most discouraging method nowadays
according to the CE concept is landfilling.
The selection criteria for reuse, recovery, and recycling of waste material are
totally dependent upon two important factors, i.e., cost of recovery and processing,
and the other one is technology. The cost is the foremost aspect that minimizes the
hazardous solid waste using recovery, reuse, and recycling. The higher expenditure
behind the recovery of low-value resources restricts the industrialists to adopt
the process for conversion. The term reuse can be expressed as the reutilization
of waste as a product again without any additional change and transformation
in its shape, size, and composition. Various types of industrial waste can be reused,
i.e., plastic bottles, old furniture, clothes, used books, papers, wooden blocks, bricks,
Table 2 The advantages, disadvantages, and barriers of various methods used to handle industrial
solid waste (Goyal et al. 2008)
Name of
method Advantages Disadvantages Barriers
Reuse Reduction in cost and Transportation cost Improper
resources Cost of purification and classification of
Minimizes waste and treatment of waste waste
disposal sites Collection and
No greenhouse gas separation of
emission waste
Greener and Cleaner
Recycle Cost saver Few greenhouse gas emissions Improper
Reduces and conserves Transportation and classification of
resources reprocessing cost waste
Reduces pollution Collection and
separation of
waste
Composting Minimizes organic waste Time taken process Improper
Cheaper process Land requirement classification of
No external heating Release of CO2 waste
required Collection and
Composting product separation of
acted as fertilizer waste
Anaerobic Reduces organic waste Safety issues due to methane Collection and
digestion Generates methane generation separation of
Small area required Higher capital cost waste
Not a time-consuming Greenhouse gas emissions due Technology
process to methane and CO2 issues
generation
Digestate handling
Incineration Reduces mass and Higher capital cost Separation of
volume of waste Release of toxic gases, ash, solid waste
Uses little land and particulate matter All materials are
Developed technology Skilled man power not incinerable
Generates heat for Heat recovery
heating and power technology
generation
Gasification Generates syngas for Capital cost Technology
power and chemicals External heat is required limitations
synthesis Purification required
Reduces waste CO2 emissions due to external
Less space is required heating
Handling of ash and leftover of
gasifier
Pyrolysis Reduces waste from External heating is required Technology
disposal sites Greenhouse gas emissions issues
Simple process Low yield of liquid products
Low-cost equipment Char contains hazardous
Generates gas and liquid metals and compounds
fuels
Higher energy recovery
(continued)
Table 2 (continued)
Name of
method Advantages Disadvantages Barriers
Landfills Low investment Lots of land required Safety issues
Simple process Causes pollution due to Collection of
Higher processing methane emission methane
capacity Safety issues Handling of
Generates methane as Affects the environment due to waste
biogas leaching through landfills
Transportation cost
Industrial
Solid Waste
Thermo- Thermo-
Reuse Recycle chemical chemical Landfills
Processes processes
Anaerobic
Incineration Gasification Pyrolysis Composting
Digestion
Fig. 5 Processes and options are available for the treatment of industrial solid waste: waste
recovery, reuse, and recycle
metallic pieces, and many others, which can be used for the same functions that it can
formerly perform. In this manner, the resources are kept within the cycle for a longer
period of time, thus reducing the resource input and waste generation. Also it helps
to control the cost and environmental constraints associated with it. All large human
resource is also associated with this reuse business all around the world. They
normally picked up reusable materials from different places and sell them in the
market (Noll et al. 1986). In Kenya’s capital Addis Ababa, nearly 5000 workers
collect the reused material daily and earn their livelihood from it (Bjerkli 2005).
As stated earlier, industrial waste is becoming a big challenge and creates a lot of
problems within the society. By adopting the reusing and recycling practice, the
problem can be reduced. Additionally, reuse and recycle practice facilitates the
nation and its people in short- and long-term perspectives in many ways. The
reuse products are cheaper and sometimes even in a good condition, so it helped
the disadvantaged community to buy them and fulfill their needs who cannot afford
new ones. Many people can earn their daily wage from collecting and selling
reusable items similar in Kenya. This community benefit helps people to get engaged
in some sort of job and also facilitates in longer term the unemployed, disabled, and
uneducated personnel. The economic benefits associated with the reuse of old
products are very large. New products required fresh raw materials with processing
cost, which can be reduced altogether by utilizing already used products classified as
waste.
According to an environmental perspective, the reuse of old industrial waste is a

greener and cleaner way of reducing waste. The method of reusing any waste item
requires no water, energy, and any other material which creates zero pollution. Also
it reduces waste which is an additional advantage of this technique. On the other
hand, transformation of any new material from solid waste requires external
resources like water, heat, and electricity which generate pollution and extra waste.
Waste Recycling
Recycling of waste is defined as a process in which the waste material is reprocessed

and converted into new products after some unit processes and unit operations. The
recycling processes also affect the surrounding ecosystem, but the intensity of effects
is very much less in comparison to that of the new synthesis of material from scratch.
Recycling is a difficult step for the processing of solid industrial waste as all the
industrial wastes mostly are mixed together when they reached the recycling site.
The initial step of the recycling process starts with waste segregation into different
classes. Normally, this can be done by viewing the source of waste or the final
application of recycled material. The separation efficiency is totally dependent on the
nature of material, its source, and the cost applied for separation. If the industrial
solid waste is not separated properly, it will create problems at the recycling site, and
the quality and efficiency of recycled resources reduce. Proper schemes are needed
for the separation of industrial waste which provide individual collectors for recy-
clable and nonrecyclable materials. Additionally, labor and operational cost and
specialized equipment discourage the application of waste separation. After the
separation of different industrial solid wastes, they are sent to the processing plant
via some means of transport. The nonrecyclable material is used for energy recovery,
whereas the recycled material is processed again for some other applications. The
paper and pulp industry processes its waste paper by breaking it into small fibers
using pulping process. The converted pulp is bleached and converted into new paper
or packaging material depending upon the requirement and quality of the product.
The waste produced in the mining and extraction plants is recycled using melting
and then converted into raw materials. Metallic pieces, blast furnace slag, and
leftover metallic ores are also converted into pure metal sheets. These metallic sheets
are used as a raw material for many applications. The plastic waste and glass from
the construction industry are also processed in the same manner. All materials are
melted down in a big furnace where they can be converted into required raw material
for different applications. In this way, the cost and quantity of new input resources
are reduced as the recycled waste acted as a makeup material. Some waste materials
require specialized equipment and machinery for transformation and recycling
which added extra cost. But mostly, the recyclable material is easily processed
with a simple equipment on a smaller scale. Generally, two options are present and
followed during the recycling of waste material, i.e., direct recycle and recycle to
some secondary industry. The most effective and viable option during recycling
process is recycle to some second industry. Under this scheme, the recycled waste
may be supplied to a particular industry which received it with or without in-between

refining and/or purification. In this way, the waste recycled resources from one site
are moved to another process as raw material (Noll et al. 1986).
Composting and Anaerobic Digestion
Composting is the process in which all types of industrial organic waste can
be recycled in an oxygen-rich environment in the presence of microorganisms.
Normally, biodegradable waste of the food industry, paper and pulp industry, and
sugar and fertilizer industry is processed. The advantages of composting include
reduction of waste along with the production of compost which acted as a fertilizer.
This compost is used for soil remediation as it contains a lot of nitrogenous
compounds and biological carbon content (Taiwo 2011). After the addition of
compost, the soil gets replenished with the minerals. It also acted as a substitute
for synthetic fertilizers. The increase in soil’s organic matter content helps to
enhance the ability of soil to retain nutrients and water. Compost will also act as a
soil stabilizer and maintain soil pH. On the other hand, anaerobic digestion is the
series of processes in which biodegradable solid waste is broken down in the
presence of microorganisms in an oxygen-deficient environment. It also processed
waste to produce a wide range of products, e.g., normal fuel, which can be used as a
substitute for conventional fuel. Both of these methods are energy savers and yield
clean fuels which are sustainable as well. In composting, the microorganisms
decompose the organic content, nitrogen content turns to nitrate, sulfur is converted
into sulfate, and phosphorus compounds change into phosphate. The only drawback
of composting is the release of carbon dioxide due to the addition of oxygen within
the system. Overall, the process is cleaner and greener which proves to be a
clean source of recycling. In anaerobic digestion, the absence of oxygen yields
no carbon dioxide. The process is fast in comparison to composting and takes
normally 20–30 days to process the waste into a useful product. It normally
generates methane as a key component as microorganisms anaerobically decay the
biodegradable waste in the absence of oxygen (Ahring 2003).
Both the processes need some basic requirement of feed materials. The first
process started with the separation of biodegradable material from industrial solid
waste. More focus is given to waste which contains organic content. After collection
and separation of feed material, the size reduction operation started. To increase the
reaction time of both processes, the size of the feed material must be as small as
possible so that the microorganisms attack the waste material. Shredding is usually
carried out if the major quantity of the waste has particles greater than 50 mm. After
particle size reduction, blending is done to make an appropriate mixture for the
conversion of waste into compost and useful material. The moisture content of
feed material is a very important parameter and affects the process yield. The
composting process occurred in a big pile. Normally the piles are in the shape of a
triangular cross section with a width of 1.5–2 m and 1.5 m in height. The waste
pile needs to be moved up and down during the composting process to make a
sufficient supply of oxygen in the system. The frequency of moving the pile for
oxygen will be 2–3 weeks after waste addition. After that the frequency will be
reduced to every 3 weeks or so. The composting process is exothermic which can be
seen by the emission of steam from the waste pile. Once the process of composting is
completed, the steam production within the pile reduces and finally stops. The
anaerobic digestion is also slight exothermic which yields biogas that comprises
methane, carbon dioxide, and water vapors. The leftover waste in the digester is
nutrient-rich slurry which acted as fertilizer (Kadir et al. 2016; Kiyasudeen et al.
2016).
Energy Recovery
The thermal technologies applied for the handling of industrial solid waste are also
popular, but due to environmental regulations, few processes are restricted for
commercial success. Among all thermal technologies, incineration is one of the
oldest methods of transformation of industrial solid waste into energy. This process
is also known as direct combustion as it was adopted to decrease the mass of solid
waste with the help of combustion. After some time, technology enhancement
converted this method for energy recovery of heat, steam, and electricity generation.
Incineration proved itself a promising technology in reducing a huge amount of
waste, but the issue in this technology is its greenhouse emission. Incineration
generated a huge quantity of methane and possesses global warming potential
28 times higher than that of carbon dioxide. Incineration converted solid waste
into ash, heat, and flue gases after high-temperature combustion at 1000 C in the
furnace. The resultant ash consists of inorganic compounds and some metallic
content in it. The flue gas contains particle matter and carbon soot which need to
be cleaned in a gas cleaning section. The high temperature of furnace is used to
generate steam in steam generators which are then coupled with some turbines
to generate power. Some countries show high concerns over this technology due
to high gas emissions during incineration operation. The incineration plants increase
the steam temperature up to 500 C which enhances the efficiency of power plants;
thus, they are a proven and emerging technology for power production using waste
without direct combustion. Also the dependence on conventional fossil fuels
also reduces as waste replaces the fuels in the furnace. One example of the new
incineration plants with Keppel Seghers technology which processed around three
million tons of waste per year.
Gasification also emerges as a new technique for the reduction of industrial solid
waste. In this process, the carbon and hydrogen content of the material is converted
into syngas in different mediums, i.e., partial oxygen, steam, or without oxygen. The
synthesis gas is a mixture of mainly carbon monoxide and hydrogen. But few traces
of water vapors, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide are also present in it. The gasification
technology is not advanced as compared to incineration for solid industrial waste but
shows potential in the past decade. The syngas after the gasifier passed through the
gas purification section and can be used as a fuel to power some boiler. Prior to
burning as a fuel, the high temperature of syngas is used to generate steam as well in
the steam generator. Plasma arc gasification is also a thermochemical process for the
conversion of industrial waste into useful products with the help of plasma arc using
carbon electrodes, copper, tungsten, hafnium, or zirconium to reach gasification
temperatures. The reaction temperatures are very high ranging from 2200 C to
11,000 C. This process gives high-quality syngas. This method completely reduces
waste and generates energy. The drawback of all these thermochemical processes is
greenhouse emission mostly CO2 as external heating is required to start the reaction.
But the NOx, SOx, and CO2 emissions due to higher temperatures are lower in
comparison to those of the combustion process. Pyrolysis is also a thermochemical
process in which the waste resources are converted into a wide range of products in
the absence of oxygen at high temperature. The process yields syngas along with
bio-oil depending upon the parameters of the reaction, i.e., speed of pyrolysis. The
quality of fuel produced from this process is not that high but can be used as a
substitute for low heating applications. All these processes in industrial waste
possess some bottlenecks as well as include low-quality products. Additionally,
they used the waste which has the potential of being recycled. At the same time,
due to its organic content, waste can be utilized alternatively for other highly
sustainable processes such as composting. And the most important factor which
resists their commercialization is external heating to maintain the reaction temper-
atures. Thus, if the external thermal energy required for the process is extracted from
some sustainable resource, and then only it may be considered as a green technology
for energy recovery. The issue that arises for gasification for energy recovery is
low carbon sequestration efficiency as carbon dioxide may be released. Another
challenge using this technology is the release of harmful metals and halogens due to
improper separation of industrial waste (Zafar 2009).
Combustion is the most developed technique for the conversion of waste into
energy. But the combustion process releases a lot of gases in the environment and
has a serious threat to the atmosphere. First of all, the gas emission of industrial solid
waste is similar to that of conventional fuel combustion. Also it generates fly ash
along with particulate matter which pollutes the environment (Brown et al. 1988; Liu
et al. 2019). As previously mentioned, all the industrial waste must be applied to
biological less heat-intensive and sustainable processes for energy recovery. The
anaerobic digestion is reasonably a simple, common, and old process. However, it
has many technical issues which need to be addressed and resolved to make this
technology viable for efficient energy recovery. Also the safety concerns associated
with the production of gaseous fuel are at risk of fire and explosion. The cost is also a
big factor associated with separation, collection, transportation, and preprocessing of
the waste materials which may restrict these processes for commercialization.
Furthermore, the efficiency of these processes is totally dependent on the composi-
tion of the waste, and industrial waste with low organic content is not desirable for
the process.
Landfill is also a method used for energy recovery from industrial solid waste.
But the biggest disadvantage of this process is the generation of methane which is a
lethal pollutant in the environment. Energy recovery using landfills is very common
in developing countries. This is a popular technique after anaerobic digestion and

thermal methods. The gas is commonly composed of a mixture of methane and CO2.
And due to methane and carbon dioxide emission, landfills are listed as three
major sources (16% of total methane emission) of methane emission in the United
States (Weitz et al. 2002; Lee et al. 2017). The problem of global warming associated
with landfill gas as a source of renewable energy is considered to have an additional
advantage of greenhouse gas reduction. On the other hand, due to higher capital
cost, landfill gas recovery may not be economically viable for small landfill sites.
Therefore, there are serious concerns linked with techno-economic viability of
energy recovery from industrial solid wastes; they have few environmental problems
as well which need to be addressed before its long-term application. The release and
buildup of methane gas can also cause fire hazard. Hence, the gases should be
collected in a controlled manner to maintain safety. The gas can either be used to
generate electricity on-site, or it might be converted into a liquid fuel after cleaning.
Circular Economy Tools and Framework for Industrial Waste

Management
Various tools and frameworks are developed for industrial waste management to
assist in a smooth and quick transition from linear conventional economy to CE
(Roos Lindgreen et al. 2020). The overview of these tools of circular economy
is given below (Lieder and Rashid 2016; Alhola et al. 2019; Domenech and
Bahn-Walkowiak 2019; Marrucci et al. 2019).
Level(s)
Level(s) is a circular economy framework to work on a volunteer basis with lots of

surveys to enhance the sustainability of constructions and buildings. With the
present standards of level(s), it gives a broad guideline to assess the environmental
outcome within the construction industry. Life cycle assessment also assists this tool
to encourage life cycle thinking for the construction industry. The construction sector
all around the world utilized lots of resources which possess the ability to be
recycled. It almost used about half of resources and half of total energy generated
within the earth. It also consumed one third of all water present in the earth but
resulted in one third of all industrial solid waste. From this perspective, the con-
struction sector offers a lot of potential to apply CE with sustainable building
design, construction, repair, maintenance. Also in addition to design, emphasis
will be given to use recycled resources in the end of a building’s lifespan. The
European Commission gives lots of stress on the implementation of CE to the
construction sector and provides some action plan. The action plan contains an
assessment system for the evaluation of environmental concerns associated with
building construction. For technical support, the CE provides a tool with indicators
known as level(s).
Environmental Technology Verification
Environmental technology verification tool by the European Commission provides a

third verification under CE to evaluate the performance of different industrial
systems. With the help of this tool, the potential risk associated with any system
reduces using third-party verification bodies. The verification bodies review the
procedures by an independent evaluation and confirmation of the manufacturer’s
claims on the performance and environmental advantages and benefits of their
technology. The EU CE action plan promotes the enhancement of efficiency using
ETV suggestions after especially in supporting innovations by small- and medium-
size enterprises.
Product Environmental Footprint and Organization Environmental

Footprint
Product environmental footprint (PEF) and organization environmental footprint

(OEF) are also exclusive tools which are used to evaluate the environmental hazard
associated with the product and organization. Their assessment scheme comes in
line with life cycle analysis which reflects the fundamentals of CE. Due to strict
environmental regulations, customers are willing to purchase green and cleaner
products. On the other hand, the products in the market are segregated using a
variety of environmental labels and markings which create misunderstandings
among customers. As a result, CE formed a method to evaluate and categorize the
product basis on the two parameters, i.e., environmental footprint of product and
organization. The basis of this tool is life cycle assessment which addresses the
environmental impact throughout the manufacturing till its complete life cycle in an
integrated manner. The life cycle view of the PEF and OEF reflects the fundamentals
of the CE. In this way, it helps the manufacturers to concentrate on improved design
of products, reduction of raw material usage and waste, and recycling.
Ecolabel
Ecolabel is also a tool developed by CE to identify the products and their associated
services using labels to minimize the environmental impact throughout their life
cycle. This tool was established in 1992 by the EU which helps companies to move
from a conventional linear system towards a circular economy, with the support of
sustainable production and consumption.
Eco-management and Audit Scheme
Eco-management and audit scheme are the standardized European environmental

management tool used to facilitate companies to enhance the environmental
performance and display their efforts towards the implementation of circular econ-
omy principles, i.e., “reduce, reuse, and recycle.” With the help of this tool,
industries can calculate their resource usage, build plans and systems for the
improvement of their environmental performance, and achieve their goals towards
sustainable development. EMAS offers companies to save resources of all types by
the implementation of safety measures, including waste reduction and raw material
usage, increasing water and energy efficiency by adopting “reduce”, “reuse,” and
“recycle” practices.
GPP
Green public procurement is a circular economy tool used to promote the demand of
green products and associated services by encouraging green markets. GPP is a
voluntary tool which helps companies to move from conventional scheme towards a
circular economy. This tool encourages industries for efficient resource management
with durable, recyclable, and repairable products.
Conclusion
This chapter examines the circular economy and its linkage with industrial solid
waste management. In the initial section of the chapter, different classifications of
industrial solid waste are discussed. Later detailed technologies of handling indus-
trial solid waste are explained along with their limitations and advantages. The core
idea of the circular economy revolves around three main terms, i.e., reduce, reuse,
and recycle (Memon 2010). The concept of CE offers large tools and frameworks for
the handling of industrial solid waste management which must be shared and
explained properly before complete execution. The main points of this principle
include the policy and tools which need the involvement of all the stakeholders for
efficient and high-quality industrial solid waste disposal techniques. Additionally,
the identification of formal and informal actions needs to be well planned for
obtaining in order to higher yield with good results. As stated earlier in the section,
for the challenges and barriers for the complete and successful implementation of CE
in industrial solid waste management, a number of recommendations are suggested.
First of all, the different industrial waste must need proper segregation and separa-
tion to enhance the efficiency of recycling and reuse. Each industry defined the
proper composition of its waste so that it helps different stakeholders to buy that
according to their needs. First of all, every industrial waste stream has a proven
marketable and reusable ability that gives some sort of profit for the recyclers and the
user. All around the world, the CE is not completely applicable in the industries, but
people are trying to apply it for making the process greener and cleaner due to
environmental regulations. It is highly recommended and suggested that the present
waste generated in industries must be classified properly for achieving the objective
of sustainable development through recycling. This would be done by making an
authority or governing body that does proper legislation for the industrial sector.
They also facilitate industries to strengthen their functions and objectives towards
industrial solid waste management. Therefore, the policies should be implemented
according to the CE principles. Furthermore, this CE can help industries to sell their
recycled materials in order to make funds to reduce their overall cost. The CE will
help industries to save lots of raw materials by processing the already used material.
Proper legislation and implementation of industrial waste management policy must
be made in each country. For proper waste management, recycle and reuse are the
most essential steps with fewer emissions. All these activities need combined efforts
for the simultaneous collection of recyclable waste with proper technology devel-
opment along with training of man power.
Nomenclature
CE Circular Economy
GDP Gross Domestic Product
EC European Commission
SME Small- and Medium- Size Enterprises
PEF Product Environmental Footprint
OEF Organization Environmental Footprint
EMAS Eco-Management and Audit Scheme
GPP Green Public Procurement
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From Waste to Wealth: Stepping Toward
Sustainability Through Circular Economy 17
Rashmi Paliwal
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
Solid Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443
Solid Waste Sources and Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444
Factors Influencing the Composition of Solid Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
Impacts of Unmanaged/Poorly Managed Solid Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
Solid Waste Management (SWM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446
Informal Sector Involved in Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447
Health and Safety Risks Associated with Informal Recycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448
Economics of Solid Waste Management (SWM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450
Role of Circular Economy in Solid Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451
Environmental and Economic Benefits of Recycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454
Recent Developments and Perspectives of “From Waste to Wealth” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455
Future Perspective and Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460
Abstract
The industrial revolution and rapid population growth have put immense pressure
on natural resources, leading to waste accumulation and contamination of the
environment. Nature presents a well-defined notion of cycling as in an ecosystem
nothing is waste. The concept of waste is actually introduced by inducing
anthropogenic activities to the natural environment through the principles of the
linear economy. In human perception, waste is anything that is unwanted and/or
unusable. This leads the World Bank to predict an increase (about 70%) in the
global waste generation by 2050, if not managed. The circular economy can
provide a revolutionary opportunity to manage the production, consumption, and
utilization of goods, products, natural resources, and assets in a sustainable
manner. The circular economy includes recycling, thereby eliminating the waste
R. Paliwal (*)
Institute of Environmental Studies, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, India

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_82
442 R. Paliwal
and introducing the generation of “wealth from waste.” Different strategies can be
applied to achieve the successful application of a circular economy in solid waste
management. These include most commonly 3R (reduce-reuse-recycle) to inno-
vative business models, eco-design, and energy-efficient products. Therefore, the
concept of a circular economy provides a dynamic sector, which continuously
develops in a way to achieve the zero-waste generation economy. The present
chapter aims to map the idea of circular economy in waste management and also
seeks to explore the complexities and problems associated with the multiple
cycling and material downcycling.
Keywords
Circular economy · Waste · Natural resources · Sustainability · Waste
management
Introduction
The world population is expanding and so does the solid waste. With rapid global
population increase and changing lifestyle, people are generating more waste. Problem
of solid waste management is an important issue affecting the global population
severely. “Waste” is well defined by several workers as anything that is being
discarded after its use, but the real meaning of waste varies for people. One thing
can be waste for one person; at the same time, it could be useful for the other person up
to a certain extent. Worldwide, cities reported to generate 2.01 billion tonnes of solid
waste in the year 2016, accounting to an average of 0.74 kg per person per day
(SWMWB 2019), which ranges from 0.11 to 4.54 kg (Kaza et al. 2018). According to
the World Bank report (2018), the estimated production of solid waste in 2016 was
2.01 billion tonnes globally, and under the poorly managed conditions, this could rise
up to 2.59 billion tonnes by 2030 and 3.40 billion tonnes by 2050. This expected
increase in waste generation is also depending upon the income level. The amount of
daily per capita waste generation is expected to increase by 19% in high-income
nations and approx. 40% in low-income nations by the year 2050 (Kaza et al. 2018).
Hanrahan et al. (2006) reported the annual generation of municipal solid waste in India
ranges from 35 to 45 million tonnes, which would be 150 million tonnes per year by
2025. Waste accumulations in the environment that cause severe diseases contaminate
the ecosphere, affecting animals and economic development as well. Sustainable
economic development cannot be achieved by the principles of traditional “linear
economy.” In the linear economy, the resources are being extracted, consumed, and
discarded after use. This use and throw concept of linear economy has been described
as “take-make-dispose,” a one-directional model by many workers (Jawahir and
Bradley 2016; Dumlao-Tan and Halog 2017; Esposito et al. 2018).
The one-directional model of production, consumption, and waste generation is
unsustainable and threatening the needs of our future generation. Therefore, it is
important to develop a new model that sustainably leads the world economy toward
17 From Waste to Wealth: Stepping Toward Sustainability Through Circular. . . 443
sustainability without compromising the needs of future generation. Although the

concept of “circular economy” has gained attention and is discussed by world-
renowned companies and organizations such as the Ellen MacArthur Foundation
(EMF), McKinsey & Company, and World Economic Forum in the recent years, the
idea of “circular economy” is rather an old concept and discussed since the 1970s. It is
difficult to confirm a single originator of the idea of circular economy, but the credit for
promotion of the circular economy concept to the world goes to Prof. John Lyle,
William McDonough, Michael Braungart, and Walter R. Stahel (MacArthur 2013;
Winans et al. 2017). Walter R. Stahel (founder and director of the Product-Life
Institute, Geneva) redefines the concept of circular economy in his recent work The
Circular Economy as follows:
A circular economy would turn goods that are at the end of their service life into resources for
others, closing loops in industrial ecosystems and minimizing waste. It would change economic
logic because it replaces production with sufficiency: reuse what you can, recycle what cannot be
reused, repair what is broken, remanufacture what cannot be repaired. (Stahel 2016, p. 435)
Earlier, the principles of the circular economy defined as including the 3R, i.e.,
reduce, reuse, and recycle, but recently, the idea of circular economy has included
the 6R, i.e., reduce, reuse, recycle, redesign, remanufacture, and recover (Winans
et al. 2017). Jawahir and Bradley (2016) have also discussed the 6R-based techno-
logical elements of circular economy principles for sustainable industrial
manufacturing. Sustainable manufacturing holds new opportunities for developing
new methods of managing the resources in integrated and holistic manner. Ghosh
(2020) discussed the circular consumption as an important part of circular economy,
which includes the conversion of waste into valuable products. Circular consump-
tion thus promotes the 3R principles and closed the loop of material use. The
principles of circular economy represent a systemic transition that generates eco-
nomic opportunities and strengthens the business without compromising the envi-
ronmental benefits. This chapter is an attempt to feature the problem of solid waste,
management strategies for the waste generated from industries, and the role of
circular economy in solid waste management along with the future perspective.
Solid Waste
Unwanted/useless/garbage materials are considered as solid waste generated from

household, industrial, and other commercial activities. These materials are usually
discarded as of no use and ultimately end up at landfills, demolition sites, or
industrial waste sites. The unmanaged or careless disposal of solid waste has been
reported to cause serious environmental and health effects. Composition of solid
waste is changing with the urbanization and technology advancement. Dumlao-Tan
and Halog (2017) suggested that in the modern world, research should cover the
issues related to emerging contaminants present in the waste streams as well as in the
open waste dumping sites. The new world’s technologies have increased the volume
444 R. Paliwal
of electronic waste (e-waste) and end-of-life products; transboundary movements of

hazardous waste, urban mining, and various other human activities have changed the
composition of solid waste with the presence of nanomaterials/nanoparticles. New
and special classes of waste streams such as electronic waste, hazardous waste,
radioactive waste, and biomedical waste have become common these days (Dumlao-
Tan and Halog 2017).
Solid Waste Sources and Classification
The understanding and information of sources and composition of waste is inevita-

ble for the effective solid waste management. The socioeconomic status of a nation,
and its degree of industrial/urbanization influences the rate and composition of waste
generation, and therefore vary from one country to another. Generally, economically
prosperous and highly urban populous region produces large amount of solid waste
(Hoornweg and Thomas 1999). It has been reported by various studies that in a
developing country, households generate large fractions i.e. 55-80 percent of munic-
ipal solid waste followed by market or commercial areas, to say, 10-30 percent
(Abdel-Shafy and Mansour 2018). Solid waste is generated from various human
activities and therefore can be classified into domestic or residential, industrial,
commercial and institutional, construction and demolition (C&D), municipal ser-
vices, agriculture, and mining sources (Speight 2015; Hoornweg and Thomas 1999).
Therefore, solid waste can be classified on the basis of their sources discussed below:
• Residential: It includes waste generated from household activities and mainly

comprises paper, food waste, yard waste, wood, glass, ashes, metal, consumer
electronics, and some household hazardous waste.
• Industrial: Industrial activities of different kinds produced waste such as house-
keeping, packaging, construction and demolition waste, and some hazardous and
electronic waste.
• Commercial: This category includes waste (paper, cardboard, woods, plastics,
food, metal, and electronic waste) produced from stores, restaurants, market,
hotels, etc.
• Institutional: Waste generated from institutes, medical facilities, schools, etc.
Waste generated from medical facilities may include soiled waste, disposables,
sharps, anatomical waste, discarded cultures, medicines, and chemical waste.
Such waste needs to be managed in the most scientific manner.
• Construction and demolition: Construction and demolition sector produced waste
like woods, steel and other metal waste, debris, dirt, and concrete.
• Municipal services: Municipal services like street cleaning, recreational areas,
and wastewater treatment facilities produce general waste such as wood, leaves
from tree trimmings, and sludge.
• Process (manufacturing, etc.): Industrial process waste, scraps, slay, tailings, etc.
generated from heavy and light manufacturing units, refineries, power plants,
chemical plants, and mining activities.
• Agriculture: This category includes the agricultural waste and spoiled food waste
from agricultural activities, crops, dairies, farms, etc.
Factors Influencing the Composition of Solid Waste
Composition of solid waste differs across the world and reflect the different
patterns of material consumption. Solid waste generated from different sources
varies in physico-chemical characteristics depending upon their source of origin.
Fraction of wet or organic waste has been observed as less in developed nations
compared to underdeveloped and developing nations in a study conducted by the
World Bank (Hoornweg and Bhada-Tata 2012). The high-income nations are
reported to generate more dry waste such as paper, plastics, cardboards, metal,
and glass and less organic waste in their waste stream (Laohalidanond et al. 2015).
Thus, composition of generated solid waste also depends upon economic devel-
opment, living standard, geographical location, and energy sources (Jin et al.
2006).
Impacts of Unmanaged/Poorly Managed Solid Waste
Open dumping of solid waste is a common practice in most developing countries.

Open dumping sites are often susceptible to serious health issues due to bad/toxic
odor generation, gases, and leachate release from these sites. Unmanaged or poorly
managed solid waste dumping sites not only are known to produce the greenhouse
gases and toxic leachate but also have been reported to cause geo-hazardous events
(Yadav et al. 2018). Some of the hazardous events caused by the slope failure of the
landfills/open dumping sites of waste also known as “garbage landslides,” “waste
avalanches,” or “waste slides” are documented in history (Yadav et al. 2018). Some
of the events are discussed (Kocasoy and Curi 1995; Lavigne et al. 2014; Yadav et al.
2018) below:
• Open dump accident of Ümraniye-Hekimbaşi in Istanbul, Turkey, in 1993.

Methane explosion at a landfill triggered the landslide that killed 39 people.
• Payatas dumpsite tragedy in Quezon City, Philippines, in 2000 causes the death of
330 persons.
• Waste slide in Leuwigajah dumpsite, Bandung City, Indonesia, in 2005 buried
71 houses and killed 143 people.
• Slope failure of Koshe landfill in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 2017 killed
130 people.
• Slope failure in Ghazipur dumpsite in Delhi, India, in 2017 killed two persons.
Poor management, such as the continued deposition of solid waste, lack of

compaction of waste, poor site conditions, lack of gas and leachate collection
systems, and lack of cover, causes such hazardous events. Municipal solid waste
446 R. Paliwal
consists of organic matter (50%–70%), which degrades through anaerobic digestion

and releases combustible gases such as methane in the environment. Construction
near the dumping sites, overburden pressure, meteorological conditions, steep exte-
rior slope, and soil erosion make landfills more susceptible to landslide events
(Yadav et al. 2018). Other impacts of unmanaged dumping sites include soil and
groundwater contamination (nitrates, chlorides, sulfates, ammonia, heavy metals)
due to leachate, spontaneous fire and explosion due to the presence of combustible
gases, and odor (causing discomfort, respiratory problems, headaches to the people
living near or around landfills). Anilkumar et al. (2015) assessed the groundwater
quality around the solid waste dumping site in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India.
The water quality index around the dumping site was reported as 101.9 (more
polluted) compared to the control site 10 kilometers away from the dumping site.
Thus, these events and problems justify the need of establishing proper solid waste
management system.
Solid Waste Management (SWM)
Solid waste has a global impact and represents a large source of air, water, and
soil pollutants. Poorly managed or unmanaged solid waste of organic stream is
the source of pernicious pollutants and invites disease-causing agents such as
pathogens, insects, and rodents. Solid waste management practices include con-
trolling, collecting, processing, utilizing, and disposing solid waste to avoid any
health impact on human and natural environment (Nandan et al. 2017). Globally,
the waste is dumped to landfills. While in developed countries they have con-
trolled landfills with advanced operating facilities, the low-income nations
mostly dump their waste in open landfills lacking managed infrastructure. Solid
waste also produces greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as methane (CH4) and is
reported to contribute GHG equivalent to 1.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide
(CO2) in 2016, which is again 5% of the global emission (Kaza et al. 2018). The
global solid waste generation is expected to increase by 70% by 2050, and under
unmanaged conditions, the emission of GHGs from solid waste is likely to
increase by 2.38 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year by 2050 (Kaza et al.
2018). Emission of GHG like CO2 is well known to cause the rise in global mean
temperature, which is expected to increase by 1.8–4.0 C by 2100 (IPCC 2007).
Similarly, the global production of plastic in the years 2015 and 2016 was
322 and 335 million tonnes, respectively (Plastics Europe 2017). Global plastic
production is expected to grow continuously by ≈ 4% annually in the near future.
Although plastic provides many benefits to the society, it cause potential harm to
the environment and living organisms (OECD 2018). According to the World
Economic Forum (2016), plastic manufacturing and processing are expected to
consume 20% of petroleum and produce 15% of annual carbon emission budget
globally by year 2050 (Lebreton and Andrady 2019). According to Lebreton and
Andrady (2019), the global production of mismanaged plastic waste was 60–99
million metric tonnes (Mt) in the year 2015. The study also estimated that the
global production of mismanaged plastic waste could increase to 155–265 MT

per year by 2060. The projection of plastic waste generation will be high in Africa
and Asia in the absence of waste management practices.
Currently, among the other major environmental issues, waste management and
limitations in availability of waste disposal sites are troubling the world economies
(Chung and Poon 2001). The reason behind this limitation is the availability of
market for material recycling. Sadowski (2010) discussed the interaction of two
markets, i.e., market for original (new) material and the recycled materials. The
market for original products dominates and limits the growth of recycled material
market due to price policies, which again cause the market dispersion. For instance,
the prices of recycled material are unpredictable (generally high compared to
original material) and reduce the effectiveness of the market. Platt and Hyde
(1997) reported that every year, 60 million new computer systems are introduced
in the US market and 12 million leave the market, of which only 10% is recycled and
the rest are disposed in the disposal sites. Solid waste management is a challenging
task for global economies. Although most countries have established regulatory
bodies, institutions, legislation, and regulations for supervising the waste manage-
ment sector, their implementation differs considerably.
In order to follow the principles of circular economy, most developed nations
have been working on development of waste management strategies to close the loop
of materials by recycling waste as a resource. In most countries, public authorities
and in some cases public-private partnership collectively manage the solid waste
sector. However, the public-private partnership effectively performs only under
suitable incentives, structures, and execution of instruments (Kaza et al. 2018). In
developed countries, the collected waste is managed through sanitary landfill,
composting, material recovery, and separate handling of hazardous waste and
incineration facilities concerning the environmental standards, whereas the
low-income countries mostly dump their waste in open dump areas under
unmanaged or less managed conditions (Wilson et al. 2006). The solid waste in
low-income countries is managed by informal sectors equipped with no or less
facilities. In contrast to the developing nations, the developed nations are institu-
tionally advance; therefore, they monitor and characterize the generated solid waste
for effective waste management and at the same time maintain a proper record
(Hristovski et al. 2007; Aleluia and Ferrão 2016; Marshall and Farahbakhsh
2013). For proper planning of waste management system, it is important to have a
reliable data of composition and quantity of generated solid waste from different
sectors (Idris et al. 2004).
Informal Sector Involved in Waste Management
The informal sector as described by Linzner and Lange (2013) and Scheinberg et al.
(2010) is the individuals, family, cooperatives, enterprises, or microenterprises
involved in private sector recycling and waste management activities. These workers
get paid for removal of waste and valuable materials from the waste stream and
448 R. Paliwal
worked under highly adverse conditions. Thus, the informal sector consists of two
distinct sub-sectors, viz., informal service sector and informal valorization sector:
• Informal service sector: This includes the informal service providers and indi-
viduals that earn their fees for removing waste, excreta, litter, and dirt from the
waste stream.
• Informal valorization sector: This includes individuals, cooperatives, families,
and microenterprises, which work as resource extractive industry. The primary
activity of informal valorization sector is to identify and remove the valuable
materials from the waste stream.
Health and Safety Risks Associated with Informal Recycling
Wilson et al. (2006) and Cointreau (2006) discussed the health and safety risks
related to the informal recycling system of solid waste that includes the following:
• Occupational health risks: Solid waste that comes from different sectors may
contain fecal matter; toxic, infectious, and allergic components; hazardous
chemicals; metals; sharps; glass materials; etc. Therefore, the waste pickers
manually handle the waste with no protective gears and worked under high
risks to their health.
• Community health risks: The communities that work and live in the areas near the
open dumps are reported to have adverse health issues.
To address the issues related to solid waste, global economies favor the concept
of integrated solid waste management approach. Integrated solid waste manage-
ment is a comprehensive approach involving waste prevention, recycling,
composting, and disposal activities. The burden over managing the waste disposal
sites can be overcome by following the integrated solid waste management prac-
tices. Reducing the waste in the initial phases before final disposal through the 3R
approach, i.e., reduce, reuse, and recovery, can make the process sustainable
(Heimlich et al. 2007). The US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA)
developed and adopted the hierarchy for management of nonhazardous and haz-
ardous waste materials (US EPA 2019a) (Fig. 1). The hierarchy structure promotes
the sustainable waste management processes which include reduction, reuse, and
recycling approach:
• Source reduction: Waste generation can be prevented or reduced by reusing the

material, thereby lowering the impact on the environment. Source reduction could
conserve natural resources and energy, reduce the pollution, and benefit the
economy.
• Recycling of materials: It includes collection, sorting, and processing of recycla-
ble products and reconstructing them into new products. For organic materials,
recycling includes the process of composting.
Fig. 1 Solid waste management hierarchy
• Energy recovery: The process is often known as waste to energy. Energy recovery
is the conversion of nonrecyclable waste into energy (i.e., heat, electricity, and
fuel). The process includes conversion of waste into energy through combustion,
gasification, pyrolization, anaerobic digestion, and landfill gas (LFG) recovery
(US EPA 2019b).
• Treatment and disposal: Treatment of waste through the process of shredding,
incineration, and anaerobic digestion before final disposal can reduce the volume
as well as toxicity of waste.
Over the past few years, a new concept for waste management has been intro-
duced, which also includes sustainable management. Wilson et al. (2013) discussed
the concept of integrated sustainable waste management (ISWM), which includes
the physical component (waste management system) and the governance component
(stakeholders and financial sustainability) working together. An effective solid waste
management system should take into consideration both physical elements (such as
collection, disposal, and recycling) and the governance components of the frame-
work (Wilson et al. 2013). Therefore, a successful management strategy for waste
450 R. Paliwal
can reduce the excessive burden on natural resources and also provide financial
benefits to the companies associated. In the recent years, the market for recycled
products has grown globally, especially in European nations. Sadowski (2010)
discussed the factors influencing the functioning of market for recycled materials
in European countries; these include environmental laws implementation; techno-
logical development for waste recycling; companies’ increasing interest in recycled
materials and building economy from waste recycling, manufacturing system flex-
ibility; and, most importantly, initiatives taken by the government in recycling
policies development, introduction of product charges, and taxes levied on the
waste disposal sites that help to internalize the external costs. All these factors
decide and help to recognize the recycling material’s market range in a region.
Economics of Solid Waste Management (SWM)
Economics of SWM is a crucial aspect for effective waste management practices.

Waste management is a labor-intensive job, and an effective system requires large
expenditure. Many factors have influenced the economics of SWM including geo-
graphical, regional, political, habitual, and policy level (Rajendran et al. 2018).
However, the great challenge faced by the waste management systems/municipali-
ties of urban areas is to achieve maximum with limited funds (Parthan et al. 2012).
Financing SWM systems includes the operational cost of all the processes such as
collection, transportation, treatment, and disposal. According to estimation, cities
around the world spend approximately US$205.4 billion in efficient solid waste
management system, which are projected to double by 2025. As a result, the lower-
and middle-income nations are likely to be affected (Rajendran et al. 2018). For an
effective solid waste management practice, the development of robust infrastructure
on waste management is needed in Asian countries. The operational cost again varies
with different world economy. According to the World Bank report “What a Waste
2.0,” the low-income nations’ expenditure on SWM operational system is $35 per
tonnes; the developed countries spend $100 per tonnes or more (Kaza et al. 2018).
The amount of solid waste produced will increase with global population and
industrial growth, making it a difficult task for municipalities to manage the solid
waste. An efficient system of solid waste management includes development of a
sustainable and clean city considering the issues related to climate change, health,
and other social aspects.
Financial and institutional issues can affect the improvements of solid waste
management practices in developing countries (Hanrahan et al. 2006). Thus, cost
estimation is important for an effective solid waste management process, and it is
also an essential tool for decision- and policy-making related to SWM strategies
(Milke 2006). The World Bank also supported 329 solid waste management projects
worldwide by spending $4.5 billion (Rajendran et al. 2018). Several workers have
discussed the economic evaluation for effective SWM practices. Porter (2002)
discussed the role and importance of solid waste economy and improving the
SWM services. Introduction of correct policy assessment measures has a direct
impact on environmental externalities associated with the generated waste. As a

result, each measure that indicates the external effects of solid waste management on
the natural environment must be adjusted; for example, material recycling can be
encouraged through applying the unit charges on waste generated and disposal site
policies (Porter 2002). Kinnaman and Fullerton (2001) also studied the residential
SWM economics covering the external costs of waste collection and disposal
activities formulating the theoretical frameworks of models governing the policy-
makers to choose the efficient policies to regulate municipal solid waste and
recycling activities.
Role of Circular Economy in Solid Waste Management
Circular economy is emerging as an effective tool for managing the waste stream,
thereby reducing the burden on existing natural resources. According to Ying and
Li-Jun (2012), the concept of circular economy works in “resource-product-waste-
renewable resource” mode and confirms the sustainable development by minimum
resource utilization and environmental cost. Furthermore, the circular economy
concept could strengthen the idea of resource conservation and environmental
protection by implementing the approach of green supply chain management
(Ying and Li-jun 2012). The concept of circular economy includes utilizing waste
streams as resource for recovery of other valuable materials. The aim of applying the
circular economy concept is to achieve sustainable economic growth without
harming nature (Halkos and Petrou 2016). Using the circular economy model, we
can extend the natural life of materials which we thought as waste. The business
models of circular economy cover two groups: (a) one who encourages “reuse” and
increases the service life of products by repairing, remanufacturing, and upgrading
the material and (b) the other who encourages “recycling” and converts old material
into new resources (Stahel 2016).
Solid waste, if properly managed, can be considered as resource. Recently,
industrial sector around the world is working in the field of recycling waste gener-
ated from electronic products. E-waste has gained attention recently as secondary
source of metals such as gold (Au), silver (Ag), palladium (Pd), platinum (Pt), nickel
(Ni), copper (Cu), tin (Sn), lead (Pb), indium (In), selenium (Se), tantalum (Ta),
tellurium (Te), bismuth (Bi), and antimony (Sb). The high demand of technology
metals is owing to their recent wide application, their limited supply, and their
uneven geographical distribution (Işıldar et al. 2018). Thus, e-waste as secondary
sources for these metals is becoming increasingly important. Işıldar et al. (2018)
outlined the state of e-wastes globally, their management strategies, and the techno-
logical development of metal recovery from the e-waste stream. Metals from e-waste
can be recovered using various metallurgical processes such as pyrometallurgy,
hydrometallurgy, electrometallurgy, biohydrometallurgy, and their combinations:
• Pyrometallurgy: The e-waste is heated at very high temperature (>1000 C) to

separate the material. The process includes smelting and pyrolysis.
452 R. Paliwal
• Hydrometallurgy: This includes leaching process for the extraction of metals in

aqueous solutions using strong acids and bases together with oxidants and
complexing agents.
• Electrometallurgy: Use electrical energy for electrolysis to recover or purify
metals.
• Biohydrometallurgy: The process includes application of microorganisms to
recover metals. Biohydrometallurgy is considered as cost-effective and
environmental-friendly process over the other.
• Hybrid method: The process uses combinations of chemical and biological
methods of metal extractions, thus reducing the release of harmful chemicals in
the environment.
In 2014, e-waste generation was reported to reach 42 million tonnes globally.

The rapid production of electronic products depends on the availability of raw
materials, e.g., metals. Supply of the raw materials is critical due to limited
availability and uneven distribution of resources around the world. The supply
of such raw materials is also affected by the political decisions. Therefore, the
recycling policies for the recovery of metals as raw material from the secondary
source (e-waste) are essentially important in order to avoid the pressure of natural
resources and also to solve the supply problem of raw materials (Işıldar et al.
2018). Navazo et al. (2014) reported the recovery rate of 80–90% of metals like
Au, Ag, Pd, Ni, Sb, Cu, and Sn from mobiles using the pyrometallurgical and
combined pyro-hydrometallurgical recovery processes. Thus, the recovery of raw
materials from secondary sources represents great opportunities to manage the
e-waste and also to generate the wealth from it. Dumlao-Tan and Halog (2017)
enlisted some potentially recoverable materials from different solid waste
(Fig. 2).
It has been estimated that by 2025, cost savings amounting $1 trillion could be
generated by the holistic approach of circular economy (Esposito et al. 2015).
Application of circular economy models could reduce the consumption of raw
resources by up to 50% in the coming years by 2050 as suggested by the Ellen
MacArthur Foundation and the McKinsey Center for Business and Environment
(Esposito et al. 2018). With the understanding of circular economy concept,
Accenture (2014) identified five circular business models that can be applied by
the companies and/or industries for sustainable management of waste. These five
circular business models are as follows:
• Circular supply model: This model includes the cradle-to-cradle (C2C) concept,
which works on a loop of renewable, recyclable, and biodegradable resource, thus
producing the products having positive environmental footprint.
• Resource recovery model: This model promotes the transformation of waste into
inputs.
• Product life extension model: The product life extension model works on the
principles of repairing, upgrading, refurbishing, and reselling the products to
preserve their value.
Fig. 2 Potentially recoverable materials from different solid waste

454 R. Paliwal
• Sharing platforms model: The model incorporates the concept of sharing econ-
omy, where the product or services are efficiently shared to enhance their value
through a high utilization rate.
• Product as a service: It involves the use of products by one or more clients
through payment or rental agreements. The model would be appealing to the
companies with a high share of the operating cost of the product and which have
advantage over their customers in managing the product maintenance.
In Europe, many countries such as Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, and the
United Kingdom have taken initiatives for developing and implementing the policies
and programs for circular economy strategies (EUKN 2015). European countries
have applied the concept of circular economy in formulating the policies along with
urban planning integrated with heat, energy, and waste management (Savini 2019).
In Denmark, the government promotes national resource strategy by recycling for
effective waste management and creating a zero-waste society (Rosendal 2014).
European countries’ policies have also prioritized the repair and reuse of products
over waste prevention methods. According to Webster (2017), product repairing
extends the life of a product, thus reducing the new product purchases and also the
waste generation. In the market-oriented government interventions, which are usu-
ally supported by companies (e.g., tax incentives for repair), “repair” is considered as
a tool for “green growth” (Savini 2019). Product repairing is one among the different
tools of circularity or the concept of circular economy. Savini (2019) discussed how
a circular economy concept represents an eco-accumulation regime, where waste is
considered as a resource of production and consumption. The repair cafés started in
Amsterdam and has grown quickly in various parts of the world such as the
Netherlands, Germany, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The activities like repair
café, redesign studios, refurbishing shops, and secondhand market are playing an
important role in mainstream market for city residents as prosumers.
Environmental and Economic Benefits of Recycling
Sustainable utilization of natural resources decides the economic growth and envi-
ronmental conditions of a country. According to waste reduction model (WARM) of
EPA, the waste management practices such as source reduction, recycling,
composting, combustion with energy recovery, and land filling could reduce the
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. As per the study, 44.2 million tonnes of paper and
paperboard recycling resulted in the reduction of 148 million metric tonnes of carbon
dioxide equivalent (MMTCO2E) in 2017 (US EPA 2019a). The use of solid waste as
valuable source or raw materials for any manufacturing process could not only
reduce the existing pressure on natural resources overexploitation but also create
jobs. According to the Recycling Economic Information (REI) study conducted by
EPA in 2016, reuse and recycling of waste material create new jobs and generate
local and state tax revenues. The data from the study showed that in 2007, recycling
and reuse activities generate 757,000 jobs; $36.6 billion wages; and $6.7 billion tax
revenues in the United States (US EPA 2019a). Some studies also approve the
conversion of municipal solid waste containing the high portion of lignocelluloses to

ethanol (Kalogo et al. 2007; Vergara and Tchobanoglous 2012). Some important
advantages of solid waste reuse and recycling are listed below:
• Reduces the amount of waste finally disposed in landfills.

• The process of energy extraction from waste could also improve the quality of
waste disposed of.
• Reduce the pollution levels, e.g., carbon emissions. Also reduce the methane
generation from landfills.
• Considering the solid waste as energy source could help in meeting the energy
demand.
• Reduce the burden on fossil fuel sources.
• After energy recovery, ≈ 10% of the volume remains as ash, which can transfer to
landfills (US EPA 2019b).
Researches on recovery of high-valued chemicals of industrial importance and

production drop-in alternative fuels, e.g., butanol, are in pipelines (Srivastava et al.
2015). Therefore, solid waste can be a good source of raw material for manufactur-
ing industries. In high-energy-intensive sectors also, the recycling of materials could
bring the pollutant gases emission levels down. For example, recycling of metal like
aluminum and steel could reduce the per-unit emissions by more than one-third from
the manufacture of these metals (MacArthur 2016).
Recent Developments and Perspectives of “From Waste

to Wealth”
The debate on the application of circular economy (CE) models for waste manage-
ment has increased in the past few years through a vast array of researches. However,
research providing a holistic and broad view of circular economy is still lacking
behind. The concept of waste to wealth includes shifting of waste from used-up
utility platform to other precious or valuable level. Recycling of waste into some
new products could solve the problem associated with generated waste. Ikechukwu
(2015) studied the relationship between the waste and wealth relative to scrap metal
scavenge in Obio/Akpor local government river state, Nigeria. According to the
study, scavenging the scrap metal can generate economy/wealth. However, the study
also recommended that the scavengers can enhance their efforts and resources
through cooperative movements. And government and nongovernment bodies
should encourage the scavenging activities in an environmentally safe manner and
also train the workers through workshops and seminar (Ikechukwu 2015).
The concept of waste to wealth or wealth from waste along with circular economy
is getting favor all around the world by local and national governments. Studies
suggested that the concept of circular economy promotes social reciprocity, product/
service sharing, environmentally sound consumption, and manufacturing in regions
(Savini 2019). Policies on urban development based on the principles of circularity
are being developed and also applied in European nations. The circularity projects
456 R. Paliwal
are designed to redevelop the cities and manage the waste through waste valorization
and energy and heat recovery. Savini and Habdank (2018) studied and prepared a
database of different projects and policies of European countries working in suc-
cessful implementation of concept of circularity. Some of the examples including the
Paris Circular Economy Plan, ECO3 business Park (Tampere), Old Oak and Park
Royal (London), and Copenhagen circularity model (Savini 2019).
Esposito et al. (2015) discussed the example of Veolia Company working in the
field of management of the urban waste in about forty countries around the world.
Veolia works with industrial customers and municipalities to manage the generated
waste by collecting and processing for the treatment (Box 1). The waste after
treatment can be reintroduced into the production system of industries for reuse.
The World Economic Forum and the Forum of Young Global Leaders have recog-
nized some best companies performing in the sector of circular economy, some of
which are discussed in Box 2 (Thornton 2019). In developing countries like India
also, studies on effective management of municipal solid waste through projects like
wealth from waste and waste to energy are going on. According to an estimation of
MNRE (2011) report, the existing potential of India for energy generation from
MSW is about 1460 MW. However, only 24 MW of existing potential have been
capitalized as per the report (MNRE 2011). This large amount of energy generated
from waste can fulfil the large portion of energy demand of the country and can also
be a substitute of million tonnes of coal every year. Moreover, this can reduce the
existing pressure on fossil fuels (Ministry of Power, GoI 2013).
Box 1 Companies Working in the Field of Waste Management and Circular

Economy
• The companies like Veolia are working effectively for managing the urban
wastes and providing solutions to the problems of limited resources. Veolia
works in waste management sectors such as plastic waste management,
hazardous and nonhazardous waste recoveries, remediation of soil, dis-
mantle of sensitive facilities, water recycling, and energy management. In
2017, 47 million metric tonnes of waste was recovered by the company
group. The company has also set goals of increasing its revenue from €200
million to €1 billion by 2025 by utilizing CE principles (Veolia Institute
2019).
• As a member of the Circular Economy 100 (CE100) program of Ellen
MacArthur Foundation, Dell has fashioned an emergent closed-loop plas-
tic network and became the first company to propose a computer made with
UL Environment-certified closed-loop recycled plastics. They used post-
consumer recycled plastics costing more than ten million pounds in their
products and began incorporating plastics sourced from gathering of used
electronics (approximately four million pounds per year) since 2014. The
process reduces costs by offering such plastics an extended life having a
lesser life cycle carbon footprint.
(continued)
Box 1 (continued)
• Levi Strauss & Co. is working on their clothing, shoes, and textiles includ-
ing unsold materials that find way into US landfills each year costing
around 24 billion pounds as initiated aim at taking a chunk out of this
statistic concerning short- and long-term circular economy. Each and every
store accepts old clothes and shoes of any brand, which the company
collects and repurposes or recycles with its partner, I:Co, to transform it
into insulation for buildings, cushioning material, and new fibers for
clothing.
Box 2 Leading Companies/Start-up Working in the Field of Waste Management

and Generating Revenues, Recognized by World Economic Forum (Thornton
2019)
• Winnow is a British start-up that analyzes the trash using smart meter. They
measured the waste generated in commercial kitchens and identify the
solution to reduce the waste generation. This way, they managed to reduce
the waste generation in half in around 100 of kitchens across the 40 coun-
tries, saving its customers over $25 million each year in the process.
• DyeCoo, a Dutch company, worked in the field of textile industries and
developed the technique for dyeing the cloths with no water and chemicals.
They use highly pressurized “supercritical” carbon dioxide, halfway
between a liquid and a gas, which dissolves the dye and colors the fabric
with 98% absorption rate. The process takes much less time, cost, and
energy as the fabric does not need to dry. This way, the company provides
the textile industries an opportunity to generate zero wastes of toxic nature.
• An Australian-based company, Close the Loop facilitates the recovery of
cartridges and soft plastics from old printer and varied the stuffs with
asphalt and recycled glass to create a superior class road surface that
lasts up to 65% longer than conventional ones.
• A Canadian firm, Enerkem extracts the carbon by converting it into gas in
order to make biofuels such as methanol and ethanol from the trashes that
can’t be recycled.
• French-based Schneider Electric has specialized in energy management
and automation by using recycled content and recyclable materials in its
products, thereby prolonging product life span through renting and
pay-per-use, and has introduced take-back schemes into its supply
chain.
• The US firm Cambrian Innovation uses EcoVolt technology to treat waste-
water contamination by industrial processes to not only turn it into clean
water but also produce biogas that could be used to generate clean energy.
458 R. Paliwal
Future Perspective and Challenges
The amount of solid waste is continuously increasing with the urbanization. Many
researchers and economist have considered the municipal solid waste as treasure if
managed properly. This urban waste can be managed using the concept and tools of
circular economy, the impact of which could be enormous, especially in low- and
middle-income countries. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2016) stated in their
report that India could apply the circular economy principle in three main sectors of
economy generation; these are cities and construction, food and agriculture, and
mobility and vehicle manufacturing. However, the potential of India for using
circular economy principles is not restricted to these stated areas only (MacArthur
2016). Like every other strategy, circular economy principles also have certain
limitations, but these can be overcome by correct measures. The transition from
linear economy to circular economy may require the implementation of new busi-
ness models, which could limit the adoption of circular economy strategies by the
industries. Sousa-Zomer et al. (2018) discussed the problems and challenges in
implementation of circular business model. According to the literature, implemen-
tation of circular economy principles follows either of the two approaches, i.e.,
top-down or bottom-up (Lieder and Rashid 2016; Ruggieri et al. 2016; Sousa-Zomer
et al. 2018).
The top-down approach requires the policy-makers to take the lead in
implementing the circular economy principles, whereas the bottom-up approach
includes the organizational innovations (Ruggieri et al. 2016; Sousa-Zomer et al.
2018). The bottom-up approach includes the radical changes in organizations that
again require new thinking and performing mechanism of companies (Bocken et al.
2016). Bianchini et al. (2019) discussed the internal as well as external challenges
and factors observed in literature influencing the practical implementation of circular
economy principles. These challenges are classified under different barriers limiting
the circular economy model adoption (Sousa-Zomer et al. 2018; Bianchini et al.
2019) and discussed below:
• Internal process: Companies and organizational capabilities to make the changes

according to circular economy principles across the different levels of an organi-
zation’s functions and structure.
• Technical: Technical and technological knowledge and expertise toward the new
technologies (e.g., recycling technologies) without compromising the quality
levels of production system.
• Market-stakeholder relationship: Compatibility with the partnership business
models, lack of supply network, geographical dispersion, poor framework and
services, conflict of interest within the parties, uneven profit share along the
supply chain, and the customer behaviors.
• Economic and financial: Complex practice of circular economy principles may
cause expensive management and planning processes and thus may require a high
long-term investment.
• Institutional, regulatory, and social: Uneven incentives, regulations’ complexity,

absence of favorable legal system, and poor framework at institutional level.
Therefore, a chain of information and feedback is essential for an effective

implementation of circular economy strategy. A deep and extensive understanding
of development and implementation concerning various types of circular business
models would influence future research in this area through internal-external collab-
orations by engaging organizational functions of the circular economy business
model. For developing and implementing different circular business strategies,
capability analysis is required, thus becoming prospective fruitful possibilities for
future research.
Conclusion
For a sustainable environment, it is important to manage and utilize our natural

resources in a sustainable manner. The poor management of solid waste and dump-
ing sites causes disastrous events. The slope failure in the dumping sites is triggered
by various factors, which could aggravate the situation. Application of circular
economy concept in the present scenario can provide promising avenue for eco-
nomic growth as well as management of generated solid waste. Circular economy
strategies in business or industries include the reuse and recycling of waste or
discarded products in successive production cycles. The reutilization of waste
produced as raw material for the industrial production makes the process environ-
mentally and economically regenerative. Thus, the circular economy business strat-
egies could assist in lowering down the burden on natural resources and the
nonrenewable energy resources like fossil fuels.
Based on canons of waste minimization, recycling is a key component of
sustainable solid waste management, reprocessing scrapped resources into valuable
products. Often, in poor or developing economies, circular economy principles are
there but sacrificed at the altar of economy and growths. Tenets of circularity are
deeply embedded in Indian habits such as higher rates of vehicle repairs and recycled
stuffs for post use providing source or alternative livelihoods to some of the poorest
populations. The developing nations can create substantial economic savings and
heavily cut down carbon emissions by turning these trends into principal develop-
mental strategies. The developing countries have opportunity to make more circular
paradigm by reorienting the “take-make-dispose” economic model. In the industrial
sector, a wide gap is present between circular economy and its sensible implemen-
tation in the form of lack of reliable and specific information about resources,
products, and processes. It is impossible to quantify circular initiatives allowing
assessment of economic, environmental, and social benefits if there is no proper and
effective information flow. The preventive identification of potential barriers and
relative solutions monitors the risk associated with circular investments and supports
the decision-making in the whole process.
460 R. Paliwal
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Part II
Agricultural Solid Waste Management
Recovery of Agricultural Waste Biomass:
A Sustainability Strategy for Moving 18
Towards a Circular Bioeconomy
Mónica Duque-Acevedo, Luis Jesús Belmonte-Ureña,

Francisco J. Cortés-García, and Francisco Camacho-Ferre
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468
Agriculture as a Strategic Sector for Economic Growth and Global Development . . . . . . . . 469
The Transition from Traditional Intensive Agriculture to a Sustainable Agriculture . . . . . . 470
Agricultural Biomass as the Main Resource in the Bioeconomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493
Abstract
Agriculture has played a strategic role in the process of economic growth and
development in numerous countries, especially over the last five decades. How-
ever, the rapid growth of agricultural productivity has created a greater strain on
natural resources, which has harmed the environment. One of the main problems
with this intensive agriculture model is the huge amount of waste it produces.
Most of this waste is waste biomass. This type of residue becomes a resource with
great potential for the extraction of by-products with high added value under the
approach of the circular economic production models (CEPMs) like the circular
economy and the bioeconomy. The bioeconomy, as a renewable part of the
circular economy, promotes the use and sustainable recovery of agricultural
M. Duque-Acevedo · F. Camacho-Ferre (*)

Department of Agronomy, Research Centre CIAIMBITAL, University of Almería, Almería, Spain
e-mail: mda242@ual.es; fcamacho@ual.es
L. J. Belmonte-Ureña
Department of Economy and Business, Research Centre CIAIMBITAL, University of Almería,
Almería, Spain
e-mail: lbelmont@ual.es
F. J. Cortés-García
Faculty of Business and Communication, Universidad Internacional de La Rioja, Logroño, Spain
e-mail: franciscoj.cortes@unir.net

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_25
468 M. Duque-Acevedo et al.
waste biomass (AWB) as an essential supply. This bio-based economic model has
become one of the main tools for drawing up new development policies based on
the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This is why this chapter analyzes the
process of transition from conventional intensive agriculture to a sustainable
version. The circular economy and the bioeconomy are presented as the key
CEPMs for the transformation of the current food production system. Addition-
ally, a special emphasis is placed in the management of the AWB and the
alternatives for its valorization, which are promoted by the bioeconomy as
circular and sustainable practices that contribute to the three pillars of the SDGs.
Keywords
Sustainable agriculture · Agricultural waste biomass · Circular economy ·
Circular bioeconomy · Sustainable development
Introduction
About 40% of the land in the world is used for agriculture and roughly 26% of the
world population gets its sustenance from the agricultural sector (OCDE-FAO
2019). The expansion of agriculture has slowed down by 1% and the rate of
deforestation has declined over the last 20 years. Nevertheless, it is undeniable
that the progress in this sector has taken place at the expense of the environment
while causing negative consequences for the planet. During the same time frame, the
food production linear model has contributed to the degradation of 20% of the
Earth’s surface (Hollins et al. 2017; United Nations 2019) and the acceleration of
the loss of natural ecosystems and biodiversity. Agricultural activities have been
responsible for one-fourth of all Greenhouse Gas emissions. The world population,
which has tripled since 1945, and the significant change in its consumption habits are
the main factors that influence the growing demand for agricultural products, which
is expected to grow by 15% over the next decade (OCDE-FAO 2019).
This unsustainable growth of agricultural production results in a debt with the
environment. Despite some steps being taken towards the sustainable agricultural
model, the European Union (EU) acknowledges that the environmental challenges
are greater and require more urgent action. The Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2015 emphasize the need for a carbon
footprint reduction and for the preservation of natural resources, among other basic
principles, to achieve more sustainable development. The circular economy has
become one of the main strategies to achieve the SDGs as it focuses on the reuse,
repair, renovation, and recycling of materials and products to generate greater added
value. Thus, these products remain in the productive system for as long as possible
while generating economic, social, and environmental benefits (Molina-Moreno
et al. 2017). The current theories on the principles of the circular economy agree
on the essential bullet points: (1) systemic and holistic thought focused on local
resources, (2) aimed at the multi-benefit, (3) resource efficiency and sustainability.
18 Recovery of Agricultural Waste Biomass: A Sustainability Strategy for. . . 469
These are the recurring ideas in the structure of the different definitions of the
circular economy. Other principles can be derived depending on the level of con-
creteness and the area in which the focus is placed. For example, it is important to
consider the life cycle of a product, the importance of its functionality and its
reparation, recycling, and valorization.
The bioeconomy is a key element in the transition towards a sustainable economy.
It considers production processes and the utilization of renewable biological
resources, such as biomass, for its transformation into bioproducts and bioenergy
(Scarlat et al. 2015). In this theory, residual biomass is no longer a waste product and
it becomes a resource with significant potential for the production of materials and
energy products (Kretschmer et al. 2013). The result is an agricultural system with
lower requirements for agrochemical components and energy supply. The principles
of the bioeconomy establish waste prevention and recycling as the main option. This
is why AWB will continue to grow in importance as input for sustainable supply
(European Union 2018).
Agriculture as a Strategic Sector for Economic Growth and Global

Development
Since 1960, the social and economic progress that has been achieved due to the
increase in global food production is undeniable. The contribution of agriculture is
expressed in the provision of food for hunger-reduction. The dynamics of this sector,
which have diversified in recent years, have created jobs in the poorest rural
populations (The World Bank 2008) and an improvement in the quality of life in
many regions of the world (OCDE-FAO 2019). Industrial revolutions that took place
between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were inspired by the increase of
agricultural productivity. In countries such as China, India, England, Japan, and
Vietnam, industrial development was financed by an agricultural surplus (The World
Bank 2008). The significant increase in crop production enabled many countries to
be self-sufficient regarding food production and they contributed to the achievement
of the principal goal: to solve the problem of poverty and famine the world was
facing in the 1960s. China increased its agricultural production by 60% between
1978 and 1984, which allowed for a 51% reduction in rural poverty. This reduction
was four times higher than that generated by GDP growth in the industry or the
service sector in the same time frame. The contribution of agriculture to poverty
reduction in sub-Saharan Africa was 4.25 times greater than the contribution of the
service sector (The World Bank 2008).
In 2004, more than 70% of the world population depended on agriculture for its
sustenance. This reality accelerated agricultural progress even more, but the increase
in production per hectare did not imply an increase in cultivated land. This approach
reduced global hunger between 2005 and 2015. In 1995, arable land was the most
important asset behind the labor force in many countries, specifically in southern
Asia and Africa. In those years, agriculture represented 7.6% of the world gross
domestic product (GDP) (Bank 2019). In 2008, the activity of the agriculture sector
represented 29% of the GDP and it employed 65% of the workforce in predomi-
nantly agricultural countries (The World Bank 2008).
In 2014, the agricultural sector represented one-third of the world GDP and
currently generates between 25% and 30% of the GDP in the least developed
countries (World Bank Group 2019). In 2015, agriculture occupied about half of
the land area of the European Union (EU) and employed 4.2% of the EU
workforce (European Commission 2018a). Until 2017, the total production of
the main cereal crops had increased by 240% and the proportion of agriculture in
the global GDP was 3.4% in the same year. The agricultural sector currently
employs over one billion people around the world (Independent Group of Scien-
tists 2019). Agricultural growth remains a priority as a means of reducing world
poverty and ensuring food security as growth in other sectors has not been as
effective in achieving this purpose (The World Bank 2008; World Bank Group
2019).
The Transition from Traditional Intensive Agriculture

to a Sustainable Agriculture
Principles and Problems of the Conventional Intensive Agricultural

System
The first agricultural practices adopted thousands of years ago significantly changed
the lifestyle of populations around the world. Changes in ways of interacting with the
environment arose from the settlement of humans in specific areas and the estab-
lishment of social structures. These facts boosted the development of agriculture,
although a primitive form of it, and caused a transformation in the characteristics of
plants, animals, and natural environments. Since then, agriculture has constantly
been evolving and generating large-scale impacts, most notably on the environment.
The most significant progress in the agricultural sector took place during the Green
Revolution, which arose after World War II to transform global agriculture and
implement the linear production model still prevalent to this day. Crop improvement
through plant biotechnology, the increased use of agricultural input via nitrogen
fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides, and the implementation of innovative irrigation
techniques have enabled small farmers to significantly improve their practices while
boosting crop production.
In Asia, the net cultivated area only increased by 4% in 25 years, but food
production doubled. More food continues to be produced worldwide without an
increase in the area of cultivated crops, which confirms the continuous improve-
ment in the efficiency of the agricultural system (World Bioenergy Association
2019) and the importance of the contributions of innovation and technology
(Valera et al. 2017). The agricultural model as we know it today is linked to the
capitalist system of production and consumption and it is clearly incoherent and
irresponsible. It could be said that this linear productive system to which we
are accustomed works as if natural resources and raw materials are unlimited. It
is a system strictly governed by internal or economic elements and it does not
Fig. 1 Outline of the conventional agricultural model and main the consequences. (Source:
Prepared by the authors based on Independent Group of Scientists (2019))
take into account the negative impacts and externalities that are generated
(Fig. 1).
All of these impacts result in the deterioration of different capitals that society
has at its disposal, primarily financial, social, and natural. The situation worsens
if we take into consideration that globalization is affecting the transfer of
residue. Thus, greater risk on the environment and on human health is being
transferred from the most prosperous countries to the least developed ones. This
situation is exacerbated by the fact that underdeveloped countries tend to have
more permissive environmental practices and less technology for treating such
waste.
Transitioning from a linear economy to a circular one requires a process that calls
for organizational change and a new direction in the design process of products and
services. This transition also requires a major cultural change which brings about a
profound transformation of the incentive system as we know it. It also requires
reviews in consumer satisfaction to bring production and consumption closer
together locally and to go deeper into a more collaborative and open-source econ-
omy. The linear economy is sending out signals that point to its unsustainability and
the need for disruptive change.
New Foundations of Agriculture in the Context of Sustainable

Development
The intensification and acceleration of agriculture have had high costs in all three
pillars of development for several decades and this was obvious early on. In envi-
ronmental terms, the damage caused to natural ecosystems could even trigger
irreversible consequences for human life (Independent Group of Scientists 2019).
Global changes in the form of weather variations and other phenomena (extreme rain
and/or droughts) are affecting crops and could increase soil degradation processes
that could put food production at risk (United Nations 2019; Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change 2020). A decline in the reduction of poverty has been
noticed primarily in developing countries. In recent years, there has been a certain
lack of uniformity in the rate of poverty reduction in all regions of the world. This
makes it even more important for governments to reach two primary goals in
continuing development: ending hunger and reducing poverty throughout the
world. Sustainable agriculture is a priority (Gennari and Navarro 2019) and envi-
ronmental protection is a must in the United Nations’ current agenda for global
development (2015–2030).
As shown in Fig. 2, the issue of environmental management has been considered
an international priority since 1972 (Leach et al. 2012). The Stockholm Declaration
of 1972 broadly recognizes global environmental issues and listed 109 measures for
environmental action. These measures included the development and application
of control and recycling technology in agriculture. The FAO adopted the concept of
sustainable agriculture in 1988 and this approach has appeared on the agenda of
primary global summits since 1992 (Gennari and Navarro 2019). In the United
Nations Earth Summit of 1992, specific action plans to achieve sustainable devel-
opment (economic, social, and environmental) were defined as the ruling principle
for global development. The use of crop residue as soil fertilizer and as a source of
renewable energy was also promoted.
Eight key objectives for achieving human development were set in the Millen-
nium Development Goals in the year 2000. One of these goals aimed to “Ensure
environmental sustainability.” The role of agricultural and rural development in
food security and production was highlighted during the United Nations World
Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in 2002. Between 2000 and 2002,
the sustainable use of biomass was promoted, along with access to modern
technology for AWB recovery. In 2012, one of the main focuses of the Rio + 20
Conference was the green economy in the context of sustainable development. The
need to strengthen the three dimensions of sustainable development was stressed at
the event, along with the intergovernmental mechanisms necessary to achieve
it. Increasing sustainable agricultural production through research and the appli-
cation of new technology and environmentally friendly practices were relevant
subjects during this United Nations Conference (FAO 2019a, b; Gennari and
Navarro 2019).
Unlike the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of 2000, which were aimed
at developing countries, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals are universal, but
not legally binding. Some of the SDGs establish the need to change the focus in the
Fig. 2 Evolution of the current sustainable development model. (Source: Prepared by the authors
based on FAO (2019a, b) and Gennari and Navarro (2019))
system of food production while stressing the importance of sustainable manage-

ment and the efficient use of natural resources (FAO 2019b). For example, SDG
number 2, “Zero Hunger,” aims to “End hunger, achieve food security and improved
nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture.” According to the United Nations last
report about the SDGs, the number of people who experience hunger in the world
has increased in recent years. This remains a considerable problem for sustainable
development given that extreme hunger and malnutrition are among the main
obstacles for its achievement (United Nations 2020). This is why it is indispensable
to focus on agricultural sustainability problems of different regions of the world to
implement specific measures based on local needs (Leach et al. 2012).
The main challenge for sustainable agriculture, currently promoted by the FAO, is
to produce more food with fewer resources, as stated in the SDG 12 “Sustainable
Consumption and Production.” Regarding the sustainability principles linked to this
production model, the most remarkable are the efficiency in the use of resources, the
increased productivity, and the reduction of polluting emissions and waste. The
improvement of livelihoods, the promotion of employment, and the generation of
added value from the use and recovery of materials and waste generated during all
stages of food production and processing are also highlighted. In terms of food
security, sustainable agriculture must guarantee the availability, access, use, and
stability, which are the main pillars of this social-economic component (FAO 2020).
SDG 9, “Industry, innovation, and infrastructure,” is key to improving and
driving the investment in research, technological innovation, and the implementation
of sustainable industries that provide solutions to the current social and environ-
mental challenges. Large-scale projects that promote the implementation of high-
tech solutions to improve crop yield must guarantee opportunities for small farmers
not to get excluded (Leach et al. 2012). This is how the growth of regions must be
driven by an inclusive and participative approach.
Many countries have renewed their policies and development programs to align
them with the SDGs. Agriculture, due to its importance in the primary sector, is one
of the prioritized activities in these new guidelines. However, its focus is more on
circular and sustainable production processes. This is why circular economic and
bioeconomic models have become key tools for drawing up these sustainable
development policies (Fund et al. 2018). Some studies reveal that the practices
promoted by these CEPMs could directly contribute to the achievement of most of
the SDGs. Among the practices promoted by these CEPMs is the reduction and
efficient management of AWB as a key sustainability indicator (Duque-Acevedo
et al. 2020b, c).
Family Farmers as Key Agents in the New Model of Sustainable

Development
Chayanov Theory of Peasant Economy was recognized early in the twentieth
century as the integration and coordination of families for the development of
small-scale agricultural work. This concept evolved and family farming appeared
in 1944. This was the name given because of its dependence on family labor and the
size of the farms, which did not exceed two hectares on average. Historically, this
sector made up of small farmers has survived inequality and poverty as a result of the
globalized economic model that has encouraged and prioritized modernization and
the promotion of large-scale corporate agriculture.
Despite this, these small farmers have developed local food systems that can
produce 80% of the food worldwide. Today, 90% of more than 600 million farms
around the world are managed by a single person or a family. Seventy percentage of
all these farms are smaller than one hectare. These small farmers have achieved high
productivity in small farms that employ a family-workforce, which is comparatively
higher than that achieved in bigger farms with hired labor. They are also able to
create more jobs than those generated by big companies in the food industry. In
countries with fewer resources, small-scale farming dominates the agricultural (FAO
and IFAD 2019).
In spite of their importance, these small or very small family farms had seen their
surfaces reduced to between 70% and 80% of the agricultural land around the world
by 2014. In 2017, the United Nations proclaimed the Decade of Family Farming
2019–2028 with the goal of making family farming visible and consolidating this
important and necessary production model on the global political agenda. This task
must be approached from a holistic perspective to achieve essential transformations
that will make it possible to create and maintain sustainable food systems in
accordance with the proposals of the SDGs. In the Global Action Plan 2019–2028
issued by the United Nations, the need of small governments to contribute to the
resilience and adaptation of small producers was highlighted, as well as the sustain-
able management of natural resources and the adaptation to climate change (FAO
and IFAD 2019).
Family farmers are critical in the development and strengthening of rural eco-
nomic structure. They are natural leaders with enormous capacity to respond to
change, and since their livelihoods depend on the direct use of natural resources
(production and consumption), they are an important link between the economy and
the environment. For this reason, the circular economy and the bioeconomy strate-
gies acknowledge small farmers as allies for sustainability. The Sustainable
Bioeconomy, as a strategy focused on systems that depend on natural resources
(European Commission 2018a), prioritizes the spread of good practices in local food
production systems. Among these practices, it is the production and sustainable use
of agricultural biomass using traditional knowledge and innovation, as well as the
use and valorization of agricultural materials and residues to obtain other high
added-value products (Schüch et al. 2020).
These new approaches represent more job opportunities and greater economic
benefits for small farmers, which could improve their living conditions. However,
these industrial innovation processes and the adoption of high technology (biotech-
nology) to improve production and management in small farms must be adapted to
local ecological and social conditions (Leach et al. 2012). Government support for
small farmers is indispensable so that under the guidelines of the bioeconomy they
can continue supporting the improvement of food security and the conservation of
natural resources, which are two of the main challenges of the SDGs (FAO 2018).
The Circular Economy and the Bioeconomy as Transformation

Strategies Towards a Sustainable Agriculture
The concept of circular economy has been present in public and academic debate
since the 1970s, but its utilization was introduced in the late 1980s. The circular
economy was presented as a responsible interrelationship between economic and
ecological cycles that could preserve natural capital by improving production effi-
ciency and decreasing the negative externalities generated by the current economic
system. This responsible interrelation meant a reduction of the usage of materials
and resources, but also the recovery of residue or its transformation into new input
for similar or different industries (Schoenmakere et al. 2018; Muizniece et al. 2019).
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation has played a very important role in the promo-
tion of the circular economy. The idea entails the rethinking, redesigning, and
creation of a positive economy for the future. The McKinsey Company published
a report after the 2012 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that assessed
the potential benefits in growth and employment after the transition to a circular
economy. Right now, the concept of circular economy is being strategically pro-
moted by the European Union and by other countries, such as China and Japan.
China is a pioneer in issuing regulations on this CEPM. The first regulatory
framework issued by this country in 2009 already prioritized the support of agricul-
tural producers through the adoption of advanced techniques and the efficient use of
water, fertilizers, and phytosanitary products. It also promoted the development of
ecological agriculture, the use of crop residue, and the production of energy from
agricultural biomass. In addition, China has promoted extensive research on the
circular economy in recent years and its policies and strategies on this topic have
been the subject of considerable analysis (Cui and Zhang 2018; Türkeli et al. 2018).
The EU adopted its first Action Plan for the circular economy in 2015, which
included more than 50 specific actions related to the cycle of materials from
production to consumption, as well as policies about waste management. These
measures highlighted the cascade use of renewable resources, which includes several
cycles of recycling, reutilization, and remanufacturing to improve the efficiency of
resources during their life cycle (European Environment Agency 2017). On the other
hand, this plan emphasized the contribution of the bioeconomy to the approaches of
this model by offering alternatives to fossil fuel by-products (European Union 2015;
Fund et al. 2018). The EU updated this action plan in March of 2020. This new plan
relies on a cleaner and more competitive Europe and it stresses the importance of the
implementation of measures in the whole life cycle of the products. The manufactur-
ing of sustainable products, i.e., incorporating recycled materials instead of primary
raw materials, is one of the main measures for this plan. This is a way to ensure the
reduction of waste and to increase its potential for the production of secondary raw
materials (European Union 2020).
Agriculture is a sector that utilizes a considerable amount of resources while
having a noticeable potential for circularity. That is why, according to the possibil-
ities of this renewed and ambitious plan, governments are called on to adopt circular
measures within this important primary sector. In this regard, the circular
bioeconomy plays an essential role because it contributes to the production, use,
and sustainable conservation of biological resources. In doing so, the circular
bioeconomy also provides alternatives focused on the integral and circular manage-
ment, reutilization and recycling of materials and products through the implemen-
tation of scientific progress and the development of innovative technology
(Kretschmer et al. 2013; San Juan et al. 2019).
The circular economy and the bioeconomy are conceptually linked. They both
agree on several fields of intervention, such as the analysis of bio-based resources,
the development of new value chains, and the concept of biorefinery. Both models
consider the economy and the environment as a priority and they focus on social
transitions to sustainability through research and innovation. Horizon 2020 – The
EU Framework Program for Research and Innovation has been instrumental in
financing research and innovation programs that have contributed to the implemen-
tation of the measures defined on the action plans of the European strategies for
bioeconomy and circular economy. Under the approach of the circular economy, and
more importantly the framework of the circular bioeconomy, a wide range of

opportunities for the recovery and valorization of the AWB and the agricultural
by-products are opened (Scarlat et al. 2019).
The Circular Bioeconomy: An Opportunity for the Recovery and Conservation

of Biological Resources in Agriculture
The German Bioeconomy Council was established in 2009 as an independent
advisory body to the German Federal Government. It is responsible for the promo-
tion and development of a sustainable bioeconomy and it is established by several
members who cover a broad spectrum of the bioeconomy with their expertise on
industry, society, and science. In 2012, this advisory body of the German Govern-
ment defined bioeconomy as: “The production and utilization of biological resources
(including knowledge) to provide products, processes and services in all sectors of
trade and industry within the framework of a sustainable economy” (Dieckhoff et al.
2015). Several relevant reports on national bioeconomy policies and strategies have
been published, the most recent in 2018 (Fund et al. 2018).
Germany is one of the leaders in bioeconomic policy. In 2010, it published the
“National Research Strategy BioEconomy 2030” and in 2013, the “National Policy
Strategy in Bioeconomy” (Fund et al. 2018). Recently, in 2020, the German gov-
ernment presented its new National BioEconomy Strategy, which continues the
pillars of the previous strategies. This renewed strategy, which is much more
ambitious, updates the goals and defines specific measures for the implementation
of its bioeconomy policy. It also emphasizes that a sustainable bioeconomy is an
essential platform for the future of society. The German government is also promot-
ing and providing support for the strategies of other Länder, such as the “State
Strategy for a Sustainable Bio-Economy in Baden-Württemberg” of 2019 and the
“Sustainable Bio-Economy in Brandenburg” strategy of 2020.
Moreover, since 2012, the European Union and the United States have promoted
strategies in the field of the bioeconomy (Aguilar et al. 2019). In 2012, the European
Union drove the bioeconomy strategy, “Innovating for Sustainable Growth:
A Bioeconomy for Europe,” as a key element for intelligent and environmentally
friendly growth in Europe. This strategy, along with its action plan, sought to address
important issues, such as the reduction of pollutant emissions and the efficient use of
resources (Dieckhoff et al. 2015). Its primary goals were to promote food security
and to guarantee environmental protection. The main contributions of this manage-
ment plan were economic growth, the increase of employment in rural areas, the
reduction of fossil fuel dependence, improvements in production and processing
industries, and climate change mitigation and adaptation. In 2015, the European
Center for Biotechnology and Bioeconomy (CEBB) was founded (Fund et al. 2018;
Schoenmakere et al. 2018).
The European Commission adopted the document, “A Sustainable Bioeconomy
for Europe – Strengthening the Connection Between Economy, Society and the
Environment,” as the new bioeconomy strategy in 2018 to reinforce and improve
political priorities regarding the bioeconomy in Europe. This renewed management
framework highlights the fact that the bioeconomy is circular by definition and that
sustainability is the central axis of this CEPM. That is why the research addressing
the circular bioeconomy as a CEPM has increased in the last 2 years (Carus and
Dammer 2018) while providing important guidelines for the use and valorization of
AWB. A large part of this research highlights different alternatives for the transfor-
mation of AWB, according to consultations made in the Scopus database. These
studies mainly describe modern methods to obtain bioenergy and/or biofuel, but they
also cover methods to get bioproducts, such as chemical compounds, food product,
and biomaterials. In the same fashion, some regulatory framework and development
strategies are being adopted under the approach of the circular bioeconomy (Junta de
Andalucía 2018).
The EU strategy for a sustainable and circular economy included three main
scopes of action: strengthen and expand the bioproducts sector, rapidly implement
local bioeconomies all around Europe, and evaluate the ecological limits of the
bioeconomy. The measures defined in the action plan aimed to highlight the potential
of the bioeconomy in the development of rural and urban areas. One of the first
actions of this plan was to boost inclusive bioeconomy in rural areas and to improve
the link between national bioeconomy strategies and national strategic plans under
the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) (European Commission 2018a).
Another pilot project of this plan intended to increase carbon sequestration in soil
and biomass and to reduce emissions from fertilizer use. The plan also aimed to
develop local innovation (living laboratories) to implement agricultural and food
production systems based on circularity and sustainable bioproduction. This general
bioeconomy framework has encouraged the increase of knowledge, research, and
innovation about the valorization and recovery of biological waste. That is why this
project has become the main pillar in the creation and implementation of policy
strategies in many European countries in recent years. In the framework of the
Horizon 2020 Program, several Member States have received support to develop
their potential in this area and to achieve a sustainable circular bioeconomy
(European Commission 2018a).
Since the first Global Bioeconomy Summit took place in Berlin, Germany, in
2015, policy initiatives on the bioeconomy in the public and private sectors have
become more important on a global scale. During the same year, the Seventh Global
Forum on Food and Agriculture (GFFA) was celebrated to identify the benefits and
opportunities that bioeconomy offers to agriculture, especially to small farmers and
rural development.
The importance of food security as the most important dynamic of the
bioeconomy was also highlighted (Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture
(BMEL) 2015). The Ministers of Agriculture met at this international conference
to express the need for tangible action and cooperation to:
• Consolidate food security as a priority: increase sustainable food production

through the improved efficiency in the use of resources and the application of
value chains.
• Extend and improve sustainable agricultural production methods and manage-
ment of renewable natural resources.
• Maximize the potential of the bioeconomy: diversify the agricultural sector by

promoting integrated food and nonfood production systems.
• Establish bioeconomy value chains to develop and strengthen sustainable markets
for bio-based products.
• Promote the education, research, knowledge transfer, and adoption of new tech-
nology necessary for the development of the bioeconomy in developing
countries.
• Implement innovative procedures and the use of cascade biomass to activate the
untapped potential of raw materials and residue.
• Conduct international exchanges on best practices and bio-based value chains to
transfer knowledge and technology and to strengthen bioeconomy networks.
• Improve consumer awareness about bio-based sustainable products.
All these objectives have become critical for bioeconomy strategies and action
plans adopted in recent years. The goal of the International Agriculture Ministers
Conference was to implement a legal framework consistent with the bioeconomy to
favor the agricultural sector. The adequate supply of food and the production of
renewable resources for the manufacturing of biomaterials and energy were primary
goals.
This important inter-ministerial meeting paid particular attention to the global
concern about major challenges in the field of food security and environmental
protection. It was a call for international dialogue and joint action to recognize the
importance of sustainable agriculture in the process of consolidating the United
Nations ODS, which were adopted in 2015 (Federal Ministry of Food and Agricul-
ture (BMEL) 2015). Since then, the bioeconomy has been an important link between
agriculture and global sustainability policies. The FAO, as a specialized institution,
has been in charge of coordinating international actions regarding the bioeconomy in
the agricultural sector.
In 2016, during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 22), the
“Biofuture Platform - kickstarting a global, advance bioeconomy” was presented.
This is an initiative of the Brazilian government to group countries from the five
continents with common purposes in the area of bioeconomy. This international
cooperation platform currently includes 20 countries (Argentina, Brazil, Canada,
China, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Morocco, Mozam-
bique, The Netherlands, Paraguay, Philippines, Sweden, The United Kingdom, The
United States, and Uruguay). Its main aim is to develop a global bioeconomy policy,
through mutual learning and the articulation of actions between countries, organi-
zations, academic and private sectors. One of the main challenges is the definition
and implementation of sustainable alternatives, within the framework of the
bioeconomy, that contribute to the reduction of contaminating gas emissions and
the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The first conference
of the Biofuture Platform (I Biofuture Summit) was organized in 2017 (Fund et al.
2018; Global Bioeconomy Summit 2020 2020).
The bioeconomy has different approaches at present. Its definition is not unified
and it remains at different stages of development in many countries (Carus 2017;
OECD 2018). Since the second Global Bioeconomy Summit in 2018, the
bioeconomy has been defined as, “The production, utilization, and conservation of
biological resources, including related knowledge, science, technology, and innova-
tion, to provide information, products, processes and services across all economic
sectors aiming toward a sustainable economy.” This global perspective maintains the
spirit of the 2012 German Bioeconomy Council (International Advisory Council
(IAC) GBS2018 2018). The report from this important international forum high-
lights 14 subjects of global relevance to accelerate the transition towards a sustain-
able bioeconomy.
In 2019, the First Latin American Symposium on Bioeconomics was cele-
brated. At this meeting, special emphasis was placed on the importance of
adopting the bioeconomy as an indispensable tool for more sustainable economic
development in Latin American countries. In the same year, the Summit on the
Bioeconomy of the United States was celebrated. A meeting between public
authorities, bioeconomy experts, and leaders of the industrial sector, at which
the opportunities and challenges of the bioeconomy for that country were
examined.
Most policies, strategies, and research in this field, as well as the reports of the
main international meetings organized on bioeconomics in recent years are linked to
the concept of the circular economy. Both fields require a complex and dynamic
transformation process that lays out many challenges, but they are necessary to move
forward in the field of sustainability (Fund et al. 2018; International Advisory
Council (IAC) GBS2018 2018; Aguilar et al. 2019). Emphasis is placed on the
transversal, multi-sector, and multidisciplinary nature of the bioeconomy, which
allows it to contribute in an integrated manner to the achievement of the five main
global socioeconomic and environmental challenges of the Agenda 2030
(Kretschmer et al. 2013; Scarlat et al. 2015; Wesseler and von Braun 2017). Figure 3
presents in an articulated way the main aspects and elements that characterize and
drive this important economic-productive model.
The bioeconomy employed over 18 million people in the EU in 2015, mainly in
agriculture and food manufacturing. It also generated significant economic
resources that accounted for 4.2% of the EU GDP (Ronzon and M’Barek 2018).
It is important to note that in countries such as Japan, the regulatory or strategic
framework for sustainable growth does not specifically refer to the bioeconomy.
This framework incorporates laws, strategies, and specific programs about the
production and promotion of the industrial use of biomass under the same princi-
ples and approaches as those of the bioeconomy (Dieckhoff et al. 2015; OECD
2018).
The Bioeconomy: A Priority for the Post-2020 CAP

Since its creation in 1962, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has been a
relevant tool for the growth, consolidation, and transformation of the agricultural
sector in the European Union. This policy establishes the common goals, compe-
tencies, and applications between the state members and the EU. It has competence
in all matters related to increasing agricultural productivity and farmer income, the
Fig. 3 Integrated definition of the bioeconomy. (Source: Prepared by the authors based on German
Bioeconomy Council (2010), European Commission (2012), Keegan et al. (2013), Scarlat et al.
(2015), Carus (2017), Hollins et al. (2017), Schoenmakere et al. (2018), European Commission
(2018a), Fund et al. (2018), International Advisory Council (IAC) GBS2018 (2018), Carus and
Dammer (2018), Dietz et al. (2018), S. Bracco et al. (2019) and Heimann (2019))
workforce, security of food supply, market stabilization, and consumer protection.

The CAP has specific regulations about economic, social, and territorial cohesion,
the development of rural communities, environmental protection, and sustainable
development. The European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) and the European
Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) have been the main economic
pillars for the funding of all actions and measures included in the common policy
(European Commission 2018b).
Since 1992, the CAP has been updated to face new challenges in the matters of
food security, economic weakness in the rural sector, and the need for greater
economic dynamics and social networks in rural areas. The environmental priorities
related to the sustainable usage of natural resources and the mitigation of climate
change are additional challenges. However, a major reform of the CAP took place in
2013 and it placed particular emphasis on environmental topics. The top goals of this
renewed CAP were viable food production, balanced territorial development, and
sustainable management of natural resources and climate action (European Com-
mission 2018b). EU Regulation No.1305/2013 of the European Parliament and
Council related to the aid for rural development through the European Agricultural
Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) establishes: “Promoting resource efficiency
and supporting the shift towards a low carbon and climate resilient economy in
the agriculture, food and forestry sectors” as a priority for the rural development in
the EU (Article 5). This goal emphasizes the implementation of actions to promote
the development of the bioeconomy. These include the improvement in the supply
and use of renewable energy sources, by-products, waste, among other nonfood raw
materials.
A new proposal for CAP reform for the period 2021–2027 was introduced in
2018. This was intended to continue the consolidation of the role of sustainable
agriculture in the growth and development of Europe. This proposal also aimed to
maintain coherence and to achieve synergy with other European Union policies,
such as the strategy of the circular economy, the bioeconomy, and other interna-
tional policies, including the SDGs. Modernizing the CAP prioritizes the transi-
tion towards a more sustainable agricultural sector and the development of
dynamic rural areas with a solid social and economic network able to contribute
to food security. One of the nine goals of the CAP 2021–2027 is “Promoting
employment, growth, social inclusion, and local development in rural areas,
including bio-economy and sustainable forestry.” This goal highlights the capac-
ity of the bioeconomy to significantly contribute to the social and economic
dynamism of rural areas through the diversification of activities and the
creation of businesses and new value chains, which will help to increase employ-
ment and the profitability of agricultural producers. The European Union
is committed to agriculture as a strategic sector with great potential to
promote a sustainable bioeconomy in European countries (European Commis-
sion 2018b).
The goal of the European Union is that all the tools necessary to keep
strengthening research and innovation as central elements in the bioeconomy
can be established through the CAP. In addition, the CAP aims to guarantee the
coherence and synergy of all policies related to this economic-productive model
and better targeting of investments. It is understood that, under this new global
framework, all state members of the EU must develop national strategic
plans aligned with these new specific goals. They focus on the environment
and the strategies that support the sustainable use of biomass and the develop-
ment of innovative sectors related to the bioeconomy (European Commission
2018b).
Agricultural Biomass as the Main Resource in the Bioeconomy
Characterization of the Agricultural Waste Biomass (AWB)

Historically, agriculture has been one of the main producers of biomass (Bracco et al.
2018). Agricultural biomass is the biodegradable fraction of products and waste of
biological origin that result from land cultivation (European Union 2018). It is a
renewable energy resource with great potential as a fuel for transportation and
industry. The richness of this biological material in lignocellulosic compounds has
even led to the use of bioenergy crops (herbaceous and woody) for the production of
secondary products, such as biofuel (Hazell 2006), although to a lesser extent
concerning food crops (European Union 2018; World Bioenergy Association 2019).
Primary crops residue, which is produced during harvest and maintenance work
in the form of stubble, straw, seeds, remains of pruning and crop cuts (stems, leaves,
roots), and seed and fruit husks is the main component of the residual agricultural
biomass (Camacho-Ferre 2003; Sommer et al. 2016). Its potential for utilization is
huge (Sommer et al. 2016) because it is an important source of cellulose and
hemicellulose, which gives it multiple uses. Traditionally, AWB has been used as
food for animals, construction material, domestic or industrial fuel (International
Energy Agency 2017; Duque-Acevedo et al. 2020a), improvement of the soil
structure (fertilizer), and production of bioethanol. More than half of the dry mass
harvested in the world is agricultural waste and inedible biomass (Schoenmakere
et al. 2018). On average, 50% of residue is left on the land to provide nutrients for the
soil and to improve its quality (World Bioenergy Association 2019).
Regarding the generation of energy, it is estimated that the main crops could
create between 4.3 and 9.4 billion tons of waste per year and this could have an
energy potential ranging from 17.8 EJ to 82.3 EJ (World Bioenergy Association
2019). Cereals such as wheat, barley, corn, rice, and sugarcane produce the most
crop residue. Since the mid-1990s, Asia has been one of the main producers of cereal
and it has contributed to nearly 50% of the residue in these crops (Sommer et al.
2016). It is estimated that a total of 3.7 billion tons of dry matter is produced annually
(International Energy Agency 2017). Over 2 billion tons of urban solid waste is
currently produced every year in the world and the global production of agricultural
waste is four and a half times higher (Kaza et al. 2018). Approximately 121 million
tons of crop residue is generated in the European Union and it is mainly used to
produce fodder (60%), energy (19%), and biomaterials (19%) (Gurria et al. 2017;
Schoenmakere et al. 2018). Intensive agriculture generates higher amounts of crop
residue, which is a problem for farmers, who consider it a low added-value sub-
product (Duque-Acevedo et al. 2020c). For this reason, high amounts of CO2 are
created when this residue is burnt. In other cases, the AWB is abandoned in fields or
sent to landfills (Hazell 2006; Romero et al. 2019).
Approaches to the Use of AWB in the Framework of the Bioeconomy

AWB is one of the most significant strategies for the growth of bioenergy production
(Hazell 2006; World Bioenergy Association 2019; Romero et al. 2019). It is esti-
mated that the energy generated from this source could help increase the world’s
total energy supply by 14% (World Bioenergy Association 2019). Between 2000 and
2015, the increased demand for renewable biofuel for bioenergy production boosted
the growth of the crops needed for its generation (Hazell 2006; Duque-Acevedo et al.
2020a). In 2006, bioenergy represented 33% of the energy used in developing
countries, but only 3–4% of the energy used in industrialized countries (Hazell
2006). Germany devoted 30% of its agricultural production to the subsequent
production of materials and bioenergy in 2009 (German Bioeconomy Council
2010). In 2017, less than 10% of the global biomass supply for bioenergy came
from the agricultural sector (World Bioenergy Association 2019).
In this scenario, bioenergy is essential for the substitution of fossil fuels and the
mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. Nevertheless, only 3% of the total produc-
tion of bioenergy was obtained from crop residue in 2017 (World Bioenergy
Association 2019). In other words, despite the large amount of AWB produced
and its high potential for circularity, the percentage of its use remains low (Hollins
et al. 2017; Kaza et al. 2018; Duque-Acevedo et al. 2020b). The biomass from
intensive traditional crops could increase as a consequence of the adaptation to new
subtropical varieties in the southern parts of Europe (Honoré et al. 2019). One of the
global goals of the European Union is to increase the percentage of energy from
renewable sources, such as agricultural biomass, to 32% of gross final energy con-
sumption by 2030 (European Union 2018). AWB is one of the main raw materials of
the bioeconomy. Its role is essential and both its processing and the products obtained
from it are vital in this model. That is why all possible uses of this type of biomass
should be prioritized and optimized (German Bioeconomy Council 2010).
Main Approaches of Some Bioeconomy Strategies on the Use of AWB

In 2018, the number of countries that had defined and adopted policies and/or strategies
related to the development of the bioeconomy amounted to 50 (Fund et al. 2018; Aguilar
et al. 2019). The “National Strategy of Bioeconomy Costa Rica 2020-2030” is one of
the most recent (year 2020). Most of these instruments of management, which are
complemented in some cases by action plans, establish different objectives, actions, and
specific measures aimed mainly at sectors that produce and/or use biological resources,
such as the agri-food sector (agriculture, livestock, fisheries, aquaculture, exploitation of
marine resources, and processing and marketing of food), forestry, industry, and
bioenergy, among others. The agricultural and forestry sectors are considered the main
producers and/or primary suppliers of biomass, so these strategies highlight their great
potential in the context of the bio-based economy. Many of these are consolidated
productive sectors, but some strategies take into account other developing sectors,
including those that could arise from the implementation of the bioeconomy.
In Table 1, some approaches about the use and exploitation of agricultural residue
are identified, including specific examples about AWB. The totality of the strategies
that have been analyzed, most of them issued between 2018 and 2019, prioritize
agriculture as a focal sector for the bioeconomy and establish strategic lines and/or
specific actions, including the reuse and recovery of AWB, as a need and opportunity
Table 1 Approaches of some bioeconomy policies and strategies on AWB

Goals/strategic guidelines
Country/ Name of the and/or specific measures
Year strategy or policy Prioritized areas/sectors linked to agricultural biomass
Spain Spanish Food and agriculture Residue and subproducts
(2015) Bioeconomy Forestry and wood recovery as a raw material for
Strategy: Horizon products other production processes to
2030 Chemical industry improve efficiency
(industrial bioproducts) Emphasis on technologies that
Bioenergy (obtained from facilitate recycling and
biomass) recovery of raw materials
Services associated with Encourage the sustainable use
rural environments of the biomass resources
produced on the agro-industry
and food sector to create new
business areas in the rural
sector
European A sustainable Agriculture Reduce the dependence on
Union Bioeconomy for Forestry nonrenewable and
(2018) Europe: Fisheries, aquaculture, unsustainable resources
Strengthening the food Exploit the potential of
connection Bio-based industry bio-based innovations in the
between economy, agricultural sector
society, and the Develop new products,
environment and processes, and value chains
Action Plan for biological product
markets, including high
added-value chemicals and
bio-based materials
Transform agricultural waste
into valuable bio-based
products
Ireland National Policy Agriculture Valorization of marine and
(2018) Statement on the Forestry agricultural waste. Production
Bioeconomy The marine of bioenergy and bio-based
Bio-based processing, materials and chemicals from
biotechnology, and this biomass
pharmaceuticals
France A Bioeconomy Agriculture Evaluate the effect of the
(2018) Strategy for France Forestry bioeconomy on the creation of
2018–2020 Action Aquaculture and fisheries added value in the agricultural
Plan sector
Develop plans under the
common agricultural policy –
CAP that promote greater
sustainable use of biomass
and the development of
innovative sectors of the
bioeconomy
(continued)
Table 1 (continued)
The Growing the Agri-food technology Increase productivity,
United Bioeconomy. Chemistry sustainability, and resilience
Kingdom Improving lives Industrial biotechnology of agriculture and forestry
(2018) and strengthening Medicines
our economy: A Manufacturing and
national synthetic biology
bioeconomy
strategy to 2030
Italy BIT II Agriculture Adopt innovative processes to
(2019) Bioeconomy in Forestry exploit agro-industry
Italy. A new Fisheries and aquaculture subproducts and
bioeconomy Bio-based industry commercialize them as new
strategy for a products
sustainable Italy Valorize and reuse agricultural
and forest residue for the
production of bioproducts,
bioenergy, and bio-fertilizers
Canada Canada’s Agriculture Encourage the transformation
(2019) Bioeconomy Forestry of resource management and
Strategy. Fisheries the practice of biomass
Leveraging our Aquaculture development, biomass, and
Strengths for a Industrial sectors residue conversion.
Sustainable Future
Austria Bioeconomy – Agriculture Commercialize the field crop
(2019) A Strategy for Forestry subproducts
Austria Water and waste Increase the added value in
management agriculture through the
cascading uses
Develop new concepts of
value creation and production
to optimize agriculture
The USA The Bioeconomy Agricultural New preprocessing
(2019) Initiative: Forestry technology for more efficient
Implementing Energy transport, storage, and other
Framework USA Manufacturing sectors logistical operations of
Bioeconomy agricultural and forest
Initiative biomass
Japan Bio-Strategy 2019 Agriculture Sustainable agricultural
(2019) Industry production system
Usage of biotechnology to
produce substances and
materials with high added
value, such as compost and
chemical products
(continued)
Table 1 (continued)
Costa National Agriculture Strategic Area 3: Biorefinery
Rica Bioeconomic Fishing of residual biomass: “Promote
(2020) Strategy Costa Forestry the development of new
Rica 2020–2030 productive activities based on
the full use and recovery of
residual biomass from
agricultural, agro-industrial,
forestry and fishing
processes”
Specification lines:
Knowledge of residual
biomass
Production of bioenergy
Production of biomaterials
Production of advanced
high-value biomolecules and
bioproducts
Source: Prepared by the authors based on each strategy published in Global Bioeconomy Summit
2020 (2020)
for obtaining new and valuable bioproducts. Likewise, they emphasize the need to
develop innovative processes and to implement new technology that eases the
recycling, recuperation, and transformation of this waste. They also highlight that
the use of this waste allows to reduce the dependence on nonrenewable resources
and to create new business areas in the rural sector.
Main Alternatives for the Valorization of AWB

The valorization of AWB involves two major benefits that are compatible. On one hand,
it generates added value for the system by considering elements of the production
process that were not valued before. On the other hand, it enables the reduction of the
perverse and entropic effects of the linear economic system on the natural environment.
This is why, in recent years, several studies and projects have focused on the analysis
and estimation of the potential of crop residue as a sustainable raw material in
biorefinery processes (Elbersen et al. 2012; Kretschmer et al. 2013; International Energy
Agency 2017). Therefore, there are more and more alternatives for its use and valori-
zation. In addition to the production of energy and biofuel, there is the possibility of
using this waste to manufacture chemical products, which can be even more profitable
than energy production (Tuck et al. 2012; Kretschmer et al. 2013; Hollins et al. 2017;
Wesseler and von Braun 2017).
In conclusion, the use of this type of biomass will depend on the characteristics of
the resource, the type of crop, and the conversion technology involved in its
Table 2 Main technologies, processes, and programs for the transformation of AWB
Conversion
Processes Products Main uses Relevant programs and/or projects
technology
1.Towards second-generation biofuels

(India - 2016): Crop waste as a raw
material for the production of bioethanol
and chemicals.
Energy – Biogas - 2.From biomass towns to industrial

Ethanol areas (Japan -2012): Use of waste or
unused biomass for second generation
Fermentation Food products and processing and production of animal feed,
Transesterification fertilizers, biofuel, electricity and other
fodder
Biochemistry
Composting bioproducts. Systems for recycling and

Anaerobic reusing biomass, with active community
digestion Fertilizers participation.
Glycerin - Lactic acid 3.Promoting bioproduct use –

and other chemicals “BioPreferred Program” (United States
and biomaterials of America - 2002): National public
procurement programs for bioproducts
-In the industry for from agriculture.
direct combustion in
boilers. 4.Biochar production and use (Ghana -
-As motor fuel (land 2014):Use of crop residue for pellet and
or air transport) biocoal production.
Biorefineries and biotechnological processes
-For animal feed and 5.Biofibre for clothing - Piñatex™,

the agricultural sector (Philippines -2013):Use of pineapple crop
(Pre-treatment and transformation)
residue. Local cooperatives produce fibers

- As chemical inputs from the leaves by decortication to obtain
for the cosmetic, textile material to replace leather, as well
pharmaceutical, and as biogas and organic fertilizer.
food industries.
Bioliquids 6.Alternatives to burning straw (China -
Biofuel 2016): Use of crop residue (rice, corn, and
Polymers wheat straw) for the production of
Hydrogenation Pellets biofertilizers, fodder, crop substrate,
Gasification Bio coal, artificial boards, composite material,
Combustion and other bio-based paper, biochemicals, solid biofuel and
Pyrolysis chemicals, fuels and biogas
forms of energy.
7. Bio-based plastics from agave
residues (Mexico - 2016): Use and
exploitation of the by-products of Agave
cultivation for:
Thermochemical
- Production of liquor - as compost in the

plantations (bagasse from the pineapple
root and agave, resulting after the
extraction of sugar) - Manufacture of
handicrafts, paper, clothing and other
products from the remains of the plant's
fiber.
8. Solidus Solutions (Holland - 2017).

Use of tomato crop residue, mixed with
recycled paper, for the production of
packaging board.
9. AgriMax project (Bio Based

Industries Joint Undertaking - H2020-
BBIPPP-2015-2-1) (2016 -
2020):Recovery of residue and by-
products from the food and agricultural
industry (crop residue) through
cooperative processing technologies for
obtaining biocomposites, packaging and
agricultural materials.
Source: Prepared by the authors based on(German Bioeconomy Council 2010; Cherubini and Ulgiati 2010; Kretschmer et al.
2013; Carus 2017; Gurria et al. 2017; Hollins et al. 2017; IEA Bioenergy and (IETS) 2017; International Energy Agency 2017;
Schoenmakere et al. 2018; OECD 2018; Bio-based Industries Consortium 2019; San Juan et al. 2019).
transformation (Hazell 2006). Currently, there are different technologies that can be
used for the transformation of AWB on products of higher added value (Kretschmer
et al. 2013). In Table 2, the main technologies for converting AWB are presented.
Also included are the processes and products obtained and their main uses. The table
also outlines some research programs and projects developed in recent years, which
focus on the recovery of crop residue and its use as raw material.
Most of these initiatives are part of national government programs. Some of them
encourage and promote the implementation of bioeconomy strategies. For example,
the “BioPreferred Program,” which is managed by the United States Department of
Agriculture (USDA), was created by the 2002 Agriculture Act and extended in the
2014 Agriculture Act to stimulate the use of bio-based products and to create new
jobs and markets for agricultural products. This program establishes a mandatory
purchase requirement for public entities and contractors through the voluntary
labeling of bioproducts (Kretschmer et al. 2013; San Juan et al. 2019). In countries
such as Denmark, heat and electricity have been produced from cereal straw and
from second-generation ethanol since 2009 (International Energy Agency 2017).
The Role of Biotechnology and Bio-Industries in the Sustainable

Processing of AWB
Industries based on biorefinery are an essential sub-sector for the bioeconomy since
they integrate equipment and biotechnological systems needed for the sustainable
and large-scale processing of residual biomass that allows for its reuse to obtain
products with greater added value. These include energy, heating, biofuel,
chemicals, and a wide variety of other recycled materials (Carus 2017; OECD
2018; Ree 2019). These industries have rapidly grown and advanced in the improve-
ment of industrial techniques and operations while incorporating sustainability
criteria mainly for the generation of bioenergy products. However, greater progress
in biotechnological innovation is needed (lignocellulosic conversion technology) to
consolidate integrated or multipurpose refineries with more flexible systems while
incorporating all dimensions of sustainability and a more complete value chain
(Bio-based Industries Consortium 2019). In addition, they should diversify and
make intelligent use of renewable and locally sourced and sustainable biological
raw materials (European Commission 2018a) and increase the production of new
no-energy products such as biochemicals, biopolymers, enzymes, fibers, and new
materials (Olsson et al. 2016; IEA Bioenergy and (IETS) 2017).
The cascade approach to the use of AWB, including its reuse and recycling,
should be prioritized in this type of industry to maintain its value for as long as
possible. That’s why these industries have to maximize the efficiency of obtained
resources, minimize the use of fossil raw materials, preserve the natural capital, and
reduce greenhouse gas emissions (Keegan et al. 2013; Schoenmakere et al. 2018).
Biotechnology also has a significant impact on the bioeconomy as it is essential for
the growth of sustainable primary production. By the year 2030, its use is expected
to represent 35% of industrial production and 80% of pharmaceutical production
(Scarlat et al. 2015).
Given the importance of biorefineries, one of the 14 measures of the 2018
Bioeconomy Strategy and Action Plan of the European Commission was to facilitate
the development of new sustainable biorefineries and to encourage actions to
promote private investment in the expansion of biorefineries and the development
of the bioproducts market. This action takes into consideration all biomass sources
and it emphasizes the sustainable management of resources and the deployment of
innovative technology (European Commission 2018a). Therefore, public-private
associations with Bio-Based Industries (BBI) have been promoted to consolidate
sustainable and competitive industries in Europe. The aim is to achieve an advanced
biorefinery sector facilitating the transition to an innovation-driven and knowledge-
based bioeconomy (Bio-based Industries Consortium 2019). Likewise, the “From
Biomass Towns to Industrial Areas” program (Table 2) enabled the consolidation of
an integrated system of agro- and bio-industries (industries focused on the circularity
of biomass) for processing the residual biomass. This program is part of the Japanese
government’s Biomass Industrialization Strategy for 2012 (San Juan et al. 2019).
Finally, it is estimated that bio-industries will be able to generate more than one
million new green jobs (European Commission 2018a) by 2030.
The Importance of AWB Recovery in the Bioeconomy Framework

There has been a recent increase in policy agreements, regulatory instruments and
incentives that encourage the use of energy from renewable sources, such as AWB
(International Energy Agency 2017; European Union 2018). For example, economic
incentives are granted in Denmark for the production of electricity from solid
residual biomass. Additionally, biofuel used for heat production is exempt from
taxes. This type of strategy has undoubtedly boosted the transition towards a zero
fossil fuel system (International Energy Agency 2017; Klima-Energi- og
Forsyningsministeriet 2018).
The efficient management of AWB in the context of the bioeconomy generates a
greater socioeconomic dynamism due to the consolidation of a new business struc-
ture and the strengthening of the existing one. This fact contributes to the creation of
green employment, the activation of rural areas, and the improvement of life
conditions (Golden and Handfield 2014; Dieckhoff et al. 2015; European Commis-
sion 2018a). AWB is generated in large amounts and this guarantees plentiful supply
and better logistics when compared to other waste materials (Hollins et al. 2017).
Prioritizing the use of AWB promotes economic growth in poor rural communities
that depend on agriculture (Hazell 2006; Wesseler and von Braun 2017). This is also
one of the best alternatives to guarantee food security and the production of
bioenergy, biofuel, and bioproducts in a sustainable way (International Energy
Agency 2017). In this regard, one of the consequences linked to the increase of
biofuel from crops specifically intended for that purpose is the change in the use of
the land as its aim is no longer the production of food, but rather to provide input for
the industries that produce biofuel. At the same time, the emergence of new uses for
certain agricultural products leads to an imbalance in the prices of raw materials,
which also affects food prices. The use of AWB contributes to solving current
environmental challenges, mitigating pollution caused by emissions and combating
climate change and its negative effects on the world population (Bugge et al. 2016;
Carus 2017; International Energy Agency 2017; United Nations 2019). The contri-
butions of the valorization of AWB on the three pillars of sustainability are summa-
rized below:
• Economic benefits
– Income diversification and increased profitability for agricultural producers.
– New value chains, businesses, and jobs related to transport storage and waste
processing.
– Improved income for communities and the growth of the rural economy.
• Social benefits
– Revitalization of rural areas and reduction of human migration to urban
centers.
– Improvement of local management processes and technological innovation
through traditional knowledge.
– Diversification of energy supply sources and cost reduction.
– Improved land and crop management practices.
– Contribution to food security.
• Environmental benefits
– Reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by avoiding the burning and
disposal of waste in landfills.
– Optimization of the use and value of crop residues, which are produced in
large quantities and are sometimes difficult to eliminate.
– Reduction of water footprint and fossil fuel use.
– Improvement of sustainable production chains based on local sources.
– Expansion of forest areas by reducing land exclusively used for bioenergy
crops.
– Increasing biomass supply without increasing land demand.
By 2023, methane emissions from agriculture are expected to be reduced by 24%

compared to 2010. The bioeconomy plays a key role in achieving this goal (Inde-
pendent Group of Scientists 2019). Between 2009 and 2015, the production of
biological chemicals and pharmaceuticals increased the number of jobs (European
Commission 2018a). The supply chains of AWB for the production of biomaterials
are long and complex. They contribute to the generation of greater added value and
up to ten times the number of jobs created by the bioenergy production process
(European Commission 2018a).
Significant Aspects of the Processes of Recovery of AWB

AWB in the bioeconomy sector is a valuable resource in the generation of greater
added value. An increasing number of developments, experiences, and case studies
demonstrate this. However, its use is still limited because of certain situations and
conditions that negatively impact the recovery and use of this resource (Duque-
Acevedo et al. 2020b). Some many far-reaching challenges and barriers must be
overcome to achieve optimal and large-scale utilization of AWB for the conversion
to bioproducts, bioenergy, or biofuel to achieve further growth of the bioeconomy.
There are different bioeconomy studies and strategies that suggest some key
aspects that should be considered to use crop residue more efficiently as raw material
and to make possible the implementation of systems that enable its transformation
(Cherubini and Ulgiati 2010; Kretschmer et al. 2013; International Energy Agency
2017; Schoenmakere et al. 2018; S. Bracco et al. 2019; San Juan et al. 2019). These
include:
• To promote the use of local AWB to avoid polluting emissions due to transpor-
tation and to reduce processing costs.
• To locally analyze the current use of AWB and its availability in each region to
determine more specifics regarding valorization opportunities of the residue.
• To carry on an integrated evaluation through sustainability indicators to determine
the viability of crop residue use.
• To evaluate and determine sustainable levels of local AWB extraction to prevent
the decrease of carbon stocks and other nutrients in the soil while ensuring its
productivity and guaranteeing ecosystem services and sustainability in the
long term.
• To identify the production systems from which AWB comes and to implement
suitable measures to guarantee the quality of the ecosystems.
• To promote synergies in the main players (farmers – industrial sector) for the
integration and establishment of viable and sustainable systems or supply chains.
• To develop an infrastructure for regional and local integrated biorefinery systems
(public-private associations) according to waste supply and material demand,
calculating distances to processing facilities to reduce treatment costs and to
create fair bioeconomic value chains.
• To promote legal instruments and strategies to create new markets and to offer a
competitive advantage for the new products obtained from AWB.
• To design small-scale integrated management systems focused on recycling for
the use of AWB primarily in rural areas where the consolidation of bio-industrial
zones is complex.
• To prevent the mixture of AWB in order to guarantee its homogeneity, ease its
processing, and reduce treatment costs.
Conclusions
The growth in demand for agricultural products has allowed for the consolidation of
an intensive and unsustainable food production system, which has generated signif-
icant environmental impacts over the last 20 years. One of the main problems
associated with this linear agricultural system is the enormous volume of waste
produced and its inappropriate management. Agricultural waste is the second most
abundant type of waste produced in the world, and waste biomass is one of its main
components. Under the approach of the circular economy and the bioeconomy,
agricultural waste biomass (AWB) is transformed into resources and raw materials
that can be used to obtaining products of high added value.
At present, the bioeconomy plays a key role in the transition towards sustainable
agriculture, as a circular economic production model. Some of the sustainable
practices promoted by this bio-based model include the integrated management
and recovery of AWB. To do this, it integrates knowledge, innovation, and new
technology in the search for better alternatives to obtain secondary raw materials and
bioproducts. In recent years, numerous research projects have shown the potential of
AWB for its use as a sustainable raw material under the perspective of the circular
bioeconomy. The production of bioenergy and biofuels remains the main focus of
this research. However, new technologies for conversion and transformation of this
AWB have emerged, which expand the range of by-products and bioproducts that
can be obtained. Some of these studies highlight other benefits and advantages of
using the AWB, including a greater local socioeconomic dynamism, reduction of
environmental impact, and improvement of rural livelihoods.
Biorefineries have contributed to the sustainable processing of AWB, as a sub-
sector of the circular bioeconomy. However, we need to keep moving forward to
advance in biotechnological innovation and to incorporate more flexible systems,
which consider all the dimensions of sustainability and a more complete value chain,
with a greater diversification and cascade use of AWB, while prioritizing local and
sustainable sources.
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DC, 2019)
World Bioenergy Association Global Bioenergy Statistics 2019 2019, 1–58.
Sustainable Management of Agricultural
Waste in India 19
Rachana Jain and Satya Narayan Naik
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498
Classification of Agricultural Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499
Field Residue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499
Process Residue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500
Livestock Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500
Fruit and Vegetable Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
Composition of Agricultural Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
Agricultural Waste Management Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504
Thermochemical Conversion (Incineration, Pyrolysis, and Gasification) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505
Aerobic Composting and Vermicomposting of Agricultural Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505
Bioethanol Production by Hydrolysis and Fermentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508
Biogas Production by Anaerobic Fermentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511
Biobutanol Production by ABE Fermentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514
Biohydrogen Production by Dark Fermentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516
Pretreatment Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516
Physical Pretreatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516
Chemical Pretreatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517
Physiochemical Pretreatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517
Biological Pretreatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519
Abstract
With the advancement in agriculture, a massive amount of agricultural waste has
been produced worldwide. It includes cereal straws, husks of different crops,
livestock manure, and so on. Previously, edible agricultural waste was used as
livestock feed and the remaining one either rotten in the field or burned.
According to the Indian Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE),
India produced 500 million tons of agricultural waste, out of which 92 metric
R. Jain (*) · S. N. Naik

Centre for Rural Development and Technology, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_26
498 R. Jain and S. N. Naik
tons were burned each year that causes severe environmental pollution by
producing a large amount of greenhouse gases (viz., N2O, SO2, CH4) and
smoke. There is a need to utilize these wastes in an eco-friendly and sustainable
manner. This chapter reviews the possible way of re-utilization, which includes
composting and biofuel production.
Keywords
Agricultural waste · Biogas · Lignocellulosic · Pretreatment · Sustainable
Introduction
With the green revolution and increase in food processing, a high volume of organic
waste is produced yearly worldwide. If this waste is decomposed in an uncontrolled
manner, it creates soil, air, and water pollution. We can estimate the severity by that
one metric ton of organic waste that releases 50–110 m3 of carbon dioxide and 90–
140 m3 of methane (Yu et al. 2002).
India has 2.97 M km2 land area, out of which 60.5% is agricultural land.
Worldwide, India is in the first position in jute production and second in wheat,
rice, cotton, sugarcane, and groundnut production. High agricultural production
also indicates the massive production of waste in the form of field residue, process
residue, and produce unfit due to inadequate storage. Rice, wheat, and maize
produce 3.2–4.5 T of residue per hectare, and maize alone is grown on 5% and
rice and wheat together are cultivated on 40% of the gross cultivated area (Cardoen
et al. 2015). Hiloidhari et al. (2014) reported that India produces 686 MT of crop
residue annually, and 34% is considered surplus residue. Cereal crops come in the
first position in surplus residue contribution by 38%, followed by sugarcane
(24%), others (20%), horticulture (10%), oilseeds (6%), and pulses (2%) (Fig. 1).
At the different crop levels, a maximum surplus residue comes from sugarcane
(56 MT), cotton (47 MT), and rice (43 MT). Although rice produces the highest
gross residue than sugarcane, its % surplus residue production is less than sugar-
cane due to its conventional uses as cattle feed, domestic fuel, and packing
materials. Surplus residue potential from banana and coconut (horticultural
crops) is also significant in India and is estimated as 12 MT and 10 MT, respec-
tively. Other cereal crops, wheat and maize, generate 131 and 35.8 MT year1
residue, respectively. Out of this gross production, surplus residue for wheat is 28.4
MT and maize 9 MT year1. However, the waste distribution and availability are
not uniform due to variations in agroclimatic conditions and cropping practice
(Hiloidhari et al. 2014).
The conventional use of residues is livestock feed, domestic fuel, roof covering,
fencing, and packaging. Residue with good taste is majorly used as animal feed like
rice and wheat straw, while other residues are used as fuel, burned in the field, or
decomposed in an uncontrolled way. Burning in the open area or burner increased
greenhouse gas emissions, while unregulated decomposition causes water, air, and
19 Sustainable Management of Agricultural Waste in India 499
2%
6%
10%
cereal
38%
sugarcane
20% other
horticulture
oilseed
24%
pulse
Fig. 1 Agricultural surplus residue percent
soil pollution. Hence, there is a need for sustainable agricultural waste management
(AWM) system that mitigates waste in a more eco-friendly and economically
feasible manner, with profit. This book chapter discusses these sustainable waste
management strategies.
Classification of Agricultural Waste
Waste produced from various agricultural activities (harvesting, processing, etc.) is

called agricultural waste. It is organic and broadly classified into four types: field
residues, process residue, livestock waste, and fruit and vegetable wastes (FVWs)
(Fig. 2).
Field Residue
Waste left in the field after harvesting the crop (cereal, fruit, vegetable, etc.) is
called field residue. It consists of leaves, stalks, seed pods, roots, stems, etc. It is
mainly lignocellulosic. Globally crop residue production is 5 billion metric ton
(Ensia 2019). The primary crop residue is rice, wheat straw, and corn stover. The
wheat straw’s annual production is 1–3 tons per acre, corn stover 4 tons per acre,
and rice straw 2 tons per acre. It is the most abundant and cheapest waste, which
is majorly used as fodder and burned in the burner to produce heat. The other
crop residues are barley, sorghum, oat stover, mustard straw, etc. (Saini et al.
2015).
Crop residue
(Straw and Stover)
Processing waste
Livestock waste Agricultural waste (Bagasse, bran, pomace,
(Manure) deoiled cake, husk and
peel)
Food waste (Peel

and pomace)
Fig. 2 Types of agricultural waste
Process Residue
Process residue is the waste generated during the processing of agricultural products
to a valuable resource. It includes molasses, husks, bagasse, seeds, shell, pulp,
stubble, peel, etc. A massive amount of process residues are produced every year
by the oil industry (oil cakes), sugar industry (bagasse), flour industry (bran),
beverage industry (pulp, peel, and seed), dairy industry, etc., and most of them are
underutilized. These wastes are rich in carbohydrate (starch, lignocellulose), fats,
and proteins. These residues are traditionally used either as livestock or burned
directly to have the energy or composted.
Livestock Waste
Livestock industries provide meat, milk, and egg and, in reverse, also produce large
volumes of wastes. The primary waste product includes livestock excreta, feed
losses, and organic materials in the slaughterhouse and wastewater (urine and
wastewater of bathing and cleaning). The manure production is dependent on diet,
animal size, and performance, and the average volume of manure per animal per day
is 5.4–45.3, 5.1–11.3, 0.08–0.14, 0.13–0.34, 0.71, 2.8, and 28 for cattle, swine,
chickens, turkey, rabbit, ewe sheep, and horses, respectively. Livestock waste is a
significant source of greenhouse gas, pollution, pathogens, and odor.
According to the Times of India 2018 report, India has 300 million cattle
populations, producing 3.0 MT of cattle dung per day. Conventionally cattle dung
is used for cooking, wall and floor plastering, and cow dung is used as a mosquito
repellent, ash is used to clean utensils, manure and compost preparation, etc., in India
(Gupta et al. 2016).
Fruit and Vegetable Waste
Fruit and vegetable wastes (FVWs) contain fruit and vegetable wasted during the
supply chain, processing, and final consumption. The primary processing waste is
peel, pomace, and seeds. FVW has carbohydrates (starch, cellulose, and hemicellu-
lose), protein, lipid, lignin, and high moisture and is more biodegradable due to the
presence of low lignin content. Conventionally, FVW is either incinerated or
dumped in an open area that causes serious health and environmental issues.
According to the Indian Horticulture Annual Report, 2018, India produces 81.5
MT and 163 MT of fruit and vegetable, respectively. Out of this, 30% (5.6 MT) get
wasted every year due to improper storage, transportation, and physical deformation
(Indian Horticulture Annual Report 2018). In the USA, fruit and vegetable waste
production was estimated to be 7.8 MT and 18.9 MT, respectively, in year 2009
(Esparza et al. 2020).
Composition of Agricultural Waste
Agricultural waste characterization with respect to physiochemical property is a

necessary step that helps in deciding the most optimal utilization of agricultural
waste. It includes proximate, ultimate, and compositional analysis. Tables 1 and 2
have different agricultural waste characterizations. In the proximate analysis, we
determine moisture, fixed carbon, volatile solids, and ash. Biomass with low mois-
ture content (10–15%) is suitable for thermochemical conversion. Volatile solids and
fixed carbon percent help in deciding the anaerobic digestion. Biomass with high
volatile solid produces more biogas in anaerobic digestion and more bio-oil and
syngas during pyrolysis (Yadav et al. 2016). Ash represents the mineral content of
biomass. Biomass with high ash content (5–6%) is generally good for composting
because of the presence of a sufficient amount of nutrients (Yadav et al. 2017).
The ultimate analysis gives the idea about elemental (C, H, N, O, and S)
composition that helps in determining the calorific value, the product’s composition,
and the environmental impact (Telmo et al. 2010). The carbon to nitrogen ratio for
biomass should be 20–30 for microbial growth during composting and anaerobic
digestion. The ultimate analysis showed C/N ratio of wheat straw is 109 that is very
high compared to the appropriate ratio. By adding biomass that is rich in nitrogen,
we can make its anaerobic digestion possible (Chandra et al. 2012). The ultimate
analysis gives the H/C and O/C ratios of biomass, which help determine lower
heating value and high heating value (Aristizábal-Marulanda et al. 2020) which has
significant importance in biofuel preparation.
The compositional analysis includes lignocellulosic (cellulose, hemicellulose,
and lignin) composition and biochemical (carbohydrate, lipid, protein, etc.) content.
Agricultural waste is majorly lignocellulosic. It has cellulose (40–50%), hemicellu-
lose (20–30%), and lignin (10–25%) and little amount of protein (3–4%) and fat (1–
2%). A high percent of lignin has an inhibitory effect on the biochemical process and
needs an intensive pretreatment process for biofuel conversion. The same plant’s
502
Table 1 Ultimate and proximate composition of agricultural waste

Ultimate analysis (% w/w) Proximate analysis (% w/w)
Fixed Volatile
Crop C H N O S Moisture carbon Ash solid References
Field residue
Rice straw 34.0– 4.6– 32.8– 0.2– 0.1– 4.2 14.5 8.2–16 71.6–92.8 Kumar et al. (2018)
41.5 6.7 41.2 0.8 0.2
Wheat straw 41.7– 5.1– 34.1– 0.4– 0.1– 4.4–8.4 17.3 7.3–12.8 74.4–92.7 Kumar et al. (2018)
46.7 6.3 51.4 0.5 0.3
Corn Stover 35.2– 5.4– 43.4– 0.3– 0.1– 5.3–7.4 16.9 4.2–6.3 86.5–96.8 Kumar et al. (2018)
45.6 6.3 45.7 0.8 0.3
Barley straw 49.4 6.2 43.6 0.7 0.13 – 19.79 5.3–9.8 76.2 Pattanaik et al.
(2019)
Process residue
Sugarcane bagasse 45.48 5.96 45.21 0.15 – 16.07 – 3.20– 79–83.6 Pattanaik et al.
4.34 (2019)
Rice bran 38.69 5.40 0.67 0.21 – 7.70 9.20 18.8 64.30 Pattanaik et al.
(2019)
Coffee husk 47.50 6.40 – – 43.7 – 19.1 2.4 78.50 Pattanaik et al.
(2019)
Karanj de-oiled 47.8 6.5 – 5.50 – 17.20 – – 81–85.3 Pattanaik et al.
cake (2019)
Fruit and vegetable waste and livestock
Orange peel 16.23 17.1 60.26 16.23 17.1 60.26 0.76 2.99 – Pattanaik et al.
(2019)
Cattle manure 29.0 3.23 2.46 0.82 19.30 38.6 – 45.1 50–72 Pattanaik et al.
(2019)
R. Jain and S. N. Naik
19
Table 2 Lignocellulosic and biochemical analysis of agricultural waste

Lignocellulosic analysis (% w/w) Biochemical analysis (% w/w)
Crop Cellulose Hemicellulose Lignin Carbohydrate Protein Lipid References
Field residue
Rice straw 30.3–52.3 19.8–31.6 7.2–12.8 – – 5.9 Kumar et al. (2018)
Wheat straw 32.9–44.5 22.2–34.0 8.5–22.3 – 3.48 5.34 Kumar et al. (2018)
Corn stover 31.3–49.4 21.1–26.2 3.1–8.8 7.9 3.6–8.7 0.7–1.3 Kumar et al. (2018)
Barley straw 29.2–48.6 26.7–35.8 6.7–21.7 – 3.62 1.91 Pattanaik et al. (2019)
Process residue
Sugarcane bagasse 43.6–45.8 31.3–33.5 18.1 – – – Pattanaik et al. (2019)
Rice bran 39 31 4 23.58 14.6–15.4 16.1–23.8 Pattanaik et al. (2019)
Coffee husk 24.5–43 7–29.7 9–23.7 58–85 8–11 0.5–3 Pattanaik et al. (2019)
Sustainable Management of Agricultural Waste in India
Karanj de-oiled cake – – – – – – Pattanaik et al. (2019)

Fruit and vegetable waste and livestock
Orange peel – – – 38–40 6.95 – Pattanaik et al. (2019)
Cattle manure 32.7 24.5 42.8 62.46 15.09 6.85 Pattanaik et al. (2019)
503
lignocellulosic content varies with age and environmental and geographical condi-
tions (Kumar et al. 2018). Wheat and rice straw and sugarcane bagasse are com-
monly used agricultural waste of biofuel production due to their high availability and
low lignin percent (Kaparaju et al. 2009).
Agricultural Waste Management Strategies
The main aim of agricultural waste management is to lessen the impact and outcome
of wastes on the environment and human health. There is a need to move from the
current linear model “take, make, and dispose of” to the systemic circular model
“reduce, reuse, recycle, and regenerate.” The systemic circular model used waste as a
resource instead of a waste in a sustainable way.
In agricultural waste management, waste is transformed into compost, biofuel,
and value-added product using different technologies/processes. This technology
broadly can be divided into two types, viz., thermochemical and biochemical.
Thermochemical methods are combustion, pyrolysis, and gasification, while aerobic
fermentation, anaerobic fermentation, dark fermentation, and Acetone- Butanol-
Ethanol (ABE) fermentation are examples of biochemical processes. Combustion
and pyrolysis are commonly used in thermochemical technology. Table 3 gives a
brief description of these processes. In this chapter, we will discuss biochemical
technology in detail due to its sustainability and eco-friendly nature.
Table 3 Comparison of major agricultural waste management technology

Technology Process Advantage Disadvantage
Bioethanol Hydrolysis Remove competition with High cost
and food crop Tedious process
fermentation Mitigate climate change. Low net yield
Reduction in GHGs Need special processing
step
Biomethane Anaerobic Reduction in waste volume Large space requirement
digestion End product is high-quality Regular operational and
fertilizer and gaseous fuel maintenance cost
GHG emission bypassed due
to enclosed system
Biohydrogen Dark Mitigate climate change Budding technology
fermentation Reduction in GHGs Conversion efficiency
low
Biobutanol ABE Mitigate climate change Budding technology
fermentation Reduction in GHGs Conversion efficiency
low
Composting and Aerobic Helps in the generation of Large space requirement
vermincomposting fermentation high-quality organic Regular operational and
fertilizers maintenance cost
Appreciable volumetric Generation of odor
reduction of waste creating public
inconvenience
Thermochemical Conversion (Incineration, Pyrolysis,

and Gasification)
Incineration is the combustion of agricultural waste at high temperature (750–

1000 C). This process reduces the waste volume up to 90%, and the end products
are bottom and fly ash, heat, flue gases, and slag. The fly ash and flue gases have a
high content of dioxins, furan, minerals (e.g., SiO2, Al2O3, CaO, and asbestos), and
metals (Ar, Be, B, Ca, Cr, Co, Pb, Mg, Hg, Se, Sr, Tl, and V) that are harmful to
human and animal. It is a costly method with less return, and a regular supply of
waste is needed.

Pyrolysis is the thermal disintegration of waste at 250–600 C in the absence of
oxygen that produces three end products, namely, biochar (solid), bio-oil (liquid),
and syngas (gas). In contrast, the thermal disintegration of waste in gasification is

partial oxidation at 650–1000 C temperature. It gives two end products, syngas
(gaseous) and biochar (solid). The percent yield of products depends on the
physiochemical property of feedstock and reactor condition in both processes.
Biochar is a carbon-rich porous material with a high calorific value. The solid
product biochar is porous with a high calorific value. It is used in wastewater
treatment, as a soil improver, solid fuel in the boiler, etc., while syngas and
bio-oil are used to prepare valuable chemicals and fuels. Pyrolysis and gasifica-
tion are superior to incineration because of less production of toxic gases and
ashes but are costly and vary from waste to waste, making them less feasible.
Table 4 shows the pyrolysis of a few agricultural wastes and yield of different end
products (Fermanelli et al. 2020; Katsaros et al. 2020).
Aerobic Composting and Vermicomposting of Agricultural Waste
Composting is a natural aerobic decomposition of the organic matter by the resident

microbial community. The final product compost is a nutrient-rich, pathogen-free,
stabilized organic matter, also called humus. This process takes place in three steps:
mesophilic step, thermophilic step, and cooling/maturing step.
This process is an entirely microbe-driven exothermic process with a massive
amount of energy discharged as heat and increases the piles’ temperature (50–
77 C) and hastens the composting process. Here, high temperature kills the
pathogenic microbes and sanitizes the compost, while microbial activity mineral-
izes the organic matter and reduces C/N ratio. The final product has many benefits
in farming and gardening, viz., increases organic matter; sequesters carbon;
improves plant growth; conserves water; decreases soil erosion, soil acidity, and
pathogen attack; and reduces dependency on chemical pesticides and fertilizers
(Sharma et al. 2020b). Commonly involved bacteria in composting are Alcaligenes
faecalis, Arthrobacter, Brevibacillus brevis, Bacillus circulans, B. licheniformis,
B. megaterium, B. pumilus, B. sphaericus, Bacillus subtilis, Clostridium thermo-
cellum, Flavobacterium sp., Pseudomonas sp., Thermus sp., and Vibrio sp. At the
same time, the fungi are Aspergillus fumigatus, Basidiomycetes sp., Humicola
Table 4 Thermochemical conversion of agricultural waste

Waste Technique Reactor condition Yield (wt%) References
Rice Fixed-bed Tubular glass fixed-bed Bio-oil ~45 Fermanelli
husk pyrolysis reactor Biogas ~13 et al.
Temperature ¼ 550 C Biochar ~42 (2020)
N2 flow
rate ¼ 60 ml min1
Time ¼ 10 min
Wheat Fixed-bed Time ¼ 10 min Bio-oil ~58 Fermanelli
straw pyrolysis Biogas ~14 et al.
Biochar ~28 (2020)
Peanut Fixed-bed Temperature ¼ 500 C Bio-oil ~51 Fermanelli
shells pyrolysis N2 flow Biogas ~21 et al.
rate ¼ 60 ml min1 Biochar ~29 (2020)
Time ¼ 10 min
Pine Catalytic Semi-batch reactor Bio-oil ¼ 35.2 Kumari
needles pyrolysis Temperature ¼ 550 C Biogas ¼ 38.7 and
Time ¼ 45 min Biochar ¼ 26.1 Mohanty
N2 flow (2020)
rate ¼ 100 ml min1
Catalyst HZSM-5
biomass
Ratio ¼ 1:2
Poultry Gasification Bubbling fluidized bed Syngas N2 ¼ 62.8; CO Katsaros
litter reactor ¼11.39; CO2 ¼ 11.59; et al.
Ratio ¼ 0.17 H2 ¼ 10.15; CH4 ¼ 2.12 (2020)
Time ¼ 10 min vol %, dry
Fuel flow Biochar ¼ 4.25 g tar Kg1
rate ¼ 0.548 kg h1 feedstock daf
Air flow
rate ¼ 7.6 l min1
N2 flow
rate ¼ 4.4 l min1
Gasifier
temperature ¼ 750 C
Fluidization medium
Temperature ¼ 160 C
Equivalence
ratio ¼ 0.21
Unripe Gasification Bubbling fluidized bed Syngas CO ¼31.74; Ram and
coconut reactor CO2 ¼ 6.78; H2 ¼ 27.5; Mondal
husk N2 purging gas CH4 ¼ 34.43 vol% dry (2019)
Humidified air
Equivalence ratio ¼ 0.1
Temperature ¼ 850 C
Duration ¼ 30 min
grisea, H. insolens, H. lanuginosa, Malbranchea pulchella, Myriococcum thermo-

philum, Paecilomyces variotii, Papulaspora thermophilia, Penicillium sp.,
Scytalidium thermophilum, Termitomyces sp., Trichoderma sp., and Actinomyces
sp. Actinomycetes are Streptomyces sp., Frankia sp., and Micromonospora
sp. One gram of compost contains approximately 109 bacterial, 108 actinomycetes,
and 106 fungal cells. This process reduces waste volume up to 70–85% (Carry on
Composting 2020).
Vermicomposting is the decomposition of organic waste by aerobes and earth-
worm. This process takes place in two steps: the first step is the primary degradation
of waste through aerobic microorganisms and the second step is secondary degra-
dation through earthworm gut. The final product is called vermicompost. It is
granular, odorless, and rich in essential nutrients and microbes and low in contam-
inants. The microbial population in vermicompost is different from those present in
the material before ingestion. There are reports where the gut of earthworm added
beneficial microbes viz., Rhizobium japonicum and Pseudomonas putida,
Azospirillum, Azobacter, Nitrobacters, Nitrosomonas, Ammonifying bacteria, and
phosphate solubilizers in vermicopost (Pathma and Sakthivel 2012). The only
drawback with vermicomposting is that temperature does not rise; as a result,
sanitization of compost did not occur.
AWM through aerobic composting and vermicomposting is the most preferred
method in developing countries. Table 5 represents the composting of different
agricultural wastes. The aerobic composting process depends on two factors –
one is feedstock nature and the second is microbial population – while
vermicomposting is also affected by earthworm species. C/N ratio of feedstock
is very crucial during both composting. It should lie in the 25–30:1 range. If it is
high, then the process gets slow down, and if it is low, then the loss of nitrogen
occurs as ammonia and leachate. Out of the four types of agricultural waste,
livestock manure is most compatible with both kinds of composting. The C/N
ratio for swine manure is 12:1, cow manure 20:1, horse manure 25:1, and poultry
litter 13–18:1 that is optimal for composting, but animal manure has high
moisture content and low porosity, so for a successful composting, bulking
agent is used. There is ample literature where stabilized nutrient-rich aerobic
compost and vermicompost are prepared either solely by cattle dung or in the
combination of bulking agents (Bhat et al. 2016; Yuvaraj et al. 2020). C/N ratio of
fruit (19–53.1-1) and vegetable waste (10–21:1) also lies in the 25–30:1 range
and favor composting more than high lignocellulosic containing field residue and
process residue. Crop residue and process residue have a high C/N ratio, which is
generally more than 50–150:1. As a result, their decomposition alone is very hard
and slow. So generally, field residue and process residue are co-composted with
another nitrogen-rich feedstock. Here co-composting main aims are to balance
the C/N ratio and nutrients and dilute inhibitors. Co-composting livestock
manure with crop residue balances the C/N ratio of straw. On the other hand,
straw works as a bulking agent, improves aeration, and reduces N removal from
livestock manure. The composting rate also depends on aeration and water
absorption capacity. Various lignocellulosic biomass, such as sawdust and rice
husks, straw, etc., have high free air space (90–100%) and high water absorption
capacity (300–400%) and have been commonly used as a bulking agent. Gener-
ally most commonly used co-substrate is manure, de-oiled cake, fruit waste, etc.
There are also reports where artificial microbes or microbial consortium and
Table 5 Compost production from different agricultural wastes

Agricultural Composting Increase in
waste method Duration nutrient content References
Rice straw + Aerobic 6 weeks – Kausar et al.
chicken composting (Trichoderma viride (2010)
manure (1:1) F26 and A. niger
F44)
Rice straw + Aerobic 90 days – Abdelhamid
oilseed rape composting et al. (2004)
cake
+poultry
manure
Coir pith + Vermicomposting Pre-composting TKN, TP, TK, Karmegam
green time ¼ 28 days and TCa et al. (2021)
manure + (inoculated with
cow dung Pleurotus sajor-
caju spawn)
Vermicomposting
time ¼ 50 days
(E. eugeniae;
E. fetida)
Press mud + Vermicomposting Pre-composting TKN, TP, and TK Balachandar
green time ¼ NA et al. (2020)
manure + Vermicomposting
cow dung time ¼ 50 days
Poultry Vermicomposting Pre-composting TKN, TK, TP, Yadav et al.
droppings, time ¼ 28 Na, Ca (2013)
food industry Vermicomposting
sludge, cow time ¼ 91 days
dung (E. fetida)
Milk Vermicomposting Pre-composting TKN, Exc K Suthar and
processing time ¼ 21 (exchangeble Gairola
industry, Vermicomposting potassium), Av. P (2014)
sugarcane time ¼ 90 days (available
trash, cow (E. fetida) Phosphorus)
dung
TKN total Kjeldahl nitrogen, TP total phosphorus, TK total potassium, TMg total magnesium, TCa
total calcium, TNa total sodium, Fe iron, Av. available, Exc. exchangeable, NA not available
nutrient supplement (Rock phosphate) are also added to fasten the process or to
make more nutrient-rich compost (Lin et al. 2018).
Bioethanol Production by Hydrolysis and Fermentation
Excessive research on bioethanol formation by agricultural waste is going on

worldwide. There are two ways for bioethanol production from agricultural waste:
biochemical and thermochemical process. The biochemical conversion is the most
widely used sustainable process for ethanol production, which has four steps, viz.,
Feedstock Preparation (size

reduction) Mechanical milling
Ultrasonic
Microwave
Physical
Pre-treatment or liquefication Acid pre-treatment
Alkali pre-treatment
Chemical Ozonolysis
Organosolv process
Hydrolysis or saccharification Physiochemical
Steam explosion
Wet oxidation,
Ammonia fiber
Biological explosion
Detoxification
Fermentation Microbial Treatment

Enzymatic Treatment
Distillation
Solid Ethanol
Fig. 3 Systematic representation of ethanol production
pretreatment, hydrolysis, fermentation, and distillation (Fig. 3), while the thermo-
chemical process is the less used process with two main steps, viz., gasification of
agricultural residue and ethanol production by Fischer-Tropsch conversion (Sarkar
et al. 2012).
In biochemical conversion pathway of field residue that is rich in lignocellulose,
the first step is pretreatment. It is a very crucial step that helps in increasing the
accessibility of cellulose for further steps. If we perform hydrolysis without pre-
treatment, the yield was <20%, whereas yield exceeds up to 90% after the use of
pretreatment (Hamelinck et al. 2005).
There are various methods for pretreatments, viz., physical, chemical,
physiochemical, and biological methods, that are discussed below. The pretreatment
method decided on the basis of feedstock characteristics, toxic inhibitor produced
during process, and cost. For instance, for woody biomass, we need more energy-
intensive pretreatment than agricultural residue because of their differences in
physical and chemical properties (Zhu and pan 2010). Toxic inhibitors are also
considered for the selection of pretreatment process that are produced during process
and affect the growth of fermentation microorganism. They include phenolic com-
pounds, furans (furfurals and 5-HMF), aliphatic acids, and inorganic compounds
(iron, chromium, or nickel). Sometimes we are not able to avoid inhibitor formation
in that condition, so additional step called detoxification is carried out.
The second step for bioethanol formation is hydrolysis. During this step, cellulose
and hemicellulose are hydrolyzed into simple and soluble sugars (Chandel et al.
2007). There are two different types of hydrolysis processes: acid-catalyzed (sulfuric
acid) and enzyme-catalyzed reactions. Acid-catalyzed hydrolysis is further divided
into two subtypes: dilute acid hydrolysis and concentrated acid hydrolysis. Dilute
acid hydrolysis is performed at high temperature (100–240 C) and pressure with 1%
H2SO4 concentration in a continuous flow reactor with very short reaction time. In
this process, in the first half, we get monomeric sugars, but in the second half, we get
other undesirable products, viz., aldehydes; as a result, sugar recovery efficiency
remained only 50% (Demirbas 2005). To improve recovery rate, another two-stage
dilute acid hydrolysis process is developed. In this process, the first stage is
performed at milder condition, while the second stage is performed at harsher
condition; as a result of which, yield of soluble sugar improved. In concentrated
acid hydrolysis, acid-pretreated biomass is first dried and then treated with concen-
trated acid (41% HCl, 100% trifluoroacetic acid, and 70%–90% H2SO4) for a longer
period at low temperature. This process shows cost-effectively almost 100% con-
version of cellulose and hemicellulose to simple sugar (Yu et al. 2008). The major
limitation is corrosion of equipment, and recovery of acid is tough and environmen-
tally hazardous.
Enzymatic hydrolysis is more advantageous than acid hydrolysis as it is
eco-friendly and corrosion-free, needs mild operating condition, produces less
inhibitors, and gives high sugar recovery. Enzymatic hydrolysis is broadly driven
by three major groups of enzymes, viz., cellulases, hemicellulases, and lignanases, or
by microbes producing these enzymes. The major enzyme of this step is cellulases.
In nature, various bacteria and fungi are efficient producer of cellulases, viz.,
Bacillus, Clostridium, Cellulomonas, Bacteroides, Ruminococcus, Erwinia,
Acetivibrio, Microbispora, Streptomyces, Thermomonospora, Aspergillus, Tri-
choderma, Penicillium, Fusarium, Phanerochaete, Humicola, and Schizophyllum.
Among all, Trichoderma species are the most potential cellulase producer (Sharma
et al. 2020a). The enzymatic hydrolysis process success mainly depends on structure
of feedstock (cellulose availability for hydrolysis), particle size, and porosity,
enzyme stability, and catalytic efficiency.
The next step is fermentation, in which simple sugars are converted into ethanol.
Among various microorganisms, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which is a yeast, is
considered to be the most efficient microbe for the production of ethanol from
sugar with a conversion efficiency of 90%. However, the limitation of
S. cerevisiae lies in the fermentation of only hexose sugar, not pentose sugar,
whereas P. stipitis, P. tannophilus, and C. shehatae are some of the yeast species,
which efficiently ferment pentose sugar, especially xylose. Certain bacterial species
like C. thermocellum, E. coli, and Z. mobilis and fungal species such as Fusarium
oxysporum, Neurospora crassa, and Paecilomyces sp. have been effectively used in
the bioethanol fermentation process either through simultaneous saccharification and
co-fermentation (SSCF) or consolidated bioprocessing (CBP). For enhanced
bioethanol production, genetically modified microorganisms such as S. cerevisiae
ATCC 26603, E. coli KO11, P. stipites NRRL Y-7124, and P. stipitis BCC15191
Table 6 Bioethanol production from different solid wastes

Type of Ethanol
waste Pretreatment Hydrolysis/fermentation yield References
Rice straw Microwave- SSF using the B. subtilis for 18.9 g l1 Akhtar
alkali-acid hydrolysis and S. cerevisiae for et al.
pretreatment fermentation (2017)
Wheat straw Alkaline SSF using three commercial 15.1 g l1 Saha and
peroxide enzymes (Novozyme Cotta
pretreatment 188, Celluclast 1.5 L, and (2006)
ViscoStar) at 45 C, pH 5.0,
120 h; fermentation by
recombinant E. coli FBR5a
Corn stover Ammonia fiber SHF using Saccharomyces 40.0 g l1 Lau and
expansion cerevisiae 424A (LNH-ST) Dale
(AFEX) (2009)
pretreatment
Sugarcane Pretreatment Fermentation with Pachysolen 19 g l1 Vassilev
bagasse with H2SO4 tannophilus DW06 et al.
Detoxified by (2012)
electrodialysis
Olive oil Acid SHF hydrolysis by, Celluclast 74.43% Siramon
palm empty impregnation- and Novozyme; fermentation et al.
fruit bunch steam with S. cerevisiae TISTR 5339 (2018)
(OEFB) explosion
pretreatment
Cattle Dilute acid Saccharified with Cellic CTec2; 7.3 g l1 Vassilev
manure pretreatment fermentation with et al.
Saccharomyces cerevisiae (2012)
have been developed (Gupta and Verma 2015). Talebnia et al. (2010) have reported
various microorganisms responsible for ethanol production (65% to 99% of theo-
retical value) from wheat straw. Among several bacteria, yeasts, and fungi, native
and recombinant strains of S. cerevisiae, P. stipites, and Kluyveromyces marxianus
are the profoundly studied yeast species used for the fermentation of wheat straw
hydrolysate. However, the best ethanol yield with respect to final ethanol concen-
tration and volumetric ethanol productivity has been obtained by native and
non-adapted S. cerevisiae. Table 6 shows some example of bioethanol production
by agricultural waste.
Biogas Production by Anaerobic Fermentation
Anaerobic fermentation is a microbe-driven process for the transformation of

organic waste into biogas (50–75% CH4 + 25–50% CO2) and nutrient-rich digestate
in the absence of oxygen. In this process, bacteria play a major role than other
microbes. This process was divided into five steps, viz., pretreatment, hydrolysis,
acidogenesis, acetogenesis, and methanogenesis (Fig. 4). A particular set of
Pretreatment Hydrolysis
Lignocellulosic Simple form of
Agricultural three dimension sugar, amino acid
waste matrix loosened and Fatty acid
Acidogenesis
Fatty acids +
Alcohols
+ CO2 + NH3
Acetogenesis
Acetic acid
Methanogenesis
Biogas (CH4 +
CO2 + H2S)
Purification
Biomethane
Fig. 4 The process of anaerobic digestion in flowchart
microbes carries out each step except pretreatment. Pretreatment is discussed below
in detail.
Hydrolysis: In this step, complex biopolymers (carbohydrate, protein, lipid, and
nucleic acid) are broken down into simple soluble compounds (amino acid, long
fatty acids, and sugars) with the help of extracellular hydrolytic enzyme produced by
bacteria. Bacteria that majorly occur in the process are Cellulomonas, Clostridium,
Bacillus, Thermomonospora, Ruminococcus, Baceriodes, Erwinia, Acetovibrio,
Microbispora, and Streptomyces.
Acidogenesis: In acidogenesis, end products of hydrolysis are converted to
organic acids (acetic, propionic, butyric acid, etc.), alcohols, and hydrogen and
carbon dioxide., with the help of fermentative bacteria. The major fermentative
bacteria are Acetobacterium, Clostridium, Sporomusa, Saccharomyces,
Butyribacterium, Lactobacillus, and Streptococcus.
Acetogenesis: In this step, the product of acidogenesis is converted to acetate,
CO2, and hydrogen using homoacetogens. Acetobacterium and Sporomusa are two
exclusive acetogenic bacterial genera, while Clostridium, Ruminococcus, and
Eubacterium genera contain both acetogenic and non-acetogenic bacteria genera
that play an essential role in this step.
Methanogenesis: In this step, different types of methanogenic bacteria convert
acetate, CO2, and hydrogen into methane as the end product of the anaerobic
digestion. Broadly methanogens are of two types, viz., acetoclastic (acetate
Table 7 Methane/biogas yield from different agricultural wastes

Agricultural Methane
waste Operation condition Inoculum yield References
Rice straw 2 L glass biodigesters, Biodigested 265– Kaur and
37 2 C, pH 7, NaOH slurry 297 L/kg Phutela (2016)
microwave treatment, 45 days DM
Wheat straw 1 L digester, 35 C, pH 7 Anaerobic 0.16 m3 Yong et al.
granular CH4/kg (2015)
sludge VS
Maize crop 2 L fermenter, 36–42 days – 201– Mazurkiewicz
waste 207 m3/t et al. (2019)
FM
Sugarcane Continuous stirred tank Biodigestate 5–181 m3/ Janke et al.
crop waste reactor, 38 C, 35 days of AD tests t FM (2015)
Barley waste Serum bottles (120–250 ml), Cattle slurry 0.219– Himanshu
37 C, 90 days 0.315 m3 et al. (2017)
CH4/kg
VS
consumers) and hydrogen-utilizing methanogens (carbon dioxide-reducing

methanogens). Acetoclastic methanogen produced around 70% methane, while the
rest is obtained by hydrogen-utilizing methanogens. It is essential to maintain the
dynamic equilibrium state between acid former and methane fermenters as it has
been observed that methanogenic microorganisms are sensitive to acidity changes
(Sukhesh and Rao 2018). The optimum range of pH lies between 6.5 and 8, which is
best for fermentation and methane gas production.
The main product of anaerobic digestion is biogas and digestate (further
composted). Biogas consists majorly of 60–70% CH4 and 30–40% of CO2 and
negligible proportion of other gases, viz., N2, H2, O2, and H2S, and water vapors. By
gas purification method, we can further increase the methane yield by up to 90%. In
the biorefinery approach, methane is changed into liquid fuel methanol with many
advantages such as low sulfur and ash fuels and easy to handle, store, and transport.
The digestate was further used as compost by aerobic post-composting (Sukhesh and
Rao 2018).
In anaerobic digestion, we can use a broad range of organic material as a
substrate, but to get maximum yield of biogas, we have to take care of many factors,
viz., feedstock nature, C/N ratio, and substrate concentration. Table 7 shows the
biogas production from different agricultural wastes. The most suitable agricultural
waste for anaerobic fermentation is livestock manure with a low C/N ratio and high
organic matter and moisture. The average methane potentials of different livestock
manure, such as pig manure, cattle manure, chicken manure, and human feces, are
495, 398, 324, and 294 mL/g VS, respectively (Zhang et al. 2008).
Agricultural wastes, especially field residues and sugarcane bagasse, are recalci-
trant to hydrolysis due to the presence of high lignin. The theoretical biogas yield of
lignocellulosic waste is considerably higher than its practical biogas yield. For
instance, the theoretical yield of methane for cotton stalk was 356.7 mL/g VS, but
in actuality, it was only 240 mL/g VS (Adl et al. 2012). Similarly, the wheat straw’s
theoretical yield was 426 ml/g VS, and the practical yield was 297 mL/g VS
(Kaparaju et al. 2009). To improve the hydrolysis of lignocellulosic waste, there is
one more step that is introduced that is pretreatment. Pretreatment helps increase the
accessibility of cellulose by breaking down the linkage between polysaccharides and
lignin. It is necessary for anaerobic fermentation of field residue (Li et al. 2016). The
pretreatment method is discussed below. Many authors suggested an anaerobic
co-digestion process to improve the anaerobic digestion of fruit and vegetable
waste and field residue. In this process, we mixed two or more agricultural wastes
in a different ratio. This process reduces the inhibitory effect, enhances process
stabilization, and maintains the macro-micronutrient balance and C/N ratio (Sharma
et al. 2020b).
Biobutanol Production by ABE Fermentation
Butanol (ethyl alcohol) is traditionally used as a solvent and chemical intermediate

and in extraction of pharmaceutical drugs, but recently we come to know that the fuel
characteristics of butanol are more close to gasoline than ethanol. It has high energy
content (29.2 MJ/L) that is very close to gasoline (32.5 MJ/L) and also has high heat
value, high viscosity, and low volatility and is less hygroscopic and less corrosive. It
has the potential to substitute the gasoline without the change in current engine
technologies. Presently up to 85% blend of butanol with gasoline is used. Butanol
production is 5–six million tons per year that has US $7–8.4 billion value in a
worldwide market (Sharma et al. 2020b).
Butanol can be produced by two ways: chemical and biochemical method.
Biochemical method is more sustainable than chemical method. Chemical methods
are oxo synthesis and aldol condensation, and biochemical method is acetone-
butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation. Similar to ethanol production, this process
has five major steps, pretreatment, detoxification, hydrolysis, fermentation, and
recovery (Fig. 5).
The most commonly used pretreatment methods for butanol production are acid
pretreatment, alkali pretreatment, steam explosion pretreatment, and hydrothermal
pretreatment. The pretreatment method varies from feedstock to feedstock. During
pretreatment, many inhibitors are formed depending on pretreatment process and
feedstock properties. The most commonly formed inhibitors are furfural,
5-hydroxymethylfurfural, phenol, acetic acid, etc. These inhibitors were removed
by detoxification step. The most commonly used detoxification strategies are use of
activated charcoal, electrodialysis, overliming, and membrane extraction (Amiri and
Karimi 2018). The next step is hydrolysis similar to ethanol production. After
hydrolysis, ABE fermentation is performed with strict anaerobic bacterial family
Clostridiaceae. Clostridia are able to ferment both pentose and hexose monomeric
forms. The commonly used clostridia for biobutanol production are Clostridium
acetobutylicum, C. beijerinckii, C. saccharoperbutylacetonicum, and
C. saccharobutylicum (Jones et al., 1996). The final step is butanol recovery
Lignocellulosic waste
(straw, bagasse)
Pretreatment
Activated charcoal
Overliming
Detoxification Electrodialysis
Membrane extraction
Hydrolysis
ABE fermentation CO2, H2O
Recovery (Distillation,
Pervapouration and
Adsorption
Butanol Acetone + Ethanol
Fig. 5 Flowchart of biobutanol production
Table 8 Biobutanol yield from different agricultural wastes

Yield
Agricultural (g g1 Productivity
waste Microorganism substrate) (g l1 h1) References
Wheat straw C. beijerinckii P260 0.193 0.085 Lynd et al. (2005)
Wheat straw C. acetobutylicum 0.155 0.41 Wang et al. (2013)
ATCC824
Rice straw C. sporogenes BE01 0.21 0.05 Gottumukkala
et al. (2013)
Spoilage C. acetobutylicum 0.42 0.30 Abd-Alla and
palm fruit ATCC824 and B. subtilis Elsadek El-Enany
DSM4451 (2012)
Bagasse Mixed culture 0.25 0.05 Cheng et al. (2012)
Rice straw C. acetobutylicum 0.44 0.2 Amiri et al. (2014)
performed by many ways such as adsorption, pervaporation, membrane pertraction,

reverse osmosis, and gas stripping (Amiri and Karimi 2018). Table 8 represents
biobutanol production from different agricultural wastes.
Biohydrogen Production by Dark Fermentation
Hydrogen is a clean, carbon-free fuel with high energy (142 kJ/g) content. It can be
used as combustion fuel in combustion engines and for electricity generation in fuel
cell. Presently, hydrogen is produced by thermal cracking, electrolysis, pyrolysis,
coal gasification, and steam reforming. There are also biological methods for
hydrogen production, viz., photolysis, photo-fermentation, and dark fermentation.
The dark fermentation process is more attractive because it has wide substrate
versatility, does not require light energy, need not an aseptic condition for the
operation, has high hydrogen yield, and has simple reactors. It is performed by
fermentative obligates (Clostridia, methylotrophs, rumen bacteria, methanogenic
bacteria, archaea) and facultative anaerobic bacteria (E. coli, Enterobacter,
Citrobacter) and even aerobes (Alcaligenes, Bacillus). Among them, Clostridium
sp. and Enterobacter are the most widely used. The rate-limiting parameters for
hydrogen production are temperature, pH, biocatalyst, and feedstock composition.
The optimum pH for dark fermentation is acidic (5.2–7) (Nissilä et al. 2014; Ntaikou
et al. 2010).
There are reports where crop residue was used as feedstock for H2 production by
dark fermentation after pretreatment and hydrolysis. Examples are sugarcane
bagasse (Fangkum and Reungsang 2011), corn stalks (Li and Chen 2007) and cob
(Pan et al. 2010), wheat straw (Kongjan et al. 2010), etc.; in the absence of
pretreatment, the yield of hydrogen is very low. The biohydrogen production from
nitrogen-rich animal manure is less because the high output of ammonia (more than
2 g l1) causes the process’s failure.
Pretreatment Methods
Pretreatment is one of the essential steps for processing lignocellulosic biomass for
biofuel formation. This step breaks the three-dimensional matrix of the lignocellu-
losic substances and makes available cellulose for further processing. It also reduces
the crystallinity of the cellulose and makes it more amorphous, increasing surface
area and porosity. As a result of which, the access of microbes and enzymes
increased in further steps. In other words, the success of biofuel formation depends
on the pretreatment method (Dar et al. 2019). Pretreatment methods are broadly
divided into four subtypes: physical, chemical, physicochemical, and biological
(Fig. 2).
Physical Pretreatment
Physical pretreatment increases the surface area by reducing particle size by

milling (wet milling, dry milling, cryomilling, ball milling, and compression
milling), grinding, or chopping. As a result, the accessibility of enzymes and
microbes increased during the downstream process. Besides size reduction,
biomass is also treated with radiation that weakens the interaction between cellu-
lose, hemicellulose, and lignin. For this purpose, two kinds of radiation are
commonly used, viz., microwave and ultrasound radiation. The radiation treat-
ment, in combination with the chemical method, gives a better yield. These
radiations by localized heating and pressurization disrupt hydrogen bond and
lignin, increasing the bioconversion. However, these techniques are costly and
energy-intensive and need safety measures (Kumari and Singh 2018; Amiri and
Karimi 2018).
Chemical Pretreatment
Chemical pretreatment increases the surface area and removes hemicellulose. The
most used conventional chemical for lignocellulosic waste pretreatment is acid and
alkali solution. There are other methods, viz., ozonolysis, organosolv process,
oxidative delignification, etc. In acid-based methods, both organic (acetic acid, citric
acid, and oxalic acid) and inorganic (hydrochloric acid, nitric acid, phosphoric acid,
and sulfuric acid) acids were used. These acids cleave the glucosidic bonds of
hemicellulose and lignin and make cellulose more approachable to downstream
processing.
In alkali treatment, biomass is treated with the base (NaOH, KOH, and Ca(OH)2)
that reduces the cellulose crystallinity by solubilizing lignin and a small fraction of
hemicellulose. But the major drawback of alkali treatment is the long pretreatment
time and the irrecoverable salt formation. In ozonolysis, biomass is treated with
ozone that majorly breaks lignin, followed by hemicellulose hydrolysis. These
process’s essential variables are the feedstock size, concentration of ozone, flow
rate, and moisture content. In the Organosolv process, lignin was removed by
organic solvents, viz., ethanol, methanol, and acetone (Dar et al. 2019).
Physiochemical Pretreatment
Physicochemical pretreatment methods reduce particle size, increase pore volume,

and remove hemicellulose, due to which downstream enzyme’s accessibility gets
improved. It includes a steam explosion, wet oxidation, and ammonia fiber explo-
sion (AFEX).
Steam explosion breaks the fiber wall of lignocellulosic waste by sudden
exposure to high-pressure steam at 160–270 C. The critical variables of this
method are moisture, residence time, and temperature. AFEX is suitable for fibrous
lignocellulosic waste like sugarcane bagasse. In this process, steam explosion was
performed with alkaline pretreatment. Ammonia recycle percolation (ARP) is
another pretreatment process where liquid ammonia circulates through the sub-
strate in a digester that solubilizes hemicellulose. Wet oxidation was successfully
used on wheat straw and hardwood. It involves the oxidation of biomass at higher
temperatures (125–315 C) and pressures (0.50–5.00 MPa) in an aqueous solution

(Dar et al. 2019).
Biological Pretreatment
Biological pretreatment mainly works on lignin degradation and reduces the level of
cellulose and hemicellulose polymerization. There are two ways of biological
pretreatment, viz., the use of lignocellulolytic microbes and enzymatic treatment.
The main lignocellulolytic microbes are wood-decaying white-rot, brown-rot, and
soft-rot fungi and bacteria that produce extracellular enzymes. Among these wood-
decaying fungi, white-rot fungi (e.g., Pleurotus ostreatus, Trametes versicolor,
Phanerochaete chrysosporium) show more effective lignin hydrolysis by producing
extracellular lignin-modifying enzymes, viz., laccase, lignin peroxidases (LiPs), and
manganese peroxidases (MnPs). These enzymes break the aromatic rings present in
lignin through oxidation and make free cellulose. This method has many advantages
like eco-friendly, less energy demand, and no need to add harmful chemicals. Still, it
takes a longer time to loose the sugar and needs sterilization. It is commonly used in
biogas production by anaerobic digestion (Kumari and Singh 2018; Amiri and
Karimi 2018).
The second biological pretreatment method is the direct use of ligninolytic
enzymes that decreases the sugar loss, reduces pretreatment time from 15 to
40 days to 6–24 hours, and does not require sterilization. The majorly used
enzymes are laccase, lignin peroxidase (LiPs), and manganese peroxidase
(MnPs). There are reports where 50% coffee silver skin and potato peel lignin
removal and 37% lignin removal in wheat straw were attained using laccase.
Giacobbe et al. (2018) achieved 50% lignin removal from coffee silver skin and
potato peel by pretreatment with laccase enzymes (Kumari and Singh 2018; Amiri
and Karimi 2018).
Conclusion
Today the world needs renewable and sustainable life practices due to climate
change. With the rise in the human population, agricultural production increased
immensely; thus, the waste of farm practices also increased in enormous quantities.
Simultaneously, our dependency on energy and chemical fertilizer is also increased
with time. The use of chemical fertilizer is not suitable for the health and environ-
ment, and chemical fertilizer production is also energy-intensive, and fossil fuel is
decreasing. This agricultural waste is an economical, environmentally friendly,
natural, renewable, and sustainable resource for biofuel and biofertilizer production
at a low cost. This lignocellulosic waste can be changed into biofuel, bioethanol,
biobutanol, biogas, and biohydrogen. But this biofuel-making process is in its
nascent stage, and numerous efforts are being made to develop economical
pretreatment and hydrolysis methods for biofuel production, which hopefully will be
optimized soon.
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Solid Waste Management and Policies
Toward Sustainable Agriculture 20
Vijay Kant Singh, Praveen Solanki, Arkendu Ghosh, and Apurba Pal
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
Solid Waste and Its Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527
What is Waste? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527
Solid Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527
Types of Solid Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527
Solid Waste Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529
Disposal of Municipal Solid Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529
3R Principle for Solid Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530
Reducing, Recycling, and Reusing of Solid Waste Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530
Sustainable Solution for Solid Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531
Zero Emissions Industrial Ecosystems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533
Developing the Production of Bio-products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533
Landfill and Open Dumping Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534
Incineration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534
Agriculture Organic Solid Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535
V. K. Singh (*)
Department of Soil Science, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab, India
P. Solanki
Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Hoshangabad, Madhya Pradesh, India
A. Ghosh
Jharkhand, India
A. Pal
Department of Basic Science, Hoticulture College, Birsa Agricultural University, Ranchi,
Jharkhand, India

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_27
524 V. K. Singh et al.
Valorization of Organic Matter Solid Waste via Composting and Anaerobic Digestion . . . . . . 535
Composting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536
Industrial Organic Solid Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536
Municipal/Domestic Food Solid Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537
Sludge from Wastewater Treatment Plant for Biogas Production via Anaerobic Digestion
Through Valorization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538
Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538
Swachh Bharat Mission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539
Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules 2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540
Abstract
Solid waste is consolidated materials from a wastewater and water supply
treatment plant, garbage, refuse, and discarded materials from mining, agri-
cultural operations, industries, and community activities. Several types of
solid wastes are produced such as agricultural wastes, municipal wastes,
industrial waste, mining waste, nuclear waste, medical waste, etc. Manage-
ment and proper reuse of solid waste are very important for sustaining and
maintaining the entire bio-geo-ecosystem. Due to increased urbanization and
burgeoning population, efficient management of solid waste is indispensable,
so a complete process of collection, transportation, proper disposal, recycling,
and monitoring of solid waste is very crucial at this stage. The sustainability of
the agriculture sector closely coincides with the appropriate management of
solid wastes so that they are reused. Solid waste management is undertaken to
recycle wastes to reduce their detrimental effects on the various environmental
segments such as soil, water, health, and aesthetics. Several techniques are
used for solid waste management like composting, pyrolysis, recycling, anaer-
obic digestion, incineration, plasma gasification, landfilling, etc. Anaerobic
digestion produces biofuel in the form of biogas. Plasma gasification results in
the generation of electricity from wastes using the well-said principle “wealth
out of waste.” Composting of solid waste material removes potentially harm-
ful microorganism and provides the most valuable source of nutrients for
sustaining the agri-horti-production. So management of solid waste by well-
treating in treatment plants produces biosolids that are useful for sustainable
agriculture as it provides essential plant nutrients and reduces environmental
pollution as well (Solanki and Debnath 2014). Emphasis should be given
to identify the role of currently executed policies as well as lacking
support and challenges for solid waste management and sustainable agricul-
ture development. This chapter mainly focuses on solid waste, its types,
various sources, and disposal technologies used for proper management of
solid waste.
Keywords
Solid waste · Incineration · Composting
20 Solid Waste Management and Policies Toward Sustainable Agriculture 525
Introduction
Sustainable management of solid waste is a biggest challenge in the cities of

developing countries like India, Pakistan, Nepal, and other South Asian countries,
since it is correlated with development, increasing population, as well as high cost
associated with the handling and management of solid waste. Lack of understanding
and knowledge over different factors associated with the handling of solid waste is a
major concern. Population increase, rapid urbanization, booming economy, and the
rise in the standard of living in developing countries have greatly accelerated the
rate, amount, and quality of the municipal solid waste generation (Minghua et al.
2009). Waste is “any substance or object which the producer or the person in
possession of it discards or intends or is required to discard.” “Organic waste” refers
to any type of solid, semi-solid, liquid, or gaseous materials with different physico-
chemical characteristics, with a highly complex composition, organic in nature
which are disposing currently as controlled landfills, incineration, etc. and used
them to the agricultural soils by making compost. Since incineration is a very
expensive and environmentally criticized technique, other recycling or reusing
options are considered better.
It is projected that in the whole world currently there are about 3 billion
populations generating 1.2 kg of waste per person per day, almost 1.3 BT of
municipal solid waste (MSW) a year or 1.2 kg per capita per day. In 2025, this
will probably increase to 4.3 BT from urban residents, about 1.42 kg per inhabitant
per day of MSW (2.2 thousand millions of tons a year). However, they are highly
variable since there are differences in the rates of waste generation between coun-
tries, between cities, and even within cities. Incorporation of organic wastes into the
soil from sewage treatment plants (STPs) or selective collection of urban garbage has
been done for several decades in so many countries in the world (Solanki et al.
2017). These have created and altered few preventive rules against probable prob-
lems with the contaminants present in them, emphasizing potentially toxic metals,
organic contaminants, and pathogens (Solanki et al. 2018). Urban solid wastes
(USWs) are wastes resulting from households; civil construction, health service;
wastes from pruning and grass cutting; wastes from ports, airports, bus terminals,
and train terminals; wastes from cleaning manholes, and wastes from sweeping,
markets, and others (Dotaniya et al. 2018). Industrial solid wastes (ISWs) include the
wastes of processing industries, radioactive wastes, and agricultural wastes (Solanki
et al. 2019). They are extremely varied and present diversified characteristics, since
they depend on the kind of product being manufactured. Radioactive wastes (nuclear
wastes) are those that emit radiation above the limits allowed by Brazilian standards,
generally resulting from nuclear fuels, which, according to the legislation that
specifies them, are in the exclusive purview of the National Committee of Nuclear
Energy. Agricultural wastes are those generated by activities pertaining to agricul-
ture and livestock, such as containers of fertilizers, agricultural pesticides, feed,
remnants of harvests, and manure. Since agrochemical containers are highly toxic,
they have specific legislation. Agrochemicals include a variety of pesticides (e.g.,
herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides), growth regulators, desiccants, and
adjuvants. In addition to packaging, other waste streams can include washings,

unused concentrates, and contaminated clothing. Pesticide washings arise from the
rinsing of pesticide spray tanks following spraying. The recommended practice is to
apply the washings to an unsprayed area of crop, avoiding waste and reducing risk to
the environment. Widespread attention to agricultural waste management has clearly
been limited to date. Agricultural waste is exempt from waste management controls
due to the limited amount of waste generated in relation to other sectors, as well as
recent economic difficulties in farming (and related industries). A number of con-
cerns have been raised, including the visual effects of long-term stockpiling of
plastics and other waste on farms, as well as the possible environmental and
human health risks associated with other traditional practises (e.g., burning and
burial of waste on farms). This section summarizes the main drivers for change in
agricultural waste management practices, including the proposed legal controls on
waste and a range of other drivers affecting farmers and all parties in the input supply
chain. Water, which up to the last generation was considered an abundant natural
resource, has become a limiting factor that was compromised because of high
pollution in some regions, as a result of the inadequate discharge of urban sewage
which is the main polluter of water sources. However, sewage treatment generates a
sludge rich in organic matter, heavy metals, and nutrients whose final disposal
should be planned systematically during the planning phase of treatment plants,
thus avoiding partially canceling out the benefit of effluent collection and treatment.
Assessment of the processes from the most favorable to least favorable that
protect the environment alongside resource and energy consumption is known as
waste management hierarchy. Avoidance includes actions to minimise the amount of
waste produced by households, industry, and all levels of government; resource
recovery includes reuse, recycling, reprocessing, and energy recovery, all of which
are consistent with the most effective use of recovered resources; and disposal
including management of all disposal options in the most environmentally respon-
sible mannerand waste management hierarchy is a collection of precedence for the
efficient use of resources. It seems from the waste hierarchy that some types of
waste, such as hazardous chemicals or asbestos, cannot be safely recycled, so that
direct treatment or disposal is the most suitable management option. It is necessary to
consider waste for disposal, not for discarding or open dumping. In the process of
disposal, organized actions are required for the purpose of using and not only
eliminating the waste, and reutilization of waste is certainly the most acceptable
option from the sustainability of economic, environmental, agriculture and social
standpoint. Solid Waste Management Rules 2016 gives a reasonable drafting to
tackle the challenges related to municipal solid waste management (MSWM) in
India. Solid Waste Management Rules 2016 was the improvement over the Solid
Waste Management Rules 2000 which was the first rule made by the Government for
Indian cities. To tackle with management-related problems, the Government of India
gives important strategic direction and funding through national mission such as
JNNURM, AMRUT, Smart Cities, and Swachh Bharat Mission. After making such
rules and missions, it is important to operate the strategies in the integrated way for
solid waste management.
Solid Waste and Its Type
What is Waste?
Waste includes all the materials that are no longer of use to the people, who either
intend to get rid of or had already discarded it. It is used as a resource if it is put in the
right place. Items which can be considered as waste are household rubbish, sewage
sludge, waste materials from the manufacturing activities, packaging items,
discarded cars, discarded electronic devices, garden waste, old paint containers,
etc. Thus all our daily activities can give rise to a large variety of different wastes
arising from different sources (Solanki 2014; Solanki et al. 2017a).
Solid Waste
According to RCRA (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act), solid waste means
any waste, garbage, or refuse; sludge materials from the wastewater treatment plant,
water supply treatment plant, and air pollution control facility; and other discarded
materials coming from industrial, mining, commercial, and agricultural operations
and from community activities. Solid waste also includes wastes generated from
institutional construction and residential, commercial, or industrial as well as waste
materials from demolition processes and municipal services (Solanki et al. 2017b).
Types of Solid Waste
Agricultural Waste
Agricultural waste includes most of the organic waste from the animal excreta in
the form of farmyard manure, sludge, soiled water and silage effluent, or plant
residues in the forms of leaves and branches and waste such as plastic, scrap
machinery, fencing, pesticides, waste oils, and veterinary medicines. Agricultural
wastes are the residues from the growing and processing of fresh agricultural
products like cereal crops, dairy products, fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry, dairy
products, etc. These wastes are non-product outputs of production and processing
of agricultural products whose economic values are less than the cost of collec-
tion, transportation, and processing for beneficial use. The composition of agri-
cultural waste varies depending on the type of material and can be solid, liquid, or
gas.
Agricultural waste also known as “agro-waste” comprised of food-processing
waste (e.g., only 20% of maize is canned and the remaining is waste), animal waste
(manure, animal carcasses), crop waste (corn stalks, drops and culls from fruits and
vegetables, prunings, sugarcane bagasse), and hazardous and toxic agri-chemical
waste (pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, etc.). Expanding agricultural production
has naturally resulted in increased quantities of livestock waste, agricultural crop
residues, and agro-industrial by-products.
Municipal Waste
Municipal solid waste (MSW) includes household waste; market area waste;
slaughterhouse waste; commercial area waste; institutional waste (e.g., from
school, shops, supermarket, institutions, community halls); horticultural wastes,
i.e., wastes from parks and gardens; wastes from road sweeping; silt from drainage;
and biomedical and veterinary waste. MSW contains, mostly, hazardous sub-
stances including some batteries, paints, mercury-containing waste (Dotaniya et
al. 2020), pharmaceuticals, vehicle maintenance products, and many other prod-
ucts (Slack et al. 2004). It does not include the waste which is generated from
industrial production or construction and demolition processes. Major part of these
wastes is food wastes, paper, metal, rags, and glass, with some hazardous house-
hold wastes like batteries, electric light bulbs, discarded medicines, and automo-
tive parts. However, MSW and its proper management is one of the important
challenges to the environment. To overlook the problems related from the MSW,
municipalities are the main responsible factor. They have to provide an effective
and efficient system to the inhabitants. However, they are often facing so many
problems beyond the ability of the municipal authority to handle MSW (Sujauddin
et al. 2008). This is essentially due to financial resources, lack of organization, and
complexity (Burntley 2007). Composition of MSW varies from one municipality
to another and from country significantly. Several studies reported that the MSWs
generated from the developing countries are mainly from households (55–80%),
followed by market or commercial areas (10–30%). The latter consist of variable
quantities generated from industries, streets, institutions, and many others (Nabegu
2010). It is defined as any solid or semisolid substance or object resulting from
human or animal activities, discarded as useless or unwanted materials, extremely
mixed mass of wastes, which may originate from household, commercial, indus-
trial, or agricultural activities.
Industrial Waste
It is a manufacturing waste that comes from a wide range of different processes, such
as sludges, product residues, slags, ashes, kiln dust, etc. Major part of industrial
waste comes from the three types of industries, i.e., food-processing, metallurgy, and
nonmetallurgy industries. Such wastes are categorized into three forms, i.e., solid,
liquid and gas; however, they may differ from industry to industry according to the
base or raw materials used for making the product, the manufacturing processes, and
the product outlets. Industrial wastes may be organic, inorganic, biodegradable, and
nonbiodegradable in nature. Industrial waste is also produced by the activities such
as that of mills, mines, and factories. Most of the industrial waste has neither
hazardous nor toxic substances. The manufacturing industry generates wastes from
the different streams of wide range of industrial processes. Maximum waste gener-
ated by industrial sectors includes the production of basic metals, wood and wood
products, paper and paper products, tobacco products, etc. Due to burgeoning
population and great industrial growth, waste from manufacturing sector continues
to rise, despite the national and international guidelines and declarations to reduce
waste from industry.
Solid Waste Generation
Increasing population, improving standard of living, and increasing urbanization

have increases both the quantity and type of solid waste generated by domestic,
industrial, mining, and agricultural activities. Globally, the estimated quantity of
waste generation was 120 MT in 2002, out of which 16 MT were municipal solid
waste (MSW) and 110 MT were industrial wastes.
Up to 2025, approximately 190 MT of solid wastes are expected to be generated
(Yoshizawa et al. 2004). However, Asia alone generates about 44 MT of solid waste,
and MSWs comprise 790 MT, of which about 48 (6%) MT are generated in India
(Yoshizawa et al. 2004; CPCB 2000). By the year 2047, MSW generation in India is
expected to reach 300 MT. The problem related to solid waste generation (SWG) is
an issue of concern everywhere in the world. SWG is one of the biggest challenging
issues in developing countries that suffer from severe environmental pollution
problems caused by the large quantities of SWG (Al-Khatib et al. 2010). Several
studies reported that collection of solid waste, its storage, transportation, and ulti-
mately final disposal are a foremost problem in urban cities. Most of the developing
countries fail in management of solid waste due to the limited available resources
and the competing priorities over their resources. The main reason of these problems
associated with solid waste management is attributed to the poor economy of these
areas which accounts for the low achievement in solid waste management. In the
consideration of these factors, SWG and their composition are influenced by other
socioeconomic factors including the average family size, number of rooms, monthly
income, and development status (Sankoh et al. 2012) because it has been reported
that there is a direct correlation between solid waste composition and the social
activities in the community (Gidarakos et al. 2006). The main issues which become
hurdles in the MSW management in all the countries are sociocultural, economic,
political, legal, and environmental factors. Therefore, there should be adoption of
new technology for the municipal solid waste management and generation that
should be taken into consideration.
Disposal of Municipal Solid Waste
Disposal of municipal solid waste is a widespread problem in both urban and rural
areas of the several developing countries. Canals and open drains are widely used to
dump MSW. Due to absence of systematic garbage collection system, convenient
landfills, open canals, and drains are being blocked by dumping huge amounts of
solid and garbage wastes. Such toxic materials having hazardous materials have
harmful impact on the environment due to their degradable constituents. Degradable
constituents add high loads of biological oxygen demand to the ecosystem. So, lack
of MSW management and its proper disposal is significantly reducing the environ-
mental problems like soil, water, and other pollutions. Due to such environmental
problems that are directly associated with the human health disorder, it increases the
greenhouse gas emissions (Weigand et al. 2003; Narayan et al. 2017).
Collection of municipal solid waste is inadequate in varying degrees especially in

the rural areas where waste is thrown directly into the river and waterways or is
indiscriminately dumped in the roadsides. Reasons for this are lack of finance, lack
of awareness of the environmental, inadequate solid waste management, and lack of
enforcement. Many landfills are unsanitary landfills due to land acquisition prob-
lems, insufficient collection, disposal fees, and insufficient number of landfills. The
waste is dumped into rivers and ponds, burned, or left uncollected. The household
hazardous wastes (HHW) are disposed of in landfills along with general household
waste (HW). It is generally a misconception that the amount of HHWs are small;
thus, risks of disposal are negligible. Separate disposal of MSW and industrial and
other wastes raises the importance of toxic and hazardous element contained in such
wastes (Slack et al. 2005). There are great concerns about the presence of several
chemicals in the household products (Blundell 2003). The consequences and the
impact to the environment that resulted from the disposal of HHW are also of
concern. Thus the disposal of such HHW to landfill should, therefore, cope with
the current legislation in order to decrease the risk to the environment (Slack et al.
2005). Globally, about 71% of MSWs are disposed of in landfills (Zacarias-Farah
and Geyer-Allély 2003). On the other hand, more than 53% of the landfilled wastes
consist of hard board paper, yard waste, papers, and food that are biodegradable by
the anaerobic bacteria (Barlaz et al. 2010). Most of MSWs as well as many other
solid wastes are disposed of in landfills. Thus, a basic understanding about the proper
landfill design is helpful. Therefore, landfills have evolved from just open dumps to
highly engineered facilities and site that are designed to contain waste.
3R Principle for Solid Waste Management
Reducing, Recycling, and Reusing of Solid Waste Materials
Reducing solid waste generation as much as possible at the source point is the key step
in solid waste management. Recycling or recovery is a very good option and method,
and it has been successfully applied in mills and factories, particularly at those with
small- or medium-scale production capacity. There is a wide range of products made
from recycled plastic, including polyethylene bin liners and carrier bags; flooring and
window frames; PVC sewer pipes and building insulation board; video and compact
disc cassette cases; composters; seed trays; fiberfill for sleeping bags and duvets; a
variety of office accessories; fencing and garden furniture; and water butts and garden
sheds. However, the demand is high only for plastic, glass, and cardboard materials and
some special metals for recycled wastes. Recycling of plastic waste materials is one of
the important ways to reduce waste because, approximately, 40% of plastic waste is
disposed in landfills because of poor waste segregation. As we know, most of the plastic
are non-degradable, so they take much time to break down, possibly up to hundreds of
years. If the quantity of plastic waste increases day by day, its recycling will be a major
concern. It can be opportunities as well as attractive market for the investment and
development. Guidelines given by the government should be followed strictly.
In case of organic waste, recycling is not a beneficial, economic, and environ-

mental trait. Organic waste can be used as feedstock for aerobic or anaerobic
digestion because these methods are more cost-effective and environmentally
friendly. The products resulting from those processes, such as fertilizers and biogas,
are useful products in countries that have an economy relying widely on agriculture.
Reuse is the preferable strategy for the handling of plastic materials due to its low
energy uses.
Production of long-life, multi-trip plastic packaging should be focused because
those types of plastic packaging can replace less durable and single-trip alternatives,
so that waste is reduced efficiently. It is popular because it is an economically viable
undertaking. This undertaking is currently accomplished by medium-scale or house-
hold enterprises and is predicted to grow where it offers a beneficial economic
impact. Plastic cans may last up to 10–20 years and can then be recycled at the
end of their useful life. If reusing waste is applied successfully, the amount of plastic
waste requiring disposal will be less, thereby lessening the burden on waste disposal.
Additionally, it can reduce energy consumption and can save money. Recycling has
been done by the separation of valuable to non-valuable materials by waste-pickers.
They remove the most valuable materials, either before garbage enters the waste
stream or en route at households, especially in the lower- and middle-income areas of
many municipalities. Thereafter, waste-pickers provide recovered materials to the
mills where waste will be recycled into new products.
Sustainable Solution for Solid Waste Management
Scheinberg et al. (2010) reported that there are indications that high rates of recovery
for recycling are associated with tipping fees at the site of disposal. High disposal
pricing has the positive effect on recovering the generated solid waste. This goes to
the beneficial reuse or the value chains of solid waste. Gonzalez-Torre and Adenso-
Diaz (2005) reported that social influences and altruistic and regulatory factors are
important reasons why certain communities can develop strong recycling habits. In
order to increase the rates of recycling, the local government must encourage the
markets for the recycled materials and should increase the professionals in the
recycling companies. Important factors were mentioned by other fellows including
a financial support for different recycling projects (Nissim et al. 2005), to support the
infrastructure of the recycling companies in their country (Henry et al. 2006).
MSW management solutions must be financially sustainable, technically feasible,
socially and legally acceptable, as well as environmentally friendly. Sorting the
MSW at the source is a process that is possible, and to combine with the recycling
materials as well as waste to energy generation methods. Waste management, in fact,
addresses the use of multidisciplinary approaches covering from engineering,
humanities, sociology, and biology (Francois et al. 2006). Although technologies
like disposal or mechanical sorting of the MSW in landfills do not drastically
improve the MSW management. The level of development of a country
reflects the impact on the management of solid waste and the selection of such
management (Cheng et al. 2007). For producing renewable energy and other new
products including compost for waste management, many developed countries
employ various methods (Riber et al. 2009). These countries invest in waste
recycling for the benefit of agriculture activities (Philippe and Culot 2009; Khanna
and Solanki 2014). Selection of solid waste management depends on the decisions
taken by city leaders as well as the structures related to the nature, quantity, and
quality of local waste produced (Baldwin and Dripps 2012).
Thus, physical features of MSW including composition, calorific value (heating
potential), and moisture content (MC) should be well known to select the suitable
methods of management. Nevertheless, the MC may reach up to 55–70% depending
on the climate conditions and solid waste composition (Hui et al. 2006). It has been
estimated by UNEP (2010) that solid waste management contributes for the green-
house gas (GHG) emission between 3% and 5%. This is mainly due to the emission
of CH4, CO2, and N2O that escapes from the open dumps. Additional gas emissions
of CO2 are from the upstream processes such as transportation and waste collection
(UNEP 2010). Management of waste via different ways, i.e., energy production,
application of compost as an organic fertilizer to the soil, and storing carbon in
landfills, can certainly reduce or save GHG emissions. UNEP (2010) suggested that
internationally recognized institutions recommended a future waste management
focused on the 3R concept (namely, reduce, reuse, and recycle). These 3R are
waste prevention, circular economy establishment, cleaner productions, and valori-
zation of the waste by transformation into a source of energy and materials (UNEP
2010). Waste management, thus, represents one of the main issues that have to be
faced by mankind nowadays.
Wastes are deposited in government-owned landfills and managed by a private
consortium. However, waste collection has just stopped at urban collection levels of
approximately 70–90%, and there are still many open disposal sites, which have
negative effects on human health and the environment. The starting point of these
solutions can be identified by environmentally sound management of waste, apply-
ing zero emissions industrial ecosystems, including agro-based industrial systems.
Although reusing, composting, recycling, biorefineries, bio-digestion, and bio-
extraction are encouraged. Environmentally sound waste management system is
considered as sustainable waste management solutions.
For sustainable waste management, the solution must be finding beyond ordinary
safe disposal or recovery. Waste that is generated must seek to the address the root
cause of the problem by attempting to change unsustainable patterns of production
and consumption. Additionally, it should be realized by using the technical, organi-
zational, and financial resources available in a particular locality, followed by waste
policy (waste hierarchy), waste planning, regulatory framework, and enforcement of
the law. Particularly, waste management should be regulated by waste policies, in
which waste prevention, waste minimization, reuse, recycling; environmentally safe
waste treatment and sanitary landfilling are included. Another important component
is waste planning and the coordination of other policies on national, regional, and
local levels. Waste planning makes it possible to take into consideration a large
number of different factors that have an impact on the waste management system.
Zero Emissions Industrial Ecosystems
Zero emissions ecosystem approach is employed when returning “residual products”

as inputs to further processes in industrial closed-loop systems. This may involve
redesigning both products and processes in order to eliminate hazardous properties
that make the residues unusable and unmanageable in quantities that overburden
both the industry and the environment. A foundation of zero emissions systems is
provided by the concept of industrial metabolism, which stands for the whole
integrated collection of physical processes that convert raw materials and energy,
plus labor, into final products and wastes in a steady-state condition. Waste can be
prevented through designs based on the full life cycle of the product, therefore
offering opportunities for reduced costs and reduced negative environmental
impacts. As well as, focusing on the renewable resources like energy, materials
and resources pursues to achieve the sustainable future.
Foundation to apply a zero emissions industrial ecosystem, especially a zero
emissions agro-based industrial system model, is based on the concept of solving
problems of large quantities of waste generated, reducing the negative impact on the
environment, saving money, and enhancing sustainability of the development
(renewable energy, renewable resources) and faster progress, irrespective of how
large or small the industrial system is, what kind of production activities are used,
how homogeneous or heterogeneous, and even its location.
In agro-based industrial system, application of AIZES model is generally possible
because analyzing the material flow and pursuing sustainable solutions for waste
prevention and minimization support the direction toward “there is no chance for
waste”; in particular, capital costs for the model are not high. There is a strong belief
that the economic development relies largely on agriculture and agro-based indus-
tries in East Asia. Agriculture contributes about 25–30% of total export earnings,
and the countries are now becoming self-sufficient in food crops. It means that food
waste from the food-processing industry can be a potential feedstock to produce
renewable energy. This practice not only reduces the amount of organic waste
disposed but also increases the reuse of wastes, i.e., organic, agricultural, manure,
sludge, and residues for biogas conversion, which can approach a fundamental
avoidance of environmental degradation. Use of organic waste to generate energy
like electricity and gas looks like a practical approach due to the rising amount of
waste generation as well as the over-reliance on fossil fuels. Since the goal is to
increase the bio-energy use, direction will be a path of adapting “waste to renewable
energy” and greenhouse emission reduction.
Developing the Production of Bio-products
Adaptation of natural cycle of materials and energy has been sought for the solution
of sustainable waste management. Switching to plant-based plastics might be such
an approach; because of this, the production of bio-products is being considered.
Bio-plastic bags are made from plant or crop starch. After use, the packaging can be
disposed together with organic waste. It can be broken down when exposed to
sunlight. Sustainable waste management should consider bio-products because of
their environmentally friendly traits as well as the different advantages. Large
amounts of waste materials and crop residues of agricultural products from a variety
of crops, i.e., fruit and vegetables, are being considered for the production of bio-
products.
Landfill and Open Dumping Sites
The most used and cheapest disposal of solid waste is the landfills as waste
management techniques (Mahmood et al. 2015). MSWs are originated from different
activities carried out in homes, in public and private service as well as buildings, and
commercial services. They all form an important portion of the solid waste nowa-
days (Dogruparmak et al. 2011). Open dumping is the common practice for disposal
of waste, for example, waste is dumped on swamplands and in low-lying areas.
Approximately 50–80% of solid waste is collected each day and then disposed in
landfills or dumpsites. Site selection of the landfill is extremely important due to the
lack of public acceptance that results in several social problems (Hadjibiros et al.
2011).
The most important processes are quantification and characterization of all the
sustainable solid waste management systems. At a particular place, for integrating
technologies, studying about the composition and categories of solid waste is
important including recycling and resource recovery in the concerned solid waste
management systems. Effective planning and development strategies about the
quantity and categories of wastes are of great importance for sustainable manage-
ment of solid waste. Concerning the integrated solid waste management program,
information also can certainly assist in infrastructure, policy development, and
planning for any sizing decisions. Proper treatment of these waste managements
for preventing any serious environmental health risks is strongly required
(Dogruparmak et al. 2011). Developing living standards, increasing population,
and rapid urbanization today have created huge amounts of solid waste in all
countries worldwide (Zhao and Duo 2015). Unfortunately the capacity of the
landfills is mostly surpassed due to a lack of waste management planning, so the
environmental pollution (leachate, gas, odors, flies, vermin, and pathogens) poses
serious problems.
Incineration
Incineration is a waste treatment process that involves the combustion of waste

materials containing organic substances. It is also known as thermal treatment
because it converts the waste into ash, flue gas, and heat. It is one of the alternative
options for waste treatment. This method appears to be an extremely attractive
option. However, operating efficiency depends on the waste characteristics as well
as the waste composition. Many incinerators still exist to treat medical and hazard-
ous wastes. It seems that about 80–95% of medical waste is burned in the inciner-
ators. However, this method is found to be an inappropriate approach for most low-
income developing countries due to the high financial startup and operating capital
requirements.
Agriculture Organic Solid Waste
Agricultural as well as the agro-industrial activities generate a large amount of

lignocellulosic by-products including fruit peel, straw, stem, stalk, cobs, husk, and
bagasse, among others. Such wastes are mainly composed of cellulose (35–50%),
hemicellulose (25–30%), and lignin (25–30%) (Behera and Ray 2016). The main
constituent of the lignocellulosic materials is glucose; hemicellulose is a heteroge-
neous polymer that is mainly comprised of five different sugars, namely, L-arabinose,
D-glucose, D-galactose, D-xylose, and D-mannose, as well as some organic acids.
Lignin is formed by a complex three-dimensional structure of phenylpropane units
(Mussatto et al. 2012). Regardless of the rising price and the considerable shortage of
grains as a custom animal feed, it was reported by Graminha et al. (2008) that the
lignocellulosic materials have a great potential to produce edible animal feedstuff. In
recent times, the SSF was successfully applied to produce hydrolytic and lignin lytic
enzymes. The lignin peroxidase was successfully produced by using corn cobs as a
substrate in SSF (Mehboob et al. 2011). Various pretreatments of straw were
implemented by using SSF for cellulose and lignin degradation for the purpose of
increasing the digestibility of the feed (Chang et al. 2012). SSF can have a potential
to produce enzymes and to improve the digestibility of rich fiber materials including
soybean cotyledon (Lio and Wang 2012). According to Dave et al. (2012), the
Jatropha seed cake is used for the production of celluloses through SSF without
any pretreatment. Cow dung contains a high nitrogen content that made it suitable
for methane production (Abdullah et al. 2016).
High-quality of biofertilizer can be produced by employing liquid amino acid
hydrolyzed from animal carcasses as an additive to mature compost of either pig
manure or chicken by SSF. Side by side, the production of activated carbon and
biochar was favored by utilization of cow dung and chicken manure (Nguyen and
Lee 2015; Meena et al. 2017a, b).
Valorization of Organic Matter Solid Waste via Composting and

Anaerobic Digestion
In the research conducteed by Cooperband (2002) suggested that worm farming is

the simple alternative process in which the digestion of the organic manure inside
where the earthworms producing high-quality compost and a protein source
(worms). In addition, the anaerobic digestion is also known as biogas producer or
biomethanation. It is the controlled degradation of organic manure by the anaerobic
bacteria in the absence of oxygen (Abdel-Shafy and Mansour 2018). Anaerobic

digestion is a technically complex in which minimal variations in the controlling
parameters, such as temperature or pH, can generate malfunctions of the process
(such as odors). However, the produced biogas, as the final resulting from this, is an
important and low-cost source of energy. It is considered as an eco-friendly source of
local energy matrix that reduces dependence on fossil energy sources.
Composting
Composting process is a controlled degradation of organic matter (OM) in the

presence of oxygen. The advantage of producing compost is the technical simplicity
of the process. Low economic revenue never limits the interest of this process
(Dotaniya et al. 2019). It is a low-technology approach for reducing into size and
weight. Due to high operating and maintenance costs, composting has not been
tremendously successful, because the high cost of compost compared to commercial
fertilizers, and the available market. However, it has proved to be a safe and effective
way to accelerate the decomposition and stabilization of biodegradable components
of bio-waste from MSW, foremost to production of compost for soil amendment or
as an organic nutrient source. Composting is gaining interest as a suitable option for
chemical fertilizers with environmental profit, since this process eliminates or
reduces toxicity of MSW and leads to a final product which can be used in improving
and maintaining soil quality. Many studies have shown that the compost improves
physical and chemical properties of soils by increasing nutrient content, organic
matter, water holding capacity, and cation exchange capacity.
Industrial Organic Solid Waste
Industrial organic waste including fruit and vegetable processing plants, slaughter-
houses, poultry processing, sugar industry, the dairy industry, paper and pulp
manufacturing. These organic wastes have the potential to be used as a substrate
or support in SSF processes to produce valuable products. Sawdust, one of the
examples of solid waste and available by-product material of wood industry, is used
as a support or substrate in SSF to obtain high laccase production by using white-rot
fungi, namely, Coriolopsis gallica (Daassi et al. 2016). In addition to that, the
slaughterhouses and the leather industry generate several organic wastes containing
protein such as animal fleshing, skin trimming, hair wastes, chrome shaving, buffing
wastes, and keratin wastes that are underutilized. It was reported that the animal
fleshing is utilized as a substrate in SSF for protease production (Ravindran et al.
2011). Slaughterhouses’ hair wastes mixed with aerobic activated sludge or anaer-
obically digested sludge showed a high yield of protease production (Yazid et al.
2016). It has been also widely reported that fruit and vegetable wastes can be used
for production of organic acid and vital enzymes (Panda et al. 2016). Vegetable
wastes show a great potential for energy bioconversion due to their high and easily
degradable organic content, particularly in the biofuel production (Singh et al. 2012).
Sugarcane bagasse and molasses, by-products of the sugar industry, were reported
for the production of invertase via SSF (Veana et al. 2014). Molasses was selected as
a low-cost substrate to replace cane sugar to produce ethanol (Kanwar et al. 2012).
Organic matter associated with a strong odor in the waste of tapioca industry that
contains considerable which could cause environmental pollution was successfully
converted into poly-3-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) via SSF. Thus an alternative industrial
process and significant reduction in the total production cost could be achieved
(Sathiyanarayanan et al. 2014). This proved that the food-processing industries,
usually, generate several by-products that are able to be used in SSF for producing
several valuable bio-products (ElMekawy et al. 2013). Industrial seafood waste by-
product, that is, crustacean, can be used in the production of chitinase and
chitosanase with a wide range of applications and implementation in biomedical,
food, and agrochemical sectors (Nidheesh et al. 2015). Meanwhile, fish processing
wastes are favorable because these wastes are easy to obtain at low cost and provide
appropriate SSF conditions for microorganism cultivation. Due to rich contents in
lipids and proteins, such fish processing wastes have been found suitable to produce
esterase (Esakkiraj et al. 2012).
Municipal/Domestic Food Solid Waste
Wastes generated from sources like municipal and domestic food are very hetero-
geneous in nature, so they have variable physical and chemical characteristics. These
food solid wastes include yard waste, food waste, plastics, wood, metals, papers,
rubbers, leather, batteries, inert materials, textiles, paint containers, demolishing and
construction materials, as well as many others (Debnath et al. 2014). The heteroge-
neity of such generated solid waste is creating a major problem in sorting and its
proper strategic utilization as a useful resource. That is why there is a proper need for
the fractionation and sorting of these wastes before meaningful treatment process.
For successful story of any designed of solid waste segregation depends mainly on
the public awareness and the active participation of such waste generators in the
different communities (i.e., how they follow the fundamental and principles of waste
sorting and separation). Due to the high financial cost of treatment of wastewater,
several developing countries treat their domestic wastewater inadequately (Abdel-
Shafy and Aly 2007). Countries particularly developed countries are facing a serious
challenge to manage domestic food waste. All these waste substances generated
from food waste are chemically comprised of fats, cellulose, starch, lipids, protein,
and other organic matters. The moisture and salt contents lead to a rapid decompo-
sition of the organic contents in the wastes which results in unpleasant odors. This
condition can attract bugs and flies which are vectors for several diseases. However,
from being perishable, these municipal solid wastes including household kitchen
waste as well as the domestic food waste from restaurants and markets consist of
high lignocellulosic materials that could be decomposed and exploited to produce
valuable bio-products. Principally, MSW and kitchen waste residues constitute
mainly of potato peel, onion peel, cauliflower leaves, carrot peel, orange peel, pea
pods, and banana stalks and all together were used to produce cellulose by SSF
(Abdullah et al. 2016). These domestic food wastes including waste bread, savory,
onion, waste cakes, fruits, vegetables, and potato peel wastes and cafeteria waste
have been proved as being suitable substrates for glucoamylase enzyme production
by Aspergillus awamori via SSF technology. Domestic bread wastes have been used
to produce amylase (Cerda et al. 2016).
Mantzouridou et al. (2015) reported that cultivation of selected industrial yeast
strains by using substrate of orange peel resulted in a high yield of aroma esters.
Mixed food wastes collected from restaurants and inoculated with fungal inoculum
can produce glucoamylase-rich media and protease-rich media by SSF. Several
studies reported the utilization of household food wastes with high dry content to
produce high yields of ethanol via SSF (Matsakas and Christakopoulos 2015). There
is a wide range of applications such as medicine production, plastics, and laundry
detergents (Sun et al. 2014). Cocoyam peel is a common household kitchen waste
used in Nigeria which presents a capability to become a very useful substrate for
oxy-tetracyclines, which are an important antibiotic to treat many infection diseases
(Ezejiofor et al. 2012). Complex composition of food wastes makes them very
suitable for microbial growth as potential media to produce Bacillus thuringiensis
(Bt) bio-pesticide through SSF (Zhang et al. 2015).
Sludge from Wastewater Treatment Plant for Biogas Production

via Anaerobic Digestion Through Valorization
Anaerobic digestion (AD) of the waste materials proved to be an efficient technology

for the treatment of sludge generated from sewage water. The produced biogas is a
mixture of mainly methane and carbon dioxide. Meanwhile, the sludge is stabilized
and its dry matter content is remarkably reduced. Organic matter present in the
sludge is broken down by the anaerobic microbes in the anaerobic digestion and
converted into biogas which is a source of energy and can be used for electricity,
heat, and biofuel production (Khatoon et al. 2017). The benefits of AD process for
sewage sludge treatment are well acknowledged, and the technology is widely well
known worldwide. The obtained sludge contains, normally, the particles removed
from the wastewater. Such particles are, usually, rich with nutrients and organic
matter, while the treated effluent becomes clean to be released to the nature without
any hazardous impact (Narayan et al. 2018a, b).
Policies
In public administration, policy implementation in solid waste management has a

critical issue.
Most of the policies for solid waste management are executed with little or no
discretion locally because governments are increasingly implementing policies that
are intended to give less or unsatisfactory impact on waste management practice, and
many new initiatives have been taken in the countries around the world over the last
few decades. A common problem has emerged in most countries that have embarked
the solid waste policies especially in promoting recycling and waste reduction. The
process of policy making has not been matched by an equal effort to provide
mechanism for effective policy implementation. The issue of ineffective solid
waste management has reflected the inefficient policy implementation. In fact,
there is a policy with regard to effective solid waste management formulated in
most of the countries. However, the mechanism of the implementation of this policy
is different at developed and developing countries. Moreover, policy has been used
as a tool to achieve the goals of effective or sustainable solid waste management.
Implementation is the process of putting policies into practices although it is the
complex process of planning, promotion, and coordination which is essential to
achieve policy objectives. In the policy process, implementation is an important
phase.
For making intact policies, one should understand the localized mechanism which
is a fundamental need.
For stimulating the new initiatives, dedicated involvement of different performers
for creation and implementation of policy is the crucial factor. Moreover, in indus-
trial decision-making, integration of new prototype has become challenging in many
countries.
Swachh Bharat Mission
“Swachh Bharat Mission” (SBM) is a major ingenuity of the Ministry of Urban

Development (MoUD), Government of India (GOI), which is was launched on
October 2, 2014, on the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary. It is a
national campaign to clean the roads, streets, and infrastructure of the country
covering 4041 statutory towns in India. Solid waste management is an important
component of the SBM. The government has allocated of Rs.14,623 crore for the
SBM for urban areas, of which Rs.7366 crore is given for the SWM for 5 years, i.e.,
2014–2019. While addressing the components of SBM for urban areas, state gov-
ernments and urban local bodies (ULBs) are expected to focus on a set of social
priorities and outcomes that define the scope and complexity of the Mission.
Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules 2000
According to the Indian Constitution, the SWM is a state subject and included in the
12th Schedule of the Constitution (74th Amendment) Act of 1992, and ULBs are
mandated to provide MSWM. State laws governing the ULBs also stipulate MSWM
as an obligatory function of the municipal governments. Despite 15 years of
implementation of these rules, ULBs have not been able to put in place good
systems. Wherever people’s representatives and the general public have embraced
source segregation, door-to-door collection, and environmentally safe handling of

the separated waste components, they have been able to address the problem of solid
waste recycling and disposal. At present, the MSW Management and Handling
Rules 2000 are under revision by MoEF&CC. The draft revised rules were circulated
in 2013 and again in 2015 and will be finalized as Solid Waste Management Rules
2015. The Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organization
(CPHEEO), Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India, has prepared a
draft manual on MSWM to support cities and towns on planning and implementing a
proper MSWM system in line with the SWM Rules being amended in 2015.
Conclusion
Solid waste is one of the important challenges to the environment. The inadequate
waste management causes alteration in the ecosystems including air, water, and soil
pollution; thus itrepresents a real threat to human, animal, and plant health. Population
increase, rapid urbanization, booming economy, and the rise in the standard of living
have greatly accelerated the rate, amount, and quality of the municipal solid waste
generation. MSWs generated from the developing countries are highly heterogeneous
in nature. The improper bin collection practices and collection, transfer, and/or
transport systems have great effect on the characteristics of the solid wastes. The
plastic waste disposal is a major global environmental problem. As plastics are
essentially hydrocarbons, they possess calorific values that ranged between 30 and
40 MJ/kg. Thus, they can be burned or incinerated in the municipal or other dedicated
wastes with power and heat generation. The most used and cheapest disposal of solid
waste is the landfills as waste management techniques. Waste valorization concerns
with the process of converting waste materials into more useful products including
fuels, materials, and chemicals. Anaerobic digestion of municipal solid waste produces
CH4 from CO2 and H2 (hydrogenotrophs) and/or from CH3COOH (acetoclastics).
Organic solid-state fermentation (SSF) is presented as a promising technology for
organic waste. Microorganisms play an important role in the degradation of organic
wastes into their constituents to convert them into high value-added products. Valo-
rization of organic matter solid waste can be accomplished via composting and
anaerobic digestion. The advantage of producing compost is the technical simplicity
of the process. To cover part of the integrated solid waste management strategy costs, it
was found that valorizing and recycling activities have turned into a valuable income.
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Agricultural Solid Waste Management:
An Approach to Protect the Environment 21
and Increase Agricultural Productivity
Faraz Ahmad Khan, Anita Tomar, Yogesh Kumar Agarwal, and

Hari Om Shukla
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546
Components of Agricultural Solid Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547
Functions of Agricultural Solid Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550
Use of Agricultural Solid Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553
Solid State Fermentation (SSF) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553
Use of Algae in Agricultural Solid Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 563
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 566
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 566
Abstract
India is an agricultural-based country and farmers are the backbones of our
nation. But the agricultural wastes have become an increasing concern in latest
years, as they may cause significant environmental problems; however, they may
also be used for several valuable purposes, as to produce biofertilizers and
feedstock for energy production and for chemical recovery and chemical or dye
adsorption. An agricultural waste management system (AWMS) is a scientifically
planned system in which all necessary components are installed and managed to
control waste generation at source and use by-products of agricultural activities in
such a manner that promotes environmental sustainability and enhances the
quality of air, water, soil, plant, animal, and energy resources. Solid waste
management in agriculture is one of the major problems we are facing today,
and some of the most hazardous solid waste is generated from agriculture. The
uncontrolled and excessive generation of these solid wastes has relatively high
contents of potentially toxic, carcinogenic, and mutagenic substances and path-
ogenic microorganisms. Therefore, organizations that monitor influence of agro-
nomic solid waste on agricultural soils deserve the attention of the international
F. A. Khan (*) · A. Tomar · Y. K. Agarwal · H. O. Shukla

Forest Research Centre for Eco-Rehabilitation, Prayagraj, UP, India

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_28
546 F. A. Khan et al.
scientific community, as it enables increases in the productivity of agricultural

crops, fiber, farmer’s income, and biomass energy combined to reduce risks to
human, plant, and animal health and environment. Its better management and
implementation will help achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). The
agricultural solid waste can be converted into vermicompost for use in plantations
and agriculture as major element of the waste is biodegradable. Use of these
wastes as animal feed also can be a pathway to mitigate its adverse effect.
Nowadays, the principle of photosynthetic reclamation of agricultural waste
through algae is also being developed.
Keywords
Agricultural waste · Sustainable Development Goal · Biodegradable organics ·
Solid state fermentation · Photosynthetic reclamation
Introduction
Agriculture is the largest contributor of any resource sector to the economy, and it is
also a large generator of waste materials (Jacobs 1996). Presently in India, annually
350 metric tons organic wastes are generated from agricultural source. Agricultural
waste refers to waste produced as a result of various agricultural activities, i.e.,
fertilizer, pesticide, and herbicide including waste from farms, poultry houses, and
slaughterhouses (Nagendran 2011). Agro-based industries such as palm oil, rubber,
and wood processing factories are also producing large amount of agricultural waste.
Waste of various consistencies requires different management techniques and han-
dling equipment, and it is going to be within the sort of a liquid, slurry, semisolid, or
solid. The proper management of wastes from agricultural operations can contribute
in a significant way to farm operations. When solid wastes (SWs) are badly man-
aged, they become a sanitary, environmental, and social problem. An agricultural
waste management system (AWMS) is a planned system in which all necessary
components are installed and managed to control and use by-products of agricultural
production in a manner that sustains or enhances the quality of air, water, soil, plant,
animal, and energy resources. The basic instrument to manage them is to know the
sources and types of solid wastes through data on their composition and rate of
generation (Boechat et al. 2017). An agricultural waste management system consists
of six basic functions, production, collection, transfer, storage, treatment, and utili-
zation (Nwakaire and Ugwuishiwu 2016). These functions are carried out by
planning, applying, and operating individual’s components. Agricultural waste
contains biodegradable hemicellulose and cellulose materials, which on decompo-
sition gives good nutrients to plants (Lokeshwari and Swamy 2010). Waste man-
agement helps to take care of a healthy environment for livestock and may reduce the
necessity for commercial fertilizers while providing other nutrients needed for crop
production. The consistency of the waste should be selected and controlled for
several reasons. Solid waste management systems have a reduced total volume of
21 Agricultural Solid Waste Management: An Approach to Protect the. . . 547
waste due to the reduction within the amount of water. Typically, fewer odors are
produced by solid manure handling systems than by liquid systems (Jacobs 1996). If
waste is not properly handled, they can pollute surface water and groundwater and
contribute to air pollution (Jacobs 1996).
Components of Agricultural Solid Waste
The biodegradable organics are major components of agricultural solid wastes.

These are unlikely to end in hazardous conditions except when there are inadequate
oxygen resources to assimilate the wastes. When this happens in streams, inadequate
dissolved oxygen and high ammonia concentrations can cause and have caused fish
kills. Other components in agricultural solid wastes that have resulted in hazardous
conditions to some form of life are nitrogen, human and animal pathogens, medicinal
and feed additives, and salts. Animal manures, meat processing wastes, and leather
tanning wastes are the agricultural solid wastes that have the greatest potential to
result in hazardous conditions. These occur as a result of the transmission and
transformation of constituents of the solid wastes within the environment and thru
the organic phenomenon (Loehr 1978).
When wastes are applied to the land in a controlled manner to serve as
fertilizers, soil conditioners, or erosion control, few hazardous conditions should
result. It is only when they are applied in an uncontrolled concentrated manner that
the conditions may be hazardous to living matter (Loehr 1978). Agricultural wastes
are also termed as agro-waste which is mixture of animal waste (manure, animal
carcasses), food processing waste, crop waste (corn stalks, sugarcane bagasse,
drops and culls from fruits and vegetables, pruning’s), and harmful and toxic
agricultural waste (pesticides, insecticides, herbicides etc.) (Nwakaire and
Ugwuishiwu 2016) (Fig. 1).
The major quantities of solid waste generated from agricultural sources are
sugarcane baggage, paddy, wheat straw and husk, waste of vegetables, food
Eg. Animal carcasses,

Animal waste Animal excreta
Eg. Sugarcane-
Crop waste bagasse, Paddy husks
Agricultural waste
Processing waste Eg. Packaging material
Eg. Insecticide,
Hazardous waste Pesticide
Fig. 1 Components of agricultural wastes

548
Table 1 Composition of agricultural solid waste (Sadh et al. 2018)

Chemical composition (%w/w)
Agricultural solid Ash Total solids Moisture
waste Cellulose Hemicellulose Lignin (%) (%) (%) References
Sugarcane bagasse 30.2 56.7 13.4 1.9 91.66 4.8 El-Tayeb et al. (2012) and Nigam et al.
(2009)
Rice straw 39.2 23.5 36.1 12.4 98.62 6.58 El-Tayeb et al. (2012)
Corn stalks 61.2 19.3 6.9 10.8 97.78 6.40 El-Tayeb et al. (2012)
Sawdust 45.1 28.1 24.2 1.2 98.54 1.12 El-Tayeb et al. (2012) and Martin et al.
(2012)
Sugar beet waste 26.3 18.5 2.5 4.8 87.5 12.4 El-Tayeb et al. (2012)
Barley straw 33.8 21.9 13.8 11 – – Nigam et al. (2009)
Cotton stalks 58.5 14.4 21.5 9.98 – 7.45 Nigam et al. (2009)
Oat straw 39.4 27.1 17.5 8 – – Martin et al. (2012)
Soya stalks 34.5 24.8 19.8 10.39 – 11.84 Motte et al. (2013)
Sunflower stalks 42.1 29.7 13.4 11.17 – – Motte et al. (2013)
Wheat straw 32.9 24.0 8.9 6.7 95.6 7 Nigam et al. (2009) and Martin et al. (2012)
F. A. Khan et al.
products, tea, oil production, jute fibers, groundnut shell, wooden mill waste, cotton
husk, cotton stalk, etc. (Table 1).
However, the management of solid wastes in urban areas is based historically on
the linear logic that considers collection as the removal of wastes from the vicinity of
the population and final disposal as putting them on soil in garbage dumps and
landfills, and this concept, besides manifest pollution in all forms, has led to the
saturation of sites for the final disposal of the wastes (Boechat et al. 2017) (Table 2).
Table 2 General characteristics of agricultural solid wastes and methods of disposal (Loehr 1978)
Types of solid waste Method of solid Pertinent components
Agricultural activity generated waste disposal in the solid waste
Leather tanning Fleshings, hair, raw Rendering, Biodegradable
and tanned hide by-product organics, chromium,
trimmings, lime and recovery, landfills, grease, sulfide,
chrome sludge, land spreading nitrogen, bacteria,
biological sludge, chlorides
grease
Dairy product Biological sludge’s Landfill, land Biodegradable
processing spreading organics
Meat processing Biological sludge’s, Rendering, Biodegradable
grease, product by-product organics, nitrogen,
trimmings, feathers, recovery, landfill bacteria, chlorides
hides, bones
Animal production Manures Land application, Biodegradable
(feedlots) processed animal organics, bacteria,
feed nutrients, medicinal,
salts, inorganic
additives such as
copper, arsenic
Grain processing Biological sludge’s, By-product Biodegradable
spilled grain recovery, animal organics
feed, landfill
Sugar processing (beet Biological sludge’s, Landfill, burning, Biodegradable
sugar, raw sugarcane, bagasse, soil, pulp, composting organics, bacteria,
sugarcane refining) lime mud, filter mud animal feed nutrients
Fruit and vegetable Biological sludge’s, Landfill, animal Biodegradable
processing trimmings, peels, feed, land organics, nutrients,
leaves and stems, soil, application, bacteria, salts, grease,
seeds and pits burning pesticides
Crop production and Straw, stover Land application, Biodegradable
harvest burning, plowing organics, bacteria
under
Timber production Branches, leaves, Left in place, Slowly biodegradable
small trees burned in place, organics
crushed
Wood processing Bark, sawdust, small Burned, pulp, Slowly biodegradable
pieces particle board, organics
landfill
Functions of Agricultural Solid Waste Management
The functions of agricultural solid waste management system include (Fig. 2):
1. Production: Production is a function of the amount and nature of agricultural

waste generated by an agricultural enterprise. A complete analysis of production
includes the type, consistency, volume, location, and timing of the waste pro-
duced. Some examples of solid waste produced are straw and subtle waste, green
waste, dry waste from farm, roadside and vegetable market waste, etc.
2. Collection: Collection refers to the initial capture and gathering of the waste from
the point of origin or deposition to a collection point. The AWMS plan should
identify the tactic of collection, location of the gathering points, scheduling of the
gathering, labor requirements, necessary equipment or structural facilities, man-
agement and installation costs of the components, and therefore the impact that
collection has on the consistency of the waste. Collected waste includes dry
refuse and green waste and animal dung from agricultural field.
3. Transfer: The system plan should include an analysis of the consistency of the
waste to be moved, method of transportation and distance between transfer
points, frequency and scheduling, necessary equipment, and installation and
management costs of the transfer system. The impact of agricultural waste on
the environment depends not only on the amounts generated but also on the
disposal methods used. Some of the disposal practices pollute the environment.
Odor pollution contributes highly to social tensions among urban livestock
farmers in the world. Transfer refers to the movement and transportation of the
waste throughout the system from the collection to the utilization stage either as a
solid, liquid, or slurry, depending on the total solid concentration (Nwakaire and
Ugwuishiw, 2016). All wastes collected from agricultural field are transported to
decomposed site and for further treatment by trucks, trailers, and carts.
4. Storage: Storage facilities for solid manure include waste storage ponds and
waste storage structures. Waste storage ponds are earthen impoundments used to
Fig. 2 A schematic
representation of the functions Production
of agricultural waste
management
Collection
Storage Transfer Treatment
Utilization
retain manure, bedding, and runoff liquid. Waste storage structures can be used
for manure that will stack and can be handled by solid manure handling equip-
ment. They can be open or covered. Roofed structures are wont to prevent or
reduce excess moisture content. Structures for open and covered stacks often have
wooden, ferroconcrete, or concrete block sidewalls. In some instances, manure
must be stored in open stacks in fields. Runoff and seepage from these stacks
must be managed to stop movement into streams or other surface or spring water.
Storage is the temporary containment of the waste. The storage facility of a waste
management system provides control over the scheduling and timing of the
system functions such as the treatment and application or use of the waste
which might be suffering from weather or interfered with by other operations.
The waste management system should identify the storage period; the specified
storage volume; the sort, estimated size, location, and installation cost of the
storage facility; the management cost of the storage process; and the impact of the
storage on the consistency of the waste (Nwakaire and Ugwuishiw, 2016).
Different types of wastes are collected and then transported for further treatment.
5. Treatment: Treatment is any function designed to reduce the pollution potential
or modify the physical characteristics of the waste, such as moisture and TS
content, to facilitate more efficient and effective handling.
It includes pretreatment activities such as analysis of the characteristics of the
waste before treatment; a determination of the desired characteristics of the waste
following treatment; the selection of the type, estimated size, location, and the
installation cost of the treatment facility; and the management cost of the treat-
ment process (Nwakaire and Ugwuishiwu 2016).
The process of treatment includes compositing, principles of four Rs (reduce,
reuse, recycle, and recover), and incineration.
(a) Compositing: Composting converts an organic waste material into a stable
organic product by converting nitrogen from the unstable ammonia form to a
more stable organic form. The end result is a product that is safer to use than
raw organic material and one that improves soil fertility, tilth, and water
holding capacity. The compost are often sold for extra revenue or used on
an equivalent farm. Besides, the production of composts for agricultural use is
gaining popularity as a result of the rising interest in organic products such as
goat meats and maize.
Compositing is a method in which organic matter present in agricultural
waste is decomposed aerobically/anaerobically through a biochemical pro-
cess and converted into humus. When transformed under aerobic conditions,
compost is formed. When treated anaerobically, biogas and effluents are
formed that can be used as biofertilizers (Fig. 3).
(b) Incineration: The incineration process can be used to reduce the original
volume of combustible solid waste by approximately 80–90%. Incineration
leads to recovery of energy and destruction of toxic waste material. In
agricultural solid waste management system, incineration is used to combust
solid wastes to reduce their volume to about 1/10th without producing
harmful gases and ashes.
Fig. 3 Conversion of
agricultural solid waste into
various economic sources Agricultural
solid waste
Compost Biogas
Animal
feed
It is a modern and most hygienic method of disposal of dry refuse. The

method consists of burning the dry refuse in incinerator. Wastes are not
burned in open air so it is transported to incineration.
6. Utilization: Agricultural solid wastes are widely recognized as a potential source
of nutrients for direct or indirect use in production of animals. The traditional
method of increasing livestock production by supplementing forage and pasture
with grains and protein concentrates may not meet increasing world meat protein
needs. Use of the grain and protein for human food will compete with such use for
animal feed. Many organic wastes, such as paunch manure, fish meal, oil seed
meal, whey, and vegetable processing residues, can be used directly for animal
feeds. The emphasis on resource recovery and residue utilization will increase the
potential use of agricultural solid wastes as animal feeds and hence increase the
risk of transmission of potentially hazardous materials to animals and humans.
Caution and vigilance is needed to assure that hazardous conditions do not result
(Loehr 1978).
The objective should be to make agricultural wastes a resource that can be
utilized and not just discarded. Agricultural wastes could also be used as a source
of energy, bedding, mulch, organic matter, or plant nutrients. Properly treated,
they can be marketable.
The production of energy from agricultural waste has been utilized to
varying degrees in different parts of the world. A common practice is to recycle
the nutrients within the waste through land application. Utilization is the
application of the waste for beneficial use, and it includes recycling reusable
waste products and reintroducing nonreusable waste products into the environ-
ment (Nwakaire and Ugwuishiwu 2016). The most common method is landfill.
A landfill site is a site for disposal of waste materials by burial. The waste which
is not used is directly disposed to the sanitary land. In a sanitary landfill, waste is
compacted and covered with soil, and when disposal site has reached its
capacity, a final layer of 2 ft is applied. The waste products of landfills are
often used as direct fuel for combustion, or indirectly they will be processed into
another fuel.
Use of Agricultural Solid Waste
Worldwide daily millions of tons of solid wastes are generated, which must
be collected, selected, treated, and disposed of appropriately. In China, India,
and other countries, like Turkey, Mexico, and Brazil, almost 90% of the solid
wastes that are composed mainly of the organic fractions are usually sent to
landfills and garbage dumps, freely releasing huge amounts of CO2 and CH4 into
the atmosphere (Boechat et al. 2017). Agro-industrial wastes are used for
manufacturing of biofuels, enzymes, vitamins, antioxidants, animal feed, antibi-
otics, and other chemicals through solid state fermentation (SSF) (Sadh et al.
2018).
Solid State Fermentation (SSF)
Solid state fermentation (SSF) has been described as the process that takes place in a
solid matrix (inert support or support/substrate) in the absence or near absence of free
water (Singhania et al. 2010), but the substrate requires moisture to support the
growth and metabolic activity of microorganisms (Thomas et al. 2013). Molds are
frequently utilized in SSF for maximizing production useful added products as they
grow naturally on solid substrates like pieces of wood, seeds, stems, and roots.
However, bacteria and yeasts, which require comparatively higher moisture content
for efficient fermentation, can also be used for SSF, but with a lower yield (Sadh
et al. 2018).
SSF is a multistep process involving the following steps (Sadh et al. 2018):
1. Selection of substrate.
2. Pretreatment of substrate either by mechanical, chemical, or biochemical pro-
cessing to improve the availability of the bound nutrients and also to reduce the
size of the components, e.g., pulverizing straw and shredding vegetable materials
to optimize the physical aspects of the method. However, the cost of pretreatment
should be balanced with eventual product value.
3. Hydrolysis of primarily polymeric substrates, e.g., polysaccharides and proteins.
4. Fermentation process for utilizing hydrolysis products.
5. Downstream processing for purification and quantification of end products.
Substrate Used for Solid State Fermentation

Orzuaa et al. (2009) studied ten agro-industrial wastes used for his or her appropri-
ateness as fungus immobilization carrier for SSF. They found that some of the waste
materials have better potential for use as immobilization carrier in SSF, because they
contain high water absorption capacity, and are acceptable as good growth rate of
microorganisms. Solid waste from different industries like food, beer and wine,
agriculture, paper, textiles, detergent, and animal feed are used as a substrate for SSF.
Substrates that remain solid also contain low moisture level which is preferred for
SSF (Sadh et al. 2018).
Utilization of Agro-Wastes Using Solid State Fermentation

Agricultural wastes are wont to produce large value-added products. Different sub-
strates have different compositions and are used in the production of different
valuable products on the basis of their composition (Sadh et al. 2018).
• Biofuel production: The production of biofuels results from positive agro-

industrial residues like rice straw, sweet potato waste, sawdust, potato waste,
corn stalks, sugarcane bagasse, and sugar beet waste (Duhan et al. 2013; Kumar
et al. 2014, 2016). With the help of agricultural residues, it supports in decreasing
deforestation by reducing our dependence on forest woody biomass. In addition,
field residues have small harvest that reduces them extra consistently offered to
bioethanol production. Saini et al. (2014) discussed various agricultural wastes
for the assembly of bioethanol for second generation. They focused on the
utilization of lignocellulosic composition of various agro-industrial wastes.
They concluded that the biofuels are useful alternatives of various fossil fuels
like petrol and diesel. Bioethanol production might be the simplest alternate for
the consumption of agricultural residues. Use of banana stem as a substrate for
bioethanol production may be a good alternate in India due to huge availability of
banana pseudo stem as a waste. Ingale et al. (2014) produced bioethanol by using
banana pseudo stem as a substrate with pretreatment of Aspergillus ellipticus and
Aspergillus fumigatus. One of the types of biofuel is biogas. Benefits of biogas is
production of large amount of methane (CH4) gas and free flowing dense and
odorless sludge which can be used as soil conditioner and fertilizer. Clean and
hygienic method of human and animal waste disposal. Biogas is used for heating,
to generate power, and as a vehicle fuel. It is used in industry such as sugar
refineries, distilleries, dairies, and paper mill to generate processing and waste
water that can be digested on site.
• Biofertilizer production from vermicompositing of waste corn pulp blended
with cow dung as a solid waste management approach: Vermicomposting is
progressively becoming a prominent tool for organic solid waste management
strategy. Vermicomposting is the bioconversion of organic waste into a
biofertilizer due to earthworms’ activity (Abbasi et al. 2009; Shweta 2011;
Tharmaraj et al. 2011; Manyuchi et al. 2013). The earthworms feed on the organic
waste, and the earthworms’ gut acts as a bioreactor whereby the vermicasts are
produced (Ansari and Sukhraj, 2010). The organic waste excreted by the earth-
worm will be rich in phosphorous (P), nitrogen (N), and potassium (K) content as
well as trace elements depending on the feedstock given (Muthukumaravel et al.
2008; Tharmaraj et al. 2011; Manyuchi et al. 2013). Various earthworms have
been used for vermicomposting, and these include Megascolex mauritii, Eisenia
fetida, Eudrilus eugeniae, Perionnyx excavatus, Lampito mauritii, Eisenia
andrei, Lampito rubellus, and Drawida willsi (Singh et al. 2005;
Muthukumaravel et al. 2008; Shweta 2011; Tharmaraj et al. 2011).
During vermicomposting process, the leachate obtained is called and exten-
sively used as liquid biofertilizer. Waste corn pulp was blended with trash manure
within the ratio of 6:1 and vermicomposted for 30 days during a vermibin using
Eisenia fetida earthworm species. Temperature, pH, moisture content, and elec-
trical conductivity were daily monitored. An average of 68mls of vermiwash was
collected daily. 500–1000 g of the biofertilizers was applied to 4 kg soil of loamy-
sandy soil over 40 days to note their effect on the soil. Furthermore, the
biofertilizers were applied over 40 days to corn. Addition of the biofertilizers
altered the soil physicochemical properties due to the microbial activity from the
biofertilizers. Zea mays showed an enhanced growth and reproduction rate upon
application of the biofertilizers.
Vermicomposting is used as a waste corn pulp management strategy and at the
same time obtains biofertilizers which are environmentally friendly.
Among the varied agricultural wastes, livestock waste is usually a preferred
choice for researchers as feedstock for earthworms and as bulking substrate for
vermicomposting. Livestock waste is taken into account because of the suitable
organic amendment to reinforce the method of vermicomposting due to its low
cost, easy availability, sufficient nutrient content, and ideal C/N ratio (Sharma and
Garg 2019) (Table 3).
• In leather and meat industry: Out of 1000 kg of raw hide, nearly 730 kg is
generated as a solid waste in leather processing. Only 270 kg of the raw material
is converted into a usable product. Solid wastes generated in leather industry
contribute mainly skin trimmings, fleshings, shavings, buffing dust, and keratin
waste. The disposal of tannery waste is often done safely without causing
pollution to the environment. Tannery waste concrete can reduce the use of
river sand in concrete and results in lightweight concrete. The non-tanned waste
was used as a raw material for glue, gelatin, technical fats, protein sheaths, and
even feed and fertilizers.
The three sorts of hides and skins most frequently utilized in leather manu-
facture are from cattle, sheep, and pigs. These raw materials are used as the
production of goods in various industries like shoe industry, bag industry, cloth-
ing industry, and furnishing and decoration industry.
The majority of the waste, within the meat industry, is produced during
slaughtering. Slaughterhouse waste consists of the portion of a slaughtered
animal that can’t be sold as meat or utilized in meat products. Such waste includes
bones, tendons, skin and the contents of the gastrointestinal tract, blood, and
internal organs. These vary with each type of animal. Variety meats are the
wholesale edible by-products. They are segregated, chilled, and processed
under sanitary conditions and inspected. Edible meat by-products contain many
essential nutrients. Some are used as medicines because they contain special
nutrients such as amino acids, hormones, minerals, vitamins, and fatty acids.
Not only blood but several other meat by-products have a better level of moisture
than meat. Some examples are the lung, kidney, brains, spleen, and tripe. Some
organ meat, including the liver and kidney, contains a better level of carbohydrate
than other meat materials. Some items may not be used in uncooked products.
Usage of meat by-products often requires treatments like collection, washing,
trimming, chilling, packaging, and cooling. Whether these products are widely
accepted by consumers depends on various factors. These include the nutrient
Table 3 Vermicomposting of various agricultural solid wastes (Sharma and Garg 2019)
Type of waste
(bulking
S. no. material) Earthworm Duration Results
1 Buffalo waste, Eisenia 90 days Maximum earthworm growth rate was
sheep waste, fetida achieved in the various combinations of
goat waste, cow buffalo dung and minimum growth rate
waste in sheep waste. TOC content and C/N
ratio decreased during
vermicomposting, whereas total
nutrient content increased
2 Rice straw + Eisenia 105 days Paper waste and rice straw effectively
paper waste + fetida convert into nutrient-rich
cow dung vermicompost. Vermicompost is more
fragmented than parent feedstocks. Use
of rice straw in higher ratio was not
recommended
3 Salvinia Eisenia 45 days Chemical compounds responsible for
molesta fetida weed allelopathic effects destroyed
completely. The C/N ratio of Salvinia
was reduced sharply from 53.9 to 9.35
4 Sewage sludge Eisenia 80 days Vermicomposting modifies the
(cattle dung) fetida structure of bacterial community in the
waste and reduces the pathogenic
human bacteria population
5 Pig manure and Eisenia 40 days Vermicompost has higher pH, P, K, Zn,
rice straw fetida and CEC but lower available N and Cu
than the parent substrate. Increment in
aromatic compounds indicated high
humification during vermicomposting.
Earthworm tissues accumulated 13C
6 Crop/tree Eudrilus Earthworm growth and conversion
residues sp. efficiency vary with waste. In all the
crop residues, pH, EC, and N and P
levels increased, whereas C/N and C/P
ratios decreased
7 Horse manure, Eisenia 240 days Study evaluated vermicompost
apple pomace, andrei characteristics based on 120-day-old
grape pomace, layer and 240-day-old layer in
and digestate vermireactor. Maximum biomass of
(manure slurry, earthworms was in 120-day-old layer.
corn silage, After 240 days, microbial biomass
haylage) activity decreased due to decrease in the
earthworm activity, indicating a high
degree of stabilization. Enzyme
activities differ according to the age of
the layers and the type of waste.
Germination index increased after
vermicomposting and was higher with
apple pomace and digestate than that
with horse manure and grape pomace
(continued)
Table 3 (continued)
Type of waste
(bulking
8 Cow manure Eisenia 60 days Urease activity is a suitable indicator of
and wheat fetida vermicompost maturity and waste
residues stabilization during the process of
vermicomposting. Urease activity was
highly correlated with the time of
vermicomposting resulting in r ¼ 0.97
for cattle manure and r ¼ 0.99 for
wheat waste. Urease activity showed
significant correlations with the C/N
ratio
9 Wheat straw, Eisenia 90 days Highest worm production and growth
pig dung, fetida rate were obtained with cow dung
poultry dung, followed by pig dung; however,
rabbit dung, earthworm growth decreased in
cattle dung, vegetable compost. Maximum
sheep dung, and earthworm growth rate was found on
vegetal the 90th day. Growth and worm
compost production depend on the biochemical
quality of the feedstocks
10 Sawdust, Eisenia 100 days Vermicomposting for 75 days is
boxwood fetida sufficient for vermicompost maturity in
leaves, and terms of EC, WSC, DEH, and C/N
cardboard ratio. Phosphorus, nitrogen, and
compost pH levels were higher in the
vermicompost
11 Salvinia natans Eisenia 45 days Total concentration of heavy metals
(cattle manure fetida (Zn, Cu, Mn, Fe, Cr, Pb, Cd, and Ni)
and sawdust) increased; however, concentration of
water-soluble and plant-available
heavy metals was reduced in the final
vermicompost. TCLP tests confirmed
the suitability of vermicompost for
agriculture
12 Leaf litter Perionyx 60 days Cashew leaf litter mixed with cow dung
(horse dung, excavatus at 2:2 ratio was found to best in terms of
sheep dung) vermicompost properties. The
vermicompost produced had lower pH,
organic carbon content, C/N ratio, C/P
ratio, and lignin, cellulose,
hemicellulose, and phenol content but
higher NPK, DEH, and HA content
than the waste and compost. Reduction
in the lignocellulose and phenol content
is due to the combined action of the gut
lignocellulolytic microflora and
earthworms during the
vermicomposting process
(continued)
Table 3 (continued)
Type of waste
(bulking
13 Ipomoea Eisenia 30 days Total carbon contents decreased from
fetida 527.3 to 282.8 g/kg and total nitrogen
contents increased from 20.2 to 28.5 g/
kg. C/N ratio of Ipomoea
vermicompost was 9.9. Spectroscopic
analysis revealed transformation
of weed into potent organic
fertilizer
14 Coconut husk 21 days Highest recovery of relative N (1.6) and
poultry manure, K (1.3) was in 20% feedstock
pig slurry substitution by pig slurry, and highest P
recovery (2.4) was with poultry manure
substitution. Vermicompost contains
higher pH, microbial biomass carbon,
and macro- and micronutrients than the
initial waste
15 Cow dung, Eisenia After vermicomposting, pH, TOC
poultry manure fetida content, and C/N ratio were reduced but
EC and HA were increased. Heavy
metals stabilized
16 Decanter cake + E. eugeniae 2 weeks Four treatments with different ratios of
rice straw decanter cake and rice straw (2:1, 1:1,
1:2, 1:3) were prepared. Two parts
decanter cake and one part rice straw
(w/w) were found to best among all the
treatments
17 Crop residue E. eugeniae 90 days Highest earthworm weight and
(rice, wheat, vermicomposted matter were achieved
corn, in wheat and lowest with corn residue
sugarcane)
18 Lantana Eisenia – C/N ratio reduced from 22.7 to 8.1 and
fetida humification index from 8.38 to 2.03.
FTIR spectra revealed complete
degradation of phenols and
sesquiterpene lactones and formation of
simple compounds. GC-MS analysis
revealed transformation of 24–86
constituents
19 Parthenium Eisenia – Chemicals responsible for the
fetida allelopathic effect of Parthenium weed
are destroyed. Scanning electron
microscopy shows marked
disaggregation of the material in the
vermicompost as compared with
the well-formed matrix of Salvinia
leaves
(continued)
Table 3 (continued)
Type of waste
(bulking
20 Tomato plant Eisenia 6 months Characterize HA isolated from different
debris + paper fetida waste mixtures before and after
mill sludge vermicomposting. HA content
increased by 15.9%–16.2%.
Vermicompost produced from tomato
debris/paper mill sludge (2:1) recorded
higher C content and C/N ratio. HA
from tomato debris/paper mill sludge
(1:1) vermicompost showed a higher O
content and O/C ratio
21 Filter cake Eisenia 30 days Positive correlation of phosphatase
(cattle manure) fetida activities with TOC content, pH, and
WSP but negative correlation with HA
content. Nanopore volume found to be
negatively correlated with phosphatase
activities for filter cake but not for cattle
manure. HA content of filter cake
vermicompost was higher than that of
cattle manure vermicompost
CEC cation exchange capacity, DEH dehydrogenase, EC electric conductivity, FTIR Fourier
transform infrared, GC-MS gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, HA humic acid, TCLP toxicity
characteristic leaching procedure, TOC total organic carbon, WSC water-soluble carbon, WSP
water-soluble phosphorus
content, the price, and whether there are comparable competing products
(Jayathilakan et al. 2012).
Eleven percent of pork carcasses, 15% of beef carcasses, and 16% of lamb
carcasses are bone. The marrow inside some of the bones can also be used as
food. The marrow may be 4.0–6.0% of the carcass weight (West and Shaw 1975).
For centuries, bones have been used to make soup and gelatin. Meat and bone
meal (MBM) was widely recommended and utilized in animal nutrition as a
protein source in situ of proteinaceous feeds due to its content of obtainable
essential amino acids, minerals, and vitamin B12. MBM and related rendered
protein commodities have potential for use in applications other than animal feed,
including use as a fuel or a phosphorus fertilizer (Jayathilakan et al. 2012).
• Antioxidant properties: Natural antioxidants tend to be safer and they also have
antiviral, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antitumor, and hepatoprotective proper-
ties (Nigam et al. 2009). SSF can be used to enhance the antioxidant activity of
different substrates with the use of microorganisms. Antioxidant and anticancer
agents were also produced with pineapple waste as a substrate for SSF. Pineapple
waste included the outer peel and therefore the central part of fruit, and it contains
about 50% of total fruit weight. The researchers concluded from their results that
the fermented pineapple wastes have increased amount of protein content, fiber
content, phenolic content, and antioxidant activities too. So they suggested that
the wastes from pineapple are often an alternate for brand spanking new benefi-
cial strategies (Rashad et al. 2015). Orange peels extracted with different solvents
exhibit variable antioxidant activities. Singh and Immanuel (2014) find the
utmost percentage of antioxidant activity in pomegranate peel among the lemon
and orange rind.
Field residues like stem, leaves, and stalks were also used for antioxidant and
antimicrobial activities. Several researchers studied the antioxidant properties of
several stem extracts, leaf extracts, and fruit extracts of Mexican poppy and
Oriental arborvitae (Duhan et al. 2011a, b; Saharan and Duhan 2013) mixture
of several medicinal plants, wheat fractions, and rice (Duhan et al. 2015a, b,
2016) and found high antioxidant activity in extracts of these plants. Sadh et al.
(2017) used a combination of substrate, i.e., rice and seim, to find out the effect of
solid state fermentation on release of phenolics, antioxidants, and some other
functional properties. From their study, it was confirmed from the extract analysis
of fermented samples that they have high phenolic, antioxidant, and functional
properties than the non-fermented ones as many biochemical changes occur
during fermentation, so fermentation has been used to improve or transform the
proportion of nutritive and antinutritive constituents of substrates, which affect
product’s properties such as biochemical or functional.
• Antibiotic production: Ifudu (1986) used corn cobs, sawdust, and rice hulls as a
raw material for the production of antibiotic, i.e., oxytetracycline. Asagbra et al.
(2005) successfully produced oxytetracycline with SSF by consuming groundnut
shell as a staple with strain of Streptomyces rimosus. Yang and Swei (1996) also
support the assembly of oxytetracycline by using agro-waste. Vastrad and Neelagund
(2011) studied the assembly of additional cellular rifamycin B by using solid state
fermentation with the assistance of Amycolatopsis mediterranei MTCC 14 with the
assistance of oil press cake as a staple, which is additionally considered agro-
industrial waste. Among the different agro-industrial wastes, two of them, i.e.,
coconut oil cake and ground nut shell, showed maximum antibiotic production.
Supply of external energy sources was used for enhanced production of antibiotic.
• Oncom production: Oncom is an indigenous fermented product from Indonesia
made from several agricultural wastes. There are three types of oncom. The most
well-known is that made from peanut press cake (waste product from peanut oil
processing factories). This is oncom kacang and popular in West Java. The second
type is oncom tahoo which is popular in Jakarta. It is prepared from the solid
wastes of tahoo, a soya bean curd. Its preparation is similar to that for oncom
kacang. The third type is made from the solid wastes of mung bean (Phaseolus
radiata) starch flour (Hunkwe) and is called oncom ampas hunkwe.
• Tempeh production: Tempeh is a type of fermented food used in most of the
developing as well as developed countries. The aroma and texture of fermented
product, i.e., tempeh, are superior as compared to the non-fermented product.
Rhizopus strains are used for the production of tempeh as they have the ability to
degrade the raw material based on their composition. Soya bean milk wastes can
be used as a substitute of raw material for making a protein-rich human food
instead of being thrown out.
• Enzyme production: Agro-industrial wastes consist of variable composition that

supports the growth of microorganisms as a result of fermentation produced by
different valuable enzymes. These wastes are used as a raw material. The growth
rate of fungi is enhanced by the use of these substrates which resulted into the
conversion of lignocellulosic substrate into less complicated ones by degrading
action of several enzymes. One of the important enzymes, i.e., amylase, was used
in starch processing industries for degradation of polysaccharides into sugar
components (Nigam and Singh 1995; Akpan et al. 1999).
• Topakas et al. (2004) used corn cobs for the assembly of phenolics with solid state
fermentation additionally to coupling enzymic treatment. They also studied the
enzymatic production such as cinnamoyl esterase production and xylanase pro-
duction. Food industry wastes like peel, seed, oil cakes, and field residues like rice
bran and wheat bran also are used for amylase and glucoamylase production by
A. awamori in solid state fermentation (Ellaiah et al. 2002; Negi and Banerjee
2009) (Table 4).
• Mushroom production: Mushroom is used either as a protein-rich food or
bioremediation tool. The environment-related problem with agro-based residues
is often solved by the assembly of mushroom during a controlled manner by using
these wastes as a staple. Production of mushroom worked as a clear method of
biotechnology for the valorization of agro-industrial waste. Production of mush-
room also showed its strength toward ecological as well as economical points by
the transformation of agro-based residues using various microorganisms (Chang
2006; Randive 2012).
Jonathan and Babalola (2013) studied 16 diverse agro-industrial wastes for
cultivation of edible mushroom, i.e., Pleurotus tuber-regium. The species of
Pleurotus is generally known as oyster mushrooms. Utilization of such agro-
industrial residues for cultivation of mushroom resulted into modification to edible
protein in relations of mushroom fruit bodies (Lakshmi and Sornaraj 2014). Banana
stalks and Bahia grass were also utilized for Pleurotus sajor-caju production
Table 4 Studies on production of enzymes by microorganisms using agro-industrial wastes (Sadh

et al. 2018)
Substrates Enzymes Microenzymes Source
Papaya waste α-Amylase A. niger Sharanappa et al. (2011)
Groundnut oil cake (GOC) Lipase C. rugosa Rekha et al. (2012)
Wheat bran and orange peel Pectin methyl P. notatum Gayen and Ghosh (2011)
esterase
Linseed oil cake (LOC) Lipase P. aeruginosa Dharmendra (2012)
Orange peel α-Amylase A. niger Sindiri et al. (2013)
Coconut oil cake (COC) α-Amylase A. oryzae Ramachandran et al. (2004)
Rice bran α-Amylase Bacillus sp. Sodhi et al. (2005)
Corn bran α-Amylase Bacillus sp. Sodhi et al. (2005)
Rice bran, wheat bran, black α-Amylase A. niger Akpan et al. (1999)
gram bran, and soybean
Fruit peel waste Invertase A. niger Akpan et al. (1999)
(Siqueira et al. 2011). The results for production of Pleurotus by using banana stalks
and Bahia grass as substrate suggested that no other supplement such as wheat bran
and rice bran was needed for successful production of the mushroom.
Randive (2012) cultivated and studied the expansion also as nutrient compo-
sition of oyster fungus by using various agro-based residues as a substrate. Oyster
mushroom can also be helpful against heart disease and diabetes. Babu and
Subhasree (2010) cultivated the two Pleurotus mushroom, i.e., Pleurotus eous
and Pleurotus platypus, by using agro-industrial waste. They found increased
amount of protein, lipid, carbohydrate, etc. with the utilization of paddy straw as a
substrate in their study. So, they also suggested the take of edible oyster mush-
room for high protein content and also suggested the use of paddy straw as a
substrate for the successful production of mushroom (Akinyele et al. 2012).
• Ethanol production: Sugarcane bagasse is an agricultural solid waste which is
used to produce bioethanol using fermentation process. Sugarcane residues,
sugarcane bagasse (SB), and straw (SS) might be the perfect feedstock for the
second-generation (2G) ethanol production. These raw materials are rich in
carbohydrates and renewable and do not compete with food/feed demands.
The first step is sugarcane harvesting. The cane is then cut and milled with
water. This produces a juice with 10–15% solids from which the sucrose is
extracted. The juice contains undesired organic compounds that would cause
what’s called sugar inversion (hydrolysis of sugar into fructose and glucose). This
results in the clarification step so as to stop sugar inversion. Then the juice is
heated to 115 C and treated with lime and sulfuric acid, which precipitates
unwanted inorganics (Clifford 2020).
Sugarcane contains the following: water (73–76%), soluble solids (10–16%),
and dry fiber or bagasse (11–16%). It takes a series of physical and chemical
processes that occur in seven steps to form the two main products, ethanol and
sugar. The composition of bagasse is (1) cellulose (45–55%), (2) hemicellulose
(20–25%), (3) lignin (18–24%), (4) minerals (1–4%), and (5) waxes <1%. With
the cellulose content, it can be used to produce paper and biodegradable paper
products. It is typically carted on small trucks that look like they have “hair”
growing out of them (Clifford 2020). Ethanol produced from sugarcane residues
is one among the foremost suitable alternatives for partial replacements of fossil
fuels because it provides energy that’s renewable and fewer carbon-intensive than
gasoline. Bioethanol reduces air pollution and also contributes to mitigate climate
change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
• Production of pulp and paper: Agricultural solid waste residue is one type of
non-wood resources that is used as an alternative fiber in pulp and paper produc-
tion. Generally, agricultural waste residue is generated from processing; for
instance, cocoa fruits and cassava tuberous root produce important product like
chocolate and cassava flour, respectively. Cassava peels show a better amount of
1% NaOH solubility instead of cocoa pod husk and wood fibers. The consequence
of high solubility will indicate the extent of fiber degradation during the chemical
pulping process and thus the pulp yield would be low (Hosseinpour et al. 2010).
The abundance of non-wood fibers may be considered as the best and more
profitable alternative in the paper-based industry. Studies have shown that
sugarcane bagasse, hemp, bamboo, flax, Tunisian alfa, wheat straw, grass,
giant reed, tobacco, canola straw (Hosseinpour et al. 2010), vine, rags, cotton
linters, and other textile wastes can partially substitute pulp in paper
production.
Rice and wheat straw contain lignocellulose elements that combine well with
other substances or chemicals to yield high-quality paper. For instance, over 20%
of paper products from China and quite 40% of paper manufactured in India
employ the utilization of fiber from agricultural residue and not from wood. The
industries that manufacture this type of paper are large, modern mills producing
pulp on a billboard scale. They use the straw purely or mixed with fibers from
other sources such as wood pulp that is recycled or which is still virgin. Straw
fiber is used from long time to make pulp, but nowadays the methods adopted by
industries to convert straw into paper-producing pulp.
• Other Approaches Using Solid State Fermentation
– Single-cell protein production: Mondal et al. (2012) studied the assembly of
single-cell protein (SCP) from fruit wastes. They used cucumber and orange
peels as the substrate for the production of SCP with the help of S. cerevisiae
by using submerged fermentation. They found that cucumber peel produced
larger amount of protein as compared to the orange peels. So it was suggested
that these fruit wastes can convert into SCP by using suitable microbes. The
products obtained are economical and nutritionally contained high content of
protein.
– Production of poly (3-hydroxybutyric acid): Sukan et al. (2014) used orange
rind waste for the assembly of Poly (3-HB). Their results showed that orange
rind features a rich and unutilized agro-industrial waste. They reported first
time the assembly of Poly (3HB) using orange rind as one carbon source with a
really simple pretreatment method.
– Biosurfactant production: Most of the bacterial species are found in
oil-contaminated sites, and these bacterial species have the ability to produce
useful or beneficial products for mankind. Saravanan and Vijayakumar (2014)
isolate a bacterial strain, i.e., Pseudomonas aeruginosa PB3A, from
oil-contaminated site. They used the strain for the assembly of biosurfactant
by using agro-waste like purgative, sunflower seed oil, barley bran, peanut
cake, and rice bran. They used these wastes as an upscale alternative carbon
source for the assembly of biosurfactant by using isolated P. aeruginosa strain.
– Xanthan production: Xanthan is a type of exopolysaccharides, produced from
Xanthomonas species. Xanthan is used as food additives. So, the production of
xanthan from agro-waste is a valuable approach as cost-effective product
(Sadh et al. 2018).
Use of Algae in Agricultural Solid Waste Management
Marine algae are used as fertilizers on farmlands on the brink of the ocean; examples
include the massive brown and alga used as organic fertilizers, which are usually
richer in potassium but poorer in nitrogen and phosphorus. The weed is typically
applied directly and plowed in, both as solid (processed into a seaweed meal) and as
liquid fertilizer (concentrated extract of seaweeds). Perhaps the extensive use of
seaweeds in agriculture is as liquid fertilizers. There is huge potential for using
cyanobacteria and algae within the biological control of plant pathogenic bacteria
and fungi.
The success of agriculture greatly depends on the fertility level of the soil. Like
other organisms, algae which are found in several soil types may help the soil to
enhance its characteristics like carbon content, texture, aeration (Ibraheem 2007),
and also nitrogen fixation. The magnitude of those improvements is greatly hooked
into the physical and chemical characteristics of the soil, affecting the composition of
the algal population.
Cyanobacteria also are useful for wastewater treatment and have the power to
degrade the varied toxic compounds even the pesticides (Cohen 2006).
Cyanobacterial fertilization has been compared to inorganic fertilization on rice
and lettuce seedlings (Ibraheem 2007). Biofertilizers are likely to assume greater
significance as complement and/or supplement to chemical fertilizers in improving
the nutrient supplies to cereal crops because of high nutrient turnover in cereal
production system, exorbitant cost of fertilizers, and greater consciousness on
environmental protection (Ahmed 2009).
Algae are an outsized and diverse group of microorganisms which will perform
photosynthesis since they capture energy from sunlight. Algae, particularly the
seaweeds, are used as fertilizers, leading to less nitrogen and phosphorous runoff
than the one from the utilization of livestock manure. This in turn increases the
quality of water flowing into rivers and oceans.
During the last decades, the microbial processes of green energy production have
gained interest as the sustainable tool for the generation of biofuels, namely, methane
(CH4), ethanol, H2, butanol, syngas, etc. Current investigations witnessed notewor-
thy surge growth within the production of cyanobacterial biomass for biofuels, food
supplements (super foods), and biofertilizers for safe agriculture (Yamaguchi 1997;
Benson et al. 2014).
The unique characteristics of cyanobacteria include their ubiquity presence, short
generation time, and capability to repair the atmospheric N2. Similar to other
prokaryotic bacteria, the cyanobacteria are increasingly applied as bio-inoculants
for improving soil fertility and environmental quality (Singh et al. 2016).
Cyanobacteria play important role in bioenergy production, ecological restora-
tion, agriculture, and environmental sustainability. Cyanobacteria are often incor-
porated into soil as organic matter and also as a source of enzymes as they produce
acid and alkaline extracellular phosphatases that are active in solution or located in
the periplasmic space of the cell wall. Both biomass and exopolysaccharides
incorporated into soil induce a growth promotion of other microorganisms and
increased the activity of soil enzymes that participate within the liberation of
nutrients required by plants (Caire et al. 2000). The use of selected diazotrophic
cyanobacteria that accumulate heavy metals would decrease the value of produc-
tion of biomass to use as inoculum in processes of environmental remediation.
M. tenera could be used for remediation of lead-contaminated soils and waters.
Fig. 4 Positive impacts of using waste (IPEA 2012)

Singh et al. (2016) observed the benefits to the agroecosystem offered by the use of
cyanobacteria are enhanced solubilization and mobility of nutrients of limited
supply, complexing of heavy metals and xenobiotics to limit their mobility and
transport in plants, mineralization of simpler organic molecules like amino acids
for direct uptake, protection of plants from pathogenic insects and diseases as
biocontrol agents, stimulation of the plant growth due to their plant growth-
promoting attributes, and improving the physicochemical conditions of soils
(Fig. 4).
Conclusion
Agricultural wastes or remains are highly rich in nutrient composition and bioac-
tive compounds. Such wastes comprise variability in composition like sugars,
minerals, and proteins; consequently, they ought to be considered as “raw mate-
rial” rather than “wastes” for other agricultural and industrial processes. The
presence of such nutrients in these remains offers suitable conditions for the
prolific growth of microorganisms. The microorganisms have potential to reuse
the waste as raw materials for their growth through fermentation processes. The
agricultural wastes can be used as solid support in SSF processes for the production
of a varied range of significant valuable compounds. The use of agricultural and
agro-based industry wastes as raw materials can help to reduce the production cost
and contributed in recycling of waste as well as in making the environment
eco-friendly.
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Agricultural Bio-wastes: A Potent
Sustainable Adsorbent for Contaminant 22
Removal
Adyasa Barik, Geetanjali Rajhans, Sudip Kumar Sen, and

Sangeeta Raut
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 572
Types and Structure of Agricultural Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573
Agricultural Waste as Adsorbents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574
Why Should Agricultural Wastes Be Utilized? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575
Current Approaches and Methodologies for Modifying Agricultural Wastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575
Carbonization, Thermal Treatment, and Activation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 576
Agriculturally Derived Nanostructures and Nanocomposites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 578
Grafting Via Copolymerization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579
Removal of Inorganic Contaminants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580
Heavy Metal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580
Nitrogen and Phosphorus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581
Removal of Organic Contaminants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581
Oil Substances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583
Adsorption Mechanisms for Organic Pollutant Removal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584
Adsorbent Regeneration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584
Future Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586
Abstract
Over the years, numerous industrial activities have proved to be highly detrimen-
tal to the environment. Various pollutants have health impacts such as endocrine
disruption and chronic kidney and liver diseases. Therefore, there is an urgent
necessity to develop new and efficient methods to eliminate contaminants from
A. Barik · G. Rajhans · S. Raut (*)

Center for Biotechnology, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Siksha O Anusandhan (Deemed to
be University), Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
S. K. Sen
Biostadt India Limited, Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_110
572 A. Barik et al.
water resources. The advantages associated with agricultural waste include a wide
array of sources, cost-efficiency, high flexibility, and renewability. The lucrative
structural features being loose and porous and presence of functional groups such
as the carboxyl group and hydroxyl group make agricultural waste a potential
biological adsorbent for pollutant management. It needs to be focused that the
majority of agricultural wastes are not often utilized in their original state, rather
tailored in different ways to enhance the material’s surface area for adsorption and
porosity. Carbonization, thermal treatment, physical and chemical activation,
grafting with co-polymers, nanostructuring, and many others are few of the
generally used methodologies that are recently being utilized to modify agricul-
tural waste materials for use as adsorbents. This chapter aims to provide key
insights on the technical realizations in the area of adsorption by using agricul-
tural wastes as precursor materials for preparing adsorbents. Moreover, it points
out the adsorption mechanism and at the same time gives the future development
prospect of agricultural waste as adsorbent.
Keywords
Adsorption · Agriculture waste · Organic pollutant · Inorganic contaminant ·
Activated carbon
Introduction
Modernizing and growing population consequences with the exponential expansion

of industry and over-exploitation of natural resources, environmental pollution has
caused significant damage to human health, so ecological issues need to be resolved
urgently. Flocculation (Jawad et al. 2016), membrane separation, chemical precip-
itation, adsorption (using activated carbon), ion exchange (Rosales et al. 2017), and
neutralization procedures are primarily traditional approaches for eliminating toxins
from gaseous and aqueous phases. The drawbacks of these methods include high-
energy needs, inadequate metal recovery, toxic sludge generation, demanding treat-
ment, and costly equipment (M. Farhan et al. 2012). The high cost of these
techniques, however, has sparked the hunt for alternative strategies (Jawad et al.
2016). Biological treatment is the best alternative to tackle the above problems.
Among these methods, adsorption has been shown to be an effective method for
removing many pollutants (Ashrafi et al. 2016). Biological treatment is an incredibly
cost-effective and energy-efficient waste removal method, since a number of micro-
organisms and some organic biomass are used. Biological treatment has several
advantages, which includes reduced volume of waste products, stabilization of
waste, killing of pathogens in waste materials, and generation of biogas for energy
use. Depending on the consistency, the end products of the biological treatment can
be recycled as fertilizer and soil amendment. Rationalizing agricultural waste is of
profound importance for successfully minimizing environmental pollution and
enhancing the natural ecosystem. A great deal of research on the use of agricultural
22 Agricultural Bio-wastes: A Potent Sustainable Adsorbent for Contaminant. . . 573
waste as biomass adsorbents for the treatment of pollutants has been produced from
home and abroad. In recent years, huge volumes of agricultural waste have been
produced around the world each year to take advantage of agricultural waste as
biomass adsorbents for pollutant treatment. Every year, India produces about
350 MT of agricultural wastes. It also produces an amount of 500 MT (Mt here
after) of crop residue per year, as per the Indian Ministry of New and Renewable
Energy (MNRE) (NPMCR 2019). Agriculture waste mainly includes plant waste,
manure of livestock and poultry, agricultural and sideline products processing waste,
and rural household waste (Wang et al. 2016). It is distinguished by a vast variety of
sources, large in quantity, and reproducible, biodegradable, and pleasant to the
environment. Agricultural waste has a loose, porous structure and contains carboxyl,
hydroxyl, and other reactive groups. In pollution control, it can be used as a biomass
adsorption material which not only reduces the environmental burden but also
achieves the benefit of “treating waste by waste” (Huang et al. 2017). A lot of
research has been conducted by various researchers on the use of agricultural waste
to adsorb heavy metals. This section illustrates the agricultural wastes to be used for
pollutant removal.
Types and Structure of Agricultural Waste
There are four types of agricultural waste (a) hazardous waste, (b) animal waste, (c)
processing waste materials, and d) crop waste. They are generally generated from
cultivation activities, aquaculture, and livestock production (Fig. 1).
The structural composition of agricultural wastes is lignin, cellulose, and hemi-
cellulose, so it is known as lignocellulosic materials (Salleh et al. 2011). The
carbonyl, hydroxyl, methyl, and other functional groups are present in lignin because
it is an aromatic polymer. The other composites of agricultural waste (hemicellulose
and cellulose) contain functional groups of oxygen such as carbonyl groups,
hydroxyl groups, and ether. Figure 2 represents chemical composition of conven-
tional agricultural wastes (Agele et al. 2015). The dynamic functional groups took an
important role, when the absorption of heavy metal ions occurred by agricultural
wastes, in which coordination bonds of O element can form with heavy metals.
Generally agricultural wastes remove the dyes from the contaminated areas by the
processes like adsorption (Shah et al. 2017). The ability of agricultural wastes to
Types of agriculture waste
Hazardous waste Animal waste Processing Waste Crop waste

Eg. Insecticides. pesticides Eg. Animal Carcasses and excreta Packaging waste Eg. Paddy husks,
materials Sugarcane bagasse
Fig. 1 Types of agriculture waste

574 A. Barik et al.
100%
90%
80% Chemical composition of
agriculture waste Mellon
70%
shell
60%
40% agriculture waste Neem
seed cake
30%
10% agriculture waste Parkia
0% leaves
)
)
:N
)
(%
(%
(%
(%
(%
(%
Chemical composition of
C
on
lN
um
um
agriculture waste
ou
iu
rb
ta
ci
si
or
ss
ca
To
al
ne Chromoleana shoot
ph
ta
ag
ic
Po
os
an
M
Ph
rg
O
Fig. 2 Chemical composition of some agriculture waste
directly adsorb the contaminants has gathered a lot of attention, due to which the
current review is aiming toward increasing the adsorption capacity of cultivated
waste through chemical and physical modification. The modified techniques can
increase the adsorption capacity of agricultural wastes.
Agricultural Waste as Adsorbents
Most plant waste raw materials are used after pre-treatment, and it is modified by the
either physical or chemical modification method. Hence these are required for
improvement of surface properties of adsorbing materials. Previous studies reported
that plant-based waste materials modified on the basis of chemical modifications with
oxygen-, nitrogen-, and sulfur-containing groups have ability of adsorption which can
be significantly enhanced by other chemically modifying agents and cation exchange
of the resulting adsorbent materials (Wartelle and Marshall 2006). The reactions such
as acetylation, acylation, methylation, and benzoylation are involved in chemical
modification. The physical modification also involved heating of the agricultural
wastes to activated carbons at elevated temperatures. For example, the modified pine
bark is used as an adsorbent (Li and Greene 2010). The study indicated that modified
pine bark has capacity to adsorb PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons). The
components such as polysaccharides, suberin, lignin, and lipid are cooperating pine
bark to develop its adsorption capacity. These support the fact that advantage of low-
cost modification methods are eco-friendliness, renewability, availability, biodegrad-
ability, and reusability; for example, plant-based agricultural wastes have efficiency to
be used as essential precursor materials for adsorbent production. Some of the
published papers have documented about commonly used agricultural waste as

adsorbents in the last few years (Bhatnagar et al. 2010; Ali et al. 2012).
Why Should Agricultural Wastes Be Utilized?
Agricultural wastes are the by-product of plant biomass (e.g. husks, tassels, cobs,
straw, shells, peels etc.) that would otherwise be discarded naturally after harvesting,
which are widely used as the precursor material for adsorbent production. Some of
these were used to eliminate pollutants from aqueous media such as maize cob,
maize tassel, rice husk (Deng et al. 2013; Olorundare et al. 2014), rice hull, cocoa
shells, black gram husk, almond husk, sugarcane bagasse (Akl 2014), sugar-beet
pectin gels, coconut shells and coconut husks (Bhatnagar et al. 2010), mangosteen
shell, carrot residues, barley straw, cassava and tea wastes, banana (Oyewo et al.
2016, 2018), orange, and citrus peels, amongst others (Ali et al. 2012).
The plant wastes without pretreatment cannot be used in its raw form, but in many
times subjected to either physical or chemical modification processes. These are also
important for the improvement of surface properties of the resulting adsorbent mate-
rials. Another study on chemical modification of plant-based waste material ensuing
impressively increase the ability of adsorption and cationic exchange of resulting
adsorbent materials with groups including oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur and some
other chemically modifying agents (Wartelle and Marshall 2006). In general, chemical
modification employed acetylation, acylation, methylation, and benzoylation reac-
tions. In addition, modification may involve the physical conversion of agricultural
wastes to activated carbons at high temperature. Li et al. (2010) obtained modified pine
bark which can be used as adsorbent. These low-cost modification techniques involv-
ing plant-based agricultural waste (as an important precursor material for adsorbent
production) provide additional benefits without altering inherent advantages including
eco-friendliness, renewability, availability, biodegradability, re-utility, and efficiency.
For a good adsorbent, some principal necessities involve easy desorption, dis-
charge of negligible waste substance into aqueous media, and high regeneration
ability (Nguyen et al. 2013). In the past years, a number of published papers have
recorded generally used agricultural waste as adsorbents (Bhatnagar et al. 2010; Ali
et al. 2012). Most of these are predominantly used in aqueous media to remove
heavy and trace metals (Olorundare et al. 2012), but removing organic contaminants
from similar matrices leaves an information gap on their suitability.
Current Approaches and Methodologies for Modifying

Agricultural Wastes
This section appraised some current approaches and technique for modification of
agriculture wastes involving carbonization, activation, grafting, nanostructuring, and
thermal treatment.
576 A. Barik et al.
Carbonization, Thermal Treatment, and Activation
Activated carbons are carbonaceous, highly porous materials, extensively used for
chemical purification, as adsorbents, catalysts, and catalyst supports (Zhang et al.
2004; Mohan and Pittman Jr. 2006; Dias et al. 2007). On account of its large surface
area, high adsorptive ability, and its high reactivity, several researches have reported
that activated carbon can be a potential candidate for eliminating organic pollutants
from aqueous solution. However, the use of commercially existing activated carbon
is not cost-efficient. A decade or two ago, the hunt for low-cost activated carbon
started as an alternative to coal-based activated carbon. Agriculture waste is used as
precursor material such as coconut shells, peach pits, rice hulls and husks, fish, peat,
wood char, and sugar bagasse for preparation of agriculture-based activated carbon
(Mohan and Pittman Jr. 2006; Torrellas et al. 2015).
Usually, the choice of ideal materials is based on availability, low degradation
procedures upon storage and the ease of activation (Torrellas et al. 2015). Production
of activated carbon involves pyrolysis (thermal treatment), carbonization, and acti-
vation (chemical or physical) (Zhang et al. 2004; Olorundare et al. 2014).
Pyrolyzation is the irreversible use of heat at elevated temperatures in the absence
of oxygen or any halogen. As a result organic material(s) are thermally decomposed
and thus convert into carbon, i.e., carbonization (Zhang et al. 2004). The carbon
content of material is enhanced by carbonization when activation causes pores to be
enlarged rendering the material more porous (Olorundare et al. 2014). Physical
activation typically requires the burning of any of the raw carbon materials of the
agriculture waste products in the presence of oxidizing agents. Generally it occurs at
high temperatures like 700 C in steam, and CO2 is one example, but at minimum
temperatures in air (Zhang et al. 2004; Demiral et al. 2011). Oxidizing agents also
used for physical activation include carbon dioxide (CO2), steam, air, or combina-
tions. But, one of the issues linked with thermal treatment/thermal activation, i.e.,
only application of heat and even physical activation, is the propensity of certain
agricultural waste materials to burn with increasing temperature contributing to a
substantial decrease in yield. On the other hand, activating agents such as phosphoric
acid (H3PO4), zinc chloride (ZnCl2), NaOH, potassium hydroxide (KOH), and
others are used for chemical activation. Chemical activation has some benefits
such as lower temperature of activation, less energy costs, higher yield of material,
and less reaction time (Dias et al. 2007). Nevertheless, the drawbacks of this
technique is the production of secondary environmental pollution during the
discarding of the material used (Zhang et al. 2004), and activating agents for
chemical activation are also not cost-effective.
The characteristics of the produced activated carbon such as pore size distribu-
tion, surface area, and porosity are jointly governed by physical properties and
chemical composition of the precursor (agricultural waste material) as well as by
carbonization and activation methods (Mohan and Pittman Jr. 2006; Demiral et al.
2011) (Fig. 3). Liu et al. (2010) documented that bamboo-derived activated carbon
was prepared by microwave-induced phosphoric acid activation. It was observed
that the chemical activation caused by the microwave resulted in a faster activation
Fig. 3 The adsorption mechanism of agriculture waste
rate, wide surface area, and a higher carbon yield of activated carbon obtained from
bamboo. Zhang et al. (2004) reported the physical activation of corn hulls was
carried out in the presence of CO2. The corn hulls-CO2-activated carbons had a
Brunauer Emmett Teller (BET) surface area of 977 m2/g, more than twice of that of
the only-thermally treated corn hulls (411 m2/g).
Demiral et al. (2011) documented activated carbon was produced from olive
bagasse. In the nitrogen atmosphere, olive bagasse was thermally treated (heating
only) at 500 C for production of olive bagasse char. After this steam (i.e., physical
activation) activation method was used to produce olive bagasse-activated carbon at
higher temperatures ranging from 750 C to 900 C for 45 min.
Olorundare et al. (2014) studied activated carbon derived from a maize tassel by
chemical activation using H3PO4.The above studies have endeavored to develop
numerous techniques for activated carbon production. In addition, the published data
showed that several attempts have been made for production of activated carbon
from agricultural waste, which have been successfully used to remove organic
pollutants. It was succeeded by application of activated carbon from pumpkin seed
waste. Ibrahim et al. (2010) studied the chemical modification of barley straw by a
cationic surfactant, hexadecylpyridinium chloride monohydrate (CPC), which was
applied for removal of emulsified canola oil from an aqueous solution. A non-polar
coating on the surface of the barley straw was formed by the addition of CPC to the
surface of the barley straw, thereby allowing the surfactant modified barley straw
(SMBS) to have much improved adsorption ability for remove oil from water.
Potassium hydroxide was used to transform rice straw waste biomass into
activated carbon in the study by Chang et al. (2012), and the resulting activated
carbon was used to remove Bisphenol A (BPA) from an aqueous solution. The rice
straw-activated carbon removed BPA rapidly and effectively. Radhika and
Palanivelu (2006) prepared activated carbon from coconut shell. The coconut
shell-activated carbon showed higher removal efficiencies, 99.9% and 99.8% for
parachlorophenol (PCP) and 2,4,6- trichlorophenol (TCP), respectively, from aque-
ous solutions than commercially obtained activated carbon (97.7% and 95.5% for
PCP and TCP, respectively). Sharma et al. (2008) investigated the potential of
coconut shell charcoal and coconut fiber alongside other adsorbents for the
578 A. Barik et al.
adsorption of atrazine from water. The removal efficiency for the removal of atrazine
from water was 92.4–95.2% using coconut shell charcoal and 85.9–86.3% using
coconut fiber.
In the analysis by Chang et al. (2012), potassium hydroxide was used to convert
rice straw waste biomass into activated carbon, and the resulting activated carbon
was used to extract Bisphenol A (BPA) from an aqueous solution. BPA was rapidly
and effectively removed by rice straw-activated carbon. Activated carbon was
prepared from coconut shells by Radhika and Palanivelu (2006). The removal
efficiencies of coconut shell-activated carbon were higher, 99.9% and 99.8% for
parachlorophenol (PCP) and 2,4,6-trichlorophenol (TCP), respectively, from aque-
ous solutions than those of commercially acquired activated carbon (97.7% and
95.5% for PCP and TCP, respectively). Along with other adsorbents for the adsorp-
tion of atrazine from water, Sharma et al. (2008) explored the ability of coconut shell
charcoal and coconut fiber. The removal performance was 92.4–95.2% using coco-
nut shell charcoal and 85.9–86.3% using coconut fiber for the removal of atrazine
from water.
Chang et al. (2012) studied rice straw waste biomass that was converted into
activated carbon by using potassium hydroxide and resultant activated carbon has
been used for removal of Bisphenol A (BPA) from an aqueous solution. Activated-
carbon derived from rice straw was able to remove BPA rapidly and effectively.
Radhika and Palanivelu (2006) derived activated carbon from coconut shell and
resulting activated carbon from coconut shell showed 99.9% and 99.8% higher
removal ability for parachlorophenol (PCP) and 2,4,6-trichlorophenol (TCP),
respectively, from aqueous solutions in comparison to commercially available
activated carbon (97.7% and 95.5% for PCP and TCP, respectively). Sharma et
al. (2008) studied both coconut shell charcoal and fiber along with other adsorbents
for their ability to adsorb atrazine from water. The coconut shell and coconut fiber
have ability to remove 92.4–95.2% and 85.9–86.3%, respectively, atrazine from
water.
It is evident from cited instances above and from those that abound in literature
that many agricultural wastes have successfully been utilized for the preparation of
agro-based-activated carbons with high adsorption capacities to remove a number of
organic pollutants.
Agriculturally Derived Nanostructures and Nanocomposites
Nanotechnology has been applied in numerous areas, including textile industry,

water purification, and waste water treatment (Qu et al. 2013). Metallic nano-
particles have been linked on several materials like activated carbons, carbon
nanotubes, chitosan, agricultural waste biomasses, and other polymers (Djerahov
et al. 2016). For example, Kumar et al. (2012) could potentially synthesize a
nanocomposite using silver nitrate and Annona squamosa (sugar apple), an agri-
cultural waste.
Oyewo et al. (2016) proposed the nanostructuring method by the mechanical

milling of wet banana peels into nanosizes. The actinides (uranium and thorium)
(Oyewo et al. 2016) and lanthanides (lanthanum) from synthetic and real mine water
was adsorbed by nanosorbent produced from banana. In the study, the milling
process over various durations(time) resulted in a reduction in particle size from
<65,000 nm to <25 nm and a reduction in crystallite size from 108 to 12 nm
(Oyewo et al. 2016). The fracturing of particles resulting in a surface area increase of
1.07–4.55 m2/g is another effect of milling on the adsorbent. The produced banana
nanosorbent was characterized by the nanoseries of FTIR, SEM, XRD, and zeta
sizer. The explanation of the surface morphology of the agriculturally produced
nanosorbent was simplified by these characterization techniques. The study shows
that chemicals such as NaOH and nitric acid (HNO3) were used to pre-treat banana
peels to increase the adsorption ability of the materials prior to milling. But, this
action could be viewed by a school of thinking as “a step away” from the much-
heralded green technology.
Grafting Via Copolymerization
One of the recently used methods for functionalizing (adding functional groups) on
fibrous materials such as agricultural waste materials is the grafting of polymers on
substrate surfaces. The density of adsorption sites on the adsorbent surfaces was
increased by act of grafting polymers on adsorptive materials (Deng et al. 2012).
Abdel-Halim and Al-Deyab (2012) studied cotton waste was chemically modified
and transformed to a copolymer-cellulosic adsorbent. As an adsorbent for removing
divalent cations (copper, nickel and cobalt ions) from aqueous solutions, the derived
polymethacrylic acid-cellulose graft copolymer (PMAAC) was used. This was done
by treating the cotton waste with K2MnO4 and bleaching it afterwards and grafting it
with methacrylic acid. In the reported study, one of the limitations is there, i.e., its
applicability on a laboratory scale only, e.g., used on synthetic cations-containing
solution and not on actual aqueous environmental samples. In addition, a variety of
chemicals have been used, including potassium manganite (K2MnO4), sodium
chlorite (NaClO2), sodium hydroxide (NaOH), sodium carbonate (Na2CO3), potas-
sium iodide (KI), sulfuric acid (H2SO4), and methacrylic acid. Such chemical sub-
stances can constitute secondary waste. While cotton waste is plentiful and readily
available, it is not cost-effective to use various solvents and chemicals and may be
hazardous for the environment.
Atom transfer radical polymerization together with other methodologies such as
amination (introduction of amine groups into an organic molecule) and quaternization
(creation of a central positively charged cation/nitrogen atom with four substituents)
have been used to modify the agricultural waste for adsorption purposes (Deng et al.
2013). Furthermore, the highlighted examples of studies in which agricultural wastes
were modified and a summary table representing the application of agricultural waste
as precursor materials following treatment or modification(s) are shown in Table 1.
580 A. Barik et al.
Table 1 Application of agricultural waste as precursor materials

Agricultural Pollutants and
wastes Modification sources Removal capacity References
Cocoa CO2 was used to 4-Nitrophenol 98% of 4-NP was Fisal et al.
(Theobroma physically activate (4-NP) eliminated/ (2011)
cacao) cocoa shell pellets that (aqueous adsorption ability
shell-based had been carbonized solutions) was 167.17 mg/g
activated at 800 C
carbon
Sugarcane Carbonization Phenol (natural Sugarcane Akl et al.
bagasse followed by steam is water samples) bagasse-steam (2014)
(SCB)- used for physical activated carbon;
activated activation, as well as 46.43 mg/g;
carbon NaOH for chemical Sugarcane
activation bagasse-NaOH
activated carbon;
101 mg/g
Coconut Sulfuric acid Bisphenol A With AC of 4.308 Lazim et al.
husks treatment of the (BPA) (aqueous mg/g, 72% of BPA (2015)
(coir pith) adsorbents solutions) was removed from
coir pith
Cotton waste Oven drying; 80 C Basic dyes; (i) Safranine and MacKay et
Safranine and Methylene Blue al. (1992)
(ii) Methylene have ACs of 875
Blue and 277 mg/g,
respectively
Corncobs Treatment with acetic Crude oil Acetylated Nwadiogbu
anhydride (aqueous corncobs; et al. (2016)
medium) 0.0768 mg/g
Raw corncobs;
0.0043 mg/g
Barly straw Hexadecylpyridinium Emulsification 576 0.3 mg/g at Ibrahim et
chloride monohydrate (canola oil) 25 C al. (2010)
has been chemically
changed using a
cationic surfactant
(CPC)
Palm pith- Carbonization at 2,4- AC; 19.16 mg/g Sathis
activated 700 C for 1 h dichlorophenol and removal of Kumar et al.
carbon (2,4-DCP) 95% (2007)
(aqueous
solution)
Removal of Inorganic Contaminants
Heavy Metal
Over a long time for removal of heavy metals, different chemical remediation
methods are used, and these are classified as chemical precipitation, flotation, ion
exchange, adsorption, and membrane filtration. In this sense, proscription has proven
to be a fruitful process, with advantages such as (1) reducing chemical sludge; (2)
low advertising costs; and without adverse environmental consequences (Du et al.
2016). Therefore, bioremediation is an alternative approach for heavy metal
removal, and the mechanisms for the adsorption of heavy metal ions in agricultural
waste include other processes such as chemical adsorption, physical adsorption, ion
exchange, membrane diffusion, particle diffusion, chelation, electrostatic attraction,
surface complexation, ligand exchange, and internal complexation. The number of
studies has shown that agricultural waste can lead to the heavy metal immobilization
(Qian et al. 2016) (a3).
Nitrogen and Phosphorus
In general, most carbon-rich and low-mineral biochar surfaces are negatively

charged and, which have few or no capability to remove anions, mainly PO43 (Jung
et al. 2015). Information on nitrogen and phosphorus adsorption by agricultural
wastes is listed in this section (Table 7). Kizito et al. (2015) have documented that
ammonium ions are adsorbed through wood and rice husk from NH4Cl solution and
slurry solutions.
Jung et al. (2015) studied that biochars extracted from soybean stoves, bamboo
wood, and maize residues no sorption potential for PO43 and also intrinsic PO43
were released into the solution. Briefly, agricultural waste is used as adsorbents for
chemisorption and physisorption; ion exchange mechanisms to adsorb N and P and
bio-carbon were produced after adsorption, which utilize slow-release fertilizer for
horticulture and agriculture (Nguyen et al. 2015).
Removal of Organic Contaminants
Currently, agriculture waste as adsorbent to eliminate all types of organic pollutants

from water and soil has been widely studied. Between them, the studies of pollutants
are mostly dyes (methylene blue (MB), rhodamine B, crystal violet, malachite green,
Congo red) (Wang et al. 2017), pesticides (metalaxyl, metribuzin, 2,4-
dichlorophenoxyacetic acid) (Peña et al. 2016), drugs (tetracycline, caffeine, tylosin)
(Portinho et al. 2017), aromatic compounds (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons,
phenol) (Gupta and Gupta 2016), and oil substances (emulsified oil, diesel oil,
lubricating oil) (Abdelwahab et al. 2017).
Presently, successful removal of organic pollutants like cationic dyes (Zhu et al.
2016), azo dyes (Tomczak and Tosik 2017), direct dyes (Karthik et al. 2017), active
dyes (Hong et al. 2017), vulcanization dyes, and reduction dyes (Tran et al. 2017)
by several biosorbents produced from agricultural waste have been observed.
Moreover, the increased adsorption of dyes due to binding mechanisms of the
various functional groups found in these agricultural wastes like carbonyl,
hydroxyl, carboxyl, amine, amide, alcohols, and phenols contribute to the (Lee
and Kim 2015) have been reported. Therefore, various adsorption mechanisms
have been proposed such as ion exchange (Charles et al. 2016), complexation/
582 A. Barik et al.
coordination (Ji et al. 2007), adsorption (Sharma et al. 2016), electrostatic inter-
action (Safa 2016), hydrogen bonding (Ahmad et al. 2015), and π-π stacking
interaction (Wang et al. 2017). Safa (2016) observed that electrostatic interaction
demonstrated by mustard and linseed oil cakes to extract acid dyes, and similar
results were concluded by Marahel et al. (2013) when the avocado integument
extracted the basic red 2 (BR2) dye.
This section described the implementation of agricultural wastes in the produc-
tion of adsorbents for adsorption of organic pollutants from five facets of dyes,
drugs, pesticides, aromatic compounds, and oily substances.
Dyes
Currently, the researchers are increasing interest for removal of dyes because of its
dangerous effect on environment, so they have selected adsorption technique to
study the removal of various types of dyes by using agriculture waste like rice
husk, straw, coconut shell, and olive powder due to their simple and easy
operation.
Drugs
Drugs are helpful to human health but it has drawback; it can cause pollution to
water, soil, and other contamination due to improper handling. Hence, the treatment
is important for drug removal, and particularly adsorbent method is used by using
agriculture waste as adsorbents. The above studies proved that agricultural waste is
an ecofriendly adsorbent (Portinho et al. 2017).
Pesticides
Adsorption, especially agricultural waste as an adsorbent, is preferred by researchers
as an effective method for pesticide removal. For example, Gámiz et al. (2016)
studied the mechanism of repair agricultural soil having 2% of compost from olive
mill waste or its biochar (BC), having an effect on the adsorption, degradation, and
leaching of two enantiomers of choral fungicide a cream. It determined that it could
reduce pollution in agriculture and decrease the mobility of highly polar chiral
pesticides when BC was applied to soil (Gámiz et al. 2016). Furthermore, BC can
be used in soil remediation and groundwater contamination reduction techniques as
a fixed correction. Peña et al. (2016) also performed pesticide adsorption studies that
evaluated the effects of de-oiled two-phase olive mill waste on activity of metribuzin
in the Mediterranean agricultural soil and assessed the effects of these wastes on
the conversion of in situ environments of organic matter. The elimination of 2,4-
dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) has been the priority of researchers. Njoku et al.
(2015) prepared activated carbon by using H3PO4-activated langsat empty fruit
bunch as a chelating agent for removal of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D).
For the removal of 2,4-D, Deokar et al. (2016) also applied bagasse fly ash (BFA) as
an adsorbent. The findings have shown that BFA can be a low-cost and effective
adsorbent.
Recently, researchers have come to the fore with studies of agricultural waste as
an adsorbent to eliminate pesticides, but more research is still required to achieve
more efficient and precision.
Aromatic Compounds
The aromatic compound causes a hazardous effect on human body and environment.
Gupta and Gupta (2016) focused on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)
removal from the water system, thus prepared an activated carbon from waste
banana peel to remove PAHs, developed the model of Langmuir and Freundlich,
and calculated characteristic parameters of adsorption isotherm. It determined that
banana peel that produced adsorbent can be simply used to remove polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons from industrial processing plants (Gupta and Gupta 2016).
Other authors reported that for removal of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, sugar
waste or hydrolytic biomass was a favorable biological adsorbent (Tran et al. 2015).
Most of the researchers have currently performed studies on the elimination of
phenolic compounds from industrial waste as adsorbents, and the key mechanisms of
adsorption are hydrogen bonding, electrical sharing and exchange, hydrophobic
interaction, ion exchange, π-π interaction, particle internal diffusion, electrostatic
interaction, and diffusion of boundary layers (Feng et al. 2015; Shah et al. 2017).
Feng et al. (2015) conceded production of activated carbon from cattails
(AshaOrientalisPresl) and appraised the phenol removal potential, and the adsorp-
tion experiment showed that the ionic strength of the phenol removal effect was
negligible, and determined capability of AshaOrientalisPresl was more and also an
economic and efficient adsorbent.
Researchers have performed a lot of studies in recent years, in which agricultural
waste is a friendly and efficient tool as an adsorbent to eliminate aromatic com-
pounds. However, researchers should not stop there and search the path for more
effective and green adsorbent, which can use in industry.
Oil Substances
Oil pollution is another important cause to pollute the environment (Abdelwahab et

al. 2017). Currently, most of the researches are giving attention to preparation of
adsorbents from agricultural waste like barley straw, coconut shells, garlic, and
onion skins to treat oil pollution (Ibrahim et al. 2010; Zhou et al. 2015). The bagasse
was modified as a hydrophobic adsorbent through coating and esterification of
polyacrylonitrile and used to remove diesel from man-made seawater. Pachathu et
al. (2016) studied the microwave-assisted technology to modify bagasse and straw as
an emulsified oil absorbent agent. The maximum oil removal ratio of microwave-
assisted bagasse and rice straw was 98.07% and 98.72%, respectively (Pachathu et
al. 2016). Results from the research have shown that agricultural waste can be
applied as an effective adsorbent for oil products.
584 A. Barik et al.
Adsorption Mechanisms for Organic Pollutant Removal
The nature of the pollutants and chemical properties of the agricultural waste surface
play a significant role in organic pollutant removal through adsorption mechanism
(Rosales et al. 2017). The adsorption mechanism also accompanied by several
different factors that affect each other. The polyethyleneimine can modify the
wheat straw with an amine group on its surface. The modification enhances and
maximizes the adsorption capacity of modified wheat straw (MSW) for anionic dye
like Congo red (CR) in a batch mode at pH 5 (Shang et al. 2015). Other experimental
studies have shown that functional groups like carboxyl, hydroxyl, and amides along
with several floristic fibers are present in MWS, which are significantly helpful or
used for adsorption process. Adsorption of tetracycline from aqueous solution, using
activated carbon (biochar) derived from rice straw pyrolyzed at different tempera-
ture, showed a good result (Wang et al. 2017). Several studies conducted earlier by
different researchers suggest that various properties of biochar like electrostatic,
hydrophobic, hydrogen bond, and π–π electron-donor acceptor interaction possess
some effect on adsorption process. Adsorbents with oxygen containing functional
groups on its surface play a dominant role in the absorption of tetracycline.
A noble study conducted by Shah et al. (2017) on the adsorption of chlorine-
chlorophenol on bagasse fly ash derived zeolite composites. The experimental
results of the study revealed that the π-π interaction and affinity as well as the
donor-acceptor complexes formed on the adsorbent surface dominated over the
adsorption process. Electrostatic effect is one of the important mechanisms of
adsorption of agricultural waste and organic pollutants. Bagasse fly ash (BFA) is
found to be an effective adsorbent that removes 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,
4-D) from aqueous solution through a batch and continuous packed-bed adsorption.
The 2, 4-D molecules exhibit a Van der Waals interaction and adsorbed on the
surface of BFA (Deokar et al. 2016). Hazelnut-derived activated carbon can be used
as an adsorbent and potentially removes three tetracycline antibiotics (tetracycline,
oxytetracycline, and chlortetracycline) from aqueous solution. The adsorption effi-
ciency is highest at the pH range 4–8 in a batch adsorption. Electron donor-acceptor
interaction, hydrogen bonding, and π-π dispersion interaction between the aromatic
rings of three antibiotics are the main factors that influence adsorption mechanisms
(Fan et al. 2016). The corresponding adsorption parameters are shown in the Table 2.
Different agricultural wastes possess different chemical composition, surface
active groups, and functional groups as well. Different composition of agricultural
and organic wastes results in different adsorption mechanisms.
Adsorbent Regeneration
In current days, solvent extraction, calcination, and biological methods are accepted
and commonly used as adsorbent regeneration methods. In solvent extraction
method, an appropriate solvent is used to extract the adsorbate from the adsorbent.
At present, utilizing microorganisms in different bioremediation processes to desorb
Table 2 Adsorption parameters of some agricultural wastes

Agricultural Temperature qm
wastes pH (K) (mg/g) Sorption mechanism References
Raw date pits 5.0 293 52.63 Ion exchange Rezgui et al.
(2017)
Rice straw 5.0 313 500 Mashhadi
et al. (2016)
SB-AE 73.40 Mao et al.
(sugarcane (2015)
bagasse)
Wood 318 78.06 Mao et al.
(adsorption from (2015)
slurry solutions)
Zirconium 3 298 16.43 Nguyen et al.
loaded okara (2015)
Quaternary 6.5 303 205.00 Ion exchange Chauhan
starch et al. (2016)
Sumac leaves 5.0 298 5.80 Electrostatic Gülen et al.
interactions, (2016)
chemisorption,
physisorption
Camelina- 6.0 323 5.08 Surface adsorption, Sharma and
derived intraparticle diffusion Tiwari
(2016)
Coconut coir 6.0 303 29.50 Interaction, electrostatic Etim et al.
dust force (2016)
Stipatenassicima 4.0 298 7.93 Strong protonation, Chebli et al.
fibers Electrostatic Interactions (2015)
Rice straw 5.5 298 14.16 H-bonding, Wang et al.
hydrophobic, (2017)
electrostatic interactions,
π-π electron donor-
acceptor
Bagasse fly ash 3.5 328 7.14 Van Der Waals Deokar et al.
(2016)
Typha orientalis 5.0 313 7.23 Sharing or exchange of Feng et al.
Presl electrons, electrostatic (2015)
interactions
Rice husk 5.1 309 63.50 H-bonding Ashrafi et al.
(2015)
Hazelnut shell- 5.0 293 322.60 π-π electron donor- Fan et al.
derived activated acceptor, p–p dispersion (2016)
carbons interaction, H-bonding
the adsorbent and achieve desorption and regeneration of the adsorbent is highly
accepted. It is found to be a cost-effective, comparatively simpler with a low
environmental impact (Zhang et al. 2009). Desorption of algae Oedogonium sp.
which adsorbed Cd2+ is possible using 0.1 mol/L hydrochloric acid. In four cycles,
586 A. Barik et al.
the adsorption capacity of algae was non-significantly decreased, i.e., 42.8 mg/g,
40.1 mg/g, 38.8 mg/g, 36.5 mg/g, and 34.2 mg/g, respectively (Gupta and Rastogi
2008). Repeatedly for five cycles, the adsorption of Cd 2+ was 20.12 mg/g,
19.35 mg/g, 18.96 mg/g, 18.52 mg/g, and 18.13 mg/g, respectively (Chen et al.
2014). So, from various studies, it can be speculated that the biomass adsorbent can
be used repeatedly, and it has a noteworthy practical application value.
Future Perspectives
It can be seen from domestic and international studies that agricultural waste is an
optimal option for coping with pollutants and enhancing its adsorption impact by
changing their properties. However, researchers frequently neglect the size of envi-
ronmental pollution because of the complexity of the modified method and the level
of modified expenses.
Continuing research aims at synthesizing novel adsorbents and nanocomposite
materials from agricultural waste. In short, agricultural waste-based biomass adsor-
bents provide substantial benefits and can be used to substitute costly commercial
activated carbon for environmental pollution control. This offers a large potential of
use for agricultural waste.
Conclusion
Wide variety of sources, low-cost, renewable biosorbents are becoming more popular;
therefore agriculture waste is mostly used because agricultural products with a weak
and porous composition include carboxyl, hydroxyl, and other active groups that can
help extract contaminants. For adsorbing pollutants, modified agricultural mechanisms
are used such as ion exchange, electrostatic interaction, and complex adsorption, and
others are also under further study. The pH, temperature, initial concentration, and
other factors affect the adsorption. The development of efficient green modifier and
technology will be the development direction of biological adsorption. Using agricul-
ture waste as an adsorbent to biomass can not only minimize the environmental
pressure but also accomplish the goal of “treating waste by waste.” It will have wide
space for development of future governance of the environment.
Acknowledgments The authors gratefully acknowledge the support provided by Center for
Biotechnology, Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (Deemed to be University), Bhubaneswar.
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Use of Agricultural Wastes in Cementitious
Composites 23
Adeyemi Adesina
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594
Agricultural Wastes in Cementitious Composites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595
Use as Binder Component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595
Use as Aggregate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606
Challenges with the Use of Agricultural Wastes in Cementitious Composites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 612
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 614
Abstract
The production of Portland cement which is the main binder in cementitious
composite poses a huge threat to the sustainability of our environment. For every
ton of Portland cement produced, there is a corresponding emission of one ton of
carbon dioxide into the environment. Also, the high consumption of aggregates
for the manufacture of cementitious composites has resulted in significant carbon
dioxide emissions and the deterioration of the environment. With the demand
for cementitious composites expected to increase in the coming years, it is
essential to find an alternative source of binders and aggregates for these
composites. One of the promising alternatives to be used as a binder and/or
aggregates in cementitious composites are agricultural wastes. This chapter
presents a brief discussion on different agricultural wastes that can be incorpo-
rated into cementitious composites as either binder or aggregate. The properties
of the agricultural wastes and the corresponding effect on the performance of the
composites were discussed. Challenges associated with the use of these wastes
are also discussed.
A. Adesina (*)
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON,
Canada
e-mail: adesina1@uwindsor.ca

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_31
594 A. Adesina
Keywords
Agricultural wastes · Cementitious composites · Sustainability · Performance
Introduction
Agricultural wastes are one of the major sources of solid waste products that pose a
serious menace to the environment due to the high volume that is generated annually
all over the world (Sathiparan and De Zoysa 2018; Bheel and Adesina 2020; Bheel et
al. 2020). These wastes are conventionally burned openly where they pollute the
surrounding air and water or disposed into various areas in the environment where
they occupy valuable land spaces and pose a significant threat to the contamination
of the environment. However, these wastes can undergo various processing and are
utilized for various applications that are environmentally friendly and add value to
the environment (Ikponmwosa et al. 2020a, b; Akinyemi and Adesina 2020).
On the other hand, cementitious composites (i.e., concrete, mortar, grout, etc.)
that are the most used building material in the world come with a corresponding high
consumption of various materials used in its production (Meyer 2009; Purnell 2013).
More than ten billion tons of concrete have been estimated to be produced annually
worldwide (Meyer 2009). The preference of utilization of cementitious composites
for various construction applications is as a result of its versatility, availability of
materials locally, cheaper cost, performance, etc., compared to other construction
materials such as steel and glass. However, the production of the binder component
of cementitious composites which is primarily the Portland cement (PC) is respon-
sible for about 7% of the world’s anthropogenic carbon dioxide emission and
consumption of a high volume of raw materials (Meyer 2009; Malhotra 2010;
Purnell 2013). Also, aggregates occupying more than 50% volume of cementitious
composites indicate there is a corresponding increase in the consumption of
natural aggregates used in the production of cementitious composites (Neville and
Brooks 2010; Neville 2012). The processing and transportation of materials used as
aggregate in cementitious composites increase the overall cost and embodied carbon
of cementitious composites. With more urbanization and population increase
expected in the coming years, the demand and use of cementitious composites
for various construction applications are expected to increase significantly. The
continuous use of the conventional materials in the production of cementitious
composites would result in continuous degradation of the environment and a possi-
ble shortage of resources in the coming years. Thus, finding an alternative to
the conventional materials used as binder and/or aggregate in cementitious compos-
ites would result in a significant reduction in the carbon footprint and cost of
cementitious composites (Adesina 2020a, b).
Hence, in order to solve the agricultural waste management issues and the
sustainability issues associated with the production of cementitious composites,
agricultural wastes can be incorporated as a component in cementitious composites.
The use of agricultural wastes would not only improve the efficiency of agricultural
23 Use of Agricultural Wastes in Cementitious Composites 595
waste management and sustainability of cementitious, but it would also

supplement the material supply for the production of cementitious composites
(Venkateswara Rao and Rama Rao 2015; Huseien and Shah 2020; Nuaklong et al.
2020). Cementitious composites are generally composed of a binder, aggregate/filler,
and water alongside reinforcement and admixtures when required (Neville 2012).
Due to the solid nature of agricultural wastes of most agricultural wastes, they can
be incorporated as replacement of the binder and aggregate/filler component in
cementitious composites.
To gear more awareness of how the sustainability of cementitious composites can
be improved, this chapter explored the use of agricultural wastes in cementitious
composites. In this chapter, various types of agricultural wastes are discussed
alongside how they can be utilized as various components in cementitious compos-
ites. An overview of the influence of these agricultural wastes on the properties of
cementitious composites is also discussed alongside the challenges associated with
the use of agricultural wastes in cementitious composites.
Agricultural Wastes in Cementitious Composites
Wastes from agricultural processes can be incorporated as aggregates/fillers and/or

binder components. Thus, depending on how these wastes are incorporated, the
properties of the cementitious composites incorporating these agricultural wastes
differ. Classifications of agricultural wastes in cementitious composites are further
discussed based on whether it is used as the binder component or binder component
or aggregates.
Use as Binder Component
Portland cement (PC) is the major binder used in various cementitious composites.
However, the production of PC has been associated with high carbon dioxide
emissions and the consumption of natural resources (Purnell 2013). On the other
hand, various agricultural wastes are generated in large amounts annually and can be
recycled to replace PC in cementitious composites. Agricultural wastes used to
partially replace PC in cementitious composites can be classified as supplementary
cementitious materials (SCMs). The chemical properties of these agricultural wastes
used as SCMs are also similar to other industrial wastes such as slag, silica fume, fly
ash, etc., used as a replacement of PC in cementitious composites (Senhadji et al.
2014; Parghi and Shahria Alam 2016; Das et al. 2020). Agricultural wastes can also
be used in alkali-activated binders which are special types of binders without any
cement (Kang et al. 2019; Ikponmwosa et al. 2020a). Generally, agricultural wastes
used as the binder component in cementitious composites must possess a significant
amount of aluminate and silicate which embodies it with a pozzolanic/polymeriza-
tion capability. The chemical composition of some of the agricultural wastes used in
cementitious composites and PC is presented in Table 1. When these agricultural
596 A. Adesina
Table 1 Chemical composition of agricultural wastes used as binder component (%)

Agricultural waste Al2O3 SiO2 CaO Fe2O3 Source
PCa 5.04 19.3 63.6 3.16 Ganesan et al. (2007)
Bamboo leaf ash 1.22 80.4 5.06 0.71 Villar-Cociña et al. (2011)
Sugarcane bagasse ash 1.93 70.2 12.2 2.09 Frías et al. (2007)
Palm oil fuel ash 2.60 65.3 0.10 0.10 Sata et al. (2004)
Rice husk ash 0.14 89.9 0.49 0.94 Raman et al. (2011)
Corn cob ash 7.48 66.4 11.6 4.44 Adesanya and Raheem (2010)
Groundnut shell ash 10.1 31.8 20.8 5.03 Usman et al. (2019)
Banana skin powder 2.71 55.9 8.95 1.36 Mohamad et al. (2019)
Wheat straw ash 1.95 48.5 4.65 3.03 Amin et al. (2019)
a
PC – Portland cement: not agricultural waste
Fig. 1 Processing of agricultural wastes for use as binder in cementitious composites
wastes are used as a replacement of the PC, the silicate in the processed wastes reacts
with the calcium hydroxide in the composite pore solution at ambient conditions to
form hydrated phases (Boateng and Skeete 1990; Ataie and Riding 2013).
In contrast to the conventional reuse of waste materials in cementitious compos-
ites, agricultural wastes used as binder components need to undergo various pro-
cessing in order to meet the requirements of a binder component. Simplified
processing of agricultural wastes used as a binder component in cementitious
composites is presented in Fig. 1. The agricultural wastes are combusted in order
to transform the silica content in the wastes to the amorphous phase (Al-Khalaf and
Yousif 1984). The surface area of the obtained waste has also been found to be
directly related to the reactivity of the amorphous phase formed (James and Subba
Rao 1986; Mehta and Folliard 1995). Hence, after calcinating the agricultural
wastes, there is a need to reduce the size (i.e., increase fineness) as depicted in Fig.
1. However, the pozzolanic properties of the same type of agricultural wastes differ
with the calcination conditions employed (Boateng and Skeete 1990). After calci-
nation of the agricultural wastes, the products obtained are in form of ashes; hence,
the term “ash” is always used alongside such wastes. Examples of agricultural
wastes used in cementitious composites are rice husk ash, coconut shell ash, palm
oil fuel ash, wheat straw ash, etc. Some pictures of agricultural wastes ashes are
presented in Table 2.
Palm Oil Fuel Ash

This ash is obtained from the calcination of palm tree residues obtained as wastes
from the production of palm oil. The palm oil is obtained from palm trees, and it is
Table 2 Examples of agricultural wastes used as the binder component

Source (reference) Raw wastes Ash
Rice
(Chauhan and Kumar
2013)
Groundnut
(Wilson 2017)
Banana
(Mohamad et al. 2019)
Bamboo
(Villar-Cociña et al.
2011)
mostly grown in tropical areas as shown in Fig. 2 with Indonesia and Malaysia being
the top producers. The increasing production of palm oil in these areas has resulted in
a corresponding generation of palm kernel wastes which can also be used as
aggregate/filler or reinforcement in cementitious composites. However, in order to
be able to incorporate the palm kernel shell as a binder component in cementitious
composites, it needs to undergo combustion and various processing. Sata et al.
(2004) utilized palm oil fuel ash which is obtained from the calcination of palm
tree residues as replacement of PC up to 30% in the production of high-strength
concrete. The study showed that the highest compressive strength was obtained
when palm oil fuel ash was used as a 10% replacement of the PC as shown in Fig. 3.
The 28 days compressive strength of concrete made with 10% palm oil fuel ash is
4.9% higher than that of the concrete made with only PC as the binder component.
Findings from the study further showed that it is possible to produce a high-strength
598 A. Adesina
Fig. 2 Average worldwide production of palm kernel between 1994 and 2018. (Data from Food
and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations 2020)
Fig. 3 Influence of palm oil fuel ash content on strength of concrete. (Adapted from Sata et al.
2004)
concrete (i.e., compressive strength greater than 75 MPa) with agricultural wastes.
These observations are in agreement with other studies where palm oil fuel ash has
been used as a replacement of PC (Bashar et al. 2016; Islam et al. 2016; Huseien et al.
2018). Several other studies have incorporated palm oil fuel ash as the aluminosil-
icate precursor in producing alkali-activated binders (Mijarsh et al. 2014; Yusuf et al.
2015; Huseien et al. 2018).
Rice Husk Ash

Agricultural wastes such as rice wastes are the most used agricultural wastes
incorporated as a binder component in cementitious composites due to the high
volume of rice paddy produced all over the world especially in Asian countries as
shown in Fig. 4. The extraction of rice from the rice paddy using the process referred
to as husking results in the generation of rice husks as waste products. The rice husks
can be combusted and processed and utilized as a binder component in cementitious
composites. Due to the high generation of rice husks, a corresponding higher amount
of rice husk ash is also produced annually over the world. The annual global
production of rice husk ash has been estimated to increase by 1.1% due to the
increasing production of rice paddy (Food and Agricultural Organization of the
United Nations 2020). Hence, incorporating these wastes in cementitious composites
is an effective way to effectively manage a high volume of wastes. Similar to the use
of other agricultural wastes as the binder in cementitious composites, there would be
a significant reduction in the embodied carbon and cost of the composites when rice
husk ash is used as the replacement of PC (Adesina and Olutoge 2019; Henry and
Lynam 2020).
The study by Madandoust et al. (2011) showed that a 7.6% reduction in cost per
cubic meter of concrete can be achieved with the use of rice husk ash as a 30%
replacement of PC in concrete. However, there is a reduction in strength with
Fig. 4 Average worldwide production of rice paddy between 1994 and 2018. (Data from Food and
Agricultural Organization of the United Nations 2020)
600 A. Adesina
increasing the content of the rice husk ash as a replacement of the PC. The 28 days
compressive strength of concrete made with rice husk ash as 10%, 20%, and 30%
replacement of the PC is 8.4%, 12.9%, and 24.8%, respectively, lower than that of
the control concrete with only PC as the binder. The lower compressive strength of
concrete incorporating rice husk ash can be associated with the slower pozzolanic
reactivity of the rice husk ash which results in lower compressive strength at early
ages. It is expected that the compressive strength of concrete incorporating rice husk
ash would improve significantly at later ages. This was evident in the study by Givi
et al. (2010) where the 90 days compressive strength of mortar made with rice husk
ash as 10% replacement of the PC was 9.4% greater than the mortar made with only
PC as the binder component. Rice husk ash has also been utilized in the production
of various types of alkali-activated binders (Riahi et al. 2012; Parveen et al. 2017;
Sékou et al. 2017; Kang et al. 2019).
Corn Cob Ash

The corn cob ash is obtained from the calcination of corn cob which is a waste
product generated after the corn kernels have been extracted. Corn can also be
referred to as maize, and it is one of the major agricultural crops produced in large
quantities all over the world as shown in Fig. 5. Hence, it is expected that the
production of this high amount of corn would also result in a corresponding
generation of a high amount of corn wastes in the form of cobs. To promote
sustainable development, corn cob can be combusted and the resulting ash processed
and used as a replacement of PC in the production of cementitious composites. A
study by Adesanya and Raheem (2009) where corn cob ash was used up to 25%
Fig. 5 Average worldwide production of corn between 1994 and 2018. (Data from Food and
Fig. 6 Influence of corn cob ash content on durability of concrete. (Data from Adesanya and
Raheem 2010)
replacement of the PC showed that there is a decrease in the compressive strength

with increasing content of the corn cob ash. This decrease in the compressive
strength was associated with the slow pozzolanic reaction of the corn cob ashes
which is related to other agricultural wastes. Hence, higher strength is expected to be
achieved with the continuous progression of the pozzolanic and hydration reactions.
Nonetheless, the study recommended the use of corn cob ash as a replacement of 8%
of the PC to be optimum in terms of achieving good structural capacity. Thus, in
cases where higher strength capacity is not required, higher content of corn cob ash
can be utilized as long as other requirements are satisfied.
Similarly, another study by Adesanya and Raheem (2010) also showed that the
use of corn cob ash as a replacement of PC in concrete mixtures is optimum in terms
of permeability properties and resistance to acid attack. The influence of corn cob ash
content on the permeability and resistance to the acid attack in terms of water
absorption and mass loss is presented in Fig. 6. These findings showed that the
incorporation of an optimum amount of corn cob ash can also be utilized to improve
the durability of the composites in addition to the improvement in the mechanical
and sustainability of the composites.
Bamboo Leaf Ash

The ash obtained from the combustion of bamboo leaves can also be utilized as a
partial replacement of PC in cementitious composites. Bamboo is one of the
agricultural products that grow very fast and readily available all over the world.
In Brazil alone, about 190,000 tons of wastes are generated from the processing of
602 A. Adesina
Fig. 7 Influence of bamboo leaf ash content on strength of cementitious composites. (Data from
Moraes et al. 2019)
bamboo for the production of paper (Villar-Cociña et al. 2011). These high volumes
of wastes can be effectively managed by processing and incorporating the resulting
ash as a binder component in cementitious composites. The study by Villar-Cociña
et al. (2011) has shown that bamboo leave ashes are composed of a high amount of
silicate and some aluminate alongside other components. The presence of aluminate
and silicate in the bamboo leave ash makes it a suitable candidate to be used as SCM
in cementitious composites.
The study by Moraes et al. (2019) showed that cementitious composites made
with bamboo leaf ash up as the replacement of up to 30% of PC exhibited lower
compressive strength at early ages (i.e., up to 3 days). However, the compressive
strength of the composites incorporating bamboo leaf ash was higher than that of the
control at later ages (i.e., 28 and 90 days) as shown in Fig. 7. The enhanced
compressive strength of cementitious composites made with bamboo leaf ash com-
pared to the ash obtained from other agricultural wastes was ascribed to the higher
reactivity of the bamboo leaf ash (Moraes et al. 2019).
Sugarcane Bagasse Ash

Bagasse ash can be obtained from the processing of the wastes from sugarcanes.
There is also a high amount of sugarcane wastes generated annually due to its high
production as shown in Fig. 8 as a result of the utilization of sugarcane for the
manufacture of various products. In India alone, over 300 million tons of sugarcane
are produced annually (Balasubramanian et al. 2001) which incites there would be a
corresponding significant generation of wastes from its processing. The study by
Fig. 8 Average worldwide production of sugarcane between 1994 and 2018. (Data from Food and
Ganesan et al. (2007) investigated the influence of using sugarcane straw ash as a
replacement of PC up to 30% in concrete mixtures. Findings from the study showed
that the use of this waste to replace 10% of PC is optimum in terms of compressive
strength. Nonetheless, the compressive strength of all mortar incorporating bagasse
ash up to 30% is greater than 25 MPa.
The compressive strength of concrete made with bagasse ash as 10% of the PC is
16.6% higher than that with only PC as the binder. In terms of overall performance
(i.e., mechanical and durability properties), the use of 20% bagasse ash as replace-
ment of the PC was determined to be optimum. Hence, these results showed that in
addition to the sustainability improvement with the incorporation of bagasse ash as
replacement of PC, there is a corresponding enhancement in the mechanical and
durability properties of the composites. However, the use of bagasse ash in cemen-
titious composites resulted in an increase in the water demand and setting times of
the concrete with increasing content of the waste (Ganesan et al. 2007). These
observations are somewhat in agreement with that of Chusilp et al. (2009) and
Rukzon and Chindaprasirt (2012) where bagasse ash was used up to 30% replace-
ment of the PC. The effect of bagasse ash content on various properties is presented
in Fig. 9.
Wheat Straw Ash

Wheat is another agricultural product that is produced in large quantities all over the
world as shown in Fig. 10. The high generation of wheat has also resulted in a
604 A. Adesina
Fig. 9 Influence of sugarcane bagasse ash content on properties of concrete. (Adapted from
Ganesan et al. 2007)
Fig. 10 Average worldwide production of wheat between 1994 and 2018. (Data from Food and
Fig. 11 Influence of wheat straw ash content on strength of cementitious composites. (Data from
Amin et al. 2019)
corresponding high generation of wheat straw which causes a huge menace in the
environment. When calcinated properly and processed, wheat straw ash can be used
as a replacement of PC in cementitious composites (Shar et al. 2019). Amin et al.
(2019) utilized wheat straw ash as a replacement of PC in concrete mixtures and
evaluated the corresponding performance. Results from the study showed that the
use of wheat straw ash as a 15% replacement is the optimum as the use of higher
content of wheat straw ash resulted in a detrimental impact on the performance as
shown in Fig. 11. Nonetheless, depending on the application of the cementitious
composites, higher content of wheat straw ash can be incorporated to improve the
sustainability of the composites.
Agricultural wastes can also be incorporated as a total replacement of the
binder in cementitious composites by using it as the aluminosilicate precursor in
alkali-activated materials (AAMs). In contrast to the use of agricultural wastes as
SCMs in cementitious composites, agricultural wastes used in AAMs require an
alkali media to be present in the mixture in order to form a binder. The use of an
alkali binder in the presence of the agricultural wastes would result in an alkali
activation process that results in the dissolution of monomers from the wastes
forming a gel that hardens (Hwang and Huynh 2015; Zhu et al. 2019; Nuaklong
et al. 2020). The use of alkali-activated binder has been found to result in more
significant improvement in the sustainability of cementitious composites as the
detrimental impacts of the production of PC are eliminated (Turner and Collins
2013; Adesina 2020b, c).
606 A. Adesina
In addition to the agricultural wastes discussed, other agricultural wastes such

as the following can be utilized as a binder component in cementitious
composites:
(i) Groundnut shell ash

(ii) Banana skin powder
(iii) Sawdust ash
Use as Aggregate
In contrast to the use of agricultural wastes as binder components, agricultural

wastes used as aggregate require mostly reduction into smaller sizes. Hence, such
wastes are not subjected to any form of calcination. Some pictures of agricultural
wastes that can be utilized as aggregates/fillers in cementitious composites are
presented in Table 3, and discussion on some of these wastes are further made.
Palm Kernel Shells

As mentioned earlier in the binder section, palm kernel shells are one of the materials
generated as wastes during the production of palm oil. Palm kernel shells can be
incorporated into cementitious composites as a replacement of the conventional
natural aggregates. In contrast to other agricultural wastes as aggregates in cemen-
titious composites, palm kernel shells are mostly used as the replacement of the
coarse aggregates. The study by Olanipekun et al. (2006) indicated that there is a
decrease in the compressive strength of concrete incorporating palm kernel shells as
coarse aggregates as presented in Fig. 12. In the same context, the water absorption
of concrete also increased with increasing content of palm kernel shell (Fig. 12).
Hence, the lower compressive strength and higher water absorption of concrete
incorporating palm kernel shells can be associated with the higher porosity of the
palm kernel shells. Nonetheless, the study further showed that about 34.3% reduc-
tion in the cost of concrete can be achieved with the use of only palm kernel shell as
coarse aggregate in concrete mixtures (Olanipekun et al. 2006). The study by
Alengaram et al. (2010) also showed that the size of the palm kernel shells has a
significant influence on the compressive strength of concrete and it was
recommended to use mixed palm kernel shells with different sizes for optimum
performance.
Rice Husks
Rice husks are also one of the agricultural wastes that can be utilized as aggregate in
cementitious composites. Sua-iam and Makul (2013) investigated the use of rice
husk as a replacement of the fine aggregate up to 100% in the production of self-
compacting concrete. Findings from the study showed that the incorporation of rice
husk ash as replacement of the fine aggregate resulted in a decrease in the compres-
sive strength as presented in Fig. 13. The decrease in the strength can be ascribed to
the high porosity.
Table 3 Agricultural wastes used as aggregates in cementitious composites

Source (reference) Picture
Groundnut
(Sathiparan and De Zoysa 2018)
Sawdust
Coconut shells
Palm kernel shells

(Alengaram et al. 2010)
Coconut Shell
Similar to the palm kernel shell used as aggregates in cementitious composites,
coconut shells obtained as wastes after the coconut has been retrieved can be utilized
as coarse aggregate in cementitious composites. Coconuts are generated in tropical
countries all over the world as shown in Fig. 14. Due to the high porosity and fibrous
nature of coconut shells, its use in cementitious composites would result in a
decrease in the mechanical performance and increase in permeability as presented
in Fig. 15 (Olanipekun et al. 2006). It can be seen from Fig. 15 that apart from the
effect of coconut shells on the water absorption, the density and compressive
strength of concrete made with coconut shells are similar to those made with palm
kernel shells (Fig. 12). It is recommended that in order to reduce the detrimental
608 A. Adesina
Fig. 12 Influence of palm kernel shell content on properties of concrete. (Adapted from
Olanipekun et al. 2006)
Fig. 13 Influence of rice husk content on properties of concrete. (Data from Sua-Iam and Makul
2013)
Fig. 14 Average worldwide production of coconut between 1994 and 2018. (Data from Food and
Fig. 15 Influence of coconut shell content on properties of concrete. (Adapted from Olanipekun
et al. 2006)
610 A. Adesina
effect of coconut shell on the performance of cementitious composites, mineral

admixtures should be incorporated to densify the microstructure and improve the
bond between the wastes and the cementitious matrix.
Groundnut Shell
Another agricultural waste that generated large quantities are groundnut shells which
is a result of its high production as shown in Fig. 16. The high generation of these
wastes is a result of the high consumption of groundnuts for the production of
various products such as oil, butter, etc. Hence, it is critical that in order to prevent
the contamination of the environment with the improper disposal of the groundnut
shells, they are utilized as components in cementitious composites. Sada et al. (2013)
investigated the use of groundnut shells as the replacement of natural fine aggregates
in concrete up to 75%. The findings from the study showed that the use of the
groundnut shells as aggregates resulted in a decrease in the compressive strength
with increasing content of the shells except when it was used at a dosage of 5%.
However, the density of the concrete reduced with a higher content of the groundnut
shell as shown in Fig. 17. Hence, depending on the required strength, the content of
groundnut shells can be optimized in order to produce lightweight cementitious
composites.
Sawdust
Sawdust or wood dust is also one of the major agricultural wastes generated globally
due to the high consumption of wood for various applications. Sawdust is generated
Fig. 16 Average worldwide production of groundnut between 1994 and 2018. (Data from Food
and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations 2020)
Fig. 17 Influence of groundnut shell content on properties of concrete. (Data from Sada et al.
2013)
during the processing of woods into various forms and sizes. Conventionally, these
wastes are either combusted or disposed openly in the environment where they pose
both contamination and fire hazards. To manage these wastes effectively, they can be
utilized as aggregate in cementitious composites. Oyedepo et al. (2014) were able to
utilized sawdust as a replacement of the fine aggregate in concrete up to 100%.
Similar to other studies where agricultural wastes are used as aggregate in cemen-
titious composites, the incorporation of sawdust as aggregate in concrete resulted in
a decrease in the compressive strength as shown in Fig. 18. The reduction in strength
with the incorporation of sawdust as aggregate was ascribed to the high porosity of
the sawdust.
Some other agricultural wastes that can also be utilized as aggregates/fillers in
cementitious composites that are not discussed are:
(i) Date seed

(ii) Periwinkle shell
(iii) Rubber seeds
(iv) Corn cob
(v) Bagasse
(vi) Tobacco wastes
It is worth mentioning that agricultural wastes can also be incorporated as

reinforcement in cementitious composites. Some examples of agricultural wastes
that can be used as reinforcement are:
612 A. Adesina
Fig. 18 Influence of sawdust content on strength of concrete. (Adapted from Oyedepo et al. 2014)
(i) Palm fiber

(ii) Jute fiber
(iii) Coconut fiber
(iv) Sisal fiber
(v) Hibiscus fiber
(vi) Wheat straw
(vii) Barley straw
Challenges with the Use of Agricultural Wastes in Cementitious

Composites
The incorporation of agricultural wastes as components in cementitious composites

is beneficial in terms of sustainability, provision of alternative sources of materials,
and cheaper cost. However, there exist some challenges with the use of these wastes
in cementitious composites that have limited its application on a large scale and
universally. Some of the major challenges associated with the use of agricultural
wastes in cementitious composites are briefly discussed:
1. Low strength development: the use of agricultural wastes as partial replacement

of Portland cement as the binder would result in a slower strength gain due to the
slow pozzolanic reaction of the wastes and dilution effect on the Portland cement
content. Hence, in cases where higher strength is required, the use of agricultural
wastes as binder components especially at higher content would be undesirable.
This challenge can be eliminated by utilizing agricultural wastes in the production
of alkali-activated binders where an alkali activator is incorporated to aid the

dissolution of the silicate and aluminate monomers from the wastes.
2. Variation in properties: due to the varying combustion/calcination conditions
used for the processing of agricultural wastes utilized as a binder component in
cementitious composites, there is a corresponding difference in the effect of these
wastes on the resulting properties for the same type of waste. This limitation can
be overcome by following recommendations from past studies where a range of
optimum conditions for combusting agricultural wastes has been given. It is very
critical for the users of these wastes to also know that the physical properties of
the resulting ash such as the surface area would also influence the reactivity of the
ash and the corresponding performance. The development of various technolo-
gies to control the combustion process of agricultural wastes used as a binder
component in cementitious composites would also result in more uniform
performance.
3. Reduction in strength: agricultural wastes used as the aggregate/filler components
in cementitious composites always result in a significant reduction in the strength
of the composites especially when used as a replacement of the conventional
aggregates at a high content. This reduction in the strength with the use of
agricultural wastes as aggregates/fillers in cementitious materials is a result of
the lower stiffness of the wastes coupled with its high porosity. Hence, when
incorporated into cementitious composites, they create weak zones within the
composites that would lead to failure when loaded. This challenge can be
eliminated or reduced with the incorporation of various mineral admixtures or
agricultural wastes with finer sizes in order to refine the microstructure of the
composites. Also, instead of using these agricultural wastes as a total replacement
of the conventional aggregates in cementitious composites, they can be utilized as
hybrid aggregate alongside natural aggregates in order to conserve the strength of
the composites.
4. Limited knowledge: the majority of the studies on the utilization of agricultural
wastes in cementitious composites have only focused on evaluating the mechan-
ical properties. However, it is critical to also investigate the influence of these
agricultural wastes on other properties such as long-term resistance to physical
and chemical attacks. In addition, there is limited knowledge on the stability of
agricultural wastes used as aggregates/fillers in cementitious composites.
Conclusion
The use of agricultural wastes in cementitious composites offers an effective path-

way to effectively manage agricultural wastes while meeting the materials supply
and improving the sustainability of cementitious composites. Agricultural wastes
can be utilized as either binder or aggregate/filler components in cementitious
composites. Agricultural wastes used in cementitious composites as the binder
composition have to be calcinated and reduced to finer sizes in order to embody it
with pozzolanic properties and increase its reactivity. The use of agricultural wastes
614 A. Adesina
ash as a replacement of 10% Portland cement has been reported to be optimum for
most of the agricultural wastes incorporated as a binder component in cementitious
composites. In addition to the improvement of sustainability with the incorporation
of agricultural wastes as a binder component in cementitious composites, there is a
corresponding improvement in the mechanical and durability performance in the
long term. The enhancement in the performance of cementitious composites with the
incorporation of ash obtained from these wastes is due to the reaction of the calcium
oxide from the composite’s pore solution with the high silica content in the ash
resulting in the production of additional products.
On the other hand, the incorporation of agricultural wastes as aggregate/filler
components in cementitious composites is detrimental to its performance. However,
depending on the desired performance, cementitious composites suitable for both
structural and nonstructural applications can still be produced by utilizing agricul-
tural wastes as aggregates/filler. The detrimental effect of utilizing agricultural
wastes as aggregates in cementitious composites can be reduced/eliminated with
the combined use of supplementary cementitious materials as partial replacement of
the Portland cement as a binder.
The use of agricultural wastes in cementitious composites is still evolving, and
more research and development in this area is imminent. However, there is an
imminent need to evaluate the durability performance of cementitious composites
incorporating agricultural wastes as most studies are only focused on mechanical
properties. More studies should also be carried out to validate the benefits of using
agricultural wastes in cementitious composites such as possible improvement in the
acoustic and thermal properties of structures.
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Mass Production of Trichoderma from
Agricultural Waste and Its Application for 24
Plant Disease Management
Bireswar Sinha, Poorvasandhya Rajendran, and

Phanjoubam Sobita Devi
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 620
Benefits of Trichoderma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621
Disease Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621
Plant Growth Promoter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621
Biochemical Elicitors of Disease . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621
Transgenic Plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621
Bioremediation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 622
Biomass Production of Trichoderma on Agricultural Wastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 622
Method of Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 625
Seed Treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 625
Cutting and Seedling Root Dip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 625
Nursery Treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 625
Soil Treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 625
Plant Treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 625
Furrow Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 625
Mechanism of Trichoderma in Biological Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 626
Competition for Nutrients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 626
Mycoparasitism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 626
Antibiosis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 627
Tricho-Remediation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 627
Climate Stress Reliever . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 628
Trichoderma: A Tool for Climate Smart Agriculture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 628
Trichoderma: A Potential Biocontrol Agent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 629
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 629
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 631
Abstract
Lignocellulosic biomass is a promising feedstock for future renewable fuels. It
constitutes a substantial renewable substrate for the production of value-added
chemicals. Lignocellulosic materials mostly contain a mixture of polymers such
B. Sinha (*) · P. Rajendran · P. S. Devi
Department of Plant Pathology, College of Agriculture, CAU, Imphal, India

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_32
620 B. Sinha et al.
as cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin. Utilizing waste lignocellulosic materials

such as agricultural residues, grasses, and forestry wastes can significantly reduce
the cost of raw materials. Optimization of significant process parameters is also a
very important stage to develop an efficient and cost-effective bioprocess. It also
portrays the utility of various plant polysaccharide hydrolysates such as boiled
bagasse, bagasse, wheat straw, waste newspaper, as well as starch hydrolysates in
cellulase production. This also deals with the use of agricultural waste, vegetable
waste, and other wastes and assessment for their suitability as substrates for mass
multiplication of Trichoderma viride. Trichoderma is free living, easily present in
almost all the agricultural soils, a fungal biocontrol agent which plays a major role
in controlling soil-borne diseases of plants. It is extensively used for management
of fungal diseases caused by Rhizoctonia, Sclerotium, Phytophthora, Fusarium,
etc. Application of Trichoderma increases the germination percentage of the
seeds. Some of the strains produce phytohormones, viz., auxins, cytokinins,
ethylene, indole acetic acids, gibberellins, etc. The evaluations revealed that the
effect of native Trichoderma increased on the yield of onion, cabbage, and
cauliflower in Trichoderma-treated plants.
Keywords
Agricultural wastes · Lignocellulosic materials · Mass multiplication ·
Management · Trichoderma
Introduction
To meet the ever-increasing demands for food and fiber, the green revolution has led
to intensified agriculture, which is practiced to the environment at great cost, which
results in continuous damage to natural ecosystems, ground water and environmental
degradation, and food-stuff pollution. Plant diseases, especially soil-borne diseases,
are of major concern in cultivation of crops. Chemical control of pathogens under
field conditions was found better with many practical problems on account of cost to
user, persistence of chemicals in nature, and carcinogenic and environmental pollu-
tion. Therefore, considering the cost of chemical pesticides and hazards involved,
biological control of the plant diseases appears to be an ecofriendly and effective
approach being practiced worldwide. Large-scale production of bio-agent and estab-
lishment in targeted niche determine the success of biological control. Therefore,
cost-effective mass production, establishment of bio-agent into the targeted niche,
and consistency in disease control are the primary concerns with augmentative
biological control.
For mass multiplication of the biocontrol agent through solid-state fermentation
technology, spore biomass is needed in enormous quantity. Trichoderma is a free-
living, asexually reproducing, filamentous fungi that is virtually seen in all types of
soil and decaying wood (Rashmi et al. 2015). The lack of knowledge of methods for
production and the delivery system is the critical impediment in the use of biocontrol
24 Mass Production of Trichoderma from Agricultural Waste and Its. . . 621
agents. Production of natural plant-protective preparations that contain an active

agent in the form of mycelium and conidiospores of Trichoderma spp. on conven-
tional, synthetic media with cellulose, glucose, molasses, and soluble starch requires
a substantial financial input, which impedes the planning of cost-efficient mass
production on a large scale and commercial success. Thus, the use of agricultural
wastes, viz., cereal grains, meal, brans, straw, plant residues, organic manures, and
solid paper waste (sludge) from pulp and paper mills, and other agro-industrial
wastes, viz., cellulosic plant residues for mass multiplication of T. harzianum, can
provide solution for this problem. Nowadays, Trichoderma is the most consistent to
increase its population for use in every crop fields. Therefore, this chapter provides
mass multiplication of Trichoderma as a biocontrol agent on agro-waste materials
and its application in plant disease management.
Benefits of Trichoderma
Disease Control
Trichoderma is a potent biocontrol agent and is recognized as highly rhizosphere

competent, i.e., it is able to colonize and proliferate on the growing root surface over
a considerable period of time and used extensively for soil-borne diseases. It has
been used successfully against plant pathogenic fungi belonging to various genera
like Fusarium, Phytophthora, Sclerotia, etc. (Trina et al. 2016; Tampakleima et al.
2017; Rajlakshmi and Sinha 2014).
Plant Growth Promoter
Strains of Trichoderma solubilize phosphates and micronutrients, and its applica-

tion increases the number of deep roots in plants and thereby increases the plant’s
ability to resist drought.
Biochemical Elicitors of Disease
Trichoderma strains are known to induce resistance in plants. Till now, three classes
of compounds that are produced by Trichoderma inducing resistance in plants are
known. The compounds produced by Trichoderma induce ethylene production,
hypersensitive responses, and other defense-related reactions in plant cultivars.
Transgenic Plants
Introduction of endochitinase gene from Trichoderma into plants such as tobacco

and potato plants has increased their resistance to fungal growth. Selected transgenic
622 B. Sinha et al.
lines are highly tolerant to foliar pathogens such as Alternariasolani, A. alternata,

and Botrytis cinerea as well as to the soil-borne pathogen, Rhizoctonia sp.
Bioremediation
Trichoderma strains play an important role in the bioremediation of soil that are
contaminated with herbicides and pesticides. They have the ability to degrade a wide
range of insecticides: organochlorines, organophosphates, and carbamates.
Biomass Production of Trichoderma on Agricultural Wastes
Age-old traditional practice of crop residue disposal is burning the crop stubbles in
open fields. In India, crop waste burnt is around 18–30%, and along the Indo-
Gangetic plain the figure is as high as 30–40% (Kumar et al. 2015). This crop
residue burning leads to hazardous environment. As India is an agriculturally
dominant nation, along with economic yield, utilization of farm resources sustain-
ably is appropriate to improve the standard of living. Appropriate mechanism for
disposal of crop residues has become a considerable issue; hence the priority is on
aerobic composting by which crop residues can be transformed into organic
manures by microbiological process instead of in situ burning of residue (Sharma
et al. 1999).
Techniques for mass multiplication of Trichoderma have been developed that are
cheap, easy, simple and less time-consuming. Commercial and practical success of
mass multiplication and large-scale production of a biocontrol agent depends on its
self-life, efficacy, eco-friendliness, and mass production capacity on suitable and
easily available substrates. The efforts of mass production were made 30–40 years
ago. Several substances have been used as substrates including agro-waste materials,
fruit wastes, and industrial by-products for mass multiplication of Trichoderma
species.
Cultivation of Trichoderma Using Various Agro-Waste Products

Different sources, viz., rhizospheric soil of non-irrigated and irrigated plants,
grains, crop seeds, fruit rinds, etc., were used for isolation of Trichoderma species.
Semi-solid substrates of 50 g each from 18 different agro-waste products, viz.,
cucumber, carrot, potato, banana, papaya, brinjal, radish, FYM, poultry, cabbage,
guava, orange, sugarcane, spinach, tea leaves, pea husk, wheat bran, and rice husk,
must be selected and wetted with 2% molasses. Each substrate then transferred to
250 ml conical flask and closed with cotton cork. For broth substrate the above
substrates were used at 50 g/150 ml distilled water, boiled for 10 min, and filtered
through muslin cloth. The supernatant solution was collected in 250 ml of conical
flask. Further solid and liquid substrates were sterilized in autoclave at 15 psi
pressure for 20 min. After proper sterilization, both the substrates (solid and liquid)
were inoculated with Trichoderma viride and Trichoderma harzianum and
incubated at 27 10 C. The growth of Trichoderma sp. can be seen at 20 days

after incubation.
Preparation of Sorghum Seeds and Initial Inoculum of T. harzianum

100 g of sorghum seeds were boiled for 20 to 25 min to soften the grains, cooked for
about 25%, drained for excess water, and spread to decrease the moisture content. To
remove the excess moisture, 2 g of calcium carbonate was added per 100 gm of
parboiled semi-dried sorghum seeds and transferred to polypropylene bags and then
autoclaved at 121 C at 15 min. After cooling, the sorghum seeds were aseptically
inoculated with the T. harzianum mats grown in liquid culture and incubated at room
temperature for 5–7 days.
Cultivation of Trichoderma Using Bagasse

10 gram of the sugarcane bagasse was sterilized in large petri-plates with optimized
moisture content of 60%, inoculated with the sorghum seeds, cultured with T.
harzianum, and incubated under room temperature for 10 days.
Cultivation of Trichoderma Using Compost

10 grams of the vermicompost was used for the cultivation of T. harzianum. The
culture of T. harzianum on compost was carried out as per the above protocol using
sugarcane bagasse.
Cultivation of Trichoderma Using Paddy Straw

10 grams of paddy straw was used for the cultivation of T. harzianum. The culture of
T. harzianum on paddy straw was carried out as per the above protocol using
sugarcane bagasse.
Yeast medium containing molasses was found to be very good medium for mass
multiplication of Trichoderma (Papavizas et al. 1984; Prasad and Rangeshwaran
2000). Similarly, clay impregnated with 10% molasses was found to be effective for
the maximum production of Trichoderma spores (Blackman and Kabana 1975). The
molasses and jaggery broth also shows significant for substrate for mass production
of Trichoderma (Sawant and Sawant 1996). Among the agro-waste materials, wheat
bran, or rice bran, was found to be the effective medium for mass multiplication of T.
harzianum (Heins et al. 1978; Martin et al. 1984; Sinha et al. 2016; Biam et al.
2017). But in 2002, Dubey and Patel reported that pulse bran with saw dust was
found to be better than the wheat bran as a substrate for mass production. Similarly,
wheat bran and saw dust combination proved to be good substrate for Trichoderma
mass multiplication (Elad et al. 1980; Mukhopadhyay et al. 1986). Combination of
wheat bran with maize bran has shown comparative effects for the mass production
of Trichoderma and found to be a good source of media (Kapoor and Kumar 2004).
Use of corn as a substrate for Trichoderma mass production has been tested by many
workers (Lewis and Papavizas 1980). Barley was also used as a medium by Moity
and Shatala (1981). Similarly, sorghum was tested as a substrate for mass production
of Trichoderma (Padmanabhan and Alexander 1984; Upadhyay and Mukhopadhyay
1986). Dubey and Patel (2002) used wheat straw, groundnut shells, and mushroom
624 B. Sinha et al.
Table 1 Mass production of Trichoderma sp. using various agro-based materials

S. No Agro-waste materials Trichoderma sp. References
1 Rice bran + saw dust, maize bran, T. koningii, T. Rajkonda and Bhale
wood chips, pigeon pea bran + saw viride 2012
dust, sugarcane bagasse, waste tea Sinha et al. 2016
powder Biam et al. 2017
2 Wood chips, maize bran +sawdust T. Pseudokoningii Rajkonda and Bhale
2012
3 Gram husk, sugarcane bagasse, T. virens Rajkonda and Bhale
maize bran 2012
4 FYM, wheat bran, rice bran, peat soil, Trichoderma spp. Sangeetha et al. 1993
rice straw
5 Groundnut shell medium Trichoderma spp. Raghuchander et al.
1993
6 Spent tea leaf waste and coffee husk Trichoderma spp. Bhai et al. 1994
7 Wheat bran and biogas manure T. Harzianum Jagadeesh and Geeta
1994
8 Sugarcane bagasse, vegetable waste Trichoderma Babu and
candidum Nagurandpallavi 2013
9 Pulses T. viride Khandelwall et al. 2012
10 Rice husk, saw dust, maize husk, and T. viride and T. Simon and Anamika
wheat bran harzianum 2011
11 Spent mushroom compost, vermi T. viride and T. Yadav 2012
compost, farmyard manure, wheat harzianum
grain, sorghum grain, broken maize
grain
bed straw. Similarly, decomposed coffee pulp (Sangle et al. 2002), coffee waste
(Saju et al. 2002), and agro-industrial cellulosic waste (Tewari et al. 2004) were also
used. It was suggested that the by-products of sugar industry were the best media for
mass multiplication of T. harzianum (Mev and Meena 2003). Some examples of
mass production of Trichoderma sp. using agro-based materials worldwide were
given in Table 1.
Other agro-waste materials used as a substrate for the Trichoderma mass produc-
tion were straws (Davet et al. 1981), tapioca (Kousalya and Jeyarajan 1988), FYM
(organic wastes) (Jacob and Sivaprakasam 1993), and vermiculite (Lewis et al.
1991). For the mass multiplication of Trichoderma sp., along with substrates, the
role of environmental factors is very important. Temperature is one of the most
important factors that influence the mass multiplication of Trichoderma sp. The best
temperature for the growth of Trichoderma is 25 2 C, while poor growth is seen at
below 10 C and above 35 C (Bhatnagar 1996). Trichoderma species have been
grown on wide range of grains, viz., maize, sorghum, pearl millet, wheat, wheat
bran, waste tea leaves, banana fruit rinds, and paddy straw (Zaidi and Singh 2004).
Press mud is good substrate and its composition suits well for developing good
compost by Trichoderma (Singh and Joshi 2007). Press mud helps in establishment
of Trichoderma in soil and provides protection against different diseases.
Trichoderma harzianum is reported to multiply well on press mud under laboratory

and compost pits at farmer fields.
Method of Application
Seed Treatment
Make paste or slurry adding 6 g of Trichoderma powder in 10–20 ml of water. Mix

1 kg of seeds to the Trichoderma paste or slurry properly to coat the seeds uniformly
before sowing.
Cutting and Seedling Root Dip
Prepare Trichoderma suspension of 5–10 gm/liter of water. Dip the seedlings or the
cuttings into the suspension for 1 h to 2 h or mix 10 g of Trichoderma powder along
with 100 g of well rotten FYM per liter of water and dip the cuttings and seedlings
for 10 min before planting.
Nursery Treatment
Apply 10–25 g of Trichoderma powder per 100 m2 of nursery bed. Application of

neem cake and FYM before treatment increases the efficacy.
Soil Treatment
After turning of sunn hemp or dhaincha into the soil for green manuring, apply 5 Kg
of Trichoderma powder per hectare, or mix 1 kg of Trichoderma formulation in
100 kg of farmyard manure, and cover it for 7 days with polythene. Sprinkle the heap
with water intermittently. Turn the mixture in every 3–4-day interval and then
broadcast in the field and irrigate.
Plant Treatment
Drench the soil near stem region with 10 g Trichoderma powder mixed in a liter of
water.
Furrow Application
Apply the mixture in furrows at the time of earthling or after 30 days of planting, net
weight: 500gm.
626 B. Sinha et al.
Mechanism of Trichoderma in Biological Control
It functions as biocontrol agent through several mechanisms as follows (Saba et al.

2012):
(a) Colonizing the soil and parts of the plant, occupying spaces, and restricting the
proliferation of the pathogens.
(b) Producing cell wall-degrading enzymes that act against the pathogens.
(c) Producing antibiotics that can kill the pathogens.
(d) Promoting the development of the plant.
(e) Producing enzymes and secondary metabolites which induce localized or sys-
temic resistance responses in the plant.
Parasitizing and killing other fungi are apparently ancestral traits of Trichoderma
that made them successful in commercial bio-fungicides and bio-nematicides. Envi-
ronmental signaling plays an important role in Trichoderma, and their cell signaling
is limited compared to model fungi (Neurospora crassa) but improved gradually by
genetic approaches. The combined mode of action for disease suppression of
Trichoderma is stated below.
Competition for Nutrients
Microorganisms compete with each other for the carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and other
mineral nutrients for their growth and development. Reduction in disease develop-
ment occurred in the rhizosphere area of the host plant due to suppression by the
antagonist. Trichoderma has the highest capacity to mobilize and uptake soil nutri-
ents when compared to other organisms. From the environment, cellulose, glucan,
and chitin get converted as glucose used for their carbon, and Trichoderma obtains
ATP from the metabolism of different sugars by the production of different enzymes,
and this energy source makes them a strong competitor. Limiting the nutrients in
rhizosphere results in starvation, which is the most common cause of death for other
microorganisms. Eisendle described that the iron uptake is essential for the viability
of filamentous fungi, and they produce siderophores (low-molecular-weight ferric
iron-specific chelators) to mobilize environmental iron. Subsequently, iron from the
ferric siderophore complexes is recovered via specific uptake mechanisms. Some
Trichoderma produce highly efficient siderophores that chelate the iron and stop the
growth of other fungi. Thus, iron availability influences the biocontrol effectiveness
of Trichoderma.
Mycoparasitism
Among all biocontrol agents, the mycoparasitism of Trichoderma has shown a wide
range of commercially important plant pathogens. The complex sequential
mechanism employed by Trichoderma is a process responded with several genes,

enzymes, secondary metabolites, or elicitor in different species and different stages
of their predation. It is the process in which the antagonistic fungi parasitize other
plant parasitic fungi by cell wall-degrading enzyme like proteases, chitinases, and
glucanases. Parasitic fungi have a positive chemotrophic growth toward the host by
coiling them around. Formation of appressorium takes place during coiling which
penetrate the host and contain osmotic solutes. The occurrence of coiling and
formation of appresoria caused for the production of cell wall-degrading enzymes
and peptaibols and facilitates both the entry of Trichoderma hypha into the lumen of
pathogen and the assimilation of the cell wall content. Lytic enzymes in biological
control act for over expression and deletion of their respective genes. Production of
cell wall-degrading hydrolytic enzymes is a key step in the successful establishment
of mycoparasitic relationship because cell wall is the first barrier between the fungal
prey and parasite. Sequential expression of cell wall-degrading enzymes, mostly
chitinase, glucanase, and protease, regulates the remote sensing, partially in
mycoparasitism.
Antibiosis
Antibiosis occurs during interactions involving low-molecular-weight diffusible

compounds produced by Trichoderma strains that inhibit the growth of other
microorganisms. Weindling demonstrated a “lethal principle” excreted by T.
lignorum into the surrounding medium termed as gliotoxin which kill both R.
solani and Sclerotinia americana. The metabolites produced by Trichoderma are
harzianic acid, tricholin, gliovirin, glisoprenins, heptelidic acid, alamethicins,
etc. These volatile and nonvolatile toxic compounds impede colonization of
pathogen. Mycoparasitism by coiling of hyphae (in vitro) and enzyme-mediated
antibiosis (in vivo) were the main mechanisms of biocontrol of T. harzianum
against Rhizoctonia solani in sheath blight of rice which was evident by
Cumagun and Ilag. Wiest et al. found peptaibols, another strong antimicrobial
metabolite, synergistically act with cell wall-degrading enzymes to inhibit fungal
pathogen.
Tricho-Remediation
Trichoderma sp. are known to produce mycolytic enzymes such as β-1,3-

glucanase, β-1, endo-glucanase, chitinase, and protease. These enzymes play an
important role in the degradation of chitin which is the structural component of the
target pathogens and herbivorous insects and consequent myco-parasitism
(Harman et al. 1993). T. viride, T. harzianum, and T. reesei are being extensively
studied to produce extracellular cellulolytic enzymes, namely, EGs, cello
biohydrolase, endoglucanase, xylo-glucanases, endochitinase, xylanase, glucan
endo-1,6-β-glucosidase, and cellobiase which are involved synergistically in the
628 B. Sinha et al.
conversion of cellulose to simple sugars like glucose. These cost-effective

enzymes play key role in biofuel, by recycling the cellulose from cellulosic
waste materials and bio-refinery technologies which also deployed in textile and
paper industries. Hazardous organic wastes including degradable municipal solid
waste is quickly digested with the enzymes cocktail; thus recycling of residues
increases usable energy as well as reduces pollutions. Trichoderma composting of
farm-accumulated crop residues is the best remedy for managing debris in short
duration to nullify the bad impact of agricultural burning. Enzymes of Tri-
choderma to break the polymers of the lingo-cellulose complex are potentiality
reported by Michael et al. Trichoderma strains possess innate resistance to syn-
thetic chemicals including fungicides, herbicides, and pesticides such as DDT,
contaminants at different levels. Microorganisms imply various physicochemical
interactions for metal up-taking by extracellular precipitation, cell surface sorption,
and intracellular accumulation. Vast release of industrial effluents makes our
surroundings toxic to plant and human; metal recovery and mitigation can be
done by Trichoderma enzymatic digestion and biosorption in a potential manner.
The fungi of interest opened up a large premise for obtaining agricultural sustain-
ability in adverse climate by eliminating toxicants from soil and water.
Climate Stress Reliever
Trichoderma are now studied in respect to abiotic stress, and it was observed some
of this species improve survival of plants in hostile environment by increasing
plant tolerance. During fungal-plant interaction at rhizosphere, a mechanism to
increase the effectiveness of water absorption because of increased root architec-
ture happens. Trichoderma alter the response of plant like drought tolerance
through physiological adaptation and drought avoidance through morphological
adaptation and can also induce systemic resistance to abiotic plant stress including
water deficit and salt and temperature stress. Singh et al. (2005) observed that
wheat crop raised from Trichoderma-treated seed can tolerate drought better than
crop raised from non-treated seed due to excellent root growth and more avail-
ability of nutrients. Viterbo et al. (2002) demonstrated that arabidopsis and cucum-
ber plants treated with Trichoderma before salt stress imposition improves seed
germination significantly through expression of several genes related to osmo-
protection. These applications have major implication for plant agriculture as the
use of beneficial organism is eco-friendly and cost-effective which further contrib-
ute to environmental sustainability.
Trichoderma: A Tool for Climate Smart Agriculture
In order to remove the crop residue biomass without having major impact on
climate change, the residue must be returned to soil in an eco-friendly manner.
The incorporation of micro-biome into soil or to crop residues leftover in fields
not only assures the return of sufficient residue carbon to soil but also enhances
soil microbial activity in the long run. Impact of these practices can result in good
nutrient recycling in soil with improved soil health. As per crop degradation is
concerned, the fungi among other microbes is labelled as prominent biomass
utilize. It’s not only because of their sizes but also their pre-dominance in wide
range of soil pH and efficiency to assimilate large amount of organic carbon that
is present in crop residues. Incorporating the residue remained after harvest is one
of the feasible and best alternatives with a limitation of immobilization of
nutrients like nitrogen at initial stages due to high C-N ratio which could be
mitigated by inoculation of fast decomposing microorganisms like Trichoderma.
It is a fungi that belong to Hypocreaceae family under Ascomycota phylum and
have many strains that are capable of decomposing lignocellulosic waste mate-
rials in crop fields. It degrades complex substances of organic matter, viz.,
hemicellulose and cellulose, so that the time taken for decomposition of residue
can be shortened with the advantage of nutrient mineralization and checking soil-
borne diseases. Generally crop residue consists of 10% dry mass of which lignin
accounts for 10–25% of lingo-cellulosic materials (Bisen and Rahangdale 2017).
Major portion of the residue generated, i.e., paddy, wheat straw, and sugarcane
trash, could be transformed into valuable organic compost at field level. Hence, it
could enhance the physical, chemical, and biological properties. Trichoderma is
believed to be active cellulose decomposer (Domsch and Cams 1969). Not only
cellulosic materials but Trichoderma also produce lignin peroxidase and laccase
for lignocellulosic material degradation which helps in lignin degradation. Thus,
it helps in delignification and biodegradation of cellulose in nature. The fungi
have good antagonistic and bio-parasitic activities as Trichoderma produces
many antifungal agents that help them to regulate other plant pathogens (Yobo
et al. 2011).
Trichoderma: A Potential Biocontrol Agent
There is immense potential of Trichoderma for the management of soil-borne

diseases. The authors also work on the various aspects of the potentiality of the
Trichoderma for the disease management with special emphasis on the native iso-
lates. The details of the potentiality of the Trichoderma against diseases are given in
the following Table 2.
Conclusion
Environmental destruction made the world to turn toward sustainability. In the

current scenario, microbial inoculants are a major concern to maintain sustainability
and have incredible scope in the near future. The solid agro-waste substrates were
suitable for mass production of Trichoderma species. By adopting proper care and
techniques, the process of mass multiplication was very easy to handle. The
630 B. Sinha et al.
Table 2 Trichoderma for the management of plant diseases

S. no. Crop/disease Pathogen Biocontrol agent References
1 Rice/sheath blight R. Solani Trichoderma spp. Sinha et al. 2015
2 Ghost paper/root R. solani Trichoderma spp. Koijam and Sinha 2018
rot
3 Mustard/wire stem R. solani Trichoderma spp. Nirupama et al. 2017
4 Chickpea/wilt Fusarium Trichoderma spp. Tampakleima et al. 2017
5 Aloe vera Colletotrichum Trichoderma spp. Sinha et al. 2015
6 French bean/stem Sclerotium Trichoderma spp. Rajlakshmi and Sinha
rot 2014
7 Chili/wilt Fusarium Trichoderma spp. Trina et al. 2016
8 Groundnut/stem Sclerotium Trichoderma spp. Rashmi et al. 2017
rot
inoculums of potential biocontrol agent can be maintained in the field for a long
period. The mass multiplication practice gives opportunities for the people to reduce
health risks, costs, and environmental degradation. Among all Trichoderma species,
T. harzianum and T. viride have better potential to colonize the agro-waste materials
worldwide. The enzymes and antibiotics produced by Trichoderma species that
appear to be involved in biocontrol are strongly influenced by the substrate on
which the fungus is grown. The results of the experiments conducted using Tri-
choderma sp. as a biocontrol agent revealed that the effect of native Trichoderma on
the yield of cabbage and cauliflower was found higher in Trichoderma-treated plants
compared to the untreated plants. The effect of native Trichoderma on the yield of
onion and seed fresh weight of pea was found higher in Trichoderma-treated plants.
In order of a biocontrol agent, Trichoderma also increases the yield-attributing
characteristics of the plants. The native potent Trichoderma sp. will provide great
antagonist potential for the management of soil-borne diseases. Thus, the present
findings are in the line of several workers with some new information related to
reduce disease incidence, enhancing crop yield, ecological behavior, and their use in
biological management in Manipur.
The farmers should not depend on the commercial products because these had no
longer performance. In order to tackle the global problems, effective alternatives to
chemical control are being investigated, and the use of antagonistic microbes as
biocontrol agent seems to be one of the promising approaches. With the advent of
biocontrol as a potential approach to integrated pest management (IPM) in the area
of fungi-mediated plant disease control, the genus Trichoderma has gained consid-
erable importance. Increasing production and productivity of the crops is the need of
the hour to feed the increasing population and also to overcome the problem of
decreasing land for agriculture. The major constraint in adopting this technique is
inadequacy of knowledge regarding benefits of this approach among farmers. The
major difficulty is acquiring farmer’s realization toward this complication; hence
inculcating knowledge among farmers by involving multi-stakeholders and targeting
women and youth is crucial.
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Impact of Agricultural Waste
Characterization in Biomass: Solar 25
PV Hybrid Mini-grid Performance
J. E. Bambokela, Edison Muzenda, and Mohamed Belaid
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 636
The Concept of Hybrid Mini-grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 638
What Is a Hybrid Mini-grid? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 638
The Importance of Mini-grid Hybridization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 640
Biomass-Solar PV Hybrid Mini-grid (BSPVHM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 641
Biomass Technologies Commonly Used . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 641
System Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 642
Biodigester . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 643
Solar PV Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 644
Inverter and Converter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 644
Energy Management System (EMS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 644
Diesel Generator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 645
Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 645
Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 646
Results and Discussions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 649
Conclusions and Future Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 657
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 657
J. E. Bambokela (*)
Department of Chemical Engineering Technology, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg,
South Africa
E. Muzenda
Department of Chemical, Materials and Metallurgical Engineering, Botswana International
University of Science and Technology, Palapye, Botswana
e-mail: muzendae@biust.ac.bw
M. Belaid
Department of Chemical Engineering Technology, Faculty of Engineering and the Built
Environment, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
e-mail: mbelaid@uj.ac.za

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_33
636 J. E. Bambokela et al.
Abstract
There are presently 600 million of people in Africa without access to electricity.
The electrification rates of most African countries are below 20%. The lack of
access to electricity is a major drawback for the continent especially in rural
areas of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) where there is an untapped economic
potential. Most rural areas have promising agrobusinesses that could generate
a profit of one trillion dollars by 2030 if cost-effective energy facilities are
implemented. For this reason, hybrid mini-grids using renewable energy (RE)
sources such as solar photovoltaic (PV) and biomass technologies such as
anaerobic digestion (AD) are recommended as the solutionist approach to
eradicate the energy poverty in off-grid communities with high agricultural
potential. From this perspective, this study sought to briefly review the func-
tionality of a biomass and solar photovoltaic hybrid mini-grid (BSPVHM)
coupled with diesel generators and a battery energy storage system (BESS)
used as back-up. To predict the performance of the biogas power unit in a
BSPVHM, waste characterization and biomethane potential (BMP) tests were
conducted with four types of agricultural wastes: cow dung, poultry droppings,
grass, and vegetables. Through X-ray fluorescence (XRF), the toxicity level of
inhibitory elements in substrates was assessed and found to be within an
acceptable range. Three BMP test sets were run for each co-digestion process
under mesophilic conditions at 37 C with (1) grass and cow dung, (2) food
waste (fruits and vegetables) and cow dung, and (3) chicken droppings and cow
dung. For each set, the highest volume of biomethane was considered and
particularly assessed. The first set produced a biomethane volume of
1378.8 ml; meanwhile, the second and the third only produced 965 ml and
495 ml, respectively. This study aimed at establishing the correlation between
substrates’ composition with biomethane yield and power contribution of the
biogas power unit and the overall performance of the BSPVHM.
Keywords
Agricultural · Biomass · Mini-grid · Solar · Waste
Introduction
SSA is the most affected region of the world in terms of energy deficit. Only 1 out
of 3 people has access to electricity, which in most cases, is unstable and
unreliable (Odarno 2018). As such, 48 out of 49 SSA countries have very low
electrification rate except South Africa. This is due to the poor maintenance of
existing energy infrastructures in urban and rural areas and lack of financial
resources leading to frequent load shedding, power interruptions, inaccess to good
education conditions, and extreme poverty among many other challenges (Eberhard
et al. 2017).
25 Impact of Agricultural Waste Characterization in Biomass: Solar PV Hybrid. . . 637
Most African governments have adopted the use of traditional fossil fuel
technologies to address timeously the lack of power in regions of their countries
that are still undeserved. This explains the use of diesel and heavy fuel oil (HFO)
generators by multiple national and continental small, medium, and large enter-
prises to meet their daily energy demand. The challenge with fossil fuels is that
they are highly polluting and very costly for most emerging businesses (Oyuke et
al. 2016). As such, only large enterprises such as mining companies show the
financial capacity to buy and run diesel or HFO gensets despite environmental
consequences.
More than 90% of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in off-grid areas of SSA
cannot afford to be fossil fuel dependent (Bahar 2020). Usually, these SMEs adopt
alternative power supply systems that are not installed according to international
standards while putting the lives of many people in danger. In countries such as the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), there are many unaccredited independent
power producers in off-grid agricultural communities who supply power to tens of
businesses, during the day for a period of 8 h, from a power generation facility
through non-isolated overhead cables (African Development Bank 2005). This is
because provincial power utility does not exist, and therefore, SMEs come up with
their own off-grid power solutions for disconnected regions with very low electrifi-
cation rate. They perceive low electrification rate as one of the major drivers to
poverty and a pressing obstacle to the economic growth of their communities
(BloombergNEF 2020).
Since the lack of energy stifles economic growth and development, poverty in
the African continent cannot be alleviated without electricity. Oyuke et al. (2016)
define the poverty in Africa as a “lived poverty” based on how often people go
without basic necessities such as enough food and clean water, necessary medi-
cines or medical care, sufficient fuel for cooking, and substantial sources of
revenue. The paradox is that many of the African rural areas that are currently
off-grid have a proven potential in agriculture that could revolutionize the food
industries in SSA. The World Bank projects that agriculture will become a 1 trillion
USD business sector in Africa in 2030 that will alleviate poverty considered as the
second major problem in the continent. It is further stipulated that agriculture-
related industry accounts for almost 50% of all economic activities in SSA with an
approximate of 24% of growth of the gross domestic product (GDP) of countries of
that region. It is also reported that Africa possesses half of the world’s fertile
ground that is unfortunately not exploited to its full potential (Juma 2015). Studies
show that in households without electricity, individuals are more likely to go on
food hunger. In the research conducted by Oyuke et al. (2016), it was reported that
37% of people went without enough food at least once a year in on-grid regions of
selected African countries. Meanwhile, 60% of people of off-grid areas of these
same countries went on food hunger for a longer period in a year. This justifies how
improved access to electricity in Africa can alleviate poverty, eradicate hunger, and
boost local economy.
Presently, rural electrification rate is drastically rising because of the wide
adoption of mini-grid systems in off-grid communities. For instance, mini-grid
technologies are rapidly growing and occupying predominant place in SSA and
Asia-Pacific (BloombergNEF 2020). BSPVHM is proposed as a cost-effective,
ecofriendly energy solution for off-grid farming communities (Corfee-Morlot et
al. 2019). This is because solar PV and biogas are RE technologies with available
energy resources worldwide. Solar PV technology is classified as one of
the cheapest in the world today (Mainali and Dhital 2015). AD is known as a
mature technology with diversified revenue streams from the transformation of
waste into products such as electricity, fuel, heat, and fertilizers (Scarlat et al.
2018).
Nevertheless, there are still a lot of efforts needed from a regulatory, techno-
logical, and financial point of view (BloombergNEF 2020). The mini-grid con-
cept is currently being reviewed by African energy stakeholders to be integrated
in their national and regional energy plan (GVEP International 2011). To achieve
an effective review, the design of mini-grid set-ups must be understood
(Manetsgruber et al. 2015). To understand its design, various factors such as
pre-treatment analysis of wastes must be considered before feedstock intake and
complete operation of the BSPVHM. The purpose of this study was to review
the functionality of main components of the BSPVHM, assess the composition
of substrates used in the AD, and predict the performance of biogas power unit
from BMP tests run on agricultural wastes such as cow dung and chicken
droppings.
The Concept of Hybrid Mini-grid
What Is a Hybrid Mini-grid?
A mini-grid system is defined as an autonomous facility composed of a power

generation unit and transmission and distribution networks that manages the supply
and demand of electricity (Weston et al. 2016). This system can run on various
sources of energy such as solar, wind, hydro, biomass, and diesel generator usually
coupled with BESS (AfDB et al. 2016). Mini-grid set-ups are built on different
scales from small to very large depending on the installed capacity of the power
generation unit required for the demand profile of the specific location where the
systems are to be implemented (EEP 2018).
Hybrid mini-grid is a set-up that incorporates two or more energy sources in the
power generation unit as illustrated in Fig. 1 (Islam et al. 2017). The most common
hybrid mini-grid systems are:
• Solar PV – diesel generator – batteries

• Solar PV – wind – diesel generators – batteries
• Solar PV – hydro – diesel generators – batteries
• Solar PV – biomass (gasifier or digester) – diesel generators – batteries
Fig. 1 Hybrid mini-grid scheme (IRENA 2020)
It is understood that solar PV is often used in single system or hybrid mini-grid

because of its economic viability compared to wind, biomass, and hydropower
sources (IRENA 2020).
As illustrated in Fig. 1, it can be seen that diesel generators and BESS are often
used as a back-up system to handle intermittencies from solar or wind energy sources
during the day.
Mini-grid can be classified in two types: grid-connected and isolated. Grid-
connected mini-grid set-ups are usually found in pico and micro (from 500 W to
10 kW) scale since they are often used as back-up power solutions against the lack of
performance of the existing electric grid of the power utility. Isolated mini-grids are
often referred as decentralized or off-grid utilities in mini or large scale with an
installed power capacity from 10 kW to 15 MW with transmission and distribution
networks in low or medium voltage (Weston et al. 2016). Mini-grid can be catego-
rized in different scales and tiers according to their installed capacity and end-user
customers (EEP 2018).
Historically, most isolated mini-grids were powered by fossil fuel-based energy
sources (diesel gensets) and operated by national power utilities to supply power to
undeserved communities of their countries (Lukamba-Muhiya 2006). This approach
is seen in various SSA countries such as Togo, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.
However, due to rising cost of fuel, those utilities decided to shift to renewable
energy sources to lower costs on daily operation and maintenance (AfDB 2017). On
one hand, there are a rising number of isolated renewable mini-grids deployed in
Africa that are now replacing or complementing existing diesel isolated mini-grid
(CAMCO 2009; IRENA 2019; Frankfurt School 2015). On the other hand, there are
multiple grid-connected mini-grids that are also being tailored to different applica-
tions to use renewable energy sources and work in conjunction with the grid to
increase reliability for supply for consumers, reduce electricity bills, or decrease grid
dependency (AfDB 2017).
The Importance of Mini-grid Hybridization
Most early mini-grids used single energy source: diesel, biomass, or hydro. Approx-
imately 31% of these systems operated by utilities used diesel generators or hydro-
power sources. However, due to high operating costs and environmental negative
impacts caused by fossil fuel-based facilities, multiple mini-grid systems had to be
optimized through hybridization with diverse energy sources (BloombergNEF
2020).
The main reasons for hybridization are to firstly reduce operating costs with lower
fuel consumption, secondly guarantee power supply in handling intermittencies and
storing available excess of power generated, and thirdly reduce a maximum of CO2
emissions into the atmosphere (Islam et al. 2017).
As depicted in Fig. 2, 50% of hybrid mini-grids installed globally always
incorporate solar PV as one of the main power sources in addition to diesel generator
coupled with BESS used as a back-up system in the power unit. This is because solar
PV technology’s modular capabilities and its low operation and maintenance (O&M)
costs and lifetime are optimal for any types of mini-grid. Additionally, solar PV is a
flexible technology that can easily be associated with other technologies such as
biomass, wind, and hydro. Nowadays, there is a strong economic rationale for the
hybridization of solar PV, biomass, and hydropower in specific locations where the
availability of natural resources are guaranteed (GVEP International 2011).
Hybrid mini-grid system may be designed in different configurations. Generally,
each configuration presents a specific advantage that may be economic, technical, or
environmental. In most cases, the configuration that is selected is the one that seems
more economically viable than others in order to ascertain that a project will be
profitable according to projections of the financial model.
In their investigation for suitable energy solutions for northern rural areas of
Bangladesh, Islam et al. (2017) simulated three configurations of hybrid mini-grid
systems with solar PV and biomass technology backed up by a diesel generator and
Fig. 2 Energy mix in mini- 3.2% 0% 2%

grid projects in Asia
(BloombergNEF 2020)
13% Solar PV
Hydro
Diesel / HFO
11% 50% Solar hybrid
Biomass
Wind
Other
21%
BESS system. The three configurations were modelled with the Hybrid Optimization
of Multiple Energy Resources (HOMER) software which is a simulation tool for
hybrid mini-grid set-ups. Configuration A was simulated without a diesel generator,
and configuration B was simulated without a BESS system. It was concluded that
configuration C was optimal for the study in terms of energy cost and total net
present value (NPV). This configuration was composed of 103 kW solar PV, 60 kW
biomass generator, 40 kW diesel generator, 60 kWh lithium-ion battery, and 77.2 kW
system converter with a cycle-charging dispatch strategy. This set-up offered better
investment return than other set-ups although it offered less environmental benefits
than configuration A in terms of CO2 emissions. Configuration A had a nearly 0%
emission of CO2; however, it was reported that 89% of CO2 emissions from grid
supplied energy and 91% of CO2 emissions from diesel-based sources were consid-
erably reduced.
Frankfurt School (2015) present different case studies from different locations
around the world. These locations are island and self-supplied in electricity by means
of diesel mini-grid. After conducting an analysis on the actual cost of electricity, it
was seen that non-hybrid mini-grids were more costly than solar PV-diesel hybrid
systems. After simulation with HOMER software, it was seen that 29–35% of diesel
consumption was reduced. Approximately, 224,000 USD to 3,780,000 USD was
saved through hybridization with 3.5–6 h of penetration of solar PV on a daily basis.
It is understood that hybrid grid helps address the economic challenges that
utilities face to supply reliable electricity in urban and rural areas. There are many
governments in Asia, Latin America, and SSA that are leading mini-grid programs
as a strategy for rural electrification (BloombergNEF 2020). In essence, cost savings
on fuel consumption and environmental impact are the main drivers for hybridiza-
tion as high operation costs make projects less profitable for energy activists.
Biomass-Solar PV Hybrid Mini-grid (BSPVHM)
Biomass Technologies Commonly Used
Biomass technologies consist mainly in converting waste to energy. Each technology

depends on the type of waste to be used as the raw material of the process. Most
BSPVHM projects utilize forestry crops and residues, agricultural crops and resi-
dues, animal residues, sewage, industrial residues, municipal solid waste (MSW),
and wet waste to generate electricity (Zafar 2020). These categories of wastes
determine the type of biomass technologies to be used to produce energy. The
most common type of technologies used in mini-grid projects nowadays is biomass
gasification and AD (Beyene et al. 2018).
Biomass gasification is a thermal process that runs in a higher temperature range
of 480–650 C in the absence of oxygen or sometimes with very little air that
involves three main phases: devolatilization, methane, and reduction.
Devolatilization is the phase during which a combustible gas (syngas) composed
of CO, CO2, H2, CH4, H2O, and N2 is produced by burning waste such as risk husks,
sugarcane bagasse, nut shells, or wood chips. After the production of syngas, there is
a residue of reactive char. Combustion consist of partially burning volatiles and char
in air or oxygen to generate heat and CO2. During reduction phase, CO2 absorbs heat
and reacts with the remaining char to produce CO (producer gas). The presence of
steam in a gasifier results in the production of H2 as a secondary fuel component. The
produced syngas is always cleaned and upgraded before being used in engines or
turbines to be converted into electricity (Zafar 2020).
AD is defined as the process that occurs in various metabolic interactions among
distinct groups of bacteria in the absence of oxygen. It is generally carried out in
digesters that are run at temperatures ranging from 30 C to 65 C. During AD,
bacteria contained in organic compounds such as animal manure, sewage, food
waste, and crop residues in liquid or solid forms are decomposed while subsequently
generating biogas that can be converted into electricity. Biogas is mainly composed
of methane (50–65%) and carbon dioxide (30–45%) with various trace elements. AD
takes place in four stages during biogas production: hydrolysis, acidogenesis,
acetogenesis, and methanogenesis (Tippayawong and Thanompongchart 2010).
For each stage, there are families of bacteria that are responsible for the interac-
tions that take place. In hydrolysis, polymers such as carbohydrates, proteins, and
lipids are transformed into glucose, glycerol, purines, and pyridines. In acidogenesis,
organic materials from hydrolysis produced acetic and butyric acids in a fast pace.
Acetogenic bacteria convert acid products into hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and acetic
acid. Finally, in methanogenesis, methanogenic bacteria facilitate the production of
biomethane where 70% of the methane produced derives from acetate (Khalid et al.
2011).
AD is a fermentation process with organic raw materials used as feedstocks to
generate biogas that is upgraded into biomethane for electricity grid balancing and
high-quality digestate that are used as biofertilizers in agrobusinesses (Singh and
Baredar 2016).
It is important to note that the selection of biomass technology is very crucial
since it affects the performance of the BSPVHM. To select the adequate biomass
technology, potential feedstock needs to be evaluated in pre-treatment analysis also
known as waste characterization. Waste characterization is done in three major
analyses: ultimate and proximate analysis as well as BMP (Fagerström et al.
2018). Ultimate and proximate analyses allow to determine the full composition of
feedstock, while BMP enables to predict the capacity of waste to generate
biomethane during gasification or AD.
System Description
To achieve the aim of this study, the focus will be on the design of an isolated
BSPVHM using AD as waste-to-energy technology. As seen in Fig. 3, it is important
to understand the overall process of power supply before selecting a specific
technology. From the power generation unit to the connections of end-users, there
are various influencing factors that must be monitored to obtain a highly performing
Fig. 3 Overview of the power supply through BSPVHM using AD
BSPVHM. To achieve the objectives of this research, the design tools and param-
eters will be assessed essentially on the power generation unit but from a bird’s-eye
view of the holistic occurring process of the mini-grid steps.
In Fig. 3, there are three main power sources in a BSPVHM: sunlight, wastes,
and fossil fuels. Sunlight is converted into electric energy by solar PV panels, wastes
are converted to bioenergy through AD or gasification, and diesel or HFO are used as
fossil fuels in a generator that is used to back up renewable energy power units
(Gelegenis et al. 2007).
Biodigester
Biodigester is an apparatus in which biogas is generated from waste used as

feedstock in the absence of oxygen. Biogas is mainly composed of 50–70% of
CH4, 30–50% of CO2, and H2O, H2S, and other minor components and trace
elements. Biogas can be produced from organic waste such as food waste, agricul-
tural waste, and cow dung feed in the biodigester (Khan et al. 2017). Once wastes are
fed in the biodigester, it produces raw biogas that must be upgraded through
impurities’ removal of components such as CO2, H2S, and various trace elements
and subsequently lead to methane enrichment to obtain biomethane with 85–99% of
CH4 (Dioha et al. 2005). The biomethane generated is used as fuel in the generator
where it is converted into electricity with a supply controlled through an energy

management system (EMS). Meanwhile, the digestate in the digester may be used as
fertilizers after treatment for agrobusinesses. Usually, the digestate contains multiple
slow degradable components such as lignin, nitrogen, and phosphorus in various
forms; inorganic salts containing PO43, NH4+, and K; and other minerals. This
composition determines the efficacy of digestate as fertilizers for soil enrichment and
remediation (Bambokela et al. 2016).
Solar PV Panel
Solar PV panels convert the sunlight into electrical energy in direct cur-
rent (DC) (Shamseldein and Abdelaziz 2019). Power generated may vary depending
on the size of PV modules and the location that determines weather conditions. Since
solar PV technology is very intermittent, the combination with other RE technolo-
gies and energy storage systems in a hybrid configuration allows the stability of the
power generation unit throughout the day (IRENA 2020).
Since solar PV technology has the merits of having costs that considerably
drop in the course of time, it seems easier to install a large number of solar PV
panel to handle energy intermittencies during cloudy days. This fosters the wide
adoption of solar PV panels for power generation for domestic, residential, or
industrial purposes and even in water solutions with water pumping systems from
wells in rural areas (Shamseldein and Abdelaziz 2019). Solar PV panels are also
known for having a lifespan of 30 years, which make is suitable for long-term
projects.
Inverter and Converter
Inverters are electronic devices that transform DC to alternating current (AC). On the
contrary, converters transform AC to generate DC outputs. The size of the inverter
and converter should be sufficiently higher to handle the total peak load of the
BSPVHM when it is operated in isolated or grid-connected mode. Generally, the
inverter and converter must have the same nominal voltage as the battery
(Shamseldein and Abdelaziz 2019). DC from solar PV panels is converted to AC
and directed to the EMS where it is either added to the aggregate power supply to the
load or sent to the BESS. AC from biomass generator and diesel generator is also
monitored through the EMS where power is either fully or partially supplied to the
load or stored in the BESS.
Energy Management System (EMS)
An EMS is a computer-aided tool used by utilities or power operators to monitor,

control, and optimize the performance of the power generation sources or
transmission system. The main purpose of the EMS is to minimize generation cost,
limit power loss by monitoring the changeability and uncontrollability of generated
power, and drastically reduce CO2 emissions and circumvent negative environmen-
tal effect. EMS mainly focuses on two important periods (Shamseldein and
Abdelaziz 2019):
• The charging period: It is a time during which the excess energy generated by
biomass generator is stored in batteries through the EMS that communicates with
BESS while solar energy is supplied to loads. This is a period when the demand is
not at its peak.
• The discharging period: It is the peak period during which the stored energy in
the BESS is used. During this period, the demand is high, and the stored energy is
selected as one of the cheapest options of power supply in conjunction with
biomass generator because of the higher utility tariff when the BSPVHM is grid-
connected. It is also perceived as the cheapest option because of the high cost of
diesel or HFO. The discharging period often occurs in the evening after daylight.
As such, stored energy is used with bioenergy from the biomass generator to meet
the peak demand.
Diesel Generator
Usually the diesel/HFO generator and BESS are used together to manage energy
intermittencies or unreliability of the grid when the mini-grid is not isolated. A back-
up system may be constituted of a battery bank, with ten batteries and more or
multiple generators that can be dispatched according to the peak demand to meet.
Because of the high cost of fuel consumption and environmental impact, it is
recommended to set an effective BESS that can back up any power shortage without
the integration of diesel generators (Islam et al. 2017). However, economics shows
that BESS may be more costly than diesel generators. For this reason, diesel
generators are often integrated in the BESS to manage power shortage effectively
and more economically.
Battery Energy Storage System (BESS)
Batteries are the most commonly types of storage devices. According to

Matheri et al. (2016), the type of chemicals in batteries determines their
charging and discharging potency. Among different types, lead acid batteries
are the most commonly used. However, Li-on batteries are widely adopted due
to their high energy densities, energy storage capabilities, long lifetime, and
low maintenance cost compared to lead acid batteries although the capital
cost of Li-on batteries is very high. Apart from their merits, Li-on battery
banks have the demerit of being expensive for large-scale projects
(BloombergNEF 2020).
Methodology
This study was conducted according to the following steps as outlined below:
• The site visit and waste collection were the first step of the process. The purpose
of the visit was to ensure that the waste collected was technically convenient for
the experiment to run. In this study, two main sites were considered: a South
African-based farm, in the south east of Johannesburg, and the Johannesburg (Jo’
market) where various farming products are sold. This was motivated by the fact
that farms, landfills and public markets are usually considered as major sources of
organic wastes in South Africa (Davie 2014; Joburg Market 2020). Waste col-
lection and quantification were conducted according to standard methods of
ASTM (ASTM and ASTM-D5231-92 2008). After waste collection, waste was
sorted in poultry, cattle, fruit, and vegetable categories as depicted in Figs. 4, 5, 6,
and 7.
• Proximate analysis, ultimate analysis, and XRF analysis were conducted to
determine the chemical composition of substrates and more particularly trace
elements contained therein. Vials, evaporating dish, electronic weigh balance, pH
meter, bomb calorimeter, element analyzer, XRF spectrometer, desiccator, and
oven were equipments used in the waste quantification and characterization. The
XRF spectrometer used was the Rigaku ZSX Primus II X (Japan).
• Prior to the feedstock intake, substrate samples particularly cattle’s dung and
poultry droppings were electronically sieved to separate the substrate from any
solid component which could be inhibitory to the AD. Food and grass col-
lected were chopped off by means of a blender. The inoculum used in this
study was the mixture of cow dung and grass obtained from the digestate of a
previous AD test performed. The purpose of the addition of the inoculum was
Fig. 4 Chicken droppings

Fig. 5 Food wastes (fruits

and vegetables)
Fig. 6 Cow dung
to stimulate methanogenic bacteria responsible for biogas production during

AD.
• The mixture of co-substrate and inoculum was placed in digesters. Nine digesters
split in three BMP test sets of co-digestion were used. Cow dung was co-digested
with lawn grass, fruits and vegetables were co-digested with cow dung, and
finally chicken waste was also co-digested with cow dung. All BMP tests were
conducted in accordance with the method described by APHA (2005) by means
of the Automatic Methane Potential Test System II (AMPTS II) presented in
Fig. 8. The AMPTS II enables to measure the accumulated volume of biomethane
Fig. 7 Grass clippings
Fig. 8 AMPTS II. (1) Thermostatic water bath (2) Glass digesters with automatic stirrer (3) CO2-
fixing unit composed of absorbent bottles (4) Gas volume-measuring device
of a 100% purity in real time during AD or anaerobic co-digestion of organic

material. The AMPTS II is a standardized method for BMP test (Xie and
Gathergood 2012; Baciocchi et al. 2013).
• To obtain an anaerobic process, oxygen was removed from each digester through
a nitrogen injection mechanism. The more nitrogen was injected, the more
oxygen was ejected. As shown in Fig. 9, the anaerobic co-digestion was carried
out in 500 ml digesters and placed into water bath regulated under mesophilic
temperature conditions at exactly 37 C. As co-digestion was the main approach
used in this study, substrates were mixed with deionized water to avoid contam-
ination. The slurry obtained constituted the feedstock for each digester.
• The pH value of each slurry was evaluated to ensure that the feedstock is at a
neutral pH value (pH ~7) as non-neutral values could be harmful to bacteria
growth and development and inhibitory to AD processes. In the event that the pH
was higher than 7, sulfuric acid (H2SO4) was used to regulate and decrease the pH
Fig. 9 Digesters used before the BMP test
value to 7. If the pH was lower than 7, sodium hydroxide (NaOH) was used to
adjust and increase the pH value to 7.
• Monoethanolamine (MEA) at 3 M, sodium hydroxide (NaOH) at 3 M, and
potassium hydroxide at 3 M (KOH) were solvents used in the chemical absorp-
tion processes used to upgrade the biogas produced to biomethane during each
BMP test. The volume of biomethane produced was measured through a gas-
measuring device for the optimal period determined by the characteristics of each
substrate.
As illustrated below, each digester was placed according to the description below
(Figs. 10 and 11):
1. Placement according to substrates:

• Digesters 1–2–3: Cow dung + grass
• Digesters 4–5–6: Food wastes + grass
• Digesters 7–8–9: Chicken droppings + grass
2. Placement according to organic solvents:
• Digesters 1–6–7: Connected to bottles containing MEA
• Digesters 2–5–8: Connected to bottles containing KOH
• Digesters 3–4–9: Connected to bottles containing NaOH
Results and Discussions
The experiments that were conducted essentially focused on the composition of

substrates that affects the performance of anaerobic co-digestion and the production
of raw biogas that is later upgraded into biomethane for technical suitability. Sub-
strates’ composition and biogas upgrading influence directly or indirectly the pro-
duction of biomethane yield that is converted into electricity in the biogas power unit
Fig. 10 Placement of
digesters
Fig. 11 Placement of
absorbent bottles in the carbon
dioxide fixing unit
of the BSPVHM. In other words, the electricity output of this unit is primarily
dependent on the quality of feedstock used. As such, Figs. 12, 13, 14, and 15
presented XRF results of agricultural waste prior to BMP tests.
A predominant presence of potassium (K) and calcium (Ca) is seen in each
analyzed sample. Cow dung is rich in potassium (K), calcium (Ca), copper (Cu),
and iron (Fe) with a very low quantity compared to grass and food wastes where K
was identified with a content of over 40%. However, Ca seemed very low compared
25
20
Mass (%)
15
10
0
Na
Si
Ni
S
Rb
Mg
Al
Ti
Mn
Fe
Cu
Zn
P
Cl
K
Ca
Br
Sr
Ba
Zr
Cr
Trace elements
Fig. 12 Trace element composition of cow dung sample in mass %
60
50
40
Mass (%)
30
20
10
0
Na Mg Al Si P S Cl K Ca Cr Mn Fe Ni Cu Zn Ge Br Rb Y Zr Sn Os
Trace elements
Fig. 13 Trace element composition of grass sample in mass %
to poultry waste where the Ca content was up to 50%. Usually substrates used as
feedstock in AD process contain mineral ions such as sodium (Na), K, Ca, and S
(sulfur) which enhance the microbial growth; however, their higher concentration
can be toxic. Minerals like Cu, silver (Ag), cadmium (Cd), nickel (Ni), and zinc (Zn)
also contribute to microbial growth, but when their concentration is not controlled,
they reduce the biogas production because of the accumulation of organic acid that
causes a methanogenic microbial inhibition. As such, toxicity depends on the level
of concentration of mineral and trace elements in substrates (Braun 2002).
Bambokela et al. (2016) justify the difference in substrates’ mineral composition
as the results of the natural or acquired composition of substrates during different
occurring biological processes such as ruminant digestion for cow dung and photo-
synthesis for vegetables. As such, although substrates are mainly composed of
carbon (C), hydrogen (H), nitrogen (N), and sulfur (S) that determine the amount
60
50
40
Mass (%)
30
20
10
0
Na Al P Cl Ca Cr Fe Cu Br Sr Nb Cs La
Trace elements
Fig. 14 Trace element composition of poultry sample in mass %
80
70
60
Mass (%)
50
40
30
20
10
0
Na Mg Al Si P S Cl K Ca Mn Fe Cu Zn Rb Sn
Trace elements
Fig. 15 Trace element composition of food waste sample in mass %
of CH4 and CO2 generated in raw biogas, the volume of sulfur compounds, haloge-
nated compounds, siloxanes, water, ammonia, and other volatile organic compounds
(VOCs) in trace compounds is also important as their presence can damage equip-
ment or pipelines by corrosion if not purified at the early stage (Dimpl 2010;
Gawel 2012). Matheri et al. (2016) investigated on substrates’ composition by
demonstrating the impact that various concentrations of trace elements such as Cu,
Ag, Cd, Ni, and Zn could have on the efficiency of the biogas produced due to the
toxicity that exerts inhibitory effects on biochemical reactions.
Anaerobic co-digestion may be a systematic approach to handle the toxicity level
of substrates. Considering that some unpleasant factors are likely to occur if sub-
strate composition is not well-regulated, the addition of co-substrates in digesters
allows to stabilize the composition of digestate and subsequently enhance the
production of biogas (Hoekman 2009). Previous researches have shown that co-
digestion offered better biomethane yield making it a well-preferred technology
despite some areas that are still in development. From this perspective, Table 1
Table 1 Respective placement of digesters, substrates, and absorbents

Digesters Substrates Absorbents
Digester 1 Grass + cow dung MEA
Digester 2 Grass + cow dung KOH
Digester 3 Grass + cow dung NaOH
Digester 4 Food waste + cow dung NaOH
Digester 5 Food waste + cow dung KOH
Digester 6 Food waste + cow dung MEA
Digester 7 Chicken waste + cow dung MEA
Digester 8 Chicken waste + cow dung KOH
Digester 9 Chicken waste + cow dung NaOH
presents the anaerobic co-digestion sets that were considered which results are
illustrated in Figs. 16, 17, and 18.
Figures 16, 17, and 18 display the production of biomethane in different digesters
connected to different mini-absorbers using different chemical absorbents. It can be
seen that the highest production of biomethane was obtained during the co-digestion
of chicken waste and cow dung during a retention period of 15–17 days, whereas the
lowest production of biomethane was observed in the co-digestion of food waste and
cow dung during a retention period of 7–8 days. Despite the natural composition of
substrates, it is seen that the most abundant volumes of biomethane were obtained
after the chemical absorption processes using MEA and NaOH due to their higher
absorptive capacities compared to KOH (Lehtomäki et al. 2007). These observations
confirmed that differences in the composition of co-substrates and absorbents also
lead to differences in biomethane production. This may be justified by the abundance
or limited number of elements that either stimulates or slowly excites baterial growth
resulting from the co-substrates mixture leading to biogas production and subse-
quently upgraded into biomethane through the fixing unit of the AMPTS II (Bedia
et al. 2018).
In addition, it was also seen that the pH of digestates in digesters 4, 5, and 6 were
found to be between 3.3 and 3.9, unlike other digesters’ digestates that had a pH
between 5 and 6. This means that the co-digestion of food waste and cow dung had a
stronger acidic tendency compared to other co-digestion processes. As a result, this
co-digestion produced lower biomethane yield.
During an investigation performed by Lehtomäki et al. (2007), very high methane
yields were obtained in a co-digestion of cow manure with grass silage, sugar beet
tops, and oat straw whereby it was reported that the final volumetric increase in
methane produced was affected by the composition and volumes of the feedstock
added, which caused a portion of methane produced to remain in the digester during
extraction. In the co-digestion of whey with chicken manure, Gelegenis et al. (2007)
noticed the instability of the co-digestion process caused by the insufficiency of
chemical oxygen demand (COD) of whey in respect to manure. This instability led to
a decrease of pH and a change in C/N ratio which lowered the biogas yield. After a
corrective assessment, it was observed that the biogas yields increasingly changed.
1200
1000
Volume of Biomethane (Nml)
800
600
400
200
Digester 1 Digester 2 Digester 3
Volume (Nml) Volume(Nml) Volume (Nml)
0
0 5 10 15 20
Time (days)
Fig. 16 Accumulated volume of biomethane from grass and cow dung
600
500
400
300
200
100 Digester 4 Digester 5 Digester 6

Volume (Nml) Volume (Nml) Volume (Nml)
0
0 2 4 6 8 10
Time (days)
Fig. 17 Accumulated volume of biomethane from food waste and cow dung
This change was reported to be caused by the higher bio-decomposition potential of

whey components comparatively to the components of chicken manure (Dimpl
2010). As such, it can be said that anaerobic co-digestion processes are highly
dependent on numerous factors such as the composition of co-substrates. These
1600
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
Digester 7 Digester 8 Digester 9
200
Volume (Nml) Volume (Nml) Volume (Nml)
0
0 5 10 15 20
Time (days)
Fig. 18 Accumulated volume of biomethane from chicken droppings and cow dung
factors can exert a subsequent effect on other factors such as the pH of digestates and
even the COD.
According to Masebinu et al. (2014), energy content, the Wobbe index, and
relative density are additional important factors to be considered when evaluating
the quality of fuel gases. For instance, the Wobbe index is defined as an important
factor of interchangeability of fuel gases. This factor is essential for combined heat
power (CHP) generator or biogas generator where electricity conversion occurs.
According to SASOL, the major industrial supplier of natural gas in South Africa,
the Wobbe index of upgraded biogas must be close to that of natural gas ranging
between 50 and 55 in order to be suitable for industrial applications (Maile 2017;
Masebinu et al. 2014). As such, the quality of feedstock depends on the composition
of waste collected. This statement is also supported by Khalid, Arshad et al. (2011)
who further stipulate in their studies that the initial composition of biogas depends
mainly on its source. For instance, a considerable difference was seen between the
composition of landfill waste, organic wastes from domestic sources, and sewage
waste.
In landfill waste, it was reported that a composition of CO2 of 24–40% was
possible, while in sewage waste, it was seen that 33–44% of CO2 was predictable
and in organic waste approximately 30–40% of CO2 could also be found. Beil and
Beyrich (2013) also indicate that the composition of CH4 in raw biogas exerts a
considerable impact on the electricity consumption. For example, for a concentra-
tion of 65% CH4 in the raw biogas, an electricity consumption of 0.09 kWhel/mn3
can be observed whereas for a concentration of 55% of CH4 in the raw biogas, 0.11
kWhel/mn3. As such, the lesser the content of CH4, the higher the electricity
consumption required by electrical equipment such as biogas generator. The
greater the content of CH4, the lesser electricity consumption required for electrical
equipment. In order words, in the present context, it is technically and economi-

cally convenient to have high CH4 content to generate more electricity using less
biomethane.
From Figs. 16, 17, and 18, it can be understood that the optimal feedstock for co-
digestion was chicken droppings mixed with cow dung. Considering the fact that the
AMPTS enables the production of a biomethane product of a minimum purity 98%
after biogas upgrading using chemical absorption technique, it can be assumed that
there is only 2% of CO2 in the final product (bioprocesscontrol 2016). As such, in
order to predict the performance of the feedstock on a medium- to large-scale biogas
power unit, the predictive approach of Köttner (2018) may be used. This approach
stipulates that in the volume of biomethane produced, only the percentage of
methane available should be considered as net volume of the gas. It also elaborates
that only 33% of the net volume should be considered as fuel for electricity
conversion or vehicle purposes as 50% of the net volume is usually used for heat
and 17% of the net volume is lost during the final process. However, in the SSA
context, it may be assumed that only 83% of the net volume of biomethane should be
considered for electricity conversion since most rural areas do not have adequate
infrastructure for heat utilization from the power plant to industrial, residential, or
social customers.
As such, it may be assumed that for a farm-scale BSPVHM, the installed
capacity of a biogas power unit will be less than 10 MW, and since the technology
is costly, the capacity should be lesser than solar PV power unit which is cheaper.
Assuming an installed capacity of 1 MW to operate in 24 h to meet a daily energy
demand of 24 MWh and considering that 1m3 of biomethane can generate 10 kWh
of electricity, the biogas power unit will require approximately 2400 m3 of
biomethane to generate 24,000 kWh to meet the demand. In addition, it should
also be considered that to generate 2400 m3, a quantity of 2,400,000 kg
(2,400 tonnes) of cow dung mixed with chicken droppings will be required
(Köttner 2018). Thus, for a 24-h power supply, 2400 tonnes of substrates must
be fed daily into the digester to generate a base-load power. Nevertheless, it can
also be assumed that since solar PV panels generate power during the day from
sunrise to sunset for a period of 12 h, the biogas power unit will only require 50%
less tonnes of substrates per day, 1200 tonnes in order to generate the necessary
complementary power needed for the remaining 12 h from the biogas power unit in
the BSPVHM.
According to Camirand (2020), only 10% of the feedstock is decomposed to
generate biogas, and 90% remains as digestate. As such, it is essential to ascertain
the economic viability of digestate after biogas production. Apart from the
quality of feedstock, the application of the biodigestate is very crucial as it is a
key economic performance indicator. From XRF results obtained in this study, it
can be predicted that the mixture of cow dung and chicken droppings will
effectively generate biogas and adequately be used as fertilizer. In essence, it
can be concluded that only 83% of the biomethane produced from cow dung and
chicken will be converted to electricity and 90% of the residue of cow dung and
chicken droppings will be used as fertilizer on a medium-scale and large-scale
BSPVHM. This means that cow dung and chicken droppings will be more
technically viable for the BSPVHM than cow dung with lawn grass and cow
dung with fruits and vegetables.
Conclusions and Future Works
This study revealed that waste characterization is an important step in power

generation from biogas. The electrical output of a biogas power unit is determined
by the volume and quality of biomethane generated in the biodigester. It was
observed that the biomethane yield obtained and to be converted to electricity by
means of a biogas generator was primarily influenced by the composition of
feedstock and pre-digestion processes. This study showed that the co-digestions
of cow dung with grass clippings or chicken droppings were optimal and more
suitable than the co-digestion of cow dung with fruits and vegetables. This study
also predicted the overall performance of a BSPVHM from the sectional assess-
ment of its biogas power unit based on the characterization of four categories of
agricultural waste using XRF analysis and BMP tests. In conclusion, it was
predicted that the anaerobic co-digestion of cow dung and chicken droppings
will be technically and economically more viable than others on medium and
large-scale BSPVHM projects.
Furthermore, it is also recommended that more studies be conducted on the
availability of cow dung and chicken droppings in SSA rural communities for
long-term project of a period of 15–25 years since most BSPVHM are implemented
on a long-term basis.
Acknowledgments The authors wish to thank the University of Johannesburg (UJ), the National
Research Foundation (NRF) and the Botswana International University of Science and Technology
(BIUST) for funding this research.
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Simultaneous Fermentative Production
of Lipase and Bio-polymeric flocculants 26
from Produce (Vegetable) Wastes
Moushumi Ghosh, Surbhi Sharma, and Vivek Sharma
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 662
Materials and Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 663
Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 663
Location of Enzyme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 665
Response Surface Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 665
Production of Bacterial Extracellular Polymer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 666
Results and Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 667
Detection of Lipase-Producing Bacteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 667
Characteristics of the Formulated Vegetable Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 668
Kinetics for Lipase Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 669
Location of Enzyme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 673
Response Surface Methodology for the Optimization of Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 674
Final Equation in Terms of Coded Equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 676
Production of Polymeric Flocculant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 677
Flocculating Potential of the Extracellular Polymer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 678
Economics of the Formulated Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 679
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 680
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 682
Abstract
This study investigated the simultaneous fermentative production of lipase and
extracellular bioflocculant by a previously characterized strain of Acinetobacter
in a medium formulated from waste corn, garlic, and onion. The agro-wastes were
M. Ghosh (*) · S. Sharma
Department of Biotechnology, Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala, Punjab,
India
e-mail: mghosh@thapar.edu
V. Sharma
Department of Biotechnology, Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala, Punjab,
India
School of Life Sciences, SIILAS campus, Jaipur National University, Jaipur, India

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_34
662 M. Ghosh et al.
collected from various points and local vendors, segregated, cleaned, and utilized
to formulate the culture medium. Maximum lipase activity was observed in this
growth medium with 0.5% olive oil, 0.5% yeast extract, and 1% gum Arabic
under shaking conditions at 37 C. The lipase was predominantly extracellular
with optimal pH of 6.5 and temperature of 30 C. The highest bioflocculant yield
was observed during mid-log to stationary-phase lipase production. RSM was
used to validate the optimization of culture parameters for lipase and
bioflocculant production. The bioflocculant could be recovered from spent
medium by precipitation with two volumes of ethanol. Physiochemical charac-
terization of the purified biopolymer by FTIR, chemical analysis, and SEM
indicated no significant ( p < 0.05) difference in its characteristics with that
produced by the same culture in reference medium. The extracellular polymer
demonstrated excellent flocculating activity against a wide range of colloidal
particles. Overall, the results of the present study indicate that production of both
lipase and polymeric flocculant could be achieved by the selected bacterial strain
economically in the developed medium, comprised of waste agro-produces. The
relevance of this process for commercial fermentative production and the possi-
bility of agro-waste valorization toward a circular economy are suggested.
Keywords
Bioflocculant · Lipase · Co-production · Media · Waste agro-produce ·
Acinetobacter
Introduction
Agro-produce wastage occur throughout the supply and vending chain with over
30% of the loss at the retail, consumer levels with a major share being attributable to
post-harvest and processing operations. Street vendors engaged as agro-produce
sellers and those in preparing foods also play an important role in the generation
of wastes. Agro-produce wastes can be converted to value-added resources for a
sustainable process aimed in a pollution-free outcome, since these wastes contain
substantial amounts of nutrients. Among others, a viable process for such a propo-
sition is the judicious modification and formulation of culture medium. Industrially
useful bacterium can suitably harness such medium for growth and subsequent
production of useful primary and secondary products, for instance, enzyme and
biopolymers. Lipases as enzymes have an important and expanding scope of appli-
cations in the chemical, environment, and pharmaceutical industry (Jaeger and
Eggert 2002; Ruiz Rueda 2005; Shiraga et al. 2005). Lipases produced by microor-
ganisms are most preferred because of their stability (Gupta et al. 2004) and their
easy production with provision to enhance the yield in many cases through molec-
ular approaches. Bioflocculants on the other hand are extracellular biopolymers of
diverse nature produced by microorganisms; many of these biopolymers have found
promising alternative as green approaches for water treatment and remediation due
to their unique chemical structure, robustness, and functionality. It has been
26 Simultaneous Fermentative Production of Lipase and Bio-polymeric. . . 663
suggested medium which is of low cost will not hinder the bioproduct production.
The developed medium should possess high carbohydrate content and lesser protein
content. Media utilizing vegetable waste can be a suitable option for this purpose.
Many studies have explored the use of waste media for the production of biopolymer
(Zikmanis et al. 2020). Therefore, it was envisaged that fermentative production
using waste agro-produce medium can be valuable especially for the co-production
of extracellular bioproducts such as lipase and bioflocculants.
An important prerequisite of the developed medium to be used for the above-cited
purpose is the presence of desirable nutrients and economics. Growth medium
comprised of vegetable or agro-wastes for fermentative production of lipases could
offer an important alternative to the currently used medium for lipase production;
moreover, the capability of such bacteria to produce polymeric flocculants could
offer an advantage of recovering flocculants during fermentation along with lipase.
Such agro-materials are abundantly available, and many after primary processing
retain a substantial quantity of nutrition which may be utilized for growth and
biochemical sustenance of bacteria and other microorganisms. However, few studies
have attempted to produce lipase using bacterial strains with the capability of
polymeric flocculant production; moreover, medium specifically designed using
agro-materials for the production of both lipase and flocculant have not been
reported. In view of this, the present study was designed to investigate the possibility
of utilizing a vegetable waste medium for the co-production of lipase and extracel-
lular biopolymer, which could be used as a bioflocculant for water purification.
Materials
Chemicals
p-Nitrophenyl laurate (p-NPL) used was purchased from Sigma (Mo, USA). All other
reagents used were of analytical grade and were purchased from Merck (E. Merck,
Darmstadt, Germany). Branded oils used were commercially available and purchased
from the local supermarket. Media: Three different types of media that were used were
FIB medium, Rhodamine B agar medium, and enrichment medium. Media were
purchased from HiMedia, Mumbai. Vegetable wastes (corn, garlic, and onion) were
collected from vendors and from various locations catering the city supply. The wastes
were cleaned, washed, and sun-dried completely and ground to powder and stored
separately in airtight glass bottles. The medium comprised of corn powder (0.5 g),
onion powder (1 g), and garlic powder (0.5 g) with 1% gum Arabic, olive oil (2.5%
3%) and Rhodamine B solution (1 mg/ml), 2 g agar.
Measurement of Lipolytic Activity

Lipase activity in all cases in the supernatant was determined by spectrophotometric
assay using p-nitrophenyl laurate (p-NPL) as substrate. The reaction mixture consists
of 0.1 ml enzyme solution, 0.8 ml 50 mM Tris-HCL buffer (pH 8.0), and 0.1 ml
10 mM p-NPL dissolved in ethanol. The hydrolytic reaction is carried out at 65 C
664 M. Ghosh et al.
for 30 min. Following the incubation, 0.25 ml of 0.1 M Na2CO3 was added to stop
the reaction. The mixture was centrifuged (10,000 * g for 15 min), and the absor-
bance at 410 nm is determined (Ertugrul et al. 2007) spectrophotometrically.
Estimation of total organic carbon, nitrogen, total proteins, and total organic
carbon in the formulated medium was carried out using standard methods. DNSA
method was used to analyze the reducing sugar content in the formulated medium
using glucose as standard. Different concentrations of glucose (0.1 to 0.8 mg/ml) and
sample containing medium were prepared (0.9 mg/ml). 3 ml of DNSA
(3,5-dinitrosalicylic acid) was added to each test tube. The solution was incubated
for 5 min at 80 C. Absorbance was recorded at 540 nm, and a standard curve of
glucose was used to determine sugar content in the medium.
Statistical Optimization of Experimental Variables

Results of RSM (research surface methodology) for the optimization of different
medium parameters were validated by experimental methods. Statistical analysis
was carried out using RSM software.
Detection of Lipase-Producing Bacteria

Lipase-producing bacteria were characterized from among 20 pre-existing bacterial
cultures with the ability to produce polymeric flocculants. Purity was checked by
gram staining and microscopy; cultures were subsequently stored in glycerol stocks.
In situ detection of lipase production was performed in two stages.
Bacterial isolates was first investigated for their lipolytic activity by Tween
80 agar method. LB agar medium was supplemented with 0.01% CaCl2.H2O and
Tween 80, which were separately autoclaved for 15 min at 120 C. Tween 80 was
added to the molten agar medium at 45 C to provide a final concentration of 1%.
The medium was agitated until Tween 80 had dissolved completely, and the solution
is poured into Petri dishes. As an indication of positive outcome for the test, an
opaque halo occurred around the colonies.
For the final confirmation of lipase production, the Rhodamine B-olive agar plate
method was used. LB agar medium was supplemented with Arabic gum (to yield a
final concentration of 1%) and olive oil which were autoclaved at 121 C for 15 min.
The medium was cooled to about 60 C, and 10 ml Rhodamine B solution (1 mg/ml)
and olive oil (to yield a final concentration of 2.5%) were added, and the medium
was stirred vigorously and emulsified by mixing for 1 min in a homogenizer.
Aliquots of 20 ml were poured into Petri dish and left to solidify. Stock cultures
were streaked into Rhodamine B-olive agar plates and were incubated at 65 C for
24–48 h. The lipase-producing bacteria were indicated by the presence of orange
fluorescent halos around the colonies when the plates were irradiated with 350 nm
UV light. Both methods were used as well on solid vegetable medium.
Visual Screening for Lipase Production in Formulated Vegetable Media

Lipase production in vegetable medium was analyzed by dissolving corn powder
(0.5 g), onion powder (1 g), and garlic powder (0.5 g) in 100 ml distilled water. After
complete dissolution for 30 min, it was filtered, and 0.005 g yeast extract was added
and autoclaved. Solid medium was made by adding 2 g agar, 1% gum Arabic, and
2.5% olive oil, and 10 ml of Rhodamine B solution was added after cooling to
55–60 C. Solid medium plates were streaked three successive times for the detec-
tion of lipase-producing bacteria by the presence of fluorescent halos around the
colonies when plates were irradiated with 350 nm UV light.
Kinetics for Lipase Production

Kinetics of lipase production was important to gain insights of enzyme affinity to
substrates. Substrate concentration was kept constant for the kinetics studies. The
effect of substrate concentration was measured at different concentration levels from
0.05 mM to 0.7 mM using culture supernatants.
Optimization of Media Components for Lipase Production

Carbon source: Effect of lipase production of strain was studied using LB containing
different carbon sources (olive oil, glycerol, glucose, fructose, sucrose, almond oil) at
concentration of 0.1, 0.5, and 1%. 0.5% gum Arabic was added to the LB medium.
Suitable carbon source with the highest lipase activity was selected for further study.
Nitrogen source: Medium containing 0.5% olive oil, 0.5% gum Arabic, 1%
NaCl, and different nitrogen sources (yeast extract, peptone, meat extract, tryptone,
and ammonium sulfate) at concentration of 0.5% was used. Suitable nitrogen source
with the highest lipase activity was chosen for further study.
pH: Effect on lipase production was investigated with the optimized medium
containing 0.5% olive oil, 0.5% peptone, 1% NaCl, and 0.5% gum Arabic at
different pH values (6.0, 6.5, 7.0, and 7.5). Suitable pH showing the highest lipase
activity was selected for further study.
Temperature: The optimized medium containing 0.5% olive oil, 0.5% peptone,
1% NaCl, and 0.5% gum Arabic at different temperatures (30, 35, 40, 45, 50 C) was
adjusted to pH 6.5. Suitable temperature showing the highest lipase activity was
selected for further study.
Location of Enzyme
Cell mass was washed, sonicated (10 min, in ice), centrifuged and the supernatant
used for assaying lipase activity. Enzyme activity from one milligram protein in the
supernatant was compared with cell mass.
Response Surface Methodology
Response surface methodology was applied with CCD (central composite design) to
optimize the medium components according to the results that were obtained by
manually screening experiments. The design expert trial package was used for the
experimental design and regression analysis of data. The medium components were
studied at three levels (), (0), and (+), for low, intermediate, and high
666 M. Ghosh et al.
concentrations, respectively. For statistical calculation, coding of factors was done

by the following equations.
Lipase production at 12 hours : 0:0035 þ 0:0025 A þ 0:0036 B 0:0025 AB

0:0006A2 0:0033B2
Lipase production at 36 hours : 0:0031 þ 0:0:0014A þ 0:0028B 0:0019AB

0:000A2 0:0026B2
Lipase production at 60 hours : 0:0029 þ 0:0029A þ 0:0034B þ 0:0024AB

0:0010A2 0:0028B2
Lipase production at 80 hours : 0:0033 þ 0:0020A þ 0:0031B 0:0021AB

0:0006A2 0:0027B2
Lipase production at 96 hours : 0:0028 þ 0:0027A þ 0:0043B 0:0037AB

0:0009A2 0:0030B2
where A is olive oil and B, yeast extract.

The design expert trial package was used for the statistical and regression
analysis. Statistical analysis of the model was verified by applying analysis of
variance (ANOVA). Overall model significance was tested by Fischer’s F test and
its associated probability P (F0 ). Coefficient of determination (R2) and adjusted R2
was used to judge the quality of polynomial model equation. Three-dimensional
contour plots were further used to illustrate the relation between responses and
experimental levels of each independent variable.
Production of Bacterial Extracellular Polymer
One liter of medium containing corn powder (5gm), onion powder (10 gm), and
garlic powder (5gm) was taken and inoculated with 5% bacterial cells grown
overnight (with cell density (3 * 106 cells/ml)). It was incubated at 37 C for 48 h,
and culture was centrifuged at 10000 rpm for 10 min. The supernatant was collected
and concentrated by lyophilizing it to 1/10 of the original volume. Equal volume of
ethanol was added to the supernatant and was left overnight at 4 C. The next day,
precipitates were collected and centrifuged at 12000 rpm for 20 min at 4 C.
Deionized water was added to the pellet, and contents were transferred to a beaker
and put on a stirrer for 2 h; 2% CPC treatment was given and mixture allowed to
precipitate at room temperature. Thereafter, 2 mL of 0.1 N NaCl was added to the
precipitate and again centrifuged at 10000 rpm at 4 C for 5 min. The pellet was
collected and washed thrice with 100% ethanol and centrifuged again; the pellet was
collected and washed with Milli-Q water thrice. The latter was dialyzed for 4–5days,
lyophilized and polymer powder collected and stored (Ghosh et al. 1996) for the
characterization.
Structural and Functional Characterization

FTIR and SEM were used for the characterization of biopolymer. Wave number
range was recorded to reduce the spectrum of biopolymer. Surface properties of a
biopolymer were analyzed by SEM. Samples of biopolymer were analyzed by SEM
at 20.0 kV.
Determination of Flocculating Activity of the Extracellular Polymer

The polymer produced extracellularly by the bacterial strain was evaluated for its
ability to flocculate suspended solids of varied size. A standard solution of
suspended solids of 2000 NTU was made by suspending active carbon, silica,
magnesium hydroxide, cellulose, and yeast in 100 mL water. A suspension of
desired turbidity was prepared by diluting the suspension form stock to desired
turbidity with a turbidimeter (Cyber Scan TBDIR1000 Meter, Eutech, Netherlands).
The assay was carried out by adding 10 mL CaCl2 (5 mM), 0.5 mL biopolymer
(2 mg/l), and 9.5 mL of distilled water to 80 mL of these solutions. The pH was
adjusted to 7 0.2, and the solutions were allowed to stand at room temperature for
5 min. 20 mL of aliquots were withdrawn from the upper phase and its turbidity was
measured. The flocculating activity was calculated by recording its optical density
with a spectrophotometer at 550 nm against distilled water as control (Khaira et al.
2014). Activity (%) was defined and calculated as (B–A)/B 100. The activity was
expressed as the mean value from duplicate determinations.
Detection of Lipase-Producing Bacteria
Bacterial cultures from among a repository of 20 pre-existing extracellular polymer

producing isolates were spot inoculated on Tween 80 agar to presumptively check
lipolytic activity. Of these, only one strain identified as Acinetobacter sp. which
showed strong lipolytic activity was used for further analysis. The positive outcome
of Tween 80 screen assay lies on the production of opaque halo around the colonies
of bacteria (Kouker and Jaeger 1987). The positive strain was further verified for
orange fluorescent colonies on Rhodamine B agar medium under UV light (Fig. 1).
It has been suggested that Rhodamine B assay for the aerobic culture conditions
produced dimers of Rhodamine B which was considered as the probable mechanism
for the detection of fluorescence observed with lipolytic activity. However, recent
modification of the explanation is that formation of Rhodamine B-LCFA (long-chain
fatty acid) conjugate (Jarvis and Thiele 1997) is not responsible for fluorescence.
This fact was supported by Rueda (Ruiz Rueda 2005) who postulated that Rhoda-
mine B solution when it forms complexes with fatty acids can produce orange-pink
fluorescent under UV light radiation. The orange fluorescent phenomenon can be
used as a confirmation for the detection of bacteria that produce lipase.
668 M. Ghosh et al.
Fig. 1 Extracellular lipase

production by Acinetobacter
after 72 h of incubation –
orange fluorescent colonies
are clearly under UV light
Rhodamine B agar plate assay is insensitive to pH changes, causes no inhibition

in the growth of microorganism and changes in physiological properties, and is
highly specific and distinguishes lipase-producing bacteria easily (Kouker and
Jaeger 1987). Therefore, it was used in this study.
Characteristics of the Formulated Vegetable Media
The concept of formulating medium from vegetable utilizes the fact that the com-
ponent vegetables considered could be obtained at very low cost. Rejected potatoes
(physically damaged, improper size, etc.), onions from potato snack processing
units, garlic and corn from superstores after grading. The chief advantage is that
consumer unacceptable/rejected ones can be used for the preparation of the medium.
Therefore, the method also provides an alternative of valorizing agro-wastes. All
materials were further cleaned, ground to powder, and sun-dried completely. Finally
they were ensured to be free from microbial contaminants by surface plating
(APC < 200 CFU/g).
The color, consistency, and solubility of the medium formulated using powders of
vegetables were satisfactory. The gelling property and coloration upon addition of
agar-agar were also not affected indicating the applicability of the medium for
preparing solid plates. The formulated medium was stored under hygroscopic
condition in dark at 28 C. Although very critical, a study on extended shelf life
could not be conducted, and the medium remained intact and was able to support
bacterial growth excellently after 2 months of storage. This indicated the stability of
media components and feasibility for large-scale production and feasibility for
commercial purposes. The protein content and reducing sugar in the medium were
estimated by Lowry’s method and DNSA. The medium contained 20 mg/ml of
protein, whereas the reducing sugar content was found to be 60 mg/ml (Table 1).
Both protein and sugar have been suggested important as medium constituents
and govern cellular pathways for the production of exopolysaccharides. The medium
Table 1 Key constituents Method Content

of the formulated vegetable
Total protein 20 mg/ml
media
Reducing sugar 60 mg/ml
Total organic carbon 5.66%
Total nitrogen (Kjeldahl) 0.0448%
carbohydrate content should be high, and protein content should be low. The C:N
ratio is an important consideration for triggering lipase and biopolymer production.
The total organic carbon was 5.66%, and the total nitrogen determined was 0.044%,
respectively, implying satisfactory ratio suggested for extracellular polymer produc-
tion. Nitrogen source in medium is used for the synthesis of proteins, amino acids,
DNA, and RNA, and carbon source is used for the growth of the bacteria (Sugihara
et al. 1991). Too high and low C:N ratio causes decline in the formation of lipase and
biopolymer.
The components – garlic contains several amino acids, thiosulfinates, etc. Corn
has been used (corn steep liquor) in commercial fermentations and is a good source
of carbohydrate, while onions contain flavonoids and polyphenols in addition to
sulfur-containing amino acids. Together, the ingredients provide a complete nutri-
tional profile enabling adequate biochemical processes and bacterial growth. How-
ever, prior to commercial exploitation, a detailed analysis of the developed would be
necessary.
Kinetics for Lipase Production
The effect of p-nitrophenyl laurate was measured at different substrate concentra-

tions. The crude lipase showed a variable specificity toward different concentrations
of triacylglycerols. The spectrophotometric assay was used for each concentration
with respect to time (Fig. 2).
Effect of Carbon Sources on Lipase Production

Although many reports indicate the production of lipase in the absence of oil
(Iftikhar and Hussain 2002), lipase production is also stimulated by the action of
oil (Sharma et al. 2001) containing long fatty acids (LCFA) (Takac and Marul 2008).
Therefore, we selected different oils to determine their effect as well as other carbon
sources (sucrose, fructose, glucose, and glycerol) on lipase production by the
selected bacterial strain. The results indicated (Fig. 3) the production of lipase by
different oils and carbon sources at different concentrations of 0.1%, 0.5%, and 1%.
The effect of different oils on lipase production by bacterial strain was studied for
96 h at 37 C carried out in a growth medium. The oils included olive oil, corn oil,
glycerol, glucose, fructose, sucrose, and almond oil which had three different
concentrations of 0.1%, 0.5%, and 1%. After every 12 h, optical density was checked
at 550 nm. The highest lipase activity was obtained at 0.5% by olive oil, corn oil,
glycerol, glucose, fructose, sucrose, and almond oil (Fig. 4). At 0.5% concentration
670 M. Ghosh et al.
0.025
0.05mM
Aborbance (550 nm)
0.020 0.1mM
0.3mM
0.015
0.5mM
0.010 0.7mM
0.005
0.000
0 50 100
Time (hrs)
Fig. 2 Kinetics of lipase production by Acinetobacter spp.
of each oil, the highest optical density at 550 nm was obtained. Out of the different
oils, olive oil showed the highest lipase activity with the highest optical density
increasing after every 12 h. Corn oil, glycerol, glucose, fructose, sucrose, and
almond oil also showed lipase activity but lesser than olive oil. Corn oil also showed
good lipase activity as an inducer for lipase production as the total activity of lipase
production using corn oil was not much different with lipase produced from olive oil.
However, olive oil was selected for the further studies since it had the highest
lipase activity. The other oils such as glycerol, glucose, fructose, sucrose, and
almond oil were also good inducers and a good carbon source although the lipase
activities were lower in comparison to olive oil and corn oil.
Effect of Nitrogen Source on Lipase Production

The effects of various nitrogen sources on lipase production by bacterial strain were
examined by growing them in a vegetable medium which contained 0.5% olive oil,
0.5% gum Arabic, 1% NaCl, and different nitrogen sources such as yeast extract,
peptone, tryptone, meat extract, and ammonium sulfate at 0.5% concentration.
Lipase activity and bacterial growth were very low with growth medium containing
non-organic nitrogen source. Lipase production was improved by using organic
nitrogen source (Fig. 5).
Among the nitrogen sources that were tested, yeast extract was found to be the
best organic source for the lipase production by bacterial strain. Lipase production
by using peptone and tryptone was not much different when compared with lipase
production using yeast extract. However, yeast extract was selected for the next
parameter determination for the lipase production, while meat extract and ammo-
nium sulfate did not show good yields for the lipase production by bacterial strain.
Bacterial production of lipase, upon substitution of ammonium sulfate with yeast
extract, was found to increase lipase production by three folds (Chaiyaso 2007;
Gupta et al. 2007) observed that lipase production by Burkholderia multivorans in a
medium containing tryptone was improved by 17-fold in comparison with lipase
a 0.04 0.1% concentration

b 0.03 0.1% concentration
0.5% concentartion 0.5% concentartion

0.03 1% concentration
O .D .(5 5 0 n m )
1% concentration
0.02
0.02
O.D.(550nm)
0.01
0.01
0.00 0.00
0 50 100 0 50 100
Time (hrs) Time (hrs)
c 0.025 0.1% concentration d 0.025 0.1% concentration

0.5% concentartion
0.020 0.5% concentartion
0.020
1% concentration O .D .(5 5 0 n m )
O .D .(5 5 0 n m )
1% concentration
0.015 0.015
0.010 0.010
0.005 0.005
0.000 0.000
0 50 100 0 50 100
e 0.025 0.1% concentration f 0.03

0.1% concentration
0.5% concentartion
0.5% concentartion
1% concentration
O .D .(5 5 0 n m )
O .D .(5 5 0 n m )
0.02
0.015
0.010
0.01
0.005
0.000 0.00
0 50 100 0 50 100
g 0.025
0.1% concentration
0.5% concentartion
O .D .(5 5 0 n m )
0.015
0.010
0.005
0.000
0 50 100
Time (hrs)
Fig. 3 (a–g) The effect of different carbon sources at various concentrations after every 12 h
672 M. Ghosh et al.
0 .0 3
o liv e o il
c o rn o il
O .D .(5 5 0 n m )
0 .0 2 g ly c e r o l
g lu c o s e
fru c to s e
0 .0 1
s u c ro s e
a lm o n d o il
0 .0 0
il
l
il
e
e
il
ro
o
s
s
o
s
o
ro
to
e
d
rn
e
c
c
n
c
v
c
lu
ly
o
o
li
u
c
fr
o
lm
s
a
C o n c e n tr a t io n ( m g /m l)
Fig. 4 Lipase activity in olive oil at 0.5%, corn oil, glycerol, glucose, fructose, sucrose, and
almond oil after 96 h at 1% NaCl, 0.5% gum Arabic, and 0.5% of different carbon sources
0 .0 5
y e a s t e x tr a c t
0 .0 4 p e p to n e
O .D .(5 5 0 n m )
t r y p to n e
0 .0 3
m e a t e x tra c t
0 .0 2 a m m o n iu m s u lp h a te
0 .0 1
0 .0 0
0 50 100
T im e (h r s )
Fig. 5 Effect of nitrogen source on lipase production by Acinetobacter spp. in a vegetable medium
containing 0.5% olive oil, 0.5% gum Arabic, 1% NaCl, and 0.5% organic nitrogen source at 37 C
for 96 h
production without organic nitrogen source. These results corroborated the findings
of the present study.
Lipase synthesis by Candida rugosa increased in the presence of olive oil and
organic nitrogen source (Fadiloglu and Erkmen 2002). Organic nitrogen sources
affect the production of enzyme as it provides amino acids and several growth
factors that are necessary for cell metabolism and protein synthesis (Iftikhar et al.
2008).
The Effect of pH on the Lipase Production

The effect of initial pH on lipase production of bacterial strain was examined for
various pH values from 6.0 to 7.5 throughout 96 hr. of cell cultivation carried out in a
growth medium at 37 C. Figure 6 depicts the highest level of lipase production that
0 .0 4
p h 6 .0
p h 6 .5
0 .0 3
O .D .(5 5 0 n m )
p h 7 .0
0 .0 2 p h 7 .5
8 .0
0 .0 1
0 .0 0
0 50 100
T im e (h r s )
Fig. 6 Effect of initial pH on lipase production by Acinetobacter spp. in vegetable medium

containing 0.5% olive oil, 0.5% peptone, 1% NaCl, and 0.5% gum Arabic for 96 h at 37 C
was obtained at pH 6.5. These suggested that pH of 6.5 was preferred for lipase
production.
The results also showed that bacteria grew at 6.0, 7.0, and 7.5 where it produced
the highest lipase activity with no major difference in lipase production. No lipase
activity was observed at pH 8.0 and 8.5. A pH of 6.5 was best suited for the lipase
production and was chosen for further parameter determination.
Gupta et al. (2004) reported that pH affects the lipase production. Stocker (Von
Stockar et al. 2006) suggested that specific intracellular pH values are required to
reach equilibrium in enzyme-catalyzed reactions and intracellular pH may change
the extracellular pH of bacterial cells and can weaken enzyme synthesis. A study by
Ertugrul et al. (2007) indicated the best suited pH for the lipase production in
Bacillus sp. for 96 h at 37 C. The results showed the highest lipase activity was
achieved at pH 6.0 and 6.5.
Effect of Temperature on Lipase Production

The effect of temperature on lipase activity was evaluated at from 30 C to 50 C.
Lipase activity was more than twice at 35 C than compared to lipase activity at
room temperature (25 C). Lipase activity decreased at 50 C and was highest at
30 C, whereas it dramatically declined at 40, 45, and 50 C (Fig. 7).
Location of Enzyme
Location of enzyme was determined by disrupting the cell (cell-free extract) and also
using the supernatant. Enzyme activity from 1 mg protein in supernatant and cell-free
extract was checked for lipase activity at 410 nm. The supernatant exhibited maximum
enzyme activity of 0.062 mg/ml in comparison to cell-free extract (0.002 mg/ml).
These results suggested the location of the lipase in the Acinetobacter sp. (Table 2).
These observations are in line with those of other researchers.
674 M. Ghosh et al.
0 .0 3
5 0 °C
4 5 °C
O .D .(5 5 0 n m )
4 0 °C
0 .0 2
3 5 °C
3 0 °C
0 .0 1
0 .0 0
0 50 100
T im e (h r s )
Fig. 7 Effect of temperature on lipase production by Acinetobacter spp. in growth medium

containing 0.5% olive oil, 0.5% peptone, 1% NaCl, and 0.5% gum Arabic at pH 6.5 for 96 h at
37 C
Table 2 Location of lipase Location of enzyme Lipase activity (mg/ml)

in the polymeric flocculant
Supernatant 0.062
producing
Acinetobacter spp. Cell-free extract 0.002
Response Surface Methodology for the Optimization of Parameters
Based on the results obtained by screening of optimization parameters, medium

components such as carbon source olive oil at 0.5% concentration and nitrogen
source yeast extract at 1% concentration were selected as the most influencing
variables and subjected to further optimization using RSM. In this method, batch
runs were conducted, and response and regression coefficients were calculated, and
data was fitted into second polynomial equation (Tables 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7).
ANOVA was performed to verify the significance of second-order response
surface model, and results are given in the table below. ANOVA showed that the
model was highly significant as it was evident from the low p-value (<0.0001). The
model’s F-value of 6.02 implies the model is significant. Occurrence of F value, this
large has 2.46% chance that an F-value this large could occur due to noise.
P-values less than 0.0500 indicate model terms are significant. In this case, A, B,
AB, and B2 are significant model terms. Values greater than 0.1000 indicate the
model terms are not significant. If there are many insignificant model terms (not
counting those required to support hierarchy), model reduction may improve model.
The lack of fit F-value of 0.10 implies the lack of fit is not significantly relative to
the pure error. Occurance of a F value this large has 2.46% chance that a lack of fit
F-value this large could occur due to noise. Non-significant lack of fit is good. Since
the lack of fit is not significant, therefore, the model is significant.
Table 3 Statistical analysis showing ANOVA for lipase production

Source Model A B AB A2 B2
12 h Df 5 1 1 1 1 1
F-value 13.63 24.35 40.02 16.48 2.51 52.15
P-value 0.0032 0.0026 0.0007 0.0067 0.1642 0.0004
36 h Df 5 1 1 1 1 1
F-value 11.99 10.07 32.55 12.47 0.0025 41.78
P-value 0.0044 0.0192 0.0013 0.0123 0.9618 0.0007
60 h Df 5 1 1 1 1 1
F-value 5.2 14.42 16.82 6.86 3.18 16.9
P-value 0.0346 0.009 0.0064 0.0396 0.1249 0.0063
84 h Df 5 1 1 1 1 1
F-value 12.84 21.93 41.16 15.3 3.28 49.76
P-value 0.0037 0.0034 0.0007 0.0079 0.12 0.0004
96 h Df 5 1 1 1 1 1
F-value 6.02 13.87 27.3 17.38 2.98 21.19
P-value 0.0246 0.0098 0.002 0.0059 0.1353 0.0037
Table 4 Experimental variables for lipase production in terms of coded values

12 h 36 h 60 h 84 h 96 h
Std dev. 0.001 0.000 0.001 0.000 0.001
Mean 0.003 0.003 0.003 0.003 0.003
C.V.% 15.410 14.220 27.070 13.780 24.680
R-squared 0.919 0.909 0.812 0.915 0.834
Adj R-squared 0.852 0.883 0.656 0.843 0.696
Pred R-squared 0.666 0.616 0.482 0.633 0.437
Adequate precision 14.049 13.531 8.210 13.844 8.093
12 h 36 h 60 h 84 h 96 h
0.0035 0.0031 0.0029 0.0033 0.0028
*A 0.0025 0.0014 0.0029 0.0020 0.0027
*B 0.0036 0.0028 0.0034 0.0031 0.0043
*AB 0.0025 0.0019 0.0024 0.0021 0.0037
*A2 0.0006 0.0000 -0.0010 0.0006 0.0009
*B2 0.0033 0.0026 0.0028 0.0027 0.0030
Table 5 Predicted O.D. (hours) Predicted response

responses of lipase
12 0.0036
production at different time
intervals 36 0.0038
60 0.0028
80 0.0035
96 0.0041
676 M. Ghosh et al.
Table 6 Flocculating efficacy of Acinetobacter spp. bioflocculant in the removal of colloidal

particles in solution. The corresponding sizes of the particles are the following: ~4–7 μ (kaolin,
yeast cell suspension, cellulose), ~15–20 μ (silica), and ~ 100 μ (activated carbon). The polymer
was used at a concentration from 2 to 10 ppm
Colloidal particles Residual turbidity (Papadimitriou et al.) Flocculating activity
Kaolin clay 168 20%
Yeast 198 60%
Cellulose 250 80%
Silica 150 30%
Activated carbon 148 38%
Mixed suspension 250 80%
Table 7 Comparative Media used Yield (mg/L)of polymeric flocculant

yield of biopolymer
Reference 197 mg/L
produced by the strain in
two different media (mg/L) Vegetable 214 mg/L
At 12 h, the predicted R2 of 0.6664 showed reasonable agreement with the

adjusted R2 of 0.8517; i.e., the difference is less than 0.2. Adequate precision
measures the signal-to-noise ratio. A ratio greater than 4 is desirable. A ratio of
14.049 indicates an adequate signal. This model can be used to navigate the design
space. At 36 h, the predicted R2 of 0.6163 is not as close to the adjusted R2 of 0.8332
as one might normally expect; i.e., the difference is more than 0.2. A ratio greater
than 4 is desirable; a ratio of 13.531 depicts an adequate signal.
At 60 h, the predicted R2 of 0.4817 showed reasonable agreement with the
adjusted R2 of 0.6560; i.e., the difference is less than 0.2. Adequate precision
measures the signal-to-noise ratio. A ratio greater than 4 is desirable; thus, a ratio
of 8.209 indicates an adequate signal. This model can be used to navigate the design
space.
At 80 h, the predicted R2 of 0.6325 is different slightly close to the adjusted R2 of
0.8433 as one might normally expect; i.e., the difference is more than 0.2. This may
indicate a large block effect or a possible problem with model and/or data. Since a
ratio greater than 4 is desirable, a ratio of 13.844 indicates an adequate signal, and
the model can be used to navigate the design space.
At 96 h, the predicted R2 of 0.4373 is not as close to the adjusted R2 of 0.6955,
i.e., the difference is more than 0.2. This may indicate a large block effect or a
possible problem with model and/or data. However, the ratio of 8.093 indicates an
adequate signal. This model can be used to navigate the design space (Fig. 8).
Final Equation in Terms of Coded Equation
In 12 h, 36 h, 60 h, 80 h, and 96 h, the equations in terms of coded factors could be

used to make predictions about the response for given levels of each factor. By
default, the high levels of the factors are coded as +1, and the low levels are coded as
Fig. 8 Response surface depictions of lipase production by Acinetobacter spp.
1. The coded equations are useful for identifying the relative impact of the factors
by comparing the factor coefficients.
Production of Polymeric Flocculant
A summary of co-production using Acinetobacter sp. from agro-wastes is shown

below:
678 M. Ghosh et al.
Agro wastes from

Cleaning, drying, blending &
supply chain, vending
Media formulation
Fermentation with lipase,

bioflocculant strain
Biopolymeric Flocculant
Lipase (Supernatant)
Biopolymer production in general medium (FIB) and vegetable medium was

compared by their corresponding yields. Biopolymer production protocol was car-
ried out as described (Khaira et al. 2014). It was observed that the amount of
biopolymer produced in the vegetable-composed medium was 214 mg/L and in
standard medium was 197 mg/L (Table 8). The polymeric flocculant produced in the
formulated medium was lyophilized and stored for characterization by FTIR and
SEM.
Flocculating Potential of the Extracellular Polymer
Results revealed that the polymer aggregated a wide range of colloidal particles, over
concentrations of 2–10 ppm. Table 9 depicts the economics of the formulated media
for lipase and biopolymeric flocculant production was achieved in suspensions
comprising very-low- and low-sized particles at even low concentration of the
biopolymer, whereas the efficacy of flocculation of suspension of medium-sized
particles ranged from 30 to 40% too at relatively higher concentration of 8–10 ppm
of the biopolymer. With suspensions of large-sized particles, 50–65% flocculant
activity was observed, at the same concentration range that flocculated in the range
of 70–90% in the case of low- and very-low-sized particle suspension. This
Table 8 Economics of Vegetable media components (gm/L) Cost (Rs)

media usage for biopolymer
Corn powder (1 gm) 23
and lipase production by
the bacterial strain in 1 L Garlic powder (1 gm) 10
vegetable media Onion powder (2 gm) 20
Yeast extract (0.10 gm) 12
Olive oil (5 ml) 70
Total 135
Table 9 Economics of Standard media components (gm/L) Cost (Rs.)

biopolymer and lipase
(NH4)2SO4 (2 gm) 106
production by the bacterial
strain in 1 L reference KH2PO4 (2 gm) 14
media Na2HPO4 (0.6 gm) 33
MgSO4.7H2O (0.2 gm) 32
CaCl2 (20 mg) 38
Yeast extract (0.1 gm) 49
Fructose (40 gm) 994
Total 1266
observation may be attributed to non-uniform distribution of pore size on the

biopolymer surface; besides, the number of sites available for binding low- and
very-low-sized particles might be more than that for binding medium- and large-
sized particles. However, large variations in the degree of flocculation were
observed, where the kaolin particles (size 2 μ) showed the highest flocculating
activity (90%). Overall the extracellular polymer was found to have a good floccu-
lating activity in line with earlier reports of Khaira et al. (2014).
Economics of the Formulated Media
A tentative economics were charted for fermentation carried out with 1 L of both
reference and formulated vegetable medium. Table 10 depicts the breakup of each
medium component with the cost. It must be noted that downstream processes have
an add-on cost for ultimately recovering the target bioproducts.
A comparison of these results justifies clearly the cost involved upon using the
same quantities of two medium. The vegetable medium proved to be more efficient
at Rs. 135 /L in comparison to the reference medium (Rs. 1266/L). Moreover, the
ingredients of the vegetable medium can be obtained abundantly.
As depicted in Fig. 9, FTIR analysis of the polymeric flocculant indicated medium
peak at 3403.9 cm1 which is the characteristics of the presence of alkyl halides.
Strong peak at 2158.6 cm1 indicates the presence of C-H stretch of aromatic
compound; medium peak at 1639.4 cm1 indicates the presence of C-N stretch of
aliphatic amines. 1412.5 cm1 and 1375.8 cm1 medium peaks indicate the C-H
stretch of aromatic compounds. Medium stretch at 1035.1 cm indicates the presence of
alkenes. Strong and broad peaks at 599.9 cm1 and 560.4 cm1 indicate the presence
of O-H stretch and hydrogen-bonded alcohols and phenols. The scanning electron
micrograph indicated rod-shaped structure of the polymeric flocculant, and spherical
and long fiber-like particles were also observed. Single spheres with a diameter less
than 0.2 μm were present on the surface along with needle-shaped structures (Figs. 10
and 11). Both SEM and FTIR data suggested very close resemblance of the biopoly-
mer produced in vegetable medium with that produced by the same culture in
reference medium, suggesting the applicability of the formulated vegetable medium
for both lipase and biopolymer production by the selected bacterial strain.
680 M. Ghosh et al.
RC SAIF PU, Chandigarh
39.3
38
36 773.8
891.7 687.6
2158.6
34 934.5
32 1375.8
1412.5 1242.7
30
599.9
28
560.4
26
%T 2856.0
24
1639.4
2926.8
22
20 1035.1
18
16
3403.9
14
13.0
4000.0 3600 3200 2800 2400 2000 1800 1600 1400 1200 1000 800 600 400.0
cm-1
Fig. 9 FTIR profile of purified polymeric flocculant produced by Acinetobacter spp.
Fig. 10 Scanning electron

micrograph of the polymeric
flocculant produced in
vegetable media by
Acinetobacter spp.
Conclusion
The present study explicitly demonstrated an approach for fermentative production

of lipase from an extracellular polymer producing bacterial strain in a medium
formulated from cheap agro-resources. The bacterial strain, characterized to be
Fig. 11 Scanning electron

micrograph of the purified
polymeric flocculant
produced in reference media
by the Acinetobacter spp.
Acinetobacter spp., possessed high lipolytic activity. Lipase production was pre-
dominantly extracellular and bore strong resemblance to other microbial lipases in
terms of pH and temperature optima. A complete optimization of the medium
components revealed the best suited carbon source was olive oil, the nitrogen
source was yeast extract, and pH of 6.5 and 30 C temperature for the maximum
production of lipase. To rationalize the optimization, RSM was used; results
revealed the model as significant by enabling the best lipase activity at concentra-
tions of 0.4% of carbon source and 1% of nitrogen source. These parameters were
duly validated experimentally and were also instrumental in an enhanced yield of
the biopolymeric flocculant. A typical yield of 214 mg/L was obtained in compar-
ison to 197 mg/L observed in reference medium. The polymeric flocculant pos-
sessed desirable structural and functional attributes as evident from the results of
FTIR and SEM.
The presence of carboxyl, hydroxyl, and other functional groups and amorphous
nature and porous structure of the polymer are important considerations for
biopolymeric flocculants to retain and bind water. Flocculation activity was notable
over a range of colloid particles. The vegetable medium formulated from onion,
corn, and garlic was found to be satisfactory in terms of characteristics and storage
with desirable C:N ratio, crucial for supporting optimal biochemical activities. A
cost-wise analysis indicated substantial economic benefits of the formulated medium
compared to fermentative production in reference medium. Further analysis of the
lipase should yield important insights on its applicability especially in treating waste
water effluents from oil-producing facilities. Moreover, the polymeric flocculant
could be also used for such treatment processes. An important finding of this study
was the development of an economical and sustainable method for simultaneously
producing two bioproducts, of considerable value in both environmental and other
applications.
682 M. Ghosh et al.
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Paddy Straw-Based Circular Economy
for Sustainable Waste Management 27
Kalyanasundaram Geetha Thanuja, Subramanian Marimuthu,
Desikan Ramesh, and Subburamu Karthikeyan
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 685
Harvesting of Paddy Crop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 685
Straw Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 686
Postharvest Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 688
Total Harvest Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 689
Baling Machines for Straw Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 690
Paddy Straw: Disposal Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 691
Challenge and Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 692
Effects of Paddy Straw in Soil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693
K. Geetha Thanuja
Department of Agricultural Microbiology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore,
Tamil Nadu, India
S. Marimuthu
Department of Nano Science and Technology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore,
Tamil Nadu, India
e-mail: sm20@tnau.ac.in
D. Ramesh
Department of Vegetable Science, Horticultural College and Research Institute for Women,
Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu, India
e-mail: rameshd@tnau.ac.in
S. Karthikeyan (*)
Department of Renewable Energy Engineering, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore,
Tamil Nadu, India
e-mail: skarthy@tnau.ac.in

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_35
684 K. Geetha Thanuja et al.
Strategies for Residue Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693

In Situ Incorporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693
Role of Cellulolytic Microbes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 695
Ex Situ Composting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 695
Livestock Feed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 697
Ensiling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 697
Bioconversion of Paddy Straw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 698
Biomethanation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 698
Pretreatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699
Co-digestion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699
Optimized Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699
Solid State Anaerobic Digestion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 701
Dry Fermentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 702
Biochar Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 702
Hydrochar Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 703
Electricity Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 704
Bioethanol Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 704
Paper and Pulp Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 706
Other Uses of Paddy Straw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 706
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 707
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 707
Abstract
The crop residues and stubbles from agriculture are inevitable products received
after harvesting/processing. As the staple food, rice cultivation contributes to ca.
800 million tons of straw at global level. The nutrient-rich biomass demands
competent degradation strategies and fruitful use. The cost-effective utilization of
paddy straw is found in the production of biochar/hydrochar, producer gas,
biogas, power generation, etc. On the contrary, burning rice straw is practiced
in many parts of the globe leading to numerous ill effects, viz., release of soot and
smoke, greenhouse gas emission, and loss of nutrients. Toward sustainable
approach, the paddy straw should be used in all possible ways with the technol-
ogies ensuring zero waste and zero harm to the environment. In situ incorpora-
tion, composting with help of functional microbes, can be practiced at field level.
Further the biomass can be converted to functional carbonized material through
either hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) or hydrothermal carbonization (HTC).
The low-tech system yields bio-oil and hydrocarbon, respectively. The optimized
application of products again to the crop would significantly enhance C status of
the soil, reduce GHG emission, and so on. Being abundant in lignin, they can be
used as potential feedstock for renewable energy generation like biomethane and
bioethanol. To abate the environmental pollution and intensify the soil fertility
status, reuse and recycle are the forefront management strategies. Also, paddy
straw sets step as valuable tool in the perspective of energy, environment, and
economy.
Keywords
Paddy straw · Sustainability · Soil · Environment · Bioenergy
27 Paddy Straw-Based Circular Economy for Sustainable Waste Management 685
Introduction
Agriculture has been associated with growing of crops and rearing of animals for
yielding essentials to mankind. Concurrently, they produce solid waste in the form of
residual stalks, waste wood, leaves, etc. Further, these agricultural wastes are regarded
as organic by-products and generate secondary income. After green revolution, though
India is self-sufficient in food, intensive fertilization toward increased productivity has
dwindled the health of the soil. In order to restore the productivity of soil, crop biomass
recycling is a sound alternative. The recycling of organic agroresidues is not new and
is in practice from early crop cultivation systems. Being a prime crop for human
consumption, rice holds cultivable area of 155 million hectare around the globe. With
the slight increase in area, paddy production has doubled in the last 30 years which is
witnessed by development of high yielding varieties and mechanization. The inevita-
ble need of the paddy bestows production of 800 million tons of straw. India, being
mostly dependent on rice and rice-wheat cropping system, produces enormous amount
of stubbles every year. For every kilogram of grain harvested, rice straw production
accounts for 1–1.5 kg. In these days of mechanized combine harvester, the leftover
straw in the field is much more. The surplus availability of straw creates manifold
ways for utilization, but managing crop residue has long been undervalued.
In the pursuit of sustainability in agriculture and environment, with potential
endeavor to soil health and mankind, straw management has received much attention.
It serves as vital alternate to tone down the global reliance on fossil fuels. With the
advent of combine harvesters, immense amount of straw is either left spread in the
field or collected manually which incurs higher labor cost. In rural livelihoods, the
residues are the integral part serving as source for livestock feed like cattle, buffaloes,
and small ruminants and mulch in conservative agriculture and also hold potential uses
in production of fuels. In spite of the abundant hexose and pentose content, higher
silica composition of rice straw renders limited usage as fodder. In a way to reduce the
environmental footprints and increase the profit from rice production, sustainable and
eco-friendly approach is needed. On the other hand, rice straw has huge potential, viz.,
biochemical or thermochemical processing in the manufacture of syngas, biogas, and
industrial solvents like acetone, dimethyl ether, etc. It can also be exploited for the
production of bioethanol, bio-oil, biochar, etc., which can find the agricultural impor-
tance. Application of such technologies/processes has double-edged benefits. First,
they ensure the utilization of waste, thereby providing environmental pollution.
Second, they produce value-added products, thereby generating additional revenue.
This chapter discusses the integrated approach for straw utilization so as to support
circular economy for achieving sustainable development goals for the year 2030.
Harvesting of Paddy Crop
Generally, the paddy crop must be harvested after attaining the physical crop
maturity. The harvested crop contains paddy grains and straw. The grains and
straw are separated after the threshing process and their impact is furnished under
Table 1. The operations carried out for paddy grain collection are cutting, bundling,
harvesting paddy crops, winnowing, and bagging harvested paddy grains.
Depending upon the harvesting method employed, the threshing may be carried
out either in the field or threshing yard. Harvesting of paddy can be achieved by (i)
manual/traditional method, (ii) paddy reaper, and (iii) combine harvester. There are
various paddy harvesters (Fig. 1), and depending on the method of harvest, the rice
straw is either piled or spread.
In the manual harvesting method, the paddy can be harvested by using a sickle
tool. The harvested crops are bundled for easy transport from the field for further
processing. Finally, the straw is collected from the threshing area. Demerits of the
traditional method are its being time-consuming and labor-intensive. The paddy
reaper is used to harvest the crop at the ground level. Additionally, it will help in the
timely harvesting of crops and reduce the drudgery for workers compared to the
manual harvesting method. Different types of reapers are a horizontal conveying
reaper, bunch conveying reaper, and reaper binder. The main functions of horizontal
conveying reaper are (i) cut the crop and (ii) transport them horizontally from one
end to another for windrowing for easy collection. This kind of reaper can reduce
time and better-harvested crop collection compared with the manual method of
harvesting. The bunch conveying reaper does the similar activities of the horizontal
conveying reaper.
Further, it has an additional platform to collect and hold the harvested crops
and release them as a bunch at an intermediate time interval. For reaper binder,
crops are cut by reaper mechanism and bundled with helping binding mechanism.
In other words, the reaper binder can do the harvesting and binding operations
continuously. Recently, the combine harvesters are being used for paddy crop. It
simplified operations and has several advantages over the other two methods. The
sequences of operations for a combine harvester are cutting, collecting, threshing
of harvested paddy, separating grain and straw, cleaning, and collecting the
grains.
Straw Collection
Harvesting leaves straw on ground making the collection and transportation

complicated which hence remains a major challenge in supply chain. Straw
from the field is low in density and irregularly shaped creating difficulty in
handling, and transportation of loose straw demands more labor and cost. For
easy handling and reducing the transportation cost, straw needs to be accumu-
lated and fine structured at the field before transport. Two basic approaches are
generally applicable for collecting any agricultural crop residues, namely, post-
harvest and total harvest concept. In the case of the postharvest concept approach,
the agricultural residues are collected after harvesting the crop. The total
harvest concept involves simultaneously collecting the agricultural crop and its
residues.
27
Table 1 Impact of harvesting and threshing methods on the straw collection

Straw
Harvesting Collection of collection
S. no. method harvested crops Threshing method point Conditions of straw Baling Remarks
A. Traditional Bundled form Manual threshing Threshing Full length with no Stationery balers used Laborious
method yard damage work
Time-
consuming
Bundled form Pedal-operated Threshing Full length with Stationery balers used Laborious
thresher (manual) yard little damage work
Process is
slow
Bundled form Paddy crop thresher Threshing Full length with Stationery balers used Laborious
yard slight damage work
B. Paddy Bundled form Manual threshing Threshing Full length with no Stationery balers used Laborious
reaper yard damage work
Process is
slow
Pedal-operated Threshing Full length with Stationery balers used Laborious
thresher (manual) yard little damage work
Process is
slow
Paddy crop thresher Threshing Full length with Stationery balers used Timeliness
Paddy Straw-Based Circular Economy for Sustainable Waste Management
yard slight damage operation

C. Combine Harvesting, collection, threshing, and Spread over Cut into two or Self-propelled/tractor- Timeliness
harvester winnowing take place simultaneously the field three pieces operated baler used operation
687
Fig. 1 Paddy straw collection modes followed for different paddy harvesting method
Postharvest Concept
The paddy straw could be collected by the abovementioned two approaches and
discussed postharvest concept for collecting paddy straw using different types of
machinery. However, the implementation of collection methods is strongly depen-
dent on harvesting methods employed for the paddy crop.
The paddy crop can be harvested by three methods, viz., the manual method
which uses the sickle tool, paddy reaper, and combine harvester. The first
two methods involve harvesting and laying down the harvested paddy crops in
the field, which falls under this concept. For these harvesting methods, the
harvested crops are made into small bundles for easy transportation. These
harvested crop bundles were collected from the field manually and transported
to a nearby threshing area in the farm. This step is labor-intensive and causes
discomfort to the workers due to itching problems. Threshing of paddy was done
in two ways: manual or paddy thresher (Figs. 2 and 3). The manual harvesting
method can give paddy straw as a whole after the threshing process. Several
equipment are required for the total harvest concept, such as straw collecting
machinery, stationary thresher or modified combine, straw drying equipment,
and baling equipment. However, the adoption of the postharvest concept
for paddy crop is reduced due to several reasons. The reasons might be time-
consuming for each process used, such as harvesting, collection, threshing,
and straw collection; transporting harvested paddy crop bundles to the threshing
area, problems in the drying of bulk straw; high piled straws, and also requires
specially designed threshing, drying and baling machinery. Furthermore, the
supply chain for straw collection that points to biofuel industries is tedious due
to the low bulk density of straw materials, and it requires more trucks for few
straw tons.
Fig. 2 Operational view of manual paddy harvesting and bundling of harvested crops
Fig. 3 Operational view of paddy thresher and straw collection
Total Harvest Concept
The problems faced by farmers for effective straw management may influence them
to choose the self-propelled combines than the total harvest system. The combine
harvester is commonly preferred by the farmers for paddy harvesting due to timely
harvesting and less harvesting time and reduces risky exposing of the paddy crops to
worst weather conditions, simplified way to collect the grain in the field itself.
However, the straw collection is becoming difficult from the field if the combine
harvester is employed. The combine harvesters mostly cut into two or three small
pieces and left them in the field. In this case, the straw collection may be done in
three ways. The paddy thresher would dispose of the slightly damaged straws due to
the operation of the threshing cylinder. Firstly, paddy straw can be collected man-
ually, and it is a labor-intensive and time-consuming process. Due to these factors,
higher prices are fixed for feedstocks, resulting in a negative impact on marketability.
Secondly, the combine harvester with knotter can do the harvesting, threshing,
winnowing, grain collection, and straw baling (Fig. 4). The main challenging task
Fig. 4 Operational view of combine harvester and tractor-operated baler
is compressing the straw immediately after harvest due to energy-intensive and

material clogging problems.
Thirdly, balers can be used for collecting and baling the straw in a uniform shape,
i.e., square or cylindrical. Types of machinery for collection and baling of straw are
not yet commercialized, and their procurement is unfeasible for most of the farmers,
ultimately increasing the overall cost of straw management. The nature of straw
influences the selection of processing equipment, and it indirectly reflects on the total
cost for the baling process. The economic viability for the straw baling project
significantly depends on the power requirement, duration, and cost. The operational
cost includes labor charges for loading/unloading and unit operation, fuel cost, etc.
The benefits of baling technology are effective and timely residue management, less
space required for storage, and cutting down transportation charges.
Baling Machines for Straw Collection
The paddy straw contains higher moisture (60–70% w/w) at the time of harvesting.
For long-term storage, moisture content should be less than 25% by drying them.
The recent price and potential uses of paddy straw for the farmers are urgently
needed for the residue management machine for paddy straw management. Baling
offers better residue management, which involves collecting straw and densification
of collected straw for bulk volume reduction for easy transport and storage. The
reaper binder is used to collect the paddy straw and bind them as a uniform-sized
bundles. The common components of reaper binder are feeding unit, stubble cutting
unit, straw bruising unit, blowing unit, and straw collection unit. The straw baler can
collect the crop residue and make cubical bales of fixed width and height and varying
length. The rice straw balers used in the study are the roller-type (round) and piston-
type (square) balers.
One advantage of the roller-type baler is that it can compress collected loose straw
by 50–100% density through a series of roller mechanisms that form the cylindrical
or round bales. The roller-type baler would not work continuously due to tying and
unloading of bales. In contrast with roller-type baler, the square baler can be
continuously operated. The impact assessment of 50 hp tractor-operated baler
machine revealed the reel-type straw pickup assembly, straw compaction, and
tying units were the baler machine’s main functional components. They concluded
that this baler machine’s field capacity was varied from 0.30 to 0.36 ha/h. Balingbing
et al. (2020) conducted a study to collect data on fuel consumption, manpower
requirements, and field capacity by operating the balers. The round baler operated at
35% lower effective field capacity (EFC) on piled rice straw than on scattered rice
straw, while the square baler operated at 2.33 times and 5.79 times higher EFC
compared with the round baler on piled and scattered rice straw, respectively. The
square baler used to collect scattered rice straw lowers baling cost by 68% and an
average EFC that is 4.43 times higher than the round baler.
Several size reduction methods including cubers, piston presses, briquette pre-
sses, tabletizers, roller presses, and agglomerators can be used to raise the density of
the straw. Baling machines compact to compress the loose straw into either square or
circular bales enhancing their characteristics for easy transportation and material
handling. The judicious employment of field for succeeding sowing for straw
disposal should be economically viable. Energy, time, and cost are important criteria
to be taken into account for converting loose straw into densified straw. Among
them, labor requirement and fuel consumption for collection, transport, loading, and
unloading are considered. Collection cost involves the system of collection, price of
the equipment, and working time. The forefront way for the hype of baling system
centers in economical exploit and socioeconomic impacts. Recently, mechanized
way of straw collection can reduce transportation costs, storage space, and timely
field management.
Paddy Straw: Disposal Problems
The paddy straw is contributing a major share among the rice crop residues. For
example, the rice straw production per ton of reaped rice was estimated at ca. 1.35
tons. Generally, the grain to paddy straw was ranged between 1.0 and 4.3.The rice
straw quantity collected from the field relies on the crop’s cutting height from the
ground. However, the yield of paddy straw and grain depends on varieties, plant
density and height, seasons, regions, soil conditions, water availability, fertilizer
used, weeds/insect and their control, crop duration, and harvesting methods. In order
to prepare the land for consecutive crop cultivation, the paddy straw must
be collected from the field. The paddy straw has several uses, such as animal
feed, mulching materials, composting, and bed materials for mushroom production.
However, the farmers prefer open yard burning of paddy straw to dispose of
the straw quickly. The burning of paddy straw can release pollutants into the
atmosphere. It results in increasing climate change as well as global warming.
Open-field burning of one ton of straw can release 2 kg of sulfur oxide, 3 kg of
particulate matter, 60 kg of CO, and 200 kg of ash to the environment.
India, being an agrarian country, generates enormous quantities of crop residues,

and the surplus amount is estimated around 84 to 141 MT per year. The national
grain and the straw production has been increasing in the past 30 years and is
expected to project further. The excess amount of crop residues is usually burnt
on-farm due to progressive shift from manual and animal power to mechanical and
electrical power. In the era of intensive agriculture, mechanization has tremendously
increased due to scarcity of labors and increased wages. Every year rice farmers
manage the straw by burning contributing to annual haze due to low cost and labor
scarcity. The management practices practiced today not only creates environmental
pollution but also hinders the potential energy uses. Open burning of the crop
residues results in significant environmental implications. Besides leaving burnt
ashes, blackening of soil, and air pollution, burning of straw provides numerous
hazards to the soil and environment like increased evaporation rate, reduced macro-
and micronutrients, decreased acidity of the soil, emission of GHG, etc. Recently, the
crop residue burning issues in the states of Haryana and Punjab of India had
drastically lowered the air quality index of the country’s capital city. Hence the
pressing prerequisite is the efficient utilization of paddy straw with an aim toward
recycle and reuse, without harming environment. In many parts of the globe, rice
straw is burnt in the field to facilitate next plowing and eliminate field pathogens.
The unsustainable disposal has negative effect with 0.05% release of total
emission of greenhouse gases coupled with harmful microparticles (Hans et al.
2019). Business as usual (BAU) trend analysis has reported that if the crop man-
agement practices persist in the same way, emission rate can ascend about 45% by
2050. Further the rice straw ash from various power plants is disposed in the nearby
land causing respiratory issues.
Challenge and Options
The mechanization of straw collection reduces transportation costs and increases

capacity. Technically and economically, straw baling is regarded as a viable choice
for further management such as animal feed, other industrial uses, and timely
field management for subsequent sowing. When harvesting is accomplished with
combine harvesters, 60% of straw is cut into pieces and spread on the field. Knotter
is attached to the combine harvesters when straw has to be bundled on the field.
Compressing the straw immediately after harvest is quite a big challenge which
needs more energy and chance for easy clogging of machine. In such scenario, balers
for collecting the straw from the site is opted, allowed for drying, and then preceded
for baling. The nature of straw influences the processing of the equipment which
ultimately reflects on the cost. The judicious employment of field for succeeding
sowing for straw disposal should be economically viable. Energy, time, and cost are
important criteria to be taken into account for converting loose straw into densified
straw. Among them, labor requirement and fuel consumption for collection, trans-
port, loading, and unloading are considered. Collection cost involves the system of
collection, price of the equipment, and working time. The forefront way for the hype
of baling system centers in economical exploit and socioeconomic impacts.
Effects of Paddy Straw in Soil
Rice straw constitutes 0.6% N, 0.1% of each P and S, 1.5% K, 5% of Si, and 40% of
C. Because of their nutrient content, they are incorporated into field, and rice
crops are planted instantly without undesirable effects. Farmers prefer to burn or
incorporate the straw into the soil following rice harvest. In situ incorporation of the
straw in the soil enables fertilizer saving and nutrient recycling. Straw incorporation
in anaerobic soil hastened the soil reduction where rice straw serves as carbon
substrate for methane production. Microbial and biochemical changes occurred in
paddy soils during the decomposition of paddy straw, following stepwise reduction
of the soil. The microbial changes are carried out by facultative and obligate
anaerobes, corresponding to pre-methanogenic processes or acid formation and
methanogenic processes, respectively. The reduction of NO3 1, Mn+4, and Fe+3
takes place in the first step followed by sulfate reduction and CH4 formation in the
paddy soils. In contrast, applying straw back to the soil enhances physicochemical
properties, improves fertility status, mitigates GHG emission, and helps in C seques-
tration. The increase in total soil organic carbon (SOC) and SOC fractions was
recorded including light fraction organic carbon, dissolved organic carbon, and
microbial biomass carbon by 7.1–128.6% upon rice straw incorporation at top
10 cm soil. Li et al. (2018) have also supported the increase in SOC upon paddy
straw decomposition and change in microbial biomass. The distinct succession of
fungal community was observed, but the succession in bacterial communities was
absent. Straw application increased both heterotrophic and phototrophic N fixation
in paddy soils. Further they play crucial role in moderation of soil temperature and
moisture and control problematic weed, Phalaris minor. Various functional microbes
including phosphate solubilizers, potassium releasers, and cellulose degraders have
been significantly reduced upon burning. Continuous burning also deteriorates the
enzyme activities and potential productivity of microbial-driven processes. A 3-year
field study demonstrated the twofold increase in rice yield upon incorporation of
green manure and rice straw (Zhou et al. 2020).
Strategies for Residue Management
In Situ Incorporation
The reduction of postharvest straw residues in the paddy fields is important to the
successful production of the next crop. The effect of paddy straw incorporation in
improving the beneficial properties has been claimed in a number of studies, viz.,
increased soil fertility, improved microbial and enzyme activity, and enhanced rice
yield with environmental protection. Diverse microflora act upon the paddy straw
Fig. 5 Succession of microorganisms in the degradation of paddy straw
(Fig. 5) and assist in mineralization of nutrients. The stimulation of organic matter

mineralization upon paddy straw addition and actinobacteria acts as great affiliating
community involved in C assimilation. For the better management of paddy straw in
paddy ecosystem, their incorporation sounds essential toward sustainability. N
application with rice straw incorporation in winter lowered the net global warming
potential with 21% decrease in methane emission with significant increase in
available P. However, there are many studies supporting the evidences of increase
in methane emission upon direct incorporation. The incorporation of rice straw as
fertilizers is however a common practice; 42% of carbon from the straw accounts for
methane emission when the wetland field drastically experiences reduction in water
level. Straw incorporation becomes inappropriate option where two or three crops
are followed per year since the turnaround time is too transient for decomposition.
In such instances, the crop establishment is hindered due to poor soil fertilization.
When decomposition occurs in anaerobic condition of lowland rice, amount of
methane emission can be tripled than that of open burning. The significant decrease
in crop productivity has also been reported during degradation due to N immobili-
zation by competing microbial population. The ill-effects of direct incorporation
can be mitigated by incorporating partially or entirely degraded for which efficient
microbial inoculum stands on the fore. The microbes that decompose paddy straw
already exist in soil and would work when conditions are favorable. However in the
field, it is immensely a limitation to control moisture, temperature, aeration, and
the nutrient levels. With an added advantage of warmer weather in the Indian
subcontinent, PS can be incorporated as soon as after harvest, and making
combinations with other agroresidues like sugarcane straw and ground nut haulm
will increase the decomposability. Also chopping the PS and spreading evenly on the
soil will make a substantial contact of the straw to the soil microflora, thus improving
the decomposition. The method of PS incorporation depends on several factors such

as type of equipment used, water availability, field conditioning, weather, etc. Large
disc plows are very effective in incorporation of straw but limits by slower operation
and high power demand in operation. Mold board plows provide good PS incorpo-
ration, but deep plowing is not much essential and sometime may cause other soil
issues specifically in problem soils like alkaline soils by bringing up the sodium to
the surface. Alternatively, paddy fields may be flooded soon after harvest allowing
higher decomposition. Additional N application while incorporating rice stubbles
favors the decomposition of organic materials in paddy soils, thus improving the
growth and grain yield in succeeding rice crop in dual rice cropping systems
(Marimuthu 1994). The inorganic N addition slightly reduced the rate of straw-N
component release at initial periods, thus accelerating the ability of microbes
to produce enzymes for their own metabolism and further straw decomposition.
Similarly, N addition provides enough N to reduce the C/N ratio in the microenvi-
ronment facilitating growth of microorganisms, thus improving the hydrolytic
enzymes in the initial phase of decomposition. Repeated straw application tends to
improve the physical properties of soil. It improves the internal drainage to benefit
paddy crop and non-rice crops like wheat in rice-wheat system by soil structure
improvement. The major objection to the use of straw as a manure claims that it
immobilizes available soil nitrogen which of course is temporary and is much less in
flooded soils than in dry land soils obviously due to lower nitrogen requirement
coupled with slow rate of decomposition under flooded condition. Combined use of
nitrogen fertility along with the straw can alleviate this problem. Anaerobic condi-
tions preserve straw-N against the nitrification and reduce leaching that occurs in dry
land soils.
Role of Cellulolytic Microbes
Due to complex composition of paddy straw, well-structured microbial community

is requisite for rapid bioconversion. Several cellulolytic microbes (Table 2) act as
activator in hastening in the decomposition process. Their enzymes were reported to
enhance the recalcitrant degradation kinetics and also improve physical structure of
the soil. For in situ degradation, efficient isolates capable of colonizing the residue
with high rate of mineralization would be appropriate.
Ex Situ Composting
Composting is considered a viable means for stabilization of high volatile solids

(VS) organics and solid wastes. The lignocellulosic biodegradation and consequent
transformation into compost serve as an alternate strategy against burning of straw
and finest option for the better use along with soil health restoration. In order to avoid
the risk of methane emission upon direct incorporation into field, their transportation
and transformation into compost or several treatments better suits the application.
Table 2 Contribution of cellulolytic microorganisms in paddy straw decomposition

Potential cellulolyzers Effect Reference
Pleurotus ostreatus T1.I and Maximum enzyme activities Pedraza-
Penicillium spHC 1 Zapata et al.
(2017)
Aspergillus niger (F44) and Reduction in C/N ratio from 29.3 to Kausar et al.
Trichoderma viride (F46) 19.5 (2010)
Phanerochaete chrysosporium Enhanced lignin degradation Yu et al.
(2009)
EM consortium Hastened composting process with Sharma
Candida tropicalis (Y6), decrease in C/N ratio and total humus et al. (2014)
Phanerochaete chrysosporium content in 60 days
(VV18),
Streptomyces globisporous (C3),
Lactobacillus sp. and compost
inoculants (Aspergillus nidulans
(ITCC 2011),
Trichoderma viride (ITCC 2211),
Phanerochaete chrysosporium (NCIM
1073) and
A. awamori (F-18)
Neosartorya fischeri-Myceliophthora Enhanced saccharification Taha et al.
thermophila and Aeromonas (2015)
hydrophila-Pseudomonas poae
Trichoderma reesei MTCC164 Reduction in lignin and silica content Phutela
Coriolus versicolor MTCC 138 et al. (2011)
Aspergillus sp., Bacillus sp., Increased availability of soil nutrients Shrivastava
Streptomyces sp. et al. (2019)
Table 3 Benefits of rice straw compost on soil

Treatment Effects Reference
RS + water treatment Reduced soil salinity and sodicity Mahmoud et al.
residual (2009)
RS + earthworm + fungal Improved physicochemical and Sarangi and Lama
inoculant biological properties (2013)
RS – continuous application Increased soil organic matter and rice Yeon et al. (2007)
yield
RS + Azolla + cattle dung Enhanced agronomic value Arora and Kaur
(2019)
Mechanized composting significantly increases its quality with optimized nutrient

and decomposition process. Composts besides being alternate to chemical fertilizers
provide essential macronutrients, nourish beneficial soil microbes, act as a soil
improver, and provide numerous benefits as mentioned in Table 3. The demand for
eco-friendly waste management technology has spurred interest toward paddy straw
composting. The bioconversion from paddy straw is generally slow and hence
demands pretreatment process amenable to break the lignocellulosic construct of
the straw, which renders them not easily biodegradable. Pretreatment is usually
performed to break matrix and to decrease the cellulose crystallinity which can be
classified into physical, chemical, and biological method. Acid and alkali pre-
treatment employs chemicals such as H2SO4, KOH, or NaOH and is being used to
solubilize the hemicellulose.Thermophilic and mesophilic microbes act upon
organic matter and convert them into stabilized organic matter and mineralized
products such as CO2, H2O, and NH4+ witnessing the transformation of 60–70%
carbon to CO2. The population dynamics of microbes are influenced greatly by
moisture and temperature that govern microbial processes like microbial succession.
The degradation of VS during the composting will result in heat generation and
increase the temperature.
Livestock Feed
Rice straw is readily available and cheap source of fodder, but it is marked by low
digestibility, low protein content, and deprived palatability. The cell wall of the rice
straw comprises of 5.5% lignin, 40% cellulose, and 18% hemicellulose and silica.
The increased amount of inorganic silica results in higher ash content. High amount
of anti-nutrition factors such as lignin, silica, and oxalates contributes to indigest-
ibility and low retention in the digestive tract of the rumen. The feeding value of the
fodder is enhanced by several pretreatment methods. Many attempts have been
posed toward enhancing the utilization of straw, and pretreatment methods
(Table 4) play a crucial role.
Ensiling
The successful ensiling of rice straw is tedious due to their hollow stem, low water
soluble carbohydrates, and less epiphytic lactic acid bacteria (LAB). Anaerobic
storage of straw with sufficient moisture content gives rise to silage which serves
as dry matter source for ruminants. For achieving good silage, ensiling process is
categorized into four phases. First is the consumption of trapped oxygen (aerobic
phase), second is the lag phase which is characterized by exhaustion of existing
oxygen, third is the fermentation/stable phase marked by decrease in pH with the
complete inhibition of microorganisms, and fourth is feed out phase where the good
silage remains stable. Further, ensiling offers a practical approach to convert water
soluble carbohydrates into organic acids like lactic acid by LAB under anaerobic
condition. Addition of LAB improves the fermentation characteristics (increased
production of lactic acid and acetic acid content), silage quality, dry matter digest-
ibility, and decreased methane production in ruminants. Fresh straw ensiled with
various additives (hemicellulase + L. plantarum) enhanced lactic acid concentration
Table 4 Various pretreatment methods of paddy straw for livestock feed

Processes Reported effect Reference
Physical treatment
Soaking + steaming Cell wall delignification, enhanced nutrient Sarnklong
digestibility et al. (2010)
Grinding, chopping, Easy access for degradation in rumen
pelleting
Steaming and/pressure Encouraged solubilization of hemicellulose Guggolz et al.
(1971)
Chemical treatment
NaOH treatment Increased digestibility Kaur and
Phutela (2016)
NH3 treatment Increasing protein content, supplying N along with Passetti et al.
improved digestibility (2020)
Urea treatment (Urea + Increases protein content and serves as entire and Sheikh et al.
molasses) safe ration for ruminants (2017)
Lime treatment Improved fiber degradability Trach et al.
(2001)
Biological treatment
Trametes Enhanced lignin removal and saccharification Arora et al.
hirsuta + steam efficiency (2016)
pretreatment
Phlebia floridensis Improved nutrition status (protein content, amino Sharma and
acid, and antioxidant properties) Arora (2011)
and residual sugar. Improved cellulose conversion and feedstock preservation mark
them as criteria in biological pretreatment methods for consequent biofuel produc-
tion (Zhao et al. 2018).
Bioconversion of Paddy Straw
Refining biomass into various forms of energy such as heat, electricity, or biofuels
ensures additional benefits. Rice straw can be used as biofuel in any of the following
phases, i.e., gaseous (biogas), liquid (bio-oil), and solid products (biochar).
Biomethanation
Reducing the world’s reliance on fossil fuel elicits interest on lignocellulosic bio-
mass. The huge potential not only renders energy potential but also minimizes the
GHG emission. The availability and cost makes no conflict and competition toward
food and serves as suitable feedstock for anaerobic digestion (AD). AD is a cost-
effective process for producing clean energy with limited environmental impacts
with major product as biomethane and hence called as biomethanation. Use of rice
straw for methanation through anaerobic digestion (AD) can be used for electric
power, cooking, and producing heat. Nearly 60–180 l of methane can be produced
per kg of dry rice straw and can contribute for positive net energy balance around
70–80%. There are three important factors that cause indigestibility, namely, com-
plex lignocellulosic structure, high Si content, and high C/N ratio. However, there
are alternate strategies developed to improve the biodegradability including pre-
treatment, co-digestion, use of efficient inoculums, several process optimization,
design of digesters, etc.
Pretreatment
Pretreatment is regarded as a prime process in the biorefinery of paddy straw to

decrease the cellulose crystallinity and improve their accessibility to enzymes. An
ideal pretreatment method should possess the several criteria like diminishing sugar
loss, inhibiting by-product formation, and rendering enzymes to effectively act upon.
Size reduction of the straw enhances surface area and favors microbes to decompose
effectively. In general, physical, chemical, physicochemical, and biological means of
pretreatment methods are being followed, and Table 5 describes various pretreatment
methods.
Co-digestion
In comparison with pretreatment, co-digestion is presumed to be cost-effective for

supplementation of nutrients requiring less energy inputs and investment cost.
Mono-digestion of rice straw is often ineffective and unstable, causing acidification,
and co-digestion is required to enhance the stability of fermentation process. Co-
digestion renders better digestion to both the substrates, dilutes the inhibitory effect
of mono-digestion, and helps in the yield improvement. The unbalanced nutritional
properties (wide C/N ratio) of paddy straw contribute fewer yields when employed
as single substrate. Under such circumstances, co-digestion with nitrogen-rich bio-
degradable wastes such as animal manures, sewage sludge, dairy industry effluents,
etc. offers condition to balance C/N ratio establishing the synergism with carbon-rich
paddy straw, and Table 6 provides several co-digestion methods being used in
methane production.
Optimized Process
The appropriate participation of diverse microbial communities is needed to

regulate the digestion of paddy straw. The proliferation occurs only upon optimized
parameters like temperature, pH, organic loading rate (OLR), C/N ratio, inoculum
to substrate ratio (ISR), etc. As the temperature increases from mesophilic to
thermophilic, methane production increases and gets reduced at thermophilic
temperature due to accumulation of ammonium nitrogen or inhibition of free
Table 5 Pretreatment methods for biomethanation

Strategies Methods developed Advantages References
Physical treatment
Mechanical Attrition mills, ball mills, Enhances Barakat et al. (2014)
centrifugal mills, colloid bioconversion
mills, hammer mills, efficiency, bulk density,
extruders, knife mills, pin porosity, and
mills, and vibratory mills accessibility to
enzymes
Extrusion Significant reduction of Chen et al. (2014)
particle size and highest
specific methane
production
Hydrothermal Liquid hot water Highest biogas and Chandra et al. (2012)
150 C for 20 min methane production
(followed by 5% NaOH)
Irradiation Electron beam radiation – Improved enzymatic Bak et al. (2009)
80 kGy hydrolysis
Freeze 20 C for 2 h Increased digestibility Chang et al. (2011)
pretreatment from 48% to 84%
Chemical pretreatment
Lime Maximum glucose Gu et al. (2015)
yield with increased
enzyme hydrolysis and
biogas yield
NaoH Increased removal of Imman et al. (2015)
lignin and
hemicellulose
Citric acid High biogas yield Amnuaycheewa et al.
(2016)
Ammonia Destroys rigid Li et al. (2019)
lignocellulosic
structure and enhances
enzymatic digestibility
Organosolv Maximum methane Mirmohamadsadeghi
75% (v/v) ethanol production et al. (2014)
Physicochemical pretreatment
Alkali Sodium hydroxide and Reduction in lignin and Kaur and Phutela
irradiation microwave silica content (2016)
Alkaline Sodium hydroxide in Effective removal of Sato et al. (2019)
hydrothermal hydrothermal treatment hemicellulose and
lignin
Biological pretreatment
Lignolytic Bacillus sp. Delignification and Shah et al. (2019)
enhanced methane
content
Trametes hirsuta High sugar yield on Saritha et al. (2012)
MTCC136 enzymatic hydrolysis
(continued)
Table 5 (continued)
Strategies Methods developed Advantages References
Rumen fluid microbial High cellulose, lignin Zhang et al. (2016)
consortia degradation with
improved methane
production
Table 6 Co-digestion methods involved in biomethanation

Methane yield
Co-digestion methods C/N ratio of paddy straw (LCH4 kg_1VS) Reference
Sludges
Raw sewage sludge 40.36 266 Kim et al. (2013)
Municipal solid waste 121.4 403 65.4 Negi et al. (2018)
Aquatic weeds
Spirulina subsalsa 260.03 Dar et al. (2019)
Salvinia molesta 30.0 113.92 6.90 Syaichurrozi (2018)
Hydrilla verticillata 25.0 Kainthola et al. (2019)
Wastes
Food waste 40.7 535 Chen et al. (2015)
Animal manures
Chicken manure 51.7 309.9 Wang et al. (2014)
Goat manure 92.9 216.4 Zhang et al. (2013)
ammonia (Wang et al. 2018). The pH value serves as an indicator for the health of the
AD system with the optimal range of 6.5–7.5. Solid loading is a crucial parameter
and affects adversely if surpassed beyond the limit. AD is influenced by the
interaction between OLR and total solids with the outturn for the dynamics of
intermediate products and mass transfer. Overloading and inappropriate mixing
results in foaming which is a costly headache. The problem can be surmounted
with the addition of antifoaming agents, proper mixing, and optimal design of
digester. ISR is the significant biological parameter carrying the adequate microbial
load to enhance the rate limiting steps of the substrate.
Solid State Anaerobic Digestion
AD process operates in both liquid and solid states with the total solid ranging from
0.5 to 15% and more than 15%, respectively. It is widely recognized for energy
production and the processing of municipal solid waste, food waste, and agricultural
waste. It is employed under thermophilic temperature and thereby produces more
biogas than the mesophilic temperature and shortens the start-up period without
significant increase in energy consumption for heating up. The major constraint in
the process includes prolonged retention time and requisite of leachate to inoculate
fresh feedstocks.
Dry Fermentation
Dry fermentation is the conventional method of anaerobic digestion to avoid the

floating of paddy straw and serves as efficient alternate to wet fermentation espe-
cially in farms where waste management is a major concern. It is the productive
treatment method for digesting high total solids and usually defined when the total
solids (TS) is >15%. The practical operations are low efficient, due to decreased
fluidity behavior and recalcitrant nature of the straw, which anaerobic bacteria
cannot easily degrade. The digestate of dry fermentation can be accustomed as
fertilizer or pelletized fuel which favors efficient effluent handling. The most pre-
ferred choice in biogas plant is wet digestion due to its low-tech equipment. Wet
fermentation is favorable for small-scale plants but becomes challenging in water-
scarce areas. The noteworthy troubles in wet fermentation process pick preference to
dry fermentation and own numerous advantages like low water usage, least
energy requirement, and liquid/solid separation system with small-sized bioreactors
(Zhao et al. 2012). Organic waste higher dry matter content and low-quality non-
homogeneous material can be processed without necessitating mechanization.
Further, the contaminant present in the substrate does not affect the process of
digestion. However both fermentation processes own the same principle of
degrading organic wastes, and dry methane fermentation process offers enhanced
methane yield per m3 volume of the reactor. Anaerobia consortia using dry microbial
fermentation could yield TS from 21% to 35%. Biogas generation technology with
the available paddy straw using mild steel plant employing dry fermentation is being
operated in Punjab Agricultural University. With the capacity of loading 16,000 kg
straw, it produces gas continuously for 3 months.
Biochar Production
The emerging energy demands and unease over GHG emission have attracted
conversion of biomass ton to biochar. The thermal decomposition of straw at the
elevated temperature of 300–650 C under supply of limited oxygen yields char-
coal product, biochar. Pyrolysis, a dry carbonization process, yields three products,
namely, (i) biochar, (ii) volatiles which can be further condensed into liquid (bio-
oil), and (iii) non-condensable gases. Apart from several process of biochar
production, pyrolysis of biomass is the most common thermochemical technique
and is endowed with numerous advantages (Table 7). It relies on various properties
like temperature, heating duration, nature of feedstocks, and mode of conversion
accompanied with discharge of hydrogen ions. They are endowed with enormous
potential for energy and environmental demands, such as application for soil
amendment, natural fertilizers, and carbon sequestration agent. 13C-labeled rice
straw and its derived biochar studies on short-term incubation experiment revealed
much less utilization of straw-derived biochar than straw by soil microbial popu-
lation. Their aromatic structure provides resistance to degradation and stability in
soil. The precise properties including stability, porous structure, and their ability to
Table 7 Benefits of rice-derived biochar application in paddy field

Reported advantages upon application of biochar in paddy field References
Improved available phosphorus, cation exchange, number of tillers, Kamara et al. (2015)
and dry biomass
Increased rice productivity and improved N retention by increasing Dong et al. (2015)
NO3 –N
Significant reduction in N2O emission Wang et al. (2011); Xu
et al. (2020)
Increased soil aeration, soil pH, and recalcitrance of biochar Qin et al. (2016)
attributed to reduction in GHG
Reduced Cd and As uptake Yin et al. (2017)
Mitigates emission of CH4 and N2O Wang et al. (2017)
Enhanced C storage and productivity of rice Munda et al. (2018)
Improved soil P and K, increased K content in grains and yield Liu et al. (2016)
Increased root length and biomass, with reduced methane emission Pratiwi and Shinogi
(2016)
sequester carbon help the plants to supply nutrients and select them as suitable soil
amendment for increased crop productivity. Further they indirectly afford habitat
for soil microorganisms, thereby supporting soil structure formation. Biochar
remains in the soil for ages and resists biotic and abiotic degradation, thereby
serving as a strategy for climate change mitigation. Besides improving soil health,
they also are found to act against soil-borne pathogens and can be amended as a
supplement in nursery growing media. The efficiency of low temperature and high
temperature in soil biochar has been detailed in various studies. Conversion of rice
residues into biochar and their in situ application into soil serve as sustainable
approach instead of ex situ feedstock and mitigate GHG emission especially N2O.
They were found to regulate nitrogen cycle by decreasing the activity of nitrate
reductase and NH4+.
Hydrochar Production
Hydrochar is the desired product from hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) which

employs temperature at range of 180–260 C and high pressure (2–10 Mpa) under
presence of water. The processing of wet biomass eliminates pre-drying steps,
which is energy-intensive. In general the process of HTC yields three main
products, namely, (i) solid hydrochar, (ii) liquid bio-oil, and (iii) tiny traces of
gases. Divyabharathi and Subramanian (2020) have utilized paddy straw to yield
bio-crude oil along with char and aqueous coproducts. The bio-crude oil was
characterized with high heating value (28 MJ/Kg) and flash point (110 C). Over
pyrolysis, HTC offers numerous advantages such as lowered emission and mild
reaction temperature with minimal energy consumption. Hydrochar actually
remains in slurry form, and before being used as a fuel, it has to involve series of
steps like dewatering, filtering, and drying (Kambo and Dutta 2015). The pore
formation and exposure of several layers on hydrochar are regulated by reaction

temperature and time. Hydrochar production assisted with microwave provides
oxygen-rich functional groups and adsorption affinity toward various pollutants
suggesting their role in waste water treatment. Further engineered hydrochar
composites (EHC) were synthesized using 30% lanthanum pretreated rice straw
capable of maximum P adsorption at wide range of pH which proves their P
recovery role from waste water. Hydrochar have low stability in soil compared
with pyrochar, which makes them unsuitable for long-term C sequestration; how-
ever their diverse functional groups and reactivity assist with further benefits. The
in situ field incubation study to analyze the stability of hydrochar revealed its
potential for slow release of fertilizer. The preparation of high surface area
hydrochar from rice husk employing dilute sulfuric acid with mild temperature
exhibited good electrochemical performance.
Electricity Generation
The use of biomass to generate electricity is the green initiative for the growing
energy demand. The maximum capacity of the straw power plant would be lower
than the coal power plant and environmental-friendly. The electricity plays prime
role in energy economy with low of burning can be encouraged with the use of
rice straw in industrial boilers. However the trouble in establishing the power
plant is logistics cost which contributes to 35–50% of the total operational cost
for rice straw-based power generation. Rice straw is collected after harvest and
stored in collection centers which are then shifted to cogeneration (heat and
electricity) power plants. The economic feasibility of paddy straw to generate
electricity has been evaluated involving various steps from size reduction and
combustion, followed by steam turbine and water treatment. Hassan et al. (2014)
have demonstrated electricity generation using rice straw as substrate and cellu-
lose degrading bacteria as catalyst in microbial fuel cell. With the surplus paddy
straw available, Punjab utilizes 0.48 Mt to produce 62.5 megawatt power in seven
biomass-based power plants. An integrated system with high energy efficiency
was developed by Darmawan et al. (2017) using rice straw as feedstock with
sequential production of syngas. A comprehensive techno-economic power plant
is needed in the future to assess the feasibility of rice straw power plants to reduce
the economic losses.
Bioethanol Production
The other appropriate option for reuse of paddy straw is production of bioethanol.
Being a viable by-product, bioethanol production provides added income and
sustainable utilization. The recalcitrant nature of paddy straw hinders the conver-
sion potential of straw into ethanol (Zhu et al. 2005b). However, various optimized
operations assist in achieving high sugar concentration. It involves four main steps,
Table 8 Various pretreatment methods for the production of bioethanol

Ethanol yield
(theoretical
Pretreatment yield) Reference
Physical method
Popping 80.9% Wi et al. (2013)
Steam explosion 86% Nakamura et al. (2001)
Chemical method
Lime 74% Park et al. (2010)
Sodium cumene sulfonate and sodium xylene 79.6% Devendra and Pandey
sulfonate (2016)
Dil. sulfuric acid followed by sulfomethylation 83.2% Zhu et al. (2015)
Physicochemical
Microwave cum alkali treatment 57.4% Zhu et al. (2005a)
namely, pretreatment, hydrolysis (two-stage), fermentation, and distillation. Pre-

treatment is essential to rupture the lignin seal and expose cellulose and hemicel-
lulose fraction accessible for enzymatic action. This step provides high reaction
rate and renders susceptibility to hydrolysis. There are wide range of methods
available including physical (grinding, milling, irradiation) and chemical (acid,
alkali, ammonia, several oxidizing agents, etc.) pretreatment as mentioned in Table
8. The biological pretreatment methods involve microbes that can either oxidize or
remove lignin. The Basidiomycete class white rot fungi and cellulolyzers are
commonly employed. The pretreatment methods increase the surface area and
assists in increased cellulose to glucose conversion efficiency. Combined pre-
treatment methods meet the challenges by means of single method. The use of
alkali-assisted photocatalysis increases the rate of hydrolysis and acts more effi-
ciently in the degradation of lignin and hemicellulose of rice straw than alkali
pretreatment. Ultrafine grinding followed by steam explosion obviated the inhib-
itors and enhanced hydrolysis. The second step in the production of bioethanol is
enzymatic hydrolysis. In the first stage of hydrolysis, simple sugars are released
and the second stage involves the cleaving of polymers of cellulose and hemicel-
lulose yielding glucose and pentoses, respectively. The sugar fractions of rice straw
can be converted to ethanol by either of fermentation process, simultaneous
saccharification and fermentation (SSF), or separate enzymatic hydrolysis and
fermentation (SHF). Several microorganisms assist in the pentose and hexose
fermentation process like S. cerevisiae, Pichia stipites, and Candida shehatae.
The potential microorganisms like Mucor indicus, Rhizopus oryzae, and Saccha-
romyces cerevisiae on acid pretreated rice straw yielded around 40–74% maximum
theoretical ethanol yield. The lignocellulosic hydrolysate have glucose and xylose
have dominating sugars, and difficulty of co-fermentation lies in providing optimal
growth conditions for both microorganisms. Improvement strategies mainly
focuses on process engineering and strain engineering to evade the difficulties.
Rice straw is a promising option for renewable fuel due to its copious availability
and serves as an inexpensive input. Being outward from the human food chain,
bioethanol from rice straw is not only the cost economic strategy but also the
environment-friendly approach.
Paper and Pulp Industries
Out of 63% paper mills in India, 11% are agroresidue-based in which paddy straw
finds significant application. The initial step involves the conversion of straw into
fibrous mass called pulp. Various chemicals like soda, potassium hydroxide, soda
para benzoquinone, kraft process, and organosolv techniques are employed in the
pulping process. Various pretreatments like dry screening and hot water washing
enhance the efficiency of pulping and bleaching. The chemical processing of
the straw involves crucial step that decreases color of the pulp called bleaching.
However higher ash content in paddy straw remains as limitation in the production
of high-quality paper; they are blended with other non-wood species in different
proportions. During processing of straw, silicon compounds are transformed into
soluble silicates which are further converted to black liquor causing major problems
in recovery. Hence rice straw is used in small-scale pulp and paper industries where
recovery step is eluded. Lignin and several organic components obtained from
pulping liquors can be used as soil amendments for improving soil health status.
Other Uses of Paddy Straw
The surplus availability can be served for very purposes like compost for mushroom
production, building material, and bedding substrate for vegetables such as cucum-
ber and melons. Rice bales were used for cultivation of vegetables like tomato,
eggplant, and chili pepper, and yield was found to be not less than the average
estimating around 30.0, 23.3, and 6.67 t ha 1 respectively. Mushroom cultivation
serves as efficient method for straw disposal as well as producing nutritious food.
Paddy straw is well-recognized substrate for cultivation of Volvariella spp. yielding
50–100 kg with 1 ton of dried straw. Further supplementation with de-oiled cakes for
Pleurotus ostreatus cultivation significantly improved yield and nutritional content
of fruiting bodies (Singh et al. 2020). Soybean cake supplemented paddy straw spent
also supported the growth of Trichoderma asperellum which could inhibit the
growth of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici. Further, the grounded paddy
straw yielded 10% more oyster mushroom when compared with wheat straw.
Extraction of silica particles from rice plants with rice husk and rice straw has
been attempted. Aggregate silica particles with average size around 200 nm were
produced by heating and extracting rice straw in KOH and HCl solution. The rice
husk ash silica was obtained through combustion and pyrolysis with the maximum
recovery of 77% when mixed with magnesium powder. Paddy straw can be used as
raw material for the extraction of nano-silica and lignin with high yield and purity.
The production of single cell oil was explored by novel yeast Trichosporon
mycotoxinivorans from paddy straw (Sagia et al. 2020).
Conclusion
To balance both productivity and sustainability, exploiting agro-waste for producing

multiple products is the attractive option. The potential availability of paddy straw
from rice-growing areas provides numerous ways of utilization for mankind. It
answers the debate on sustainability concerned with fuel crisis. Straw is the pro-
spective raw material for numerous by-products like ethanol, methane, biochar,
hydrochar, and even electricity. As a best alternative to fossil fuel, it is way forward
to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases and prevent pollution. In the context of
zero waste, encouraging circular economy to create additional revenues, aforemen-
tioned steps can be applied for utilization.
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Circular Economy Model for Florists:
Need of the Hour 28
Contents
Introduction and Significance of the Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 712
Scope of the Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 713
Objectives of the Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 714
Review of Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 714
Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 714
Limitations of the Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 715
Findings and Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 715
Demographic Variable-Wise Classification of Respondents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 715
Ways to Manage Unsold Flowers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 715
Flowercycling Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717
Opinion of Respondents About Feasibility of Recycling Unsold Flowers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717
Procedure for Composting Unsold Flowers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 719
Opinion of Respondents About Composting of Unsold Flowers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 720
Suggestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 723
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 723
Abstract
A circular economy is an economic system aimed at eliminating waste and the
frequent use of resources. The circular economy aims to keep products,
equipment, and infrastructure in use for longer, thus improving the productiv-
ity of these resources. All “waste” should become “food” for another process:
either a by-product or recovered resource for another industrial process, or as
regenerative resources for nature, e.g., compost. The circular economy has the
potential to have impact on everyone’s life as such that of florists also.
Everybody likes flowers. The temple in the god is decorated with garlands
M. Ponnien Selvi · R. Atheeswari (*)

V. V. Vanniaperumal College for Women, Madurai Kamaraj University, Virudhunagar, Tamil Nadu,
India
e-mail: ponnienselvi@vvvcollege.org

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_36
712 M. Ponnien Selvi and R. Atheeswari
and loose flowers. Flowers delight the heart and mind and give wealth. In
India, no rituals are celebrated without flowers. For all the economic uses like
cut flowers, seed and nursery business, extraction of perfumes etc. In recent
decades there has been increasing demand of floriculture products with
increasing income. It is souring industry in Asian countries including India.
Many people engage in business with such flowers. Floristry is one of the best
small businesses. It involves the production, commerce, and trade in flowers.
Nowadays, florists are engaged in a multitude of activities such as farmers,
commission agents, wholesalers, retailers, flower designers, bouquet makers,
and to the business of selling them.
Normally, people offer fresh flowers to God and adore their hair every day
or on significant festivals, and the next day it dries up. Most of us throw them
away or put them under a tree in a temple. Yet their disposal is posing to be a
phenomenal ecological danger. Since the floral offerings are considered to be
sacred, they are not discarded in the trash bins when wilted, but are usually
flung into the local water bodies or rivers, polluting the water and causing
irreversible damage to the environment. Disposal of flowers in rivers, oceans,
etc. leads to water pollution as well as affects the living organisms present in
the waters. Hence, this chapter is designed with the following objectives: i) to
highlight the specific features of circular model for florists; ii) to describe the
impact of floral wastes not managed properly; iii) to highlight the features of
flower waste management practices followed in various places; iv) to analyze
the feasibility of floral waste management on the basis of the primary data
collected from florists; and v) to suggest the best ways to adopt circular model
to the maximum possible extent. Both primary and secondary data have been
used for this study. Interview schedule has been applied for collecting primary
data from 180 florist respondents involved in flower growing, making bou-
quets, floral sales, and making strings of flowers in Virudhunagar district.
Secondary data have been taken from advanced books on waste management,
sustainable waste management, Britannica, and reliable websites. The col-
lected data have been edited, tabulated, and analyzed by applying statistical
techniques like percentage analysis and ranking techniques.
Keywords
Circular economy · Florists · Flowers · Flower growers · Circular business
model · Composting
Introduction and Significance of the Study
The business model for circular economy is a model of production and consumption
which involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing, and recycling
existing materials and products as long as possible. A circular economy is a
systematic approach to economic development designed to benefit business, society,
28 Circular Economy Model for Florists: Need of the Hour 713
and the environment. It is regenerative by design and aims at gradual growth from
the consumption of finite resources. The core elements of the circular economy relate
to direct handling of material and energy flows. The World Economic Forum defines,
“A circular economy is an industrial system that is restorative or regenerative by
intention and design. It replaces the end-of-life concept with restoration, shifts
towards the use of renewable energy, eliminates the use of toxic chemicals, which
impair reuse and return to the biosphere and aims for the elimination of waste
through the superior design of materials, products, systems and business models.”
The circular economy has the potential to have impact on everyone’s life as such that
of florists also. Everybody likes flowers. The temple in the god is decorated with
garlands and loose flowers. Flowers delight the heart and mind and give wealth. The
flowers in the hands of lovers express love and beauty. Flowers at funerals give a dull
feeling and smell accordingly. In India, no rituals are celebrated without flowers.
Commercial production started with the growth of cities and social activities of the
people, commercial production started for all the economic uses like cut flowers,
seed and nursery business, extraction of perfumes, etc. Floristry is one of the best
small businesses. It involves the production, commerce, and trade in flowers.
Nowadays, florists are engaged in a multitude of activities such as farmers, com-
mission agents, wholesalers, retailers, flower designers, bouquet makers, and the
business of selling them. Flowers are of one-time use. The florists have to manage
the problems of unsold flowers which are thrown as garbage on ground or in water
pools. There is a need to remake unsold garlands and flower strings as bio fertilizer
by means of composting. Hence, this chapter contains a circular economy model for
florists.
Scope of the Study
Circular economy is reducing pressure on the environment and improving the

security of the supply of flowers. Circular economy model offers a new chance
of innovation and integration between natural eco systems, businesses, our daily
lives, and waste management. A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom,
is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants. The biological function of a
flower is to effect reproduction. In addition to facilitating the reproduction of
flowering plants, flowers have long been admired and used by humans to beautify
their environment, and also as objects of romance, ritual, religion, medicine, and as
a source of food. Flowers symbolizes love, worship, and respect in use. Since the
ancient period from birth to death, flowers play an important role in any culture.
Without flowers our rituals and worships are nothing in practice. Since time
immemorial, flowers have been considered as the symbol of grace and elegance
and a feast for our eyes. Flowers are used in all religious and festive occasions.
Flowers are given as birthday presents, wedding gifts or while meeting ailing
people, and even at funerals. The florists have to be aware of the circular economy
model so that they can manage unsold flowers and garlands. This chapter is
confined to find the awareness of florists about recycling and composting of unsold
flowers. When it is found that they are not aware, the researchers attempt to make
them aware. For this purpose, the activities of the Help Us Green ® company based
in Uttar Pradesh, India, which uses the flower cycling technology to prevent river
Ganges from becoming a religious sewer by upcycling the temple-waste flowers,
have been presented in the chapter. The procedure of composting is described for
the use of florists. After making them aware of recycling, composting is assessed
from the point of view of respondents. The study is not confined to the waste
management process, though composting can be made for waste and used
flowers also.
Objectives of the Study
The present study was conducted with the following objectives.
1. To highlight the specific features of circular model for florists

2. To describe the impact of flowers thrown on ground or in water
3. To highlight the features of flower waste management practices followed by Help
Us Green Company, Uttar Pradesh, India
4. To analyze the feasibility of recycling or composting unsold flowers on the basis
of primary data
5. To suggest the ways to adopt circular model for the development of florists
Review of Literature
There have been many studies related to the preservation of flowers, making of
value-added products from fresh flowers, and making of medicinal products from
flowers. This study has been made in connection with natural flowers which are
unsold as such.
Methodology
The data for the present study was gathered from primary and secondary sources.
Primary data were collected from 180 florists in Virudhunagar District, Tamil
Nadu. Interview schedule was applied as data collection tool. Convenience
sampling method was used to collect the primary data by means of survey during
the September month of 2020. Three points scaling technique is applied to
convert the opinion of respondents into quantitative value. For the purpose of
analysis and presentation, percentages and ranking technique have been
used. Secondary data have been collected from relevant books and reliable
websites.
Limitations of the Study
The findings of the study relate only to the unsold natural flowers thrown
away by florists. The flowers used and thrown as waste are not considered. The
analysis is based on the opinion of the unorganized florists in Virudhunagar
District only.
Findings and Analysis
Demographic Variable-Wise Classification of Respondents
Table 1 shows the details of the respondents from whom the primary data have been
collected. One hundred and eighty respondents of florists in Virudhunagar, Sattur,
Sivaksai, Aruppukottai, Trichuzhi, Venmbakottai, Rajaplayam, and Srivilliputhur
were contacted for primary data collection.
From Table 1, it is understood that out of 180 respondents,
• 33 percentages are in the age group of above 40 years

• 67 percentages are male respondents
• 56 percentages are married respondents
• 61 percentages are residing in nuclear family
• 33 percentages are having 2–5 members in their family
• 47 percentages are the first children of their family
• 28 percentages do not belong to the castes generally known for floristry
• 83 percentages are belonging to Hindu religion
• 8 percentages are with college-level education
• 42 percentages are having this business as part time only
• 39 percentages are with more than 15 years of experience in this field
• 39 percentages stated that their business is seasonal
• 36 percentages are having monthly income above 40000 rupees
• 80 percentages are flower shop keepers
Ways to Manage Unsold Flowers
The respondents were asked about the ways to manage the unsold flowers. Table 2
shows the details.
From the above Table 2, the researchers came to know that the respondents were
not aware of recycling and composting of unsold flowers. So the respondents were
explained about the recycling and composting of unsold flowers.
Table 1 Demographic variables of the respondents

Variables Categories Number Percentage
Age (in years) Below 30 30 17
30–40 90 50
Above 40 60 33
Gender Male 120 67
Female 60 33
Marital status Married 100 56
Unmarried 80 44
Family type Nuclear family 110 61
Joint family 70 39
Members in the family 2–5 60 33
6–9 65 36
10 and above 55 31
Position in the family First child 85 47
Middle child 40 22
Last child 55 31
Caste Castes known for floristry 130 72
Others 50 28
Religion Hindu 150 83
Christian - -
Muslim 30 17
Upto primary level 55 31
Level of education Upto secondary level 75 42
Upto college level 15 8
Uneducated 35 19
Duration of business Full time 105 58
Part time 75 42
5–10 30 17
Experience in business (in years) 10–15 80 44
15 and above 70 39
Seasonal 70 39
Nature (Clock) of business Round the year 110 61
Below 20, 000 30 17
Monthly income (in rupees) 20, 000–30, 000 40 22
30, 000–40, 000 45 25
Above 40, 000 65 36
Types of floristry Flower growers 60 33
Commission agents 40 23
Flower shop keepers 80 44
Source: Primary data
Table 2 Ways to manage unsold flowers

Ways to manage unsold flowers Number Percentage to total 180
Throwing on ground 110 61
Throwing in water pools 100 55
Sending recycling - -
Composting - -
Flowercycling Activities
Recycling is the process of collecting and processing materials that would otherwise
be thrown away as trash and turning them into new products. Recycling can benefit
community and the environment. In recent decades, a popular company named Help
Us Green is doing a great activity of recycling of flower waste.
Every year 80,00,000 metric tonnes of waste flowers are dumped into river
Ganges. Toxic arsenic, lead, and cadmium from the harmful farm runoff, pesticides,
and insecticides used to grow flowers mixes with the river water making it highly
poisonous. These major pollutants affect the lives of 400 million people linked to
contracting dysentery, cholera, hepatitis, and severe diarrhea which are the leading
causes of child mortality. Seeing the waste of rotting flowers changing into a pile at
the Ganges River Temple, Agarwal, along with his friend Karan Rastogi, started
Help Us Green Company in Uttar Padesh in May 2015 with an initial investment of
Rs.72,000.
Help Us Green Company is the world’s first lean solution to the “temple-waste”
problem. Help Us Green uses “flower rotation” technology to protect the Ganges
River from becoming a religious sewer by recycling temple-waste in India. To that
end, Help Us Green Company collects 2.4 tons of flower waste daily from temples
and mosques in Uttar Pradesh, India. These wastes have been elevated into the
world’s first flower recycle incense sticks, soaps, organic fertilizers and styrofoam,
which is revolutionizing the way India handles “disposal of millions of tons of
temple waste” and gives hope of renewing the lifespan of the Ganges.
Help Us Green Company investors and workers have healthy returns. It has
provided employment to about 80 women. It also offers them benefits such as
provident fund, health insurance, and transportation.
Opinion of Respondents About Feasibility of Recycling Unsold

Flowers
It was found from the respondents that such type of recycling was not at all feasible
for them. Then, they were asked to state and rank the reasons for impossibility. Their
ranking is tabulated in Table 3.
718
Table 3 Reasons for nonfeasibility of recycling unsold flowers

I Rank II Rank III Rank IV Rank Total
Benefits Number Score Number Score Number Score Number Score Number Score Mean score Rank
Inadequate quantity 75 300 30 90 35 70 40 40 180 500 2.8 I
Not known 40 160 35 105 60 120 45 45 180 430 2.4 III
More time and cost 30 120 80 240 25 50 45 45 180 455 2.5 II
Restricting natural flowers 40 160 30 90 40 80 70 70 180 400 2.2 IV
Table 3 shows that “Inadequate Quantity” is the first reason with the mean score
of 2.8, “More Time and Cost” is the second reason with a mean score of 2.5, “Not
Known” is the third reason with a mean score of 2.4, and “Restricting Natural
Flowers” is the fourth reason with the mean score of 2.2.
Procedure for Composting Unsold Flowers
Composting is the natural process of recycling organic materials that can enrich
soil and plants. Composting is a biological technique. Composting is of three
types, namely aerobic composting, anaerobic composting, and vermi composting.
Aerobic composting uses oxygen and bacteria and replicates natural decomposi-
tion. The process of aerobic composting can be used with all types of organic
wastes like plant matter such as grass clippings, leaves, and flowers and is also
suitable for waste that is high in nitrogen. Aerobic composting works quickly and
the process is best used. Anaerobic composting takes several years and typically
happens in landfills. In anaerobic composting, organic materials are piled up and
let to break down naturally. This process does not need any type of maintenance.
Anaerobic composting produces a large amount of methane. Vermi composting is a
mesophilic process utilizing microorganisms and earthworms. Vermi compost can
improve biological, chemical, and physical properties of the soil. By composting,
soil enrichment is possible by combining greens such as newly cut flowers, other
fresh yard waste, and kitchen scraps rich in nitrogen and browns that is high in
carbon including dried flowers. Both garden flowers and cut commercial flowers
are beneficial in compost.
The following composting procedures can lead to the production of good com-
post. To do’s:
• Combine green and brown materials. Make own hot compost heap. Wait until
getting enough materials to make a pile at least 3 feet deep.
• Water a pile. Sprinkle water over the pile regularly. At the same time, not to add
too much water, otherwise the microorganisms in the pile will become water-
logged and drown.
• Stir the pile with oxygen by turning it once a week with a garden fork. At this
point, the layers have to be created with equal amounts of green and brown
materials throughout the pile.
• When the compost gives off heat and becomes dry, brown, and crumbly, it is fully
ready to feed to the garden.
Composters
There are various composters now available in the market. It may help to create
compost for flower waste.
• Flower Waste Disposer, 5 Ton – Rs.45, 00, 000

• Trust Bin- Indoor Composter – Rs.1, 120 (2 bins)
• Daily Dump – Rs.1899

• Aerobic home Composting kit – Rs.9, 000
• Gobble Solo – Rs.1, 000
• Gobble Duo – Rs.1, 80
Compost needs to entirely stabilize and mature before it can be used. Immature
compost may damage plants. The following items should be avoided for a successful
compost pile.
• Not all parts of the rose plant are appropriate for composting, we can add the
flowers, soft green stems, and leaves of rose bushes to the compost bin.
• We must not add thorny rose stems, bulbs, and any flowers treated with toxic/
poisonous herbicides.
• Hemlocks are extremely poisonous and not to be added to the compost bin.
• Cut flower water containing preservatives should not be added into compost.
• Cut flowers from vases can be removed before they get dry and added to the heap
for nitrogen.
• Unfinished compost is not to be used. It can pull away nutrients from plant root
systems and surrounding soils while finishing the decomposition process. It can
also cause chlorosis as it pulls away nutrients from new and existing plants.
Compost is ready or finished when it looks, feels, and smells like rich dark earth
rather than rotting vegetables. In other words, it should be dark brown, crumbly, and
smell like earth.
Opinion of Respondents About Composting of Unsold Flowers
The respondents were asked to state about the feasibility of composting unsold
flowers, on the basis of ten factors. Three points scaling technique has been applied
as, More feasible – 3 points, Feasible – 2 points, and Less feasible – 1 point. Table 4
shows the findings.
From Table 3 it can be concluded that
i. Composting is more feasible regarding the four factors:

a. Quantity of unsold flowers needed for composting
b. Person who can do composting
c. Amount of investment required for composting
d. Scope for profitability
ii. Composting is just feasible but not more, with reference to the two factors:
a. Technical knowledge and skills required for composting
b. Eco-friendly process
iii. The feasibility for composting is less in consideration of the four factors:
a. Problem from rat and snake
b. Time required to have the compost finished
Table 4 Feasibility of composting of unsold flowers

More feasible Feasible Less feasible Total
Factors Number % Number % Number % Number %
Quantity of unsold 120 67 40 22 20 11 180 100
flowers needed for
composting
Person who can do 97 53 43 24 40 22 180 100
composting
Technical knowledge 73 41 80 44 27 15 180 100
and skills required for
composting
Amount of investment 90 50 45 25 45 25 180 100
required for composting
Problem from rats and 45 25 25 14 110 61 180 100
snakes
Smell during the 60 33 40 22 80 44 180 100
process of
decomposting
Time required to have 30 17 60 33 90 50 180 100
the compost finished
Finding buyers for 20 11 40 22 120 67 180 100
bio-fertilizers
Eco-friendly process 60 33 90 50 30 17 180 100
Scope for profitability 70 39 60 33 50 28 180 100
c. Smell during the process of decomposting

d. Finding buyers for bio-fertilizers
Suggestions
The circular economy model is presented as
The following suggestions are made based on the findings of the study.
i. Circular Business Model for Florists
As far as the florists are concerned, the following circular business models are
prescribed.
ii. Creating Awareness

The researchers, academicians, and social workers in non-government orga-
nization must take steps to create awareness among public in general and florists
in specific about recycling and composting.
iii. Collecting Unsold Flowers
One among the florists (commission agent) may assume the responsibility of
collecting unsold flowers and sending for recycling.
iv. Proper Maintenance of Compost Bins
The compost bins must be carefully maintained to present damages by rats
and snakes.
v. Product Diversification as Growth Strategy
The florists can have product diversification by selling bio-fertilizers. This
will increase the number of their customers.
Conclusion
The amount of flowers thrown away poses an environmental risk. Without proper
circular business model practices, the industry contributes to environmental sites of
degradation. So, by educating florists about the floral circle, a positive feedback loop
can be created. At the same time farmers can make their operations more profitable
by providing organic soil corrections and organic fertilizers.
References
Appoorva Puraink. (September, 2019). Moving to Compost: Floral Waste Turns Fertile Ground for
Innovation in Bengaluru. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/moving-
to-compost-floral-waste-turns-fertile-ground-for-innovation-in-bengaluru/articleshow/
71089870.cms?utm_source¼contentofinterest&utm_medium¼text&utm_campaign¼cppst.
APTI PLUS. (30 March, 2021). Reset India – Circular Economy: Concept and Challenges. https://
www.iasgyan.in/ias-gazette-magazine/reset-india-circular-economy-concept-and-challenges
BH&G Garden Editors. (09 September, 2020). https://www.bhg.com/gardening/yard/compost/
how-to-compost/
Board of innovation. What is a Cirular Business Model. https://www.boardofinnovation.com/
circular-economy-business-models-explained/
City of Leduc. (2021). 7 Easy Steps to Composting. https://www.leduc.ca/composting/7-easy-steps-
composting
Dailydump. Home Composter. 4ways to Compost at Home. htttp://www.dailydump.org
Definitions and Transaltions. https://www.definitions.net/definition/floristry
Diy Network. (2021). https://www.diynetwork.com/how-to/outdoors/gardening/types-of-compost
https://www.amazon.in/Compost/b?ie¼UTF8&node¼3638807031
https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/explore/the-circular-economy-in-detail
Krishnaswami.O.R. (2018), Research Methodology, Himalaya Publishing House Pvt. Ltd.
Nidhi Adlakha. (September 2018). Recycling Temple Waste Along the Ganges with HelpUs Green.
https://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/the-worlds-first-biodegradable-thermocol-and-flower-
leather-by-ankit-agarwals-kanpur-based-organisation-help-us-green/article25013953.ece
R.S.N. Pillai Bagavathi, Statistics Theory and Practice (S.Chand & Company Ltd., New Delhi,
2013)
Praveen Singh. Floriculture as an Emerging Tool for Women Empowerment: A Case Study of
Himachal Pradesh. http://gcids2017.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Praveen-Singh-Full-
Paper.pdf.
Sheila Hu.(20.07.2020). Composting 101. https://www.nrdc.org/stories/composting-101
Special Correspondent. (September17, 2020). Foral Waste Recycling Start-Up Raises. https://www.
thehindu.com/news/cities/Hyderabad/floral-waste-recycling-start-up-raises-105-cr/arti
cle32634204.ece
Youmatter.(Feb 2020).Circular Economy: Definition, Principles, Benefits And Barriers. https://
youmatter.world/en/definition/definitions-circular-economy-meaning-definition-benefits-
barriers/
Temple Floral Waste Management in India
29
Neelam Srivastava
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 726
Generation of Wastes at Various Temples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 727
Existing Practice of Their Disposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 728
Exploitation of Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 728
Strategy for Utilization of Floral Wastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 729
Utilization of Flowers According to Their Specific Nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 730
Technologies Available for Conversion of Floral Wastes into Value-Added Products . . . . . . . . 731
Essential Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731
Technologies Available for Making Animal Feed from Flowers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735
Technologies Available for Dye Manufacturing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736
Technologies Available for Preparation of Biocompost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736
Composting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736
Vermicomposting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 738
Major Benefits of Vermicomposting Chamber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 740
Manufacturing of Scented Sticks from Floral Wastes (Help us Green, Kanpur) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 740
Description of Major Flowers Used in the Offerings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741
Lotus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741
Hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741
Rose Flower (Rosa) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743
Jasmine Flower . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 747
Marigold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 749
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 754
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 755
Abstract
India is a religious country comprising various temples in every state which
attract positive and divine vibrations from the surroundings. This study refers to
Haridwar, Uttarakhand, a city full of temples (100 small and big temples) and
located on the banks of the Ganga River. Pilgrimages from various states visit
N. Srivastava (*)
Pollution Control Research Institute, BHEL, Haridwar, Uttarakhand, India

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_37
726 N. Srivastava
Haridwar. People offer flowers, rice, petals, milk, and coconut to the deities in
order to fulfill their wishes, with about 100 g of flowers per person per day.
Approximately 2000 people visit Haridwar during lean season. The crowd varies
multifold during peak auspicious days and Chardham Yatra. It is estimated that
during special occasions like Baisakhi, Purnamasi, Amavasya, Navaratri, etc., the
floating population is more than 5 lakhs per day, with the largest occurring during
Kavan Yatra in the rainy season, where about 1 crore people visit Haridwar and
Rishikesh. Besides the temple, people also offer flowers directly to the Ganga
River, which have a negative impact on the river ecology and are also a threat to
living aquatic organisms. Generally, the quantity of flowers disposed of from the
temple or to the river is estimated to be 10 tons/day. So far there is no strategic
monitoring system and awareness among the people to dispose of the waste
properly and its various reuse options. The most common flowers used for
worship include lotus, roses, marigold, Hibiscus, jasmine, Parijat, and Kaner.
Flowers not only are distinguished for their beauty and fragrance but also contain
proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, essential oils, minerals, and vitamins and have
tremendous potential for various reuse-recycle options. This study elaborates
floral waste management by converting into value-added products such as
dying colors, incense sticks, biofuels, perfumes, cosmetics, paper, and
biofertilizers.
Keywords
Floral wastes · Essential oils · Cosmetics · Decomposition · Therapeutic use of
flower
Introduction
India is a religious country having strong faith in God and his powers. Flowers
have universal importance due to their aesthetic, exotic, and economic values. In
India, lakhs of devotees visit the temple and offer flowers to deities. Thus, the
flowers offered are removed from the temple and find their way into the dumping
ground. The quantity of flower generation occurs largely during functions, wor-
ships, ceremonies, festivals, etc. Almost every city in India has big temples where
people visit and worship God. People worship God in temples and offer various
flowers along with leaves, rice, sweets, etc. Flowers are known for their fragrance
and beautiful color; are one of the basic ingredients and an integral part of worship,
whether in temples or in mosque or church; and hold a religious importance to
Indian culture.
The flowers, after offering them to the deities, are left unused and thrown out of
the temple. We have various festivals in India, during which the quantity of flowers
along with other materials offered leads to their disposal problem. The quantity of
floral waste varies from one city to another depending on the number of temples.
29 Temple Floral Waste Management in India 727
Conventionally, along with flowers, people offer garlands, coconut, rice, and milk to
idols as a symbol of devotion and reverence.
Haridwar is located in Uttarakhand, India, and is regarded as the gateway of Hari
(Lord). The city is located on the banks of the Ganga River. The Ganga River is the
most auspicious and significant to the people of India. Millions of devotees visit the
city during various festivals and take holy dip in the Ganga River and offer flowers in
the temples and the Ganga River. Tons of flowers are immersed in many folds during
Kanwar Mela in Haridwar, in which crores of devotees visit Haridwar and offer
flowers to Lord Shiva in the temple and simultaneously to the Ganga River. The
festival continues for about a month in Shrawan (July). Due to a massive increase in
devotees, the rate of used flower generation also increases disposal, which has
become a challenge.
Most of our temples are located along the banks of river, where flowers, along
with puja samagri, are offered in temples, and they are again immersed in the river
after puja. As per ancient tradition, flowers along with other offerings were
immersed in water. During that period, the water was completely free of contami-
nants, and whatever offered was consumed by the aquatic organisms and bacteria
without any negative impact. According to a report in India, about 200 lakhs tons of
flowers are generated as waste in temples.
Generation of Wastes at Various Temples
Every year, approximately 8,000,000 tons of flowers are dumped into the river.
Table 1 indicates the quantity of religious waste generation in selected religious
places in India.
According to the reports available, West Bengal is in the fourth position to
promote commercialization of floral wastes, followed by Andhra Pradesh, Karna-
taka Tamil Nadu, and Varanasi. Among these, Varanasi is one of the most famous
holy cities in the world, where Varanasi Nagar Nigam is estimated to have flowers
offered around 10 tons/day, which is the highest in India. According to an estimate,
Table 1 Quantity of religious waste generation in the selected religious places in India
S. No. Religious places in India Quantity (kg/day)
1 Kashi Vishwanath (Varanasi Nagar Nigam) 10
2 Chitrakoot at Raamghat and Kamathnath Ji 5.48
3 Chennai 53
4 Ashtalakshmi 200
5 Marundeeswarar,Thiruvanmiyur 125
6 Kapaleeshwarar Mylapore 800
7 Murugan Vadapalani 400
8 Sri Parthasarathy, lighting hoist 400
Source: Barad and Upadhyay (2016)
728 N. Srivastava
about 50% flowers are sold to devotees for offering, and the unsold flowers directly
find their way to the ground, which becomes a source of pollution in the atmosphere.
The municipal corporation collects these unsold flowers, which are dumped to the
ground along with other wastes.
Existing Practice of Their Disposal
Most of our temples are located along the banks of rivers, where flowers along with
puja samagri are offered in temples, and they are again immersed in river water after
puja. As per ancient tradition, flowers, along with other offerings, were immersed in
water to maintain the sanity of the offered materials. During that period the water
was completely free of contaminants, and whatever offered was consumed by
aquatic organisms and bacteria without any negative impact. The situation today is
quite different because due to anthropogenic activities, the self-purification of water
is totally negligible.
As per reports available, tons of flowers are offered to God in various temples in
India per day. Because the flowers are offered to the deities, they are not thrown in
the dustbins. The present practice is to dispose of on the ground, which causes health
hazards and pollution of the environment, along with solid waste problem. Flowers
when dumped on the ground lead to pollution hazards like generation of toxic gases
and growth of harmful bacteria, leading to infectious diseases in the environment.
The situation worsens during rainy season when it becomes a source of breeding for
mosquitoes and flies, causing health hazards. When discharged into the water
stream, they cause toxicity to the living organisms, and since flowers may contain
insecticide and pesticide residues, they greatly affect the aquatic microbial. Fishes
are found to be the most affected. Decomposing flowers in the water stream also
accelerate the growth of algae, which ultimately depletes oxygen in the water stream,
thereby affecting and threatening the living organisms.
So far, very few reports are available for the management of used floral waste in
India. The management of floral waste is still a challenge in India. Till date, we have
no policy for the disposal and use of floral waste in any holy city.
Exploitation of Waste
General characterization of flowers exhibits the presence of proteins, lipids,

carbohydrates, minerals, essential oils, and vitamins. Essential oils can be extra-
cted from flowers like jasmine, roses, champa, Calendula, etc. Thus, these
flowers have a big role to play in cosmetic industries. Similarly, these wastes
can be converted into various value-added major commercial products like
colors, dyes, biofuels biofertilizers, essential oils, absorbents for wastewater
treatment, bioethanol, etc. Since these products are organic in nature, they do
not have any side effect.
Floral waste has an extraordinary potential to be used as biofuel, scented sticks,

biofertilizers, perfumes, pigments, etc. Floral resources can best be utilized to boost
the economy of the country as well as increase employment opportunities in the
country. Flowers are best known for their traditional exotic and economic values.
Each flower exhibits a specific property. It has been reported that flowers having high
lipid content can remain fresh for a long time. Because of this property, floral wastes
having high lipid content can be effectively used for making biomoisturizer
(Chachadi et al. 2020).
As has been established, flowers have tremendous potential for recycling and
reusing options. The proper management of these wastes can provide a healthy
resource material for a range of products. Wastes can be exploited using a simple
technique for various commercial products without using any costly techniques.
Some flowers with good colors can be exploited in dying industries. Flowers not
only are used for manufacturing dye but are also used as food additives and
cosmetics. It is interesting to note that nature has given more than
500 dye-yielding plants. Most of the floral wastes are nowadays used with cattle
and human wastes to act as organic manures with the help of vermicomposting.
This process helps to minimize the decomposition rate (Shouche et al. 2011).
Floral wastes can be combined with unused fruits, leaves, stem, bark, flower
petals, root fibers, etc. for vermicomposting. These floral components of plants
can be widely used in commercial and domestic backgrounds considered as
organic in nature.
Degradation of floral waste is a very slow process, but it causes cell and worm
development at the sites. Floral waste degradation also increases the demand for
agro-based products. Solid wastes comprise of various organic and inorganic mate-
rials, covers or peels of various vegetables, fruits, and cooked materials. Fertilizers
are used to improve the fertility of the soil by using biological wastes. Considering
the tremendous resource potential of the offered flowers, we can pursue a healthy
and sustainable environment through the use of suitable technologies, education, and
employment generation for the needy.
In India, floral wastes are not exploited to the fullest, which results in a problem
with their disposal.
Strategy for Utilization of Floral Wastes
Proper floral waste management is an integral part of our environment. It helps to

protect our health and environment besides preserving our natural resources. Con-
sidering the tremendous potential of flowers and converting products into wealth
using simple and inexpensive technologies, there is a need to adopt proper strategy
for their disposal and reuse. Due to the diversity of the content of flowers, there is a
need to select flowers for their specific product. Depending on the specific charac-
teristics of the flowers, they can be effectively reused for various value-added
products. Some flowers with good amount of proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins,
etc. are traditionally consumed by various breeds of animals. Besides their
730 N. Srivastava
nutritional value, they also exhibit antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. Because
of these properties, they can very well-exploited for making animal feeds using all
safety precautions.
The flowers offered to the deities are mainly those which have an attractive
aroma. The presence of various volatile aromatic compounds present in flowers
produces essential oils. Essential oils are present at varying concentrations in each
part of the plant. There are some eco-friendly technologies available which can be
used for managing floral wastes. There is a great potential for using and reusing
biological waste as energy sources or useful commercial products. The process
allows the use of solid waste as a substrate without mandatory pretreatment using
a natural environment for microorganisms to thrive.
The floral wastes can be used to produce various products like:
• Essential oils for use in cosmetic industries

• Herbal dyes for textile industries
• Dry colors for Holi festivals and making rangolis
• Scented sticks for puja
• Animal feed
• Biofertilizer
• Absorbents for wastewater treatment
• Biogas
• Medicinal products
• Natural paints
• Natural repellents
Some flowers are rich source of essential oils that can be used to make cosmetics,
and the colors of the flowers can be used to make herbal dyes, dry colors for Holi
festivals, etc.
Utilization of Flowers According to Their Specific Nature
As seen in the above text, the characteristics of flowers vary significantly. Some
flowers are more fragrant than others due to the presence of aromatic compounds.
Roses and jasmine are among the most important flowers used in the perfume
industry. Due to its specific nature, various technologies are used to get maximum
benefit. The following are the main technologies used to produce value-added
products. Out of the various products, rose oil and jasmine oil are the most widely
used essential oil in the perfume industry. It is extracted from the petals of flowers. In
India, Kannauj is the oldest producer of itra extracted from roses and jasmine
(Table 2).
The above table indicates the major chemical composition of rose, sunflower, and
Calendula on the basis of their characteristics, which can be used for their exploi-
tation to make value-added products.
Table 2 Average percentage of the chemical composition and total calorific value of rose,
sunflower, and Calendula
Nutrients % Rose Sunflower Calendula
Moisture 84.56 0.122 86.45 0.377 89.34 0.100
Dry matter 15.44 0.122 13.55 0.377 10.66 0.100
Ash 0.72 0.008 1.25 0.005 0.93 0.005
Ethereal extract 0.23 0.005 0.86 0.013 1.32 0.015
Protein 1.88 0.042 1.75 0.011 1.20 0.014
Raw fiber 3.20 0.095 2.12 0.045 1.59 0.105
Carbohydrates 9.41 7.57 5.62
Calorific value 60.03 53.50 45.52
de Lima Franzen et al. (2019)
As seen in the above text the characteristics of flowers varies significantly. Some
flowers are more fragrant than others due to presence of aromatic compounds. Roses
and Jasmine are among the most important flowers used in perfume industry. Due to
its specific nature various technologies are used to get maximum benefit. Following
are the main technologies used to produce its value addition products. Out of various
products Rose oil and jasmine oil are the most widely used essential oil used in
perfume industry. It is extracted from the petals of flowers. In India. Kannauj in India
is the oldest producer of Itra extracted from rose and Jasmine. It has been shown that
some of the flowers have a high quantity of proteins and carbohydrates that can be
used for animal feed. Due to the medicinal properties of some flowers like Hibiscus,
they are also used for therapeutic purposes. Marigold is the main one specifically
used in textile industries due to its color. The colors of the flowers are exploited for
the production of dyes for use in textile industries and dry colors used for decoration
and religious purposes. Flowers that cannot be exploited due to some reasons for
making a specific product can be easily used as biofertilizers, bioabsorbents, animal
feed, scented sticks, etc.
Technologies Available for Conversion of Floral Wastes into

Value-Added Products
Essential Oil
It is a mixture of aromatic compounds present in the plant material, specifically

flowers. The most common aromatic compounds contain terpenes, acids, aldehydes,
alcohols, alkaloids, esters, and ketones. Essential oils are extracted from plant
materials, especially from flowers with strong aromatic compounds. It is a mixture
produced when the flowers are subjected to a specific distillation process or a solvent
extraction technique. They are essentially the liquefied version of the flowers used.
The oil containing aromatic compounds, when applied to our body, easily finds its
way into our bloodstream.
732 N. Srivastava
Popular extraction techniques are steam distillation, solvent extraction, carbon

dioxide extraction, macreation, enfleurage, cold press extraction, and water distilla-
tion, untapping the methods of essential oil extraction by nature. The methods
employed have effects on the essential oil quality due to pressure, the kind of
solvent, and temperature used. Solvent extraction methods are best suited to a
specific flower. Essential oils are extracted from plant materials specially from
flowers having strong aromatic compounds. It is produced when the flowers are
subjected to specific distillation process or solvent extraction technique. They are
essentially the liquefied version of flowers used. The oil containing aromatic com-
pounds when applied to our body easily finds its way into our blood stream.
Popular extraction techniques steam distillation, solvent extraction, Carbon Diox-
ide extraction, Macreation, Enfleurage, Cold press extraction and water distillation.
The methods employed effects essential oil quality due to pressure, kind of solvent
and temperature used. Solvent extraction methods are best suited for a specific
flower.
Steam Distillation
This is the most popular and conventional technique used for the extraction of
essential oil. The essence of the technology is that when steam vaporizes the volatile
substances present in the flowers/plant material, they eventually step up to conden-
sation and collection of oil.
Steam distillation methods:
1. A still made of stainless steel containing flowers after pretreatment is kept in the
vessel, and the steam passed to it.
2. The steam is injected into the flowering material, releasing aromatic substances
from the flowers, which in turn are converted into vapors.
3. The vapors thus generated proceeds to the condensation flask where two separate
pipes are connected, which send hot water to the exit and cold water to enter the
condenser. Through this process, the vapors so generated come back to the
liquid form.
4. The liquid containing the aromatic compounds is condensed and collected in a
receptacle underneath which is termed as a separator. The emulsion thus obtained
contains oil on the top of water. It is then siphoned off and collected, dried, and
stored in a glass bottle (Fig. 1).
Solvent Extraction
In this technique, food grade alcohol, like hexane and ethanol, is used for extraction.
The process is capable of extracting oils from flowers known to produce low
quantity of essential oil. The aromatic substances present in these flowers are unable
to withstand the pressure and distress of steam distillation. The method produces
fragrance that is quite similar to the original smell of the flowers. The technique is
capable of extracting waxes and pigments that are removed using other techniques.
According to reports, when flowers are treated with solvent, it produces a waxy
compound known as concrete. Alcohol is mixed with wax production (Fig. 2).
Fig. 1 Process of steam distillation
Fig. 2 Process of solvent extraction
Carbon Dioxide Extraction Process

The oils produced by other processes vary differently in their qualities and quantities
because of the varying temperatures, pressures, and duration of the process. The
process is a versatile standard extraction process specifically used for herbal supple-
ments and in food industries. The carbon dioxide extraction process employs carbon
dioxide to extract many interesting organic compounds from flowers/plants. Since
the extraction is carried out at low temperature, most of the organic compounds are
kept intact with the extracted oil. The major difference between the other distillation
734 N. Srivastava
process and the supercritical CO2 process lies in the fact that in this method, CO2 acts
as solvent instead of steam or water. The process operates at a temperature of 95 F–
100 F compared to the distillation process which operates at 140 F–212 F. It
extracts waxes, cannabinoids, and terpenes. At the end of the process, the carbon
dioxide oil received is a healthy amber as the color that can be used to vaporize the
tincture. The main features of the extraction process are as follows:
• This is a supercritical CO2 extraction where pressurized CO2 becomes liquid

while remaining in a gaseous state. It is then passed to the chamber where the
flowers are filled.
• As a solvent, CO2 extracts natural plant matter, oils, pigments, and resins.
Substantial quantity of essential oils gets dissolved in the liquid CO2.
• CO2 now is back under natural pressure and evaporates back into the gaseous
state, leaving essential oil.
• Since the process does not involve any chemical, it is regarded as a pollution-free
process.
• It has been found that the process produces a high viscosity product mainly due to
higher pressure and temperatures that extract molecules such as waxes, chloro-
phyll, omega-3, and six lipids.
• The process has several benefits, such as non-inflammable, inert, and nontoxic.
The change in liquid density may increase the solvation strength.
• The low-level residue is obtained when CO2 leaves the process, whereas using
other solvents, the residue is high (Fig. 3).
Enfleurage
This is the traditional process for essential oil extraction that uses fat. The fats used in
the process are odorless at room temperature and are selected for use. The essence of
this technology is that vegetable fat or animal fat is infused with a flower fragrance
that is further processed to yield oil. This could be either cold press or hot press.
• Refined odorless vegetable or animal fat is spread on the glass plates uniformly
and is allowed to settle.
• Fresh flower petals are spread on the fat plate and pressed to settle for 1–3 days or,
in some cases, for a week. During the process, the fragrance of the flowers is
absorbed in the wax.
• The petals are then replaced and the whole process is repeated until they have
been saturated.
• The final product thus yielded is the enfleurage pomade, which is fat and scented
oil. It is then washed with alcohol to separate the extract from the oil, which is
generally used to make soap.
Hot Enfleurage
The only difference between cold press and hot press is that the plates are heated, and
the flower petals are spread on their surface. The process is same as for cold
effleurage (Fig. 4).
Fig. 3 Supercritical CO2 extraction process
Fig. 4 Process of hot

enfleurage
Technologies Available for Making Animal Feed from Flowers
There is a concern for the chemical characterization of flowers for their economic and
nutritional potential. Among the flowers, roses, marigold, and lotus are considered to be
the best option for human and animal feed. Currently, there are few studies that prove the
edibility of flowers when they are related to compounds of nutritional interest, since
there is no tradition of using flowers in food, in addition to a lack of research regarding
toxicity of some species (Frenzen et al. 2016). The available technology refers to the
addition of flowers containing xanthophylls to chicken feed to give deep colors to egg
yolks. Besides the colors, it also gives additional nutrition to chicken. These flowers
contain carotenes, flavonoids, lutein, and lycopene. It has been reported that they also
enhance the growth of blood vessels and the repair skin tissue. Ancient people use a
tonic named Gulkand made of roses. It is highly nutritious and people are still using it.
736 N. Srivastava
Technologies Available for Dye Manufacturing
Natural dyes obtained from varying resources, such as plants, flowers, and minerals, are
renewable and sustainable bioresource products with minimum environmental impact.
Chemical dyes suffer from many disadvantages such as threat of cancer, allergic
reactions on the skin, and many more. A large number of flowers have the potential
to be used as dye for various applications. The technique used for making colored dyes
includes different extraction solvents for specific flowers, for example, marigold
solvents such as methanol, ethanol, hexane, and water. The natural colors of marigold
with flavonoids and carotenoids have been largely exploited in the dye industries. There
are more than 500 dye-yielding plants worldwide. The dyes are manufactured using
conventional methods such as aqueous extraction and solvent extraction.
Technologies Available for Preparation of Biocompost
Flowers are very good substrate for biocomposting. These are enriched with heavy
amount of carbon, nitrogen, potassium, and other micronutrients along with organic
compounds. Flowers are being exploited for the preparation of value-added products
like essential oil, cosmetics, dyes, food, medicines, scented sticks, and absorbents for
wastewater treatment. Through various technologies available, floral wastes get
converted into wealth, thereby increasing revenue generation and employment to
the people. When floral wastes and unsold flowers from vendors are left unattended
and unable to be used for commercial production, the ultimate technology is to
utilize the flowers for biocompost.
Composting is an economical and best method for the disposal of floral wastes.
During the process, the organic matter gets converted into various nutrients required
by the plants. There are various technologies available for the conversion of floral
wastes into organic manure, which include vermicomposting, biocomposting, and
ultimately landfill if no option is available. The compost and vermicompost are the
end products of aerobic composting process, the latter with the use of earthworms.
Nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, calcium, and magnesium were higher and more
soluble in vermicomposting.
Composting
Composting is a process that recycles various organic substances, including waste

biological materials used to produce soil conditioner and a fertilizer that promotes
plant growth. Composting is an aerobic method of decomposing biological waste
material. The process includes decomposition of organic matter into humus, which is
termed as compost. It is rich in nutrients and is used for horticulture and organic
farming and for growing plants and crops.
Composting requires four major components to work effectively:
• Carbon – for energy and microbial oxidation of carbon products, if included, at

suggested levels (Composting for the Homeowner, University of Illinois Extension).
• Nitrogen – to grow and reproduce more organisms to oxidize carbon. High-

nitrogen materials tend to be green and wet.
• Oxygen – for oxidizing the carbon and for the decomposition process.
• Water – with the right amounts to maintain activity without causing anaerobic
conditions (Composting for the Homeowner, Materials for Composting, uiuc.edu.
Archived from the original on 25th December 2009).
Phases of Composting
Under ideal conditions, composting proceeds through three major phases
(“Composting: Compost Microorganisms” Cornell University 2010):
• Mesophilic phase: An initial, mesophilic phase in which the decomposition is

carried out under moderate temperature.
• Thermophilic phase: The rise in temperature initiates the second phase in which
decomposition is carried out by various thermophilic bacteria under high tem-
peratures (50–60 C).
• Maturation phase: As the supply of high-energy compounds dwindles, the
temperature starts to decrease, and the mesophiles once again predominate in
the maturation phase.
Methods of Composting
• Open-air composting
• Direct composting
• Tumbler composting
• Worm farm composting
• EMO composting
• Combination composting
• Commercial composting
Open-air composting and direct composting are the traditional technique which are
economical and take place in small area, whereas other techniques are complicated
and can be employed for commercial purpose.
There are eight different elements required to make good compost:
1. Plenty of organic matter, for energy for the decomposing organisms

2. Nutrients, especially nitrogen
3. Oxygen (with a few commercial exceptions)
4. Water, but not too much nor too little
5. Cations, especially calcium to stabilize the compost
6. A suitable pH range
7. Temperature
8. Carbon nitrogen ratio 30:1
The most conventional method of composting includes floral wastes as substrate

and cow dung as inoculum as mentioned in Table 3.
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Table 3 Some typical Parameters Floral waste

characteristics of materials
Moisture content % 60.8
used in composting
Carbon content % 35 3
Nitrogen content % 2.4 0.6
Phosphorous % 5.04 0.3
Potassium % 3.56 0.3
Methodology
Floral wastes were collected from the temples and also from some unsold flowers
from the vendors. It is then mixed with soil in about 2:1 ratio (two parts flower and
one-part soil). Cow dung is added to this mixture which works as inoculum for fast
decomposition of organic material. According to the reports available, the optimum
composting combination is 65 kg flowers, 25 kg cattle dung, and 10 kg sawdust with
a pH of 7.10–32.98% organic carbon and a carbon-to-nitrogen ratio of 14 at the end
phase of the composting period (Sharma et al. 2018).
This optimization results in an adequate supply of nutrients for the plants. The whole
material is placed in a shady place. Moisture was added on regularly. Covering the
composting pile that has been left on the spot with film plastic will protect it from the
weather. This plastic-wrapped compost pile will have had matured over the winter and
will be ready to use the next spring. The bacteria, like all living things, require oxygen to
survive. So, the compost pile must be turned from time to time. For entry of air in the
compost, a stick is pushed into the pile to make holes. There is a need to turn the
compost pile and aerate it at least every 3–5 days. Turning the compost frequently will
ruin the decomposition process. If bad odors emerge, they are neutralized by adding
lime or calcium. If necessary, deter flies and neutralize odors. If the compost develops
an ammonia-like smell, more carbon-rich materials, such as dried leaves or straw,
should be added.
The finished compost will be placed on top of the compost pile. It is necessary to
remove all of the finished compost, leaving the unfinished materials in the pile to
continue decomposition. It is necessary to ensure that the decomposition process is
complete before using your compost; otherwise, microbes in the compost could take
nitrogen from the soil and harm plant growth. It has been established that a ton of
organic waste makes about 500 kg of compost. The composting pile is shown in Fig. 5.
Vermicomposting
Vermicomposting is a simple biotechnological process of composting, in which

certain species of earthworms are used to increase waste conversion and produce
high-quality organic manure (Gandhi et al. 1997). It is a mesophilic process that uses
microorganisms and specific earthworms that are active at.
Fig. 5 Composting pile
Temperatures ranging from 10 C to 32 C. For the vermicomposting process,

a bed of about 6 feet by 15 feet should be even and elevated with a slope of 4 feet
to 6 feet toward the drain so that the liquid generated finds its way into the pit.
Heavy stones should be removed to prevent the bed from being damaged (Kohli,
2016):
• For floral waste vermicomposting, floral waste and cow dung are mixed in equal
quantity, say 5 kg each.
• Alternately pile two layers of 6 feet each of farm waste, floral waste, and cow
dung one after the other.
• About 200 earthworms will be introduced into partially digested material kept in a
vermi bed, and the moisture level is maintained at 60%.
• Watering is done till the contents’ heat is satisfactorily removed, which takes
about 2 days.
• When the composting process is completed on the 45th day, the weight of the
worms increased to approximately 85%, and the vermicompost obtained is
2.57 kg.
• The vermiwash produced is collected in a container that can be used as fungicides
for plants.
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Table 4 Nutrient Nutrient element Vermicompost %

composition of
Organic carbon 9.8–13.4
vermicomposting
Nitrogen 0.51–1.61
Phosphorous 0.19–1.02
Potassium 0.15–0.73
Calcium 1.18–7.61
Magnesium 0.093–0.568
Sodium 0.058–0.158
Zinc 0.0042–0.110
Copper 0.0026–0.0048
Iron 0.2050–1.3313
Manganese 0.0105–0.2038
Major Benefits of Vermicomposting Chamber
• Its portable
• Low-cost benefit
• High mobility
• Easy installation
• Durable, long-lasting, and waterproof
• UV stabilized
• Flexible and economical
• Easy to handle and install
Advantages of Vermicomposting
During the process, the nutrients locked up in organic waste are converted to simpler,
more readily available, and absorbable forms such as nitrate or ammonium nitrogen,
exchangeable phosphorus, and soluble potassium, calcium, and magnesium in the
gut of worms. The technology, if propagated effectively, can be used as a supplement
to fertilizers. It releases major and minor nutrients slowly, reducing the considerable
C/N ratio synchronizing with the requirement of the plants (Kaushik and Garg 2003)
(Table 4).
After 4 days of vermicomposting, the C/N ratio of the vermicomposting was 12.3.
Thus, vermicomposting for temple waste has been found to be eco-friendly and a
good source of revenue generation.
Manufacturing of Scented Sticks from Floral Wastes (Help us

Green, Kanpur)
The flowers are collected from the temple, segregated, and set out to dry. The dried
flowers are powdered and mixed with binding powder and sawdust and then rolled over
with bamboo sticks to make the final product. Apart from collaborating with temples to
use upcycled incense sticks and identifying online platforms to sell them, some NGOs
are also providing training to manufacture the sticks and sell them in the open market.
The process uses natural ingredients and essential oils from flowers to make the organic
incense, with no charcoal or other synthetic chemicals. In addition, the process of
making incense sticks is completely carbon neutral. No waste is generated from this
process, and even the unused portions of the flowers are being utilized to make compost.
Description of Major Flowers Used in the Offerings
Lotus
Lotus flower is regarded as the divine flower and is offered to Lord Vishnu, Lord
Ganesha, Lord Ram, and Lord Lakshmi. This is usually called the flower of the temple
because it is grown in the water pond areas. The flower is the national flower of India
and is very religious and hence important in Indian culture. Some lotus flowers are
white in color, while others are pink. The botanical name of lotus is Nelumbo lutea.
Composition and Health Benefits

• Lotus contains high amount of dietary fiber and low amount of saturated fats. It
also contains vitamin C, potassium, riboflavin, vitamin B6, phosphorous, linoleic
acid, iron, protein, copper, and manganese. It is interesting to note that the latex
sap found in the flowers has great antibacterial property. The essential oil of lotus
improves the texture of the skin.
The astringent characteristics of lotus are effective in the treatment of hemorrhoids

and dysentery. It is also used for the treatment of fever, liver disease, bronchitis, skin
eruptions, snakebites, and scorpion stings. Dried flowers are used for making syrup
for coughs. Flowers also help in preventing bleeding.
Lotus contains chemicals that decrease swelling, kill cancer cells and bacteria,
reduce blood sugar, help the breakdown of fat, and protect the heart and
blood vessels. The chemicals in lotus also seem to protect the skin, liver, and brain.
Hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis)
Hibiscus flower belongs to family Malvaceae. This flower is also known as the Maa
Durga flower. The flower comes in different colors, including red, pink, and violet.
During Navratri, the festival of India, this particular temple flower of India is very
popular among all citizens. Hibiscus flower is also very popular in Indian Ayurveda
and is useful for medical treatment. The seeds of the hibiscus flower are very
powerful. It is also an ornamental plant that is used to worship the goddess Kali in
West Bengal, which is why it is considered the religious flower of India. So far, no
information is available for its use as an essential oil. It is mainly utilized for
medicinal purposes (Fig. 6).
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Fig. 6 Hibiscus flower
Composition of Flower
It consists of 80–85% of carbohydrate, 15%–17% water, 0.1–0.4% protein, 0.2%
ash, and small amounts of amino acids, enzymes and vitamins. The main character-
istics of flower contain approximately 15%–30% of citric acid, malic acid, tartaric
acid, allo-hydroxycitric acid, lactone, alkaloids, L-ascorbic acid, anthocyanin, beta-
carotene, etc. The tea made from the flower is very healthy and nutritious (Ali Esmail
Al Snafi 2018).
It has been reported that hibiscus flower is used as medicine to treat hypertension,
liver disorders, high blood pressure, stomach pain, eye problem, and headache and to
stimulate blood circulation, as antitussive, and as aphrodisiac. The flower contains
ample quantity of flavonoids, pigments, etc. It also has anti-inflammatory, antimi-
crobial, and antioxidant properties.
Technologies Used for the Production of Essential oil from Hibiscus

Hibiscus oil is found to be one of the important herbal oils used as an active
ingredient in shampoos and conditioners. There are different colors of hibiscus
flower, like red, pink, white, yellow, and purple. Red-color flower is the most popular
one. It has been found that hibiscus oil is rich in polyphenols, anthocyanins, and
flavonoids. Besides these, other compounds include it’s a major anthocyanin pig-
ment named cyanidine, quercetin, calcium oxalate, thiamine, Riboflavin, niacin, and
ascorbic acid. Hibiscus oil is used in herbal shampoo, conditioners, skin care
products, and aromatherapy. Aside from that, it promotes hair growth, removes
dandruff, reduces hair fall, and prevents premature graying of hair color. It also
increases elasticity and flexibility of the skin.
Steam Distillation
This is the conventional method for extracting essential oil from flowers. The
flowers are collected from temples, washed, and dried with a paper towel. It is
then put in a stainless steel jar for steam process. When steam is passed through the
flowers, vapor is released which contains various organic substances that have
condensed. The condenser flask consists of two pipes, one for hot water that
remains and the other for cold water that is added. The vapor after condensation
transforms into liquid form. This is essential oil mixed with water. It is again
decanted, and the residue left after removing the water is thick concentrated. The
steam distillation process lasts 4–6 h.
Solvent Extraction
This technique is known to yield high quantity of essential oil from hibiscus flower.
The flowers after collecting from the temple are cleaned, crushed, and fed into the
soxhlet apparatus using n-hexane as solvent. The extracted oil is dark in color. After
extraction, it is dried over anhydrous sodium sulfate and stored in glass bottles.
Experimentally, it has been found that from 1 kg of fresh flowers, the essential oil
obtained is approximately 0.60%–1.0% on fresh weight basis (Ref Orient Journal of
Chemistry Essential Oil Composition of Solvent Extract of Hibiscus rosa-sinensis
flower, Shashi Agarawal, Rachna Prakash, Dept. of Chemistry, Dayanand Girls PG
College, Kanpur (India)).
Considering its potential in cosmetics and aromatherapy and its application for
the hair, skin, and medicine, people can make this oil at home. The flowers are
collected from the temple, cleaned, and ground into a thin paste using 1:2 ratio of
flower and coconut oil. The mixture is heated at a very low temperature. Heat for
about 20 min, then cool, decant, and store in a glass bottle until ready for use.
Nutritional Value of Hibiscus per 100 gm (Hibiscus Benefits and Its Side
Effects/Lybrate)
The biggest advantage of hibiscus tea, or Roselle, is that it provides a nutrient-rich
drink that is extremely low on calories and completely caffeine-free. For every 100 g
of hibiscus tea, there are only about 37 calories. 100 g of hibiscus tea contains 0.7 g
of total fat, out of which just 0.3 g are saturated fat, the rest being polyunsaturated fat
and monounsaturated fat. The tea contains no cholesterol, making it all the more
beneficial for your health. Minerals such as sodium and potassium are also found in
this tea, with their concentration being 3 mg and 9 mg per 100 g, respectively. The
total carbohydrate content per 100 g of hibiscus tea is 7 g, out of which about 6 g is
sugar and the rest is dietary fiber. The tea also consists of about 0.4 g of protein per
100 g. Roselle is also found to be rich in several other vitamins and minerals, offering
percentage daily value of 5% for vitamin A, 30% for vitamin C, and 47% for iron
among others.
Mentioned below are the best health benefits of hibiscus. Hibiscus can be used in
different forms such as hibiscus powder and hibiscus leaves. Hibiscus is not only
used for medicinal purposes but also used for skin and hair care treatments; other
benefits of this amazing flower are given below (Fig. 7):
Rose Flower (Rosa)
Rose flower is one of the most wonderful and favored plants in the world. There are
more than 100 species of roses available in the world. Wild roses and hybrid roses
are two most common varieties found in the world. Wild roses can survive in various
744 N. Srivastava
Fig. 7 Health benefits of hibiscus flower
habitats compared to hybrid roses. The size of the roses depends on a particular
species. Majority of the roses are bushes and climbers, whereas certain species have
deciduous color (Fig. 8).
Significance
Wild roses generally have approximately five petals and five sepals. A large number
of petals are due to mutation. Prickly insects and fungus also attack the plants; to
prevent them from attacking the plants, insecticides are used. Rose plants have many
medicinal properties, which make them effective blood purifiers. Its anti-
inflammatory properties are useful in intestinal ulcer, diarrhea, etc. It is also good
for the heart, light in nature, and beneficial in the treatment of blood disorders and
reduces high blood pressure. The dry powder of petals helps in the relief of pain. The
powder also helps to regulate excessive sweating if applied to the body. Petal extract
is very effective in treating eye disorders when applied. The dried powder of petals is
useful for gastritis and duodenal ulcer. Fresh petal decoction is used for constipation.
Rose hip tincture acts as an astringent to treat diarrhea and relieve colic pain. In
cosmetic industries, creams prepared from rose essential oil are effective for dry
skin, and rose flowers are used as moisturizers and antibacterial and anti-
inflammatory agents. The flowers are also used as a primary ingredient in soap,
Fig. 8 Rose flower (Rosa)
body wash, body spray, etc. Rose petals are used in herbal teas to control acidity,
burning sensations in the body, and dryness of oral cavity. Since it contains essential
oils, it is used in aromatherapy, especially for insomnia and high blood pressure. It is
the best moisturizer used in the cosmetic industry. It is also used to treat eye
problems.
Chemical Composition
The flowers and leaves of the plant comprises of 1.3% and 1.8% of saponin
respectively. The oil contents are mainly citronellol, geraniol, nerol, and
phenylethanol. Furthermore, it contains about 15% of tannins. The rose hip (fruit)
contains a good amount of vitamin C, maleic acid, and citric acid (Khan Ikhlas and
Abourashed 2010).
Technologies Used for the Production of Rose Essential Oil

There are two methods available for extracting essential oil from roses.
Steam Distillation
Steam distillation is a simple and ancient technology for producing essential oil,
namely, rose attar. It is a two-stage distillation process that uses large copper
vessels traditionally and is filled with water and rose petals. It is then heated for
60–100 min. The steam containing rose oil exits the still and enters a condensing
unit before being collected in a vessel. The distillation process produces a concen-
trated oil which is about 20–25% of the final product of the entire process. The
collected water is again sent to another unit for redistillation to obtain the water-
746 N. Srivastava
soluble fraction of rose oil, such as phenethyl alcohol. This is the vital component
of the aroma, which makes up the large bulk or 80% of the oil. The two oils are then
mixed together to make the final rose attar. In appearance, it is usually clear, light
yellow, and mobile at room temperature and generally disappears if it is gently
warmed. Crystallization occurs at low temperature. The rose attar fragrance is a
very strong diluted form used in the perfume industry. As the two-stage distillation
process is temperature-dependent, due to extreme heat, some of the compounds
present in the roses become denatured, and the fragrance of the rose gets diluted as
compared to the fresh flowers. The water portion of the distillate is termed rose
water, which is an expensive product that is generally used for flavoring of food
and as skin care.
Solvent Extraction
The technique is costly and produces absolute rose, which is a concentrated highly
aromatic oil used in aromatherapy. In this process, the specific solvent is agitated in a
large vessel with a solvent like hexane, which extracts the aroma compounds along
with other substances like wax and pigments. The obtained extract is then sent to a
vacuum processing unit, which removes the solvent for reuse. The residue left is
called concrete, which is perfumery and is a semisolid mass obtained by solvent
extraction. The obtained concrete is then mixed with alcohol, which dissolves all of
the aromatic constituents. The alcohol is evaporated under low pressure, which
leaves the residue of the finished product as absolute. The absolute is further
processed to remove any impurities present during the solvent extraction. The
product thus obtained is a deep reddish brown liquid without crystals. The fragrance
of the product is quite similar to that of fresh flowers. The residue left as concrete is
only partially soluble in ethanol, so it is of limited use but can be effectively used for
scenting soaps.
Carbon Dioxide Extraction

The third process is known as supercritical carbon dioxide extraction, which com-
bines the best aspects of the methods described above. The essence of technology is
that when carbon dioxide is subjected to at least 72.9 atm of pressure and 31.1 C
(critical point of equilibrium curve), it becomes a supercritical fluid with the perme-
ation properties of a gas and the solvent properties of a liquid (under normal
pressure, carbon dioxide directly converts from a solid to a gas, a process known
as sublimation). The supercritical fluid carbon dioxide extracts the aromatics from
the flowers/plant material.
The process employs low temperature to extract a variety of compounds, render-
ing an essence similar to fresh flowers while leaving the aromatics unaffected by
temperature. At normal atmospheric pressure, carbon dioxide leaves no trace of itself
in the product obtained. It has been reported that equipment for CO2 is more
expensive compared to the above process, but the product quality is much better,
which is reflected in the product. Thus, the commercial value obtained from carbon
dioxide extraction process is high.
Jasmine Flower
Jasmine is considered as a scent associated with females due to its sensual nurturing
fragrance. The botanical name of Jasmine is Jasminum. Jasmine flowers had been
known for its fragrance value for ages. As per the story of Shrimad Bhagwat Geeta,
Lord Vishnu got this flower from the king of gods, Indra. For this flower, Lord
Vishnu and Indra have a huge war to satisfy their egos and values. This flower is
actually known as the Kapil vruksh and is associated with Lord Krishna. The
fragrant flowers close to Lord Krishna’s wife Parijat, such as jasmine flowers, are
very effective if you’re praying to Lord Krishna. The fragrance released by white
flowers is one of the most popular in the perfume industry. It has been said that after
rose, jasmine supplied the most important and costly natural flower oil used in the
perfume industry.
Chemical Characteristics
There are about 100 chemicals found in jasmine flower, but the majority includes
benzyl acetate, linalool, indole benzene benzoate, cis-jasmone, geraniol, methyl
anthranilate, and trace amounts of p-cresol, farnesol, cis-3-hexenyl benzoate, eugenol,
nerol, ceosol, benzoic acid, benzaldehyde, terpineol, nerolidol, isophytol, phytol, etc.
The oil extracted from jasmine is nontoxic, nonirritant, and generally
non-sensitizing. The medicinal use of jasmine oil includes antidepressant, antiseptic,
antispasmodic, expectorant, sedative, and uterine properties. It has been reported that
748 N. Srivastava
jasmine oil is very effective in respiratory disease and has also been found to help
with muscular pain, sprains, and stiff limbs.
Preparation of Jasmine Oil

Jasmine essential oil is called as otto or attar which is extracted from flowers.
Essential oil is basically a liquid that is generally extracted from plants’ leaves,
roots, barks, stems, and flowers. Essential oil is extracted from flowers and is costly
and widely used in the perfume industry. The jasmine flower is very significant in
terms of its attractive fragrance, referred to colloquially as the queen of the night. Its
sweet scent creates its allure during the midnight hours. Jasmine oil is widely used in
skin care, culinary, aesthetics, and some therapeutic applications.
There are various extraction techniques reported for jasmine oil, namely,
hydroextraction, steam distillation, and solvent extraction. Traditionally, jasmine
oil is extracted from flowers using different extraction methods like solvent extrac-
tion and steam distillation. The only drawbacks of these methods are low yield and
loss of volatile compounds. It also leads to accruement of toxic solvent residues.
Since jasmine flower contains little volatile oil, it requires solvent extraction instead
of distillation. Solvent extraction is the most suitable technology for this because it
generates a high yield at a low cost.
Preparation of Sample
Used flowers from temples are collected as early as possible, cleaned to remove
impurities, kept in clean polyethylene, and stored at low temperature. It is packed
immediately in cardboard perforated boxes lined with polythene sheet from inside.
These boxes should be kept at low temperature before extraction. Flowers are weighted
after cleaning. The cleaned flowers are then put in the vessel for hydrodistillation.
Hydrodistillation
It is an advanced technique (Phuc et al. 2019) for extracting essential oils from
flowers. The process preserves the original quality of the flowers in terms of its
fragrance. In this process, the weighed flowers are kept in sufficient quantity of
water in a ratio of 1:1–1:5. During the extraction process, the distillation temperature
ranges from 100 C to 150 C. The time taken for distillation is 4–6 h. The duration
of distillation needs to be optimized for better yield. After the completion of
the distillation process, the essential oil is collected, dehydrated with Na2SO4, and
stored.
It has been found that while maintaining all the conditions constant, the distilla-
tion temperature is 120 C in 6 h, and the water flower ratio of 2:1 resulted in a yield
of 0.092%. The greater the diffusion capacity of the oil into the water, the more water
is used for distillation. The optimum solvent-to-material ratio selected is 2:1.
Because of diffusion coefficients and increased solubility, raising the temperature
from 110 C to 120 C increases the yield from 0.37% to 0.92%. An extraction
temperature of 120 C is preferred as optimal temperature for overall extraction. The
conventional steam distillation process, though economical and time efficient, suf-
fers from many disadvantages, including the fact that it inevitably causes thermal
degradation to the original compounds present in the flower, thereby affecting its
original fragrance.
Solvent Extraction
Solvent extraction is supposed to be the best option for producing a high yield of
jasmine oil. During the extraction process, methanol and ethanol are used due to its
low temperature. The low temperature restricts thermal degradation of compounds
present in the oil. The operating cost is also low compared to the conventional
distillation process. The originality and yield of jasmine oil is dependent on the type
of solvents used in extraction. It has been found that the most optimum yield of
jasmine oil about 14.53% is achieved when ethanol is used as an extractant. The
major constituents of oil include benzyl acetate and benzaldehyde.
Supercritical Fluid Extraction

Recently developed supercritical fluid extraction is gaining more importance from
solvent extraction and distillation techniques. The method employs activated carbon,
a highly absorbing substance, which is placed in the closed chamber with jasmine
flowers while oxygen is pumped through. After a few hours, when the activated
carbon is saturated with the aroma of the flowers, it is removed and placed in another
chamber where the dimethyl ether is added at a low temperature. The solvent is put
in vacuum distillation, and the residue obtained is pure aromatic substance of
jasmine flower. The method compared to solvent extraction yields a substantial
quantity of oil with 37.93% vs 6.21% (solvent extraction) and linalool 31.14% vs
16.91% (solvent extraction). It has also been reported that the overall oil production
was higher using subcritical fluid extraction, producing 200 mg/kg more oil. The
method is said to be advance as it uses a low operating temperature and pressure and
short extraction period, is environmentally friendly, and is a perfect selectivity
employing only a single step for all separation, which results in low residue solvent
formation (Ye et al. 2015).
Marigold
750 N. Srivastava
The scientific name of marigold is Tagetes, while its common name is marigold. It is
African marigold flower that is actually useful for medical and genetic issues. This
plant is already available in the home gardens in India. This particular flower is very
popular during Deepawali or Diwali festival of India. In Indian language, it is also
known as Genda Phool. Most of the flower farmers are using this flower for their
daily life economic benefit. This flower is excellent for the immune system improve-
ment and care. This temple flower is available everywhere across India and can be
given to anyone who worships God. It is African marigold flower that is actually
useful for medical and genetic issues. This plant is already available in to the home
garden of India. This particular flower is very popular in Deepawali or Diwali
festival of India.
Most of the flower farmers are using this flower for their daily life economic benefit.
This flower is very good for the immune system improvement and care. This Temple
flower of India is available everywhere across India and it is available to gift all worship
God. Marigold, commonly known as Genda Phool in Hindi, is widely used in worships
and is available throughout the year. It is a beautiful and attractive flower that belongs to
the Asteraceae family. It has very peculiar musky and sharp smell.
Marigold flowers are mostly deep yellow and orange in color. It has almost five
petals surrounding the yellow/orange center. There are 56 species of marigold found
all over the world. Our methodology considers it as hero of the sun. It represents
passion and creativity.
The petals of these types of marigold are edible and can be used in salads. It can
also be dried and used and used to color cheese or as a substitute for saffron. A
yellow dye is extracted from the flowers of marigold. Traditionally, Romans and
Greeks used the golden calendula in many religious rituals and ceremonies. They
used to make crowns or garlands made out of marigold flowers and wear them during
ceremonies. The other name of marigold is Mary’s Gold, which refers to its use in
early Catholic events in some countries. It is widely used in India also and is
considered as a sacred flower and is used for decorating the Hindu deities since
olden times.
The chemical composition of the flower includes dihydrotagetone (33.9%), ocimene
(19.9%), tagestone (16.7%), cis-β-ocimene (7.9%), z-ocimene (5.3%), limonene
(2.03%), and epoxy cymene (3.1%).The main components of OBO are methyl
chavicol (46.9%), geramial (19.1%), neral (15.15%), geraniol (3.1%), and
caryophyllene (2.4%). The screening of marigold flower also indicates the presence
of alkaloids, flavonoids, resins, and saponins. These compounds are of great impor-
tance for therapeutic use. The flowers of marigold contain flavonol glycosides,
triterpene oligoglycosides, oleanane-type triterpene glycosides, saponins, and ses-
quiterpene glucoside.
Therapeutic Values
There are many therapeutic values for marigold flowers, which are known for the
treatment of skin. It is widely used to heal and remove the scars of chicken pox, and
it is a popular medicine in different branches of medicine such as homoeopathy,

herbal, and holistic medicine. The oil which is distilled from the flower tops is a
sticky and viscous liquid. The smell is musky, woody, and a little strange when
compared to the odor of the flowers. The main constituents of the marigold oil are
flavonoids, saponins, triterpene alcohol, and a bitter principle.
Marigold oil has many properties, and it is a tonic, sudorific, emmenagogic, and
antispasmodic and is widely used for dermatology purposes. It is the ideal oil to
apply on sensitive skin and it helps to heal scars caused by acne. It is has a calming
effect even it is mixed with other oils, and it can be mixed with calming lotions.
Dried infusions of marigold make a good toner and good calmer for itchy eyes
caused by hay fever. A drop of calendula oil in a bath is good for psoriasis.
Traditionally, calendula is used to treat conjunctivitis, eczema, blepharitis, gastritis,
minor burns such as sunburns, warts, and minor sprains and wounds.
Effective Antioxidant
Marigold oil is used to treat coughs, cramps, and even snakebites. Because of the
high content of flavonoids, it acts as an effective antioxidant in the body and it
protects the body cells from damage caused due to oxidation. Oxidation produces
oxygen free radicals, which suppress immune function. Ancient culture used the
healing properties of marigold, and it was recommended for treating ailments of the
digestive tract. It is also used to detoxify the liver and gall bladder, and the flowers
were applied to cuts and wounds to stop bleeding, prevent infections, and speed
healing.
Calendula or marigold was used by women to treat various ailments and skin
conditions. It was widely used in the American Civil War as an anti-hemorrhagic and
antiseptic, as well as for dressing wounds. It was also used during World War I, and
marigold has historical significance in many cultures all over the world, and it is still
considered as an effective alternative medicine.
Antibacterial Properties
There are some important antibacterial properties connected to marigold, which have
made marigold popular all over the world. Marigold is present in the ingredients list
of many herbal health and hygiene products like toothpastes, mouthwashes, soaps,
shampoos, etc. The mouthwashes and toothpastes, which have marigold or calendula
in it, are effective in killing the bacteria that cause gingivitis and cavities. It can affect
the blood flow to skin cells and provide antioxidant protection, reducing the appear-
ance of wrinkles and age spots and visibility of scars. It can boost the overall
appearance of the skin by making it smooth and even-toned, resulting in a skin
that glows with youthful vitality. There are many organic products which has
marigold in it, such as tea.
Calendula or marigold oil has some antitumor properties, making it popular in
cancer research and providing a natural solution to this deadly disease that affects
people all over the world. Marigold oil is also ideal for vision health because it
contains certain antioxidant compounds which directly impact the vision. Beta-
carotene is needed for the health and function of the eyes, and marigold has this in
752 N. Srivastava
abundance. By using marigold oil, you can even prevent macular degeneration and
development of cataract.
The flower exhibits antioxidant, antimicrobial, and cytotoxic characteristics.
Studies show that marigold flavonoids have antimicrobial effects against staph, but
the most important feature is their anti-inflammatory and wound healing properties.
The cream made out of this is found to be effective in wound healing. It has also been
found to be effective in breast cancer treatment.
The petals of these types of marigold are edible and can be used in salads. It can
also be dried and used and used to colour cheese or as replacement for saffron. A
yellow dye is extracted from the flowers of marigold. Traditionally Romans and
Greeks used the golden calendula in many religious rituals and ceremonies. Calen-
dula species have been used in cooking for centuries and the flowers are the common
ingredients in German soups and stews and this is how it got the name pot marigold.
The colourful lovely petals of the flower are used to add colour to butter and cheese
and is also found in Mediterranean and Middle East dishes. In olden times the
flowers were used as source of dye in fabrics. It is widely used in India also and is
considered as a sacred flower and is sued for decorating the Hindu deities since olden
times.
Calendula or marigold oil has some anti-tumour properties which make it popular
in cancer research and it gives natural solution to this deadly disease which is seen all
over the world. Marigold oil is ideal for vision health also because it contains certain
antioxidant compounds which directly impact the vision. Bea-carotene is needed for
the health and functioning of the yes and marigold has this in abundance. By using
the marigold oil you can even prevent macular degeneration and prevent develop-
ment of cataract.
This flower is commonly in chicken feed. Marigold flowers are the natural source
of carotenoids, which are extensively used in animal feed. Besides chicken feed, the
flowers are also used to make hand wash, cosmetic cream, and fertilizer.
Essential Oil from Marigold

The main active ingredient in marigold extract is lutein. Lutein is one of the most
common carotenoids found in plants, especially dark-green leafy vegetables. Lutein,
like other xanthophylls, is synthesized only by the plant itself and is usually found in
green leafy vegetables such as spinach, kale, and marigold flower. In green plants,
lutein modulates light energy and serves as a non-photochemical quenching agent to
deal with triplet chlorophyll (an excited form of chlorophyll), which is overproduced
at very high light levels, during photosynthesis. Lutein is also a very important
natural yellow pigment in our lives due to its color. Naturalin’s marigold extract is
derived from the pure marigold flower. The oil is extracted using steam
distillation.
Preparation of Extracts for Manufacturing Dyes

Marigold flower extracts are made by drying and grinding the flowers into a powder.
It is then extracted using 90% ethanol, dried, and milled. The technologies for the
preparation of dyes from marigold (Jha et al. 2015) are as follows.
Aqueous Extraction Method

In this method, dyes from flowers are extracted by preparing an aqueous solution of
the dried flowers (3.3 g in 100 ml distilled water), and the extraction process is
carried out at a temperature range of 50 C–95 C for 2 h.
Coloring materials from the flowers are extracted and used to dye the fabric and
yarn samples. After the extraction procedure is completed, the flowers are removed
from the liquor and taken for dye extraction for the second time.
Aqueous: Ethanol Extraction Process

In this method, dried flowers are placed in three different large vessels containing
about 60%–100% ethanol. Each vessel is incubated in a water bath for about 4 h at
70 C. After the completion of the extraction process, the obtained dye solutions are
kept in hot air oven overnight in to obtain dye extracts.
Solvent Extraction Method

This method is carried out in order to avoid the filtration of the solvent and residue
and also to obtain.
better efficiency of separation. The organic solvents such as ethanol, methanol,
and hexane are used for this extraction method. In this method, the weighed quantity
of feed (F) or raw material and the measured volume of solvent (S) is combined in a
specific F/S ratio. The raw material, i.e., finely crashed dry flower, is kept in a
thimble of a soxhlet extractor, and the solvent is poured into a round bottom flask,
over which a condenser with a high flow rate of water is filtered. The extraction lasts
4–5 h, and the volume of the solution thus obtained is measured. For the evaporation
of solvent, a rotary evaporator is used and the remaining dye extract is weighed.
Preparation of Animal Feed

Marigold flowers are rich in phytochemicals like lutein, which has tremendous
potential to be used as antioxidants. It is beneficial for use in making animal feed
and cosmetics. According to a research report (Rizwan Pasha et al.), lutein being the
major pigment of marigold is present in varying concentrations ranging from 4.0 mg/g
in greenish yellow flowers to 800 mg/gm in orange brown marigold flowers. Marigold
flower extract is a natural source of carotenoid, which is a feed additive in the poultry
industry.
Methodology
The fresh flowers are collected from the temples, transported to the site, cleaned,
dried, and stored in a cool place. The extracts are prepared using specific solvents
such as hexane, methanol, and ethanol.
The flowers are dried made into a paste, which is then extracted with water and
used to make feed. The paste was first analyzed for the presence of pesticides. The
analysis of its various contents, such as protein, carbohydrate, fiber, moisture, and fat
content, was conducted. To this paste, sodium metabisulfite was added as a preser-
vative, which can be used for poultry feed, whereas adding silage bacteria is fit to be
used as cattle feed.
754 N. Srivastava
Cosmetic Cream
The hexane extract is prepared and then evaporated. The residue left is used for
further processing of cosmetics. The residue was mixed with petroleum jelly,
methanol, and fragrance. These are the basic ingredients used for making cream.
Industries used specific formulation for manufacturing creams, which is a secret.
Fertilizer
The floral waste collected is ground to reduce particle size It is then suitable for use
as fertilizer. To make it more effective, specific bacteria are added in converting it
into biofertilizer.
Conclusion
Floral waste is a good source of organic waste. Different floral wastes, like roses,
jasmine, and marigold which are abundant in offerings, need to be studied for the
production of various value-added products. The investment in the production is
economical as the capital cost is zero. It has now been established that flowers
offered to the deities have tremendous potential for the production of essential oils,
dyes, medicines, biofertilizers, absorbents, thermocol soap substitutes, fragrance
sticks, animal feed, etc. In India, people have become more health conscious and
eco-friendly. Herbal dyes are gaining more importance due to their eco-friendly and
nontoxic bioresource production. In order to commercialize herbal dyes, the tradi-
tional methods being used should be modified for more production. More efforts in
research and development are required to make the process economically viable. If
natural dyes have to be commercialized, the traditional methods must be substituted
by modern, more scientific approach in order to overcome some of the disadvantages
of natural dyes. The use of herbal dyes will also reduce pollution. Further research
should be carried out for the conversion of floral wastes into wealth. Novel
approaches should be investigated for the use of organic wastes. Bioremediation
of floral wastes is of high importance. The exploitation of floral waste will benefit the
bioeconomy because the floral waste will be converted into different value-added
products with different applications. Bioremediation of floral waste has high poten-
tial, and research should be focused on this issue. Vermicomposting is one of the
economical technologies being used in India for the generation of organic manure.
Hence, awareness should be created to adopt vermicomposting in large scale for
revenue generation and cleaning of environment through eco-friendly disposal of
floral waste. Help Us Green is a new emerging organization started by two young IIT
engineers at Kanpur. Their main goal is to gather flowers left at temples as offerings
and after celebrations and reuse them as biodegradable alternatives to various
products. These are utilized to make organic incense and for vermicomposting.
This is a very good model for other people to follow. Novel approaches should be
investigated for the use of organic waste. Bioremediation of floral wastes are of high
importance. Floral waste, depending on its specific chemical characteristics, can be
exploited for use in various value-added products. It will definitely benefit our
bioeconomy. Bioremediation is one such technique that should be focused. The
government is also providing financial assistance to such projects using floral
wastes. Because India is a religious country, every city has temples, which generate
floral wastes such as offerings to the deities along with unsold flowers from the
flower vendors. There is a need to create awareness among the people for better
utilization of floral wastes to increase the revenue generation and to provide employ-
ment to the people.
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Utility of Fruit-Based Industry Waste
30
Aditi Guha Choudhury, Pinaki Roy, Sweta Kumari, and
Vijay Kant Singh
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 758
Occurrence of Bioactive Compounds in Fruit Wastes and Their Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 759
Extraction of Bioactive Compounds from Fruit Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 760
Different Bioactive Compounds Obtained from Fruit Wastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 761
Other Applications of Fruit Industry Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 767
Lipids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 767
Essential Oils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 768
Single-Cell Protein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 769
Animal Feed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 769
Biochar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 771
Production of Different Biofuels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 772
Adsorbent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 777
Identification of Challenges in Fruit Waste Valorization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 779
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 780
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 781
Abstract
The generation and inexpedient handling of solid waste contributes to one of the
main environmental hazards that create an economical problem as the compila-
tion, transportation, and disposal require high cost. Therefore, it is necessary to
A. G. Choudhury (*)
Department of Fruit Science (Fruit Breeding), Horticulture College, Khuntpani, Chaibasa, Birsa
Agricultural University, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India
P. Roy
Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi, India
S. Kumari
V. K. Singh

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_38
758 A. G. Choudhury et al.
enhance resource efficiency in an eco-friendly way by minimizing waste produc-

tion and maximizing the recycling of used products. In the fruit processing
industry, the waste is mainly composed of seed, skin, rind, and pomace with
fair sources of potential bioactive compounds that can be used as sub-
strates for phenolic antioxidants, organic acids, enzymes, and adsorbents and
for biofertilizer production. Biomethanation of fruit peel and processing waste is
an effective on farm solution of waste management, and it efficiently improves
the economy of the fruit processing industries as well. Biofuels, viz., biodiesels,
from citrus seed oil have a good potential to augment biodiesel supply. Biochar
produced from fruit peels has a wide range of uses. Another highly cost-effective
and natural way of fruit waste utilization is as an inorganic (heavy metal) and
organic (dye) pollutant adsorbent from waste water. The highly effective, natural,
low-cost method of removing different inorganic and organic pollutants, absor-
bent material effective to resist toxic elements, high efficacy, elementary design,
and ease in operation make this technology the most widespread method for water
decontamination. It’s a lower-cost input technique compared to carbon absorp-
tion. However, activated carbons can even be prepared from fruit waste that is
cheap and effective adsorbent of CO2 with high surface areas. These wastes can
absorb heavy metals like arsenic, hexavalent chromium, cadmium, lead, and dye
like alcian blue, methylene blue, etc. Though the capacity of these adsorbents is
lower than the complex adsorbents, cost potentiality made the use of green
adsorbents greater and competitive.
Keywords
Fruit waste · Bioactive compounds · Biofuel · Adsorbent · Utilization
Introduction
Solid waste generation has become a serious environmental concern over a couple of
years worldwide. With increasing population and urbanization, more crops are being
produced and industrialized to meet the demands of modern-age consumers. Glob-
ally, India at present ranked as the second largest producer of fruit crops. These are
mostly seasonal and perishable crops with a short span of shelf-life. Therefore, to
make this crop available throughout the year, other than marketed as fresh commod-
ity, fruits crops are generously processed into different value-added products. The
processing of fruit crops although reduces post-harvest losses, unfortunately gener-
ates a large amount of waste as an industrial by-product. A significant fraction of
waste from fruit processing industry mainly composed of seeds, skin, rind, and
pomace is considered unavoidable. In an urban context, waste creates numerous
environmental and public health consequences that have a negative impact on
humans and the environment. Although separate collection of fruit industry waste
makes treatment much more efficient while promoting reduction too, unfortunately
only 0.5% of the fruit industry wastes are converted into useful products, and the rest
30 Utility of Fruit-Based Industry Waste 759
is disposed of through composting, landfilling, and open burning (Lam et al. 2016).
As a consequence of massive waste generation and its inexpedient handling, envi-
ronmental pollutants are rapidly increasing, such as CO2 and methane from landfills.
On the other hand, incineration or open burning is not a very viable option for fruit
industry waste as these wastes are rich in moisture content and biodegradable
organic ingredients compared to general wastes, which emits an unbearable stench
during decomposition (Banerjee et al. 2017; Wang et al. 2014). The adoption of
correct management of these materials at the end of their lifecycle is essential in
order to avoid the environmental and societal impacts caused by untreated and open
decomposed waste.
A multitude of benefits can be harvested if fruit wastes can rather be used as
resource by shifting from linear to circular management system. It is necessary to
enhance resource efficiency in an eco-friendly way by minimizing waste production
and maximizing the recycling of used products. The potential uses of fruit wastes can
be classified into food and nonfood applications. The growing global demand for
health-beneficial nutrients and bioactive compounds derived from natural plant
materials and renewable resources for the feed/food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic
sectors drives research toward recovery from fruit industry wastes for the production
of food additives, edible coatings, and films. The major uses of fruit wastes in
nonfood application are renewable energy production, biosorbents to remove pol-
lutants such as heavy metals and dyes from waste water, natural soil improvers that
can store carbon and increase soil humidity, and animal feedstock applications (Jain
et al. 2018; Cheok et al. 2018). Contrary to open disposal, using circular manage-
ment system eventually leads to a way forward that reduces methane and other
greenhouse gas emissions, improving air quality; reducing reliance on landfills;
resulting in job creation, economic development, more self-sufficient and resilient
communities, and sustainable industrialization and infrastructure investments; and
reducing reliance on fossil fuels.
Occurrence of Bioactive Compounds in Fruit Wastes and Their

Applications
The waste generated by the fruit processing industry is highly variable as different
types of fruits are processed through a broad range of techniques, resulting in an
array of end products. The peels, pomace, and seed fractions are the major constit-
uents of fruit industrial waste. These are fair sources of potential bioactive com-
pounds that can be used as substrates for the production of phenolic antioxidants,
organic acids, enzymes, and minerals, among other components. The bioactive
compounds present in fruit wastes are important to human health. These are com-
posed of a naturally diverse range of molecules that are excellent source of
nutraceuticals, functional foods, and food additives. Nutraceuticals are present in
foods that, other than providing nutrition, improve health, maintain well-being,
strengthen immunity, and prevent as well as cure specific diseases. With the
advancement of technology and economic feasibility, there is a rising interest toward
food bioactives among consumers that provide beneficial effects to humans in terms
of health promotion and disease risk reduction. The natural bioactive compounds are
long searched for the treatment and prevention of human diseases. These compounds
effectively interact with proteins, DNA, and other biological molecules to produce
desired results, which can further be applied for designing natural therapeutic agents
(Ajikumar et al. 2008). The commonly available bioactive compounds in fruits are
vitamins, carotenoids, phenolic compounds, and dietary fibers. The majority of fruit
crops are generally consumed for their flesh or pulp; however, scientific studies have
proved that significant amounts of phytochemicals and vital nutrients are present in
the seeds, peels, and other parts of fruits that are commonly discarded as inedible.
Generally, vitamin C is uniformly distributed in fruits, while carotenoids are report-
edly found on the surface tissues as in epicarp and peel; on the other hand, phenolic
compounds are accumulated preferentially in peel and seeds, to a limited extent in
the flesh (Kalt et al. 2010). Phenolic compounds and dietary fibers in fruits are
suggested to be the major bioactives responsible for health benefits, mainly due to
their antioxidant activity (Coman et al. 2019). These can be extracted from residual
waste and incorporated into value-added products.
Extraction of Bioactive Compounds from Fruit Waste
Generally, wastes are processed using thermal (heating, radiofrequency, infrared

heating, microwave, and sterilization) or nonthermal (ultrasound, irradiation, high
hydrostatic pressure, pulsed electric fields (PEFs), and pulsed light) technologies that
affect phytochemical yield. Among different bioactive compounds, phenolic com-
pounds and some other phytochemicals are extracted through soxhlet extraction,
hydrodistillation, liquid-liquid extraction, solid-phase extraction, supercritical fluid
extraction, pressurized liquid extraction, pulsed electric field, and enzyme-assisted
extraction. However, the fruit industry-generated wastes are naturally occurring raw
materials that are rich in moisture and composed of a variety of complex ingredients
like starch, xylans, cellulosics, proteins, and fats. Other than phenolic compounds
and dietary fiber, compounds like organic acids, enzymes, and flavor compounds can
be extracted through anaerobic digestion method. Application of fruit industry
wastes in bioprocesses provides an alternative way to replace the costly raw mate-
rials; in addition, the bulk uses of such materials are beneficial to solve many
environmental hazards. The solid-state fermentation effectively converts these raw
materials to give higher yields of metabolites such as enzymes, organic acids, flavor
compounds, etc. Solid-state fermentation (SSF) is a low-level yet promising tech-
nology compared to industrial submerged fermentation for the utilization of agro-
industrial solid wastes. It has lower energy requirements, is easier to operate, uses
less aeration, does not require rigorous control of fermentation parameters, and
produces smaller quantity of wastewater. These characteristics ease this technique
for wider application in the production of these value-added products (Stabnikova et
al. 2010). In solid-state fermentation (SSF), microorganisms are grown on solid
substrates in the absence of free water; however, substrates must possess sufficient
moisture to support the growth and metabolism of those microorganisms. The

market for these metabolites has gained momentum because of increased consumer
demand for safe natural sources. However, solid-state fermentation not only is
restricted to yield bioactive compounds from fruit waste but also widely used to
produce a wide array of products, which will be discussed further in this chapter.
Different Bioactive Compounds Obtained from Fruit Wastes
Phenolic Compounds
Phenolic compounds are plant secondary metabolites which contribute to sensory
and nutritional characteristics of fruits. This group consists of several compounds
with at least one aromatic ring bearing one hydroxyl group (phenol) or more
(polyphenol), categorized into several classes: hydroxybenzoic and
hydroxycinnamic acids, anthocyanins, proanthocyanidins, flavonols, flavones, fla-
vanones, isoflavones, stilbenes, and lignans (Balasundram et al. 2006). The bio-
activities of these compounds largely depend on their chemical structures.
Polyphenols are the natural antioxidants, which constitute the largest classes of
bioactive compounds and are ubiquitous in diet and high in fruits with vital biolog-
ical functions in humans. These are broadly categorized as phenolic acid and
flavonoids, and both exhibit remarkable antioxidant activity. All the parts of a
whole fruit, be it edible or nonedible, are rich in phenolic compounds, carotenoids,
and vitamins; however, the concentrations and combinations vary in different parts
of different fruits. Therefore, the wasted parts (peel, seeds, pomace, etc.) contain
these compounds in either similar or, in some cases, higher proportion than the
edible part, thus making it viable for further utilization.
Among fruit crops, apple is one of the richest natural sources of antioxidants and
phenolic compounds comprising quercetin and naringenin derivatives, catechin,
epicatechin, phloridzin, and many other vital phenolic acids. Apple seeds are rich
in several phenolic compounds like phloridzin (1748.7–3462.2 mg/kg), ellagic acid
(189.5–286.7 mg/kg), epicatechin (69.0–164.6 mg/kg), caffeic acid (9.1–114.2 mg/kg),
catechin (5.0191.0 mg/kg), ferulic acid (8.2–142.2 mg/kg), protocatechuic acid
(39.6–161.3 mg/kg), and gallic acid (4.2–7.9 mg/kg) (Gunes et al. 2019). Peels
and seeds of avocado have high bioactive potential due to their three times higher
polyphenol content than pulp. Peel contains hydroxybenzoic and hydroxycinnamic
acid derivatives such as polyphenols (63.5–120.3 mg gallic acid equivalent/g), and
seed contains polyphenols (57.3–59.2 mg gallic acid equivalent/g) such as pro-
cyanidin B2, epicatechin, rans-5-O-caffeoyl-D-quinic acid, procyanidin B1, catechin,
and quinic, citric, 1-caffeoylquinic, 3-O-pcoumaroylquinic, and 4-caffeoylquinic
acids (Coman et al. 2019). The antioxidant capacity of phenolic contents present
in seed and pulp of avocado, jackfruit, longan, and mango was evaluated by Soong
and Barlow (2004) who applied ABTS (2,2-azinobis-3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sul-
fonic acid), FRAP (ferric-reducing antioxidant power), and FCR (Folin-Ciocalteu
reagent) methods. The ABTS, FRAP, and FCR values for mango, longan, avocado,
and jackfruit seeds were 762, 448, 236.1, and 7.4μmol of ascorbic acid/g; 2572,
1388, 1484, and 2.8μmol of gallic acid equivalents/g; and 117, 62.6, 88.6, and
27.2 mg of gallic equivalents/g, respectively. The antioxidant values of seeds were
found to be higher than those of pulp, among the studied fruits. The ABTS, FRAP
and FCR values of mango, longan, avocado, and jackfruit pulp were 7.2, 3.7, 4.9,
and 3.0μmol of ascorbic acid/g; 36.6, 41.5, 9.6, and 6.8μmol of gallic acid equiva-
lents/g; and 2.4, 1.6, 1.3, and 0.90 mg of gallic equivalents/g, respectively. It was
reported that banana pulp contains only 25% of phenolic compounds than that of
peel and was mainly constituted by phenolics (hydroxycinnamic acids), flavonoids,
phytosterols, carotenoids (lutein, β-carotene, α-carotene, violaxanthin, auroxanthin,
neoxanthin, isolutein, β-cryptoxanthin, and α- cryptoxanthin), anthocyanins, bio-
genic amines, vitamins (B3, B6, B12, C and E), and several other antioxidant-rich
phytochemicals such as dopamine and L-dopa (Amini Khoozani et al. 2019). Citrus
is one of the major processing purpose fruit crops, and it has been observed that the
waste generated from citrus industries contains hydroxycinnamic and
hydroxybenzoic acids, eriocitrin, hesperidin, naringin, and narirutin, which are
more abundant in the peel than in the edible part of the fruit (Balasundram et al.
2006), whereas seeds contain higher antioxidant compounds than peel. There are
various other compounds present in citrus which are unique and not commonly
found in other plant species. Winery waste is generally composed of grape pomace,
seeds, and skin. Grape pomace is a rich source of ferulic, p-coumaric, caffeic, gallic,
vanillic, and p-hydroxybenzoic acids; flavonoids (proanthocyanidins); flavonols
such as kaempferol-3-O-glucoside, quercetin-3-O-glucoside, quercetin, and
myricetin; stilbenes, viz., resveratrol, piceid, and astringin; and anthocyanins and
enocyanins in red grape cultivars, which are predominant (Mattos et al. 2017).
Dragon fruit, i.e., Hylocereus undatus and Hylocereus polyrhizus, are acknowledged
for their free radical scavenging activity, which is significantly higher in the peels
and seeds than in the pulp. In Hylocereus polyrhizus, these compounds are β-amyrin,
α-amyrin, octacosane, ɣ-sitosterol, octadecane, 1-tetracosanol, stigmast-4-en-3-one,
and campesterol, whereas in Hylocereus undatus, these compounds are β-amyrin, ɣ-
sitosterol, octadecane, heptocosane, campesterol, and nonacosane (Luo et al. 2014).
Application of Phenolic Compounds

One of the most gratifying approaches is to recover these highly valuable bioactive
constituents, especially the phenolic compounds to fully utilize them in the food,
pharmaceutical, as well as cosmetic industries. Nowadays, in several antimicrobial
packaging systems, lemon extracts are commercially used, including mozzarella
cheese preservation, which reportedly improved the shelf-life of the product without
affecting the functional microbiota. Similarly, different other species of citrus peels
are rich in flavonoids which have antibacterial and antifungal activities. Studies
suggested that thermal processes of grape peels enhance bioavailability of poly-
phenols, and these extracts have also been used as natural antioxidants and antimi-
crobial agents in food processing industries, like meat products and fruit juices, with
several beneficial activities like antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, cardioprotective,
and anticancer properties (Mattos et al. 2017).
These antioxidants and polyphenols present in fruit waste have antimutagenic and
anticancerous properties. Antioxidants of apple pomace reduce lipid peroxidation,
prevent bone loss, enhance memory, and even inhibit cancer cell growth, while its
characteristic polyphenol, phloridzin, contributes to the antidiabetic effect by inter-
fering with glucose adsorption and inhibiting sodium-linked glucose transporters
(Manzano and Williamson 2010). A recent study reported that incorporation of
defatted apple seeds into chewing gum showed that chewing gum could be a suitable
delivering material for phloridzin uptake (Gunes et al. 2019). Dragon fruit peel
extracts contain major components such as β-amyrin, α-amyrin, and ɣ-sitosterol,
which have revealed anticancerous activities against human prostate, breast, and
gastric carcinoma cell lines (Luo et al. 2014).
Dietary Fiber
Dietary fiber is a component of plant material that is resistant to enzymatic
digestion in the small intestine and requires bacterial fermentation in the large
intestine when consumed as food. This group includes cellulose, noncellulosic
polysaccharides such as hemicellulose, non-carbohydrate component lignin
(water-insoluble), pectic substances, and gums (water-soluble). Dietary fiber is
mostly used in in the bakery, drinks, and beverage industries and meat product
processing. Out of the total dietary fiber intake in western countries, some portion
already comes from fruits. Avocado seeds are important natural fiber source,
therefore a good candidate for recommended dietary fiber intake. The antibiotic
properties of avocado peel and seeds exhibited activity against yeast and bacteria.
It is also utilized as a functional ingredient in foods, considering their total fiber
composition. One of the very important characteristic features of mango peel is
high content of soluble dietary fiber with numerous health benefits. Insoluble
dietary fiber associates to both water absorption and intestinal regulation, while
soluble dietary fiber relates with blood cholesterol and reduces its intestinal
absorption. Mango peels contain 225–725 mg/g (dry weight) of insoluble and
soluble form of dietary fibers, viz., galactose, glucose, and arabinose being the
major sugars (Schieber 2017).
Application of Dietary Fiber

Dietary fiber as a bioactive compound possesses numerous health benefits; however,
its implications are not limited to this. It shows functional properties like water-
holding capacity, swelling activity, viscosity enhancement, and gel formation, which
are required in the formulation of certain food products. Moreover, these are
inexpensive and non-caloric bulking agents for partial replacement of confectionary
ingredients like flour, sugar, etc. Food products with high dietary fiber contents are
commercially available. Fruit wastes are enriched with soluble dietary fiber, there-
fore promising for industrial applications. The dietary fiber present in orange peel
(78.87%) and pulp (70.64%) is very high, and 15% incorporation of orange peel and
pulp as a suitable source of dietary fiber with associated bioactive compounds in
biscuit formulation effectively improves water absorption, dough development time,
and stability by reducing mixing tolerance (Nassar et al. 2008). Fermented milk
enriched with citrus fiber (orange and lemon) has good consumer acceptability.
Citrus pectin is used as thickener, emulsifier, and stabilizer in many processed
foods like jams, jellies, marmalades, etc. Pectin extracted from fruit waste is a
suitable polymeric matrix that is used for edible film coating in fruit packaging. In
confectionary, addition of apple pomace with wheat flour enhances product quality
by excluding the use of artificial flavoring ingredients and pleasant natural fruity
flavor. The high dietary fiber-rich durian seed starch has the potential to be used in
the food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetics industries, and durian seed gum has the
potential to be used to stabilize water in oil-in-water emulsion (Amid and
Mirhosseini 2014).
Enzymes
Enzymes are biomolecules that catalyze reactions in the microorganisms and higher
living systems to sustain life. The advanced microbiological and biotechnological
knowledge have opened up the opportunity to produce enzymes on commercial scale
and to subsequently apply in several industries. Depending on the structures and
functions, enzymes can be grouped into various categories with different uses:
amylases are applied in food processing; cellulases are applied in detergent, paper,
pulp, textile, and bioethanol industries; and pectinases are utilized for juice
clarification.
Amylases are reported to be produced by several microorganisms such as Asper-
gillus niger, Aspergillus awamori, Aspergillus tamarii, Aspergillus oryzae, Bacillus
licheniformis, Rhizopus oryzae, Bacillus subtilis, Candida guilliermondii, and
Thermomyces lanuginosus. Among these, B. subtilis A. niger, and R. oryzae are
the most applied species in the industrial level (Said et al. 2014). Mango kernel is
obtained from mango industry waste rich in starch content, and this kernel can be
used as a substitute for α-amylase enzyme production.
Cellulase and hemicellulase are the two enzymes inevitable for lignocellulose
degradation of plant biomass. Cellulose is composed of three major enzymes, viz.,
cellobiohydrolase, endo-β-glucanase, and β-glucosidase (Panda et al. 2016). Banana
waste has been reported as a solid substrate for the production of cellulolytic
enzymes using bacterial consortium. Four bacterial strains, i.e., Cellulomonas
cartae, Pseudomonas putida, Pseudomonas fluorescens, and Bacillus megaterium,
were applied to prepare the consortium. The consortium revealed high titers of filter
paper activity (FPase) (0.178 U/ml on the 20th day), carboxymethyl cellulose
activity (CMCase) (1.716 U/ml on the 20th day), and β-glucosidase (0.602 U/ml
on the 25th day) (Dabhi et al. 2014).
Pectinase hydrolyzes pectins and is applied for degradation of plant materials
such as rapid juice extraction from fruits. Venkatesh et al. (2009) studied different
tropical fruit wastes (cashew apple, pineapple, banana, and grapes) for pectinase
production. The medium of the experiment contained 5 g tropical fruit waste
(cashew apple, pineapple, banana, and grapes) and 0.05 g urea and 0.25 g ammo-
nium sulfate, which facilitated the better growth of the fungus Aspergillus foetidus.
Finally, grape waste was selected as the ideal medium for pectinase production at
incubation temperature of 40 C for 8 days. Mrudula and Anitharaj (2011) used six
different substrates such as lemon peel, orange peel, banana peel, wheat bran, rice
bran, and sugarcane bagasse for pectinase production using Aspergillus niger in
solid-state fermentation. However, orange peel among different substrates studied
showed the best result for the production of pectinase (1224 U/g DMS).
After cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin, tannin is regarded as the fourth most
abundant plant constituent. Tannin acyl hydrolase or commonly known as tannase is
applied in food and beverage industries to reduce astringency of processed product
and is even applied to reduce tannic acid concentration in tannery effluent (Selwal
and Selwal 2012). A mixed culture of fungi, viz., Aspergillus niger, Penicillium
chrysogenum, and Trichoderma viride, was applied on grape peel, and P.
chrysogenum and Trichoderma viride resulted in the maximum activity of 84 U/g/
min compared to other microbial combinations for an incubation period of 96 h
(Paranthaman et al. 2009).
Laccase is another enzyme used in several bioprocesses such as biopulping,
biobleaching, detoxification of industrial effluents generally from the paper and
pulp, textile, and petrochemical industries; as bioremediation agent to clean up
herbicides, pesticides, and certain explosives in soil; as clarifying agents for water
purification systems; as catalysts in the production of anticancer drugs, and even as a
component in cosmetics. In addition, their capacity to remove xenobiotic substances
and generate polymeric products makes them an efficient tool for bioremediation
purposes. However, the abovementioned application of laccases requires large-scale
production of this enzyme at a low cost. Fortunately, SSF acts as a good strategy for
laccase production using agro-industrial wastes, which is conveniently applied by
several researchers using different horticultural wastes including vegetable, fruit, and
winery wastes.
Organic Acids
Many fresh cut fruits show browning due to oxidation (polyphenoloxidase activity),
which reduces its beneficial edible qualities. Acidulants, such as citric, malic, and
phosphoric acids, are capable of suppressing polyphenoloxidase activity by reducing
the pH of a system (Rojas-Graü et al. 2007). These are also important biomolecules
utilized in the food, cosmetic, and chemical industries.
Citric acid is a commercially important product that is globally used in the
food, pharmaceutical, and beverage industries as an acidifying and flavor-
enhancing agent (exploitation). Citric acid can be obtained through fermentation,
using several kinds of molds, yeasts, and bacteria. However, Aspergillus niger
remains as a favorite mold species for the industrial production of citric acid.
Banana peel has been found to be a potential substrate for citric acid production,
and 82 g/kg dry wt. citric acid has been obtained by Aspergillus niger with
banana peel as the major substrate and the addition of nutrients and trace
elements. The citric acid yield was 90%, depending on the amount of sugar
consumed (Kareem and Rahman 2013).
Lactic acid is a highly valuable member of carboxylic acid groups because of its
wide range of applications in both food and non-food industries. It acts as a natural
preservative and acidulant in foods. Solid-state fermentation (SSF) of apple
pomace resulted in producing 0.36 g/g ds L-lactic acid (27.8 g/L) and had a
productivity rate of 2.78 g/L/h. Enzymatic hydrolysis of apple pomace with low
cellulase (8.5 FPU/g-solid) and cellobiose (8.5 IU/g-solid) loads yielded in a
hydrolysate, which, when fermented by Lactobacillus rhamnosus CECT-288,
leads to the production of 32.5 g/L LA after 6 h (yield of 0.88 g/g and productivity
of 5.41 g/L/h) (Gullón et al. 2008). Organic acids, such as citric, lactic, and acetic
acids, can successfully be produced using banana peels as substrates along with
Aspergillus niger or Yarrowia lipolytica (Panda et al. 2016). However, one of the
main obstacles in the large-scale production of lactic acid is the cost of the raw
material which can be incurred using fruit waste.
Acetic acid is produced through aerobic and anaerobic fermentation with the
help of microorganisms and is most commonly used as vinegar. The food grade
acetic acid production is mostly relied with Acetobacter (acetic acid bacteria)
through aerobic fermentation. However, Clostridium and Acetobacterium can
convert glucose to acetic acid directly through anaerobic fermentation (Panda et
al. 2016). Acetic acid production using apple, jamun, and several other horticul-
tural crops has been reported. Pineapple peel was first fermented by Saccharomy-
ces cerevisiae for 48 h by converting sugars to ethanol. Subsequently, it undergoes
another fermentation step in which Acetobacter aceti was applied for 9 days, which
transformed the ethanol of the mid-fermented product to acetic acid. The maximum
yield of acetic acid was reported to be 4.77% at optimum conditions (Raji et al.
2012).
Flavor
Fruit wastes are highly potential source for the production of flavor and fragrances
with selected microorganisms as a fermentation medium. Biosynthesis of flavoring
compounds by microorganisms has been considered as a promising technology as
this process can assure consumer demand for natural, familiar, and safe sources.
Vanillin (4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde) is produced from vanillic acid and is
the major component of vanilla flavor. It is one of the most important and widely
used flavoring agents in the food, cosmetic, pharmaceutical, and detergent industries.
Vanilla orchids (Vanilla planifolia) are the natural source for extraction of vanillin;
however, pineapple peel waste is a cost-effective substrate for valuable vanillin
production as the peel waste of pineapple contains ferulic acid, which is a precursor
for vanillic acid. Vanillin can be synthesized from pineapple waste in a three-stage
procedure (Lun et al. 2014).
Orange peel contains D-limonene as a major compound that constitutes 96.1% of
the total content present in orange peel oil. Fungal strain of Penicillium digitatum
was applied for the biotransformation of D-limonene to α-terpineol, which is
responsible for a floral lilac odor and a coniferous odor characteristic. The maximum
conversion of D-limonene to α-terpineol was reported to be achieved at a pH of 6.1
by using malt yeast broth medium. The bioconversion of D-limonene to α-terpineol
in malt yeast broth medium was enhanced with the increase in incubation period, i.e.,
79% at 3 h and 95.5% at 7 h after incorporation of the second substrate on the first
day (Badee et al. 2011).
Other Applications of Fruit Industry Waste
Lipids
Lipids are essential for the cell and functions of living organisms. The fats, oils,
phospholipids, and steroids are major types of lipids. The vegetable oils are
known as triglycerides that are composed of fatty acids and glycerol. Phospho-
lipids are the major components of cell membranes and are composed of two fatty
acids. These phospholipids and triglycerides undergo hydrolysis to produce fatty
acids, which are vital for the body, with antimicrobial properties (Thormar 2010).
In fruit peel wastes, lipids present are in the form of fatty acids, waxes, hydro-
carbons, acylglycerols, and isoprenoid along with carotenoids, sterol, and vita-
mins. Passion fruit is suitable for juice extraction, and the fruit contains numerous
oil-rich seeds with high content of fatty acids like linoleic, oleic, palmitic, and
stearic acid. This fatty acid-rich profile, which is composed of a high percentage
of unsaturated fatty acids and a little amount of saturated fatty acids, can be used
as edible oils or salad oils or in margarine formulation. Passion fruit seed oil
contained high levels of unsaturated fatty acids (87.59%), of which 73.55% is
polyunsaturated fatty acid and 14.04% is monounsaturated fatty acid. Among
unsaturated fatty acids, there are two essential fatty acids (linoleic and linolenic
acids), of which linoleic acid (73.14%) is reported in higher quantity compared to
linolenic acid (0.41%). The linoleic fatty acid was predominant. Passion fruit
seed oil also contains γ- and δ-tocopherol, with δ-tocopherol (278.70 mg/kg)
being the most abundant, which is uncommon in other oil-yielding crops, imply-
ing a wide range of industrial uses (Malacrida and Jorge 2012). Pomegranate seed
oil showed activities such as antioxidant properties, eicosanoid enzyme inhibi-
tion, estrogen content, skin photoinhibition effect, lipid peroxidation, immune
function, and lipid metabolism. This is also effective against gentamicin-induced
nephrotoxicity and is applied for toxicological evaluation. On the dry weight
basis, pomegranate seeds contain 12%–20% oil. Goula (2013) extracted this seed
oil and peel phenolics through ultrasound-assisted extraction in pulsed mode, and
the seed oil yield ranged from 302 to 446 g oil/kg of dry seeds, with a 20-minute
extraction period achieving the highest oil yield. It was also observed that
application of ultrasound-assisted extraction yielded higher oil yield compared
to soxhlet extraction, normal stirring, microwave-assisted extraction, superficial
fluid extraction, and cold pressing method. Due to high nutraceutical properties,
pomegranate oil has high potential in pharmaceutical industries. Similarly, Cheok
et al. (2018) reviewed the present trend of tropical fruit waste utilization and
presented fatty acid composition of different fruit seeds. For example, durian
seeds are rich in palmitic, palmitoleic, stearic, oleic, linoleic, and linolenic acids,
while papaya seed contains oleic (66.7–76.8%), palmitic (12.8–19.7%), stearic
(4.4–6.7%), and linoleic acids (3.0–3.3%). The seeds of the red-fleshed dragon
fruit are reported to possess palmitic (19.39%), stearic (5.49%), oleic (21.6–
23.61%), linoleic (45.21–4.60%), and linolenic acids (1.21%), while the seeds
of the white-fleshed cultivars are also reported to possess palmitic (14.95%),
stearic (4.37%), oleic (18.67–23.8%), linoleic (50.1–55.43%), and linolenic

acids (0.98%) with varying quantity. Seed oil of dragon fruits is also reported
to be rich in tocopherols, which are responsible for good oxidative stability of oil
in storage. Mango kernel which is another rich source of crude lipid, which
contains 9-(z)-octadecenoic acid (and octadecanoic acid that is responsible for
typical characteristic of vegetable butter). Just like mango kernel fat, rambutan
seed fat is also reported as a potential source of cocoa butter substitute, as they are
rich in fat that may vary from 33.4% to 37.35%, with oleic and arachidic acids as
major fatty acids reported.
Essential Oils
Essential oils are composed of volatile terpenoid and non-terpenoid constituents.

Although these are not essential for life functions, they possess several other
useful properties. Terpenoids consist of hydrocarbons and isoprene molecules.
Essential oils are responsible for aroma compounds in plants. Unlike fixed oils
that are extracted by expression or solvent extraction from plant materials such as
seeds, essential oils are obtained by water or steam distillation or expression in
the case of citrus oils (Thormar 2010). Other essential oil extraction techniques
like soxhlet extraction, supercritical fluid extraction, ultrasound-assisted extrac-
tion, and microwave-assisted extraction are also practiced. Essential oils due to
the presence of aromatic compounds are mostly utilized in the cosmetic and home
care industries, for personal care products, and in aromatherapy. Moreover, in
recent days, scientific studies of essential oil are due to the presence of natural
antimicrobial compounds that have strong odor characteristics. Citrus peels are
an important source of essential oils, with D-limonene being the major com-
pound. The essential oil present in oil sacs or oil glands located at different depths
in the peel and the cuticles of the fruit that are released when oil sacs are crushed
or broken at the time of juice extraction has numerous industrial uses. D-limo-
nene is used as a green solvent for the determination of fats and oils rather than
hazardous petroleum solvents. Traditionally, citrus essential oil is extracted by
cold pressing, where peel and cuticle oils are mechanically removed. However, it
yields watery emulsion, which further centrifuged to yield essential oil. During
essential oil extraction from citrus waste, bacteria present in the citrus wastes
may convert D-limonene in citrus oils to α-terpineol. Therefore, rapid handling
and management of cold-pressed peel oil is important to maintain sanitation
(Sharma et al. 2017). Passion fruit is reported to contain aromatic volatile
compounds such as ethyl butanoate, ethyl hexanoate, and hexyl acetatein,
which have the potential use in the manufacture of aromatizing products. The
major component of essential oil present in yellow passion fruit is Ionol, with
13.15% in shells and 12.10% in seeds, while methyl ester, aldehydes, hydrocar-
bons, and other terpenes were found in minor quantities (Chóez-Guaranda et al.
2017).
Single-Cell Protein
Single-cell proteins (SCP) are dietary, dehydrated cells of single-cell microorgan-

isms whose biomass or protein extracts are produced from pure or mixed micro-
scopic algae, yeasts, mushrooms, or bacterial cultures (Anupama and Ravindra
2000). It is also referred to as biomass, bioprotein, or microbial protein. Different
genus of filamentous fungi, alga, many bacterial species, and yeasts are widely used
for single-cell protein (SCP) production. It is a cheap and alternative source of
protein with good nutritive value that can be used as a supplement to protein for
humans and other animals. Along with high protein content, SCP contains fat,
carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals. SCPs are a suitable substitute to protein of
agricultural origin, as it shows comparative low water consumption, does not require
large areas of land, does not possess threat to environmental diversity, and does not
cause greenhouse gas emission which subsequently influences climate change, as it
is the case with agriculture. SCPs can be derived from different agricultural waste
substrates rich in monosaccharides or disaccharides, starch, structural polysaccha-
rides, and protein or fat sources. Fruit processing wastes are enriched with mono-
saccharides and disaccharides that microorganisms can directly process with good
SCP yields (Spalvins et al. 2018).
Pineapple fruit skin or peel waste has been studied for its efficiency as alternate
carbon source for single-cell protein production following two strains of yeasts:
Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida tropicalis. Saccharomyces cerevisiae
recorded high protein content (276 mg/100 ml). The highest protein content of S.
cerevisiae was recorded on the third day of the fermentation at 5% pineapple waste
concentration. The maximum biomass (wet and dry biomass) was yielded on the
seventh day of fermentation at 5% pineapple waste hydrolysate concentration, where
S. cerevisiae was used as inocula. The increase in biomass production was reported
when there was increase in pineapple waste concentration (Dhanasekaran et al.
2011). Saccharomyces cerevisiae has also been used on several fruit wastes such
as banana peel, mango waste, sweet orange peel, pomegranate rind, and apple waste
for the production of single-cell protein, and the highest amount of protein was
derived from banana peel (58.62%), followed by pomegranate rind (54.28%), apple
waste (50.86%), mango waste (39.98%), and sweet orange peel (26.26%)
(Khan et al. 2010). Similarly Yousufi (2012) applied Aspergillus oryzae and
Rhizopus oligosporus on different fruit substrates like apple, papaya, orange, pine-
apple, pomegranate, watermelon, mango, guava, and banana wastes and observed
protein content, respectively, 49.1, 60.1, 40.6, 47.2, 50.9, 44.3, 46.5, 41.6, and
43.2 mg/100 g
Animal Feed
The ever-increasing population and urbanization made researchers emphasize on

crop productivity as it is the only way to increase production when land availability
is deteriorating. Obviously, it impacts the scenario of area under fodder production.

To meet the nutrient requirements of livestock and to sustain their productivity and
profitability, the food industry waste can act as viable nonconventional and alter-
nate feed resources. The food waste hierarchy also suggests that the next best
option for food waste, if it cannot be prevented and is not suitable for human
consumption, is to use it as animal feed (Jain et al. 2018). Based on the type of
material, these wastes to prepare animal feed can be conserved in various ways,
such as wastes containing more than 90% water are stored by drying, banana
wastes are stored specifically with broiler litter, and finally highly densified/muddy
textured or intermingled fiber-containing wastes like citrus pulp, pineapple waste,
and pineapple bran are conserved by ensiling in bunker trench or pit or in the tube
silo (Wadhwa and Bakshi 2013). Solid-state fermentation (SSF) is another
improved method to convert agro-industrial wastes and to upgrade the nutritive
value of the animal feed.
The use of citrus pulp as ruminant feed is certainly advantageous over cereals
due to high fiber content; the long rumination produces large quantities of saliva,
which has a buffering effect on rumen pH. It is indeed considered as a safer feed
with high-concentrate, low-roughage diets in high-yielding dairy cows. Fresh
banana leaves can be fed directly or after ensiling with broiler litter (40:60) or
with wheat straw (75:25) to levels of up to 15% in the rations to the lactating
animals without degrading milk production. Banana peels can also be included at
levels of 15–30% in the diet of lactating cows without altering palatability and
performance. Dried ripe banana peels can be incorporated into the diet of growing
pigs at levels up to 20% and rabbits at levels up to 30% without adding any
detrimental effect on the performance. Citrus pulp after drying can be effectively
used as a cereal substitute in concentrate mixture due to its high net energy, NE
(1.66–1.76 Mcal/kg DM), value for lactating dairy cows. It is potential to replace
20% concentrate in the diets of dairy cattle and up to 30% in lactating ewes without
deteriorating palatability, nutrient utilization, milk production capacity, or its
composition. It can also be used up to 50% in the diet of gestating and lactating
cows, 20–30% in rabbit feed, and 5–10% in poultry feed. Citrus pulp, which is a
major by-product of citrus juice processing industries, can be effectively ensiled
with wheat or rice straw in a ratio of 70:30, making excellent silage. Mango seed
kernels can be included in the concentrate mixture up to 50%. However, some anti-
nutritional factors, like tannins and hydrocyanic acid which reduce growth rates
and efficiency of feed utilization, are present in mango seed kernels, which can be
removed by soaking or boiling the kernels in the water and then be incorporated at
5–10% in the diet of broilers. Mango peels can be included in animal feed in so
many ways as fresh, dried, or ensiled with wheat or rice straw. Due to the presence
of high sugar (13.2%), the fruit industry wastes are readily palatable. Pineapple
juice waste can replace the roughage concentration in the diets of ruminants
completely and cereals partially. Ensiled pineapple waste with straw can replace
up to 50% of roughage in the complete mixed ration of dairy cattle (Wadhwa and
Bakshi 2013). Thus, fruit wastes can be utilized with minimal processing cost,
which provides livestock a nutrient-rich animal feed.
Biochar
Biochar is a solid fine-grained, carbon-rich by-product derived from the thermo-

chemical conversion of low-cost biomass under oxygen-limited conditions. Due to
its large surface area, negative surface charge, charge density, high degree of
porosity, and extensive surface area, biochar has been recognized as a low-cost
material with sufficient suitability and selectivity (Wang et al. 2014). Although there
are several thermochemical processes available by which biomass can efficiently be
converted into useful fuel such as gasification, carbonization, pyrolysis, and direct
combustion, pyrolysis has gained momentum due to simplicity, cost effectiveness,
and wide array of applications. The biomass materials of fruit waste can be thermally
treated at designated temperatures in an inert environment to yield biochar (solid
fuel), bio-oil (liquid fuel), and biogas (gaseous fuel). Biochar can be potentially
accounted for a number of benefits such as catalyst in tar decomposition, soil
amendment to improve microbial activity, enhancing soil pH and thus improving
the quality of acidic soil, improving soil fertility through enhanced retention and
availability of soil nutrients, improving nutrient-use efficiency, typically increasing
soil cation exchange capacity, improving moisture holding capacity, aiding carbon
sequestration, and acting as activated carbon precursor (Banerjee et al. 2017). The
quality, quantity, and the elemental compositions of the biochar are influenced by the
quality of the feedstock and optimum pyrolytic protocol, viz., pyrolysis temperature
and residence time. Firstly, pyrolysis at high temperature (700–1000 C) with shorter
residence time (seconds to minutes) resulted in the production of bio-oil and biogas
(Lam et al. 2016). Alternately pyrolysis at a comparatively low temperature and
longer residence time (About an hour) yields improved biochar. However, low-
temperature yielded biochar retain some properties of their feedstock and have
functional groups and low pH value as experienced by Usman et al. (2015) when
using date palm waste as feedstock for biochar production at different temperature
regimes, indicating potentiality of low-temperature yielded biochar to improve
fertility of high-pH arid soils. Secondly, the selection of suitable feedstock is crucial
for biochar production that is tailored to improve a specific soil issue in agriculture.
Fruit wastes such as banana, orange, and watermelon peel and mango endocarp are
enriched with carbon (34–48%) and are suitable substrates to produce carbon-dense
material, viz., biochar (Lam et al. 2016). Recent trend of application of fruit
processing waste utilizes only 3.4% for biochar production (Banerjee et al. 2017).
Contrary to composting, it significantly reduces emissions of harmful greenhouse
gases.
Biochar is reported to improve anaerobic digestion of citrus peel by reducing the
length of the lag phase and enhancing methane production. The microbial lag phases
reduced with increase in citrus peel to biochar ratios. The longest lag phase of
9.4 days was observed with 2:1 while the shortest with the value of 7.5 days with
1:3. The cumulative methane production in incubations with biochar and citrus peel
varied from 163.9 to 185.0 ml CH4 gVS-1, whereas citrus peel only produced
165.9 ml CH4 gVS-1. Examination of the biochar material showed colonies of
putative methanogens. The synergy of D-limonene adsorption and microbial
immobilization by biochar reveal to enhance the function of anaerobic digestion

(Fagbohungbe et al. 2016). Biochars from three different types of fruit peel (orange,
pineapple, and pitaya) were prepared by Hu et al. (2020) as an alternative to
conventional sorbents in water treatment. Substrates were treated at 300 C,
400 C, 500 C, and 600 C with the residence time of 2 h and 4 h. In all feedstocks,
biochars prepared at low temperatures revealed improved NH4+ adsorption capacity
at a pH of 9. Adsorption kinetics of ammonium on biochars usually fit to the pseudo-
second-order kinetic model, while Langmuir isotherm model well simulates the
adsorption pattern of ammonium on biochars. The adsorption mechanism of ammo-
nium on biochars primarily involved surface complexation, cation exchange, and
electrostatic attraction. Their characteristics and adsorption for ammonium was
examined, which showed the highest NH4+ adsorption capacities were associated
with biochars of orange peel (4.71 mg/g) and pineapple peel (5.60 mg/g) produced at
300 C for 2 h. The maximum NH4+ adsorption capacity (2.65 mg/g) of the pitaya
peel biochar was revealed when produced at 400 C for 2 h. Similarly, Usman et al.
(2015), while studying biochar composition and surface chemistry of date palm-
derived biochar, reported that preparation temperature of 500 C with volatile
matter less than 10% and O/C of 0.02–0.05 is quite appropriate for carbon seques-
tration. The high aromatic biochar is obtained from apple waste from the cider
industry and grapes waste from winery with a solvent/fruit ratio of 2/1 (w/w), an
extraction temperature of 348 K, and 1.25 h of extraction time. The grape stalk
extract revealed the maximum presence of polyphenol (1758 24 g gallic acid/
100 kg) and antioxidant activity (156 6 g gallic acid/100 kg). After separating the
liquid and solid fraction, the solid fraction was applied to produce biochar through
pyrolysis at low heating rate (10, 15, and 20 K/min). The resultant biochar with
moderate surface areas (0.9–266 m2/g) and low H/C ratios (high aromaticity)
showed potentiality in activated carbon production to be utilized in fuel applications
and soil structure improvement (Sette et al. 2020).
Production of Different Biofuels
Biofuel is generally derived from a recently living organism such as plant and their
residues or animal extract. These are the alternative energy sources that reduce the
production of greenhouse gases, improve sanitation, and help control air and water
pollution. It can be generated from organic matter such as plant parts, agricultural
crop residues, urban waste, and by-products of agriculture and forestry. Biofuels can
be generally categorized into two major classes: gaseous and liquid biofuels. Fruit
wastes are one of the best-suited alternative biomass feedstocks than some biofuel-
yielding crops as these are cheap and generated in large quantities. The composition
of fruit wastes varies with different fruit crops: for example, banana peel with high
alkane and hemicellulose content is suitable for conversion into fuel products,
whereas orange peel, watermelon peel, and mango endocarp with high cellulose
content indicates its potential to be transformed into hydrogen gas for use as
chemical feedstock or second-generation fuel (Lam et al. 2016). Various types of
the gaseous and liquid biofuels that can be effectively produced from fruit wastes are
discussed below.
Biogas
The ever-increasing use of fossil fuels for energy consumption contributes to several
environmental issues, viz., climate change, environmental pollution, and degrada-
tion globally. Biogas is not merely a renewable energy source (Lam et al. 2016); it
appropriately manages waste and has a potential to replace fossil fuel in the near
future. It can also be used as alternative fuel for cooking, lighting, and heating as it
reduces the demand for wood and charcoal for cooking and helps to protect the
natural vegetation. Consequently, it alleviates serious health issues due to poor
indoor air quality associated with wood and charcoal used for cooking in developing
countries like Africa. On the other hand, in the western world specifically in
Germany and in America, biogas is used to convert into electricity and heat after
removing water and sulfur from its mixture and is utilized for on-farm purposes with
combining heat and power units. Alternatively, it is upgraded to biomethane consti-
tuting 95–99% methane that creates more application opportunities. Biomethane can
again be used as chemical feedstock and, depending on its composition, can be
upgraded to transportation fuel. In this context, anaerobic digestion is the best-suited
method to convert organic wastes, which have a huge impact on renewable energy
requirements (Manyi-Loh et al. 2013). Anaerobic digestion (AD) relies on efficient
conversion of organic matter, and a major combustible constituent, methane, is
anaerobically produced from a fruit peel. Biomethanation of fruit wastes is one of
the best-suited treatments as it not only adds energy in the form of methane but also
yields a highly stabilized, odorless effluent with neutral pH.
Gunaseelan (2004) reported biomethane yields of rotten pulpy pomegranate
seeds, pomegranate fruit pressing, pineapple peel, whole rotten pomegranate fruit,
whole rotten sapota fruit, and pomegranate peels were 0.430, 0.420, 0.357, 0.342,
0.327, and 0.312 ml CH4/g VSadded, respectively. Methane yields from mango
peels of some of the varieties, orange wastes, pomegranate rotten seeds, and lemon
pressings were observed significantly higher than the cellulose. Although the con-
version kinetics was higher at 35 C than at 28 C in mango peel waste, the overall
temperature had no effect on methane production from mango peel waste.
Co-digestion of fruit waste with organic manure, such as cow dung, has reported
several advantages, including providing balanced nutrients, buffering capacity,
improving digestibility, maximizing substrate utilization, and therefore enhancing
biogas yield. During the retention period of biogas production, hydrolysis to
acidogenesis causes the slurry to become acidic and form a substrate, after which
it produces biogas. Fruit wastes are acidic in nature and therefore a wonderful
substrate in biogas production, and it’s a potential component for co-digestion
with different other substrates. Otun et al. (2015) obtained biogas yield from fruit
waste and cow dung, with 76.4% and 79.8%, respectively, when digested separately
through anaerobic digestion, whereas co-digestion of cow dung and fruit waste
enhanced biogas production up to 83.9%, and co-digestion of cow dung, fruit
waste, and food waste improved the biogas production up to 91.0%, which were
attained at day 24 and day 19 with the temperature of 27.1 C and 26.9 C. A similar
study on co-digestion of fruit peel waste, viz., apple, pineapple, grapes, custard
apple, and sweet lime waste along with cow dung (fruit waste 75% and cow dung
25%), reported a significantly enhanced production of biogas. Co-digestion of 75%
missed fruit waste along with 25% cow dung resulted in maximum methane
production of 405 mg with methane content of 80%. The study also indicated the
efficiency of co-digest combination of fruit waste and cow dung over fruit waste, rice
bran, and cow dung combination for biogas production (Narayani and Priya 2012).
Moreover, fruit wastes are devoid of sulfur; therefore, gaseous products released
from pyrolysis of fruit wastes either yield zero or negligible sulfur, making the
process more environmentally friendly (Lam et al. 2016). Another important fact is
that the residual material that remains after anaerobic digestion and biogas released is
called digestate, which is rich in microorganisms, carbon, available nitrogen, phos-
phate, potash, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, and micronutrients; hence, even after
anaerobic treatments, the manure fertilizer value of the digestate remains unaltered
(Jain et al. 2018), which can be further used as compost in cultivation.
Biohydrogen
Biohydrogen is another renewable and relatively new type of gaseous, clean, and
promising future fuel that has attracted interest in recent years. It can be produced
either by thermochemical process like water electrolysis, pyrolysis of biomass,
steam reforming of natural gas, or biological process using anaerobic microorganism
by the synergistic action of a consortium of methanogenic, acidogenic, and
hydrogenic bacteria like Clostridium species (Guo et al. 2010). It is a two-stage
fermentation process (anaerobic dark fermentation and photofermentation), which is
required for biohydrogen production. At first, the cellulose- or starch-enriched
effluents are pretreated to exclude undesirable compounds and to hydrolyze the
complex sugars present in it. Delignification is another significant pretreatment
procedure where lignin is removed from the feedstock; as a result, it facilitates better
microbial growth. Under anaerobic conditions, dark fermentation takes place where
compounds other than O2 serve as electron acceptor. Carbohydrates especially
glucose and fructose act as the inevitable carbon source for hydrogen with acetic
acid and butyric acid production (Nath and Das 2006). Fruit wastes being carbohy-
drate-rich lignocellulosic wastes are suitable as dark fermentation feedstock. Photo-
fermentation as the name indicates takes place in the presence of the light energy,
nitrogenase enzyme, and organic acids by photo-heterotrophic bacteria for the
production of hydrogen utilizing organic waste in batch or continuous cultures.
Jackfruit peel waste has shown suitability for biohydrogen production as it contains
large amounts of cellulose, resulting in higher biohydrogen yields. The mixed-fruit
peel waste of guava (15%), honeydew melon (10%), jumbo (5%), kiwi (5%), mango
(10%), papaya (15%), pineapple (15%), starfruit (5%), and watermelon (20%)
showed an average biogas generation value of 0.73 m3/kg of volatile solid destroyed
at a hydraulic retention time of above 5 days. The hydrogen concentration in the
biogas was stable and reached a value of 63 2%, irrespective of influent volatile
solid concentration and hydraulic retention time (HRT) (Vijayaraghavan et al. 2007).
Although the biohydrogen production from fruit waste portrayed its significant
potentiality for future use, unfortunately only 5.1% of total fruit industry waste at
present is being used for biohydrogen production (Banerjee et al. 2017).
Bioethanol
Bioethanol is the mostly used biofuel that is eco-friendly, and economical energy
source has received special attention in the global market. It has lower energy
content compared to gasoline and higher oxygen content, which makes the combus-
tion cleaner and results in a lower emission of toxic substances. At present, regarding
the global concern about climate change, it can certainly be a useful gasoline
alternative or additive. There are mainly three ways to produce bioethanol; firstly,
cellulose and hemicellulose present in the feedstock are run into a specific process
where organisms such as species of Trichoderma, Aspergillus, Clostridium, etc.
hydrolyze this cellulose into its constituent glucose units (Lynd et al. 2002). Fruit
peels are lignocellulosic substances, which primarily consist of pectin, cellulose,
hemicellulose, and to some extent lignin, which make suitable feedstock for
bioethanol production. Secondly, glucose can directly be utilized by Saccharomyces
to convert it into ethanol through fermentation process, and finally, starch is hydro-
lyzed by specific enzyme into sugar and undergoes fermentation to produce ethanol
as end product (Khandaker et al. 2018).
The chemical composition and abundant availability make fruit waste such as
citrus peel, apple pomace, pear waste, banana, etc. as suitable substrates for
bioethanol production. In this context, banana peel (BP) and pineapple peel (PAP)
were reported potential by Jahid et al. (2018) for bioethanol production compared to
papaya peel (PP) and mango peel (MP). Enzymatic hydrolysis and subsequent
fermentation using Saccharomyces cerevisiae tend to produce bioethanol from the
water-steam pretreated fruit wastes. It has been observed that acid hydrolysate
yielded less ethanol than enzymatic hydrolysate, yielding only 36% (3.82 g/l ethanol
yield) from banana peels and 33% (2.75 g/l ethanol yield) from pineapple peels by
utilizing and reducing sugar by S. cerevisiae during fermentation for 25 h compared
to enzymatic hydrolysis under the same condition. In the case of citrus waste, the
presence of soluble and insoluble sugar makes it an ideal feedstock, but D-limonene
acts as a strong microbial inhibitor. Thus, the removal of D-limonene before yeast
fermentation is required. Removal and simultaneous recovery of the chemical is
needed as D-limonene has various applications as a flavoring agent as well as in
chemical industries. D-limonene removal column (LRC) combined with
immobilized cell reactor (ICR) yeast fermentation produced ethanol concentrations
(14.4–29.5 g/L) and yileds (90.2–93.1%), which were 12-fold higher than the sole
application of ICR fermentation (Choi et al. 2015).
However, the major issue in this process is that continuous bioethanol production
is often hampered because sucrose fermentation is only possible when glucose and
fructose fermentation is over as Saccharomyces cerevisiae exhibited preferential
consumption of these monosaccharides. Therefore, continuous hydrolysis of sucrose
into glucose and fructose is needed to increase the efficiency of bioethanol produc-
tion (Ghorbani et al. 2011). Another constraint in bioethanol production is high cost
involvement in enzyme production that aids in saccharification, which can be

overcome by in-house production of microorganisms that aid the process (Choi
et al. 2015).
Biodiesel
Biodiesel is produced from organic sources, which are therefore biodegradable and
nontoxic in nature and possess high flash point and inherent lubricity while being
free from sulfur and aromatic compounds. The use of biodiesel in diesel engine
revealed an appreciable depletion in unburned hydrocarbons, carbon monoxides,
and particulate matter effusion, while oxides of nitrogens are unfortunately
increased. Low oxidative stability, low calorific value, poor cold flow properties,
high viscosity and density, and lack of proper supply and availability are some of the
issues related to biodiesels. This can be produced by transesterification with an
alcohol of several substrates such as vegetable oil, animal fats, waste or recycled
oil, and restaurant greases (Rashid et al. 2013). Pentanol and butanol (next-genera-
tion biofuel) have a greater potential to get blended with biodiesel due to its less
hygroscopic nature, improving blending stability and minimizing the drawback of
neat biofuel. Moreover, n-pentanol with higher cetane number and energy density
significantly improves the combustion and minimizes the carbon monoxide and
oxides of nitrogen emissions (Rakopoulos et al. 2014).
Mandarin orange (Citrus reticulata) seed oil, which is another nonedible oil
source, exhibited a good potential biodiesel feedstock source that can supply bio-
diesel in the future. The cetane number (CN), a dimensionless descriptor of diesel
fuel ignition quality, of mandarin orange seed oil was 57.6. The kinetic viscosity
(4.17 mm2 s 1 at 40 C) was within the range of biodiesel standard as low viscosity
is required; otherwise, it may cause engine deposits, which is an issue when
biodiesel is prepared from edible oils (feedstocks) such as soybean, canola, and
corn oil. Similarly, other quality attributes of diesel are cloud point of 9 C, pour
point of 8 C, and cold filter plugging point of 9 C; the oxidative stability test of
mandarin seed oil at 110 C indicated that it was within the prescribed biodiesel
standard, which was 2.69 h. Moreover, the flash point measurement, which is an
important criterion for safe transportation and storage of biodiesel, was 164 C
(Rashid et al. 2013). Manilkara zapota (L.) seed oil was transesterified with meth-
anol, using lipases as biocatalysts. Commercially viable lipases, viz., Candida
antarctica-B, Candida rugosa, and Pseudomonas cepacia, and porcine pancreas
were utilized for biodiesel production. The potentiality of novozyme-435 (C. ant-
arctica lipase-B immobilized on acrylic resin) and CLEA (cross-linked enzyme
aggregate) of C. antarctica lipase-B were compared for their biodiesel yielding
capacity. Under optimal reaction conditions, novozyme-435 yielded 96% biodiesel
within 12 h; while CLEA of C. antarctica-B yielded 84% biodiesel. Novozyme-435
was reused for six cycles, and 72% biodiesel was obtained at the end of sixth cycle.
The deactivated novozyme-435 was regenerated by incubating it in soybean oil,
2-butanol, and tert-butanol (Karmee 2018).
Cashew nut shell oil is a nonedible by-product from cashew nut industries. The
cashew nut shell oil is converted into cashew nut shell biodiesel through
conventional transesterification process and blended with pentanol of 98.4% purity

to act as an oxygenated additive which significantly reduced harmful gases such as
CO, NOx, HC, and smoke emissions when added with 10% and 20% of pentanol to
cashew nut shell biodiesel. The smoke emission was reduced by 3.1% and 3.4%
(Devarajan et al. 2017). Utilization of industrial waste for biodiesel production
encourages waste minimization while effectively reducing its production cost.
Biodiesels are ideal alternatives to conventional diesel fuel due to renewable nature
and inbuilt oxygen content that reduces the drawback of fossil fuel. Reformulation of
conventional diesel with neat biofuel is a smart option, as no modification of existing
diesel engine is required. Simultaneously, the oxygen content in biodiesel inhabits
fuel-rich zone and enhances the combustion by local air and fuel ratio in different
zones, which as a result affects cylinder temperature and reduces emissions (Ahmad
et al. 2016).
Adsorbent
Adsorption is one of the most popular method of waste management due to

simplicity of design, ease of operation, convenience, availability, effectiveness,
versatility, and insensitivity to toxic substances. This process can minimize or
remove various pollutants, therefore having a wide range of applications in waste-
water treatment. There are several parameters that influence the capacity of
adsorption by fruit peel waste, such as adsorbent dose, contact time, pH solution,
initial adsorbate concentration, particle size of the fruit peel waste, speed of
agitation, and temperature. However, pH is considered to be the most important
parameter of all in the adsorption process. When the adsorbate solution is treated
with adsorbent, after a sufficient time of contact, equilibrium is established. Thus,
adsorption equilibrium is the ratio of adsorbed amount of adsorbate to the
remaining amount of adsorbate in the solution. It provides important physico-
chemical data for evaluating the applicability of adsorption process as a unit
operation. Generally, adsorption isotherm is a curve that gives information about
the amount of adsorbate removed from the aqueous solution at equilibrium state
per unit mass of adsorbate at constant temperature and pH (Pathak et al. 2015).
Fruit peel waste batch adsorption data for different systems have been fitted to a
wide variety of equilibrium isotherms, of which Langmuir and Freundlich models
were applied by various researchers (Li et al. 2016; Fawzy et al. 2019). The
commonly used adsorbent is activated carbon since it has high capacity for the
removal of pollutants. The major disadvantages are the high cost of treatment and
difficult regeneration that increases the cost of wastewater treatment. Alternately,
fruit wastes are very suitable as they show good adsorption potential with low-cost
treatment or even as untreated adsorbents. However, the use of raw fruit waste
reduces the adsorption capacity and increases chemical oxygen demand (COD),
biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), and high total organic carbon (TOC) due to
leaching of soluble organic compounds present in the fruit waste (Pathak et al.
2015).
An economically feasible approach using olive leaves wastes for the removal of
cadmium from aqueous solutions was demonstrated by Fawzy et al. (2019), which
achieved 94.9% Cd2+ removal efficiencies at Co ¼ 50 mg/L and 81.5% at Co ¼
100 mg/L with optimum pH and 6.6 and 123 min contact time, respectively. The
adsorption mechanism functions are due to ion exchange with cations (e.g., Kþ, Na
þ, and Ca2þ), formation of cadmium chloride complexes, interaction with oxygen
containing functional groups, physical agglomeration in the pore surface, and
precipitation interaction utilizing inorganic minerals, i.e., carbonates, phosphates,
and silicates. Similarly, El-Azazy (2019) showed effectiveness of burned
pomegranate peel (BPG) that removed 99.99% Ni (II) from polluted water, which
is cost-effective and more efficient than high-cost charcoal ash. The EDX (energy-
dispersive X-ray) spectroscopy showed carbon and oxygen made up half (51.58%)
and 46.04% of the raw pomegranate peel, compared to 87.52% carbon (charring)
and only 8.93% oxygen in the case of burned pomegranate peel. The greater carbon
content in the case of BPG might explain the higher efficiency of BPG in removing
Ni (II). Li et al. (2016) developed a novel banana peel-derived carbon foam (BPCF)
via physical activation of banana peel and applied for adsorbing various heavy metal
ions including copper (Cu2+), lead (Pb2+), cadmium (Cd2+), and chromium (Cr6+) in
aqueous solution. The adsorption capacities of BPCF were significantly higher than
most of the products (banana peel-based). Kinetic and equilibrium studies demon-
strated that the sorption behavior can be better illustrated by pseudo-second-order
kinetic and Langmuir isotherm models. The highest sorption capacities of Cu2+, Pb2+,
Cd2+, and Cr6+ were recorded as 49.5, 45.6, 30.7, and 25.2 mg/g at equilibrium time
of 5 min. Moreover, the efficiency of BPCF for metal removal was reported up to
98% at the contacting time of 1 h. The removal efficacy values for ten kinds of metal
ions were 1.3–98.6 times higher compared to application of activated carbon, which
is a commercial adsorbent. The removal efficiency for some deeply concerned metal
ions, viz., Cu2+, Pb2+, Cd2+, and Cr6+, was 7.5, 8.9, 8.7, and 16.6 times higher than
that of commercial-activated carbon, respectively. It was a cost-effective and highly
efficient method of hazardous metals removal, like Cu, Pb, Cd, and Cr, from
wastewater.
Removal of dissolved organic compounds present in wastewater is again a
challenge for many countries, owing to high cost of existing technologies and
simultaneous increase in water consumption. Fruit wastes, such as avocado, Hami
melon, and dragon fruit peels, were observed as an effective, simple, and renewable
adsorbent source for water purification. The presence of surface functional groups,
viz., CO2H, OH, and morphologies of the peels using spectroscopic and electron
microscopic techniques, revealed all peels were effective toward removing dyes and
toxic metal ions from water. The extraction capacity of peels enhanced with extrac-
tion time, and a plateau was reached at equilibrium. Dragon fruit peels expressed
maximum alcian blue (71.85 mg/g) and methylene blue (62.58 mg/g) extraction
efficiency. Hami melon peels and avocado peels revealed moderate extraction
capacity for Pb2+ (7.89 mg/g, 9.82 mg/g) and Ni2+ (9.45 mg/g, 4.93 mg/g) cations.
The adsorption process was dominated by electrostatic interaction between adsor-
bent and adsorbates, indicating a monolayer adsorption at the binding sites on the
surface of the peels, which was explained using the Langmuir isotherm model.
However, the adsorption model used for organic waste, such as methylene blue
and neutral red, was concluded as a matter of conjecture (Mallampati et al. 2015). In
industrial wastewater, oil is another pollutant. Discharge of those polluted water as
such can lead to serious impact on the surface, underground water, and soil.
Pomegranate peel powder (PPP) is a low-cost adsorbent for crude oil removal
from simulated produced water (SPW). The increase in adsorbent dosage, pH, and
salinity of SPW was directly related to the removal efficiency. The optimum pH was
9.5, adsorbent dose was 2.33 g/L, contact time was 50.0 min, and adsorption
temperature was 55.0 C. The adsorption of crude oil by PPP followed the Langmuir
adsorption isotherm, with adsorption capacity of 555 mg/g. The adsorption kinetics
of crude oil was best described by a pseudo-second-order kinetic model, with a rate
constant of 3.75 10–4 g/mgh. The pomegranate peel powder was observed as an
excellent adsorbent for the removal of oil from produced water with an efficiency
exceeding 92% in 50 min (Ibrahim et al. 2016).
Identification of Challenges in Fruit Waste Valorization
The present management strategies for most fruit wastes do not extract the full value
from these wastes before disposal. As discussed, fruit wastes are no doubt high-
potential by-products to be utilized in so many ways. Along with the bioeconomy
strategy, to be utilized, its full beneficiation potential requires the use of all fruit
wastes in line, whether this is through use as animal feed, bioactive separations,
biofuel production, or production of adsorbent. Besides seasonality of fruit crops,
lack of awareness of wide array of benefits, lack of proper knowledge of these
technology, low cost of landfilling, a perception of financial risk, and the anticipated
reasons behind, biorefinery is not a norm globally explored (Jain et al. 2018). The
industrial-scale bioactive extraction is a costly process; it also comes with challenges
of stability of the isolated bioactives and stability of the end products. Therefore,
shelf-life studies of these products are necessary (Banerjee et al. 2017). To use the
single-cell protein, certain precautions are needed as it might cause certain skin
reactions, allergies, or gastrointestinal reactions, leading to nausea and vomiting.
Even chances of contamination of SCP with heavy metals or other metallic com-
pounds are another issue that needs to be addressed (Anupama and Ravindra 2000).
The issues with animal feeding relate primarily to animal health concerns, nutrient
variability, and moisture content of the feed. The presence of antinutrient factors in
some cases also interferes with the viability of the waste as animal feed, for instance,
citrus seeds contain limonin, which is toxic to monogastrics; mango seed kernels are
rich in tannins, cyanogenic glycosides, oxalates, and trypsin inhibitors, which are
harmful for livestocks and need to be treated before consumption as animal feed
(Wadhwa and Bakshi 2013). In adsorption studies, most of the experiments relied on
synthetic aqueous solutions on lab-scale rather than real samples that interfere in the
true sorption potential, due to matrix effect caused by the concomitants present in
real samples. Phase separation models are costly; thus, cost-effective alternatives of
separation stage are desirable. Other than sustainability concerns related to supplying
feedstock for biofuel and biochar production on a large-scale basis, biochar handling
and biochar system deployment need to be considered. In agricultural system,
biochar application indicates concern like permanency of biochar in soil; dry biochar
is liable to wind erosion, higher wage rates for collection and processing of crop
residue, and most importantly inadequate policy support that needs to be urgently
addressed.
Conclusion
Currently, fruit waste utilization for valorization is limited; to overcome that, strat-
egies need to be developed. A thorough availability of fruit waste needs to be assured
by selecting fruit crops that are processed in large quantities and produced through-
out the year. Most of the fruit crops are seasonal, in which case sequential process in
a multi-feedstock system can be advantageous. The techno-economic feasibility of
any process should be considered at industrial level, from the selection of
manufacturing processes, marketing strategies, to profitability. Fruit wastes are
ideal in this context as multiple products can be generated using various feedstocks,
which simultaneously increase the profit margin. The existing green methods impro-
vise the cost and efficiency of these processes by utilizing cellulose- and carbohy-
drate-rich residues after bioactive extraction further used for biofuel production. As
animal feed, the key to redistribution of fruit waste is the measures on food safety
and animal health. Like in some Asian countries, these are recycled and sold as a
premium product for livestock consumption, which strictly follow certification
scheme in place to ensure safety standards are maintained. Before recommending
SCP from fruit waste to be commercialized, certain precautionary measures must be
taken into account, such as nucleic acid content of SCP, metabolic efficiency, and
protein digestibility values. Most importantly, prior decontamination and purifica-
tion of the final product is required before utilizing it as a food source. Biofuel
production is widely considered more advantageous than gasoline production, since
the process cost of one cubic meter of biofuel including production, modification,
and compression is much lower than of the current gasoline cost. Field experimen-
tations are to be standardized for biochar-based nutrient fortification and nutrient
release pattern for different agricultural crops in different ecosystems. Erosion
control and carbon-saving potential of biochar needs to be assessed. Similarly,
organic and inorganic waste adsorption requires much research with real samples.
However, the cost potentiality of green adsorbents is advantageous over complex
adsorbents, thus making it greater and competitive. At last, policy-related strategies
need to undertake to quantify the benefits under a range of situations to aid policy-
level decisions. Therefore, high-level targets need to be set by countries and the
government in the direction of future growth. It could be waste prevention target,
emission reduction target, diversion from landfill targets, renewable energy produc-
tion target, or recycling targets. Lastly, policies need to be implemented to reach
these targets, viz., pricing greenhouse gas emissions through emission trading
schemes, carbon taxes, renewable energy incentives through cash payment, provid-
ing renewable energy certificates, procuring energy auctions, etc. Another instru-
ment for support and growth of the biorefinery sectors are financial grants or making
capital available at low interest rates to implement these projects, which successfully
changed the scenarios in many countries.
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Turning Crop Waste into Wealth-
Sustainable and Economical Solutions 31
Ranguwal Sangeet and Raj Kumar
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 786
Agriculture Sector in Punjab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 788
Shifts in Cropping Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 788
Crop Residue Generation and Surplus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 790
Status of Crop Residue Burning and Its Economic Impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 792
Status of Paddy Residue Management in Punjab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 795
Gainful Crop Residue Management Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 799
Mulching/Retention of Residue on Soil Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 799
In situ Incorporation of Crop Residue in the Soil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 801
Collection/Removal of Crop Residue for Off-Farm Uses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 804
Promotion of Short-Duration Rice Varieties for Promoting Better
Straw Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 806
Power Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 808
Policy Initiatives Taken Up by the Government for Crop Residue Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . 810
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 811
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 813
Abstract
Crop wastes are nutrient-rich natural resources of tremendous value. Agricultural
residue is biodegradable, but because of improper management, it is becoming a
growing issue today. With vast agricultural production in India, agricultural waste
generation is also huge. India’s annual gross crop residue production is about
500 million ton (Mt), of which contribution of paddy is the highest among cereals.
Among states, Punjab stands second for residue generation (50.75 Mt) with about
49% of surplus crop waste. For 20 major paddy growing districts in the state,
remote sensing estimated 2.96 million hectare area (Mha) planted, out of which
1.51 Mha was burnt during 2018. During 2018–2019, about 51.7% of the state area
R. Sangeet (*) · R. Kumar

Department of Economics and Sociology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab, India
e-mail: sangeet@pau.edu; rajkumar@pau.edu

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_39
786 R. Sangeet and R. Kumar
under paddy crop was managed using different straw management practices,
i.e. mulching (39.7%), incorporation (29.5%) and collection and removal
(30.8%) for further use. Crop residues increase soil productivity and its fertility,
making them a viable option to recycle nutrients that have been mined from the
soil. In economic terms, recycling of surplus residues could save about Rs
741 crore government money spent on chemical fertilizers. In addition to this, the
bioenergy potential from the surplus crop residue for Punjab (29.86 1016 J) is the
highest among the states of India. Considering the potential of residue, agriculture
not only is the way of life for achieving food security through main produce but
may also be an important solution to other issues like declining fertility, erosion and
global warming from the irrational application of intensive farming methods
through efficient management of crop residues, remarkably affecting rural environ-
ments in particular and the global environmental in general.
Keywords
Crop residue · Surplus · Management · Nutrient · Bioenergy
Introduction
‘Necessity is the mother of invention’ and human evolution is the best evidence to
prove it. Over time, as our necessities increased, we searched in the environment
around us to get our needs fulfilled. With regard to arable crops especially cereals,
humans are mainly concerned with the parts of plant which have saleable value,
owing to their use for different purposes. With increased understanding about
agriculture along with development and increasing population pressure, we are
supposed to bring those plant parts for use, which we previously not used at all,
and that is crop residue. Crop residue is restricted to not only above-ground plant
parts but also root mass, which adds organic matter to the soil. Residue is also called
as ‘economic product of second order’, owing to realization of potential to be used
for a variety of purposes in general and used in energy generation in addition to
source and sink for carbon particularly in today’s world. Considering the potential of
residue, agriculture not only is the way of life for achieving food security through
main produce but may also be an important solution to other issues like declining
fertility, erosion and global warming from the irrational application of intensive
farming methods through efficient management of crop residues, remarkably affect-
ing rural environments in particular and the global environmental in general. The
continued existence of living organisms on this planet cannot be sustained indefi-
nitely unless there is a change of attitude and behaviour to the current lifestyle as
man constantly keeps pushing the boundary of the planet resources to its limit and
replacing it with wastes including various emissions (Titiloye 2011).
Globally, India ranks first in the production of jute and second in rice, wheat,
sugarcane, cotton and groundnut. Thus, because of the vast agricultural production
of the country, agricultural waste generation is also huge. The arable land in the
31 Turning Crop Waste into Wealth-Sustainable and Economical Solutions 787
country is 159 million hectare area (Mha), forming 11.2% of global share. Agricul-
ture is regarded as the backbone of India’s economy. Although agriculture contrib-
utes only about 17% to India’s GDP, it is the source of subsistence for nearly 60% of
its population. Further, it is estimated that about 500 million tonnes (Mt) of agricul-
tural residues are being generated annually. Depending on its degradability, agricul-
tural waste comes under the category of biodegradable ones, but because of improper
management, it is becoming a growing issue today.
The cereal residues are not waste until we waste it (Shahane and Shivay 2016).
Crop residues have been referred to as ‘wastes’, but they are also considered to be
‘potential black gold’ – a natural and valuable resource (Reicosky and Wilts 2005) as
they provide significant quantities of nutrients for crop production. Due to the
imbalanced use of plant nutrients, mining of nutrients is considered to be the main
cause for the decline in crop response ratio, which has created a huge gap between
the availability of nutrients and demand to sustain food security. It is estimated that
the total amount of NPK contained in total food grain residues produced is about
14.78 Mt., of which 5.03 Mt. of the nutrients can be potentially obtained from
surplus residue at the national level, which can serve as a good alternative to bridge
the nutrient gap (Manna et al. 2018). Recycling of surplus crop residues seems to be
a viable option to minimize the nutrient gap. It has thus become the need of the hour
to recover and recycle nutrients that have been mined from the soil.
Agricultural wastes are the most widely available and the most wasted energy
source also. The electricity supply constraint has forced almost all the sectors,
i.e. industrial, commercial, institutional or residential, to rely on diesel or furnace
oil. At the same time, due to the increasing population and environmental deterio-
ration, the country faces the challenge of sustainable development. In 2018, the
energy demand was 1,212,134 GWh, and the availability was 1,203,567 GWh, i.e. a
deficit of 0.7% (Anonymous 2019a). The growing energy demand coupled with
limited conventional fuel options, geopolitics of oil and environmental concern has
compelled India to search for renewable and sustainable energy options. In order to
enhance environmental sustainability, there have been efforts at identifying alterna-
tive and renewable sources of energy capable of meeting increasing global demand.
Renewable energy sources play a vital role in securing sustainable energy with lower
emissions (Kumar 2016). In power sector, the use of renewable energy like biomass
is indeed one of the major green sources (Pachauri and Jiang 2008). Process-based
agricultural residues in Asia alone could contribute between 25% and 40% of the
total primary commercial energy production (Junginger et al. 2001). In South Asia,
India and Sri Lanka have a significant primary energy potential from non-planted
biomass, which was 45% and 33% of the total primary energy consumption in 2010,
respectively (Bhattacharya et al. 2005). India would be the third largest country
consuming renewable energy, accounting for 9% of the global total by 2030. So
engaging India – together with the other largest users such as Brazil, China, the
European Union and the United States – is essential if the goal of doubling
renewable energy’s global share is to be achieved (IRENA 2017). Comparing with
other renewable energy sources, biomass is much economical than others, as this
requires less capital investment and per unit production costs (Rao et al. 2010). The
current use of biofuels in domestic devices is also associated with drudgery and
adverse health impacts on women. In most rural houses in India, the fuel use
efficiency in domestic devices, particularly cook stoves, is low, in the range of 10–
14% (Ravindranath et al. 2005). Improving the efficiency would be a significant step
towards improving the quality of life and environment (ibid), and this needs the use
of biomass through efficient conversion process other than direct combustion. India
is responsible for nearly 6.7% of the total global carbon emissions, ranked fourth
next to China (26.8%), the United States (14.4%) and the European Union (9.7%)
(Olivier et al. 2016).
In spite of the huge potential for different uses, agricultural residues are mostly
burnt out in practice. At national level, about 48.4 million tonnes (from paddy,
wheat, maize and sugarcane) were burnt in 2017 (NAAS 2017). Residue burning is
mainly prevalent in paddy-wheat (PW) cropping system in South Asia. In Indo-
Gangetic basin of India, the area under PW double cropping is 10 Mha, of which
2.6 Mha falls in Indian Punjab (Jalota et al. 2018). Punjab is a small Indian state with
5033 thousand hectare geographical area of which about 83% of the total land is
under agricultural activities. Punjab produces approximately 19% of wheat, 11% of
rice and 5% of cotton of the country. Annually, Punjab produces about 23 and 17 Mt.
of paddy and wheat straw, respectively, of which more than 80% of paddy straw
(18.4 Mt) and almost 50% wheat straw (8.5 Mt) are burnt in the fields (Kumar et al.
2015). The disposal of agro-residue in the beneficial way along with its pollution is a
very serious problem of Punjab. Biomass is not only a fast track to clean and green
power but also a source of valuable extra income to farmers. In this backdrop, the
present study was carried out to study the present status of crop residue management
in the Punjab state along with different potential economical options of converting
this huge amount of waste into wealth.
Agriculture Sector in Punjab
Punjab holds place of pride among the Indian states for its outstanding performance
in agricultural development. The state has witnessed tremendous increase in the
agricultural production during the Green Revolution period, mainly due to healthy
mix of institutional and technological factors. Agrarian economy, consolidation of
landholdings, reclamation of new agricultural lands, development of irrigation, use
of biochemical inputs comprising high yielding variety seeds, chemical fertilizers,
insecticides and mechanical inputs were among the important factors which helped
Punjab agriculture in making rapid strides.
Shifts in Cropping Pattern
Over the years, Punjab has concentrated on food grain production, leading to an
imbalance in favour of two main cereals, viz. rice and wheat. Along with this,
because of better relative profitability of these crops with least production and
Table 1 Shifts in cropping pattern in Punjab, 1970–1971 to 2018–2019 (Per cent to GCA)
1970– 1980– 1990– 2000– 2010– 2018–
Crop 1971 1981 1991 2001 2011 2019
Rice 6.9 17.5 26.9 33.3 35.9 39.7
Wheat 40.5 41.6 43.6 43.4 44.5 45.0
Maize 9.8 5.6 2.5 2.1 1.8 1.4
Sugarcane 2.3 1.0 1.3 1.5 0.9 1.2
Cotton 7.0 9.6 9.3 6.0 6.1 3.4
Bajra 3.7 1.0 0.2 0.1 0.04 0.01
Barley 1.0 0.9 0.5 0.4 0.2 0.1
Total pulses 7.3 5 1.9 0.7 0.3 0.2
Total oilseeds 5.2 3.7 1.3 1.1 0.7 0.5
Total vegetables 0.9 1.1 0.7 1.4 2.4 3.5
Total fruits 0.6 0.4 0.8 0.4 0.9 1.1
Other crops 14.8 12.6 11 9.6 6.3 3.9
Cropping intensity (%) 140 161 178 187 190 190
GCA (0000 ha) 5678 6763 7502 7847 7882 7839
NSA (0000 ha) 4053 4191 4218 4250 4158 4118
% share of agriculture in total 43.0 33.8 32.4 27.2 19.7 14.5
GSDP/GSVAa
Fertilizer consumption (kg/ha) 38 113 163 168 243 232
GCA gross cropped area, NSA net sown area, GSDP gross state domestic product, GSVA gross state
value added
Source: Statistical Abstract of Punjab, various issues
a
At current prices
marketing risk as compared to other crops, the per cent share of area under rice has
increased from 6.9% in 1970–1971 to about 39.7% in 2018–2019, and that of wheat
increased from 40.5% to 45.0% during the same time period, while the area under
other crops like sugarcane, cotton, bajra, barley, pulses and oilseeds has declined
considerably with time (Table 1).
A structural change is taking place in the economy with the contribution of
agriculture in its GDP. The contribution of the agricultural sector in the GSDP/
GSVA of the state declined from 43% during the 1970s to 27% in 2000–2001 and
further to about 14.5% during 2018–2019 (at current prices).
Punjab has played a crucial role in achieving the much needed food security for
India. With only 1.5% geographical area of the country, the state has earned a name of
granary of India through contribution of 35–40% of rice and 40–75% of wheat to the
central pool in the past few decades. Rice and wheat are the nutrient-exhaustive crops,
and the monoculture of rice and wheat in the past few decades had led to steady
decline of macro- (NPK) as well as micronutrients in the soil. In order to improve
yield, famers have to apply more and more fertilizers. Punjab state ranks third at
national level for fertilizer consumption with an average consumption of 232 kg/ha
(Anonymous 2019b) as compared to the national level of 133 kg/ha (Anonymous
2019c) during 2018–2019. Rice is sown in 31.03 lakh hectares in Punjab, and
controlling the use of urea could result in saving nearly Rs 200 crore. Urea consump-
tion registered for the same is about 10 lakh tonnes, which is 3.15 lakh tonnes over and
above the recommended quantity (Business Standard July 17, 2018).
Crop Residue Generation and Surplus
Being an agriculture-rich state, Punjab has huge potential of biomass resource

availability in the form of crop residues. The estimates of the Ministry of New and
Renewable Energy (MNRE 2009), Govt. of India, brought out that though Punjab
with 50.75 Mt. of crop residue ranks second among different states of the country
contributing about 10% to the total crop residue generation in the country, it leads in
surplus crop residue generated (24.83 Mt) in the country (Fig. 1).
On the other hand, India produces about 500 Mt. of crop residues annually, of
which cereals alone contribute nearly 70% of the total crop residue (Fig. 2) followed
by fibres (13%), oilseeds (6%), pulses (3%) and sugarcane (2%); and further rice
crop alone contributes 34% of crop residues followed by wheat (22%). In Punjab,
among different crops, the major share of residue generated belongs to cereals
(97.08%), followed by fibres (1.20%), sugarcane (1.49%), oilseeds (0.21%) and
pulses (0.03%) as shown in Fig. 2. Rice and wheat crop each contributes about 47%
to the total residue generated in the state.
During 2018–2019, about 522.03 lakh tonnes (LT) of crop residue was generated
from different crops, of which 181.4 LT remained surplus after putting it to different
13.53
24.83
80 Residue surplus (mt) Residue generation (mt)

14.67
70
6.96
60
8.98
4.29
10.22
11.22
50
8.9
8.52
7.05
5.08
40
3.68
59.97
30
50.75
46.45
19.72 4.41
2.12
43.89
5.07
35.93
0.28
0.89
33.94
33.18
20
29.32
28.73
27.83
Goa 0.57 0.14

25.29
20.07
19.93
Chhattisgarh 11.25
10
9.74
Jharkhand 3.61
J & K 1.59
0
Uttar pradesh
Punjab
Maharashtra
Andhra Pradesh
West Bengal
Karnataka
Madhya Pradesh
Rajasthan
Haryana
Orissa
Tamil Nadu
Kerala
Others
Gujarat
Bihar
Fig. 1 State-wise status of crop residue generation and extent of surplus (Note: Others include
states with crop residue generation of less than 0.5 million tonnes. Source: MNRE 2009)
0.0
1.5 0.2
India Punjab
1.2
13.0
6.0
2.0
3.0
70.0
97.1
cereals pulses sugarcane oilseeds fibres cereals pulses sugarcane oilseeds fibres
Fig. 2 Crop-wise residue generation (%)
uses. District-wise analysis indicated that in Punjab, the districts with residue
generation more than 30 LT comprise Sangrur (50.1 LT), Ludhiana (40.9 LT),
Bathinda (36.7 LT), Patiala (35.8 LT), Sri Muktsar Sahib (31.2 LT) and Ferozepur
(30.2 LT), mainly because of more residue generation from the cereal crops.
Similarly, the surplus residue generation was also on the higher side (more than
10 LT) for these districts being Sangrur (17.1 LT), Ludhiana (13.9 LT), Bathinda
(13.8 LT), Patiala (12.2 LT), Sri Muktsar Sahib (11.0 LT) and Ferozepur (10.3 LT).
Districts having surplus crop residue below 5 lakh tonnes include Fatehgarh Sahib
(4.5 LT), SAS Nagar (3.7 LT), SBS Nagar (1.9 LT), Rupnagar (2.8 LT) and
Pathankot (1.6 LT). These are depicted in Fig. 3.
Estimation of total crop residue generated:
X
n
CR ¼ ðAi Þ ðYi Þ ðCRRi Þ
i¼1
Where:
CR ¼ Total crop residue generated in the state
Ai ¼ Area under ‘ith’ crop
Yi ¼ Average yield of ‘ith’ crop
CRRi ¼ Crop-to-residue ratio of ‘ith’ crop (Chauhan 2012)
n ¼ Number of crops
Estimation of surplus crop residue:
X
n
CRs ¼ CRgðiÞ SF i
i¼1
Fig. 3 District-wise surplus crop residue generation in Punjab, 2018–2019 (Source: Authors’
calculations)
Where:
CRs ¼ Total crop residue surplus in the state
CRg(i) ¼ Gross crop residue potential of ‘ith’ crop
SFi ¼ Surplus residue fraction of ‘ith’ crop (Hiloidhari et al. 2014)
Status of Crop Residue Burning and Its Economic Impact
At national level, around 49.14 Mt. of crop residue is being burnt annually with a
larger share from paddy (48%), followed by wheat, maize and sugarcane being
24, 21 and 7%, respectively (FAO 2018). The rate of crop residue burning is
increasing significantly, and the quantum of crop residue burnt is increasing at the
rate of 0.07, 0.91, 0.34 and 0.12 Mt. per annum for maize, rice, sugarcane and wheat,
respectively (Kumar et al. 2019). India stands first in the world in terms of paddy
straw burning, accounting for around 26.89% of the total paddy residue burnt (ibid).
Further, as per estimates (NAAS 2017) among paddy growing North-Western states,
it has been observed that of the total production of paddy residue, around 85% is
burnt annually in Punjab.
Fig. 4 District-wise status of burning of paddy straw in Punjab, 2018–2019 (Source: Anonymous
2019b, 2019d)
District-wise data indicated higher percentage of crop residue burning to the

tune of 70–80% in the Ferozepur (73.7%) and Faridkot (70.2%) districts (Fig. 4). It
varied from 60% to 70% in Patiala and Moga and from 50% to 60%in Sangrur,
Barnala and Tarn Taran districts. For the rest of the districts, the crop residue burnt
was below 50% of the net sown area. Amritsar and Gurdaspur are traditional
basmati growing districts of the state, where harvesting is mostly done manually
and basmati straw is being utilized as fodder for animals. As a result, the surplus
residue is less, hence less burning (30–40%). SBS Nagar is the district where there
is least burning (<10%).
Open-field burning of crop residues is a human-initiated activity to prepare the
field for the next crop by removing leftover residues. Intensive paddy wheat crop
rotation does not allow on-field retention of crop residues for long periods,
therefore frequently open burnt (Kaur 2017) for quick field preparation for the
next crop. The paddy crop residue burnt in situ is a common management practice
in northwest (NW) India, viz. Punjab, Haryana as well as Uttar Pradesh, whereas,
in the rest of the country, it is used as cattle feed, thatching for houses in rural
areas, fuel for domestic cooking and industry, mulching material, composting,
power generation, biofuels, and in boilers for parboiling paddy (Singh et al. 2008:
Singh and Panigrahy 2011; and Roy and Kaur 2016). The mechanized harvesting
and threshing of rice using combine harvesters has further aggravated the prob-
lem (Saini et al. 2019). Combine harvesting machine appears to be the key reason
behind the problem because it only reaps the grains, leaving stalks or stubble
of around 40 cm, making straw management labour-intensive (Alexaki et al.
2019).
Residue burning lasts for more than 3 weeks every year, leaving a blanket of
smoke over most of the Indo-Gangetic Plain from west to east (Badarinath et al.
2009; Mishra and Shibata 2012). More than 60% of the population in Punjab live in
the rice-growing areas and are exposed to air pollution and related problems due to
burning of rice stubbles. Impacts of paddy straw burning may be divided into two
groups: the on-site impacts, which include the removal of a large portion of
the organic matter, nitrogen, phosphorus and loss of useful microflora and fauna,
and the off-site impacts, which are health-related, i.e. general air quality degradation
of the region resulting in aggravation of the respiratory disturbances like a cough,
asthma, bronchitis, eye and skin diseases. Estimates show that the monetary cost of
crop residue burning to Punjab’s farmers is around Rs 800–2000 crore every year in
terms of nutritional loss and Rs 500–1500 crore in the form of government subsidies
on nitrogen, phosphorus and potash fertilizers (Alexaki et al. 2019). In a study for
NW India, it was found that the private cost borne by the farmers which are
associated with paddy straw burning are about Rs 8953 per ha. Apart from this,
the social cost of paddy straw burning was estimated at Rs 3199 crore, being the
highest for Punjab (Rs 1804 crores) as shown in Table 2.
The different components of the costs are the loss of nutrients due to biomass
burning; cost of providing additional irrigation; cost of soil health deterioration;
biodiversity; loss of carbon credits (GHG emission); reduction in yield of the next
crop, which is also an opportunity cost of not following and taking advantages of the
alternative like Turbo Happy technology package which is around 200 kg of wheat;
and loss of opportunity of earning profit from sale of paddy straw for industrial use
or biomass production as shown in Fig. 5 (Source: Kumar et al. 2019).
In spite of these losses, the farmers opt for burning paddy straw for ease in
clearing fields for preparation of the next crop because of their perception that in situ
Table 2 Social cost of paddy straw burning in northwest India (Rs crore)
Particulars Punjab Haryana Western UP North West India
Loss of NPK 952 476 256 1684
Cost of additional irrigation 184 92 50 326
Cost of health 13 12 5 29
Loss due to reduction in yield 902 451 243 1596
Loss of carbon credit 279 139 75 494
Loss of soil biodiversity 13 7 4 23
Loss of employment 1040 520 280 1840
Losses avoideda 1579 789 425 2793
Net balance 1804 907 488 3199
a
By ensuring timely sowing of wheat (Source: Kumar et al. 2019)
Fig. 5 Ecosystem services of agro-ecosystem and crop residue burning
burning is helpful to have clean fields prior to initiating their land preparation for the
next crop by allowing the field to be vacated in little time. In contrast, incorporation,
collection and composting are alleged to be labour-intensive as well as cost-intensive
(Singh and Sidhu 2014).
Status of Paddy Residue Management in Punjab
A large amount of crop residue is not being economically exploited and treated as
waste only. Crop residues have numerous competing uses that have made crop
residue a precious commodity and must never be considered as a waste (Lal
Fig. 6 Different crop residue management options for paddy straw
2004). The crop residues can be subject to on-farm and off-farm uses. Among
on-farm uses, the residue may be retained on surface (partial/complete), incorpo-
rated, burnt in situ or removed (Fig. 6).
During 2018–2019, about 51.7% of the total area under paddy crop in the state
was managed (kept free from burning) using different straw management practices
(Government of India 2019). Out of the total paddy area managed, mulching by the
use of Turbo Happy Seeder (HS) and rotary slasher/shrub master was performed on
about 39.7% area followed by incorporation of paddy straw using paddy straw
chopper, rotavator, reversible mould board and harrow mulching on about 29.5%
area, while on another 30.8% paddy area, the paddy straw was collected and
removed manually and with the help of balers for further use in paper factories,
brick kilns, etc. (Table 3).
Among districts, the area under mulching varied from 0.2% to 98%. It was
98% in Fatehgarh Sahib and 92% in Hoshiarpur. On the other side, it was
negligible in Pathankot, wherein 99.8% area of the crop residue was removed
from the field. The practice of removing the straw from field was also predom-
inant in SAS Nagar (75%), Sri Muktsar Sahib (60%), Gurdaspur (56%) and
Fazilka (54%), and the area under incorporation varied from less than 10% in
these districts.
The method of incorporation of paddy straw in the field was mainly followed
in the districts Sangrur (53%), Bathinda (48%), Faridkot (43%), Patiala (43%)
and Tarn Taran (42%). In the state, a total of 28,609 machines for crop residue
management were distributed during 2018–2019, which comprise 12,082
machines to the farmers on individual ownership basis and the rest through
3950 custom hiring centres including Primary Agricultural Credit Societies
31
Table 3 District-wise area under paddy residue management using different in situ crop residue management techniques in Punjab, 2018–2019
Area managed by different techniques (%
to the total paddy area managed) Paddy area managed (% to total area No. of machines Machines supplied (per
District Mulchinga Removalb Incorporationc under paddy) supplied 1000 ha of NSA)
Amritsar 63.10 28.57 8.33 23.33 1171 5.35
Barnala 85.00 8.91 6.09 50.62 1653 13.33
Bathinda 26.96 24.62 48.42 51.08 1895 6.47
Faridkot 28.75 28.66 42.59 9.81 1288 10.14
Fatehgarh 98.20 1.80 – 63.69 1244 12.20
Sahib
Fazilka 30.13 54.32 15.55 35.34 733 2.90
Ferozepur 59.71 39.85 0.45 26.47 1375 6.31
Gurdaspur 38.74 55.57 5.69 48.02 1006 4.81
Hoshiarpur 92.28 7.72 – 29.67 555 2.72
Jalandhar 33.61 22.20 44.20 39.06 1781 7.21
Kapurthala 58.25 23.62 18.12 78.56 1331 10.01
Ludhiana 46.79 15.24 37.97 42.25 2613 8.74
Mansa 35.00 46.67 18.33 60.15 1766 9.60
Turning Crop Waste into Wealth-Sustainable and Economical Solutions
Moga 42.87 24.37 32.75 63.08 1785 9.20

Pathankot 0.21 99.79 – 40.09 110 2.29
(continued)
797
798
Table 3 (continued)
Area managed by different techniques (%
to the total paddy area managed) Paddy area managed (% to total area No. of machines Machines supplied (per
District Mulchinga Removalb Incorporationc under paddy) supplied 1000 ha of NSA)
Patiala 9.19 47.38 43.43 76.75 1641 6.36
Rupnagar NA NA NA 0.00 348 4.30
SAS Nagar 16.03 74.83 9.14 57.16 379 4.92
SBS Nagar 71.43 28.57 0.00 11.67 519 5.41
Sangrur 30.33 17.15 52.52 88.80 2493 7.91
Sri Muktsar 39.94 60.06 – 55.67 1244 5.50
Sahib
Tarn Taran 33.16 25.04 41.81 71.83 1679 7.70
Punjab 39.73 30.82 29.45 51.65 28,609 6.94
NSA net sown area, NA not available
a
Includes SMS, Happy Seeder and rotary slasher/shrub master; bIncludes baler/zero till drill; cIncludes paddy straw chopper/mulcher, reversible MB plough and
rotavator. Source: Anonymous (2019d)
R. Sangeet and R. Kumar
(PACSs) and farmer groups. On an average, seven residue management machines

were available in the state for each thousand hectare of net sown area. The
maximum number of machines (13) was available in Barnala district followed
by Fatehgarh Sahib (12), Faridkot (10) and Kapurthala (10), being less than
10 for all other districts.
Gainful Crop Residue Management Options
The huge amount of agricultural residue burnt is virtually a loss to its potential use
for different purposes. There are several options which are available to farmers for
the gainful management of crop residues such as use as livestock feed, mushroom
cultivation, incorporation, surface retention and mulching and removing the straw.
Farmers may opt for any of these different straw management practices as per the
situation.
Mulching/Retention of Residue on Soil Surface
Crop residue returned to the soil as mulch increases crop yields (Xu et al. 2019)
and water-use efficiency relative to crops grown without it (Lu 2020). Mulching
with crop residues increases the least soil temperature in winter through reducing
upward heat flux from soil and declines soil temperature during summer due to
shading effect. Mulching with crop residues plays a significant role in the better-
ment of soil acidity by releasing bases during the decomposition of crop residues
with higher C:N ratio and soil alkalinity through application of residues from lower
C:N crops such as legumes, oilseeds and pulses (Pathak et al. 2011). Crop residues,
particularly from wheat and paddy crops, have a wide C:N ratio of 70:1–100:1, and
about 30–40% of carbon (C) supplemented through crop residues becomes
decomposed in about 2 months (Beri et al. 1992). Returning crop residue to the
soil can avoid the greenhouse gas emissions caused by burning it (Li et al. 2018)
while improving the soil organic matter content, soil physical properties, water-use
efficiency, soil structural stability, soil expansion and capacity expansion, as well
as reducing soil bulk density (Li et al. 2019; Reichel et al. 2018). Resource
conservation technology (RCTs)-based farm machinery provides a better promise
in managing paddy residues for improving soil health and productivity, reducing
pollution and thus achieving sustainable agriculture (Gupta 2012; Palma et al.
2014; Derpsch and Friedrich 2010). One of such technology, Turbo Happy Seeder,
which is a tractor mounted machine developed by Punjab Agricultural University
(PAU), Ludhiana, has represented a burst for paddy-wheat crop rotation in north-
west India. It cuts and lifts rice straw and sow wheat into the bare soil and deposits
the straw over the sown area as mulch. It therefore allows farmers to sow wheat
immediately after their rice harvest without the need to burn any rice residue for
land preparation. The wheat crop can be sown in standing stubbles of rice, which
avoids the preparatory tillage of the field, and the crop can be sown 7–10 days
No. of Happy Seeders Happy seeder sown wheat area (ha)
11377
500000
15000
400000
10000 300000
1640
5000 200000
640
620
614
340
275
251
91
60
11
100000
0
0
Fig. 7 Adoption of Happy Seeder by Punjab farmers over time
earlier as compared to the traditional method of sowing. By using this technology,

the input cost can be saved, leading to higher net returns (Roy and Kaur 2016)
along with the improvement in the physical properties over longer period of time
on the normal sown wheat (Dhillon 2016). The total energy use for crop establish-
ment using the Happy Seeder technology is only up to 15% of that used for
conventional sown wheat (Lohan et al. 2017). Continuous recycling of residues
using Happy Seeder for over 3–4 years results in producing the same yield with
30–40 kg per ha less nitrogen use and hence significantly higher (10–15%)
nutrient-use efficiency (Jat 2017; Singh et al. 2009).
With time, the use of Happy Seeder for wheat sowing has increased in Punjab as
the number of Happy Seeders increased from mere 11 in 2008 to 1640 in 2017 and
to about 7 times in 2018 (11377) due to provision of subsidy by the state
government to discourage paddy straw burning. As a result, wheat area under
this technology has increased from 280 ha in 2008 to 25,600 ha in 2017 and
abruptly increased to 4.74 lakh ha in 2018 forming about 13% of the total state area
under wheat (Fig. 7; Source: Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare,
Punjab).
For efficient sowing of wheat using Happy Seeder, the loose paddy residue
needs to be uniformly spread across the field, but the traditional combine har-
vesters put the loose residues in narrow swath. Manual spreading of residues is a
cumbersome, uneconomical, inefficient and laborious process, compounded by the
acute shortage of labour. Therefore, a straw management system, Super SMS, has
been developed and commercialized by PAU, Ludhiana, in which, along with
harvesting of paddy, concurrent sowing of wheat takes place, which saves time,
energy and one irrigation by utilizing the residual moisture of rice fields. Most
importantly, it dispenses the need for crop residue burning. It increases the yield of
wheat by 2–4% compared to conventional till wheat along with savings in the cost
of labour, fuel and chemicals (Sidhu et al. 2015). The combination of zero tillage
and residue retention in wheat increases yields, resource-use efficiencies and soil
and water quality while decreasing production costs, relative to conventional
tillage (Singh et al. 2018).
This huge amount of burnt crop residue is virtually a loss of opportunity to its
potential use for different purposes such as composite-making and bioenergy
generation. This huge amount of burnt crop residue is virtually a loss of opportunity
to its potential use for different purposes such as composite-making and bioenergy
generation.
In situ Incorporation of Crop Residue in the Soil
Residue incorporation in the soil has several positive impacts on soil health
characteristics such as pH, organic carbon, infiltration rate and water-holding
capacity (Gupta et al. 2004; Kumar et al. 2015). The incorporation of surplus
crop residue recycling can cumulatively accumulate to the reduction of fertilizer
consumption. A 10-year continuous residue incorporation with no till resulted in
25% higher soil organic carbon compared to conventional tillage and 17% greater
with minimum tillage than conventional tillage (Sombrero and Benito 2010). Thus,
crop residues play an important role in the recycling of nutrients in addition to the
role of chemical fertilizers in crop production; however, their continuous removal
and burning can lead to net losses of nutrients, which ultimately would lead to
higher nutrient input cost in the short term and reduction in soil quality and
productivity in the long term. A field study conducted to evaluate the effects of
crop residue in rice-wheat (RWCS) and rice-wheat-mungbean cropping systems
(RWMCS) revealed that after 2 years of continuous addition of residue in both
systems, 30.2 and 37.5 tonnes per ha of total dry matter was added in RWCS and
RWMCS, respectively (Davari et al. 2012). This incorporation of residue accounts
for 188.9 kg N per ha, 20.4 kg P2O5per ha and 445.5 kg K2Oper ha to soil after
2 years, which indicates the potential of crop residue to contribute for soil fertility
and ultimately to sustainability.
Comparative assessment between fertilizer consumption to the tune of 1819
thousand tonnes (tt) and the nutrient (NPK) potential of surplus paddy crop
wastes (361.38 tt) in Punjab indicated that it is capable of meeting about 20%
of the total nutrient requirement of the state from the consumption of chemical
fertilizers and may save about 32% of the government money spent as subsidy on
chemical fertilizers (Table 4). It is important to mention that of the total
composted crop waste, only 30–40% of the composted nutrients are released
during the first year of application and 1674.45 tt requirement of nutrient will still
exist. However, in economic terms, recycling of surplus residues could save
about Rs 741 crore government money that has been spent for chemical fertilizer
application. In another study for Punjab, overall value of recycled nutrients by
mulching was found to be Rs 1 crore for 25 tt paddy straw recycled during
2018, which ultimately resulted into 29% savings on total fertilizer input
cost for the rice-wheat cropping system along with key co-benefit of near
elimination of weeds in the wheat crop and associated weedicide cost as
high as Rs 2400–3200 per acre, avoided requirement of pre-sowing irrigation
associated with crop residue burning practices and, subsequently, total
water savings of about 2.5 billion litres in the intervened area (Sharma et al.
2019).
802
Table 4 District-wise nutrient budget of paddy crop waste and its savings, 2018–2019
Nutrient potential of surplus paddy Consumption of chemical Expenses on Requirement of chemical Potential
crop residue (000 tonnes) fertilizers (NPK) chemical fertilizers fertilizers (NPK) after saving
District N P K Total (000 tonnes) (Rs crore) compostinga (000 tonnes) (Rs crore)
Amritsar 12.58 2.94 0.47 15.99 95 122.08 88.60 32.8
Barnala 10.93 2.56 0.40 13.89 56 71.96 50.44 28.5
Bathinda 21.01 4.92 0.78 26.71 111 142.64 100.32 54.8
Faridkot 9.65 2.26 0.36 12.26 51 65.54 46.09 25.2
Fatehgarh 7.15 1.67 0.26 9.08 45 57.83 41.37 18.6
Sahib
Fazilka 13.57 3.18 0.50 17.25 92 118.22 85.10 35.4
Ferozepur 16.27 3.81 0.60 20.68 126 161.91 117.73 42.4
Gurdaspur 14.13 3.31 0.52 17.96 89 114.37 81.81 36.9
Hoshiarpur 9.95 2.33 0.37 12.65 68 87.38 62.94 26.0
Jalandhar 14.69 3.44 0.54 18.67 88 113.08 80.53 38.3
Kapurthala 9.61 2.25 0.36 12.21 56 71.96 51.11 25.1
Ludhiana 22.16 5.19 0.82 28.17 178 228.73 166.73 57.8
Mansa 13.47 3.15 0.50 17.12 71 91.24 64.15 35.1
Moga 15.71 3.68 0.58 19.97 94 120.79 86.01 41.0
Pathankot 2.43 0.57 0.09 3.08 29 37.27 27.77 6.3
Patiala 19.21 4.50 0.71 24.41 74 95.09 64.23 50.1
Rupnagar 4.40 1.03 0.16 5.60 98 125.93 95.76 11.5
SAS Nagar 5.80 1.36 0.21 7.37 27 34.70 24.05 15.1
R. Sangeet and R. Kumar
31
SBS Nagar 2.94 0.69 0.11 3.74 81 104.09 79.50 7.7

Sangrur 27.07 6.34 1.00 34.41 115 147.78 101.23 70.6
Sri 17.08 4.00 0.63 21.71 97 124.65 88.32 44.5
Muktsar
Sahib
Tarn Taran 14.49 3.39 0.54 18.42 78 100.23 70.63 37.8
Punjab 284.30 66.55 10.53 361.38 1819 2337.42 1674.45 741.4
Source: Statistical Abstract of Punjab, 2019 and authors’ calculations
a
Assuming that 40% of the composted nutrients are released during the first year of application
Turning Crop Waste into Wealth-Sustainable and Economical Solutions
803
Estimation of Nutrient Potential of Surplus Paddy Residue

Tapable potential of nutrients (N PK) from paddy crop residue was worked out as
under:
X
n
NP ¼ fðSRi N Þ þ ðSRi PÞ þ ðSRi K Þg
i¼1
Where:
NP ¼ Cumulative nutrient potential in the state (tonnes)
SRi ¼ Surplus residue of paddy crop in ‘ith’ district (tonnes)
N ¼ Nitrogen content (%)
P ¼ Phosphorus content (%)
K ¼ Potassium content (%)
The availability of N, P2O5 and K2O nutrients for each ton of paddy residue
generated was valued at 0.0061 ton, 0.0018 ton and 0.0138 ton (Tandon 1997).
District-wise analysis indicated that the actual fertilizer consumption was more
than 92 tt for nine districts comprising Ludhiana (178 tt), Ferozepur (126 tt), Sangrur
(115 tt), Bathinda (111 tt), Rupnagar (98 tt), Sri Muktsar Sahib (97 tt), Amritsar
(95 tt), Moga (94 tt) and Fazilka (92 tt). On the other hand, the potential nutrient
availability from the surplus was the highest for Sangrur (34.41 tt), followed by
Ludhiana (28.17 tt), Bathinda (26.71 tt), Patiala (24.41 tt), Sri Muktsar Sahib (21.71
tt), Firozpur (20.68 tt) and Moga (19.97 tt). For the other five districts, it varied from
17 to 19 tt, i.e. Jalandhar (18.67 tt), Tarn Taran (18.42 tt), Gurdaspur (17.96 tt),
Fazilka (17.25 tt) and Mansa (17.12 tt), while it was below 17 tt for the rest of the
districts.
The projection depicts a promising prospect as the surplus crop waste incorpora-
tion/recycling can cumulatively contribute to reduction in fertilizer consumption of
the state.
Collection/Removal of Crop Residue for Off-Farm Uses
Straw collection in the field is a major bottleneck in the whole straw management
chain; hence, the use of balers for compressed bundles of paddy straw into bales may
be encouraged for the collection of straw from the field as the time and manpower for
collection of straw is very limited during this period. In some parts of northwest
India, straw reapers are in practice to collect the straw from the field, and it is gaining
popularity in wheat straw collection instead of paddy because of its economical use
for feeding animals. In the case of rice crop, straw balers provide a solution for straw
management in an environmental friendly way.
• Biogas production: Recent developments in technology have opened the possi-

bility of using rice straw and other crop residues for biogas generation in an
integrated approach. A biogas plant combined with commercial farms and pro-
cessing units set up in Fazilka, Punjab, as a novel initiative towards green energy
generates biogas using rice straw through biomethanation technology. It produces

around 4000 m3 of biogas from 10 tonnes of agricultural residue. In another
biogas enterprise, a 12 MW rice-straw power plant consuming 120,000 tonnes of
stubble collected from nearly 15,000 farmers (Sood 2015) generated around
700,000 jobs for the farming population. The secondary users, such as biogas
plants, offered farmers Rs 600–Rs 1600 per tonne of straw. As a result of some of
these measures implemented by the government agencies and private sectors,
crop burning has been reduced but not completely stopped.
• Mushroom production: The use of crop residues in mushroom production
represents a valuable conversion of inedible crop residues into valuable food,
which, despite their high moisture content, has two to three times as much protein
as common vegetables and an amino acid composition similar to that of milk or
meat (Harikrishna 2013). Paddy straw is the key ingredient to be utilized as a raw
matter for mushroom culture in Punjab, but in general, farmers are using wheat
straw as raw material. Paddy straw though does not provide good physical
structure to compost but gives good result when mixed with wheat straw in
equal quantities (Rattan 2013). Mushroom cultivation is a profitable agri-business
endeavour that produces food from paddy and wheat straw while facilitating the
proper disposal of this by-product in an environmentally friendly manner. Using
paddy straw for mushroom production can yield about 5–10% of mushroom
products (50–100 kg of mushroom per tonne of dried straw) (Zhang et al. 2002;
Ngo 2011).
• Animal bedding and compost: For preparing compost, crop residues are used
as animal bedding and then heaped in dung pits. It has been found that the use
of paddy straw bedding during winter helps in improving the quality and
quantity of milk as it contributed to animals’ comfort, udder health and leg
health. Paddy straw bedding helped the animals keep themselves warm and
maintain reasonable rates of heat loss from the body. In the animal shed, each
kilogram of straw absorbs about 2–3 kg of urine, which enriches it with N. The
residues of paddy crop from 1 hectare land on composting give about 3 tonnes
of manure as rich in nutrients as farmyard manure (FYM), which, when
fortified with P using indigenous source of low-grade rock phosphate, makes
it value-added compost with 1.5% N, 2.3% P2O5 and 2.5% K2O (Behera
2018).
• Biochar production: It is a carbon-rich product used as soil amendment to
improve soil productivity, carbon storage and filtration of percolating soil water
Reduction in emissions associated with using biochar as soil amendment is higher
than the fossil fuel offset in its use as fuel (Gaunt and Lehmann 2008). It is the
single-most cost-effective measure farmers could undertake by converting crop
residue into biochar at the farm (prali-char). It enriches the soil with nutrients,
thereby increasing farmers’ productivity and income. Pyrolysis to convert crop
residues into biochar using the energy from biogas production from agricultural
wastes can have multiple environmental and economic benefits. It offers not only
an attractive solution for reducing air pollution from open burning of crop
residues but also a favourable agriculture-sustainable model for reutilizing
agricultural wastes. Biochar is readily available in cities, but it still needs to be

promoted as an integral part of the rural economy.
• As livestock feed: The farmers in the Western regions of IGP do not generally
consider paddy straw as a suitable animal feed due to the perceived silica
content and fear of reduced milk yield (Sidhu et al. 1998). However, in the
eastern regions of India, paddy straw is intensively used as livestock feed
(Erenstein 2011). Of the parts of paddy straw, the stems are more digestible as
they have lower silica content (Drake et al. 2002) compared to the leaves,
which have higher silica content and are considered poor feed for animals
(Singh and Sidhu 2014). Therefore, the paddy crop should be cut as close to
the ground as possible if the straw is to be fed to livestock. The basmati paddy
straw is fed to animals mixed with green fodder only in dire scarcity of fodder
availability (Kumar et al. 2013). Wheat straw is valuable and is intensively
collected, subsequently stored and used round the year as feed with the sale of
surpluses. Buffalo are stall-fed throughout the year on a basal diet consisting
primarily of hewed wheat straw ‘bhusa’. About 75% of wheat straw is utilized
as fodder for animals and chopped in small pieces with the help of special
cutting machine though this requires additional operation and investment to
complete the nutritional requirements of animals. The nutritional value of
paddy straw can be upgraded by different methods like processing and
enriching with urea and molasses and supplementing with green fodders
(leguminous/non-leguminous).
• Other miscellaneous uses: Paddy straw can also be used in the fabrication of
paper, pulp board, cushioning material in the packaging of manufactured goods
and floor tiles.
Promotion of Short-Duration Rice Varieties for Promoting Better

Straw Management
Paddy straw burning is currently practiced on a large scale in Punjab to clear the
fields for Rabi crop sowing, i.e. mainly wheat and potato, because the time window
available between the harvesting of the paddy crop (20 September to 15 November,
depending upon the varieties of paddy) and the sowing of next crop is very short
(2–3 weeks). Different paddy varieties have different maturing periods. The short
duration/early maturing varieties allow a longer time period for sowing of wheat and
other Rabi crops. The biggest advantage of early maturing varieties of paddy is that
with adoption of Happy Seeder for sowing of wheat, farmers would be able to sow
wheat before fifth November, the ideal sowing time for wheat, and would be able to
reap higher production with lower cost, since plantation at the optimal time will
reduce irrigation demand and also protect wheat crop from high temperatures during
March/April (Sidhu et al. 2015; Chaudhary et al. 2019). The early maturing varieties
therefore should be promoted in Punjab. Since the development of short-duration
(SD) varieties and extension efforts for their adoption, the area under these SD
varieties is on the rise in Punjab during the last few years (Fig. 8; Source: Department
(% of paddy area)
80.0
70.0
73.9
68.3
60.0
61.6
50.0
Per cent
40.0
38.7
30.0
20.0 29.1
26.7
26.0
10.0
0.0
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
Year
Fig. 8 Area under short-duration varieties of paddy in Punjab
(% of paddy area)
74.7 Amritsar
Moga 80 Kaputhala
Barnala
64.8 70 Gurdaspur
Faridkot 60
63.8 SAS Nagar
50
40
Ludhiana Fazilka
51.3 30
20
0.0
0.0
0.8
Sangrur 10 1.7 Rupnagar
42.1 3.9
0 4.3
6.6
Bathinda 41.6 7.2 Tarn Taran
8.2
38.7 9.1
9.8
Mansa 33.1 19.8
19.415.9 SBS Nagar
Sri Muktsar Sahib Pathankot
Ferozepur Hoshiarpur
Fatehgarh Sahib Jalandhar
Patiala
Fig. 9 District-wise area under long-duration paddy varieties, 2018–2019
of Economics and Sociology, PAU, Ludhiana). It increased about three times from
about 27% during 2012 to about 74% in 2018.
Though the SD varieties have been well adopted by the farmers in the state, in the
districts of Moga, Barnala, Faridkot, Ludhiana, Sangrur, Bathinda and Mansa, the
adoption is slow, and sizable area is under long-duration (LD) varieties, i.e. 75%,
65%, 64%, 51%, 42%, 42% and 39%, respectively (Fig. 9; Source: Department of
Economics and Sociology, PAU, Ludhiana). About 26% of the paddy area in the
state is still occupied by LD paddy varieties because of farmers’ perceptions about

higher yield and thus more profitability from these. Farmers tend to resort to burning
the residue of LD varieties, owing to shorter window availability for sowing of the
next crop as well as higher residue load of these varieties.
Power Generation
Crop biomass can also be efficiently utilized for power generation. The total
potential for renewable power generation in the country was estimated at
1096081 MW, which includes the potential of solar power (68.33%) followed by
wind power (27.58%), small hydropower (1.80%) and total biomass power (2.06%)
during 2018 (Table 5).
Estimation of Bioenergy Potential
X
n
E¼ CRsðiÞ HV i
i¼1
Where:
E ¼ Bioenergy potential of surplus crop residue in the state
CRs(i) ¼ Crop residue surplus of ‘ith’ crop in the state
HVi ¼ Heating value of ‘ith’ crop
For Punjab, the potential for renewable power generation was 6768 MW,
which formed only about 0.62% of the total potential at the national level.
Among the states, Punjab has the highest crop residue bioenergy potential of
about 3472 MW (51.3% of its total energy potential), while installed biomass
capacity for Punjab (317 MW) forms only 9% share of the total biomass potential
Table 5 Power potential and installed capacity for renewable energy production
Power potential (MW) Installed capacity (MW)
Category Punjab India Punjab India
Wind power – 302,251 (27.58) – 34986.35 (47.70)
@ 100 m
Small 441 (6.52) 19,749 (1.80) 173.55 (12.35) 4506.95 (6.14)
hydropower
Biomass power 3472 (51.30) 22,536 (2.06) 317.10 (22.56) 9407.61 (12.83)
and cogeneration
bagasse
Waste to energy 45 (0.66) 2554 (0.23) 9.25 (0.66) 138.3 (0.19)
Solar energy 2810 (41.52) 748,990 (68.33) 905.62 (64.43) 24312.6 (33.15)
Total estimated 6768 (100.0) 1,096,081 (100.0) 1405.52 (100.0) 73351.81 (100.0)
reserves
Figures in parentheses are percentages to their respective total estimated reserves (Source: Anon-
ymous 2019e)
Fig. 10 District-wise bioenergy potential from surplus crop residue in Punjab, 2018–2019
and about 23% of the total power generating capacity in the state, indicating a
need to take advantage of this opportunity by converting this huge amount of
waste into wealth.
It has been estimated that in Punjab, there exists a potential to generate about
298,604 MJ of bioenergy annually from the surplus crop residue, i.e. to the extent
of 28,652 J per capita per annum. District-wise analysis (Fig. 10) indicated that
Sangrur has the highest potential of bioenergy generation, i.e. 27.9 1015 J,
followed by Bathinda (22.9 1015 J) and Ludhiana (22.7 1015 J), while it lied
between 15 and 20 1015 J for Patiala (19.9 1015 J), Sri Muktsar Sahib
(18.1 1015 J), Firozpur (16.7 1015 J), Moga (16.1 1015 J), Jalandhar
(15.3 1015 J) and Gurdaspur (15 1015 J). For the rest of the districts, it lied
between 5 and 15 1015 J except Rupnagar (4.7 1015 J), SBS Nagar
(3.2 1015 J) and Pathankot (2.6 1015 J). This bioenergy potential can be
efficiently utilized for saving scarce resources like fossil fuels to some extent.
Biomass energy, from crop residues available in plenty in the state, can be used as
substitute for these fossil fuels in the production of energy. But there are some
issues with power generation from biomass as it requires a lot of new infrastruc-
ture. Besides, baled straw is difficult to handle and bulky to transport and store.
Currently, operational and planned projects in Punjab cumulatively utilize just
0.94 million tonnes of paddy straw against huge production. Punjab will have to
expedite the construction of such plants in progress and plan new ones.
Policy Initiatives Taken Up by the Government for Crop Residue

Management
The government has taken several steps for the management of crop residue in the
country, some of which are:
• National Policy for Management of Crop Residue (NPMCR 2014) has been
developed with the objectives to promote the technologies for optimum utiliza-
tion and in situ management of crop residue, to prevent loss of valuable soil
nutrients and diversify the uses of crop residue in industrial applications; to
develop and promote appropriate crop machinery in farming practices; to provide
discounts and incentives for purchase of mechanized sowing machinery such as
the Happy Seeder, Turbo Seeder, shredder and baling machines; to use satellite-
based remote sensing technologies to monitor crop residue management with the
National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) and the Central Pollution Control
Board (CPCB); to support financially through multidisciplinary approach and
fund mobilization in various ministries for innovative ideas and project proposals
to accomplish these.
• In an effort to identify and locate the exact crop burning locations, the Punjab
Pollution Control Board (PPCB) and the Environmental Prevention and Control
Authority (EPCA) used remote sensing techniques and aerial surveillance in
2015. During the same year, the crop burning problem became severe and gained
national and international attention after the NASA alert and subsequent alarming
rise of air pollution levels in the city of Delhi. As a consequence, Punjab imposed
fines between Rs 2500 and Rs 15,000 on farmers indulging in crop burning. The
National Green Tribunal laid down stringent directives to the states to curb crop
burning through recycling initiatives and spreading proper awareness among the
people.
• In pursuance to the Budget 2018 announcement regarding a special scheme to
support the efforts of the governments of Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and the
NCT of Delhi to address air pollution and to subsidize machinery required for in
situ management of crop residue, a new central sector scheme on the promotion of
agricultural mechanization for in situ management of crop residue for the period
from 2018–2019 to 2019–2020 was started, and funds of Rs 269.38 crore were
released for Punjab during May, 2018. The state has distributed 12,082 machines
to the farmers on individual ownership basis against target of 8309 (145%
achievement) and 4466 to custom hiring centres against target of 5288 (85%
achievement) during 2018–2019 with the area managed by different in situ crop
residue management machineries provided during 2018–2019, being
1,602,822 ha. The use of CRM machinery, especially Happy Seeder which is
used for sowing wheat, is a major indicator of success of the new schemes on the
management of paddy straw.
• Different information, education and communication (IEC) activities were
conducted in the state under the scheme which included farmers’ trainings,
demonstrations, awareness camps, kisan melas, campaigns, etc. along with
95 awards for village/Gram Panchayat for achieving zero stubble burning. In

2017, Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) of Punjab converted 25 villages as zero
stubble burning villages, whereas in 2018, the number of these villages increased
to 76.
• The incidents of crop burning have come down significantly. The burning events
detected were 102,379, 67,079 and 59,695 in the years 2016, 2017 and 2018,
respectively. About 11% and 42% reduction in number of burning events were
observed in 2018 as compared to that in 2017 and 2016, respectively, in the
Punjab state.
• For 20 major paddy-growing districts in Punjab, remote sensing estimated 2.96
Mha planted, out of which 1.51 Mha was burnt in 2018. Prior to 2018–2019, 19.7
Mt. of paddy straw was unmanaged in the state. During 2018, 10.21 Mt. (50.6%
of total paddy straw generation) was being put to different uses, i.e. 1Mt in seven
biomass-based projects of capacity 62.5 MW, 0.1 Mt. used in paper/cardboard
mills, 2.70 Mt. paddy residue from 5 lakh hectare of basmati being utilized as
animal fodder and other usages and 6.41 Mt. managed through different available
straw management systems including machinery/equipment.
Conclusion
The mechanization in farming practices and the use of agrochemicals have contrib-
uted to the exponential increase of agricultural production as well as agricultural
waste. The sustainable management of agricultural waste has become a great
challenge, especially for developing countries such as India with an increasing
population, production rates and economic growth. On an average, 500 Mt. of
crop residue is generated yearly in India with a huge surplus of 140 Mt., which is
mostly burnt each year, mainly in the northern states such as Punjab, Haryana and
Uttar Pradesh. The Indian Government has attempted many interventions to curtail
the amount of crop residue burning through different campaigns. However, there is
little evidence in the published literature to support the effective control of the
situation, most likely due to the lack of education, awareness programs and stake-
holder engagement in the implementation of policies and initiatives. Any solutions
involving long-haul transportation, expensive technology or high capital investment
are less likely to succeed. In this context, sustainable solutions that involve methods
to feed the nutrients in the crop residue back into the same crop lands have better
promise to be successful. Relatively overlooked bio-based products such as biogas,
biochar and in situ management with mechanical intensification are recognized as
viable options for crop waste utilization. Large-scale harnessing of methane gas from
the waste, through biogas plants, should be practiced. Guidelines could be formu-
lated for composting in rural areas and enforced on all farmers through farmer
associations. Imposing a ban on crop residue burning may not be fruitful unless
growers are enlightened with its negative impact on health, crop biodiversity, micro-
and macro-environment, etc. Multi-pronged strategy needs to be adopted to drive the
behavioural change in farmers’ community for extracting more value out of the farm
waste, and the key recommendations related to this aspect are:
• Financial support: Shared infrastructure economy has a potential to provide the

required machinery at affordable cost; however, the current capacities are not
adequate to cater all farmers from different farm categories. NITI Ayog (2018) in
its report ‘action plan for biomass management’ also advocated that to curb paddy
straw burning, it would be best to incentivize the farmers by providing financial
support for not burning through direct benefit transfer to farmers’ account.
• Upscaling of technologies with service-based shared economy and process-
based incentives: Medium- and long-term actions required to achieve zero
burning include upscaling of existing technologies. Shared infrastructure would
enable stubble shaving during combine harvesting, and in situ mulching of paddy
straw would bring long-term benefits to farmers in terms of soil management
(by nutrient conservation and preventing soil erosion) and efficient use of fertil-
izers and water. A shared economy could be created to cater the demand of all the
farmers affordably for required machinery. It was estimated that Rs 214–356
crores will be required in Punjab alone, in the form of 50% capital subsidies in
order to enable a shared economy to provide affordable services to farmers.
• Rewarding and monitoring at local level: To monitor farm burning, a strength-
ened monitoring mechanism with advanced remote sensing data and local mon-
itoring by BDOs is suggested. Financial rewards to village panchayats may be
specified in order to catalyse the vision of zero burning in rural areas, with this
amount being subject to zero burning incidences in the village. Regulatory
support towards ex situ treatment is equally desirable as in situ management
thermal power plants may use these pellets/briquettes of crop waste for co-firing
along with coal where it is possible to replace 5–10% of daily coal requirement
with paddy straw-based pellets/briquettes. One of the barriers for independent
power producers to set up the bio-power plants is the capacity limitation of
10 MW for availing Power Finance Corporation (PFC) and Indian Renewable
Energy Development Agency (IREDA) loans. It is recommended that this limit
be removed for paddy straw to bio-power plants in order to facilitate more players
in the market. The Government of India has directed the National Thermal Power
Corporation (NTPC) to mix crop residue pellets (nearly 10%) with coal for power
generation. This can help the farmers with a monetary return of approximately Rs
5500 per tonne of crop residue. These lucrative measures are yet to be in action
and it can be profitably exploited by the farmers.
• Generating awareness: Major barrier to proliferation of non-burning practices
among farmers is their wrong perception about these practices. Individual small
farmers do not have the capacity to establish a long-lasting solution. The local
government, the municipality or the farmers’ association should fill this void and
launch community programs to assist such as equipment rentals, waste transpor-
tation and possible linking of waste to where it can be needed as raw materials.
Educating the farming community and other related stakeholders is crucially
important to bring them out of generational thinking that they are used to waste
management being not their responsibility. Awareness should be generated about

the advantage of reduced agrochemical cost due to the utilization of compost and
the extra revenue they can receive through other types of recovery programs such
as energy production, and to disseminate this, knowledge extension education
should be encouraged among growers and producers. Several extension publica-
tions on crop residue management like pamphlets, operational manual of machin-
ery, inventory of Happy Seeder, etc. need to be published and provided to the
farmers, machine operators and KVKs, and several activities carried out under
crop residue management should be documented and published in Hindi and local
language for distribution.
Thus, three key issues related to crop residue management that need to be taken
into consideration for any future interventions are (1) a self-running mechanism,
rather than isolated ones, (2) empowerment of stakeholders and (3) avoiding secto-
rial thinking of the curtailing of the crop residue burning issues only to agricultural
sector and energy, even though it touches upon many other sectors, such as envi-
ronment, economy, social aspects and education. This sectorial thinking can be
overcome by embracing nexus thinking, which promotes a higher-level integration
that goes beyond the disciplinary boundaries.
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Sustainable and Economical Approaches
in Utilizing Agricultural Solid Waste 32
for Bioethanol Production
Vikas Chandra Gupta, Meenu Singh, Shiv Prasad, and

Bhartendu Nath Mishra
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 818
Issue of Open-Field Burning of ASW as a Major Sustainability Concern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 820
Biofuel Policy in India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 821
Salient Features of NPB-2018 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 821
Agricultural Solid Waste as a Potential Feedstock for Bioethanol Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 824
Process of Bioethanol Production from Agricultural Solid Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 825
Pretreatment Technology of Lignocellulosic Biomass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 826
The novel Ethanol Fermentation Process for Hydrolyzed Agricultural Solid Waste . . . . . . 835
Sustainable Framework and Process Economics of Bioethanol Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 838
Sustainability Principles for Biofuel Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 838
Sustainability Index of the Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 839
Lifecycle Assessment as a Sustainability Index Tool of Bioethanol Production . . . . . . . . . . . 839
Future Prospects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 840
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 841
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 841
Abstract
A major challenge in utilizing agricultural solid biomass waste for bioethanol
production is its complex structure due to the crystallinity of cellulose, hemi-
celluloses, and lignin constituents. The process of pretreatment and hydrolysis
V. C. Gupta (*) · M. Singh

Department of Biotechnology, IILM-College of Engineering and Technology, Greater Noida, UP,
India
e-mail: vikas.gupta@iilm.edu; Meenu.singh@iilm.edu
S. Prasad
Centre for Environment Science and Climate Resilient Agriculture, ICAR-Indian Agricultural
Research Institute, New Delhi, India
B. N. Mishra
Department of Biotechnology, Institute of Engineering and Technology, AKTU, Lucknow, UP,
India

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_40
818 V. C. Gupta et al.
helps to release the carbohydrate content from solid biomass. Various inhib-
itory molecules as by-products are also produced during the pretreatment
process, affecting the bioethanol fermentation efficiency of the microbial
system and major fermentable sugar loss in the hydrolysate adversely. Thus,
the economic sustainability of bioethanol production from solid agricultural
biomass is critically dependent on fermentable sugar concentration enrich-
ment and effective inhibitor separation generated as a by-product during
pretreatment process. The major inhibitor molecule produced in the process
includes pentose-derived furfurals, hexose-derived hydroxymethylfurfural
(HMF), and lignin-derived phenolic compounds such as ferulic acid, vanillic
acid, and several other acids such as acetic acid and formic acid. The conven-
tional methods of removing inhibitors from lignocellulosic hydrolysates
include physicochemical (e.g., evaporation, solvent extraction, overliming,
activated charcoal adsorption, ion exchange, etc.) and biological (microbial
or enzymatic conversion of inhibitors into less toxic compounds) methods.
Most of these detoxification methods and retaining potent inhibitors, molecule
aside, have many disadvantages like fermentable sugar loss, by-product gen-
eration, and expensive, complicated, and lengthy operation process. In order
to overcome the physicochemical-based separation challenges, pressure-
driven membrane-based separation and detoxification of lignocellulosic
hydrolysates are gaining significant attention due to its distinctive ability to
rapidly separate and purify process streams simultaneously. The major
pressure-driven membrane system used for concentration enrichment of fer-
mentable sugar from lignocellulosic hydrolysates mainly includes micro-
filtration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, and reverses osmosis. This chapter
presents a comprehensive review of novel strategies of inhibitor separation
and fermentable sugar concentration enrichment from hydrolysate of agricul-
tural solid waste, which is a potential lignocellulosic feedstock for bioethanol
fermentation economically.
Keywords
Agricultural solid waste · Pretreatment · Fermentation · Bioethanol · Sustainable
and economical approach
Introduction
The ever-increasing world population has seen tremendous growth in various

anthropogenic activities, leading to many serious environmental concerns such as
global climatic change, energy security, greenhouse gas emission, etc. Energy
demand due to huge population density increases rapidly, which faces serious
limitations in fulfilling the desired energy compensation from fossil energy
sources like oil, natural gas, and coal, including other sources (Prasad et al.
2007; Gupta et al. 2019). Thus, sustainable and economical energy sources are
32 Sustainable and Economical Approaches in Utilizing Agricultural Solid. . . 819
the utmost requirement to be explored at the industrial scale. However, in a quest

to find sustainable energy sources, several lignocellulosic biomasses have been
exploited since the last two decades due to such biomass’s presence abundantly
and at a cheaper rate. The recent technological advancement in agricultural
means to feed the huge population has witnessed a sharp increase of 37.1% in
the agricultural crop residue waste generation, i.e., 5011 million tons (MT) in
2013 from 3802 MT in 2003 (Lal 2005). Approximately, as estimated, around
25% of total agricultural crop residue waste has been left unutilized. The total dry
biomass of 686 MT of agriculture crop residue waste is produced annually in
India (Hiloidhari et al. 2014), 25% of which is left unutilized after various
domestic and industrial uses of the remaining waste for different purposes like
mulching, composting, fuel, thatch, etc. The unutilized agricultural crop residue
waste is burned as a general practice in different parts of the world, creating a
serious environmental risk to human beings. It has reported that approximately
181.8 MT of agricultural residues were burned in Brazil, China, India, and the
USA (FAO 2018). Major agricultural solid biomass waste includes rice straw,
wheat straw, corn straw, and sugarcane bagasse, which could be converted to
bioethanol, a prime biofuel candidate to address the ever-increasing global
energy demand (Deshavath et al. 2019). Bioethanol has the highest potential,
among other biofuels, to fulfill the most energy requirement at large. In an
estimate, it has been reported that around 491 billion litter of bioethanol may
be produced from total agriculture crop residue waste as lignocellulosic
bioethanol annually (Kim et al. 2016). Therefore, the huge amount of agricultural
crop waste as potent lignocellulosic biomass waste or agricultural solid biomass
waste is available to be utilized as a potential candidate for producing biofuel
such as bioethanol to meet the current demand of energy (Prasad et al. 2007,
2020b). The conventional lignocellulosic biomass from various agricultural
activities, such as corn and sugar cane with its established bioethanol process,
is not the right choice of primary energy resources because of an inherent
competitive value of food and feed with energy. So, the non-food crop residual
waste, mostly referred as second-generation or cellulosic biomass of agricultural
origin, has been exploited as ideal lignocellulosic biomass for serving the requi-
site energy demand in a more sustainable and economical way (Kumar et al.
2020).
The present chapter intends to highlight the sustainable and economic approaches
in utilizing the agricultural solid biomass waste as a potential feedstock for
bioethanol production. The chapter has been orientated to understand the major
environmental concern of open-field burning of agricultural solid biomass waste,
thereby providing an insight into the critical conversion challenges of agricultural
solid biomass waste into bioethanol, such as the steps of pretreatment, hydrolysis,
and fermentation. The inhibitor generation, as a toxic by-product during pre-
treatment steps with their mitigation strategies, has also been discussed in the text.
The application of process design and optimization tool has also been addressed to
develop an economically feasible conversion model of solid agricultural biomass
into bioethanol.
Issue of Open-Field Burning of ASW as a Major Sustainability

Concern
Due to the ever-increasing population, the recent technological developments in

the agricultural sector, especially modernization in crop cultivation and develop-
ment of high-yielding varieties, have greatly contributed to increased agricultural
crop production and generation of agricultural solid biomass waste (Prasad et al.
2020b). As per the national data reported by the MNRE, Ministry of New and
Renewable Energy, approximately 500 million tons of agricultural crop residues
as agricultural solid biomass waste (ASBW hereafter) are produced annually in
India. Biotechnology offers a tremendous opportunity to trap the process eco-
nomics by exploiting such a huge amount of ASWB more sustainably and
economically. Several critical hurdles exist in the line of sustainable and eco-
nomical utilization of ASWB from agricultural crop fields. Major challenges
include collection, logistics, transportation, processing a huge volume of
ASWB from the agricultural field right after harvesting, and processing period
(Deshavath et al. 2019). The overall processing cost from collecting after the
harvesting period to the processing at designated biomass waste processing
centers is absolutely a costlier affair due to the cheaper and abundant nature of
AWSB from agricultural fields. Thus, due to the lack of proper management, the
huge amount of waste biomass from the agricultural field has been employed in
various applications at a local field scale ranging from animal feeds, ex situ
biocomposting, soil conditioner, and mushroom production (Lohan et al. 2018).
However, due to all activities’ nonsynchronous nature, a huge amount of ASWB
is still left unutilized. It has been estimated that out of 500 MT agricultural crop
residues, there is a surplus amount of 140 MT, out of which 92 MT is burned in an
open field in an unregulated and uncontrolled manner (Pathak 2012). Open-field
burning seems to be an inexpensive means of disposal of such a huge amount of
agricultural waste by farmers. It further extends on account of the lack of proper
environmental education and awareness among local farmers of different
states (Bhuvaneshwari et al. 2019).
Concerning biomass waste burning issues, it has been estimated by the Food
and Agriculture Organization in 2018 that from the four principal agricultural
solid biomass wastes mainly produced from rice, wheat, corn, and sugarcane
crops, a total of 181.8 MT agricultural solid biomass waste was burned in India,
China, Brazil, and the USA, with a calculated emission estimate of 15.8 MT of
CO2 in the environment (Deshavath et al. 2019). Among various agricultural crop
residues as solid biomass waste, it has been estimated that the major class of
ASBW contributing worldwide to severe air pollution due to open-field burning
is rice and wheat straw, most commonly referred to as the RWS system (Pathak
2012). The techno-economic challenges may be understood by the fact that
the open-field burning of ASBW is becoming more of common practice across
the globe in major subcontinent of the world such as China, the USA,
the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan, Pakistan, Nepal, and India
(Lohan et al. 2018). As a result of open-field burning of such a huge amount of
solid agricultural biomass at a wide level, it severely affected the air quality
index. It made air polluted with major air pollutant such as CO2, CO, N2O, and
NOx as by-products of burning of ASBW (Jain et al. 2014). The major air
pollutant emitted from open-field burning practice in various Indian states has
been presented in Table 1.
Biofuel Policy in India
In order to promote biofuel in India, a National Policy on Biofuels (NBP)

was established by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, GOI, in
2009. NBP targeted an ethanol fraction of 20% in both petrol and diesel by
2017. One motive was that 10 million liters of E10 biofuel could save
Rs. 28 crores in forex and about 20,000 t of CO2 emissions. However, by
2017, the GOI had achieved only a 2% blending with petrol and about
0.1% with diesel (PIB 2018). Keeping this in view, the National Policy
on Biofuels (NPB) 2018 was approved on May 16, 2018, to expand biofuel
production and make a sustainable biofuel ecosystem. The new policy introduced
new targets of 20% ethanol in petrol and 5% biodiesel in diesel by 2030. Salient
features and expected benefits of the National Policy on Biofuels, 2018, are as
follows (PIB 2018).
Salient Features of NPB-2018
(i) The NPB-2018 categorizes biofuels as first-generation (1G) ethanol and bio-
diesel and advanced biofuels, which include second-generation (2G) ethanol,
MSW to drop-in fuels, and third-generation biofuels (3G), algae biodiesel, and
bio-CNG.
(ii) NPB-2018 expands the scope of raw material for ethanol production by
allowing the juice of sugarcane, sweet sorghum, beets sugar, and starchy
materials such as corn, cassava, damaged-grains of wheat and rice, and rotten
potatoes unfit for consumption be used for ethanol production.
(iii) Farmers are not getting the fair price or at risk of their produce due to surplus
production. NPB-2018 allows them to use surplus food grains to produce
ethanol for blending with petrol. However, the approval of the National Biofuel
Coordination Committee is necessary.
(iv) With a thrust on advanced biofuels, the NPB-2018 indicates a viability gap
funding scheme for 2G ethanol biorefineries of Rs. 5000 crore in 6 years and
additional tax incentives and higher purchase price for 1G biofuels.
(v) NPB-2018 encourages setting up supply chain mechanisms for biodiesel from
nonedible oilseeds and used/waste cooking oil.
(vi) Roles and responsibility of concerned ministries/departments for biofuels have
been captured in the NPB-2018 document to synergize efforts.
822
Table 1 State-wise emissions of air pollutants from crop residue burning for the year 2008–2009
NMVOC
States CO2 CO NOx Sox Gg/yr NMHC NH3 HCN PAH TPM PM2.5 BC
Andhra Pradesh 8010.0 486.4 13.22 2.11 83.01 37.01 6.87 0.79 0.13 68.73 20.62 3.65
Arunachal Pradesh 80.8 4.9 0.13 0.02 0.84 0.37 0.07 0.01 0.00 0.69 0.21 0.04
Assam 1460.4 88.7 2.41 0.39 15.13 6.75 1.25 0.14 0.02 12.53 3.76 0.67
Bihar 5077.0 308.3 8.38 1.34 52.61 23.46 4.36 0.50 0.08 43.57 13.07 2.31
Chhattisgarh 1110.7 67.5 1.83 0.29 11.51 5.13 0.95 0.11 0.02 9.53 2.86 0.51
Goa 39.2 2.4 0.06 0.01 0.41 0.18 0.03 0.00 0.00 0.34 0.10 0.02
Gujarat 6835.9 415.1 11.28 1.80 70.84 31.59 5.87 0.68 0.11 58.66 17.60 3.11
Haryana 13907.7 844.6 22.95 3.67 144.13 64.26 11.93 1.38 0.23 119.34 35.80 6.33
Himachal Pradesh 635.5 38.6 1.05 0.17 6.59 2.94 0.55 0.06 0.01 5.45 1.64 0.29
Jammu and Kashmir 1403.1 85.2 2.32 0.37 14.54 6.48 1.20 0.14 0.02 12.04 3.61 0.64
Jharkhand 1939.6 117.8 3.20 0.51 20.10 8.96 1.66 0.19 0.03 16.64 4.99 0.88
Karnataka 8987.5 545.8 14.83 2.37 93.14 41.53 7.71 0.89 0.15 77.12 23.14 4.09
Kerala 184.7 11.2 0.30 0.05 1.91 0.85 0.16 0.02 0.00 1.58 0.48 0.08
Madhya Pradesh 3032.2 184.1 5.00 0.80 31.42 14.01 2.60 0.30 0.05 26.02 7.81 1.38
Maharashtra 10335.7 627.7 17.06 2.73 107.11 47.76 8.87 1.02 0.17 88.69 26.61 4.71
Manipur 109.0 6.6 0.18 0.03 1.13 0.50 0.09 0.01 0.00 0.94 0.28 0.05
Meghalaya 76.6 4.7 0.13 0.02 0.79 0.35 0.07 0.01 0.00 0.66 0.20 0.03
Mizoram 15.6 1.0 0.03 0.00 0.16 0.07 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.13 0.04 0.01
Nagaland 141.2 8.6 0.23 0.04 1.46 0.65 0.12 0.01 0.00 1.21 0.36 0.06
V. C. Gupta et al.
32
Orissa 1984.7 120.5 3.28 0.52 20.57 9.17 1.70 0.20 0.03 17.03 5.11 0.90
Punjab 32299.3 1961.4 53.30 8.53 334.72 149.24 27.72 3.20 0.53 277.16 83.15 14.71
Rajasthan 4202.2 255.2 6.93 1.11 43.55 19.42 3.61 0.42 0.07 36.06 10.82 1.91
Sikkim 19.0 1.2 0.03 0.01 0.20 0.09 0.02 0.00 0.00 0.16 0.05 0.01
Tamil Nadu 5099.7 309.7 8.42 1.35 52.85 23.56 4.38 0.50 0.08 43.76 13.13 2.32
Tripura 173.8 10.6 0.29 0.05 1.80 0.80 0.15 0.02 0.00 1.49 0.45 0.08
Uttar Pradesh 33701.4 2046.6 55.61 8.90 349.25 155.72 28.92 3.34 0.56 289.19 86.76 15.35
Uttarakhand 1146.2 69.6 1.89 0.30 11.88 5.30 0.98 0.11 0.02 9.84 2.95 0.52
West Bengal 8219.0 499.1 13.56 2.17 85.17 37.98 7.05 0.81 0.14 70.53 21.16 3.74
A & N Islands 5.7 0.3 0.01 0.00 0.06 0.03 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.05 0.01 0.00
D & N Haveli 6.8 0.4 0.01 0.00 0.07 0.03 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.06 0.02 0.00
Delhi 25.4 1.5 0.04 0.01 0.26 0.12 0.02 0.00 0.00 0.22 0.07 0.01
Daman and Diu 1.6 0.1 0.00 0.00 0.02 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.00 0.00
Pondicherry 30.1 1.8 0.05 0.01 0.31 0.14 0.03 0.00 0.00 0.26 0.08 0.01
All India 149240.7 9062.8 6.90 246.27 39.40 1546.59 128.06 14.78 2.46 1280.61 384.18 67.97
Source: Jain et al. (2014)
Sustainable and Economical Approaches in Utilizing Agricultural Solid. . .
823
Agricultural Solid Waste as a Potential Feedstock for Bioethanol

Production
Feedstock for biofuel production has been grouped into four types based on the
different feedstock used. The feedstock from food-based crops, e.g., corn, wheat,
cassava, and sugarcane, are referred to as the first-generation feedstock. It is inter-
esting to note that about 96% of total biofuels produced are only from the first-
generation feedstock. However, the first-generation feedstock has to be replaced
with an alternative feedstock due to its competing nature with food and supplement.
Agricultural solid waste biomass, most commonly referred to as lignocellulosic
biomass, is called the second-generation feedstock for bioethanol production, a
prime biofuel candidate among all other biofuels (Sharma et al. 2019). Because of
its high cellulosic content, abundant availability, and lower prices, agricultural solid
waste biomass is a potential feedstock to replace the first-generation feedstock
(sugars and food grains) for bioethanol production at industrial scale (Prasad et al.
2020a; Sharma et al. 2019). Agricultural solid waste biomass is primarily composed
of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin, including fewer traces of proteins, pectin,
nitrogen compounds, and inorganic ingredients. However, each constituent’s com-
position and ratios of agricultural solid waste depend on agro-climatic conditions,
harvesting period, and plant age (Baruah et al. 2018). The composition of various
agricultural solid biomass wastes has been depicted in Table 2.
The complex network of each of the cellulosic biomass components is organized
into micro- and macro-fibril structures, thus providing more structural strength
Table 2 Composition of various agricultural solid biomass wastes

Biomass/residue Cellulose (%) Hemicellulose (%) Lignin (%)
Barley straw 35–45 30–50 8–20
Sweet sorghum 27 25 11
Cornstalk 29.80 33.30 16.65
Sweet sorghum bagasse 58.23 25.42 14.95
Poplar 40 14 20
Eucalyptus 54.1 18.4 21.5
Wheat straw 35–45 20–30 15
Rice straw 36–41 24–26.5 15.6–23.3
Miscanthus 40 18 23
Bermuda grass 25 35.7 9–18
Softwood stems 45–50 25–35 25–35
Hardwood stems 40–55 24–40 18–25
Napier grass 60.20 23.80 8.20
Pine 42–50 24–27 20.0
Corn stover 34.33 26.62 7.56
Switchgrass 34.2 27.7 19.6
Sugarcane bagasse 42.11 28.42 19.20
Source: Sharma and Saini (2020)
(Prasad et al. 2007). Cellulose is a polysaccharide which is mainly composed of

repeated numerous glucose monomeric units; therefore, before the fermentation step,
conversion of cellulose to fermentable sugar is an essential step to ensure process
economics at industrial scale (Kim et al. 2016). The second most important compo-
nent of cellulosic biomass is hemicellulose after cellulose. The hemicellulose is also
a polysaccharide and is mainly composed of different sugars nearby a branch-like
structure. The major sugars constituting hemicellulose are xylose and arabinose
(pentose); glucose, galactose, and mannose (hexose); deoxyhexoses (L-rhamnose);
and uronic acids (D-glucuronic acid), including non-carbohydrate part such as acetyl
group (Sharma et al. 2019). Hemicellulose is a low molecular weight compound with
a branched structure and amorphous structure; thus, it is a preferred candidate for
hydrolysis, contrary to cellulose, due to its high molecular weight and complex
structure. Lignin is an aromatic ring-like structure with major units of p-coumarilic,
coniferilic, and synapilic alcohols. All the structural constituent of lignin has greatly
contributed to the lignin molecule toward the reason that it becomes recalcitrant in
nature. It is a heteropolymer compound that is not soluble in water and amorphous in
nature. However, lignin biological degradation has not been sufficing the literature
instead of a few, where lignin degradation products have been reported with pro-
cessing severity and complexities.
Process of Bioethanol Production from Agricultural Solid Waste
The ethanol production process is constituted by major steps of (a) pretreatment,

(b) enzymatic hydrolysis, (c) fermentation, and (d) distillation. Owing to the com-
plex crystalline structure of agricultural solid waste, it is of utmost importance that
the crystalline structure of solid biomass must be overcome to provide an effective
and enhanced way of ethanol production from rich cellulosic biomass. Cellulose is a
polymer of glucose molecule, where glucose molecules are joined together by β-1,4
glycosidic bonds (Prasad et al. 2007). The hemicellulose and lignin form a complex
network of array and sheets around cellulose, making it a complete crystalline
structure and thus proving to be recalcitrant to the enzymatic and microbial degra-
dation. Hemicellulose is principally composed of hexose and pentose sugar mole-
cules, including uronic acids (Gupta et al. 2019; Sharma et al. 2019). Hemicellulose
is structured as a linear chain of xylan with an embedded branched chain of various
other molecules such as glucuronic acid, mannan, galactomannan, glucomannan,
etc. (Sharma et al. 2019). The lignin, the third principal component of agricultural
solid waste, is a heteropolymer made up of various alcohols with aromatic rings such
as coumaryl alcohol, sinapyl alcohol, and coniferyl alcohol. Lignin irreversibly
binds with enzyme cellulases. Therefore, pretreatment is the critical key step in
ethanol production from agricultural solid waste in a more cost-effective manner.
The pretreatment step incorporated to remove the lignin barrier to cellulose and
hemicellulose and to make them accessible to microbial and enzymatic attacks is the
key deterministic feature of ethanol production’s economic process development of
agricultural solid waste (Kumar et al. 2016; Sharma et al. 2019).
Pretreatment Technology of Lignocellulosic Biomass
Process Modeling of Pretreatment Methods to Improve Fermentable

Sugar Release
Numerous researchers have employed extensive pretreatment strategies worldwide
to identify the most efficient process conditions to release maximum fermentable
sugar in the fermentation broth. Incorporating the pretreatment step in the overall
conversion process of agricultural cellulosic biomass is done with the following
objectives: maximized yield of the fermentable sugar-reduced generation of inhibitor
molecule (Zhang et al. 2018; Menon and Rao 2012), low energy utilization, low
process cost, further exploration of lignin removal and generation of valuable lignin-
derived coproducts, and generic application of pretreatment strategies over a large
class of agricultural solid waste (Menon and Rao 2012; Prasad et al. 2020b).
Several factors are taken into consideration while deciding on the appropriate
pretreatment methodologies, which are largely based on the type of agricultural solid
waste employed as lignocellulosic biomass for ethanol production, the overall cost
estimates of pretreatment steps including the process generated on the coproduction
of various unwanted by-products, and its environmental impact (Carvalho et al.
2016; Menon and Rao 2012). A comprehensive view indicating different pre-
treatment technological strategies and their impacts on fermentable sugar release
from various agricultural solid wastes has been shown in Table 3.
Physical Pretreatment
Various physical (mechanical) pretreatment methods have been applied to lignocel-
lulosic biomass to minimize the complex crystalline barrier of cellulosic content of
agricultural solid waste. The major physical methods include milling, extrusion,
freezing, ultrasound, and microwave irradiation (Katsimpouras et al. 2017; Tsegaye
et al. 2019). Better hydrolysis rates have been achieved after treating the agriculture
solid waste biomass using physical pretreatment methods. Milling is the most
commonly applied physical pretreatment method for reducing the biomass particle
size down to 0.2 mm. Reducing the biomass particle size greatly enhances the
surface area for easy enzymatic accessibility to biomass’s cellulosic content (Baruah
et al. 2018). Milling has also been reported to reduce cellulose’s crystalline nature,
thus improving fermentable sugar yield in broth in the hydrolysis step. Various
milling operations listed so far are ball mills, attrition mills, centrifugal mills, colloid
mills, hammer mills, vibratory mills, pin mills, and extruders with the varied
application on a range of agricultural solid waste biomass with an improved yield
of the desired output (Amin et al. 2017).
The prime factors were considered while pretreating lignocellulosic biomass with
milling, including feeding rate of biomass, initial biomass size, machinery parame-
ters, time, and moisture content. Extrusion is another physical method of pre-
treatment used to valorize the lignocellulosic biomass at a higher temperature
greater than 300 C to remove biomass fibers (Amin et al. 2017). The improved
yield of fermentable sugar from 41% to 66% has been reported with varying
extrusion pretreatment conditions of temperature, biomass solid loading, and
Table 3 Impact of various pretreatment strategies on fermentable sugar release from different
agricultural solid biomass wastes
Fermentable sugar
Substrate type Treatment agents used recovery References
Alkaline pretreatment
Sugarcane NaOH (15%) 5.29 g/L Carvalho et al. 2016
bagasse
Wheat straw Na2CO3 (11%) Xylose: 85.7% Yuan et al. 2018
Rice straw NaOH (1%) 94 g/L Li et al. 2018
Wheat straw NaOH/H2O2 61.9 g/L Yuan et al. 2018
Acid pretreatment
Wheat straw H2SO4 (2%) 43 g/L Prasad et al. 2018
Rice straw H2SO4 14 g/L Zhu et al. 2015
Corn and corn H2SO4 184.4 g/L Yu et al. 2019
Stover
Ionic liquid (IL) pretreatment
Sugarcane BMIMCl; PEG Glucose: 62% Nasirpour and
bagasse Mousavi 2018
Triticale straw 1-ethyl-3- Reducing sugar: Smuga-Kogut et al.
methylimidazolium acetate 36.54 g/dm3 2019
Sugarcane 1-butyl-3- 254 mg/g Sharma et al. 2019
bagasse methylimidazolium
chloride
Organic solvent pretreatment
Rice straw Choline chloride-based Reducing sugar: Kumar et al. 2016
solvent 226.7 g/L
Sugarcane FeCl3-catalyzed Glucose: 2.4 g/100 g Zhang et al. 2018
bagasse organosolv substrate
Xylose: 11.4 g/100 g
substrate
Wheat straw Organosolv Cellulose conversion Salapa et al. 2017
of 89%
Microwave-assisted pretreatment
Wheat straw Microwave-associated 718 mg/g Tsegaye et al. 2019
NaOH
Maize Microwave-assisted 104 mg/g Mikulski et al. 2019
H2SO4
Eucalyptus Ultrasound-assisted ionic 426.6 mg/g Wang et al. 2018
sawdust liquid
Steam explosion
Corn stover 200 C; 10 min Glucose: 148 g/l Katsimpouras et al.
2017
Sweet 215 C; 2 min Fructose 11%/glucose Damay et al. 2018
sorghum 10.5%
Wheat straw 151 C; 16 min Glucose 59.3%, Monschein and
xylose 55.7% Nidetzky 2016
(continued)
Table 3 (continued)
Fermentable sugar
Substrate type Treatment agents used recovery References
Hydrothermal Pretreatment
Corn stover 180 C; 4 min Glucose 87.3%, Kim et al. 2016
xylose 83.4%
Rice straw 40–180 C; 5–20 min Glucose: 74.6% Imman et al. 2015
Sugarcane 180 C; 20 min Glucose: 69% Gurgel et al. 2016
bagasse
Combined pretreatment
Rice straw M. indicus fungus + NaOH Glucose 55 g/l, xylose Molaverdi et al. 2019
48.6 g/l
Sugarcane HC-assisted alkaline H2O2 Xylose 38 g/l, glucose Hilares et al. 2018
bagasse 80 g/l
Wheat straw Alkaline þ steam explosion Glucose 59.3%, Yuan et al. 2018
xylose 55.7%
Corn stover Alkaline organosolv Glucose 29.5 g/l Yuan et al. 2018
Rice straw M. indicus fungus + NaOH Glucose 55 g/l, xylose Molaverdi et al. 2019
48.6 g/L
screw speed (Wang et al. 2018; Karunanithy et al. 2012). Microwave irradiation is
used to change the ultra-structure of cellulose and hemicellulose by degrading lignin
and to increase the enzyme susceptibility of biomass (Tsegaye et al. 2019). The
higher temperature in less time is achieved in the microwave-assisted pretreatment
method, making it a widely employed method of pretreatment of lignocellulosic
biomass mostly in combination with chemical pretreatment for improved yield of
fermentable sugar in broth (Mikulski et al. 2019; Wang et al. 2018).
Ultrasound-based pretreatment offers the least chemical usage with reduced
operating temperature and a short period to pretreat lignocellulosic biomass. The
operating variable in ultrasound-based pretreatment methods includes solvent used,
ultrasonic frequency, and reactor design (Wang et al. 2018; Kumar et al. 2016). The
freezing method is used to pretreat lignocellulosic biomass based on volumetric
water change during phase changes at a gradual temperature effect. The freezing
method is more sustainable in terms of improved yield of fermentable sugar with no
inhibitor’s generation in the process (Binod et al. 2010).
Chemical Pretreatment
Chemical pretreatment is widely applied in the lignocellulosic ethanol production
process during pretreatment steps due to the significant removal of lignin from
complex biomass structure, thereby improving fermentable sugar yield at greater-
scale hydrolysis and saccharification step (Prasad et al. 2007; Baruah et al. 2018; Yu
et al. 2019). Acid, alkali, organic acids, pH-controlled liquid, hot water (Gurgel et al.
2016), and ionic liquids (green solvent) are the major chemical pretreatment methods
studied extensively with different process conditions of high acid concentration of
30–70% with low temperature <100 C and dilute acid <10%, with a high operating
temperature of 100–250 C in pretreatment process (Zhu et al. 2015; Baruah et al.

2018). Sulfuric acid, nitric acid, phosphoric acid, and hydrochloric acid are the most
used chemicals for pretreatment. However, acid pretreatments are associated with
serious drawbacks of generating process-derived inhibitors during the pretreatment
reaction of chemicals with biomass constituents, i.e., lignin, cellulose, and hemicel-
lulose (Yu et al. 2019; Kumar et al. 2016; Gupta et al. 2019). The generated
inhibitors cause serious concern in approaching sustainable and economical process
design of ethanol production from lignocellulosic biomass.
Alkali pretreatment is used to solubilize lignin, thereby improving the cellulose
release after acid-treated solubilization of hemicellulose. Major alkali pretreatment
includes hydroxide salts of chemicals such as sodium, potassium, calcium, and
ammonium. It has been reported that 96.9% and 90.8% removal of lignin and
hemicellulose from rice straw are pretreated with aqueous ammonia and diluted
with sulfuric acid, respectively (Kim et al. 2016). The use of calcium hydroxide
pretreatment method is the most preferred alkaline pretreatment method over ammo-
nia, sodium hydroxide, and potassium hydroxide because of its economic consider-
ation. Improved yield of biogas has been reported from corn cob residue pretreated
with calcium hydroxide due to effective lignin removal in the process. The alkali
concentration is a key deterministic factor while optimizing the rate of chemical
reaction of pretreatment (Yuan et al. 2018; Imman et al. 2015).
Organosolv is another chemical pretreatment technique which uses a mixture of
various organic solvents and an inorganic acid catalyst to solubilize the hemicellu-
lose (70%) and lignin (65%), keeping cellulose content (98%) of biomass intact
(Kumar et al. 2016; Zhang et al. 2018). Thus, organosolv is an effective means of
chemical pretreatment to obtain a high fermentable sugar level. It has been reported
that 26.92 g/L of reducing sugar was obtained in a modified organosolv mixture of
ethanol under mild conditions (Yuan et al. 2018; Salapa et al. 2017). The oxidative
pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass involves oxidizing agents such as hydrogen
peroxide or peracetic acid (C2H4O3), oxygen, ozone, and air. A high degree of
delignification was reported using the oxidative pretreatment method in combination
with mild alkaline conditions. The major reaction that occurs during the oxidative
pretreatment method is electrophilic substitution, displacement of side chains, cleav-
age of alkyl/aryl ether linkages, or oxidative cleavage of aromatic nuclei. However,
the oxidative pretreatment method is not the most preferred method of pretreatment
due to its energy and cost-consuming process.
Integrated Physicochemical Pretreatment

To improve delignification and maximize the yield of fermentable sugar, several
physical and chemical pretreatment methods have often been combined to improve
the process economics, thereby reducing the overall process’ cost and energy with an
increased yield of fermentable sugar. Various physicochemical pretreatment methods
include ammonia fiber explosion, CO2 explosion, and microwave-assisted chemical
pretreatment, microwave with ionic liquid (Smuga-Kogut et al. 2019).
The ammonia fiber explosion (AFEX) method of pretreatment is used to mini-
mize the structural complexities such as recalcitrance nature of solid agricultural
biomass and thus provides an opportunity for an enhanced release of fermentable

sugar in the enzymatic hydrolysis step thereafter (Katsimpouras et al. 2017). In
AFEX, volatile ammonia is used at 90 –100 C with a short time of 30–60 min
(Damay et al. 2018) to react with cellulosic biomass with the least generation of
by-product during pretreatment, thus making it an economically effective method of
pretreatment. AFEX method has been reported to be more effective in the pre-
treatment of agricultural solid waste as compared to hardwood biomass (Monschein
and Nidetzky 2016). 1.5–3.0-fold enhanced enzymatic hydrolysis was reported
when AFEX was used on corn stover biomass conditions (Kumar et al. 2020).
In the CO2 explosive method of pretreatment of agricultural solid waste, the CO2
is used as supercritical fluid with the added advantages of improved mass transfer
properties and excellent solubilization of cellulosic biomass with an improved yield
of fermentable sugar. An optimized pretreatment condition such as pressure
(1450–4350) psi, temperature (40–110 C), time (15–45 min.) of the CO2 explosion
method in combination with ammonia has resulted in 70–85% higher fermentable
sugar yield from rice straw (Monschein and Nidetzky 2016). SC-CO2 has mostly
been used as a green solvent in agricultural solid waste pretreatment and has been
reported to produce the least inhibitor or no inhibitors in the process, making it a
more cost-effective way of biomass pretreatment (Molaverdi et al. 2019).
The pretreatment method based on microwave irradiation combined with the
chemical pretreatment method is the most studied and extensively applied method
of agricultural solid waste pretreatment prior to enzymatic hydrolysis. The main
advantage of using microwave irradiation combined with chemical is high heating
efficiency with an increased rate of lignin and hemicellulose solubilization by
microwave-assisted alkaline and acid reaction. In an optimized condition of
microwave-assisted alkali pretreatment, 76.3% lignin removal, 21.1% hemicellu-
lose, and 71.9% cellulose were obtained with microwave irradiation frequency of
640 W and alkali concentration of 2.8% at a time duration of 19 min (Tsegaye et al.
2019).
Pretreatment based on the combined and synergistic effect of the microwave with
ionic liquid has a greater advantage in pretreating agricultural solid waste since the
ionic liquid is found to have solubilized cellulose with high polarity, recyclability,
and reusability (Nasirpour and Mousavi 2018). Combining the ionic liquid pre-
treatment with microwave results in pretreatment time reduction with increase
solubilization of lignin and hemicellulose. Though the high cost of the ionic liquid
tends to be a bottleneck of process applicability at a large scale, an improvement is
required in the microwave-assisted ionic liquid pretreatment method. However, an
increased fermentable sugar of more than 80% has been reported from pretreated
wheat straw enzymatic hydrolysis with lignin removal by 49.48% (Menon and Rao
2012).
Inhibitors from Biomass Pretreatment and Their Removal to Improve

Ethanol Production
Overall, ethanol yield from agricultural solid waste is greatly hampered by potent
inhibitor molecule formed due to hydrolysis degradation by-product during the
dilute acid pretreatment to concentrate fermentable sugar for further upstream

processing. The solid biomass is pretreated by various agents through the dilute
acid pretreatment, which is the most common method for producing the inhibitor
molecule. The potent inhibitor molecules that may be produced during dilute acid
treatment at higher temperature mainly include 2-furaldehyde (furfural),
5-(hydroxymethyl)-2-furaldehyde (HMF), phenolics, acetic acid, levulinic acid,
formic acid etc., from hemicellulose and cellulose component of agricultural solid
waste (Prasad et al. 2018). Furfural and HMF are known to have a detrimental effect
on the ethanologenic microbe’s cell growth and respiration, thus inhibiting
bioethanol productivity. An increased furfural and HMF production rate is reported
at temperature >160 C and a longer period of 4 h. (McKillip and Collin 2002).
Formic acid is a degradation product of furfural and HMF, while levulinic acid is
formed upon HMF degradation (Chandel et al. 2007; Wang et al. 2020). The acetyl
group present in hemicellulose is converted into acetic acid due to dehydration
reaction in the pretreatment process. Acetic acid has a known negative impact on
the fermentability of reducing sugar; thus, removing acetic acid is a critical consid-
eration in the overall process. The lignin component of agricultural solid waste is
known to produce different degradation products during pretreatment condition at a
temperature more than 180 C, such as vanillic acid and vanillin, formed by the
degradation of the guaiacylpropane units of lignin (Wang et al. 2020) and
syringaldehyde and syringic acid, formed in the degradation of syringyl propane
units. The presence and ratio of monolignols to determine the formation of the
aromatic derivative from lignin-derived monolignols contribute to
p-hydroxyphenyl (H), guaiacyl (G), and syringyl (S) units (Kumar et al. 2018).
Reduced sugar assimilation and retarded microbial cell growth are the major impacts
of phenolics-derived inhibitors from the lignin molecule. Inhibitor production and
their mitigation strategies to improve ethanol production and process economics are
very important. Inhibitors’ profiles of agricultural solid waste after various pre-
treatment methods, strategies for their removal, and improvement of ethanol pro-
ductivity are presented in Tables 4 and 5.
Novel Pressure-Driven Membrane System for the Removal of Inhibitors

from Hydrolysate
Due to the drawbacks of each method applied for removing potent inhibitor from
biomass hydrolysate, an alternative method with improved process economics and
enhanced operational stability is the most sought-after strategy of removing inhib-
itors from biomass hydrolysate. The membrane-based inhibitor removal system
offers a higher magnitude of separation efficiency of potent inhibitors in process
with the additional advantage of concentration enrichment of fermentable sugar in
hydrolysate simultaneously (Maiti et al. 2012). The principal membrane separation
system includes microfiltration (MF), ultrafiltration (UF), nanofiltration (NF), and
reverse osmosis (RO). The mechanistic model of pressure-driven membrane setup
utilizes the molecule’s size being in question to separate from the hydrolysate. The
molecular weight of furfural (96), HMF (126), formic acid (46), acetic acid (60), and
levulinic acid (116) makes them an ideal candidate to be separated from glucose
832
Table 4 Inhibitors’ profile from various pretreatment strategies of agricultural solid waste
Improvement in yield after
Substrate Inhibitors generated in the process Pretreatment type and condition Mitigation strategies removal of inhibitors References
Sugarcane Furans, 1.89 g/l; phenolics, Acid 2.5% (v/v) HCl Laccase reduced Ethanol yield (0.48 g/g) Chandel
bagasse 2.75 g/l; acetic acid, 5.45 g/l 77.5% phenolics; et al. 2007
activated char reduced
38.7% furans
Wheat Furfural, 39.21 ppm, HMF 180 C and 2% H2SO4 Activated charcoal 5%, Ethanol yield 5.29% (v/v) Prasad
straw 30.10 ppm w/v) reduced 84.01% et al. 2018
furfural and 76.42%
HMF
Corn stalk 5.0 g/l furfural, 10.0 g/l acetic H2SO4 (1%, 3%, 5%, 7%, wt./ NA Reduced inhibitors Wang et al.
acid, 7.0 g g/l ferulic acid wt.) 80 C, reaction time molecule from 40% to 2020
0.65%
Rice straw Acetic acid, vanillic acid, H2SO4 2% for 30 min in an NF membrane system Improved sugar yield Maiti et al.
5-hydroxymethyl-furfural (HMF), autoclave at 15 psi reduces inhibitors with 2012
and furfural sieving mechanism in NF
membrane
Solution of Glucose-xylose-acetic acid ratio: Depicted the dilute H2SO4 NF/RO membranes Simultaneous acetic acid Zhou et al.
inhibitor 2:5:1 pretreatment generated inhibitor system separation and sugar 2013
and sugar while preparing a model solution concentration
mix
Solution of Acetic acid, furfural, Conc. acid-treated biomass with Pressure-driven Inhibitor reduction 80%– Nguyen
inhibitor 5-hydroxymethyl furfural, and a pH of 3 depicted while NF/RO membrane 96% at high VRR and et al. 2015
and sugar vanillin preparing a model solution system pressure 10 bars
mix
Rice straw Formic acid (0.15 g/l), acetic acid Dilute H2SO4 1%, w/v, solid/ NF/RO hybrid Achieved 145.6 g/L sugar Pan et al.
(0.28 g/l, furfural (0.085 g/l) HMF liquid ratio of 1:10 (w/w), membrane recovery and efficient 2019
(0.136 g/l), and vanillin (0.065 g/ mixing rate of 40 rpm, at 150 C inhibitor removal
l) for 30 min
V. C. Gupta et al.
Table 5 Advantage and disadvantage of various methods applied for the removal of potent
inhibitors (Chandel et al. 2007; Kumar et al. 2020)
Method Advantage Disadvantage
Evaporation Effective at removing volatile Less effective at removing phenolics,
compounds such as acetic acid and energy costs are high
furfural
Solvent With ethyl acetate, is effective at Except for acetic acid, loss of the
extraction removing most inhibitory compounds organic phase in the aqueous phase
containing the pretreated biomass is
often a problem
Overliming Effective at removing most inhibitory Except for acetic acid, expensive to
compounds dispose of the gypsum produced
Adsorption Effective at removing most inhibitory Sugar losses are also high compared
onto compounds with other detoxification methods
activated
carbon
Ion exchange Effective at removing acetic acid, Scale-up is difficult, and particulate
resins economical, reusable matter in the feed stream can lead to
plugging of the packed bed
Enzymatic Specific to a given inhibitory Tends to be particular to a given
detoxification compound inhibitory compound
Membrane- Scale-up usually easy, as compared to Fouling
based packed beds. do not require the use of
processes added chemicals, less waste disposal
concern, highly process
intensification
(180) and xylose (150) in hydrolysate with a specific pore size of membrane
designed accordingly (Qian et al. 2016). The operation parameters to optimize
pressure-driven membrane system performance include pH (to own steric effects),
pressure and temperature (to maintain flux), feed concentration (to optimize concen-
tration polarization), membrane pore size (to enhance rejection ratio), membrane
permeability (as a function of transmembrane pressure), and membrane charge
density (controlling the permeation of charged solute). RO membrane was reported
to produce the best result in terms of simultaneous separation of acetic acid and sugar
from biomass hydrolysate under the specific process conditions such as pH, pres-
sure, temperature, and feed concentration on solute retention (Zhou et al. 2013). The
polyamide and polyethylene sulfate nanofiltration membranes of 150 Da molecular
weight cutoff showed a separation factor of 3 for acetic acid over glucose and xylose
and 7 over cellobiose for a simulated mixture at the optimum pH of 3 (Maiti et al.
2012). The sugar rejection and inhibitor removal performance using real biomass
hydrolysate in batch recycling mode were tested using the nanofiltration (NF) and
reverse osmosis (RO) membranes. The hybrid NF/RO membrane has been reported
to improve sugar rejection with greater removal of selected inhibitors of hydrolysate.
A total of 145.6 g/L sugar titer was obtained contrary to 38.4 g/L at a volume
concentration ratio of 4 (Pan et al. 2019). Thus, the diafiltration method of RO/NF/
RO maximized sugar recovery with inhibitor removal achieved a higher ethanol
yield. Therefore, considering the sustainable model of working with the precise
obtainment of desired fermentable sugar concentration enrichment makes the
membrane-based system the right choice in cellulosic ethanol production at a larger
scale. Though the fouling is a severe problem in the membrane-based separation
system, it needs to be addressed to realize this technology’s economic potential in the
cellulosic bioethanol process at a commercial scale.
Biological Pretreatment
Cost efficacy of the overall process of ethanol production from agricultural solid
waste is still a major challenge in realizing the potential of second-generation
bioethanol at a commercial scale. Different pretreatment methods have been exten-
sively studied to address the issue through each pretreatment method having its own
merits and demerits based on the substrate chosen. The major pretreatment method
comes with associated energy demand and process-generated inhibitor generation in
converting agricultural solid waste into bioethanol. Thus, an economic model of the
pretreatment system is still a challenge in this area. Owing to the intensive cost and
energy involvement and inhibitor generation in most pretreatment methods, the
biological means of pretreatment provides an excellent approach to reducing these
burdens and making the process more sustainable and economical (Sun et al. 2011;
García-Torreiro et al. 2016).
Different bacterial (such as Clostridium sp., Cellulomonas sp., Bacillus sp.,
Thermomonospora sp., Streptomyces sp., etc.) and fungal species (such as
Phanerochaete chrysosporium, Trichoderma reesei, Trichoderma viride, Aspergillus
niger, etc.) have been exploited, extensively studying the impact of biological
pretreatment on agricultural solid waste to improve fermentable sugar yield by the
synergistic action of the various microbial enzymatic systems (Wu et al. 2016;
Sreemahadevan et al. 2018). The biological system offers a great promise in an
overall improved yield of fermentable sugar by the synergistic action of the micro-
bial enzymatic system, i.e., lignin peroxidases, manganese-dependent peroxidases
(with high delignification efficiency), laccases (to prevent the production of furan
derivatives and phenolic compounds at high substrate loading rate), and cellulolytic
and hemicellulolytic microbial enzyme system (for degrading cellulose and hemi-
cellulose to the simple monomeric form of fermentable sugar, i.e., glucose and
xylose).
The enzyme system from the cellulolytic microbial system includes cellulase
consisting of endoglucanase, exoglucanase, or cellobiohydrolase (CBH) (for
breaking down cellulose into cellobiose) and β-glucosidase (for breaking down
cellobiose into glucose). Hemicellulolytic enzyme includes endo- and exo-
xylanases, which hydrolyzes the cross-link of hemicelluloses that cleave the
xylene to generate oligosaccharides (Wu et al. 2016; Sun et al. 2011). Other
enzymes, like β-xylosidases, α-arabinofuranosidase, and esterases, hydrolyze
xylooligosaccharides into xylose, arabinose into furanose and pyranose forms,
and acetyl group into arabinose and ferulic acids, respectively (Wan and Li
2011). Since biological pretreatment employs the microbial system into the pre-
treatment process, several deterministic factors are important to be optimized for
Table 6 Impact of biological pretreatment on improved sugar release

Agricultural solid waste Sugar
Microbes type Condition releases References
Ceriporiopsis corn stover, wheat straw, 28 C; 24.2–56.5%; Wan and Li
subvermispora soybean straw, 18 days 34.2–86.5% 2011
switchgrass, and 30 days
hardwood
Phanerochaete Wheat straw 37 C; 44.7% Zeng et al. 2011
chrysosporium 7 days
T. reesei Aq-5b Rice straw 28 C; 22.74 g/ Wu et al. 2016
and T. viride 2–4 days
NSW-XM
Irpex lacteus Corn stover, barley straw, 121 C; 11.5% García-Torreiro
corncob, and wheat straw 20 min et al. 2016
Alkalophilic rice straw 27 C; 24.95% Sreemahadevan
fungus 14 days et al. 2018
MVI.2011
Trametes Corn stover 7–42 days; 73.99% Sun et al. 2011
hirsuta MTCC 30 C
136
improved and enhanced release of fermentable sugar. Major factors such as

temperature (25–40 C), moisture content (40–70%), incubation time (40–60 h),
and pH (4–5) have been reported to yield more sugars. The impact of biological
pretreatment employing a microbial enzymatic system has been summarized in
Table 6.
The novel Ethanol Fermentation Process for Hydrolyzed Agricultural

Solid Waste
Novel Microbial Strains for Ethanol Production

Microbial ethanol production from molasses is a well-established technology. Sugar
beet, potatoes, com, cassava, and sugar cane juice are also used for ethanol produc-
tion. Sugars obtained from most of the feedstock mentioned above are simple sugars
(hexose). They can be readily fermented to ethanol by using yeasts, especially
Saccharomyces cerevisiae, S. uvarum, S. carlsbergensis, Candida brassicae,
C. utilis, Kluyveromyces fragilis, K. lactis, and bacteria Zymomonas mobilis at an
industrial scale. Presently, attention has been paid to ethanol production from sugars
(hexoses and pentoses) recovered from lignocellulosic biomass, especially agricul-
tural waste through microbial fermentation. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the known
yeast used for ethanol fermentation from hexoses, but it is unable to ferment
pentoses (e.g., xylose). That is a significant disadvantage because pentose sugars
may constitute up to 40% of the biomass’ total sugars (Wu et al. 2016). Due to these
constraints, several microorganisms, such as yeasts and bacteria, have been isolated
or genetically modified, like Escherichia coli, S. cerevisiae, and Z. mobilis, to
GLUCOSE
XYLOSE ATP
2 NADPH 2 NADP
NAD(P)H
ADP
XR
NAD(P) Ribulose 5P G6P
XYLITOL
NAD CO2 F6P
ATP
XDH Ribose 5P
NADH E4P
Xylulose 5P
ADP GLYCEROL
XYLULOSE TAL F1,6DP
NADH NAD
ATP ADP
G3P DHAP GlycP
S7P NAD
NADH
2 ADP
NADH NAD
2 ATP
PYR Acetaldehyde ETHANOL
NAD(P)
CO2 NAD(P)H
ACETATE
Fig. 1 Model of anaerobic xylose and glucose metabolism in metabolically engineered

S. cerevisiae. (Source: Prasad et al. 2007)
generate new biocatalysts capable of consuming pentose and hexose sugar mixtures
for efficient ethanol production.
Lee et al. 2012, reported the constructed operon model encoding xylose and
pentose metabolic enzyme pathway and transforming it into Zymomonas mobilis for
effective fermentation. The recombinant model of plasmids with xylose reductase
(XR) and xylitol dehydrogenase (XDH) gene from Pichia stipitis and xylulokinase
(XK) gene from S. cerevisiae has been successfully transformed into Saccharomy-
ces, which is fast and efficient for the co-fermentation of glucose and xylose (Prasad
et al. 2007). Efforts to metabolically engineer S. cerevisiae for xylose utilization by
inserting the genes encoding XR and XDH from the xylose-metabolizing yeast
P. stipitis have resulted in poor ethanol production from xylose, with mainly xylitol
formed under fermentative conditions. This has been attributed to a redox imbalance
between the cofactor usage of XR and XDH (Fig. 1), limitations in xylulose
metabolism through the pentose phosphate pathway and insufficient induction of
glycolytic and ethanologenic genes.
Many recent studies have shown the potential of genetically engineered microbes,
especially Escherichia coli, S. cerevisiae, P. stipitis, and Z. mobilis, to convert both
hexoses/pentoses into ethanol. These genetically engineered microbes can consid-
erably enhance ethanol production efficiency and decrease ethanol production costs
from agricultural biomass waste.
Optimized Process Condition for Improved Ethanol Production

The selection of efficient microbial strains for ethanol production is extremely
important. However, the bioconversion process also requires a robust and highly
productive process optimization for the microbial strain to produce more ethanol.
Table 7 Ethanol production from various lignocellulosic biomasses

Productivity
Biomass Organism used Optimal condition (g/l/h) Reference
Rice straw Pichia stipitis Inoculum rate @10%, 25.3 g/L Prasad
NCIM 3499 pH 4.5, temp 30 C, for et al.
72 h 2020a
Corn stover Phlebia brevispora 28 C 38.0 0.2 g/g Saha et al.
2017
Sweet Pichia kudriavzevii Inoculum rate @10%, 26.02 g/L Lavudi
sorghum HOP-1 pH 4.5, temp 30 C, for et al.
bagasse 72 h 2017
Wheat Pichia stipitis pH of 2.0–7.0, temp 0.35 g/g Saini
straw NRRL Y-7124 25–35 C et al.
2014
Sugarcane Scheffersomyces Temp 30 C and 200 rpm 31.50 g/L Hilares
bagasse stipitis NRRL- during 48 h et al.
Y7124 2018
Cotton Temp 30 0.5 C, 47.0 g/L Dimos
stalks pH 5.0, and 80 2 rpm et al.
2019
Ethanol production from various lignocellulosic biomasses, the organism used,

optimal operating conditions, and their productivity is presented in Table 7.
Design and Optimization of Ethanol Production

The process design of biomass-based bioethanol production is complex, mainly due
to extreme variability in the mechanistic process stream, unlike chemical-based
processes. The chemical synthesis-based process is a well-established mechanism
for reaction type, process variables, and operating conditions with defined measure-
ment of output or yield (Kamm et al. 2007). Thus, designing biomass-based strat-
egies is still a major field of research and development. However, a few first-
generation biomass-based bioenergy processes such as corn to ethanol and waste
to biogas have been distinctly designed and established (Pham and El-Halwagi
2012). In order to realize large-scale industrial production of ethanol from second-
generation agricultural solid waste, the process flowsheets are extremely important,
considering all the input variable data of the overall process in a more systematic and
organized way. The actual estimation of process economics is largely dependent on
the systematic process block diagrammatic expression with all mathematical func-
tion representation.
The mathematical design of a process is the best tool to assess the system’s
variability in mild and extreme process operating conditions. Process designs are
also best suited to optimize the overall cost of the process with an increased yield of
the desired product by incorporating the requisite changes in the selected variable.
However, considering the extremely ambiguous nature of the ethanol production
process from agricultural solid waste, the avenues are still wide open to address the
field’s challenge. To further improve the process designs in terms of overall cost
minimization and improved yield of the desired product, the process optimization
tools are mostly used in chemical manufacturing systems. Process optimization
originated from process system engineering is primarily used into economic feasi-
bility analysis of a process and thus helps decide the operating facilities at large.
Various mathematical programming tools are used in process optimization ranging
from nonlinear programming to multi-objective optimization. It has been reported
that multiple uncertainties of process originated complexities are often neglected to
keep optimization protocol simpler, easier, and scalable (Acevedo et al. 1996).
The process optimization of bioethanol production from agricultural solid waste
as cellulosic biomass faces severe challenges since the process’s precise and accurate
flowsheet has rarely been designed or published. In most cases, many process
variables as process uncertainty have been neglected or overlooked by the
researcher. Due to the extremely complex nature of the process, the tendency to
overlook uncertainties often results in a compounded effect, leading to a failed
precise estimate of key process indices in terms of unit production cost. The overall
goal of process optimization in most cellulosic bioethanol processes is to improve
techno-economical consideration, thereby enhancing the yield more sustainably and
cost-effectively. Thus, the area of process design and optimization provides a
tremendous opportunity to research and develop cellulosic bioethanol production
at an industrial scale.
Sustainable Framework and Process Economics of Bioethanol

Production
Sustainability Principles for Biofuel Production
The Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB), previously Roundtable on

Sustainable Biofuels, is an international initiative that brings multi-stakeholder
together, especially farmers, companies, governments, non-governmental organiza-
tions, and scientists interested in the sustainability of biofuels production and
distribution. RSB provides tools and solutions that mitigate business risk and
contribute to achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and has the
world’s most trusted, peer-reviewed global certification standard for sustainable
biomaterials, biofuels, and biomass production. The recent RSB Standard is
anchored in 12 sustainability principles. Their underlying criteria are developed to
ensure and address the major environmental and social issues surrounding the use of
biofuels produced from bio-based feedstocks. Most of the RSB Standard is anchored
in 12 sustainability principles adapted from previously released Roundtable for
Sustainable Biofuel production (2008).
The recent RSB mainly focused on the following:
(i) Biofuel production shall follow national laws and international treaties such as
air quality, water resources, agricultural practices, and labor conditions.
(ii) Biofuel projects intend to be designed and operated in participatory processes

that involve all relevant stakeholders in planning and monitoring.
(iii) Biofuels shall significantly reduce GHGs as compared to fossil fuels, which
seeks to establish a standard methodology for comparing greenhouse gases
(GHG) benefits.
(iv) Its production shall not violate human or labor rights and shall ensure decent
work and workers’ well-being.
(v) Its production shall contribute to the social and economic development of
local, rural, and indigenous peoples and communities.
(vi) Its production shall not impair food security.
(vii) Its production shall avoid adverse impacts on biodiversity, ecosystems, and
areas of high conservation value.
(viii) Its production shall promote practices that improve soil health and minimize
degradation.
(ix) Surface and groundwater use would be optimized and contamination or
depletion of water resources reduced.
(x) Air pollution shall be declined along with the supply chain.
(xi) Biofuels shall be produced most cost-effectively, with a commitment to
improving production efficiency and the socio-environmental enactment in
all stages of the biofuel production value chain.
(xii) Biofuel production shall not violate land rights.
Sustainability Index of the Process
Given the due consideration to the ever-increasing global energy demand, bioethanol
from agricultural solid waste has been advocated as a prime biofuel’s solution to
many questions, such as reducing global crude oil dependencies, an alternative to
fossil fuels, and reduction in greenhouse gas emission and environmental security.
Contrary to the fact, cellulosic biomass’s competitive nature with the primary source
of biomass from food and feed has also been reported with citations of further
pressure on ecosystem services. The fossil energy investment in the bioenergy
production chain has been reported as a prime concern for greenhouse gas emission
(Arodudu et al. 2017). Thus, a sustainable model is utterly required to assess the
process sustainability index. The sustainability index of a process is designed based
on the specific basic question as to what (impacts), where (space), when (time), and
who (stakeholders). Each segment of the sustainability index is further divided into
questions as per Fig. 2 (Arodudu et al. 2017).
Lifecycle Assessment as a Sustainability Index Tool of Bioethanol

Production
Bioethanol is the principal energy resource from agricultural solid waste. The
sustainability index of agro-based energies is estimated using lifecycle assessment
Fig. 2 Segment of sustainability index question. (Source: adopted from Arodudu et al. 2017)
or lifecycle analysis (LCA). The decision regarding policy development is largely

based on the sustainability index of the chosen process considering the social,
economic, and environmental burden of the process at large. LCA assesses each
bioethanol production process component on the environment under a precisely
defined set of input conditions of mass and energy balance workflow sheets (Prasad
et al. 2020b). The sustainability index comprises cost-effectiveness, net energy
ratio (NER), and emission generation during production and consumption. Thus,
LCA offers potential tools to set the directive in biofuel policy framework devel-
opment from agricultural solid waste. However, certain avenues are still open in
the LCA method to develop a holistic, sustainable model system, thus developing
the tool further. Therefore, it does also require an improvement in its methodology
to make it further a powerful sustainability assessment tool for agro-based
bioenergies.
Future Prospects
Increasing risk of climate change, air pollution, economic instability, and depletion
of fossil fuel reserves are major drivers for developing economically viable renew-
able energy resources and technological platforms for efficient ethanol production.
Agricultural solid biomass waste could constitute a significant part of the energy mix
for meeting the future energy needed. However, biomass-based ethanol production is
considered complex due to extreme variability in lignocellulosic biomass, conver-
sion process, production of inhibitory compounds, and varying operating conditions.
Nevertheless, to realize large-scale industrial ethanol production from second-

generation agricultural solid waste, its economy is largely dependent on the system-
atic process operating conditions, the ambiguous nature of agricultural solid waste,
and emerging and advances in processing. The process optimization of bioethanol
production from cellulosic biomass faces severe challenges since the process’s
precise and accurate flowsheet has rarely been designed or published. In most
cases, the facts mentioned above and the many other process variables and related
uncertainty are neglected or overlooked by the researcher, often resulting in a
compounded effect, leading to a failed precise estimate of key process indices in
terms of unit production cost. Designing LCA-based and sustainable biomass
utilization strategies can resolve many significant challenges. In the future, sharing
data and techno-economical consideration can play an important role in efficiently
combatting these problems and enhancing the yield more sustainably and cost-
effectively.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be summarized that the interest in bioethanol is increasing

for several reasons, especially reducing reliance on fossil fuels, greenhouse gas
emission, energy and environmental security, benefits of creating employment,
and economic development through new fuel production. This chapter provides
solutions to many challenges in utilizing agricultural biomass waste, including
the complex structure of cellulose, hemicelluloses and their potential to produce
fermentable sugars through various pretreatments and hydrolysis, generation of
inhibitory molecules and their removal, and effect on bioethanol fermentation
efficiency. The pressure-driven membrane-based separation and detoxification
method seems more significant among different conventional methods of remov-
ing inhibitors from lignocellulosic hydrolysates due to its distinctive ability to
rapidly separate and purify process streams simultaneously. Sustainable and
economical energy sources are the utmost requirement, with lignocellulosic
biomass abundantly available at a cheaper rate, converted to ethanol by using
recent the technological advancement. It will help to manage unutilized agricul-
tural waste, as it is burned and creates a serious environmental risk to human
beings. It will serve the requisite energy demand more sustainably and
economically.
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A Community-Driven Household Waste
Management System in the Tea Plantation 33
Sector: Experiences from Sri Lanka Toward
a Circular Economy
H. M. P. Peiris and Nuwan Gunarathne
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 848
Importance of the Waste Management System in the Plantation Sector in Sri Lanka . . . . . . . . . 850
Challenges in the Traditional Waste Management Systems in the Plantation Sector . . . . . . . . . . 854
Project Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 858
New Approach to Manage Suburban and Rural Domestic Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 858
Key Features and Principles of the Novel Waste Management Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 860
Reusing and Circulation of Plastic Materials Within the System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 863
Main Stakeholders of the Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 864
Project Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 864
Channel 1: Through Child Development Centre Parent Committees (CDCPCs) . . . . . . . . . . 865
Channel 2: Via Local Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 866
Project Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 867
Project’s Challenges and Way Forward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 870
Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 871
Remedial Actions Pursued . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 872
Lessons Learned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 872
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 874
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 875
H. M. P. Peiris
Postgraduate Institute of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
Maskeliya Plantations PLC, Maharagama, Sri Lanka
N. Gunarathne (*)
Department of Accounting, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Department of Business Strategy and Innovation, Griffith University, Southport, Australia
e-mail: nuwan@sjp.ac.lk; nuwan.gunarathne@griffithuni.edu.au

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_42
848 H. M. P. Peiris and N. Gunarathne
Abstract
Tea plantations in developing countries, such as Sri Lanka, are generally located
in highly environmentally sensitive landscapes. The plantation sector workers
and their families who live in these regions generate a considerable amount of
household waste. However, due to a lack of infrastructure facilities for waste
collection and processing, a rugged mountain landscape, and a low level of
community awareness and support, the traditional centralized municipal solid
waste collection system in this region has become ineffective, leading to many
health and environmental problems. This chapter aims to present a novel com-
munity-driven household waste management system, operationalized success-
fully in the tea plantation sector of Sri Lanka for several years. It is a pilot project
facilitated by multiple stakeholders in the plantation waste management system.
Following the circular economy principles, the project encourages the segregated
collection of waste materials at the household level by school children and in situ
recycling of biodegradable materials within the estate community. The other
waste materials are sold through a scrap collection network for systematic
recycling. The chapter presents how the project was operationalized and how it
promotes the prospective for a circular economy at a regional level while directly
contributing to numerous sustainable development goals. It also discusses
insightful learning experiences for the countries and areas where municipal
solid waste management systems are ineffective, particularly in mountainous
regions with concentrated communities.
Keywords
Circular economy · Domestic waste · Plantations · Sri Lanka · Waste
management system
Introduction
Sustainable waste management is an essential aspect of achieving the United

Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For instance, in realizing “SDG
No. 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns,” the United
Nations has set out for a substantial reduction of waste generation through preven-
tion, reduction, recycling, and reuse as one of its targets (United Nations 2020).
Besides, waste management is related to many other SDGs such as “SDG No. 14:
Life below water,” “SDG No. 15: Life on land,” “SDG No. 3: Good health and well-
being” (Lenkiewicz 2016).
However, waste management continues to be a severe problem in many devel-
oping countries, such as Sri Lanka, where problems in proper waste management
occur due to lack of regulations and infrastructure, political interferences, inadequate
policy level and institutional support, lack of awareness, presence of a sizable
informal sector, insufficient resources and administrative capacity, and lack of
33 A Community-Driven Household Waste Management System in the Tea. . . 849
funding for municipalities (Fernando 2019; Gunarathne et al. 2019; Gunarathne and
Lee 2019; Guerrero et al. 2013; Wilson et al. 2013). These constraints escalate waste
management to be a significant challenge in Sri Lanka over the recent years, leading
to many socioeconomic issues. For instance, in 2017, a garbage landfill near the
country’s capital city collapsed, killing more than 32 people (see Exhibit 1).
Exhibit 1 Meethotamulla Landfill Collapse in Sri Lanka

Near the capital city of Colombo located a 300-feet high garbage dump in the
village of Meethotamulla, which collapsed due to heavy rains in April 2017,
destroying more than 46 houses and killing 32 people and another 8 missing.
Meethotamulla had been a garbage dumping ground of the nearby city council,
Kolonnawa, for years. However, the waste of the capital city was later directed
to this site, and it was reported that nearly 800–900 metric tons of garbage
were dumped every day before the landslide.
The residents of the area had been protesting against the massive dumping
of garbage at this site for several years as it had caused health, environmental,
and social problems in the nearby villages. Although the site was to be shut
down, the dumping continued as there was no proper place and mechanism to
dispose of the garbage generated in the capital city of Colombo. With the
heavy rainfall in April 2017, the rainwater had infiltrated the dump’s bottom
layers, making it unstable before it collapsed. This tragic incident later became
an eye-opener and a catalyst for the local authorities and the government of Sri
Lanka to take several initiatives for waste management and streamline the
garbage disposal in the country.
Source: Gunarathne (2019); National Building Research Organisation
(2017)
Due to the need for an effective waste management mechanism in the country, the
government of Sri Lanka adopted various initiatives in recent years. Some of these
initiatives include banning certain types of polythene, enforcing mandatory waste
segregation, and capacity building and awareness creation. These developments
have also been the subject area of several studies that explore certain aspects of
waste management in Sri Lanka, such as waste management challenges, opportuni-
ties, and resource recovery (Danthurebandara et al. 2015; Gunarathne 2019;
Gunarathne et al. 2019), municipal waste management (Vidanaarachchi et al.
2006; Fernando 2019; Kumara and Pallegedara 2020), and specific types of waste
management such as e-waste (Gunarathne et al. 2020; Mallawarachchi and
Karunasena 2012). However, only a minimal number of studies have explored
household waste management in Sri Lanka. For instance, Kumara and Pallegedara
(2020) have identified that the socioeconomic factors play a vital role in determining
the waste disposal behavior and methods of households by investigating nationwide
waste disposal information from 2007 to 2016. However, no study has discussed
household waste management in rural mountainous areas such as the plantation
regions so far. This is particularly important as the traditional waste management

systems do not function properly in these hilly areas (Gunarathne 2020). Therefore,
the purpose of the chapter is to explore a novel community-driven household waste
management system operationalized successfully in the plantation sector of Sri
Lanka.
The rest of this chapter is organized as follows: second section highlights the
importance of waste management in the plantation sector in Sri Lanka. Third section
discusses the challenges of the traditional waste management system in mountainous
areas. Fourth section provides an overview of the novel waste management system
followed by a section on project benefits. The next section discusses the challenges
of the project, the remedial actions adopted, and the lessons learned. The last section
concludes the study.
Importance of the Waste Management System in the Plantation

Sector in Sri Lanka
The plantation sector in developing countries is generally located in highly environ-

mentally sensitive landscapes. This is even more applicable to the tea plantation
sector of Sri Lanka, which is mostly concentrated in the Central Highlands of the
country.
The Central Highlands, in which the plantations are located, is home to three
UNESCO World Heritage-listed natural forest ranges, i.e., the Horton Plains
National Park (HPNP), the Peak Wilderness Protected Area (PWPA), and the
Knuckles Conservation Forest (International Union for Conservation of Nature
(ICUN) and United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Moni-
toring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) 2017). They are considered the least untouched
remaining areas of the sub-montane and montane rainforests of Sri Lanka. Besides,
the ICUN has declared the natural ecosystems in the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka
“a biodiversity super-hot spot” in the world (IUCN 2017). These montane rainforests
and adjoining grassland areas harbor more than half of Sri Lanka’s endemic verte-
brates, invertebrates, and flowering plants and more than 34% of its endemic trees,
shrubs, and herb species (ICUN and UNEP-WCMC 2017) (see Table 1 for more
details). The plantations that are located adjacent to these natural forests act as a
buffer zone.
Hence, this region is also considered the heart of Sri Lanka since all major rivers
and widespread subterranean deep aquifer systems that supply water to the entire
island originate there (Wickramagamage 1998; Panabokke and Perera 2005). As
these highlands with its natural montane forest cover receive high rainfall, they act as
cardinal catchments for major rivers, while the lowland plains in the country depend
on this water for cultivating the staple crop of rice and supplemental field crops as
well as for many other human activities. Sri Lanka also has rich agrobiodiversity due
to the crop selection practices of farmers and adaptation to varied ecological
conditions (Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity 2020) and also
due to a partly human-made unique hydrology system (Bebermeier et al. 2017;
Table 1 UNESCO World Heritage-listed natural forests in the Central Highlands

UNESCO World Heritage-listed natural forest
Peak Wilderness Horton Plains Knuckles
Description Protected Area National Park Conservation Forest
Land area [hectares] 22,379 3,160 31,305
Buffer zone [hectares] 37,571 No buffer zone 35,074
Altitude (above 700–2,243 1,800–2,395 1,068–1,906
mean sea level) [m]
Endemic freshwater fish 83% Not available Not available
Endemic amphibians 81% 91% 64%
Endemic reptiles Not available 89% 51%
Endemic freshwater 100% 100% 100
crabs
Source: ICUN and UNEP-WCMC ( 2017)
Geekiyanage and Pushpakumara 2013; Panabokke et al. 2002) that has flourished in
the country for over two millennia. Many recently established inter-river basin
hydro-diversion projects generate hydropower and share the water flow throughout
the country to cater to the agricultural, drinking, and other water needs of urban and
rural communities. Therefore, due to the reasons mentioned above, contamination of
water sources or any other environmental degradation in the Central Highlands
makes a significantly drastic impact on many ecosystems located island-wide, as
well as on the human community who live right throughout the island.
The proper waste management in this region is of paramount importance to prevent
water source pollution. Under the tropical wet monsoon weather patterns prevailing in
Sri Lanka, frequent heavy downpours are common, and water movement is rapid and
violent. Therefore, unlike in flatlands with climatic conditions of relatively lesser
precipitation, efforts on waste-based landfilling in sloppy landscapes such as the
Central Highlands of Sri Lanka may not be a wise move since this could lead to
severe pollution of water resources. Further, any other improper ways of waste
handling in this region could result in similar repercussions that affect the entire
country. Especially with the presence of two interconnected shallow and deep aquifer
systems in the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka (Lees and Gunatilake 2017), the effects
of such contamination could be severe and long term. According to Lees and
Gunatilake (2017), the upper aquifer is a shallow groundwater body within the
overburden and deeply weathered rock. The other is a deep aquifer system at a
depth of the crystalline rock mass. In addition to surface water bodies originating
from the Central Highlands of the island, it is identified that both the aquifers, as
mentioned above, are used as a water source in the local areas for domestic use and
agriculture. Further, Sri Lanka has many other aquifer systems widespread right
around the country which are heavily fed by the natural water bodies (i.e., rivers)
and by the anthropogenic water bodies (such as reservoirs and irrigation-oriented
cascade tank systems), which are supported by the inter-basin hydro-diversion projects
(see Fig. 1). Therefore, the pollution of these aquifers can have a significant impact on
the rural community.
Fig. 1 Rivers and aquifer systems of Sri Lanka
In Sri Lanka, the Central Highlands plantations provide the country’s two main
export agriculture crops: tea and rubber. The world-famous Ceylon tea is mainly
sourced in the plantations in this region (Gunarathne and Peiris 2017). The Kelani
River, which originates at the Horton Plains National Park and Peak Wilderness
Protected Area, is fed by many tributaries that emerge from pigmy forests in the
uppermost areas of montane Sri Lanka. It is the primary source of drinking water for
millions of people in Colombo, the capital district, and its suburbs. Besides, the
country’s major hydropower stations, viz., the River Mahaweli hydropower com-
plex, including Upper Kotmale, Kotmale, Victoria, Randenigala, and Rantembe
reservoirs, and Kelani Valley hydropower complex comprising another seven reser-
voirs, are also located in this region (Peiris and Gunarathne 2021). Therefore,
conservation of this hilly landscape, including its natural and anthropogenic ecosys-
tems, is essential for the country’s hydrological system’s healthy functioning. Proper
execution of systematic waste management in the region is a crucial necessity to
meet the above goal.
Moreover, this region also attracts many tourists to hotspots of natural beauty and
religious importance. For instance, Adam’s Peak, Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic,
and waterfalls attract millions of tourists annually to this territory. However, due to
improper waste management and other virulent agricultural practices of the planta-
tion community, some waterfalls and rivers have already been contaminated (see
Exhibit 2).
Exhibit 2 Contamination of the Mohini Falls

Mohini Falls is a 30-meter-high small waterfall located near the Maskeliya
Reservoir by the side of Sri Pada road, Nallathanniya, Sri Lanka. It is ema-
nating with pristine spring water from the Peak Wilderness UNESCO World
Heritage-listed natural forest. This waterfall gets its name as it resembles the
flowing hair of a lady called Mohini, who, in the local lore, means a lady who
maddens lovers. Despite the pureness of the water at its origins and the natural
beauty of the waterfall, the water is highly contaminated at the falling point
due to human activities of the plantation community in the upper region of the
rivulet (see Fig. 2).
The plantations in the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka remained untouched

mountain forests for thousands of years with incredible biodiversity (von
Blanckenburg et al. 2004). However, during their colonial period, the British cleared
nearly 47% of these forests first for coffee plantations from 1830 to 1880 (Ferguson
1893). For instance, Wickramagamage (2017) reports that 176,455 and 80,163 ha
within 1000–1500 m and above 1500 m of mean sea level of these forests were sold
to the British coffee planters during this period. Later, when the Ceylon coffee
industry was devastated due to the “coffee leaf rust” disease, these lands were
converted into tea plantations. The success of the tea industry, later on, attracted
more European and local planters who further cleared the forest areas for expansion
of the Ceylon tea industry (Sri Lanka Tea Board 2014).
The expansion of the plantation sector demanded a large supply of laborers,
which was met by workers brought from South India (von Blanckenburg et al.
Fig. 2 Mohini falls (left), a notice indicating the water of the fall is unsuitable for consumption
(right)
2004). In particular, since tea leaves are plucked by hand in Sri Lanka to ensure only
the tender leaves are selected, there was a high demand for laborers for this time-
consuming and labor-intensive task. This resulted in a plantation community, which
was zero in the 1820s, being recorded as 975,000 in 1964 (Wickramagamage 1998).
These plantation workers were brought from drier parts of South India, and hence,
they were alien to the tropical montane natural ecosystem in the hill country of Sri
Lanka. Later on, their lifestyle led to various environmental issues such as improper
waste management, loss of biodiversity, soil degradation, animal poaching, and
contamination of water sources (Peiris and Gunarathne 2021).
Challenges in the Traditional Waste Management Systems in the

Plantation Sector
The recent improvements in the plantation community’s lifestyles and living stan-
dards promoted higher consumption of packed food materials, electrical and elec-
tronic appliances, building materials, agrochemicals, and personal/family vehicles.
These changes in their consumption pattern have led to a noticeable increase in waste
generation in this territory. This is clearly observable in the plantation sector in the
Central Highlands of Sri Lanka. The failure of the traditional waste management
systems in this region is attributable to two broad reasons: (a) common factors and
(b) region-specific factors.
In terms of common factors, Sri Lanka faces many sustainable development
challenges in its pursuit of rapid economic development in a post-conflict period.
Thus, many other deserving priorities, such as health, housing, infrastructure devel-
opment, and education, undermine the importance of proper waste management.
Consequently, little attention has been paid to suburban and rural areas in the country
so far. Therefore, waste management has become one of the country’s most signif-
icant challenges and a serious environmental issue at present, mostly due to the lack
of infrastructural facilities for waste collection and processing (Fernando 2019;
Gunarathne et al. 2019).
In addition, many other region-specific factors make the widely practiced
waste management approaches unsuccessful in the plantations located in hilly
terrains. In the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka, waste is mainly managed by
regular door-to-door waste collection by the local councils. The waste collected
in a locality is either landfilled or sent to a recycling facility or both (Fig. 3
illustrates the material flow of the centralized solid waste management systems in
the plantation regions).
As presented in Fig. 3, only a small amount of domestic waste from the nearest
housing clusters reaches the local councils’ central waste collecting point under the
current conditions. When the housing clusters are located far away from the munic-
ipal councils, there is a greater tendency for them to burn, open dump, or throw the
waste into the rivers. Therefore, a major portion of the total domestic waste gener-
ated in the plantation communities is not disposed of sustainably, leading to water
pollution and many other problems already described in this text. Besides, even the
portion of waste that reaches the central collection center is more or less mixed and
needs costly re-segregation, where the perishable food waste part is diverted for
composting. The low-grade plastic and polytene segments are directed for
landfilling. Only a fraction of waste is channeled to specific recyclers for systematic
recycling. However, there is no way to prevent leachate formation during
composting and landfill operations resulting in soil, air, and water source pollution
in this centralized waste management system.
The traditional municipal solid waste management system, where waste is col-
lected and sent to a central location for management, has been mostly unsuccessful
in this region for several reasons:
• Firstly, the local councils do not have sufficient resources for the collection and
treatment of waste. For instance, they do not have adequate human resources,
collection trucks, recycling facilities with advanced technology, and enough
waste treatment capacity. Due to the lack of awareness, attention, and regulations,
the waste is collected in mixed forms, often in plastic bags, making the processing
a challenge.
• Secondly, the residences of the plantation communities are found in clusters that
are located widely apart from each other and spread over the mountainous terrain.
This makes most of these household clusters inaccessible to the collection
vehicles of the local councils.
• Thirdly, there are difficulties in collecting and transporting the waste due to the
poor conditions of the road networks stretching over steep sloppy territories.
• Fourthly, due to unawareness and low education levels, the plantation communi-
ties pay little interest and provide inadequate support for waste management.
Rather than disposing of waste through the municipal solid waste management
system, they prefer to dump waste in the nearby surroundings (see Exhibit 3).
856
Fig. 3 Material flow of the centralized solid waste management systems in plantation regions
H. M. P. Peiris and N. Gunarathne
Exhibit 3 Plantation Community in Sri Lanka

The plantation community in Sri Lanka represents a special community,
compared to the other plantation communities in different regions of the
world. They were originally recruited from the arid zones of South India to
the island by the British. During British rule, these communities were kept
confined to plantations for generations with strict restrictions on people’s
inward and outward movements. Consequently, they have virtually lost their
social and cultural roots over the generations due to this long period of social
isolation. Besides, due to the less attention paid to their social and economic
development, this community has a low human development level. For
instance, they have a considerably lower literacy level and higher infant
mortality and maternal mortality rate births than the other ethnic groups in
the country. They currently pay no attention to waste management due to low
education levels and eroded cultural values and prefer to get rid of waste by
open dumping, burning, or throwing to waterways.
Source: United Nations Development Program Sri Lanka (2012)
Consequently, several previous attempts made through pilot projects to address

the plantation sector’s waste management problem have failed. This has led to
improper waste disposal methods such as open dumping and heaped up burning,
which threaten this area’s highly sensitive ecosystem (Gunarathne 2020) (see
Fig. 4). For instance, throwing domestic waste into waterways (Fig. 4-left) and
heaped burning of waste (Fig. 4-right) are common waste management practices
seen in the plantation sector.
Meanwhile, for the plantation companies, safe and proper disposal of domestic
and industrial waste is a requirement for the certification standards of the Rainforest
Alliance, Product Carbon Footprint, Fairtrade Labeling Organization, and ISO
22,000/200 (Gunarathne and Lee 2020). Therefore, the plantation companies have
taken several initiatives to deal with the improper waste disposal methods adopted
by the plantation communities. However, most of these efforts have been unsuc-
cessful and ineffective due to the inadequate response of the worker community and
Fig. 4 Open duping and burning of waste by the plantation community

other difficulties faced by the local government bodies. Certain local government
bodies have been reluctant to accept even the waste in segregated form since they do
not have proper recycling mechanisms to handle it. Therefore, plantation companies
have faced difficulties in managing household solid waste in the plantation sector
with conventional methods.
This improper waste management situation in the plantation sector has created
many environmental and human health problems. Perishables, including kitchen
waste and fresh green matter, have encouraged the breeding of pests, pathogens, and
vector species such as rats, house flies, cockroaches, mosquitoes, and fruit flies. As
stated previously, almost all plantations are in and around the Central Highlands of
Sri Lanka. Therefore, a significant proportion of the region’s waste is washed away
during the rainy season and flows into waterways due to the sloppy terrain, contam-
inating soil and water source and polluting the drinking water supply, severely
threatening the community’s health.
Project Overview
New Approach to Manage Suburban and Rural Domestic Waste
This section provides an overview of the recently introduced multi-stakeholder-

supported community-centric sustainable waste management program. This novel
waste management system was first started in one of the tea estates in the Maskeliya
area in the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka in 2015 to overcome the problems
associated with the plantation sector waste management issues. It offered an inno-
vative way to manage domestic waste in the plantations by focusing on the specific
factors that cause difficulties in waste management in the area. Later, in early 2018,
this initial concept was further developed as a pilot project conducted in four estates
in the Maskeliya region of Sri Lanka. The needed initial funding, a significant
constraint in initiating a project, was overcome with partial financial support through
the “Innovation Fund Grant” facility by Save the Children International, a UK-based
international non-governmental organization. The grant was offered in the form of
an integrated home gardening promotion and water quality improvement project in
the plantation households. This was initially commenced as a Child Development
Center (CDC)-based community nutrition enhancement program that targets preg-
nant mothers and children below the age of 2. The plantation company co-funded the
project under their corporate social responsibility initiatives while incorporating the
community waste management part to the project.
This integrated waste management model was designed based on the notions of
“circular economy” and “climate-smart agriculture” (see Exhibits 4A and 4B)
concepts by integrating home gardening and animal husbandry into a systematic
segregated waste management process. The rationale behind integrating the above
sectors is to create shorter material cycles within the plantation system by reusing
and recycling waste materials in situ. Besides, special attention was paid to collect
active community involvement and the other local stakeholders’ engagement in
project operations by creating win-win situations for all parties. Therefore, this
domestic waste management model was designed by focusing more on the in situ
generation of human food materials such as eggs, milk, meat, fruits, and vegetables
by establishing functional homesteads within the plantation housing clusters. Hence,
this novel concept was named “Food Yielding Domestic Waste Management Sys-
tem” (FYDWSM). The rest of the household waste materials, such as glass, paper,
and metal, are domestically sorted and channeled to the waste collectors. Selling
these materials provided an additional income, especially for the young children
involved in the project.
Exhibit 4A Concepts of the Circular Economy

The circular economy model is a concept that replaces the traditional linear
economic model developed based on the “take-make-dispose” policy. In a
linear economy model, virgin natural resources are extracted, converted into
products, and disposed of after consumption, leading to the end-of-life
treatment of waste. This linear economic model leads to a massive amount
of waste that ends up in landfill or incineration. Moreover, it requires a
constant supply of natural resources, leading to severe natural resource
erosion. On the contrary, a circular economy model aims to bridge the gap
between production and natural ecosystems’ cycles. It is based on three
principles: minimization of waste and pollution, extension of the lifespan
of currently existing products and materials through long-term use, and
revitalization of natural systems to circulate resources and sustainably
resynthesize products. The circular economy is based on the premise that
there is no such thing as waste. The circular economy model recognizes a
difference between technical material cycles and biological resource cycles.
Biologically based materials such as food and other organic waste are
directed to the natural systems through composting and anaerobic digestion
processes in the biological cycle. Since these systems are regenerative, these
resources provide renewable resources to an economy. The technical cycle
replaces the end-of-life waste treatment with resource recovery options such
as reuse, repair, remanufacture, or recycle. To this end, products are designed
to last long and optimized to facilitate disassembly and reuse.
Source: Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2015); Suárez-Eiroa et al. (2019)
Exhibit 4B Concepts of Climate-Smart Agriculture Approach

Climate-smart agriculture is a broad concept promoted by the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. It is an approach that guides
actions necessary to transform and reorient agricultural systems to effec-
tively support development while ensuring food security in a changing
(continued)
climate. Climate-smart agriculture aims to achieve three main objectives: (a)

strengthening food security by sustainably increasing the agriculture pro-
ductivity and farmer incomes, (b) adapting and building resilience to chang-
ing climatic conditions, and (c) reducing and/or removing greenhouse gas
emissions. Thus, climate-smart agriculture is considered as a system of
agricultural practices that sustainably increase crop, land productivity, and
ecosystem resilience while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The new waste management concept promoted in this project closely
follows the principles of climate-smart agriculture principles. Firstly, this
system strengthens the local food security of the plantation community and
their household income. Secondly, it introduces disease-resistant crop vari-
eties while facilitating vertical growing plant pots mounted on outside walls
of homes beneath the roof. This was done to protect the crops from rain
damage. Thirdly, this new concept minimizes greenhouse gas emissions
by avoiding the usual composting process and landfill operations that
breakdown biomass into CO2 and other greenhouse gases. Instead, it
traps and transforms nutrients into human food materials through animals
and plants.
Source: Food and Agriculture Organization (2013)
Key Features and Principles of the Novel Waste Management

Program
This novel waste management system had certain salient features in its design and
implementation. These features are listed below:
• Separation of discarded food materials, such as kitchen waste and other fresh
biomass (leaf litter and hedge trimmings), from all other household waste types at
the point of origin.
• Transformation of nutrients in kitchen waste into eggs, meat (using the same as
food for hens), and poultry manure within a short period.
• The leafy biomass (fresh green) is fed to small domestic ruminants (e.g., goats,
sheep, rabbits). This offers a more efficient and rapid way of converting nutrients
than the traditional method of composting perishable waste.
• Focus on children as key change agents and actors in domestic waste segregation
at the household level by motivating them to earn pocket money by selling waste
items.
• Avoidance of a central collection of waste by facilitating waste collectors (scrap
dealers/recyclers) to visit the households and other waste collection entities
directly. This new system reflects a transformation of the present push system
into a pull system of waste management (see Fig. 5).
Fig. 5 Material flow of the novel waste management system
As presented in Fig. 5, the new concept emphasizes the separation of food waste
and all other perishable fresh biomass at household and other entity levels (i.e., their
point of origin itself and prevention of mixing with other types of domestic waste).
These nutritious fresh materials are fed to domestic animals and rapidly transformed
into eggs, milk, meat, and animal dung within hours. This process minimizes
greenhouse gas emissions and the formation of other pollutants in a normal
composting or decaying process. The nutrients in animal dung are resynthesized
and converted back to human food through the home gardening process. It
strengthens the food security of the communities while closing the loop for biolog-
ical material digestion in situ. The plastic containers of different shapes are reused in
home gardening as planting pots. The rest of the domestic waste types are carefully
segregated, cleaned, and maintained by the children in the community until being
sold to the regularly visiting scrap collectors to earn pocket money. Besides, low-
grade plastic and polythene are molded into planting pots and returned to home
gardening, closing that material loop.
As described above, the focus of this alternative waste management program was
to separate food materials (biomass) from other types of household waste such as
paper, glass, metal, plastics, and e-waste as and when they are generated (see Exhibit 5).
Exhibit 5 Importance of Separating Perishable Waste at Source

Generally, the biomass, together with food waste and fresh green, tends to
perish rapidly, forming many pollutants when handled in bulk form or large
quantities. Food waste is concentrated with nutrients; it supports the propaga-
tion of a vast range of life forms, including pests, pathogens, and vector
species. They may vary from bacteria, fungi, insects, and even troublesome
mammals such as rats and wild boars. Moreover, decaying perishables emit
(continued)
toxic gases with foul odors, causing air pollution and the greenhouse effect. In
addition, nutrient-rich kitchen wastes form organic acids and many other
corrosive compounds during digestion and decomposition by the
abovementioned biological agents. Such corrosive chemical agents react
with metal and various hazardous materials present in the waste.
Numerous chemical reactions occur when various waste types such as
metal, e-waste, and paper are exposed to the organic acids and other corrosive
chemical compounds formed during the decomposition of biomass. As a
result, many elements, including toxic heavy metals and hazardous com-
pounds in e-waste, scrap metal, and other waste types, get converted into
water-soluble compounds and are turned to be mobile with water in the form
of hazardous leachate. Such waste-born, highly hazardous leachate can pollute
soil, surface water bodies, and groundwater reserves in a wide range of land,
causing severe and long-term hazardous impacts on human health, environ-
ment, and biodiversity.
Therefore, the abovementioned chancy situations could be significantly
minimized by separating the biomass-based food materials (i.e., discarded
food and other fresh plant materials) at their source and avoiding those getting
into contact with the other types of waste generated in the households.
This new waste management system focused on diverting the biomass waste to a
fast track recycling process by feeding it to pets, poultry, and other small domestic
ruminants (i.e., goats and sheep). This process is rapid, efficient, and eco-friendly,
compared to the conventional and widely used method of composting the perishable
domestic waste (see Exhibit 6). Further, this method prevents propagating many
possible pests, pathogens, and vector species such as rats, house flies, cockroaches,
mosquitoes, and fruit flies, which was a common problem in the previous waste
management system.
Exhibit 6 Use of Animals as Recycling Agents for Food Waste

The animals are excellent biomass recycling agents created by nature,
although this fundamental fact has been neglected in the present waste man-
agement systems. The animal digestive systems are naturally designed to
process the nutrients trapped in biomass in highly efficient ways within a
very short period while facilitating the smooth running of natural nutrient
cycles. Animals can convert the food materials, including the hard parts such
as fiber, wood, or even the animal bones, into dung within a day, converting
the same into manure, the plant food. Domestic cats and dogs are classic
examples of their ability to crush and digest animal bones. Based on this
capability of animals, the plant materials such as fruit peel, vegetable waste,
(continued)
and hedge trimmings were fed to goats and sheep, while cereals, other small
grains, and animal parts in the food waste were used as poultry feed.
In both the above cases, the food waste is converted into organic manure
within one day, completing a speedy 1-day composting process. Similarly,
animals trapped and recovered a part of the nutrients while transforming the
retrieved nutrients as their body mass (e.g., meat, milk, and eggs).
Like many other waste management systems, composting of perishables was

widely promoted in the traditional waste management systems operating in this
region. However, that had never been successful and, thus, had been soon abandoned
by the community due to its ineffectiveness and troublesome nature under the
domestic conditions. A usual proper composting process under standard
recommended conditions generates 70 C plus temperature that destroys many
troublesome organisms. However, such a temperature level is hardly achieved
under the colder climatic conditions prevailing in the Central Highlands. Conse-
quently, the efforts made on composting have become safe breeding grounds for
many troublesome life forms. This problem was remedied in the alternative waste
management method. Moreover, farm inputs and poultry were supplied to the
identified families by the project.
It promoted the use of animal dung as an organic manure for home gardening,
where the nutrients identified in waste were transformed into fruits and vegetables
for human consumption. In effect, it completed the nutrient/material cycle within the
homestead clusters itself. Meanwhile, scrap collectors were engaged to channel other
synthetic (nonperishable) waste types found in domestic waste.
Reusing and Circulation of Plastic Materials Within the System
This project encouraged reusing of plastic containers of various shapes such as water
and beverage bottles, buckets, and poly sacks to grow plants in home gardens instead
of disposal or burning. Therefore, some of the plastic materials are reused within the
plantation community with this move. These containers were used as hanging
baskets and for other applications of growing using the vertical space, such as
exterior wall-mounted plant pots placed beneath the roof. This growing method
enabled the protection of plants from exposure to heavy rain. It also provided a
solution to prevent rain damage to the crops. The project also explored the possibility
of molding low-grade polythene and plastics into planting pots of various shapes in
collaboration with the Central Environment Authority of Sri Lanka. This seems to be
a practical possibility since high-quality parameters are not expected to plant pots at
rural homestead-level home gardening. Hence, the conversion of polythene and
plastics into low-cost planting pots offers a climate-smart solution for the disposal
of low-grade polythene and plastics, establishing a fully closed plastic material cycle
in situ in the landscape of the plantation itself. This initiative facilitates a sustainable
model for an internal plastic cycle within the community while facilitating home
gardening. If not for this project, such low-quality plastics and polythene would
probably end up in a landfill in the Central Highlands or in an incinerator.
Main Stakeholders of the Project
Usually, in Sri Lanka, the central government and local government authorities are
mandated with waste management. In addition, the institutions associated with
health services, environment conservation/management, and agricultural promotion
work in isolation to achieve their goals without formulating integrated multi-
disciplinary efforts toward waste management. Therefore, the plantation company
played the most important role by creating a common platform for all stakeholders to
add a synergic effect. This aspect was accomplished by inviting high-ranking
officials of each relevant institution for the initial community/school awareness
programs to raise awareness of their role within the project while meeting their
institutional mandates. Later on, the project was structured to create win-win situa-
tions for all stakeholders, including government institutions, while interacting to
meet multidisciplinary project goals.
During the design and implementation phases of the project, many stakeholders
were involved. The plantation community is the main stakeholder/beneficiary party
of this project. The international non-governmental organization, “Save the Children
International,” played an essential key role as a co-funding agent of the project in
collaboration with the plantation company. Furthermore, the plantation company
played multiple roles such as project concept developer, coordinator, and implemen-
ter by creating a platform to perform their roles for all stakeholder parties for the
project’s proper functioning.
Besides, many other stakeholders engaged in this project, playing different yet
vital roles; the stakeholder parties included government institutes such as the Central
Environment Authority, local government bodies, the Department of Health Ser-
vices, the Department of Agriculture, the National Livestock Development Board,
and the Department of Education. The representatives from the local scrap collection
network also participated in the awareness building programs initially. Later, they
became the primary driving force of the project. Table 2 provides a list of the roles
played by different stakeholders in the project.
Project Implementation
This new waste management concept was introduced to the plantation community
through various channels and implemented in several steps:
• First, the types of waste generated in households in selected estates were identi-
fied through a survey.
Table 2 Different roles played by the key stakeholder groups

Stakeholder Contribution/role played
Plantation community Waste generators
Main beneficiaries
Save the Children international Nutrition awareness resource provider
Co-funding agency
Plantation company Project concept developer
Implementer
Coordinator/mobilizer
Co-funding agency
Beneficiary party
Central Environment Authority Awareness and training service provider
Environmental regulator
Local government bodies Awareness and training service provider
Department of Health Services Awareness and training service provider
Department of Agriculture Sustainable home gardening promoter
Planting material provider
Agricultural advisory service provider
National Livestock Development Board Veterinary service provider
Department of Education School waste management program mobilizer
Local scrap collection network Beneficiary in terms of monetary gains
Waste collection network establisher
• Second, project teams were set up, comprising superintendents and medical teams
of the particular estates.
• Third, the new concept was introduced to the community through awareness
programs conducted for small groups. These awareness programs were channeled
to the community via two paths, as described below, which included several steps.
Channel 1: Through Child Development Centre Parent Committees

(CDCPCs)
The project formulated working committees consisting of estate worker parents,

child development officers, and members of the estate medical teams. Household
waste management teams were established within CDCPCs, and the estate health
teams monitored the functioning of these teams. Besides, a series of community
awareness programs were also conducted focusing on health hazards, environmental
ill effects, and the legal penalties on the violation of laws targeting the adult members
of the community. In the meantime, a regularized and daily door-to-door food waste
collection mechanism was arranged for the food waste generated within each
housing cluster for the efficient functioning of the system. The said food waste
collection process was run with the engagement of neighboring smallholder domes-
tic poultry farmers living within the community. At the same time, technical
guidance on sustainable home gardening and seed materials for gardening were
provided to the community with the sponsorship of the Department of Agriculture.
Model home gardens were established in child development centers run by the
plantation company and maintained with the involvement of CDCPCs.
Channel 2: Via Local Schools
Awareness programs on the new waste management concept were conducted in the
local schools, where both the schoolteachers and children were chosen as messen-
gers/mindset changing agents to the community. Another parallel school awareness
program conducted focused on income opportunities, health benefits, and the pre-
vention of environmental pollution across the project. Demonstrations on this waste
management concept were conducted in the schools, educating the school commu-
nity, households, and children (see Fig. 6). Similarly, sustainable home gardening
models were established in schools following the awareness programs in this project
in collaboration with the education authorities and the Department of Agriculture.
The waste material dealers operating in the area were invited to participate in school
awareness programs, where they expressed their preparedness in collecting segre-
gated waste items at the household level, if the waste materials are cleaned and kept
separated. As agreed, the local scrap material dealers established an organized
network for the collection of waste materials by appointing their agents within tea
estates to visit households periodically and gather segregated waste materials. The
rest of the waste types were sold through these local scrap dealers in the segregated
form. These materials, such as paper, plastics, metal, and electronic waste, were
channeled for systematic recycling through the scrap collection network.
Fig. 6 An awareness session conducted in a school

In addition to the said awareness building approaches, the concept of the new
waste management model was brought into practice by appointing estate-wise
project mobilizers to organize household waste segregation activities. The promo-
tion of animal husbandry and home gardening within the community was attended
by the project mobilizers and estate-level project teams. The estate-level project
teams comprised superintendents, estate medical teams, and the selected target
group’s family members. Technical guidance on sustainable home gardening was
monitored with the help of a regional agriculture instruction service. The provision
of crop seeds and other planting materials for gardening was made through the
officers attached to the Department of Agriculture and the Provincial Ministry of
Agriculture.
In the meantime, the progress of the project was closely monitored through
regular follow-up sessions. The site-specific challenges during the implementation
of the project were attended to on time by providing pragmatic solutions. Reviewing
the project progress and proper record maintenance was carried out continuously
through a feedback network established within the estate-level project committees
and program mobilizers.
Project Benefits
As already emphasized, the main focus of this alternative waste management

program was to separate perishable fresh biomass (i.e., kitchen waste and fresh
foliage) from other types of household waste such as paper, glass, metal, plastics,
and e-waste at the point of origin. This segregation of perishable biomass and its
diversion to feed animals at the homestead level alone led to many benefits.
Although this simple move seems primitive, it dramatically prevents the forma-
tion of harsh and toxic compounds, resulting in the generation of hazardous
leachate and pollutant gas emissions. Further, such a measure also helps to arrest
the degradation of other waste types while facilitating the material reusing/
recycling processes, providing many tangible benefits to the industry and the
environment, as elaborated below. Besides, the prevention of toxic leachate
generation offers a massive positive impact on the hydrology and the public
health of both local and downstream communities. Especially in the present case
of the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka, where the majority of river systems
originate from plantation landscapes, such an impact is widespread over the
entire nation.
The local community embraced this new concept with a robust affirmative
response because of the many apparent and tangible benefits. The project contributes
to SDG No. 1 (End poverty) in many ways. Firstly, it provided certain additional
income to households by selling discarded items for recycling. Secondly, it
supported the households with safe and nutrient-rich food materials from their
home gardens, giving relief to family food bills while offering the option of earning
an additional household income by selling eggs, vegetables, and fruits. Thirdly, the
project would reduce medical expenses due to high-quality food materials. Cleaner
Fig. 7 A home garden and farm established under the project
potable water and hygienic living surroundings established for the inhabitants were
few other benefits to the society. Similarly, this project has generated about 12–15
direct employment opportunities for waste collectors.
As stated above, the project is aligned with SDG No. 2 (End hunger and improve
nutrition) in many ways. Poultry and small domestic ruminants (i.e., goats and
sheep) in the system as recycling agents for the separately collected food materials
in this system alone made a significant change within the plantation housing
environment. This includes the generation of high-quality animal protein products
such as eggs, chicken, milk, homegrown fresh, hygienic, and nutritious foodstuffs
such as fresh vegetables, fruits, and medicinal products for the family and neigh-
borhood communities (see Fig. 7). The saving on the family food bill and income by
home gardening provided additional purchasing power for the plantation communi-
ties to afford high-quality food materials.
The project also contributed to SDG No. 3 (Healthy lives and social well-being)
by providing nutritious, fresh, and hygienic homegrown food supplies for family
members’ physical health. Further, it also supported improved mental health within a
family due to relaxing and enjoyable home gardening activities. The absence of
waste in the living surrounding also minimizes the propagation of pathogens and
biological vector species. Hence, this project has positively contributed to the
prevention of infectious diseases and non-communicable diseases within the imme-
diate vicinity. Further, it also plays a role in preventing non-communicable diseases
at the national scale by reducing the pollutant load to the Kelani River, one of the
primary drinking water sources of millions of people living in Colombo and
suburban areas.
This is particularly important as the poor living standards of the plantation worker
community are not because of low family income but due to the lack of awareness on
the importance of maintaining such standards. This knowledge gap was bridged by
intense awareness programs launched through many channels and change agents to
the community. These channels include government public health clinics and agri-
culture extension services through agriculture instructors, while the change agents
include school children, estate health teams, and waste collecting agents. The project
has now become a community-driven venture in Maskeliya and Upcot regions,
spreading well beyond its original scope due to the high quality of education
provided in their local language. This project empowered mostly the women of the
families by improving their knowledge of good housekeeping and family nutrition,
income status, and affordability to necessities contributing to SDG No. 5 (Gender
equality). It also induced higher social recognition for the persons (mainly ladies)
who were seriously involved in home gardening with this new waste management
concept.
The separation of food (kitchen) waste in its fresh form and trapping nutrients
(recycling) in situ through biological recycling with domestic animals is a
significant breakthrough in this concept. All other components found in domestic
waste are also systematically separated and directed for recycling processes. This
method of waste segregation and management minimized the possibilities of
contamination of rainwater (by smoke and gases due to open burning) and surface
water bodies and groundwater reserves (by direct dumping and leachate forma-
tion in landfills). This led to cleaner water aligned with the SDG No. 6 (Clean
water and sanitation). The wood parts such as twigs, sticks, and branches of
garden plants born within homesteads were used as firewood in the households,
which offset the family energy bill while promoting SDG No. 7 (Affordable and
clean energy).
Well-segregated clean materials directed for recycling through the project offered
decent work conditions for the waste handlers employed in material collection and
recycling processes. The materials diverted to the waste recycling industry were
relatively clean and free from hazardous leachate, mainly due to the separate removal
of kitchen waste at its origin, arresting the mobility of many hazardous chemical
elements preventing the interactions between the constituents due to the absence of
organic acids and other corrosive compounds formed during food waste decompo-
sition. Thus, costs incurred on additional handlings, such as cleaning and segrega-
tion after the collection, were minimized, improving the profit for scrap collectors
and waste material dealers falling in line with SDG No. 8 (Decent work and
economic growth). Further, this system itself was an industry innovation leading
to SDG No. 9 (Industry innovation and infrastructure). This project eliminated the
requirement for community-level common waste collection structures since the
discarded materials from homesteads are kept separately under clean and dry
conditions. These materials are disposed of through a waste material collector
network. The kitchen waste is directed for in situ biological recycling processes
through domestic animals and home gardening. These features provided an innova-
tive alternative to a centralized municipal waste management system that had not
been successful in this region.
As mentioned above, the living standards of the plantation community are low,
mainly due to a lack of awareness and education. This project educated the commu-
nities through various awareness programs conducted for school children, teachers,
parents, and other community layers. These programs were conducted in their local
language to improve their effectiveness. As a result of the above efforts, the
plantation worker community’s living conditions were upgraded by this project
with cleaner and livable surroundings that support SDG No. 11 (Sustainable cities
and communities).
Due to the empowerment of school children with requisite knowledge of waste

management, a trend was set for responsible consumption of household materials
and proper disposal of waste in the Maskeliya area. The school children were the
vital changing agents in this process. They made a significant impact within the
society to gradually change the day-to-day habits adapted over centuries at a
family level, aiding SDG No. 12 (Ensuring sustainable consumption and produc-
tion). Additionally, the other communities living within the plantations and the
populations dwelling downstream of the water bodies become the additional
beneficiaries since the project systematically removed pollutants and prevented
their drinking water contamination. Owing to the proper waste management
system, there was a positive impact with reduced greenhouse gases, such as
methane and carbon dioxide, from the dumping and burning of waste. Thus,
the project has resulted in positive contributions toward SDG No. 13 (Climate
action).
The project also has a direct positive impact on SDG No. 14 (To conserve water
and life beneath water). The waste dumps are reduced within the community as the
project deals with domestic solid wastes and directs them for systematic recycling
processes. Thus, the generation of hazardous waste leachate was minimized, pre-
venting ground, air, and water pollution. These impacts contributed to secure life on
the ground, which is in line with SDG No. 15 (To protect and conserve the
biodiversity on land).
Further, the disputes between neighbors over waste disposal have been min-
imized due to the implementation of this project at the estate. The local govern-
ments have also joined hands with the plantation company to promote this
concept purely because it provides a great relief on the proper handling of
waste they are mandated with. Therefore, this project has induced institutional
and social harmony, which is also in line with SDG No. 16 (Peace and harmony,
strong institutions) within the region. The project integrated many institutions,
including the Central Environment Authority, the Department of Education, the
Department of Agriculture, the Department of Health Services, local govern-
ments, the National Livestock Development Board, and waste material collectors
and dealers in the area, establishing a strong partnership between public and
private institutions. This situation has created a trend among the officials to
extend support by even treading beyond their institutional boundaries to facilitate
the project. This approach is in line with SDG No. 17 that is sought to foster
partnerships.
Project’s Challenges and Way Forward
As explained previously, this novel waste management system has been successfully
operated for more than 4 years from its initiation. Over these years, many challenges
have been encountered and resolved. However, there are many unresolved chal-
lenges this system still faces, which are discussed in this section and presented as the
lessons learned.
Challenges
• Changing the existing waste disposal behavior of the plantation community

As mentioned already, the plantation community in Sri Lanka represents an
isolated community of historical deprivation with a low level of human develop-
ment (United Nations Development Program Sri Lanka 2012). Accordingly, their
level of education and concern for the environment, compared to the rest of the
population of the country, is at a lower level. Changing their long-established
unsustainable waste disposal behaviors is one of the main challenges the project
faced. Especially convincing them to segregate the food waste while separately
collecting other nonperishable waste items at the household levels was not an
easy task.
• Resistance to change behavior displayed by some other stakeholders
The novel waste management project requires changing the existing
unsustainable waste management and disposal practices adopted by the plantation
communities and stakeholders involved. Hence, it involved a change in the
existing practices of many other stakeholders. As usually experienced in any
change program, the introduction and implementation of this novel waste man-
agement system faced resistance to change from several stakeholders, including a
few high-ranking officers of the plantation sector. Due to their resistance, some of
the initially selected trial sites had to be changed. Further, these high-ranking
individuals had provided baseless and even false information and reports to the
project facilitators, which affected the motivation and morale of the team mem-
bers of the novel waste management project to a certain extent.
• Impacts of extreme weather conditions
• During the project’s implementation phase, there were few spells of extreme wet
weather conditions in succession experienced in the Central Highlands of Sri
Lanka. This affected the outcomes of the home gardening efforts while discour-
aging the plantation communities. It also resulted in a high mortality rate of the
poultry birds distributed to the beneficiary households.
• Handling of large and different waste streams
Before this project was implemented, a considerable portion of the waste of the
plantation communities was either open-dumped or thrown into the water. How-
ever, this project encouraged the segregation of different waste streams and
channeling them to the waste collectors and recyclers. This resulted in a large
volume of waste materials such as glass, metal, paper, and cardboard being
directed through the proper channels. It posed a challenge to handle such a vast
volume of waste, as the collectors and recyclers did not possess sufficient
capacity. Besides, waste segregation also resulted in new waste streams collected
at household levels. For example, e-waste items such as CFL bulbs, lithium
batteries, and discarded electric/electronic appliances previously open-dumped
or mixed with household waste are now separated. However, as Gunarathne et al.
(2020) highlight e-waste management is a challenge in Sri Lanka due to the
unavailability of processing facilities, authorized collectors, and competent recy-
clers. Thus, the collection of e-waste in rural areas is considerably problematic as
most of the e-waste recyclers are concentrated in the Western Province of the
country. Therefore, the collection and management of a large volume of waste
quantities and new waste streams are considerably challenging during the project
implementation.
• Recycling of plastic and polythene waste materials
As explained before, a large quantity of plastic and polythene was collected at
the household level separately. Eventually, there was a strong demand developed
for clean and high-quality plastic materials collected. However, due to the
absence of a lucrative market for recycling low-grade plastic and polythene, the
collectors were unwilling to collect them. Hence, the management of a high
volume of low-grade plastic and polythene was quite a challenge during the
project implementation phase. This required exploring alternative solutions for
plastic and polythene waste management.
• Coordination of a large number of actors
Implementing a project of this nature requires the active participation and
support of many government institutions, recyclers and waste collectors, and
local government authorities. These different facilitators have their objectives
and mandates to operate. Especially, this is particularly important for the govern-
ment institutions that have a formal order to operate on. During the project
initiation and implementation, the project had to face the challenge of convincing
these different parties to come to a mutual agreement and work closely.
Remedial Actions Pursued
In order to overcome the challenges mentioned in the previous section, various

strategies had to be followed during the project initiation and implementation
phases. While Table 3 presents explicitly the remedial actions adopted, they can be
broadly identified as education, capacity building, awareness creation, coordination
of different parties, identifying common interests, and adopting waste mitigation
strategies.
Lessons Learned
Although this project was implemented with a specific geographical focus, it offers
valuable insights into implementing similar projects elsewhere. More specifically,
the project provides opportunities to learn how to adopt community-driven sustain-
able household waste management systems as an alternative to centralized municipal
waste management systems or in situations where such centralized waste manage-
ment systems fail:
• Firstly, the project highlights the possibilities of finding locally acceptable,

inclusive, and sustainable solutions to overcome the failures of municipal solid
waste management systems in mountainous areas. This project demonstrates the
Table 3 Remedial action adopted for the challenges of the project

Challenge Remedial actions pursued
Changing the existing disposal Use of children as change agents
behavior of the plantation community Conduct of continuous community awareness
programs
Creation of earning opportunities through selling
waste
Launch of competition and evaluation system to
promote the best homesteads.
Resistance to change from other Continuous dialogue and coordination with project
stakeholders facilitators
Motivation of the team members
Encouragement of members who pioneered the
implementation of the concept to establish model
homesteads to impress others
Impacts of extreme weather conditions Redistribution of fresh stocks of planting materials and
providing close technical guidance
Distribution of new livestock
Resupply of mature animals which are more adaptable
to varying weather conditions
Handling of large and different waste Introduction of new waste collectors to the system
streams Capacity building of the waste collectors and recyclers.
Recycling of plastic and polythene Minimization of the generation of polythene waste by
waste materials promoting the reuse of bags in home gardening
Introduction of plastic pot manufacturing system for
home gardening
Coordination of a large number of Constant dialogue with higher-order officials in the
actors system
Establishment of a multidisciplinary working team by
engaging all actors
Identification of common areas to work collaboratively
need to find creative solutions to address the waste management problems of

different communities by identifying their socioeconomic and cultural back-
grounds and designing acceptable waste management systems catering to their
needs. It also points to the need to identify alternative waste management systems
to the widely practiced centralized waste management systems when local coun-
cils lack the necessary capacity, skill, and infrastructure in handling waste.
• Secondly, it highlights how the children can be engaged as change agents to
change the unsustainable waste disposal behaviors of mature generations with a
low education and awareness level. As this project shows, the children act as
catalysts for change by creating internal pressure within the households to change
the existing irresponsible waste management patterns. Such a shift in focus in
waste management not only enables the gradual change of attitudes and behaviors
of adult generations but also ensures the support of future generations for
sustainable waste management systems.
• Thirdly, this novel waste management concept shows the need and the possibility
of actively engaging different formal and informal stakeholder groups in
community waste management projects. In this process, constant dialogues and

maintaining coordination are essential to focus on and meet the different stake-
holder expectations and mandates to create win-win situations for all parties
engaged.
• Subsequently, it also shows that serious waste management problems can be
addressed by drilling down to the core of the issue and finding in situ solutions
to address such issues. As the project demonstrates, the leading cause of the
failures of household waste management systems is mixing kitchen waste with
other synthetic (nonperishable) waste items. Thus, strategies should be sought to
make the waste problem creators a part of the solution.
Conclusion
This chapter aims to present an alternative community-driven household waste

management system initiated in the plantation sector in the Central Highlands of
Sri Lanka. Due to geographical constraints, low community education, and insuffi-
cient support levels, a centralized municipal waste management system had failed in
this region for years despite the various strategies adopted. This unsuccessful waste
management system adopted in a highly environmentally and socio-ecologically
sensitive region has led to various health and environmental problems. It has also
affected the communities living in the low downstream lands that depend on the
water sources that originate in this territory. The chapter provides how a locally
acceptable community-driven waste management system was initiated and
operationalized in this area by following the circular economy and climate-smart
agriculture principles. The chapter presented how the project was initiated,
discussing in detail how the project benefits play a crucial role in realizing SDGs.
In order to successfully and productively apply this novel household waste
management system, certain conditions should be satisfied. Firstly, this model is
best suited for rural and suburban regions where most residents have adequate
garden space to establish homesteads. Space availability is essential for home
gardening and rearing animals. Secondly, it is essential to establish a network of
waste collectors for different waste streams who would pay a reasonable price for the
waste purchased. This is a possibility as the waste generated through this system is
clean, and hence, the collectors or recyclers can save cost and time on cleaning and
separating them. As a result, these cost savings should be shared with the waste
generators (in this case, households and children) to motivate them to provide clean
and separated waste materials. Thirdly, since this model promotes home gardening
and animal farming, the supply of technical services and monitoring on domestic
agriculture and animal husbandry is essential. The availability of these services will
play a crucial role in overcoming unforeseen challenges (e.g., disease outbreaks) and
obtaining maximum productivity through home gardening and farming. Fourthly, a
central project implementer should be designed for various project activities and
coordinating different parties. The project implementer should also organize various
activities to keep the momentum of home gardening through rewards and
recognition via competitions. This is an important aspect to consider as it will be

challenging to encourage the community members to start home gardening in the
first instance. As this project’s experience reveals, once the role model gardens are
set up and recognized through award schemes, there will be a gradual diffusion
process, whereby the rest of the households get motivated to join. As Abrahamson
(1991) and Rogers (2003) suggested in their famous theory of diffusion, many first-
time adopters are driven by various motives over time. For instance, by seeing the
early adopters’ success, some households would join the bandwagon of home
gardening in the later years gradually. Thus, the central project implementer needs
to provide continuous rewards, monitoring, and recognition for a considerable
period until a majority of the community joins such a program.
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Sludge Waste Management Techniques
and Challenges in Water Resources Supply 34
Mu’izzah Mansor and Mohd Omar Fatehah
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 878
Sludge Management Practice in Several Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 879
Sludge Disposal Options in Water and Wastewater Treatment System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 881
Anaerobic Digestion of Wastewater Treatment Sludge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 882
Dewatering of Wastewater Treatment Sludge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 883
Thermal Process of Wastewater Treatment Sludge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 884
Land-Based Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 887
Reuse of Water Treatment Sludge as Construction Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 888
Reuse of Water Treatment Sludge in Pollutant Removal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 892
Challenges of Water and Wastewater Treatment Sludge Management Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 893
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 896
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 897
Abstract
The sludge production has escalated due to the increased demands for clean water
throughout the world. Sludge management has become a significant challenge
whereby the sludge removal operation generated from numerous industrial activities
is recognized as an ecological burden for the society. Sludge management can be
divided into different stages such as sludge production, treatment, and disposal. In
order to safely manage sludge efficiently, many sludge management studies have
been reviewed to identify the advance scientific and technical information covering
aspects of sludge production, characterization, management, agricultural and con-
struction material reuse, and ultimate disposal. The sludge production (in terms of
quantity and quality) at the wastewater treatment plants where the sludge
M. Mansor
School of Civil Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia
M. O. Fatehah (*)
School of Civil Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Engineering Campus, Penang, Malaysia
e-mail: cefatehah@usm.my

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_43
878 M. Mansor and M. O. Fatehah
accumulation rates are being evaluated. In addition to that, spatial distribution of

bottom sludge has significant impact on the sludge production in order to estimate the
effectual sludge removal and the most suitable disposal technique. Sludge treatment
techniques such as aerobic digestion and anaerobic digestion in advance of agricul-
tural usage are influenced by local climate conditions where temperature plays an
important role in the performance of the treatments. Other treatment techniques often
applied is incineration. Some of the countries favors thermal processes considering
their need of sludge volume reduction. Risk studies of direct land application of the
sludge as agricultural fertilizers had been ongoing, and the mineralized nitrogen in
the fertilizers are also quantified due to the potential leaking of excessive nitrogen
into the nearest groundwater supply available.
Keywords
Sludge management · Sludge disposal · Thermal treatment · Sludge reuse · Water
treatment sludge
Introduction
Generally, the waste stabilization pond (WSP) system is claimed to be one of suitable
system to treat various organic effluents by the mechanisms administered through
the prevailing local climate and environmental conditions. This pond system ideally
practiced for small communities when enough land is available because this rela-
tively simple and inexpensive treatment technology (Keffala et al. 2013). One of the
crucial issues when the pond system being governed is the direct settlement of some
suspended solids in the reactors causing large fraction of sludge to be transformed
into biogas through anaerobic digestion. Thus, the accumulation of
non-biodegradable residue at the bottom of the pond affect the performance of the
pond by reducing the effective volume, changing the shape of bottom surface and
shortening hydraulic residence times of the pond. Therefore, the 50% of the world-
wide waste stabilization ponds system require desludging. Improvising the sludge
management technique is the key solution to abate the accumulation of sludge from
the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP).
Some of the researchers claimed the biosolids as a valuable resource for rehabil-
itation of mine dumps and agricultural usage especially when the sludge is from the
small or medium wastewater treatment plant where the pollutants contents lower.
Biosolids is defined as organic by-product of urban wastewater treatment plant. The
use of biosolids in agriculture need to be managed and controlled at every level from
the treatment facility and centralized storage facility until the spreading of the
product to land. The highest sludge producing countries were Germany, United
Kingdom, Spain, France and Italy with the percentage almost 73% of total sludge
produced in European Union (EU-15) countries while Poland was listed as the
greatest sludge producer among EU-12 countries contributing 42% of total sludge
amounts (Kelessidis and Stasinakis 2012). The differences of sludge volume
34 Sludge Waste Management Techniques and Challenges in Water Resources Supply 879
produced in those countries are due to the variations in population percentages being
served by centralized wastewater treatment systems and the wastewater treatment
applied in each country.
According to Kelessidis and Stasinakis (2012), more than 90% of population in
Germany and United Kingdom are connected to urban wastewater treatment as
compared to the Eastern Europe countries. Mentioning the type of treatment applied,
countries, namely, Finland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Netherland implement
tertiary treatment in municipal wastewater at percentages higher than 80%, while
secondary treatment is mainly used in EU-12 countries (Kelessidis and Stasinakis
2012). Besides, the usage of extended biological processes (e.g., extended aeration
systems) is known to produce smaller amounts of sludge comparing to the conven-
tional methods. Most of the studies discussing on how to treat the sewage sludge as
highest percentage of sludge accumulated globally comes from the wastewater
treatment system. As far as the study goes, the concern always highlighted on how
to manage the wastewater treatment sludge. However, the sludge generated from the
water treatment system could not be ignored as the population growth boost the
demand of clean water which induced the increase in sludge accumulation all over
the world. The main issue raises during water treatment process are the sludge
disposal as the large quantity of sludge residues are generated and it is called
water treatment sludge (WTS) (Ahmad et al. 2016; Babatunde and Zhao 2007;
Bourgeois et al. 2004). Therefore, this chapter will study on the methods of sludge
disposal from water treatment system likewise the wastewater treatment sludge other
than the common practice of landfilling.
Sludge Management Practice in Several Countries
Sludge generated from both water treatment system and wastewater treatment
system. In order to meet the need for clean water supply, the production of clean
water from the water treatment plants (WTPs) increased (Ahmad et al. 2016;
Babatunde and Zhao 2007). Nonetheless, the practice all over the world are different
considering the climatic change and financial issue on how to manage the sludge
either from wastewater treatment system or water treatment system. In Europe, waste
stabilization ponds are widely used for rural communities where the population
approximately up to 2000 populations to counter the sewage sludge. Larger systems
are administered in Mediterranean France were installed as well in Spain and
Portugal (Keffala et al. 2013).
In North Africa, one of the large stabilization pond located in Tunisia and
administered for 150,000 habitants. In USA, one third of all wastewater treatment
plants are waste stabilization ponds, usually serving up to 5000 habitants. In
warmer climates, namely, Middle East, Asia, and Latin America, ponds are com-
monly used for large population (up to one million). Other than waste stabilization
ponds, USA also promotes land application and incineration methods. The sludge
recognized as potential nutrient source in USA that gave them flexibility to manage
through agricultural application, landscaping, land reclamation, and forestry
(Christodoulou and Stamatelatou 2016). According to Keffala et al. (2013), Japan

applied thermal processes of sludge are favored to reduce the volume of sludge to
the disposal site.
In other source, several thermal methods had been used in Japan other than
incineration such as gasification, drying, and carbonization due to desire in the
generation of alternative power, heat, and fuel source (Christodoulou and
Stamatelatou 2016). It further stated that magnesium ammonium phosphate recovery
from sludge and the final product of anaerobic digestion are commercially promoted
for the organic fertilizer production as long as the quality standard are followed. In
comparison to the aforementioned countries, Australia demonstrated the dominance
in the agricultural application of sludge due to the fact negative public opinion, high
capital, and operational cost of incineration.
Based on Fig. 1, in Poland, 29% of sewage sludge is generated from the treatment
plants, 13% of the generated sludge is used for agricultural land as fertilizers, while
11% undergone thermal conversion into energy (Nyakuma et al. 2017). There 6%
and 4% is composted and send to landfill respectively.
Previously, Ireland disposed of the sewage sludge to the sea and now the sludge is
treated by thermal drying process and reused as agriculture fertilizers. Biosolids
produced by thermal drying process are considered similar to the commercial
fertilizer due to their nutrient contents (Keffala et al. 2013). Meanwhile in the
Gaza Strip, there are numbers of sludge management options had been studied
such as the utilization of sewage sludge for agricultural use with restriction of
10tds/acre/y, co-disposal with solid waste and sludge incineration for energy recov-
ery (Nassar 2015).
In European Union countries, most of them invested in the incineration facilities
despite the cost extensive processes and potential environmental problems where
Netherlands demonstrated 100% incineration of the sludge, followed by Belgium
(90%), Germany (50%), Denmark (45%), Portugal (30%), and few others (Raheem
et al. 2018; Christodoulou and Stamatelatou 2016). Whereas in China, the
Fig. 1 The percentage of Percentage utilized (%)

sludge production in Poland in
year 2014 (Nyakuma et al.
2017) 3
13
29 6
11
26 4
Agriculture Land reclamation Compost production Thermal conversion

Landfilling Bulk Storage Other uses Accumulated
commonly employed disposal method is landfilling with 63%, followed by agricul-

tural applications (14%) and incineration (2%) (Raheem et al. 2018; Wang and
Zhang 2015).
Other than the large volume of wastewater treatment sludge, world are facing the
large amount of sludge or residues generated during the processing of raw water to
make it feasible for daily use and to be consume as drinking water (Ahmad et al.
2016). Few years back, the sludges are being disposed to the landfill as one of the
sludge management practice as it is considered as less expensive method; it is not a
proper solution due to the possible water bodies contamination (Ahmad et al. 2016;
Okuda et al. 2014). Despite, the sludge containing high concentration of coagulant
(aluminum) forcing them to simply dump their accumulated sludge to a nearby open
land as the sludge are not fit to be landfilled (Ahmad et al. 2016). Recently, the
researchers had done a serious investigation on the best approaches called sustain-
able approaches to reduce the amount of sludge production by reusing the sludge as
substrate in constructed wetlands, cement production, brick, and ceramic production,
lightweight aggregates in manufacturing and raw material in concrete and mortar
(Ahmad et al. 2016). They further claimed that agricultural application is one of the
sustainable approaches in sludge management where the physicochemical charac-
teristics of the water treatment sludge allow their application as soil substitute.
Generally, the sludge will be dewatered after discharged and send to the landfill
considering its low-cost method. However, this method had been a huge issue when
the sludge accumulation increased. In some countries, water treatment sludge are
permitted to be utilized in brick making (Ahmad et al. 2016), ceramic making
(Kizinievic et al. 2013), cement making (Yen et al. 2011; Rodríguez et al. 2010).
The water treatment sludge can be added to produce brick at the temperature brick
kiln usually attained and the sludge can also be incorporated ceramic materials and
can be partially substitute clay to make ceramic brick (Ahmad et al. 2016). From all
the wastewater sludge management mentioned above, it can be perceived as most
countries favor thermal process and land application to dispose their sewage sludge
whereas some of the countries choose to incorporate their water treatment sludge
into construction material such as cement and brick.
Sludge Disposal Options in Water and Wastewater Treatment

System
More attention had raised to the increase amount of residual sludge that obtained as
impurities precipitated during water treatment processes of different stages and the
methods of its disposing. The way of disposal of this sludge is becoming a major
concern in water treatment plants. Globally, there are difference in the methods (with
and without treatment) adopted and used to discharge the sludge in most of the water
treatment plants, which have a severe environmental impact. The increase in alumi-
num concentrations that caused by the discharging of this sludge into water body
affects the aquatic organisms and human bodies (Algamal et al. 2018). This had
caused the need of implementation of rules and regulation in order to execute a
proper sludge management worldwide. Several studies by other researchers reported

the usage of water treatment sludge in the building material manufacturing, namely,
cement, bricks, concrete, as well as the conventional ceramics worldwide in UK,
USA, and Taiwan (Algamal et al. 2018; Godbold et al. 2003; Huang et al. 2005;
Toya et al. 2007).
Water treatment sludge also being reported in USA regarding the cost-effective
technology for arsenic soil remediation using water treatment sludge particularly
(Aluminum and Iron based) as its effects and capacity in the reduction of human
risks from arsenic contamination (Algamal et al. 2018; Nagar 2008). A variety of
chemical, physical, or biological approaches had been practiced for sludge reduction
and their development and applications on lab and pilot scale are not new to the
researchers. This study had been ongoing since 1990s (Andreottola and Foladori
2006). The bricks mixtures were evaluated in the sense of technological production
properties such as firing temperature and environmental impact (leaching behavior)
(Algamal et al. 2018). Godbold et al. (2003) researched on the incorporation
potentiality of aluminum and ferric coagulant sludge in different products, e.g.,
clay brick making. Several researchers had succeeded in producing bricks using
different proportions of clays, incinerated ash together with two different types of
sludge (sewage and water treatment sludge, and incinerated-ash). Some even
succeeded in preparing good quality of first-degree brick that comply with their
country’s standard specifications (Algamal et al. 2018).
The commonly used disposal methods in the wastewater sludge industries are
anaerobic digestion, dewatering, incineration, gasification, agricultural use, making
construction material, or ultimate landfill disposal. Other alternatives in sludge
disposal routes are stockpiling, compost products in landscaping, land remediation
for polluted or eroded land to improve the vegetation, forestry, horticulture, and land
reclamation (Christodoulou and Stamatelatou 2016). The landfill disposal of sludge
has been a favorite option in many countries because it is low cost, easy, and simple
option. In these few recent years, many researchers concluded that land filling is one
of the least desirable options because the sludge are not be able to be reuse in any
significant way. Few researchers address the landfill disposal as an emergency
measure for sludge that too contaminated for any reuse purposes (Keffala et al.
2013; Nassar 2015). This chapter will investigate other disposal options than landfill
disposal.
Anaerobic Digestion of Wastewater Treatment Sludge
Digestion is the most common methods of producing energy from sludge. Anaerobic
digestion of sewage sludge has been practiced at wastewater treatment plants for
decades and it is known to be efficient and environmentally sustainable technology
which enables energy production as heat, electricity, and/or vehicle fuel, as well as
stabilization and volume reduction of sludge (Luostarinen et al. 2009). This process
also reduces pathogens through antibiotic reactions. It stabilizes organic matter by
reducing mass, volume, and moisture content so that the organic wastes become
feasible for further disposal options such as compost fertilizer (Keffala et al. 2013).
United Kingdom has digested raw sludge before disposal using a digester gas and
dried sludge as fuel. In Manchester, the sludge digestion used to treat sludge has help
them in the energy industry from the generation of electricity on site by the gas
products from sludge. These methods are said to be the stabilization process in order
to make its handling, transferring, or thermal processing easier and to enhance the
biogas yield and reduce the solid residue (Christodoulou and Stamatelatou 2016;
Cimochowicz-Rybicka 2013).
Anaerobic digestion has a lot of benefits either technologically, socio-
environmentally, or economically. Technologically, the digestion produced
methane-rich and high calorific value biogas. This technology creates jobs and
increases skilled labor force to combat unemployment, decrease use of firewood to
avoid deforestation, replace chemical fertilizer with organic fertilizer, and significant
reduction in carbon emissions thus offer a reduction in air pollution (Raheem et al.
2018). The study further stated that anaerobic digestion gave abundant economic
benefits such as profitable energy from the digestate, reduce transport and disposal
costs, cost-effective fertilizer, green entrepreneurship, and sustainable development.
The final product are biogas and digestate where the biogas comprises 60–70%
methane which can be utilized for various application such as gas engines, electric-
ity, and/or heat meanwhile digestate containing high amounts of nutrients (e.g.,
phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen), which can used as fertilizer and compost
(Raheem et al. 2018). The application of anaerobic process at landfill sites will
improve methane capture as fuel source for electricity generation and heat and also
decrease CO2 emission. In conjunction to that, energy from sludge in the form of
biogas ensures energy security, a reduced dependence on fossil fuels, and green-
house gas emissions.
Dewatering of Wastewater Treatment Sludge
Dewatering processes and sludge drying are applied as sludge management method.
Mechanical dewatering and dewatering by drying are the example of sludge
dewatering. Dewatering of sludge by drying consist of sludge drying beds, solar
drying, and desludging a waste stabilization pond.
First, the technologies of mechanical dewatering to reduce the water content of
sludge but the capability to inactivate the pathogens are questionable (Mihelcic
2018). The methods are belt filter press and centrifuge. According to Mihelcic
(2018), a belt filter press is a mechanical device where sludge is added to a
moving belt at ambient temperatures and that is squeezed to remove water
meanwhile centrifuge consists of a bowl where solids are moved to the wall by
centrifugal force and scraped out by a screw conveyor (Mihelcic 2018; Mihelcic
and Zimmerman 2014; Strande et al. 2014). A study from five treatment plants in
United Kingdom proved that E. coli concentrations did not increase when the
sludge was dewatered by a belt filer press (Mihelcic 2018; Monteleone et al.
2004).
Second, other than mechanical dewatering, sludge dewatering also possible

through water evaporation, plant transpiration, or vertical transport of water out
of a layer sludge spread over a layer (Mihelcic 2018). The study further stated the
examples of sludge drying beds such as convection drying, contact drying, open
sludge drying beds, reed beds, and solar drying. Since the technologies
performed under same fundamental properties, solar drying is chosen to be
further explained. The technology are expected to reduce bacteria and pathogenic
virus concentration in the sludge. Usually, the sludge dried prior to anaerobic
digestion. Drying work better in dry and warm climates compared to wet and cold
climate (Mihelcic 2018).
Solar drying is one of the sludge dewatering technique by drying. The system
involved drying bed that in higher rainfall areas can be enclosed in drying chamber
with ventilation system in order to achieve final solid concentration of 70–90%. The
sludge can also be turned and aerated by manual labor (Mihelcic 2018). The
pathogen mostly destroyed due to the reduction of moisture content and exposure
to higher temperatures. Lastly, the dewatering can be achieved by desludging a waste
stabilization pond. The desludging waste stabilization pond are divided into two
methods, namely, wet removal and dry removal. The wet removal requires the usage
of pumps, vacuum trucks, and dewatering equipment (Mihelcic 2018; Picot et al.
2005).
Thermal Process of Wastewater Treatment Sludge
Three common thermal treatment being practiced as one of the alternatives to

manage the sludge produced from the industry are incineration, gasification, and
pyrolysis. This thermal process involved the conversion of sludge into energy for
power supply and by-product which sometimes controversial to the environmental
and economic conditions. This is where the comparison of these three processes are
required to ensure the suitable treatment are chosen.
Incineration
Incineration had been seen as one of the options for the sludge disposal. Incineration
technology had been viewed as one of the most favorable treatments where few
developed countries advocate thermal treatment prior to land application such as
USA and Ireland. Incineration is known as an exothermic oxidation process of
biosolids producing flue gas containing CO2 and H2O ash and certain amount of
heat (Raheem et al. 2018; Wu et al. 2016). The incineration method produces a
minimum volume of material for final disposal in condition where air emissions
must be controlled. These few recent years in the event of energy shortage, the
energy prices rose to the extend where the sludge incineration should be given a little
priority (Keffala et al. 2013). Improved dewatering facilities are required to reduce
the energy consumption to decrease the water contents in the sludge cakes. However,
this method only feasible on a large scale, high capital, and operating cost and
require expert technician to operate.
Incineration reduced about 90% of the sludge volume with the destruction of
pathogens. The recovered heat is used to produce steam via steam turbines to be
converted into power supply (Raheem et al. 2018; Tyagi and Lo 2013) Afterwards,
land filling is still needed as 30% of sludge solids remain as ash (Nassar 2015;
Raheem et al. 2018). Sludge incineration are established to recover the energy in the
form of electric power in these past few years where fluidized bed incinerators is an
example of considerably efficient methods due to the lesser emissions corresponding
to CO, NOx, and N2O present in the flue gases with the estimation that almost 50% of
the energy saving. (Raheem et al. 2018; Thorpe et al. 2017).
The product from the incineration called ash can be further utilized as an
ingredient in aggregate products, in bricks, tiles, and other building materials
(Christodoulou and Stamatelatou 2016; Egan 2013).
Gasification
According to Raheem et al. (2018), gasification of sludge involved four main stages,
namely, drying, pyrolysis, combustion, and reduction. Gasification is known as the
conversion of dried sludge into combustible gases known as syngas comprising H2,
CO, CO2, and CH4) under at the temperatures of 700–1000 C reducing the volume
of sludge (Raheem et al. 2018; Roche et al. 2014; Peng et al. 2012). The calorific
value of syngas is said to be suitable as a fuel for heating, steam turbine, and gas
turbine (Raheem et al. 2018; Silkarwar et al. 2016; Werle 2015).
Gasification technology facing several challenges resulting in lower gasification
efficiency such as higher moisture content (approximately 80 wt%), lower heating
value and high production of condensable organic matter which also known as tar
(Raheem et al. 2018; Silkarwar et al. 2016). The tar removal is important to improve
the gasifier operation to avoid blocking the tubing and fouling the downstream
apparatus and this treatment process causing additional operational costs (Raheem
et al. 2018; de Andrés et al. 2016).
Pyrolysis
Pyrolysis is one of the thermal conversions performed in an oxygen deficient
environment generating vapors at the temperature of 350–900 C (Raheem et al.
2018). The vapors need to be condensed through cooling in order to separate the
liquid or oil, leaving behind char (solid product) (Raheem et al. 2018; Tian et al.
2013). The quantity and the quality of the output products (liquid, gas and char)
depend on the process conditions including operating temperature, reaction time,
and pressure (Raheem et al. 2018). This method is said to be applicable due to its low
operating temperature and yield high amounts of char which can be use as solid fuel
for heat. This solid product has been seen as cost-effective catalyst for soil condi-
tioning. According to Raheem et al. (2018), pyrolysis also referred as zero waste
technology as it potentially satisfied the environmental criteria concerning the
economic and social issue.
Table 1 shows the comparison between incineration, gasification, and pyrolysis of
sludge. The phosphorus content (P), cadmium content (Cd), and sulfur content
(S) are monitored in the sludge cured by those aforementioned processes. The
Table 1 The comparison between incineration, gasification and pyrolysis of sludge produced
Characteristic Incineration Gasification Pyrolysis
Technological - Well-established and - Turn various - It converts both raw
advantages reliable types of waste and digested sludge
- 90% sludge volume into a valuable into bioenergy
reduction raw material - Non-burning and zero
- Almost complete - Potential waste process
destruction of toxic organic co-feeding with - Bio-oil: used to
components and pathogens biomass produce various
- heat recovery to power the - High energy chemicals and even as
team turbines efficiency a fuel.
- Marketable - Biochar as by-product
products: for soil conditioning.
combustible gas
to produce
methanol.
- Energy self-
sustaining
Technological - Dewatering of the sludge is - Dewatering and - Complex when
disadvantages required drying are compared with
- Incineration can be energy essential incineration
deficient - Require gas - Dewatering
- Far from Zero Waste cleaning for requirement limits the
method syngas application
applications - Products have not
very well established so
the product remained
unused
- Limited technological
acceptance by the low
economic value of the
produced oil
Social- - Low emission of - Lower - Lowest emission of
environmental Greenhouse Gases (GHG) environmental GHG than incineration
advantages compared to open burning impacts due to lower
- Co-combustion with other - Turn a waste temperature and
conventional fuels such as into energy oxygen absence
coal can reduce GHG - Turns waste into a
emissions and public valuable raw material
acceptability.
Social- - Strong public’s - Heavy organic - Air pollution
environmental - Opposition pollutant - Production of char
Disadvantages - NOx and SO2 emission compounds in the that require additional
- Waste emission such as ash exhaust stream cost to landfilling them
and fly ash
Economic - Energy saving - Large scale - Large scale operation
advantages - Existing infrastructure operation
- Co-firing with conventional - Green
fuels entrepreneurship
- Sustainable
development
(continued)
Table 1 (continued)
Characteristic Incineration Gasification Pyrolysis
Economic - Strict and expensive - High investment - High investment cost
disadvantages emission control and operation cost - Unstable economic
- High cost of the flue gas environment
cleaning and ash disposal
problem
Phosphorus 10.3 11.2 8.0
content in ash
(wt%)
Cadmium 63 13 53
content in ash
(mg/kg P)
Sulfur content 1.0 0.3 0.8
in ash (wt%)
Raheem et al. (2018); Thomsen et al. (2017); Campo et al. (2017); Borea et al. (2017); Samolada
and Zabaniotou (2014)
phosphorus content indicated that the sludge is good for making P-fertilizer mate-
rials, meanwhile sulfur is the important macronutrient for plants (Thomsen et al.
2017). The cadmium content is monitored due to the toxicity characteristics and
often seen as limiting factor in food production. Based on the table given, it can be
concluded that gasification is the most preferable method in order to cater environ-
mental issue of cadmium (Cd) content in the sludge by-products. According to
Kominko et al. (2018), the limit of Cd content are set to level of 60 mg/kg of
P2O5 and the value with be tightened to 40 mg/kg after 3 years and to 20 mg/kg after
12 years of application.
Land-Based Applications
Some of the countries saw the sewage sludge as a good alternative of fertilizer
products for crop plantation probably facing difficulties because the quality of
the fertilizer depends upon climatic conditions, soil’s physical characteristics, and
the nutrients present in the sludge itself (Keffala et al. 2013). The study shows the
increase in rice yields using the compost of sewage sludge. Agricultural usage had
been seen as the alternative to incineration method due to the Circular Economy
policy concerning controlling CO2 emission and nutrient recycling (Kominko et al.
2018). They had seen agricultural application as recycling method confirming the
application is in line to the key elements of resource-efficient policy of the Circular
Economy in order to reduce cost, limit waste generation, and stimulate economic
growth.
The increase in fertilizer demand in coming years are expected due to the vast
global population growth leading to the food demand increase where the presence of
phosphorus in sludge residue can cover up to 20% of the fertilizer demand (Kominko
et al. 2018; Lee 2011). Milieu Ltd report had claimed about 37% of the sewage
sludge was recycled in the EU countries but the percentage of usage for agricultural
usage varies from country to country. More than 90% of the sludge in Norway had
been used for soil application as land recycling is considered the most environmen-
tally sustainable option. Other than improving sludge management, agricultural
application able to decrease harmful effect caused by micropollutants and heavy
metals on the environment and human health, reduce the concentration of soil
contamination, and sludge-derive fertilizers can bring economic benefits (Kominko
et al. 2018). A study by Faubert et al. (2016) stated the benefits of land application of
sludge are soil quality and soil fertility improvement by increasing organic matter
content, nutrient content, and water holding capacity to increase crops yield. For
example, the land application of pulp and mill sludge can increase in soil microbial
activity (e.g., fungi and bacteria), enzyme activity, and biomass (Faubert et al. 2016;
Gallardo et al. 2010).
In comparison to the sludge from the waterworks industries, the water treatment
sludge is applicable by the spreading of the sludge onto or incorporation into the soil
surface in order to stabilize, degrade, and immobilize the sludge (Babatunde and
Zhao 2007). Few years back, the reuse of waterworks sludge become notable when
the lime softening sludge are used to substitute agricultural limestone. Currently, the
reuse of sludge had drawn public attention as alternative disposal routes to reduce the
volume of accumulated sludge and even had the ability to enhance soil quality in
terms of soil structure improvement (Babatunde and Zhao 2007). They further
reviewed on the water treatment sludge suitability to be used as soil substitutes
considering the presence of humic substances and sediments from raw water making
them similar to the fine-textured soils and “economy grade-high clay content” soils.
The sludge also feasible to be utilized as soils pH buffer as lime-containing sludge
has been used for soil conditioning and pH adjustment (Babatunde and Zhao 2007).
The water treatment sludge also suitable as biofertilizer in order to improve the
soil quality as it has nutrient reduction substances to combat the excess nutrient
presence in the common biofertilizers which may eventually leak to the water bodies
nearby. This is because the water treatment sludge has the hydrous oxide acting as
substantial P-fixing capacity to remediate phosphorus excess contents in surface
runoffs (Babatunde and Zhao 2007). In another study by Ippolito et al. (2011), it
stated that after 7.5 year, the water treatment sludge still reduced total labile P in run
off and leachate and suggested that immobilized P in the sludge was stable and will
remain fixed indefinitely as long as the solid integrity of the sludge is maintained.
Reuse of Water Treatment Sludge as Construction Materials
Nonetheless, few researchers had expressed their concern by experimenting and

suggesting alternatives to dispose the water treatment sludge. The water treatment
sludge has been a major crisis when the demand for clean water for daily purposes
escalated drastically. In order to understand the methods to dispose the sludge
generated from the water treatment plant, the location of sludge generation should
be identified. The conventional water treatment system involves few processes
starting from the water intake at the dam, screening, aeration, coagulation/floccu-
lation, sedimentation, filtration, chlorination and storage before it is distributed to
the consumer. The diagram below illustrated the process involved in the water
treatment system and the possible location of sediment sludge or water treatment
residue generation. The sludge production problem can be revealed as the general
process of water treatment plant being reviewed and studied. Generally, the
freshwater will be channeled into the water treatment plant system through a
water intake process then the water will pass through screen undergoing screening
process. This is where the first sediment or water treatment residue being gener-
ated. The water will be passed to aeration tank to remove odor and coagulation/
flocculation tank to remove impurities using chemical coagulant usually poly-
aluminum chloride (PACl). This stage also generated huge amount of sludge that
will be removed and disposed.
Based on Fig. 2, the location of sediment and sludge generation had been
scrutinized since this occurrence had cause serious problems when the accumulation
of sediments in the dam has reduce the capacities of the reservoirs by 20% to 68%
(Huang et al. 2001). The availability of landfill sites is limited, the reuse of water
treatment sludge and dam sediments becomes the most economical approach for
their final disposal route. The successful cases of reusing wastewater treatment
sludge with anaerobic, thermal process set a benchmark to the efforts of reusing
water treatment sludge and dam sediments as well. Over the year, many studies and
researches had been done as well as experimental testing in order to make use of the
sludge from water treatment plant.
Brick, cement and ceramic are listed as the most common construction materials
that usually applied water treatment sludge in their manufacturing process. A study
by Huang et al. (2001) confirmed that the water treatment sludge and dam sediment
are suitable for brick making as both are low in organic content, safe to be use as
building material as their leachate contain much lower concentration of Pb, Cd, and
Cr. This study also had been further practiced and confirmed by Weng et al. (2003).
Same study had been practiced by mixing the water treatment sludge with the
excavated waste soil to make bricks and aggregate (Huang et al. 2005). The
compressive strength test also proven that the brick products exceeded the strength
requirement.
Fig. 2 Illustration of water treatment process and the possible location of water treatment sludge
and sediment
Fig. 3 The general process of

brick making using water
treatment sludge and bottom
ash from municipal waste
incinerators
In another study by Lin and Weng (2001), the water treatment sludge are stated as
non-hazardous residues and feasible to be reprocessed as brick materials as most of
the brick sintered from water treatment sludge can exhibit satisfactory engineering
properties. They further stated that the water treatment sludge had been used as
materials to be incorporated with bricks to solve major limitation of the bricks which
is the low water permeability. Instead of using natural clay and sand, they substituted
the brick making materials with water treatment sludge from the dewatering process
and bottom ash from municipal waste incinerators. The general steps in making
sludge-incorporated brick are shown in Fig. 3. The sludge from water treatment plant
is dried, grinded, sieved to make it easy to be incorporated with the bottom ash. The
mixture will undergo molding and sintering process to form brick.
Despite the application in brick making, the dry sewage sludge also being
incorporated with coal ash to developed a lightweight aggregate (Wang et al.
2009). In 2008, sludge being disposed from various water treatment process and
most of the water treatment plant at the time discharged the sludge into the Nile river
without further treatment (Ramadan et al. 2008). The researchers there expressed
their concern because the Nile river is the sources of freshwater to be consumed. The
discharging of the alum sludge into water body leads to the rises of aluminum
concentration. This becomes major concern when some researchers have linked
the aluminum consumption to the occurrence of Alzheimer’s, mental retardation,
and other common effect of heavy metals accumulation (Ramadan et al. 2008;
Prakhar and Arup 1998). Consequently, they ventured into commercializing the
sludge as brick, cement manufacture as the trials successfully reported by few
other countries. They willing to take the chance because the mineralogical
composition of the “water treatment sludge” is similar to clay (Hegazy et al. 2012;
Ramadan et al. 2008; Lai and Liu 2004).
In China, serious problem regarding sludge disposal emerged where most of
the sludge is either burnt or stockpiled causing air pollution and aesthetically
unpleasant. Eventually, sintering process become an option to allow recycling of
water treatment sludge and dam sediment and over the last decade many
researchers have investigated the properties of sintered wastes materials (Chiang
et al. 2008, 2009). In that research, rice husks were added to water treatment plant
sludge, homogenized, and sintered to produce materials with different porosities
and tested. They concluded due to the large amounts of open pores, sintered water
treatment plant sludge-rice husk have good thermal insulation properties for
future green building applications (Chiang et al. 2009; Xu et al. 2008). In other
study by Teixeira et al. (2011), they said that various technology tested on the
ceramic probes showed that residue from the water treatment plant can be
incorporated into clays used to produce ceramic bricks as they had confirmed
the water treatment plant sludge’s compositions are similar to those of the raw
material used by the red ceramic industry in Brazil. A similar study by Benlalla
et al. (2015) utilized alum sludge from water treatment plant in ceramic bricks. In
another research finding, utilization of water treatment sludge to incorporate into
construction materials (Gomes et al. 2019). That research had revealed that
incorporation of 10% alum-based sludge in ceramic bricks is satisfactory with
a small reduction of mechanical performance, sludge-brick mixture is suitable to
be used as construction material.
Novel lightweight bricks have been produced by sintering mixes of dried
water treatment sludge and rice husk ash and it is obviously showed that water
treatment sludge and rice husk ash could be used in clay brick manufacturing
(Hegazy et al. 2012; Chiang et al. 2009). They purposely chose alum sludge as
aluminum is the most common coagulant in the water treatment plant. They had
reached to a conclusion where water treatment sludge can be a great partial
substitute for brick clay incorporated with agricultural waste materials, which
contain high silica content; under the conditions, mixing proportions, firing
temperatures, and manufacturing methods used in that study. They further stated
that the addition of some agricultural waste materials with high silica content;
such as rice husk ash can enhance the physical properties of sludge brick. The
maximum percentage of water treatment sludge is influenced by the practiced
firing temperatures. The optimum sludge addition to produce brick from sludge
and rice husk ash mixture was 75% operated at the temperatures commonly
practiced in the brick factories and based on the experimental research, and
limited on both the tested materials and the testing procedures employed (Hegazy
et al. 2012).
Fungaro and Silva (2014) stated the common practice by most water treatment
plants in Brazil is the disposal of sludge to the nearest watercourse around the
treatment plant without prior treatment. However, the laws in Brazil are demanding
a change in this behavior and the implementation of proper management is inevita-
ble. Another problem that needed to be solved are the disposal of the large amount of
fly ash generated from combustion of coal as it possesses health hazards and severe
implications for the environment. High production of ash is the main drawback of
coal-fired power plants in Brazil. Therefore, they came up with the solution of
utilization of both fly ash and water treatment sludge in the brick manufacturing.
Heniegal et al. (2020) had conducted a study on the properties of clay brick
incorporated water treatment sludge and the agriculture waste in order to solve
landfill scarcity and the environmental crisis associated with improper solid waste
disposal. Other than those problem, they claimed to solve the widespread usage of
natural clay for the manufacture of bricks has created a troubling deficiency of this
material. This deficiency has led scientists to find new materials or to recycle waste
produced by various economic activities (Heniegal et al. 2020; Agwa et al. 2020).
The quality of the bricks is significantly affected by the characteristics of their raw
materials and the techniques and methods used. Components, e.g., silica, alumina,
lime, and oxides of iron, exist in clay in different quantities, affecting the character-
istics of bricks.
Reuse of Water Treatment Sludge in Pollutant Removal
In water treatment plants, hydrolyzing metal salts and organic polymers are added to
coagulate suspended and dissolved contaminants as a major step towards wastewater
purification. Though the process of recovering and reusing the water treatment
sludge as coagulant are complicated, the benefits of water treatment sludge usage
are highlighted as follows: (1) significantly reduce the cost of coagulants used in
wastewater treatment plants; (2) cost reducing method to possibly help to meet
discharge standards in certain cases; (3) reduce sludge volume and disposal costs;
(4) make the waterworks sludge more suitable for landfilling without concerns over
possible metal accumulation and leaching effects; (5) improve the dewatering
characteristics of the residual sludge; and (6) increase the life of waste disposal
facilities (Babatunde and Zhao 2007).
Zhao et al. (2007) claimed that dewatered Al-water treatment sludge has
exhibited an excellent P immobilization ability with wide range of P species
simulated using typical concentrations found in municipal wastewater and may
be used as an adsorbent involving various P removal in environmental manage-
ment. In another study by Babatunde and Zhao (2010), the results reported that
although Al release was observed, the level of Al released in the effluent was quite
low and ranged between 0.02 and 0.06 mg L 1 and does not pose any possible
health and environmental risk. Hence, it is great substance for pollutant removal. A
study by Ippolito et al. (2011) showed water treatment sludge performance in
sorption of soluble selenium (Se) forms, Arsenic and perchlorate (ClO4 ) in water
sources as it may pose environmental or health risk. The presence of Se may cause
environmental problem including bioacummulation, reproduction failure, and
death of migratory fish, insects, and plants. The interaction of ClO4 in human
reduce the uptake of iodine and potentially cause hypothyroidism whereas arsenic
can pose cancer threats to human. From the 1990s up until recent, the sludge had
been tested to optimize the effect and improve the properties to be used in
construction materials.
Challenges of Water and Wastewater Treatment Sludge

Management Options
Basically, the challenges appear in the selection of optimal method to cater excess
sludge as the optimal technology should be a compromise between the reduction of
possible sludge concentration and neutralization of certain groups of hazardous
substances (Cieślik et al. 2018; Chen et al. 2013). These challenges arise when the
selected disposal method of water treatment sludge or sewage sludge is facing few
drawbacks in terms of environmental, financial, and social aspects. The possibility of
new, potentially hazardous compound occurring due to the employed techniques
should be taken into an account. Odor emission issue may have a negative influence
on public trust and the quality of air (Cieślik et al. 2018; Lewkowska et al. 2016).
Table 2 below shows the sludge management method with the preceding unit
process as well as their benefits and drawbacks. These advantages and disadvantages
could be the benchmark in identifying solution to any issues arise afterward. The
most common sludge management method that had been practiced over the years are
agricultural application, construction materials making, energy recovery industry,
landfilling, and sludge-based products (Cieślik et al. 2018; Samolada and
Zabaniotou 2014). These aforementioned methods had been practiced and reviewed
to further study their benefits and drawbacks for future improvement.
In decision-making of any projects, economics play an important role. One of the
challenges in choosing sludge treatment and disposal are the economics of the sludge
facility. Most water treatment plants neglect sludge management within their facil-
ities until recently. Many cases recorded where sludge being disposed without any
treatment and sometimes it is just air dried. For example, the sludge facility often
based on assumption not from the finances necessary to develop the markets. Some
countries practicing composting for sludge disposal options facing problems when
they failed to achieve their revenue predictions (Keffala et al. 2013). The public and
government acceptance of product chemicals, fuels, and energy from sludge
(Nyakuma et al. 2017). In another study by Christodoulou and Stamatelatou
(2016), the safety of the reuse of sludge in USA on land application had been
questioned and public opposition was so strong in some state.
These technical issues are potentially arisen due to the solid management, low
efficiencies of conversion processes, equipment corrosion due to the sludge compo-
nents, and reduction in the production of secondary wastes (Nyakuma et al. 2017).
Some countries practicing composting faced a problem for a proper finished compost
which finally rerouting the sludge back to the landfill (Keffala et al. 2013). Other
than that, some sludge from the water treatment plant cannot be disposed of at the
landfill unless being treated due to the high content of pollutants such as heavy
metals or aluminum sulfate (Raheem et al. 2018). The environmental issue is the
uprising problem from potential pollutant emissions, greenhouse gases, and
Table 2 Sludge management method with the preceding unit processes and benefits and
drawbacks
Unit process Main groups
Sludge for excess of potentially
management sludge Benefits of the Drawbacks of the hazardous
method application method methods substances
Use in - Stabilization - Possibility of - Many standards to - High organic
agriculture using managing all be met carbon load
earthworms sludge - A relatively long - Aromatic
- Composting - Low energy stabilization time if hydrocarbons
and expenditure and low-temperature - Halogenated
stabilization in reduction in processes are used organic
ponds concentration of compounds
- Incineration heavy metals - Heavy
- Phosphorus (earthworms metals
recovery stabilization
usage)
Growing - Stabilization - Requirements - Limited - High organic
plants not using pertaining to the application carbon load
intended for earthworms quality of - A relatively long - Aromatic
human - Composting materials are lower stabilization time hydrocarbons
consumption and than in the case of - Halogenated
or feeding stabilization in other uses organic
animals ponds involving growing compounds
plants. - Heavy
metals
Remediation - Stabilization - Broad - This method is not - High organic
and using application recommended by carbon load
adjustment of earthworms - Possibility of the European - Aromatic
soil to specific - Composting managing all Union hydrocarbons
needs and sludge - A relatively long - Halogenated
stabilization in stabilization time organic
ponds compounds
- Heavy
metals
Use in the - Vitrification - Partial refund of - Problems with - Heavy
construction - Incineration costs obtaining high metals
industry - Cementing - Broad strength - Phosphorus
- Drying and application - Very high energy - Chlorinated
pellet - Possibility of demand in the case species
production managing all of vitrification
sludge - Many standards to
be met
- The possibility of
releasing heavy
metals or organic
pollutants
(depending on the
process used)
(continued)
Table 2 (continued)
Unit process Main groups
Sludge for excess of potentially
management sludge Benefits of the Drawbacks of the hazardous
method application method methods substances
Use in - Drying and - Partial refund of - High investment - Heavy
industry pellet costs costs metals
production - Recovery of - High costs of unit - Phosphorus
- Phosphorus precious materials processes
recovery - Complicated
- Recovery of processes
rare metals
Recovery of - Drying and - Partial refund of - High investment - Carbon
energy pellet costs costs dioxide
production - Generation of - Processes are
- Anaerobic energy from cost-efficient with
stabilization renewable large amounts of
- Conventional resources excess sludge
incineration - Fewer odors - Anaerobic
and fermentation
co-incineration susceptible to
process inhibitors
Sludge-based Pyrolytic - Partial refund of - High energy - Aromatic
production of thermal costs demand hydrocarbons
adsorbents processing - Management of - Narrow market - Halogenated
and bio-oil the majority of old - Many kinds of organic
residues waste to be compounds
managed
Fat recovery Sludge - Partial refund of - Incomplete - Aromatic
and treatment costs management (only hydrocarbons
processing - Low investment some raw - Halogenated
expenditure materials) organic
- It is necessary to compounds
install a fat - Heavy
recovery system metals
Storage at - Disinfection - Simple methods - Not recommended - High organic
treatment and chemical - Less restrictive by European Union carbon loads
plants and in stabilization standards as - Incomplete - Aromatic
landfills - Incineration compared to other management hydrocarbons
- Vitrification methods - Incurred - Heavy
- Solidification management costs metals
of materials are not recovered - Phosphorus
- Halogenated
organic
compounds
- Chlorinated
species
Cieślik et al. (2018); Samolada and Zabaniotou (2014)
secondary wastes generated from sludge conversion technologies such as incinera-

tion or combustion (Nyakuma et al. 2017).
In spite of all the benefits and possible successful alternatives of using water
treatment sludge as new environmental-friendly products. Few challenges and
setbacks can be brought to a highlight. Though the water treatment sludge may be
used as an adsorbent involving various P removal in environmental management, the
adsorption abilities may vary with the pH of the P suspension (Zhao et al. 2007). In
another study by Ippolito et al. (2011), even though the benefits of the application are
proven, the land application of water treatment sludge affect the plant and soil
chemistry as well as the soil microfauna. The authors observed the decrease in soil
phosphodiesterase and increase in phytase activity indicating the important plant-
available P sources in soils being altered by the water treatment sludge.
Land application of water treatment sludge may trigger a perceived P deficiency
response in microorganisms, but microbial community structure is not affected.
Although previous studies are informative, more research is needed to ensure that
terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem health is maintained across water treatment sludge-
receiving sites (Ippolito et al. 2011). Some of the major setback stated by the authors
are P adsorption leading to its deficiencies, excessive manganese (Mn), or Sodium
(Na) which cause detrimental effect to sensitive plant species, may contain radionu-
clides depending on geologic materials in contact with source water and may be
expensive to landfill depending on hauling costs, tipping fees and etc. Other chal-
lenges, in the sense of ceramic products making, the process require more energy
expenditure and the methods of its management should be designed separately
which will cause more cost (Świerczek et al. 2018).
Conclusion
In conclusion, this chapter examined the common disposal routes, challenges, advan-
tages, and disadvantages of selected method of sludge management from various
sources, for example, sewage sludge, pulp and mill sludge, and few others. The sludge
is commonly utilized for energy recovery via anaerobic digestion, incineration, gasi-
fication, and pyrolysis. Sludge also being used in agricultural application and making
construction materials such as brick and tiles. Among others, the old method, namely,
landfilling and stockpiling are being practiced despite various options due to few
reasons such as the sludge too contaminated to be reuse and end product of all disposal
options. The challenges of disposal options are economical and socio-economical of
the sludge disposal where the public acceptance and cost-effective method should be
taken into an account. The technical difficulties being a serious issue where the sludge
produced can be sent to the landfill unless treated due to presence of pollutants. Lastly,
the issue of emission of greenhouse gases, air pollutants to the air from the thermal
processes are quite a challenge to be handle.
Acknowledgments This study is collectively supported by Universiti Sains Malaysia under the
Short-Term Grant (304.111.0.PAWAM.60313041), Bridging Grant (304.111.0.PAWAM.6316094)
and RUI Grant (304.PAWAM.8014020). Funding was also received from the L’Oreal-UNESCO for
Women in Science Malaysian Fellowship 2016 (304.PAWAM.6050374.L117), International Foun-
dation for Science and Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (W/5334-2 and 304.
PAWAM.6050364.I100).
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Optimal Management of Municipal Solid
Waste Landfill Leachate Using 35
Mathematical Modeling: A Case Study
in Valencia
Javier Rodrigo-Ilarri and María-Elena Rodrigo-Clavero
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 902
Leachate Production in Municipal Solid Waste Landfills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 903
Leachate Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 904
Leachate Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 906
Modeling Leachate Production in Landfills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 913
Models Based on the Water Balance Equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 914
Models Based on the Flow Equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 916
BIOLEACH Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 918
Calculation of Leachate Production in BIOLEACH. Water Balance Equation
Formulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 919
Leachate Recirculation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 923
Case Study: MSW Landfill in Valencia Region (Spain) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 924
Available Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 924
Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 926
Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 935
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 938
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 938
Abstract
Leachate management is one of the most important economic costs during the
daily operations of a municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill. Classical landfill
management techniques may produce a great volume of leachate that needs to be
transferred to external wastewater treatment facilities which are usually located a
great distance from the landfill site. If leachate is reintroduced inside the landfill
under optimal conditions and the landfill is managed as a bioreactor, both
economic and environmental benefits are obtained. This chapter shows an
J. Rodrigo-Ilarri (*) · M.-E. Rodrigo-Clavero

Instituto de Ingeniería del Agua y Medio Ambiente (IIAMA), Universitat Politècnica de València
(UPV), Valencia, Spain
e-mail: jrodrigo@upv.es; marodcla@upv.es

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_45
902 J. Rodrigo-Ilarri and M.-E. Rodrigo-Clavero
application of BIOLEACH, a new decision support model for the real-time

management of municipal solid waste bioreactor landfills that allows to jointly
estimate leachate and biogas productions. The model uses monthly local weather
data and real waste chemical characteristics, so leachate and biogas productions
are obtained accounting for actual conditions inside the waste mass. The biore-
actor management strategy is followed, so leachate recirculated volumes are
computed in terms of maximizing biogas production accounting for the specific
water content conditions inside the landfill mass. A case study on a new landfill in
Valencia Region (Spain) is shown. Results demonstrate the importance of
accounting for optimal leachate management strategies in terms of reducing
total leachate volume while maximizing biogas production during the landfill
operational phase.
Keywords
Solid waste · Leachate · Modeling · Biogas · Coupled processes
Introduction
Traditionally, the disposal of waste in a landfill has been a widely used and resorted
procedure, easy to use and, in most cases, used uncontrollably. As waste production
has increased and regulations have become more demanding, the use of landfills is
increasingly restricted and with much greater environmental controls, which reduce
their massive and uncontrolled use. In general, a landfill is a permanent storage of
waste on land, in which all environmental aspects must be controlled and monitored
in order not to affect the environment or, in any case, ensure that the environmental
impacts are minimized.
Various authors have also specifically defined the concept of controlled landfill
(Rodrigo-Ilarri et al. 2014):
• A controlled landfill is fundamentally an engineering work, which requires

correct waterproofing, according to the terrain where it is located, pipes for
leachates and gases produced in the decomposition of waste, which must be
correctly placed and covered with the right materials.
• The controlled or sanitary landfill can be defined as a method consisting of
burying the waste in the ground through controlled operations and with a suitable
design; the waste can arrive in mass, pretreated, classified, in bales, incinerated,
etc., and there it is compacted by appropriate machinery.
• Landfills are important construction projects that must be conveniently located,
designed, built, exploited, sealed, and closed. Today they are built and exploited
following scientific and engineering criteria, paying special attention to social and
environmental impact.
• The sanitary landfill or landfill is a technique for the disposal of solid waste on the
ground without causing harm to the environment and without causing
35 Optimal Management of Municipal Solid Waste Landfill Leachate Using. . . 903
inconvenience or danger to public health and safety. This technique uses engi-
neering principles to confine the waste in an area as small as possible, reducing its
volume to the minimum practicable, and to cover the materials thus deposited
with a layer of soil as often as necessary.
The stored waste must have been subjected to a previous treatment, and only
those that cannot be used or recycled can be disposed of in landfills. However, a
significant fraction (sometimes even its entirety) of the waste generated in Mediter-
ranean countries ends up in landfills, regardless of the treatment system used. This is
also the case in emerging and developing countries (Guerrero et al. 2013).
Therefore, the landfill is always the last key element in all treatment systems,
since, even with the implementation of techniques for minimizing waste production,
such as recycling and transformation of waste, the final disposal of waste in
controlled landfills remains an important element in the waste management system.
Most of the existing regulations that regulate the elimination of waste by storing it
in landfills establish the conditions that must be met to guarantee the protection of
human health and the environment. The generation of leachate and biogas in MSW
landfills are two possible sources of contamination of the soil and groundwater and
the atmosphere, respectively. The management and operation of landfills must
guarantee the capture and correct treatment of both leachates and biogas, in such a
way that environmental risks are minimized.
Leachate Production in Municipal Solid Waste Landfills
In municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills, leachate is generated by the percolation of

precipitation through the mass of waste. To this precipitation, the humidity of the
rejects deposited in the landfill must be added (Reinhart and Townsend 1998).
The result of this process is a very complex organic liquid, with components,
dissolved or suspended, which largely depend on the characteristics of the MSW, as
well as on many by-products from the chemical and biological reactions that occur
inside the dump (Fenn et al. 1975; Reinhart and Townsend 1998). Leachate forma-
tion extends throughout the life of the landfill, including during the maintenance and
postclosure phase, until the waste is fully degraded and stabilized.
The combined effect of precipitation and evaporation in the landfill causes the
infiltrated water to be stored in the MSW or to pass through them until it reaches the
bottom of the basin. Once the leachates reach the collection system, they are
conveyed to the storage basin by gravity or by pumping. Subsequently, these
leachates are treated in treatment plants (located near the landfill or in external
locations, the latter being the most common option) or they are reintroduced into
the waste mass through a recirculation system (Frikha et al. 2017).
As mentioned above, landfill leachates are one of the sources of soil and ground-
water contamination. Its containment and storage inside the pouring basin must be
guaranteed by installing the corresponding waterproofing layer built into the bottom
and on the walls of the landfill (Cushman and Tastakovsky 2017).
Leachate Composition
Leachate characterization tests provide information necessary for the control of

operations in the landfill. The chemical composition of the leachate is highly variable
and depends on several factors (Reinhart and Townsend 1998; Omar and Rohani
2015; Frikha et al. 2017):
• Weather conditions
• Factors related to the particularities of the landfill itself: design and operation,
exploitation method, existence or not of recirculation, intermediate regularization
layers, etc.
• Characteristics of the waste: composition, humidity, treatment prior to
dumping, etc.
• Processes that take place in the landfill after the deposit of the waste: physico-
chemical and biochemical reactions typical of the decomposition of the waste
Table 1 shows this variability in the composition of the leachate. In it, the
concentration ranges of the major parameters of the leachate are presented as a
function of the waste stabilization phases (Fig. 1).
Examining the values shown, it can be concluded that the characterization of the
leachate depends to a great extent on the age of the waste. The physicochemical
interaction between the leachate and the waste also modifies the composition of the
leachate, so that the analytical results depend on the specific position of the point
where the sample was taken. Differences have even been found between the
characteristics of leachate samples taken in the pond and samples taken inside the
landfill (Méndez et al. 1988).
According to various studies, leachate generated in landfills can be classified as a
complex mixture of chemical compounds and microorganisms (Bakare et al. 2013).
Christensen et al. (1994) describe landfill leachate as a mixture of four major groups
Table 1 Parameter concentrations in leachate as a function of waste stabilization degree (Pohland

and Harper 1986)
Phase III
Phase II Acid Phase IV Phase V
Parameter Transition formation Methanogenesis Maturation
BOD (mg/l) 100–10,900 1000–57,700 600–3400 4–120
COD (mg/l) 480–18,000 1500–71,000 580–9760 31–900
TOC (mg/l) 100–3000 500–27,700 200–2230 70–260
Volatile acids (acetic acid) 100–3000 3000–18,800 250–4000 0
(mg/l)
Ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N) 120–125 2–1.030 6–430 6–430
(mg/l)
pH 6.7 4.7–7.7 6.3–8.8 7.1–8.8
Conductivity (μS/cm) 2450–3310 1600–17,100 2900–7700 1400–4500
Fig. 1 Stabilization and formation of biogas in an MSW landfill (Pohland and Harper 1986)
of pollutants: dissolved organic matter, inorganic macrocompounds, heavy metals,

and xenobiotic organic compounds. There are elements that can be found in lower
proportions (boron, arsenic, selenium, lithium. . .), depending on the type of waste,
its age, the degree of compaction in the landfill, and the climatic conditions
(Christensen et al. 2001). The concentration of the main inorganic constituents of
the leachate (calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, iron, sulfates. . .) depends on
the stabilization processes that take place inside the waste mass (Kjeldsen et al.
2002).
Dissolved organic matter is expressed by chemical oxygen demand (COD),
biological oxygen demand (BOD), and total organic carbon (TOC). As seen in
Table 1, in the early stages of a solid waste landfill, these values can be very high.
The decomposition of the organic matter present in the waste also provides different
colorations to the leachate according to its degree of degradation (different shades of
yellow, brown, and black) (Aziz et al. 2007) and determines the diversity and
concentration of microorganisms present in it.
In some cases, small concentrations of organic compounds have been found, such
as persistent organic pollutants (POP), dioxins and furans, polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons (PAH), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and other hydrocarbons
(benzene, xylene, toluene. . .) (Ham et al. 2008).
Other authors have found organic compounds in leachates that can have toxic and
carcinogenic effects on biological systems and bioaccumulate in living organisms
(Kjeldsen et al. 2002).
Xenobiotic organic compounds are mainly associated with hazardous waste from
industries, but they are also found in household waste (batteries, cleaning products,
electronic components, medicines. . .) (Slack et al. 2007).
Table 2 Concentration of leachate parameters from MSW landfills

Parameter Concentration (mg/l) Parameter Concentration (mg/l)
Alkalinity (CaCO3) 0–20,850 Ammonia 0–1250
Aluminum 0.5–85 Nitrate 0–9.8
Antimony 1–3.19 Nitrite 0–1.46
Arsenic 0–70.2 Organic nitrogen 0–1000
Barium 0–12.5 Kjeldahl nitrogen 3320
Beryllium 0–0.36 Nickel 0–7,5
DBO5 0–195,000 Phenols 0.17–6.6
Boron 0.413 Total phosphorous 0–234
Cadmium 0–1.16 Phosphate 0.01–154
Calcium 5–4080 pH 1.5–9.5
Chlorine 11,375 Potassium 0.16–3370
Chromium 0–22.5 Selenium 0–1.85
COD 0–89,520 Silver 0–1.96
Conductivity (μS/cm) 480– 72,500 Sodium 0–8000
Copper 0–9.9 Thallium 0–0.32
Cyanide 0–6 Tin 0–0.16
Fluoride 0.1–1.3 Total dissolved solid 584–55,000
Hardness (CaCO3) 0.1–225,000 Total suspended solids hasta 140,900
Iron 0–42,000 Total organic carbon hasta 335,000
Lead 0–14.2 Volatile acids 0–19,000
Magnesium hasta 115,600 Turbidity 40–500
Manganese 0.0–1400 Sulfate 0–1850
Mercury 03 Zinc 0–1000
Table 2 (El-Fadel et al. 1997) shows the concentration values of different

parameters present in leachates from MSW landfills.
Therefore, in the studies carried out on leachates from MSW landfills, up to
200 different organic compounds have been identified. However, only 29 of them
have been in more than one leachate sample. It can be concluded, therefore, that
the composition of the leachate is specific to each landfill (Schwarzbauer et al.
2002).
Leachate Generation
As mentioned, landfill leachates are mainly composed of precipitation that infiltrates

the landfill and percolates through the waste mass. The generation of leachate will
therefore depend on the movement of the moisture inside the landfill, understanding
the landfill as a complex porous medium. The parameters related to humidity (Fig. 2)
will be decisive when establishing the amount of leachate generated over time in a
solid waste landfill.
Fig. 2 Relationship between volumetric phases and humidity parameters in a porous medium.
(Adapted from (Zornberg et al. 1999))
Leachate Flow Through the Landfill

Vertical flow through a saturated porous medium can be formulated using the
continuity equation and Darcy’s law
(Freeze and Cherry 1979):
@h
qz ¼ Ks ∙i ¼ Ks ∙ ð1Þ
@z
where:
qz: vertical specific flow [L/T]

i: vertical hydraulic gradient [L/L]
Ks: hydraulic conductivity under saturated conditions [L/T]
h: hydraulic head [L]
However, the movement of leachate through the waste is characterized by being

predominantly a vertical downward flow through an unsaturated porous medium in
which, in addition, the values of the parameters that define the flow change
with time.
Flow in the unsaturated zone can be described mathematically in terms of the
gravitational potential (z) and the suction potential (ψ), which define the hydraulic
head (total potential) as shown in Eq. 2:
P
h¼zþ ¼zþψ ð2Þ
ρg
where:
h: total potential or hydraulic head [L]

z: gravitational potential [L]
P: fluid pressure [ML/T2]
ρ: fluid density [M/T3]
g: gravity acceleration [L/T2]
ψ: suction potential [L]
The movement of water in an unsaturated zone was described for the first time by
Buckingham (Eq. 3), who proposed a modification of Darcy’s equation, considering
that the hydraulic conductivity under nonsaturation conditions (Ku) varied as a
function of the volumetric moisture content (θ) (Ahmed et al. 1992).

@Ψ @Ψ
qz ¼ Ku ðθÞ∙∇ðz þ ψÞ ¼ Ku ðθÞ∙ 1 þ ¼ Ku ðθÞ Ku ðθÞ ð3Þ
@z @z
Assuming that the suction potential (ψ) depends only on the volumetric water
content (θ), it can be written:
@Ψ @Ψ @θ
¼ ∙ ð4Þ
@z @θ @z
and, therefore, Darcy’s Law can be written:

@Ψ @Ψ @θ
qz ¼ Ku ðθÞ Ku ðθÞ ¼ Ku ðθÞ Ku ðθÞ ð5Þ
@z @θ @z

dθ the fluid diffusivity, D(θ).
being the term Ku ðθÞ dΨ
Based on everything above, Eq. 5 can be written:
@θ
qz ¼ Ku ðθÞ DðθÞ ð6Þ
@z
From this formulation of Darcy’s law for unsaturated porous media, Richards
equation (equivalent to the flow equation in saturated porous media) is obtained from
the continuity equation considering that the change in time of the content’s total
moisture is equal to the balance of fluid inputs and outputs in the control volume
which, written for vertical one-dimensional flow, is shown in Eq. 7:
@θ @q
¼ z ð7Þ
@t @z
Incorporating Eq. 6, Richards equation (Eq. 8) is obtained:

@θ @ ðKu ðθÞÞ @ @θ
¼ þ D ð θÞ ð8Þ
@t @z @z @z
Richards equation allows obtaining the state of humidity inside the landfill over
time assuming that there are no water sources or sinks.
Richards equation can only be solved if the relationships between the unsaturated
hydraulic conductivity (Ku), the volumetric moisture content (θ), and the diffusivity
of the fluid (D) are known.
One of the most accepted relationships in the specialized literature to establish the
relationship between unsaturated hydraulic conductivity and volumetric moisture
content is the one shown in Eq. 9 (Shank 1993):
Ku ¼ KðθÞ ¼ Ks ðθ=θs ÞB ð9Þ
where:
Ku: unsaturated hydraulic conductivity [L3/L3]

θ: volumetric moisture content [L3/L3]
θs: volumetric moisture content in saturated conditions [L3/L3]
B: empirical constant characteristic of every porous medium
On the other hand, to establish the value of the diffusivity of the fluid, it is
necessary to know the relationship between the suction potential (ψ) and the
volumetric moisture content (θ). This relationship between ψ and θ must be obtained
experimentally for each porous medium, and its graphic form is called the “retention
curve.”
The formulation considered by the general theory of flow in unsaturated
porous media that leads to the Richards equation is difficult to apply in soils
and even more difficult to apply in MSW landfills, since both the values of Ku and
ψ vary with the moisture content (θ) changes. This effect occurs permanently
inside the landfill. Due to its very nature, the storage of MSW in the landfill
involves many changes in its moisture content as the leachate and biogas forma-
tion processes unfold. Furthermore, the flow equations in unsaturated porous
media are nonlinear equations and have no analytical solution except in
extremely simple cases, which are not usually applicable for the evaluation of
leachate production in landfills.
Hydraulic Conductivity
As it was said before, the solution of Richards equation in landfills (Eq. 8) requires
the determination of the value of the saturated hydraulic conductivity. Tables 3 and 4
(Reddy et al. 2009) show the values of the hydraulic conductivity of MSW obtained
from laboratory and field tests, respectively. Values shown illustrate the great
variability presented by this parameter with values ranging from 1,0·102 to
3,7·108 cm/s.
Hydraulic conductivity of the MSW dictates the movement and distribution of the
leachate within the landfill. This parameter varies significantly with the composition
of the waste, its compaction, pressure overload, and the distribution of pore sizes
(Miguel et al. 2018).
Table 3 Hydraulic conductivity in MSW obtained in laboratory tests

Hydraulic conductivity
(cm/s) Specific weight (kN/m3) Author
5.0·103–3.0·103 8.6 Korfiatis et al. (1984)
1.6·104–1.0·106 5.9–11.8 Bleiker et al. (1993)
2.0·103–3.0·106 9.0–17.0 Brandl (1994)
1.0·102–1.0·105 5.0–13.0 Beaven and Powrie (1995)
1.0·103–1.0·105 7.4–8.2 Gabr and Valero (1995)
1.5·104–3.7·108 3.8–7.1 Powrie and Beaven (1999)
1.1·103–2.9·104 7.8–11.8 Jang et al. (2002)
1.0·102–8.0·104 6.4–9.3 Hossain et al. (2009)
Table 4 Hydraulic conductivity in MSW obtained in field tests

Hydraulic conductivity Specific weight
(cm/s) (kN/m3) Author
1.6·102–2.6·102 12.5–14.5 Landva and Clark (1986)
1.1·102–1.3·102 10.0–12.9
1.0·103–5.0·103 10.7–13.6
1.1·102–1.3·102 10.5–13.1
2.5·106–5.9·107 High compaction Ettala (1987)
2.5·105–2.0·105 Low compaction
6.7·105–1.0·103 – Oweis et al. (1990)
9.8·104–6.7·105 – Shank (1993)
1.9·105–7.4·106 – Jain et al. (2006)
In addition, hydraulic conductivity in landfills presents both spatial variability

and temporal variability, since its value is not constant over time but can vary as the
organic matter degradation process progresses, an aspect that, until a few years ago,
had not been studied in depth (Hossain et al. 2009; Reddy et al. 2011). These studies
conclude that the decomposition of organic matter causes the characteristic particle
sizes to decrease while the specific weight of the residue increases, ultimately
providing lower values of hydraulic conductivity. However, the relationships over
time between hydraulic conductivity and the decomposition processes of organic
matter present in MSW have not been sufficiently studied and are not fully under-
stood yet (Miguel et al. 2018).
On the other hand, it could be considered that the hydraulic conductivity of any
porous medium depends, among other parameters, on the porosity. However, since
the properties of the mass of MSW deposited in the landfill vary greatly over time,
porosity is not the best parameter to try to explain the variations in hydraulic
conductivity in MSW (Hettiarachchi 2005). Furthermore, waste is characterized by
having a complex and highly variable composition. Once deposited in the landfill,
macropores are formed in the waste mass that promote the appearance of preferential
paths. For this reason, some authors question the starting hypotheses that allow
considering the existence of a homogeneous flow through the MSW, revealing the
existing variations in the generation of leachate among the results of the models
based on the general theory of flow in unsaturated porous media and observed field
data (Zhang and Lin 2019).
In short, everything above reveals the great difficulty in determining the values of
unsaturated hydraulic conductivity in MSW landfills and the need, therefore, to use
other types of approximations that, being conceptually simpler, allow understanding
the leachate formation process in landfills while adequately reproducing the values
actually observed.
Field Capacity
The prediction models of leachate production in MSW landfills based on water
balance formulations are based on the fact that the moisture storage capacity in the
waste is possible because the moisture contained in them is normally lower than its
absorption capacity. This effect is quantified using the concept of “field capacity” of
waste (FC).
The field capacity of the waste is defined as the maximum moisture content that
the waste can retain until it begins to drain due to gravitational effects. This value
corresponds to the moisture content in which the acting gravitational forces equal the
forces caused by surface tensions (Fetter 2001).
In general, it is assumed that the movement of the water inside the landfill follows
a vertical path, so that leachate reaches the bottom of the landfill when the internal
storage capacity of the waste is reached (Reinhart and Townsend 1998).
Table 5 collects values of urban solid waste field capacity obtained by various
scientific studies. These studies found that the field capacity values varied between
20% and 55% (expressed as a percentage of weight on a wet basis).
It has also been observed that field capacity decreases with the age of the waste
(due to the degradation of the organic fraction) and with the increase in density (due
to the collapse of the empty pores available for movement and/or moisture retention)
(Holmes 1983). Other investigations have verified a significant decrease in field
capacity if the waste deposited in the landfill is disposed in bales (Hentrich et al.
1979).
Table 5 Municipal solid waste field capacity values

Field capacity
(% wet basis) Density (kg/m3) References
55 – McBean et al. (1995)
43–50 (shredded MSW) 500–800 Reinhardt and Ham (1974)
53 (shredded MSW) 690–950
47 710
20–35 688 Korfiatis et al. (1984)
36,8 310 Oweis et al. (1990)
31–48 503 Remson et al. (1968)
47,4–53 877–1183 Zornberg et al. (1999)
35 474 Fungaroli and Steiner (1979)
It has also been shown that the field capacity increases when the characteristic
particle size of MSW decreases (Fungaroli and Steiner 1979) and with the shredding
of the waste (Hentrich et al. 1979). Furthermore, the degradation of organic matter
will also influence the value of field capacity, which will therefore vary over time
(Orta de Velásquez et al. 2003).
Furthermore, the amount of water that the waste can retain until reaching field
capacity depends on the initial humidity of the reject when it is deposited in the
landfill. This value has a wide range depending on the composition of the waste and
local weather conditions, as shown in Table 6.
From everything above, it can be concluded that the results of the analysis of the
water balance in an MSW landfill are very sensitive to the field capacity of the waste.
However, the moisture retention parameters in MSW are difficult to define and/or
estimate (Zornberg et al. 1999).
Different attempts have been made to empirically correlate field capacity with
other parameters, such as specific weight (Eq. 10) (Fungaroli and Steiner 1979) or
weight (Eq. 11) (Kreith and Tchobanoglous 2002).
θcc ¼ 21, 7∙γ 5, 4 ð10Þ
where:
θcc: moisture content at field capacity (water weight/waste weight (wet basis)
γ: specific weight of the waste (wet basis) (kN/m3)

W
θcc ¼ 0, 6 0, 55∙ ð11Þ
4536 þ W
where:
W: weight overload over the considered layer of waste (kg)
Therefore, if the field capacity of the waste could be determined, the time it takes
for the leachate to be generated could be calculated from the depth of the landfill and
Table 6 Waste humidity Waste humidity

(% wet basis) References
10–20 Fenn et al. (1975)
15–40 Pichtel (2005)
65–80 Yousuf and Rahman (2007)
17–65 Kumar et al. (2009)
30–36 Feng et al. (2017)
52.7 Abduli (1995)
46 Sakai (1996)
32.5 Hudson et al. (2004)
the infiltration rate. In practice, leachates are generated earlier than expected by the
calculations, since the distribution of moisture in the waste is not homogeneous
(Hettiarachchi 2005).
Modeling Leachate Production in Landfills
In order to establish a mathematical model that estimates leachate production, it is

necessary to understand the movement of water through the mass of waste. There are
two types of landfill leachate assessment models:
• Deterministic models, based on the water balance equation

• Finite differences or finite elements models, based on particularizations of the
flow equation
In most models based on the balance equation, leachate production is calcu-

lated from precipitation, discounting runoff and evapotranspiration, and consid-
ering the mass of waste as a large storage. However, the internal flow processes
are not taken into account, considering the landfill as a “black box” (Ahmed et al.
1992).
Sometimes, the simulation of leachate production is carried out using models
that have not been developed for MSW landfills but for soils (PRZM3, SUTRA,
Unsat-H, etc.), which raises the corresponding difficulties when adapting and
calibrating the value of the corresponding parameters (Aivalioti and Karatzas
2006).
Difference or finite element models use the theory of flow through unsaturated
porous media to predict the flow of water in landfills. This theory is based on
Richards equation (Eq. 8), a second-order nonlinear partial differential equation.
The analytical solutions available require the assumption of simplifications that do
not represent the reality of the flow in landfills (Capelo and Castro 2004).
As with biogas production models, the limited number of field data and the
difficulty of calibrating the models from the parameters that describe the state and
behavior of the water in the soil (mainly hydraulic conductivity and field capacity)
usually cause the results of the modeling to differ from the results observed in reality.
Therefore, during the development of a mathematical model whose use is suitable
for different landfills, the variability and interdependence of the following factors
should be taken into account (Han et al. 2011):
• Local meteorological conditions

• Waste composition
• Hydraulic characteristics of the waste: field capacity, porosity, and hydraulic
conductivity
• Landfill operational method
• Physical, chemical, and biological processes: generation and migration of biogas
and leachates, degradation of organic matter, waste age, etc.
Models Based on the Water Balance Equation
The water balance (Thornthwaite and Mather 1955) is based on the relationship
between precipitation, evapotranspiration, surface runoff, and soil moisture storage:
• Precipitation represents the water that is added to the system.

• Evapotranspiration (combining the effects of evaporation from soil and vegeta-
tion with transpiration from vegetation) represents the transport of water from the
ground to the atmosphere.
• Surface runoff represents the water that flows directly over the surface of the area
to be evaluated and that does not infiltrate.
• The soil moisture storage capacity represents the water that can be retained in it
and that is the result of infiltration processes.
The relationship between precipitation and evapotranspiration determines the

value of the rest of the factors. Until field capacity is reached, soil moisture is a
parameter in equilibrium between precipitation (input) and evapotranspiration (out-
put). The balance equation can be applied on any timescale: daily, monthly,
annually. . . The choice of one or the other will depend on the characteristics of the
study and the availability of data (Fenn et al. 1975).
Precipitation and evaporation are subject to variable spatial and temporal distri-
butions, especially if the year is considered as the unit of calculation.
Figure 3 shows a simplified diagram of the general water balance in a landfill. The
characteristics of the deposited waste, and, especially, its moisture retention capacity
are decisive in the leachate generation process, both in terms of the amount produced
and the time used in its production.
Models that estimate leachate production from the water balance equation
appeared before models based on the flow equation. Remson et al. (1968) were the
first to introduce a model that estimated leachate production. They considered a
discretization of the layered weir, and the input parameter was calculated from the
difference between precipitation and potential evapotranspiration. The leachate was
generated in a uniform and homogeneous way, considering only the field capacity of
the waste.
Fenn et al. (1975) improved Remson’s model by developing the WBM (Water
Balance Method) for USEPA, considering actual evapotranspiration and runoff. The
main advantage of both models was that the MSW input parameters were limited to
field capacity and initial moisture content.
From these first models, modifications appeared that, by means of the water
balance equation, tried to replicate the reality of the generation of leachate in landfills
(Dass et al. 1977; Perrier and Gibson 1980; Gee 1981). In these first models, the
movement of water through the waste was not taken into account.
The HELP (Hydrologic Evaluation of Landfill Performance) model
(Schroeder et al. 1994) is currently the most used for the evaluation of leachate
production in landfills. Its wide acceptance has made it an indispensable require-
ment to obtain landfill management and operation permits in the United States. It
Fig. 3 Water balance on a landfill. (Adapted from (Fenn et al. 1975))
is a quasi-two-dimensional deterministic model, since, in addition to a

one-dimensional vertical drainage model, it includes the possibility of simulating
lateral drainage.
The main objective of HELP is to serve as a tool to easily and quickly evaluate
leachate production in landfills in the design phase. The results of the model allow
the potential production of leachate to be compared for different alternatives,
allowing the design of the most appropriate catchment systems. Furthermore, esti-
mating the amount of leachate allows the leachate basin to be designed more
precisely.
HELP is based on the water balance equation, and its use requires the knowledge
of climatological data and characteristics and design parameters of the landfill.
The vertical flow is calculated using a modification of Darcy’s law, assuming that
the hydraulic conductivity is directly proportional to the water content at each one of
the levels considered. If the moisture content is less than the field capacity, the
hydraulic conductivity is zero.
Despite being widely used, HELP has some limitations, since it does not take into
account the progressive filling of the landfill, the age of the waste, or the degradation
processes of organic matter. That is, the model assumes constant parameters and
simulates the generation of leachates considering that all the waste has been depos-
ited and that the conditions inside the landfill are stable (Pantini et al. 2014).
According to the analysis of the results obtained in several practical applications,
it has been possible to conclude that HELP tends to overestimate the leachates
generated (Alslaibi et al. 2013).
Following the emergence of HELP, more models based on the water balance
equation have been developed. They seek to improve the shortcomings of previous
models. However, most of these models have been developed for specific landfills,
and their application for other different locations has not been verified.
Models Based on the Flow Equation
The models based on the flow equation appeared to try to address the problem of
leachate generation from the perspective of knowing the movement of the fluid
inside the waste mass, evaluating the temporal evolution of the moisture content.
However, most of them have not been validated in real landfills, limiting themselves
to developing their simulations in the theoretical field. This fact is a consequence,
among other factors, of the difficulty in calibrating the parameters of the models
from data and characteristics of the waste.
The most relevant models based on the flow equation that have been implemented
for the evaluation of leachate production in solid waste landfills are briefly described
below. These models have served for the development of the most recent models and
research, also based on the flow equation and on the results and conclusions of these
first models.
Straub y Lynch (Straub and Lynch 1982) developed a mathematical model to
predict contaminant transport and moisture content development in unsaturated
landfills. From the theory of unsaturated flow and the transport equation in porous
media, the model obtains an explicit solution of the equations by means of a finite
difference approach. Hydraulic conductivity was calculated as a function of pressure
head. The waste was considered composed mainly of paper and fibrous materials. In
the research carried out, vertical moisture profiles were obtained and leachate output
was evaluated by comparing these results with the experimental leachate production
data obtained by other researchers. Comparison between simulated values and
experimental observations showed that compacted solid waste from a landfill
could be viewed as a porous, unsaturated medium, but the authors suggested that
additional experimental work was required to identify and improve basic moisture
flow processes in landfills.
Korfiatis et al. (1984) used the theory of unsaturated flow through homoge-
neous and isotropic porous media to analyze leachate flow patterns in a column of
solid waste in the laboratory. The hydraulic characteristics of the solid waste were
determined experimentally. Leachate outlet volume and suction lift were mea-
sured. The one-dimensional equation for downward flow through an unsaturated
porous medium was solved numerically using an implicit finite difference
scheme. The mathematical model was calibrated with the results obtained exper-
imentally. The authors concluded that the model responded well to changes in
precipitation rates and estimated leachate production without significant time lag.
Although the model adequately reproduced the accumulated leachate production,
a difference of up to 25% was observed between the measured and calculated
discharge volumes.
Demetracopoulous et al. (1986) studied the vertical flow of an incompressible

fluid through an unsaturated, homogeneous and nondeformable porous medium.
They used the modified Richards equation to simulate fluid flow in a conceptual
landfill. The sensitivity analysis carried out showed that the variation of the grid size
and the time step did not have a significant effect on the simulations of the humidity
profile. On the other hand, changes in the hydraulic conductivity and in the empirical
parameter B (Eq. 9) had a strong influence on the results. The authors concluded that
the model could be used to assess leachate production in a sealed landfill. However,
the simulated results were not validated with experimental data.
Noble and Arnold (1991) studied the flow in solid waste columns in the labora-
tory with the FULFILL model, a one-dimensional model in finite differences based
on the Richards equation for unsaturated flow through homogeneous porous media.
The authors concluded that the Richards equation described the transport of moisture
in the laboratory column reasonably well, provided appropriate constitutive laws and
adjustable parameters were used. However, the use of pieces of paper to simulate the
MSW prevented preferential channels from being formed, a process that, as men-
tioned above, plays an important role inside a landfill.
Ahmed et al. (1992) developed a numerical model to simulate the nonsteady flow
of leachate in landfills. Like the previous models, the Richards equation was solved
for finite differences. Runoff, evapotranspiration, and infiltration were used as
boundary conditions. The model was used to simulate leachate production at the
Fresh Kills landfill in New York. The output data were compared with the results
obtained by the HELP model, showing a good approximation. The authors did not
present a rigorous validation of the application of the Richards equation to the water
flow through solid waste. Furthermore, the combination of the many models and
assumptions for calculating runoff, evapotranspiration, and infiltration attenuated the
suitability of the Richards equation to simulate transient flow in MSW.
Khanbilvardi et al. (1995) developed a nonstationary two-dimensional model in
finite differences called FILL (Flow Investigation for Landfill Leachate). This model
simulates the moisture content in a vertical profile of a porous medium. To verify the
validity of the model, results obtained by FILL were compared with those of other
models based on the balance equation and Darcy’s law. The FILL model estimated a
lower leachate outflow compared to the other models and a higher accumulation of
leachate in the saturated zone. The simulated results were not validated by compar-
ing them with real data of leachate production in landfills. The authors concluded
that the difficulties in validating the Richards equation stemmed from uncertainties
in the estimation of evapotranspiration and runoff processes.
Demirekler et al. (1999) found that previous models did not take into account two
important factors: the effect of waste overload and progressive landfill filling. Both
factors determine the hydraulic characteristics inside the landfill. The authors devel-
oped a three-dimensional model that estimated the characteristics and volumes of
leachate generated, taking into account the factors mentioned. Based on investiga-
tions already carried out, the relationship between hydraulic conductivity and pres-
sure overload was determined. The model was calibrated with chloride concentration
data from the Keele Valley landfill in Ontario.
Based on previous research, various authors have tried to improve existing

models, taking into account other processes that occur inside the landfill and trying
to adjust the hydraulic parameters in the best possible way (Hutson 2003; Mirbagheri
and Kazemi Esfeh 2008; Sivakumar 2013; Di Trapani et al. 2015). However, and as
mentioned above, almost all of the models have been developed theoretically based
on laboratory data and without being able to carry out the corresponding validation
with field data.
Some authors have tried to take into account the heterogeneity of the waste mass
and have worked on dual porosity models that consider the interior of the landfill
divided into zones with different hydraulic characteristics, trying to more adequately
reproduce the existence of preferential flowpaths (Fellner and Brunner 2010; Zhang
and Lin 2019).
BIOLEACH Model
BIOLEACH (Rodrigo-Ilarri et al. 2020) is a mathematical model to support

decision-making in real time of urban solid waste landfills. The production of
leachate and biogas is modeled in a coupled way, and the behavior of the landfill
as a bioreactor can be simulated by recirculating leachate stored in the landfill.
The BIOLEACH model has been conceived from its origin to be a tool to support
landfill management that can be used by its operator. Conceptually, the model is
based on the water balance equation as a fundamental tool for the calculation of
leachate production. Through this formulation, the model tries to avoid, as far as
possible, the use of parameters that may be complex to obtain, which is characteristic
of other formulations based on the general theory of flow in unsaturated porous
media that use adaptations of Darcy’s Law or Richards equation.
Therefore, in the BIOLEACH model, leachate production is estimated using a
particularization of the water balance equation that includes all hydrological com-
ponents, as well as the volumes of water consumed by the degradation of organic
matter during the biogas production process. Furthermore, the leachate recirculation
flows that are pumped from the storage basin are considered independently, adapting
the balance formulation to the bioreactor management system.
The model uses the moisture content in the waste as the main variable, obtaining
from it the monthly volumes of biogas and leachate, conveniently adjusting the
stoichiometric reaction that describes the degradation process of the organic matter
contained in the waste.
The waste production data are entered in BIOLEACH on a monthly scale. In this
way, it can be adapted to the variations caused in the management of treatment
facilities. Likewise, the necessary meteorological data, of precipitation and potential
evaporation, must also be incorporated into the model in monthly series.
BIOLEACH is therefore presented as a landfill management tool that also allows
to justify the leachate recirculation volumes that ensure optimal humidity conditions
inside the landfill, guaranteeing maximum biogas production.
In relation to leachate volume estimations, BIOLEACH is able to answer the

following questions: (i) What will be the leachate production each month? (ii) What
volume of leachate can be recirculated to optimize biogas production? (iii) Which is
the optimal distribution of leachate to be recirculated inside the landfill?
All of the above issues are highly relevant, both from an environmental and
economic point of view. Along with slope stability and settlement evaluation, the
production of leachate and biogas are considered the most relevant environmental
problems associated with the disposal of waste through its deposit in a controlled
landfill.
Leachate leakage from an MSW landfill constitutes one of the main sources of
contamination of soil and groundwater. Diffuse emissions of biogas from MSW
landfills have been identified as one of the most important sources of greenhouse
gases.
From an economic point of view, leachate management is usually carried out by
collecting it, storing it in a pool, and transporting it in tanker trucks to a wastewater
treatment station that is usually located far from the landfill. The costs of this external
leachate management are, in fact, one of the highest costs associated with waste
disposal facilities.
The use of BIOLEACH makes it possible to justify the recirculation of leachate in
the landfill, since this recirculation provides the waste with optimum humidity so
that the maximum production of biogas is generated.
Calculation of Leachate Production in BIOLEACH. Water Balance

Equation Formulation
As previously mentioned, BIOLEACH is a mathematical model based on the water

balance equation that allows the joint evaluation of leachate and biogas production in
MSW landfills. Furthermore, BIOLEACH is designed in such a way that these two
physical processes are considered in a coupled way, thus trying to respond in the best
possible way to the reality that occurs inside the mass of waste.
The input data to the model that must be provided by the user are as follows:
(i) the results of the chemical characterization tests carried out on the waste to be
managed; (ii) the monthly amounts of waste deposited in the landfill, and (iii) the
actual precipitation and evaporation values on a monthly scale from, if possible,
nearby meteorological stations.
From the above data, the model calculates the production of leachate and biogas
at the end of each month and makes suggestions for recirculation of leachate into the
landfill to ensure that the moisture content conditions in the waste approach, as far as
possible, to the optimal conditions that allow to maximize biogas production.
One of the main characteristics of BIOLEACH is the possibility of analyzing
the behavior of the landfill as a bioreactor (Fig. 4). The calculation module
compares the monthly biogas production (CH4 + CO2) with the maximum amount
of biogas, under optimal conditions, that can be obtained for the type of waste
deposited in the landfill. The model determines which is the volume of leachate to
Fig. 4 Bioreactor landfill scheme implemented in BIOLEACH
be recirculated from the landfill and which are the optimal positions inside it in
which it is most convenient to carry out such recirculation, keeping control of the
volume of leachate stored at all times on the leachate pool and considering local
weather conditions.
Each month, the model compares the actual biogas production (which is either
measured directly by the landfill operator, or is calculated by the model) with the
maximum biogas production that has been previously calculated by the model, under
optimal conditions. If these two values are equal, it is not necessary to recirculate
leachate, since the moisture content of the waste is optimal. However, if the actual
biogas production is less than the optimal production, the model calculates the
volume of leachate that needs to be recirculated and compares it with the volume
of leachate stored in the basin, following the methodology described below. The
model informs the user about the optimal depth in which the leachate should be
reintroduced into the landfill, as well as the final volume of leachate stored in the
pool after recirculation.
The landfill is discretized by a series of horizontal levels of variable thickness and
surface. Net infiltration acts exclusively on the upper level, and its values are
calculated monthly as the difference between precipitation and actual evaporation.
The model considers leachate the volume of fluid drained by the deepest lower level,
assuming that the leachate collection system is totally efficient and that, therefore, in
no case there is leachate stored in the bottom of the landfill.
Figure 5 presents the different terms considered by BIOLEACH to build the water
balance equation at each landfill level.
Fig. 5 Terms of the water balance equation in BIOLEACH
In each layer of the discretization, the water balance equation is calculated

monthly as shown by Eq. 12:
ΔSMSW ¼ WMSW þ WMC þ WUP þ WRL WB WVA WLO ð12Þ
where ΔSMSW (kg water/m2 landfill in operation on every level) is the water
content variation inside the waste mass (Fig. 6). The following water inputs are
considered:
• WMSW: moisture present in the waste mass, whose value depends on the MSW
characterization tests. Typically, this value will be higher in the case in which the
MSW comes from an “all in one” collection system and lower in the case in which
it comes from a treatment plant in which the waste has been subjected to a
mechanical-biological treatment process.
• WMC: moisture present in the covering material used to facilitate the spreading
operations of the waste.
• WUP: transfer of water from the immediately above level. In the case of the
topographically highest level, this term corresponds to net infiltration (precipita-
tion – actual evaporation).
• WRL: volume of leachate that comes from the storage tank by recirculation (in the
case where the landfill is managed as a bioreactor). BIOLEACH allows the
traditional simulation of landfill management, making this value null.
The following water outputs are considered at every level:
• WB: water consumed in the biogas formation process.

• WVA: generation of water vapor during the biogas formation process, evaluated
from the ideal gas law.
Fig. 6 Input and output terms in the water balance equation
• WLO: transfer of leachate to the lower level. In the case where the balance is being
done at the deepest level of the landfill, this term is the monthly leachate
production (which is considered to be fully stored in the existing pond).
The BIOLEACH model evaluates leachate production considering that the

leachate collection system (usually made up of a network of collectors, protected
by a layer of gravel at the bottom of the landfill) works perfectly and is fully
operational throughout the entire period in which the landfill produces leachate, or
at least during the exploitation, sealing, closure, and environmental monitoring
phases.
For the evaluation of all the terms of the water balance equation, it is necessary to
calibrate the biogas density parameters and the field capacity factor (Kreith and
Tchobanoglous 2002). The moisture content of the waste is calculated from the
characterization tests provided by the user.
Leachate Recirculation
If it is identified that it is necessary to add additional moisture to the waste mass, the
model suggests as an intermediate result the necessity of a recirculation based on two
different criteria that must be defined by the user and that can be modified during the
modeling process:
• Criterion 1: Verify that there is a moisture content in the waste that guarantees
optimal biogas production.
• Criterion 2: Verify that the moisture content of the waste reaches a previously
defined value related to its field capacity.
The results provided by BIOLEACH depend on the definition of these two

criteria.
Criterion 1: Biogas Production Criterion

Regarding criterion 1, it can be considered that the biogas production process is
carried out when the moisture content of the waste is in the range between 40% and
60%. Lower humidity values inhibit the process of bacterial degradation of organic
matter, while higher values can compromise the stability of the waste slopes, also
limiting the biogas formation process. All these processes are controlled by defining
a factor as the target moisture content of the waste mass.
In this way, criterion 1 can be written as a function of α to maximize biogas
production, as shown in the Eq. 13:
α
WRL ¼ ∙W 0<α<1 ð13Þ
1 α MSW, dry
where
WRL: weight of recirculated leachate

WMSW,dry: dry weight of the MSW
Criterion 2: Hydrological Criterion

Criterion 2 is considered in BIOLEACH so as to ensure the existence of a suffi-
ciently high humidity level in the waste mass, but avoiding saturation conditions.
The model allows the moisture content after recirculation of leachates to be up to
30% higher than the moisture content corresponding to the field capacity (CC),
which is the moisture of the MSW from which leachates start to be generated.
To control this process, factor β is defined, so that criterion 2 is written in terms of
the target moisture content within the mass of waste, above the CC, as shown in
Eq. 14:
β∙CC
WRL ¼ ∙W 1 β 1, 3 ð14Þ
1 β∙CC MSW, dry
BIOLEACH suggests the operator whether or not to carry out leachate

recirculation actions at different levels of the bioreactor landfill. The model considers
that it is possible to carry out recirculation of leachate in horizontal infiltration
trenches built for this purpose every 12 monthly levels, and that these trenches are
perfectly operational throughout the landfill life (including the phases of operation,
closure, environmental restoration, and postclosure surveillance).
The recirculation suggestions provided by the BIOLEACH model are designed in
such a way as to maintain a homogeneously distributed humidity level inside the
waste mass, attending to the occurrence of localized rain events that could increase
the humidity content in the higher levels, in which case directing the volume of
recirculated leachate toward lower levels of the bioreactor landfill.
The decision about whether or not to accept the recirculation suggestions pro-
vided by BIOLEACH must be made by the operator, who can manually control both
the volume of leachate actually recirculated and the infiltration trench(es) to which
such volume is directed.
If the recirculation value remains zero over time, a classic landfill management
would be carried out, in which the entire volume of leachate must be managed
externally.
Case Study: MSW Landfill in Valencia Region (Spain)
The results obtained when applying the BIOLEACH model to calculate leachate
production in an MSW landfill located in the Valencia Region (Spain) are presented
below. Figure 7 shows the location of the landfill at the Mediterranean coast of
Spain.
For this case study, a set of simulations has been designed in three different
management scenarios:
• Scenario 1: landfill management using classical techniques without leachate

recirculation
• Scenario 2: landfill management considering the possibility of recirculating
leachate to the landfill surface
• Scenario 3: landfill management as a bioreactor, considering the possibility of
recirculating leachate both into the waste mass and to its surface
Available Data
The simulated landfill will begin its operations in the coming years and will store the
rejects from the mechanical-biological treatment plant located nearby. This waste
treatment plant serves a population of approximately 330,000 inhabitants from
93 different municipalities.
The main characteristics of the MSW management system are as follows:
Fig. 7 Location of the simulated landfill in the Valencian Region (Spain)
• The annual production of waste stored in the landfill is 81,400 t/year.

• The annual growth rate of waste production is 0.8%.
• The available landfill volume guarantees capacity for 10 years of operation.
• The landfill average surface is 72,900 m2.
• The facilities attached to the landfill include a leachate storage pool with a
maximum capacity equal to 4000 m3.
The results of a characterization and elemental chemical composition test carried

out on plant rejects are available (Table 7). This characterization will be used to
Table 7 Characterization of waste and chemical elemental analysis used in modeling

Total weight Water content
Component (kg) (%) C H O N S Ashes
Food 17.4 70 48.0 6.4 37.6 2.6 0.4 5.0
Paper 23.8 50 43.5 6.0 44.0 0.3 0.2 6.0
Garden 3.9 60 47.8 6.0 38.0 3.4 0.3 4.5
waste 1.1 30 49.5 6.0 42.7 0.2 0.1 1.5
Wood 22.9 10 55.0 6.6 31.2 4.6 0.2 2.5
Textile 17.1 4 – – – – – –
Plastic 7.4 2 – – – – – –
Glass 1.8 3 – – – – – –
Metals 4.6 30 – – – – – –
Others
calculate the maximum potential production of biogas from the waste contained in
the landfill (Rodrigo-Ilarri et al. 2020).
According to the available information, the rejects stored in the landfill include a
high percentage of paper (23.8%) and textiles (22.9%), while the remains of food
and plastics are found in lower proportions (17.4% and 17.1%, respectively). This
mixture of waste is considered unchanged throughout the simulation period. The
moisture content of the waste sample is 23%.
Future landfill entries have been obtained from the area’s management plans.
Figure 8 shows the evolution of entries in the landfill for a simulation period of
10 years, considering the growth rate of 0.8% mentioned above.
Monthly precipitation and actual evaporation data have been obtained from
the local meteorological station. The 10-year monthly series necessary to perform
the simulations includes the values recorded from 2010 to 2019, so that, finally, the
120 monthly precipitation values shown in Fig. 9 are available. Likewise, a series of
real evaporation values are available for the same months.
The actual precipitation and evaporation series show the typical behavior of a
Mediterranean basin, registering low precipitation values and high evaporation
values, concentrating heavy rains in only one or two events per year.
After the model is calibrated, the corresponding parameter values are considered
constant during all simulation scenarios.
Results
Scenario 1: Landfill Management Using Classical Techniques Without

Leachate Recirculation
Landfill management using classical techniques does not consider the recirculation
of leachate. Leachate is extracted from the landfill, stored in the basin, and trans-
ferred to an external wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). The operator assumes all
the costs associated with these management operations.
Figure 10 shows the monthly volume of leachate generated in scenario 1. In this
scenario, it is observed that the monthly volume of leachate produced exceeds 1000 m3/
Fig. 8 Monthly waste stored in the landfill
Fig. 9 Monthly precipitation data for the 10-year simulation period
month only three times. The total volume of leachate generated in scenario 1 during the
simulation period is 45,914 m3.
When comparing the leachate production with the net infiltration rates (precipi-
tation – actual evaporation), it is observed that the peak values of the leachate series
coincide with the corresponding peak values in the net infiltration series. However,
the landfill continues to produce leachate even if the net infiltration is zero. This
result makes sense, since leachate production does not depend so much on the
infiltration value but on the waste moisture status. For this reason, the response of
Fig. 10 Scenario 1: Monthly leachate production
the landfill to a rain episode can be more or less visible, depending on the moisture
content at the time the precipitation occurs.
On most occasions, it has been observed that the production of leachate increases
if there are episodes of intense rain in the previous month. This fact is evident in
Fig. 11, which shows the comparison between net infiltration and the volume of
leachate accumulated during the simulation period. In Fig. 11, it can be observed that
the slope of the accumulated leachate production curve increases after the rain
episode.
During the analysis, the following management criteria for the leachate stored in
the basin were accepted: If the volume of leachate stored exceeded 3000 m3, a
certain volume of leachate necessary would be transferred to an external wastewater
treatment plant so that the volume finally stored in the basin would be 1000 m3. This
criterion tries to provide security against possible episodes of heavy rains that could
lead the pool to almost full conditions.
Regarding the biogas production, the model allows to obtain the comparison
between the simulated monthly generation rates and the optimal ones (Fig. 12). As
expected, the simulated rates are lower than those obtained under optimal conditions.
Scenario 2: Landfill Management Considering the Possibility

of Recirculating Leachate to the Landfill Surface
Scenario 2 considers the possibility that each month a certain volume of leachate is
recirculated from the basin to the landfill surface. This is done with a double
objective: to achieve better moisture conditions inside the landfill and to reduce
the volume of leachate to be managed externally.
Figure 13 shows the monthly volume of leachate generated in scenario 2. The
total volume of leachate generated during the simulation period in scenario 2 is
Fig. 11 Scenario 1: Effective infiltration and accumulated leachate production
Fig. 12 Scenario 1: Biogas monthly real production rate versus optimal production rate
58,706 m3. The effects of leachate recirculation are clearly evident when comparing
Figs. 10 and 13. While for scenario 1 the monthly volume of leachate produced
exceeds 1000 m3/month only on three occasions, in scenario 2 this effect is observed
seven times. This was foreseeable since the superficial recirculation of leachate has
the same effect as an increase in precipitation.
In terms of the comparison between leachate production with net infiltration

rates (incorporating the effects of leachate surface recirculation), the results
obtained for scenario 2 (Fig. 14) are similar to those obtained for scenario
1. Again, leachate production increases if there are episodes of heavy rain in the
previous month.
Figure 15 shows the monthly volume of leachate recirculated each month. In
total, in scenario 2 over the 10 years of simulation, 30,680 m3 has been recirculated
from the pool to the surface of the landfill. This recirculated volume makes it
possible to reduce the volume of leachate stored in the pool. Furthermore, the
volume of leachate to be managed externally is drastically reduced, allowing a
significant reduction in the economic costs of leachate management. An estimate
of this cost reduction can be made considering that the unit cost (transport +
treatment) of management in external WWTP is about 60 €/m3. Considering this
value, for scenario 1, in which 30,818 m3 is managed externally, the total cost of
external leachate management during the 10 years of simulation would be
1,850,000 €. Under the same conditions, in scenario 2, in which 12,898 m3 is
managed, this cost is reduced to 770,000 €. This is one of the great advantages of
leachate recirculation.
Regarding biogas production, the model allows to obtain a comparison between the
simulated monthly generation rates and the optimal ones (Fig. 16). As in scenario 1,
the simulated rates are lower than those obtained under optimal conditions. When
comparing Figs. 12 and 16, it is observed that in scenario 2 these rates are somewhat
higher than those in scenario 1, since the volume of recirculated leachate has been
calculated precisely to improve moisture conditions in terms of maximizing biogas
production.
Fig. 15 Scenario 2: Monthly volume of recirculated leachate
Scenario 3: Landfill Management as a Bioreactor, Considering

the Possibility of Recirculating Leachate Both into the Waste Mass
and to Its Surface
In scenario 3, it is considered that the landfill is managed as a bioreactor, that is, there
is the possibility of recirculating leachate from the pond to a series of recirculation
ditches installed inside the landfill, and not considering recirculation on the surface.
The objectives to be achieved are the same as in scenario 2 (achieving better
humidity conditions inside the landfill mass and reducing the volume of leachate
to be managed externally), but it is expected to be even more efficient in terms of the
final volume of biogas produced.
Figure 17 shows the monthly volume of leachate generated in scenario 3. The
total volume of leachate generated during the simulation period in scenario 3 is
80,383 m3. The effects of leachate recirculation are clearly evident when comparing
Figs. 10, 13, and 17. While for scenarios 1 and 2 the monthly volume of leachate
produced exceeds 1000 m3 only on 3 and 7 occasions, respectively, in scenario 3 this
effect occurred 23 times. This was foreseeable, since the recirculation of leachate
into the landfill is being carried out on waste that already has a high moisture content.
Figure 18 shows net infiltration compared to cumulative leachate production.
When comparing Figs. 11 and 18, it is observed that the net infiltration values are the
same, since in scenario 3 the superficial recirculation of leachate is not contemplated
and, therefore, the bioreactor is subjected to the same precipitation conditions and
evaporation than in scenario 1. However, the accumulated production of leachate is
much higher in scenario 3, due to the recirculation of leachate inside the landfill.
Figure 19 shows the volume of leachate recirculated each month. In total, over the
10 years of simulation, in scenario 3,56,025 m3 has been recirculated from the pond
to the recirculation ditches inside the bioreactor. Furthermore, the total volume of
leachate to be managed externally is 10,679 m3, that is, 2200 m3 less than in scenario
2. The economic cost of external management of leachate in scenario 3 is 640,000 €,
that is, 130,000 € less than in scenario 2.
Regarding biogas production, the model allows to obtain the comparison between
the simulated monthly generation rates and the optimal ones (Fig. 20). As in
scenarios 1 and 2, the simulated rates are lower than those obtained under optimal
conditions, but in scenario 3 the highest rates are achieved. In scenario 3, the total
volume of biogas generated during the simulation period represents a 7% increase
with respect to the volume of biogas generated in scenario 1.
Fig. 19 Scenario 3: Monthly volume of recirculated leachate
Discussion
Table 8 shows the comparison of results obtained for the three analysis scenarios in
terms of leachate production, biogas generation, and economic costs associated with
external leachate management.
Based on the results shown in Table 8, Fig. 21 graphically shows the total
volumes of leachate generated, recirculated, and managed externally in each of the
three simulation scenarios. In scenario 1, the total volume of leachate is lower than
that generated in scenarios 2 and 3, due to the lack of recirculation from the pond.
The total volume of leachate generated is obtained in scenario 3, but it is also in this
scenario where the volume of recirculated leachate is higher. The total volume of
leachate managed in external facilities is much higher in scenario 1, which represents
a significant impact from the economic point of view.
Table 8 Summary of results

Scenario 1 Scenario 2 Scenario 3
Generated leachate (m3) 45.914 58.706 80.383
Recirculated leachate (m3) 0 30.680 56.025
External management (m3) 30.818 12.898 10.679
Actual generation of biogas (m3) 85.869.367 89.648.441 92.272.421
Δ biogas over scenario 1 (%) 0 +4% +7%
Economic cost of external management (€) 1.849.063 773.857 640.743
Fig. 21 Comparison of leachate volumes produced in each scenario

Fig. 22 Cumulative costs of external leachate management
Figure 22 shows the temporal evolution of the external leachate management

costs for each of the three simulated scenarios. It can be seen that the highest
costs correspond to scenario 1 and the lowest to scenario 3. In addition, in the
case of scenario 3, the costs associated with the construction and maintenance of
the recirculation ditches, whose value has not been evaluated, are estimated to be
much higher than the cost of implementing the infrastructures necessary for the
surface recirculation of leachate contemplated in scenario 2.
However, the main objective of the management of the landfill as a bioreactor is
not the reduction of costs in the external management of leachates, but the optimi-
zation of biogas production, and this has clearly been shown in the model results.
Results obtained for scenario 3 show that biogas production is the largest of the three
scenarios analyzed (Fig. 23).
Figure 24 shows the comparison between the increases in biogas generation
obtained between scenario 2 and 3 with respect to scenario 1. It can be seen that
the biogas production in scenario 3 is higher than that of scenario 2 from the second
year of operation.
Results show that the biogas production values in scenario 2 are of the same
order of magnitude as those obtained for scenario 3, thus making it unnecessary
to carry out the recirculation ditches and the rest of the infrastructures necessary
for the operation of the bioreactor. From an economic point of view, the man-
agement of the landfill with superficial recirculation of leachate is the most
advisable.
Fig. 23 Total biogas production in the different scenarios
Fig. 24 Increase in biogas production compared to scenario 1
Now scenario 3 is the most economical scenario with respect to the treatment of
leachate in external facilities, and it is the one that obtains higher biogas production
rates (Fig. 24), this being precisely the main characteristic and advantage of the
management of a landfill as a bioreactor.
Conclusion
This chapter describes the currently available numerical techniques for evaluating
leachate production in municipal solid waste landfills. Among all of them, the
BIOLEACH model has been chosen to estimate the production of leachate in real
landfills, since it also considers biogas production as a process coupled with leachate
production.
The usefulness of the BIOLEACH model has been proven to simulate the
behavior of the landfill under different management schemes, evaluating all the
economic and environmental parameters of interest to landfill operators at a monthly
scale.
The model shows the advantages of operating the landfill as a bioreactor, which
allows obtaining the highest biogas generation rates, minimizing the environmental
risks associated with the storage of leachate in the basin and at the same time
reducing the economic costs of leachate management in external treatment facilities.
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125:7(583)
Contribution of a Well-Managed Landfill
to Sustainable Development 36
O. O. Ololade and I. R. Orimoloye
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 944
Landfill Operations in Relation to the Sustainable Development Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 946
Waste Compositions and Disposal in Landfills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 949
Waste Management Policies as Applicable to Landfilling in Different Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . 950
Overview of a Sustainable Landfill Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 952
Placing Sustainable Landfills Within the Circular Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 954
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 954
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 955
Abstract
Waste management is one of the activities either explicitly or implicitly included
in most of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Thus, a strong
argument can be made for the strategic importance of improving landfill man-
agement, insofar as this action will lead to progress towards a number of SDGs,
especially in developing countries. Waste policies in many countries aim to
minimise the negative effects related to the generation and management of
waste on human and environmental health. While in some countries, this requires
reduction, recovery, reuse and recycling before disposal can be considered as an
environmentally friendly and economically viable option, however, these steps
are not implemented properly in most countries. This study aimed at reviewing
the literature on landfill and sustainable development-related studies retrieved
from Web of Science and Scopus databases. Contribution of the findings from
these studies to sustainable development was outlined including the identification
O. O. Ololade (*)
Centre for Environmental Management, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa
I. R. Orimoloye
Centre for Environmental Management, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa
Department of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Fort Hare, Alice, South Africa

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_46
944 O. O. Ololade and I. R. Orimoloye
of research prominent terms with a focus on landfill management and sustainable

development. A well-managed landfill can contribute to a circular economy on
different scales with minimum impact. The result from this study provides the
universal measure that is needed to limit the negative impacts of waste right from
generation to final disposal and capitalise on its wide-ranging potential. Utilising
innovative landfill strategies will promote renewable energy generation and other
aspects of sustainable development.
Keywords
Landfill · Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) · Waste composition · Waste
management · Circular economy
Introduction
The emergence of cleaner production methods and industrial ecology to minimise

resource degradation and the application of mechanisms found in natural environ-
ments to industrial systems have focused on trends in waste management and
environmental protection over the last few decades, especially in a sustainable
manner (Usapein and Chavalparit 2014). Earth’s natural resources are being depleted
or affected due to the increase in population, resulting in environmental damage.
Increasing population and human activities has led to an increase in waste generation
(Kumar 2017). Solid waste management is a global environmental problem, espe-
cially municipal solid waste in developing countries where there is a lack of adequate
infrastructures and available landmass to process it properly. A combination of
problems also prevents the proper management of solid waste in some developed
nations (Yukalang et al. 2018), even though solid wastes are generally well handled
and managed in developed countries than in developing countries. The highly
technical and complex methods of managing solid wastes effectively in developed
countries are also applied to developing countries. However, the lack of capacity and
the incongruity of trying to establish structures in various contexts make it
unsustainable in developing countries (Marshall and Farahbakhsh 2013). Between
20% and 50% of local government budgets are accounted for by municipal solid
waste management (MSWM) in developing nations (Schübeler et al. 1996). Studies
show that more than 50% of the populations of developing countries lack consistent
access to facilities for waste management. Vast quantities of uncollected waste were
recorded by the World Bank in urban areas; estimates indicate that between 40% and
70% of discarded materials remain uncollected (Yukalang et al. 2018).
Waste management applies to waste material processing practices and acts,
including waste collection, conveyance, sorting and disposal. The four Rs consisting
of waste reduction, recycling, reuse and recovery have been found to be effective
strategies for waste management that ease the burden on landfills, protect natural
resources and save energy (Siciliano 2016), resulting in more efficient and produc-
tive use of resources as well as contributing to the sustainable development goals
36 Contribution of a Well-Managed Landfill to Sustainable Development 945
(Márquez et al. 2019; Nochian et al. 2019). The concept of sustainable development
has become more prominent since its establishment at the 1972 United Nations
Conference on Human Environment in Stockholm. Defined in the Brundtland
Report, the concept refers to development that meets present-generation needs
without compromising future generations’ ability to meet their own needs (WCED
1987). It is a holistic approach to human development that prioritises a state of
equilibrium between environmental security and economic and social change in
order to enhance the quality of life; i.e. cultural, social and environmental needs may
be balanced by translating the definition into practical practices for present and
future generations (Leal Filho 2011; Leal et al. 2016).
Waste management is one of the aspects of human activities that need close
monitoring in the pursuit of sustainable development. Waste has significant negative
effects on economic development and human health among others. Hundreds of
millions of tons of urban solid waste are dumped in landfills or incinerated each year
in high-income countries (The Guardian 2018; The New York Times 2018), and
most low-income countries dispose of waste in open dumps (Hoornweg and Bhada-
Tata 2012). Landfilling and incineration are prominent and traditional waste man-
agement strategies; however, none of them are safe practices due to the substantial
environmental and financial costs involved (Nabavi-Pelesaraei et al. 2017; Zhang
et al. 2010). For example, potential neighbouring residents frequently oppose the
installation of all waste management facilities (Okeke and Armour 2000; Nakazawa
2018). Landfill sites usually produce landfill gas and are costly to maintain. Often the
challenges associated with landfill practices may pose a serious burden on future
generations by compromising air, water and soil quality (Cangialosi et al. 2018;
Gumede and Savage 2017; Ololade et al. 2019).
Relevant research papers consisting of peer-reviewed journal articles and confer-
ence proceedings were reviewed. The selected papers were obtained from two
scientific databases (Web of Science and Scopus) using search words “landfills
and sustainable development” as the key terms. In total, 19 papers were acquired;
after reading through their titles and abstracts, however, it was concluded that most
of them dealt with topics beyond the scope of this review, such as focusing on
different types of disposal and recycling methods for waste generated among others.
Most of the 14 selected papers out of the 19 explicitly dealt with landfills and
sustainable development-related issues.
Figure 1 shows the summarised evolution of landfill and sustainable development
research in a word cloud. Word cloud was used on the titles of the published papers
selected based on the search words between 1950 and 2020. It indicates the pre-
dominant word or term used in the landfill coupled with sustainable development
research. It is easy to distinguish and figure out different areas of associations and
prominent terms within the word cloud (Orimoloye et al. 2020). This was done to
know the research trends in landfill and sustainable development field and to identify
the most emerging keywords frequently used in the field. For instance, the relevant
words or frequently mentioned words in the landfill and sustainable development
studies are waste management, which was mentioned nine times in the paper’s title,
while landfills were mentioned six times, municipal solid waste five times, landfill
Fig. 1 Visualising text analysis results with word clouds in landfill and sustainable development
research
four times, sustainable development four times, bioreactors three times, environ-
mental protection three times, incineration three times, industrial waste three times
and leachate treatment three times during the survey period. These words indicate
that the type of waste deposited in a landfill and the method used to treat the waste
have an implication on the sustainable development of the landfill.
Landfill Operations in Relation to the Sustainable

Development Goals
Sustainable waste management approach requires policies that are developed to

tackle social development without placing public health and the environment at
risk. In this context, “waste management approaches in pursuit of sustainable
growth should adopt the priority order set out in the waste hierarchy. The
European Commission set a waste hierarchy for determining desired sustainable
goals (Ekins and Medhurst 2006; Vail 2009). This offers a basis for designing
sustainable development policy in relation to waste management. Many developed
countries are now using natural coagulants in their waste treatment on a small scale
along with some promising results. Moringa oleifera, Jatropha curcas, Strychnos
potatorum and Hibiscus sabdariffa are among the commonly identified natural
coagulants (Table 1). For instance, the natural coagulant from seeds such as
Moringa oleifera Lam proved to be a promising alternative in the treatment of
leachate compared to other methods (Oliveira et al. 2016; Zaidi et al. 2019). These
coagulants are sustainable because less risks are posed to human well-being, and
since they are locally or naturally available, the cost of supplying them is more
economical than that of chemical coagulants. When natural coagulants are used to
treat landfills with high risk, they exhibit exceptional removal capabilities, for
instance, coagulants are advantageous over conventional synthetic inorganic
Table 1 Sustainable landfill operational approach

S. No. Sustainable landfill operations References
1 Landfill’s leachate treatment using natural coagulant is a Oliveira et al. 2016
crucial step in landfill operation to prevent secondary
environmental pollution due to residual inorganic coagulant
in the treated effluent. Natural coagulant presents a potential
alternative way of leachate treatment where pH requirement
is not a requirement during treatment. Adsorption by guar
gum also offers a significant pollutant removal advantage
2 Efficient photocatalytic treatment of landfill leachate using Azadi et al. 2020;
cascade photoreactor under visible light irradiation on a Elleuch et al. 2020
modest and large scale offers a sustainable means of leachate
treatment. It has been reported that the combination of
biological and photocatalytic processes could be a cost-
effective and efficient alternative treatment for the
simultaneous removal of different groups of pollutants from
landfill leachate
3 Modern landfills are eco-friendly: Earlier landfills were Rana 2021
open-air dumps, but newly developed landfill systems are
totally different. This has been achieved with the efforts of
environmental experts and conservationists, along with
implemented policies with stringent landfill site rules and
standards. When designing these landfills, innovative
technologies are utilised as well as good soil lining and
leachate management system that ensures no seepage and
damage
4 Landfills as an excellent energy source: Carbon dioxide Themelis and Ulloa
and methane are generated when garbage accumulates and 2007
starts to break down. These gases can be extracted, filtered
out, and used to produce electricity. Landfills serve as the
third source of methane production in some regions of the
world. For instance, it is understood that all landfills contain
methane, and instead of it being released into the
atmosphere, it makes sense to use the gas for constructive
purpose by generating energy from it. It is estimated that
depending on device design and efficacy, a landfill gas
energy project may capture approximately 60–90% of the
methane released from the landfill
5 Landfills support jobs and local business: Landfills Conlon et al. 2019
support SDG 8 by promoting sustainable economic growth,
production efficacy and technology innovation. Encouraging
entrepreneurship and job creation, as well as concrete steps
to reduce forced labour, is essential. An effective waste
management system of any region is a million-dollar activity
with every stage needing workforce. More local landfills
connote more job opportunities and better living for the
locals
coagulants with discharge requirements due to adequate performance in terms of

pollutant removal and environmental friendly characteristics and capabilities
(Zaidi et al. 2019).
Regardless of how much prevention, reuse and recycling a community manages

to do, in a waste management system, there will still be a need for landfills. Having
enough capacity to recycle or recover all the waste under all conditions will not be
economically sound. Investing in recycling and recovery of wastes, which are
expected to disappear when planning for further prevention, is economically
unsound since it has been noted that waste volumes fluctuate over the year (Scharff
et al. 2007). Sometimes the amount of waste exceeds the recycling, recovery or
incineration capacities (Fuldauer et al. 2019). Not all waste can be recycled, reused
or incinerated; hence, landfill is the safest solution for certain wastes. This means that
some waste needs to be landfilled even in a recycling and recuperation society. In a
strong waste management scheme, landfill sites are the “safety net.” If the landfill is
properly managed and handled in such a way that future generations need not suffer
from its adverse impacts, it will surely be considered sustainable. Globally, various
methods are proposed to stimulate landfill processes in order to accelerate the
achievement of a stabilised landfill, of which, at the end of the process, the goal is
to achieve sustainability of the landfill (Scharff et al. 2007), for example, some
countries in Europe have adopted landfill isolation by means of infiltrated liners.
When waste is landfilled in a safe way, contaminants are either broken down into
harmless substances or washed out (and thereby made harmless) or immobilised in
the landfill to stay there for a long time. Enormous progress in understanding and
predicting landfill processes have been made for risk assessment and impact assess-
ment as indicated by various regulations (Scharff et al. 2007; Andersson and Stage
2018; Milios et al. 2018).
The sustainability target and the realities of modern reliance on landfills have
led to the creation of innovations that allow landfills to be run more sustainably.
Modern landfills are designed and run in the developing world using containment
so as to protect human health and the environment (Patel and Ahluwalia 2018).
Some of the landfill facilities have implemented practices that address sustain-
ability targets through waste treatment, energy recovery or both. Implementation
of modern landfills should incorporate several improvements compared to con-
ventional operational practices by focusing on minimising disease spread and
landfill fire occurrence among others. Placing waste into defined cells, often built
in distinct units and compacted with heavy equipment, allows for more contained
and controlled disposal. A crucial element in the operation of sanitary landfill is
the daily placing of cover soil on top of waste immediately after disposal to
mitigate fires, odours and disease vectors (Townsend et al. 2015). Another key
feature of sanitary landfill is site access control, which helps to discourage waste
scavenging and properly define the boundaries of the facility through fencing or
similar means.
As controlled landfill practices became more noticeable across the globe (e.g.,
those with leachate and gas control), landfills became less in number and bigger
in size (Townsend et al. 2015; Nascimento et al. 2017). Many organisational
activities have been introduced, in addition to common sanitary standards such as
compaction and covering soil. These policies included limiting liquid waste
disposed into the landfills and regulating stormwater run-on and runoff, all
structured primarily to mitigate leachate production and problems related to

leachate management.
Waste Compositions and Disposal in Landfills
Waste composition differs across income levels and different countries, reflecting
varied patterns of consumption. High-income countries generate relatively less food
and green waste, at 32% of total waste, and generate more dry waste that could be
recycled, including combustible and incombustible material compositions (Fig. 2)
such as plastic, paper, cardboard, metal and glass, which account for 51% of waste
(Nwachukwu et al. 2017). Soil-like materials are the most common physical fraction
in landfills, followed by non-degradable pieces in combustible materials such as
plastic, paper, wood and rags. The details in Fig. 2 describe the physical composition
of landfill in different countries. It has been found that the main landfill fractions in
different countries are soil-like products, varying by weight from 40% to 80%. This
is due to the degrading biodegradable components, which rely on the life circle of the
landfill site. The other fractions are combustible materials, varying by weight from
20% to 50% and incombustible parts by weight from 10% to 25%, depending on the
type of waste management which varies from country to country (Nwachukwu et al.
2017; Kerdsuwan and Laohalidanond 2020). For example, Sweden and Belgium use
very good and efficient separation of recycled waste at source, and thus there are less
plastic, rubber and leather quantities than in Thailand and India, where they do not
separate waste before discarding material in garbage bins (Fig. 2).
Thailand is among the top five waste generators of both combustible and incom-
bustible material composition of landfill globally as shown in Fig. 2.
Composition of Landfill
90
80
70
Weight (%)
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
ic
am
ic
al
ls
pe
til
oo
ia
t
br
et
as
/fo
s/
er
Pa
fa
M
W
Pl
as
at
/
er
gs
Gl
m
th
Ra
ike
a
le
l
r/
il-
be
So
b
Ru
Materials
Thailand (3-5Yrs) Sweden (17-25Yrs) Belgium (14-29Yrs) India (NA) USA (NA)
Fig. 2 Combustible and incombustible material composition of landfill in various countries.

(Adapted from the source: Kerdsuwan and Laohalidanond 2020)
Waste Management Policies as Applicable to Landfilling

in Different Countries
In general, waste policy applies the polluter principle by ensuring compliance with
the acts issued. This implies that waste generators are obligated to ensure that the
waste is properly disposed of and managed (Rubio et al. 2019; Mak et al. 2020). In
pursuit of this principle, the government imposed producer responsibility obligations
on several sectors and waste streams, most notably packaging, waste equipment,
food waste, tyres and agricultural plastics.
Thailand has a number of different agencies regulating various aspects of solid
waste management under a range of legislation. In Thailand, there are three major
ministries involved in waste management and regulation, including the Ministry of
Natural Resources and Environment, Ministry of Interior (Local Authority) and
Ministry of Industry (Industrial Works Department). Many departments, such as
the Ministry of Public Health and the Ministry of Energy, are active in the waste
management program. Regional governments play a crucial role as regards collec-
tion and disposal in urban areas (Wichai-utcha and Chavalparit 2019). There are
regulations, strategies/plans and solid waste programs in operation in Thailand.
There is also an ongoing National Economic and Social Development Plan
(2017–2021) that promotes waste management over the life cycle by concentrating
on the local community to improve waste management capacity, which is expected
to reuse more than 75% of solid waste by the end of 2021 (Liakos et al. 2019;
Wichai-utcha and Chavalparit 2019). The government has taken steps to strengthen
current applicable laws and implement new regulatory initiatives (Wichai-utcha and
Chavalparit 2019). The National Solid Waste Management Master Plan
(2016–2021) and the Industrial Waste Management Strategy (2015–2019) promote
comprehensive waste management and aim at reducing waste that goes to landfill
sites, minimising greenhouse gas emissions and increasing resource quality and
recovery. The National Solid Waste Management Master Plan (2016–2021) also
promotes private investments in waste management, in particular in the energy waste
sector (Liakos et al. 2019; Wichai-utcha and Chavalparit 2019). A variety of pro-
jects/programs have been initiated to encourage the use of industrial and municipal
solid waste to minimise the amount of waste to landfills and improve the produc-
tivity of the capital in Thailand. Plastic Debris Management Plan (2017–2021) was
launched by adopting the reducing, reusing and recycling approach to waste reduc-
tion. The aim is to reduce plastic waste impacts through the involvement of relevant
stakeholders.
Ban on landfilling of untreated solid waste in Germany was introduced in two
steps using three regulations: the 1993, 2001 and 2002 regulations. In 2006, Ger-
many agreed with the EU Landfill Directive calling for all member states to reduce in
2006, 2009 and 2016 the amount of biodegradable municipal waste landfilled by the
prescribed percentage (Patel and Ahluwalia 2018). The ban on untreated waste,
which had been fully enforced in 2005, had a huge impact on the amount of solid
waste recovered and landfilled. In countries with low levels of landfill and high
recycling rates, waste disposal has a positive effect on greenhouse gas emissions,
reducing economic emissions as a whole. Between 2005 and 2015, greenhouse gas
emissions from Germany’s solid waste sector almost halved to 10.1 million tonnes
(Patel and Ahluwalia 2018). Germany has also set higher recycling goals for
packaging waste materials and directed manufacturers in adopting waste policy.
The United States developed and implemented adequate strategies to handle solid
wastes effectively. One of the crucial strategies is that inputs must come from
stakeholders, including residents, corporations, community-based organisations,
non-governmental organisations, government agencies, universities and other
research institutions, to make the solid waste policy successful. Such inputs form
the basis of policy mechanisms affecting decisions on solid waste management. The
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) controls solid and hazardous residential,
agricultural, manufacturing and commercial wastes in the United States under the
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) of 1976 (Case 1991). Effective
management of solid waste is a joint effort involving federal, state, national and local
entities and individuals (Texas Commission on Environmental Quality 2020). Thus,
Section D of the RCRA’s Solid Waste Policy encourages each state’s environmental
departments to establish detailed plans for the management of non-hazardous solid
industrial and municipal waste (Case 1991).
In Belgium, environmental-related issues are the responsibility of the different
regions, which are based on their establish policies implemented on an independent
basis. The Public Waste Agency of Flanders establishes and manages the region’s
waste management and soil remediation regulations and policies (Allen 2012). In
addition, the Flemish municipalities manage municipal solid waste, with virtually all
of them grouping themselves into agencies that jointly provide these services. There
are currently 27 associations in Flanders for inter-municipal waste management
(Allen 2012; Xevgenos et al. 2015). Different targets are set for different munici-
palities within Belgium (Fig. 2), which include residential waste, bulky waste and
waste from government activities; however, commercial waste was excluded (Allen
2012).
The waste plan targets between 1998 and 2015 and the evolution of residuals in
residential waste as presented in Figs. 3 and 4, respectively, reveal that the targets
and the actual residual waste were positively correlated. Regional waste manage-
ment policies in Belgium date back to 1981, when the first waste policies were
approved, which governed the production of regional waste plans. Since then, new
targets have always been established every 4–5 years, detailing waste strategies and
goals for municipalities to enact with funding from public waste. These waste plans
help to set regional goals which provide targets to be achieved by both municipalities
and the community as a whole for the production of residential waste, separate
recycling and residual waste after source separation and home composting (Allen
2012; Xevgenos et al. 2015). Despite these strategies, waste management and
prevention remains a vague concept without working in line with the Sustainable
Development Goals. In addition, the plan of prevention and responsible consump-
tion is a difficult one, sometimes complex and rarely amusing (De Jaeger et al. 2011).
The increased level of recycling is the result of a consistent strategy for landfilling
to diminish and recycling to increase. Important objectives and instruments for this
250
Residual per person (Kg)
200
150
100
50
0
1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016
Year
Fig. 3 Per capita targets to reduce residual waste in Flanders. (Adapted from Allen 2012)
400
350
Residual Waste (Kg)
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010
Year
Fig. 4 Evolution of residuals in residential waste. (Adapted from Allen 2012)
trend have been the environmental objectives for waste producer responsibility for
different product groups, the requirement for society waste planning, the regulation
of landfilling and organic waste and the landfill tax. These strategies and a few others
are intended to reduce volumes of waste, hence promoting sustainable development
(Márquez et al. 2019).
Overview of a Sustainable Landfill Design
Modern landfills are designed facilities, much like water or wastewater treatment
plants. The landfill design must include methods for the recovery and treatment
of the leachate produced by the decomposing refuse and the venting or use of the
landfill gas, soil types, suitable environment, population growth and different
types of waste deposits in landfills. The conceptual design of the landfill should
be based on the predicted weights or size of waste generation, which are crucial to
estimate the volume and surface area requirements of the landfill for any region or
human settlement (Al Blooshi et al. 2016).” The rate of waste generation is very
important in landfill development; this requires technical views, for instance,
current and future waste generation must be painstakingly considered by pre-
dicting future waste generation in line with the scenarios of population
growth rate.
Another important factor to consider in designing landfills is a suitable envi-
ronment that is devoid of compromising human health and well-being. Potential
sites must be in suitable landfill development areas. Many areas, especially in the
regions where planning is in place, have earmarked the land use for at least the
next 20 years. For a landfill site, industrial areas may seem appropriate because
heavy machinery is needed and substantial traffic is generated. The landfill,
however, may not be compatible with industrial activities after it is closed. A
closed landfill however could be used as an industrial site when properly
designed and managed, but more often than not, differential settlement within
the finished site reduces the capacity of the site to support structures especially
for residential purposes (Walsh and O’Leary 2002; Mutluturk and Karaguzel
2007; Lubrica 2012). The type of waste to be deposited in landfills is also crucial
in its design; this will help to site a suitable area for a particular landfill and
associated waste.
Soil is another important aspect in landfill development. Sites should prefer-
ably be located in silt and clay soils that inhibit the movement of leachate and gas.
A landfill built over a permeable formation like gravel, sand or fragmented
bedrock can pose a major threat to the quality of groundwater. If the only
available areas have less than optimum conditions for landfill construction, soil
may need to be transported to the site for liner and cover formation. A
geomembrane cover and liner can be designed as an alternative. Separate tech-
niques have been developed to classify soil in some site identification studies
(Mutluturk and Karaguzel 2007; Lubrica 2012). By “capping” landfills with
synthetic membranes, clay and topsoil, waste site can be able to convert land
surrounding closed disposal sites into beneficial community assets such as
fertiliser and manures. The detailed creation of criteria for a landfill site analysis
enables local requirements and concerns to be integrated into the assessment. At
this level, regulatory requirements may also be integrated into the process of
identification of landfill sites. Applying the requirements to soil maps before
examining other data sources is the most appropriate method. Floodplain maps
can also be used as resource documents during the preliminary site identification
process. Soil maps will roughly delineate regions prone to flooding if no flood-
plain maps exist. More so, full plans for landfill operation must be approved by
the appropriate state governmental agencies before construction can begin. If all
these requirements are not considered in landfill design or development, it will
pose serious threats to the environment and can also lead to conflicts between the
residents and the landfill operators.
Placing Sustainable Landfills Within the Circular Economy
Introducing waste management within a circular economy involves building an

environment where the products we use are kept in circulation (recycled) after use
has ended instead of being burned in an incinerator or disposed of in a landfill. As
long as harmful chemicals remain in the environment and are allowed to be used in
products and processing of materials, there will always be a possibility that the
chemicals will be released into the environment when reused or recycled afterwards
“(Vaverková et al. 2020). The circular economy and way of thinking must be paired
with opportunities for decontamination and recycling of highly polluted waste rather
than seeing landfill as a solution.
When countries change the way they manufacture and consume products by incor-
porating the waste streams into their production process, then they will be able to keep
circulating resources within the economy. Recycling is the first element in developing a
circular economy, but it goes beyond ordinary recycling efforts. Landfilling of waste in
an environmentally friendly sustainable way is critical for an overall effective and
appropriate waste management sector. Where resource demand for recycle/ decontam-
ination exceeds the value of the product itself, there will still be waste that we do not
know how to recycle or what to do, with which landfilling will be the most suitable
solution. Hazardous and environmentally harmful substances must be removed from the
recycling system, and where landfilling is the only solution, it should thus be an integral
and part of a circular economy (Xevgenos et al. 2015; Vaverková et al. 2020).
Landfills can generate odours that are objectionable, and its gas can spread
through the soil and accumulate in the surrounding environment. Ammonia, sul-
phides, methane and carbon dioxide are among the gases contained in landfills which
are the most concern. Some landfill gas has been harnessed for conversion to
renewable energy. Sustainable landfill starts with careful landfill base assessment
and planning to ensure that the engineered landfill stabilises itself. Sooner or later, all
landfills reach capacity, but that doesn’t mean it’s the end of their useful life (Li and
Zhao 2003; Siciliano 2016; Gumede and Savage 2017). Landfills are neither open
dumps nor just some hole in the ground. A basic landfill involves only the covering
of solid waste with soil. This is important to reduce the number of landfill gases –
methane and carbon dioxide – mixing up with the air, which can be harmful to the
environment and human health (Liu et al. 2016; Gumede and Savage 2017).
Sophisticated and large landfills are sites that are specially constructed and trenched
into the ground. Their unique nature prevents leachates from entering the water table
and being potentially a pollution source. Modern landfills also feature sensors for
detecting landfill gas emissions and leaching material.
Conclusion
A genuinely sustainable landfill is one in which waste materials, whether or not

they have been controlled by biological, thermal or other methods or are safely
assimilated into the surrounding environment and which manages gas-related
concerns in order to minimise the environmental impacts. A sustainable approach

to waste management includes policies that are developed to address social devel-
opment without jeopardising public health and the environment. In this context,
the priority order set out in the waste hierarchy should follow waste management
methods in pursuit of sustainable development. Development of regulatory
requirements for landfill management once waste disposal had ended is crucial,
including the construction of engineered closure systems (a closure cap) to prevent
infiltration of moisture and exhaust gas through the surface. Long-term monitoring
and site maintenance to avoid future environmental issues should be instituted by
landfill operators and users under regulatory bodies. Taking into account a risk-
based approach, a simplified but effective landfill design tool is very important in a
sustainable landfill. It is believed that such a tool can provide a good basis for the
conceptual landfills within a framework of limited environmental-related impacts
that characterise modern landfills with minimal implications on the environment.
In order to achieve more sustainable waste management, adequate selection,
design and management of sites are essential. Sustainable waste management
through landfilling is essential to allow socioeconomic growth to continue and
protect the environment and safe guard human health. It paves the way for a
development that meets the present needs without endangering the welfare of
future generations.
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Phytoremediation: A Cost-Effective Tool
for Solid Waste Management 37
Arkendu Ghosh, Vijay Kant Singh, Koyel Dey, Monika Patel, and
Apurba Pal
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 961
Heavy Metal Pollution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 961
Effects of Heavy Metal Contamination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 963
Traditional Remediation of Contaminated Soil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 964
Hyperaccumulators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 964
Criteria to Select Plants for Phytoremediation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 965
Metal Hyperaccumulators Plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 965
Phytoremediation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 965
Phytoextraction of Metals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 967
Mechanism of Phytoextraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 968
Examples of Phytoextraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 968
Continuous Phytoextraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 969
Induced Phytoextraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 969
Rhizofiltration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 969
Advantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 970
Disadvantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 970
Phytostabilization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 971
A. Ghosh (*)
Jharkhand, India
V. K. Singh
K. Dey
Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of West Bengal, Murshidabad, West
Bengal, India
M. Patel
A. Pal
Department of Basic Science, Hoticulture College, Birsa Agricultural University, Ranchi,
Jharkhand, India

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_47
960 A. Ghosh et al.
Advantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 972
Disadvantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 972
Phytovolatilization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 972
Phytodegradation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 973
Advantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 974
Disadvantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 974
Phytostimulation or Rhizodegradation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 974
Advantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 974
Disadvantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 975
Phytoremediation of Pesticide-Contaminated Soil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 975
Water Hyacinth as Phytoremediation Plant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 975
Hydraulic Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 976
Phytoscreening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 977
Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 977
Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 977
Forensic Phytoremediation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 978
Phytoremediation Through Genetically Engineered Plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 978
Phytoremediation of Arsenic-Contaminated Soil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 978
Role of Plant-Associated Microbes in Heavy Metal Phytoremediation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 980
Phytoremediation of Polluted Water by Trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 981
Buffer Strips/Riparian Corridors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 982
Advantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 982
Disadvantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 982
Role of Genetics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 982
Limits of Phytoremediation at Hazardous Waste Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 983
Root System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 983
Growth Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 983
Contaminant Concentration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 983
Impacts of Contaminated Vegetation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 984
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 985
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 985
Abstract
Pollution of the natural environment by heavy metals (Mg, Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, Mo,
and Ni) is a universal problem, because these metals are indestructible and most
of them have toxic effects on living organisms when permissible concentration
levels are exceeded, and many of them are toxic even at very low concentrations.
Heavy metals make a significant contribution to environmental pollution as a
result of human activities such as mining, smelting, electroplating, energy and
fuel production, power transmission, intensive agriculture, municipal wastes,
sludge dumping, and military operations. Several methods already used to clean
up the environment from these kinds of contaminants, but most of them are costly
and difficult to get optimum results. Currently, phytoremediation is an effective
and affordable technological solution used to extract or remove inactive metals
and metal pollutants from contaminated soil and water. This technology is
environmentally friendly and potentially cost effective. Plants absorb heavy
metals through the root from the soil and through overground vegetative organs
from the atmosphere. Most heavy metals accumulate in the top soil and in the
long term, their contaminations increase in the soil as a result of an increased
37 Phytoremediation: A Cost-Effective Tool for Solid Waste Management 961
absorption and accumulation in plants. The quantity or level of heavy metals

absorption in plants depends not only on the concentration levels of the metals in
the physical and chemical composition of the soil but also varies in different parts
of the plant. This chapter aims to compile some information about heavy metal
sources, effects, and their treatment, phytoremediation technology through spe-
cially horticultural crops, including the heavy metal uptake mechanisms, and
several research studies associated about the topics. The advantages of this kind
of technology for reducing them affecting the uptake mechanisms in
phytoremediation technology as well as the factors affecting the uptake
mechanisms.
Keywords
Heavy metals · Hyperaccumulator · Phytoextraction · Phytoscreening ·
Rhizodegradation
Introduction
Environmental pollution is a serious threat to human beings, flora, and fauna.

Since the beginning of industrial revolution, pollution of biosphere with toxic
elements has accelerated gradually and dramatically. The rapid development and
industrialization are the main factors responsible for this problem. Contamination
of soil and water with metals, metalloids, and radionuclei is posing a threat to
plant, human, and animal health. Residues of fossil fuels after burning; mining
and smelting of metalliferous ores; wastes from municipalities, due to application
of fertilizers, pesticides; sewage waste; waste due to transportation and urbani-
zation, etc. are the primary sources of pollution (Salt et al. 1995). Even at low
levels, these contaminants in the environment create a risk due to potential
accumulation at higher trophic levels. Organic contaminants are usually treated
as foreign material to plants, but inorganic contaminants such as metals are
commonly found in the soil at low concentration. Some essential micronutrients
critical for plant growth are cobalt (Co), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), molybdenum
(Mo), manganese (Mn), and zinc (Zn), while nonessential micronutrients like
arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), mercury (Hg), nickel (Ni), lead
(Pb), selenium (Se), uranium (U), vanadium (V), and wolfram (W) show toxicity
even at low concentrations.
Heavy Metal Pollution
Among the different pollutants, heavy metal pollution is very serious as they are
toxic even at very less concentration. Heavy metals are the natural elements present
in the soil or lithosphere, but when their concentration exceeds certain critical level,
they become toxic to plants as reported by Gupta and Gupta (1998) (Table 1) and
962 A. Ghosh et al.
Table 1 Heavy metal toxicity levels and symptoms in plants

Toxicity level
Elements (ppm) Symptoms in plant
Cu 10–70 Chlorotic leaves and reduced branching and dark coloration in the
rootlets
Mn 400–7000 Stunting, general chlorosis, and necrotic leaf spots and brown
spotting of older leaves
Mo 100–1000 Yellow or orange chlorosis, seeding injury, and delayed maturity
Ni 8–147 Chlorosis and stunted growth
Zn 95–340 Severe leaf scorching, reduced yield, and decreased net
assimilation rate
Table 2 Sources of Element Major sources

various heavy metals
Arsenic Coal, petroleum, plant desiccants, pesticides
Cadmium Plastic, paints, pigments
Chromium Chrome plating
Copper Fly ash, mining, fertilizers
Lead Gasoline, coal, iron production, soil combustion
Nickel Batteries, electroplating
Zn Batteries, rubber manufacturing, galvanizing iron
Se Sewage, agrochemicals, domestic waste
also other bio-organisms. They are unique due to the fact that they cannot be broken
down to nontoxic forms. According to the reports published worldwide, these metals
are released into surroundings through natural and anthropogenic sources, mainly,
effluents from mining and industrial activities and automobile exhausts (for lead)
(Table 2). The heavy metal (HM) contamination is increasing day by day because of
increase in population, industrialization, and urbanization, and thus this phenomena
seems to be unavoidable, causing serious threat to plant and animal health (Table 3).
Soil and water are the most valuable resources to the mankind but are slowly
becoming unfit for cultivation and consumption, respectively, due to heavy metal
pollution. They leach into underground waters, moving along water pathways and
eventually depositing in the aquifer or are percolated by drainage into surface waters
thereby, resulting in water and soil pollution. The pollutants finally enter into the
food chain of human beings and livestock and get accumulated, which is called
bioaccumulation. There is another process called biomagnification, which is nothing
but increase in concentration of a particular heavy metal through the food chain.
Thus, these high concentrations have effect on the functioning of body organs,
hormone system, and growth of body. They can have acute or chronic effect and
can also be transferred to next generations. Once heavy metals enter the body of an
organism, they disrupt many biological processes. They can also break apart other
molecules into even more reactive species, like reactive oxygen species, which is
very fatal. Likewise, Fe2+ and Fe3+ can react with common molecules such as O2 and
H2O2. They will reduce the important molecules and increase dangerously reactive
Table 3 Examples of some metal hyperaccumulators and their bioaccumulation potential

Plants Metal Bioaccumulation References
Thlaspi praecox Wulfen Cd > 1000 μg g 1 dry weight in Vogel-Mikus et al.
seeds (2010)
Atriplex halimus subsp. Cd 606.51 μg g 1 dry weight Nedjimi and Daoud
Schweinfurthii (2009)
Arabis paniculata Cd 1127 mg kg 1 in the shoots Zeng et al. (2009)
Rorippa globosa (Turoz.) Cd 218.9 μg g 1 dry weight Sun et al. (2010)
Sedium alfredii Zn 13,799 mg kg 1 dry weight Jin and Liu (2009)
Sedium alfredii Cd 2183 mg kg 1 dry weight Jin and Liu (2009)
Phytolaca americana Mn 32,000 μg g 1 Pollard et al. (2009)
Brassica juncea Ni 3916 mg kg 1 dry weight Saraswat and Rai
(2009)
Potentilla griffithii Zn Leaves – 19,600 mg kg 1
Hu et al. (2009)
dry weight
Sesbania drummondri Cd 1687 mg kg 1 Israr et al. (2006)
Thlaspi caerulescens Cd 80 mg kg 1 Banasova and Horak
(2008)
1
Thlaspi caerulescens Zn 19,410 mg kg Banasova and Horak
(2008)
1
Myriophyllum heterophyllum Cd 21.46 mg kg Sivaci et al. (2008)
1
Potamogeton crispus Cd 49.09 mg kg Sivaci et al. (2008)
1
Sorghum sudanensis Cu 5330 mg kg Wei et al. (2008)
1
Phragmites astralis Cr 4825 mg kg Calheiros et al.
(2008)
molecules such as O. and OH. Some chronic effects include carcinogenesis, mental
lapse, kidney, liver, GI tract problems, central nervous system, and persistent hot
flashes.
Effects of Heavy Metal Contamination
(i) Soil is becoming unfit for growing crops. This puts pressure on the already
shrinking land resources.
(ii) Water gets polluted due to which human beings as well as animals are affected
by health hazards such as
• Selenium (Se) toxicity prevalent Haryana, Punjab, and West Bengal caused
deformed horns and hooves in animals and deformed nails in human beings.
• Arsenic (As) toxicity problem in west Bengal and Bangladesh exceeded the
threshold limit of 50 ppm in water. Human beings are affected by hypo- and
hyperpigmentation on skin and hyperkeratosis.
• Mercury (Hg) poisoning in Japan led to Minamata disease in human beings.
• Lead (Pb) concentration when exceeds 250–500 ug L 1 in children leads to
damage to brain, and hematological and renal system.
964 A. Ghosh et al.
• Copper (Cu) toxicity in animals leads to gastroenteritis with erosions and

ulcerations in ruminants and also cause Wilson’s disease.
(iii) Plants exhibit toxicity symptoms and their yielding ability will decline.
The above threat to ecosystem warrants immediate attention of agriculturists,

researchers, and governments to devise ways and means to clean up environment.
Researchers worldwide have used conventional remediation technologies to clean
polluted areas, specifically soils and water bodies contaminated with hazardous
elements.
Traditional Remediation of Contaminated Soil
Traditional remediation mechanisms basically are of two types, in situ (solidifica-

tion, soil flushing, chemical oxidation and reduction, soil washing) and ex situ
(vitrification, excavation, soil vapor extraction). The first one is to be done on site,
and the second is to be done by moving the contaminated soil from that place and
remediating it elsewhere using one or more technologies. The remedial actions based
on traditional methods are no longer considered a permanent solution because:
1. Incomplete removal of metals from contaminated media.

2. On-site heavy metals monitoring for future need.
3. Solidified or stabilized materials longevity in doubtful condition.
4. The long-term management of the solidified or stabilized materials is based on
landfilling and requires soil caps to prevent erosion problems.
5. Traditional methods are not feasible when large areas of soil get contaminated.
6. Soil structure disruption and soil productivity reduction.
Besides, these methods are expensive (Danh et al. 2009), time consuming, and
environmentally devastating. They are very difficult and not feasible. Hence, there is
a great need to promote effective soil and water treatment technologies that attempts
to remove the contaminants. In order to overcome above said health hazards on
plants, animals, and humans, phytoremediation is widely acknowledged as the most
promising ecologically sustainable and environmentally viable technology
(Ramanjaneyulu and Giri 2004).
Hyperaccumulators
Phytoremediation technology exploits the ability of plants to remediate pollutants

from contaminated sites. The concept of hyperaccumulator plants to take up and
remove heavy metals from contaminated soils was first discussed by Chaney (1983).
A hyperaccumulator refers to those plant species which accumulate a minimum of
100 ppm thallium, or 1000 ppm of Ni, Co, Cu, Cr, Pb, or 10,000 ppm of Zn and Mn
besides better growth and ability to tolerate high concentration of aluminum (Al),
chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), manganese (Mn), mercury (Hg), molybdenum (Mo),
naphthalene, lead (Pb), palladium (Pd), platinum (Pt), selenium (Se), and zinc
(Zn) (Baker et al. 2000). Due to phyto-tolerance resulting in generation after genera-
tion due to adaptative evolution from the plants, this accumulation capacity is
occurred. A number of interactions may be controlled by metal hyperaccumulation,
including protection, interferences with neighbor plants of different species, mutual-
ism (including mycorrhizae, pollen, and seed dispersal), commensalism, and biofilm.
Criteria to Select Plants for Phytoremediation
Selection of suitable plant species is the vital part in making phytoremediation

successful. Few important criteria in selecting suitable plant species for
phytoremediation are:
• The tolerance level to metal present at the site

• The level of adequate accumulation, translocation, and uptake potential of metals
• High growth rate and biomass yield
• Tolerance to water logging and extreme drought conditions
• Availability, habitat preference, e.g., terrestrial, aquatic, semiaquatic, etc.
• Tolerance to high pH and salinity
• Root characteristic and depth of the root zone
Metal Hyperaccumulators Plants
Over 500 plant species belonging to 101 families have been reported including
members of the Asteraceae, Brassicaceae, Caryophyllaceae, Cyperaceae,
Cunouniaceae, Fabaceae, Flacourtiaceae, Lamiaceae, Poaceae, Violaceae, and
Euphorbiaceae. Metal hyperaccumulation occurs in approximately 0.2% of all
angiosperms (Sarma 2011) and is particularly well represented in the Brassicaceae
(Kramer 2010). Recently Environment Canada has released a database Phytorem
which compiled a worldwide inventory of more than 750 terrestrial and aquatic
plants with potential value for phytoremediation. Plants do differ in their phytoaccu-
mulation capacity. Hence, selection of efficient plants is the basis in successful
phytoremediation (Lanza and Flathman 2001). Some of the hyperaccumulators are
listed in Tables 4 and 5.
Phytoremediation
Phytoremediation is an important, new, and cost-effective technology using different

plant species to degrade, extract, contain, or immobilize contaminants from soil,
water, and remediate the polluted areas (Fig. 1). It can be loosely defined as use of
plants to improve the environment. It is an alternative to engineering procedures
966 A. Ghosh et al.
Table 4 Examples of Plants Metal

some metal
Asparagus racemosus Se
hyperaccumulators
Ipomea alpine Cu
Berkheya coddi Ni
Eichornia crassipes Cr
Iberis intermedia Ti
Alternanthera sessilis Cv
Zea mays Cv Ganga 5 Cr
Pteris vittata As
Sesbania drummondri Cd
Sedium alfredii Cd
Phytolaca americana Mn
Brassica juncea Ni
Potentilla griffithii Zn
Lanza and Flathman (2001)
Table 5 Examples of plants suitable for phytoremediation

Agrostis castellana Al(A), As(H), Mn(A), Zn(A) Mc Cutcheon and
Agrostis capillaris Al(A), Mn(A), Pb(A), Zn(A) Schnoor (2003)
L. (common bent grass)
Athyrium yokoscense Cd(A), Cu(H), Zn(H)
Azolla filiculoides Cu(A), Ni(A), Mn(A)
Bacopa monnieri Cd(H), Cr(H), Cu(H), Hg(A), Pb(A)
Bassia scoparia U, Cr, Pb, Hg, Ag, Zn
Brassicaceae Cd, Cs, Ni, Sr (H)
Brassica juncea L. Cd(A), Cr(A), Cu(H),Ni(H), Pb(H),
Pb(P), U(A), Zn(H)
Brassica napus Ag, Hg, Pb, Se, Zn
which are generally more destructive to the soil. Various types of vegetation,
including trees, grasses, and aquatic plants, are used in situ to decontaminate soil,
air, and both surface and groundwater systems. It utilizes the natural ability of certain
plants called hyperaccumulators to bioaccumulate harmless contaminants such as
pesticides, heavy metals, solvents, and crude oil and its derivatives. It is a great
collection of plant-based technologies using naturally occurring or genetically
engineered plants to clear the environments (Flathman and Lanza 1998). This
green cure technology offers environmentally safe, economically viable, and socially
acceptable solutions to soil and water contamination. Phytoremediation includes
different technologies as mentioned below.
1. Phytoextraction
2. Rhizofiltration
3. Phytostabilization
4. Phytovolatization
5. Phytodegradation or phytotransformation
Fig. 1 Mechanisms for phytoremediation
Phytoextraction of Metals
Phytoextraction deals with the uptake of pollutants or contaminants (particularly

toxic metals and radionuclei) by plant roots and their translocation within
the total plant biomass. Phytoextraction or phytoaccumulation or phytomining
utilizes plants or algae for removal of contaminants and convert it into harvest-
able plant biomass. This technology has been gaining popularity throughout
the world for the few years. Baker et al. (1991) conducted first field trial on
Zn and Cd phytoextraction. The plants absorb contaminants, store in the
root biomass, or transport them up into the stems and leaves. After harvesting,
a lower level of the contaminant will remain in the soil, so the growth
cycle must usually be repeated through several crops to achieve a significant
cleanup which further enhances better growth of vegetation. If plants are incin-
erated, the disposed volume of ash will be less than 10% of the total volume
that would be created if the contaminated soil itself is dug up for treat-
ment. Nickel, zinc, and copper are the best metals for removal by phyto-
extraction because majority of the approximately 500 known plants that absorb
unusually large amounts of metals have a high affinity for accumulation of these
metals.
968 A. Ghosh et al.
Mechanism of Phytoextraction
Five things need to happen for a plant to extract a heavy metal from water or soil as
detailed below.
• The metal needs to be dissolved in something the plant roots can absorb.
• After dissolution, metal ions are chelated with a specific metal transporter or
particular products from plant roots and forward to the cell wall. Some examples
of chelators are: phytosiderophores, organic acids, or carboxylates.
• For protection and mobility purpose, chelate formation is needed by the plant.
• Regulation of heavy metals transportation is done by gene expression. Heavy
metal transporting ATPases (HMAs) are the transporters which transport the
heavy metals and showed overexpression in hyperaccumulating plants in heavy
metals contained zone. One of it is HMA4, which belongs to the Zn or Co or Cd or
Pb HMA subclass and is localized at xylem parenchyma plasma membranes.
• Finally, during transportation and storage, the plant adapts to any damages caused
by the metal.
Examples of Phytoextraction
The plants that belong to the family of Brassicaceae and Fabaceae are examples for
phytoextraction. Thlaspi caerulescens, Thlaspi caendescence, and Thlaspi arvense
for zinc; sunflower (Helianthus annuus) or the Chinese brake fern (Pteris vittata) for
arsenic; Willow (Salix viminalis) for cadmium (Cd), zinc (Zn), and copper (Cu), as it
has potentiality of production of huge biomass and high transporting capacity of
heavy metals from root to shoot. Maria Greger et al. (2003) reported that it can also
be used for bioenergy production in the biomass energy power plant. Alpine
pennycress (Thlaspi caerulescens) plays the role as hyperaccumulator of cadmium
and zinc metals at certain levels which might be toxic to many plants. Indian mustard
(Brassica juncea), ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia), hemp dogbane (Apocynum
cannabinum), or poplar trees sequester lead in their biomass. Fields previously
flooded by seawater can be reclaimed by using salt-tolerant (moderately halophytic)
barley and/or sugar beets. After the Chernobyl accident, caesium-137 and strontium-
90 was removed by using sunflower. For the phytoextraction of mercury, selenium,
and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), transgenic plants containing genes for bac-
terial enzymes were used. Co-planting of Sedium alfredii with ryegrass (Lolium
perenne) or castor (Ricinus communis) provides a promising strategy to mitigate
both metal (Cd, Zn, or Pb) and PAH (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) contami-
nants from co-contaminated soils (Kai Wang et al. 2013). Bioaccumulation of Cr
varies significantly according to plant age, biomass, and Cr contamination level in
irrigated mine wastewater and soil. Paragrass (Brachiaria mutica) could be used as
hyperaccumulators as it showed rapid massive growth with high tolerance to Cr
(Mohanty and Patra 2012). Rio et al. (2000) observed that Brassica juncea showed
better efficiency in phytoextraction of Pb, Zn, and Cd than Brassica carinata.
Continuous Phytoextraction
It is based on the phytological processes that permit plants to accumulate metals over
the complete growth cycle. It is dependent on the genetic and physiological capacity
of hyperaccumulators to accumulate, translocate, and tolerate high amount of metals.
In the light of toxic nature of heavy metals, it is found that some plants are good
accumulators. It is mainly due to the fact that the heavy metals that are absorbed are
chemically similar to other metals that are essential to the plants life. From a periodic
table, we can see that all of the toxic heavy metals which are absorbed by plants share
columns with essential elements. Nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) are essential
elements that share with arsenic (As) which is a dangerous heavy metal, and zinc
(Zn) shares with cadmium (Cd) and mercury (Hg).
Induced Phytoextraction
Induced phytoextraction is also known as chelate-assisted hyperaccumulation or

phytoextraction. Synthetic metal chelates such as EDTA are added to the soil to
increase metal mobilization so that the plants can intake them more easily. Affinity of
chelates for a particular metal is directly related to the metal accumulation efficiency
of plants. Of all the chelates applied at 5 and 10 mmol/kg to soil, EDTA @
10 mmol kg 1 could induce the phytoextraction of Pb up to 16,000 ppm.
Phytoextraction of Pb was increased in maize and pea plants by 50% with EDTA.
Thousand fold increase in uranium concentration was observed in citric acid-
amended soils. In the presence of EDTA, 14 taxa including Zea mays and Brassica
jimea were recorded to be Pb hyperaccumulators with Pb concentration ranging from
1000 to 20,000 ug/g (Reeves and Baker 2000). According to Ma et al. (2001), brake
fern (Pteris vittata) has removed 22,630 ug/g arsenic. Huang et al. (1998) estimated
that in normal phytoaccumulation method, corn has accumulated uranium (U) to the
extent of 10 ppm and was higher than other test crops, but in case of induced
phytoextraction by applying citric acid to soil, the accumulation could be increased
manifold in all crop species having highest in Brassica chinensis (1300 ppm)
followed by B. juncea (750 ppm) and Amaranthus spp. (600 ppm).
Rhizofiltration
Rhizofiltration (“rhizo” means “root”) means the adsorption or precipitation of

contaminants present in the root zone in solution form onto plant roots
(or absorption into the roots). It is a type of phytoremediation involving water
filtration by root mass for removal of hazardous products. It is a type of
phytoremediation, which is hydroponically cultivated plant roots to remediate con-
taminated water through absorption, concentration, and precipitation of pollutants,
and filtration is done by water and air. It is the use of plants that are raised
hydroponically and then relocated to sites for the purpose of removing metal
970 A. Ghosh et al.
contaminants from wastewater. The two methods phytoextraction and rhizofiltration

use the same basic path for remediation but the major difference is that rhizofiltration
is for treatment in aquatic environments, while phytoextraction deals with soil
remediation. In rhizofiltration, the contaminated water is either collected from a
waste site or brought to the plants, or planting in the contaminated area, where the
roots then take up the water and the contaminants dissolved in it. Hydroponic plant
roots suspended in contaminated water take up and accumulate contaminants. When
the plants become saturated with the contaminants, they are harvested for disposal.
Many plants absorb heavy metals and excess nutrients for: sequestration, drought
resistance, disposal by leaf abscission, interference with other plants and protect
against pathogens. It is assuming lot of importance in decontamination of polluted
water due to anthropogenic and industrial activities. A report on Zn and Ni
rhizofiltration in liquid culture medium through aquatic plant spp. was examined
by Panda (1996). A good accumulator of Zn (18,041 and 14,423 ppm) and Ni (7850
and 5315 ppm) was water lettuce and water hyacinth. The aquatic macroflora like
Hydrilla vericillata and Nymphea sp. were effective in reducing Cr concentration in
tannery effluent by more than 50%. Azolla, a free-floating water fern which occurs in
association with N2-fixing blue-green algae, has high rate of multiplication and
present varied conditions from dilute to polluted water bodies (Singh and Mahapatra
2000). It has the capacity to accumulate Cr, Co, Hg, Zn, Ni, Cd, Cu, As, and U
without any detrimental effect on its growth. An experiment was done on various
types of sunflowers and found that they successfully removed radioactive com-
pounds from pond water in Chernobyl, Ukraine. The advantages are its ability to
be used as in-situ or ex-situ applications and species other than hyperaccumulators
can also be used.
Advantages
• Both terrestrial and aquatic plants might be used for removal of contaminants;
though terrestrial plants require support, such as a floating platform, they showed
better extraction than aquatic plants.
• This system can be either in situ (floating rafts on ponds) or ex situ (an engineered
tank system).
• An ex situ system has its better advantage over in situ that it can be placed
anywhere due to the reason that the ex situ system does not have to be at the
original site of contamination.
Disadvantages
Rhizofiltration has the following disadvantages:
• The pH of the influent solution may have to be continually adjusted for getting
optimum metals uptake.
• Proper understanding of the chemical speciation and interaction of all species in

the influent have to be accounted for.
• Requirement of a well-engineered system for controlling influent concentration
and flow rate.
• Growing of the plants (especially terrestrial plants) in a greenhouse or nursery for
placement in the rhizofiltration system.
• Requirement of periodical harvesting and plant disposal.
• Failure of proper level achievement of metal immobilization and uptake results in
the field than laboratory.
Phytostabilization
It foresees use of plants along with agronomic techniques to stabilize contami-

nated sites. Typically, some agents are applied to contaminated soil to reduce the
bioavailability of contaminants and the site is planted into vegetation which
reduces off-site migration. For example, a variety of alkalizing agents, phos-
phates, mineral oxides, organic matter, and biosolids can be used to render Pb
more insoluble and unavailable to leaching or plant uptake. Plant varieties that
can develop a substantial root biomass capable of binding and retaining toxic
metals in contaminated soils without transporting metal to the shoots are good
candidates for phytostabilization. Generally, it is used for the remediation of soil,
sediment, and sludges (Mueller et al. 1999; USDA 2000), and depends on roots
ability to limit contaminant mobility and bioavailability in the soil.
Phytostabilization is done by sorption, precipitation, or metal valence reduction.
The plants mostly reduce the percolating water through the soil matrix resulting
hazardous leachate formation and prevention of soil erosion and distribution of
the hazards to other areas. A dense root system stabilizes the soil and prevents
erosion (Beerti and Cunningham 2000). For preservation of ground and surface
water, it is very effective. However, the major disadvantage is that the contam-
inant remains in soil and for this, regular monitoring is highly required.
Phytostabilization works on long-term stabilization and containment of the pol-
lutant. For example, the plants reduce wind erosion or prevent water erosion,
immobilize pollutants by adsorption or accumulation, and precipitate and stabi-
lize around the roots. An example of this technique is using a vegetative cap to
stabilize and contain mine tailings. An experiment was conducted by Weeradej
Meeinkuirt et al. (2012) and studied the potential of six tree species (Leucaena
leucocephala, Acacia mangium, Peltophorum pterocarpum, Pterocarpus macro-
carpus, Lagerstroemia floribunda, Eucalyptus camaldulensis) for Pb
phytostabilization in sand tailings (total Pb >9850 mg kg 1) from KEMCO Pb
mine in Kanchanaburi province, Thailand. A. mangium with the application of
organic fertilizer was the best option for phytostabilized Pb-contaminated mine
tailing highly due to highest retention of Pb in its roots. Solanum nigrum plants
are suitable for the phytostabilization of Ni-polluted sites, and MT2a, MT2c,
972 A. Ghosh et al.
MT2d, and MT3 are related to the tolerance to high Ni levels in S. nigrum (Pedro
Ferraz et al. 2012).
Advantages
• Absence of unnecessary soil removal.

• Lower cost and less disruptive than other soil remedial technologies.
• Ecosystem restoration enhancement by revegetation.
• Absence of disposal of hazardous materials or biomass.
Disadvantages
• As the contaminants remain in soil, the vegetation and soil may require long-term
maintenance to prevent the contaminants releasing capacity and future leaching
property.
• Extensive fertilization or soil modification using amendments may be required for
vegetation.
• Plant uptake of metals and translocation to the aboveground portion must be
avoided.
• Monitoring of the root zone, root exudates, contaminants, and soil amendments
may be required for prevention of an increase in metal solubility and leaching.
• Consideration of phytostabilization as only be an interim measure.
Phytovolatilization
In this process, the soluble contaminants are taken up with water by the roots,
translocated within the plant either in unaltered or altered form to the leaves
and volatilized into the atmosphere through the stomata (transpiration). It is
based on different biological processes including reduction to volatile elemental
forms and synthesis of methylated compounds of same metals and metalloids
(Wenzel et al. 1999). Mercury, selenium, and arsenic are highly phytovolatilable.
The mercuric ion is transformed into less toxic elemental mercury in transgenic
Arabidopsis. It can also be volatilized to dimethylselenide by microbes and algae.
Indian mustard was found to reduce Se concentration to nontoxic levels
(Bañuelos and Meek 1990; Bañuelos et al. 1997). Burken and Schnoor (1999)
characterized the distribution and volatilization of selected organic contaminants
by using hybrid poplar trees. Hansen et al. (1998) reported that constructed
wetlands are highly effective in removing Se from selenite-contaminated waste-
waters. They recorded maximum rates of Se volatilization from five vegetated
wasteland sites. Rabbit foot grass and cattail most efficiently phytovolatilized
Se. Poplar trees volatilized 90% of the trichloroethylene (TCE) they take up
(Fig. 2).
Fig. 2 Phytovolatilization
Phytodegradation
It is the metabolism of contaminants within plant tissue, also known as phytotrans-

formation. It is the contaminants breakdown through metabolic processes inside
the plant, or the breakdown of contaminants surrounding the plant through the
effect of compounds (such as enzymes) produced by the plants. Complex organic
pollutants are degraded into simpler molecules and are incorporated into the plant
tissues to help the plant grow faster (Fig. 2). Plants contain enzymes (complex
chemical proteins) which catalyze and increase chemical reactions. Plant root,
stem, and leaf enzymatic metabolic activities can convert and detoxify contami-
nates removed from air, soil, and water. Some of the plant species are efficient in
degrading the pollutant within plant system into less (no) harmful compounds, e.g.,
poplar tree for atrazine and TNT. Atrazine is degraded into less harmful com-
pounds – aniline and dehydroxylated dealkylated products. The explosive like
TNT (2,4,6-trinitroluene) is converted into 2,4-diamino-6-dinitrotoulene. Glycerol
trinitrite (GNT), hexahydro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX), and 2,4,6-trinotrotoluene (TNT)
are common explosives that contaminate soil and groundwater. The plants like
Avena sativa and Beta vulgaris were identified as suitable species for decontam-
ination of TNT and GTN, respectively. Besides, seeds of transgenic tobacco which
will release an enzyme pentaerythritol tetranitrate reductase (PETR) are table to
germinate and grow in the presence of GTN and TNT, can be used for
phytoremediation (Gong et al. 1999).
974 A. Ghosh et al.
Advantages
• Degradation of contaminant due to enzymes produced by a plant occurred in an

environment free of microorganisms (e.g., environment where the microorgan-
isms have been killed by high contaminant levels).
• Plants are able to grow in sterile soil and also in soil where concentration levels
are toxic to microorganisms. Thus, phytodegradation potentially could occur in
soils where biodegradation cannot solve the problem.
Disadvantages
• Adams et al. (2000) reported that toxic intermediates or degradation products may
form. PCP was metabolized to the potential mutagen tetrachlorocatechol in wheat
plants and cell cultures.
• Determination of presence or identity of metabolites within a plant might be
difficult, thus difficult to confirm the destruction of contaminant.
Phytostimulation or Rhizodegradation
It deals with the enhancement of microbial activity in the soil for destruction of
contaminants especially by organisms mainly associated with roots. This is also
termed as rhizosphere degradation (Fig. 3). This method also utilizes aquatic plants
for promoting the active populations of microbial decomposers.
Advantages
• Contaminant destruction occurs in situ.

• Translocation of the compound to the plant or atmosphere is less likely than with
other phytoremediation technologies since degradation occurs at the source of the
contamination.
Fig. 3 Rhizodegradation
• Mineralization of the contaminant can occur.

• As compared to other remedial options, it has low installation and
maintenance cost.
Disadvantages
• Formation of an extensive root zone is likely to require substantial time.

• Due to the physical structure or moisture conditions of the soil, root depth can be
limited.
• Unlike nonrhizosphere soil, the rhizosphere might effect an increase in the initial
rate of degradation but the final degree of degradation might be similar in both
rhizosphere and nonrhizosphere soil.
• Plant uptake can occur for many of the contaminants that have been examined.
Field and laboratory studies need to account for other loss and phytoremediation
mechanisms that might complicate the interpretation of rhizodegradation. For
example, if plant uptake occurs, phytovolatilization or phytodegradation could
occur in addition to rhizodegradation.
• As there is a microbial competition for nutrients, plants need additional
fertilization.
Phytoremediation of Pesticide-Contaminated Soil
Use of herbicide in agriculture is gaining momentum in wheat, rice, and plantation

crops, etc. Indiscriminate use of these chemicals is contaminating the soil and water,
and slowly residue build up is taking place which becomes more danger for plant
growth and development. For purification of such type of soils, phytoremediation is
ideal, where some poplar trees and fungi were found to be effective. Bordjiba et al.
(2001) estimated the percentage of depletion of metribuzin and etobromuron from
non-contaminated and contaminated soils of liquid culture medium and found that
Abscidia sp. (Zygomycents), Botrytis sp. (Dematiaceae), Byssochlamys sp., and
Sordaria sp. (Ascoycentes) fungi were most effective in soil rectification. Komives
et al. (1994) also opined that Benoxacor – a safener – can protect maize from
chloracentanilides through enhanced metabolism. Being a good accumulator, some
aquatic plants such as Elodea canadensis, Eichhornia crassipes, and Lemna minor
have been used in water treatment (Abdul et al. 2014).
Water Hyacinth as Phytoremediation Plant
Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms) is known as a voracious weed,

which causes blocks in waterways and disturbs the aquatic life. This plant is
considered as a pest in the canals. But, water hyacinth has been proved to be an
effective remediator of heavy metal contaminated sites. Bioaccumulation coeffi-
cients showed that water hyacinth could be used as a remedial plant for metals;
976 A. Ghosh et al.
however it must be periodically removed from the canals. The roots of water
hyacinth accumulated more trace elements than did the shoots. In the shoot portion,
the order of accumulation is Zn > Ni > Cu > Pb > Cd, whereas, in roots,
Cu > Zn > Ni > Pb > Cd. The bioconcentration factor was always greater in
roots than the shoots. Translocation capability (dividing the concentration of a trace
element accumulated in the root tissues by that accumulated in shoot tissues) of these
five heavy metals was in the order of Cu > Pb > Cd > Ni > Zn (Cristóbal Carrión
et al. 2012).
Hydraulic Control
Hydraulic control is the use of plants to remove groundwater through uptake and
consumption in order to contain or control the migration of contaminants (Fig. 4). It
is also known as hydraulic plume or phytohydraulics control. This is used in the
treatment of groundwater, surface water, and soil water. It has several advantages.
• Costs will be lower.

• An engineered pump-and-treat system does not need to be installed.
• Roots will penetrate into and be in contact with a much greater volume of soil
than if a pumping well is used.
Different organics and inorganics which are water soluble and leachable are used
below their phytotoxic concentration levels. A barrier can be formed for the ground-
water movement at a site contaminated with gasoline and diesel by using poplar trees.
Hydraulic control by plants occurs within a depth affects by roots. The effective
Fig. 4 Hydraulic control of contaminated plume

rooting depth of most crops is in between 1 and 4 ft. To remediate groundwater in

water table depths of 30 ft, several trees and other plantation can be used. By
interfacing through the capillary fringe, plant roots present above the water table can
influence the groundwater contaminants. Fe, Tc, U, and P diffused upward from the
water table and were absorbed by barley roots that were 10 cm above the water table
interface (Adams et al. 2000).
Phytoscreening
It is more economically viable, less disruptive to the environment, and more likely to
be accepted by the public as it is more aesthetically pleasing than traditional
methods. Plants can be used as biosensors of subsurface contamination due to
their ability to consume particular types of soil contaminants. Different types of
chlorinated solvents, such as TCL (trichloroethylene), have been found within tree
trunk at different concentrations depending on its concentrations in groundwater.
New standard methods are developed to extract a portion of the tree trunk for
laboratory analysis for better field utilization. Phytoscreening also deals with site-
specific experiments and reduces the cost of site purification.
Benefits
• It is more economically viable using the same tools and less disruptive to the
environment.
• An ecofriendly and potential technique to clean up environmental pollutants and
treat wastes.
• Less expensive with least environmental perturbation.
• Enables reuse of contaminated soil and water through removal of heavy metals
and metalloids.
• Threat due to RDX and these sites can be decontaminated.
• Health hazards to human beings and animals can be avoided.
• Metals can be extracted from hyperaccumulators for reuse in industries.
Limitations
• Slower than traditional mechanical methods.

• Suitable plants have to be selected to remove specific contaminants, as all plants
are not hyperaccumulators.
• It is effective only with annuals and biennials.
• Limited to shallow soils, streams, and groundwater.
• Plants used for phytoremediation may provide an entry for the biomagnification
of contaminants in food cycle.
978 A. Ghosh et al.
Forensic Phytoremediation
Areas having contaminated groundwater or contaminated soil can become

revegetated through the planting of plants which are naturally occurring. Forensic
phytoremediation refers to the investigation of naturally revegetated contaminated
areas to determine which plants have become established, the reason behind their
establishment, and to find out the effect of these plants on the contamination. This
investigation can identify plants that are capable of surviving in contaminated areas,
some of them also have the ability of contributing to the deterioration of the
contaminants. Because the vegetation has often been present at the area for a longer
period compared to the time interval for field planned for phytoremediation studies, a
researcher does not need to wait many more years to study the impacts of the
revegetation. Natural revegetation of an area is essentially a form of inherent
bioremediation (Adams et al. 2000). Phytoremediation intrinsic bioremediation
and forensic phytoremediation have been repeatedly examined at a petroleum
refinery sludge impoundment that was naturally revegetated.
Phytoremediation Through Genetically Engineered Plants
Agati (vegetable humming bird tree) and Thale cress were genetically engineered to
increase their activity towards removal of DDT and TCE. Production of these two
plants was verified using p450 2E1 specific PCR and western blot analysis. Gas
chromatography (GC) analysis revealed that F3 generation of Thale cress and small
cuttings of Agati transgenic plants when exposed to TCE and DDT accumulated
more TCE and DDT compared to plants transformed with the empty vector. Further,
both the transgenic plants were more effective in breaking down TCE and DDT with
a twofold increase in TCE metabolism. Two independent lines of Thale cress showed
that DDT was metabolized about fourfold higher than that detected in
non-transformed plants. Similarly, agati cuttings removed 51–90% of the added
DDT compared with only 3% removal in controls plants which are transformed
through the null vector. Notably, stability of rabbit cytochrome p450 2E1 was
confirmed using third generation Thale cress plants that displayed higher potential
for the removal of two important pollutants, TCE and DDT compared with the
control (Mouhamad et al. 2012).
Phytoremediation of Arsenic-Contaminated Soil
Arsenic is an odorless and tasteless semimetal, and naturally found in soil and
rocks. It can be easily combined with other elements to make chemicals which are
used as insect killers on cotton crops or to preserve wood. Organic form of
arsenic is harmless to the human body which is mostly found in seafood whereas
its inorganic form is the main concern of the scientists which mainly pollutes the
groundwater. Inorganic arsenic is reported as carcinogen in its purest form and
causes cancer of skin, lung, liver, bladder, kidney, and prostate. Besides, it also
results in decreased production of red and white blood cells, cause infertility, and
can even damage DNA. Though arsenic is introduced into the water through the
dissolution of minerals and ores, it is widely distributed throughout the earth’s
crust. Industrial waste also leads to arsenic pollution when run-off from orchards
mixes with the groundwater. Through atmospheric deposition (when water from
rains brings the arsenic to the ground), the combustion of fossil fuels also pollutes
the environment with arsenic. Releasing of arsenic from iron oxide mixes with
the upflow of geothermal water resulting in widespread high concentrations of
arsenic.
Arsenic poisoning differs from acute poisoning for producing symptoms like
stomach pain, diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, numbness in hands and feet, thickening
and discoloration of the skin, partial paralysis, and blindness over time. Several
countries like Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Chile, China, Hungary, India,
Mexico, Peru, Thailand, and the USA reported higher concentrations than the safe
value of 10 ug L-1 according to the WHO. Hazardous health effects due to exposure
of higher Arsenic concentration also have been reported in China, Bangladesh, India
(West Bengal), and the USA. In the USA, high concentrations of arsenic in ground-
water are found in the West, Midwest, and Northeast part of the country. Recently,
the critical situation happens in Bangladesh and West Bengal (India) where most of
the persons are exposed to toxic concentrations of arsenic through drinking water.
That is the reason for which arsenic contamination in groundwater in the Ganga-
Brahmaputra fluvial plains in India and Padma-Meghna fluvial plains in Bangladesh
and its consequences and damages to the human health have been reported as one of
the world’s biggest natural hazardous problem to the mankind. Though there are
conventional techniques like adsorption, ion exchange, catalytic precipitation, elec-
tron exchange, oxidation + coagulation + flocculation or precipitation and filtration
for reducing arsenic problems, their performance is not satisfactory. Hence
phytoremediation, an innovative and cost-effective technique, solves the problem
of arsenic in ground water.
Ma et al. (2001) found the Chinese Ladder fern Pteris vittata, also known as
the brake fern, as an efficient accumulator of arsenic; it grows rapidly and can
absorb arsenic up to 2% of its weight and extract arsenic from soil even at low
concentration, e.g., 6 ppm, which is common for many soils. When it is grown on
soil with 100 ppm, not only it absorbed more arsenic but also it grew by 40%
larger than normal. A greenhouse experiment was conducted for evaluating the
effectiveness of diammonium phosphate (DAP), single superphosphate (SSP),
and two growing cycles on arsenic removal by Chinese brake fern (Pteris vittata L.)
from an arsenic-contaminated Typic Haplustept in West Bengal. After har-
vesting Pteris vittata, the total, Olsen’s extractable, and other five soil arsenic
fractions were calculated. It has been found that the total biomass yield of
P. vittata was 10.7–16.2 g/pot in the first growing cycle and 7.53–11.57 g/pot in
the second growing cycle. The frond arsenic concentrations were 990–1374 mg/kg
in the first growing cycle and 875–1371 mg/kg in the second growing cycle. DAP
was found to be most fruitful in increasing the arsenic removal from soil. After the
980 A. Ghosh et al.
first growing cycle, P. vittata reduced soil arsenic by 10–20%, while after two
growing cycles, P. vittata it by 18–34%. Two consecutive harvests with DAP as
the phosphate fertilizer found as the best management strategy for restoration of
arsenic-contaminated soil in West Bengal through phyotoextraction by P. vittata
(Mandal et al. 2012).
Role of Plant-Associated Microbes in Heavy Metal Phytoremediation
Implication of “phytoremediation” is extending rapidly and is being commer-

cialized by harnessing the phyto-microbial diversity; phytoremediation employs
biodiversity to remove pollutants from the soil, air, and water. In recent
researches, a considerable knowledge explosion in understanding plant-
microbes-heavy metals interactions have been explored. Novel applications of
plant-associated microbes reported a new vision in phytoremediation technology.
Various metabolites, i.e., indole-3-acetic acid, siderophores, organic acids, etc.,
produced by plant-associated microbes, i.e., plant growth-promoting bacteria,
mycorrhizae, have been applied to be involved in many biogeochemical pro-
cesses operating in the rhizosphere with their important properties like nutrient
acquisition, cell elongation, metal detoxification, and alleviation of biotic or
abiotic stress in plants. Mostly rhizosphere microbes increase metal mobility or
immobilization. Plants and associated microbes mainly release inorganic and
organic compounds possessing acidifying, chelating, and/or reductive
power which play an essential role in plant metal uptake. In this way, the
plant-associated beneficial microbes improves the efficacy of phytoremediation
mechanism directly by altering the metal accumulation in plant tissues and
indirectly by increasing the shoot and root biomass production (Rajkumar et al.
2012).
Bioremediation includes biostimulation in which organic or inorganic com-
pounds are used to enhance indigenous microbial growth that directly disseminates
the contaminants. Agamuthu et al. (2013) tested the performance of two organics,
viz., cow dung and sewage sludge for biodegradation of used lubricant-
contaminated soil. From this experiment, it has been observed that the biodegra-
dation rate of the two organic matters varied due to the variation in the nutrient
concentration particularly of available N and P. Apart from that, cow dung-
amended soil was found to have better soil physiochemical characteristics that
enabled speedy adaption by the microbes to the contaminated soil. Based on the
first-order kinetics model, cow dung-amended soil recorded highest biodegrada-
tion rate of 0.2086/day with used-lubricant half-life of 3.32 days, whereas sewage
sludge-amended soil has a biodegradation rate of 0.149/day with used-lubricant
half-life of 4.65 days. These biodegradation rates were significantly higher than
that of the autoclaved soil and control soil. As for the microbial counts, cow dung-
amended soil recorded (69–122) 107 CFU/g while sewage sludge-amended soil
recorded (63–96) 107 CFU/g though the control soil recorded (52–73) 107
CFU/g. Again, the concentration of available nutrients demanded by the microbes
might be the contributing factor to the high concentration of microbes in the

organic matter-ameliorated soil than the control soil. It can be observed that, cow
dung and sewage sludge can be an effective organic amendment for the biodegra-
dation of used-lubricant-contaminated soil.
Phytoremediation of Polluted Water by Trees
Plantation and vegetation can filter and immobilize sediment and other water
contaminants such as fertilizers and pesticides thus decreasing run-off and water
pollution (Schnnor 2002). Crompton (2008) has revealed that natural lands like
forests, parks, and wetlands can help to filter the water before it mixes with rivers,
reservoirs, or aquifers, thereby enabling cleaner drinking water sources and making
water treatment cheaper. Some woody species have been found to have the capacity
to accumulate heavy metals as pollutants that exist in the ground water
(Unterbrunner et al. 2007). A study of 27 water suppliers found that water treatment
costs for utilities using primarily surface water supplies varied depending on the
amount of forest cover in the watershed. For every 10% increase in forest cover in
the source area (up to about 60% forest cover), treatment and chemical costs
decreased by approximately 20%. Approximately 50–55% of the variation in oper-
ating treatment costs could be explained by the percentage (%) of forest cover in the
source area (Ernst et al. 2007).
Plants, especially woody plants, are found very effective at extracting nutrients
(nitrates and phosphates) and contaminates (such as metals, pesticides, solvents, oils,
and hydrocarbons) from soil and water. These pollutants are either stored in wood or
used for growth. In an experiment, a single sugar maple growing roadside extracted a
remarkable quantity of cadmium, chromium, nickel, and lead in a single growing
season. Studies conducted in Maryland resulted reductions of up to 88% of nitrate
and 76% of phosphorus after agricultural run-off passed through a forest buffer.
Natural forests and planted trees play a vital role in protecting water quality as
reported by many engineers, planners, and community leaders that forests are the
most helpful land use for maintaining water quality due to their property to capture,
filter, and retain water (Singh et al. 2010). It is universally accepted that trees as a
suitable vegetation cover increase the quality of life as they absorb dangerous
pollutants from the environment; hence healthy and well managed forest can give
many ecological benefits (Yang et al. 2005). If water flows rapidly over the land
surface, the run-off carries most of the pollutants that exist on the surface to the main
water body, but if the water flows more slowly due to the presence of vegetation on
land, most of the pollutants will be filtered out either by adhering to plants and soil or
by being absorbed through the root systems of plants. Trees are functioned as water
filters and increase water quality. They use wastewater and absorb heavy metals due
to their extensive root system (Bose et al. 2008). Thus, trees have been suggested as a
cheap, sustainable, and ecological sound solution to the reclamation of heavy metals-
contaminated water as trees absorb these metals and dangerous pollutants from soil
and water. The main property that trees are to make them suitable for
982 A. Ghosh et al.
phytoremediation is because of their large biomass both below and above ground
(Ghosh and Singh 2005).
Buffer Strips/Riparian Corridors
Application of riparian corridors or buffer strips along streams and river banks
are done to reduce and remediate surface run-off and groundwater contamination
moving into the river. These systems can also be applied to stop downgradient
movement of the contaminated groundwater plume and to degrade contaminants
in the plume. The mechanisms involved in this type of remediation involve water
uptake, contaminant uptake, and plant metabolism. The idea used in these corridors
are similar to physical and chemical permeable barriers such as trenches filled
with iron filings, in which they treat groundwater without extraction containment.
Riparian corridors and buffer strips may include some properties of hydraulic
control, phytodegradation, rhizodegradation, phytovolatilization, and might be
phytoextraction.
Advantages
The stabilization of stream banks and blockage of soil erosion provides the second-
ary advantage. Aquatic and terrestrial habitats are mostly increased by riparian forest
corridors.
Disadvantages
The application of buffer strips might be limited for easy accumulation and meta-
bolization of compounds. Land use problems may limit application.
Role of Genetics
Genetic engineering and breeding programs are powerful methods for introducing
new capabilities into plants or enhancing natural phytoremediation capabilities.
Genes for phytoremediation may produce from a microorganism or transferred
from one variety to another variety better adapted to the environmental conditions
at the remediation site. For example, when genes encoding a nitroreductase from a
bacterium were inserted into tobacco, showed enhanced resistance to the toxic
effects of TNT and faster removal of it. Researchers have also discovered a mech-
anism within plant system that permits them to grow even when the pollution
concentration in the soil is very harmful for non-treated plants. Some biodegradable
compounds (exogenous polyamines) allow the plants to tolerate and absorb higher
concentrations of pollutants than untreated plants.
Limits of Phytoremediation at Hazardous Waste Sites
Phytoremediation is highly favored by site owners and citizen groups as possibly

due to cheapest technology that may be employed in the remediation of selected
hazardous sites based on the early information provided by some research and
reported by the media. Although modern research continues to investigate and
push the boundaries of phytoremediation applications, there are some drawbacks
to plant-based remediation systems.
Root System
On phytoremediation applicability, root contact is a primary constraint. Contact of

contaminants with the root zone of the plants is the basic need of remediation with
plants. Either the contaminated media must be moved to within range of the plants,
or the plants must be able to extend roots to the contaminants. This movement can be
accomplished with standard agricultural equipment and practices, such as deep
plowing to bring the soil from 2 or 3 ft deep to within 8–10 in. of the surface for
grasses and shallow-rooted crops, or by irrigating grasses and trees with contami-
nated wastewater. Because these activities can generate volatile compound emis-
sions and fugitive dust, potential risks may need to be evaluated. As shown in Fig. 5,
the effective root depth of plants depends on soil and climate condition and varies by
different species.
Growth Rate
Remediation with plants is also limited by its growth rates. Unlike other more
traditional cleanup technologies, it may be required higher time to phytoremediate
an area. Incineration and excavation take weeks to months to accomplish, while
phytoextraction may need several years. Therefore, phytoremediation may not be the
best technique of choice for area that pose acute risks for human and other ecological
receptors.
Contaminant Concentration
For phytoremediative processes, sites with low to medium level contamination

within the root zone are the best candidates. High concentrations of contaminants
may inhibit plant growth and thus may limit application on some sites or some
parts of sites. This phytotoxicity could lead to a tiered remedial approach in
which high concentration waste is handled with expensive ex situ techniques
that quickly reduce acute risk, while in situ phytoremediation is used over a
longer period of time to clean the high volumes of lower contaminant
concentrations.
984 A. Ghosh et al.
Fig. 5 Examples of root depth
Impacts of Contaminated Vegetation
Some ecological exposure may occur whenever plants are used to interact with
contaminants from the soil. The fate of the metals in the biomass is a concern. At one
site, sunflower plants that extracted cesium (Cs) and strontium (Sr) from surface
water were disposed of as radioactive waste (Adler 1996).
Although some forms of phytoremediation involve accumulation of metals and
require handling of plant material embedded with metals, most plants do not
accumulate significant levels of organic contaminants. While metal accumulating
plants will need to be harvested and either recycled or disposed of in compliance
with applicable regulations, most phytoremediative plants do not require further
treatment or disposal. Often overlooked, however, is the possibility that natural
vegetation on the site is already creating very similar (but often unrecognized)
food chain exposures. In addition, even on currently unvegetated sites, contaminants
will be entering the food chain through soil organisms. The remediation plan should
identify and, if possible, quantify potential avenues of ecological exposure, and
determine if and where any accumulation of toxics in the selected plants will occur.
Accumulation in fruits, seeds, and leaves typically creates more exposure than
accumulation in stems and roots. Most organic contaminants do not accumulate in
significant amounts in plant tissue.
Research being done on the bioavailability of contaminants and on human health
and environmental risk assessment is directly related to phytoremediation. Studies
are underway to determine if contaminants that are not available to plants for uptake
or those are not vulnerable to plant remediation are less of a risk to human health and
the environment.
Conclusion
Phytoremediation is an ecofriendly technology for purification of polluted natural

resources. It is becoming popular due to its low cost and versatility. Though the
technology was initiated 20 years back across the world, molecular and physiolog-
ical basis of metal hyperaccumulation in plants is still at infancy stage in research
and development. Characterization of germplasm of every country is the need of the
hour as it will be easy for agriculturists or researchers to select suitable hyper-
accumulators for the purpose of phytoremediation. Identification of novel genes
with higher biomass yield characteristics and subsequent development of transgenic
plants with superior remediation capacities is to be done. Phytoremediation of
problematic soils must be paid attention in order to convert these low productive
patches into high productive ones. Therefore, to ensure sustainable agriculture on
soils having high contamination, priority should be given to create a new set of
cropping systems while avoiding entry of hazardous elements to the food chain.
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Bioremediation of Solid Waste
Management 38
Naresh Gopal Shrivastava
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 990
Environmental Issues of Solid Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 991
Concept of Bioremediation and Current Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 994
Current Technologies: Kinds of Bioremediation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 995
Comparison of Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1003
Methodology for the Implementation of Bioremediation Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1003
Feasibility Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1006
Data Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1007
Treatable Contaminants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1009
Validation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1014
In Situ Bioremediation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1014
Phytoremediation Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1017
Precautions for Implantation of Bioremediation Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1024
Underground Water Remediation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1026
Sewage Treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1027
Drinking Water Treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1028
Rainwater Treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1029
Soil Remediation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1029
Indoor Air Purification and Atmospheric Pollution Remediation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1030
Merits and Demerits of Bioremedition Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1031
Merits of Bioremediation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1031
Demerits of Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1033
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1034
Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1035
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1037
Abstract
The crisis of waste management has created an increase in public awareness. The
awareness of the impact of solid waste on the environment is very limited.
Although there are several technologies practiced in solid waste management,
N. G. Shrivastava (*)
Pollution Control Research Institute, BHEL, Ranipur, Haridwar, Uttarakhand, India

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_48
990 N. G. Shrivastava
many of them create other types of pollution. This chapter has summarized the
current technologies available in solid waste management and the potential
uses of a newer method called bioremediation. With increasing research, this
method can provide a cost-effective and environmentally friendly solution to the
waste management crisis if it is used in conjunction with current methods.
Bioremediation is also an important method of land and water reclamation.
Sites previously thought to be unpurifiable have the potential for reuse once
they are treated with microbes. Bioremediation is an effective method of decon-
tamination without leaving any toxic residues. Microbes used in this process die
off as the pollutant is degraded and return to their normal population size. The
continuous monitoring is necessary to ensure that all traces of the contaminant
have been eradicated from the bioremediated site. The recycling has been proven
to be the most effective method of waste reduction and the least damaging to the
environment of the available techniques. Landfilling and incineration are the most
damaging and have not created a solution to the waste management crisis. This
chapter has also attempted to explain waste management planning and the
necessity of each method in such a plan. One method alone will not solve our
solid waste disposal problems. The key to the management plan is waste reduc-
tion, recycling, and incineration. New methods such as bioremediation are also
important in the waste management plan since they will provide future alterna-
tives to landfilling and incineration. As new treatments are proposed, tested, and
proved reliable, they can be integrated with the overall management scheme.
Keywords
Bioremediation · Solid waste · Microbial decomposition · Phytoremediation ·
Landfill
Introduction
The rapid growth of the world population, rising living standards, and technological
advancements are are all contributing to an increase in the variety and amount of
solid waste. Generation of municipal solid waste, with the high organic share present
in solid waste and its often unplanned disposing of, results in extensive ecological
pollution, due to the emission of gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect, such
as methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2). Higher-efficiency methods have to be
used to manage the increasing quantity of municipal solid waste for reducing
environmental threats through implementing techno-economic and political solu-
tion. Municipal solid wastes are generated by residential industrial sources, com-
mercial sources, institutional sources such as schools and hospitals, construction
sources, municipal services, and agriculture such as orchards, crops, dairies, chicken
farms, pig farms, etc. These solid wastes could be biodegradable, recyclable, inert,
composite, domestic, and hazardous. These solid wastes have environmental
impacts on groundwater and surface water, causing bad odors, methane generation,
38 Bioremediation of Solid Waste Management 991
bird menace, frequent firs, epidemic diseases, soil acidity, and greenhouse gas
emissions. The main problem with urban solid waste management in India is that
it is estimated that 38 million tons of the solid waste are generated in urban India
each year. And the collection efficiency ranges from 75% to 95% in major metro
cities, while it lies below 50% in several small cities (GK Today 2015). Out of this,
hardly any attention is paid to scientific and safe disposal of waste. The landfill sites
have not been identified in many municipalities, and in others, landfill sites have
been exhausted. Apart from this, very few urban local bodies have prepared effective
long-term plans. As per directives of the Supreme Court of India, the Government of
India has framed a policy on municipal solid waste management in 2000. The policy
indicates that the best way to keep the street clean is to collect wet waste at the
doorstep for composting, which is a cost-effective process in view of the need for
manures to enhance soil fertility. Municipalities have developed landfill sites for the
complete disposal of urban waste. Therefore, it is required to ensure the strict
implementation of solid waste rules on a case-by-case basis, along with civil society
and public participation.
Environmental Issues of Solid Waste
Solid waste management issue is the biggest challenging problem for the concerned
authorities in developing countries. Due to the gradual increasing generation rate of
such solid waste, it has impacted the municipal budget. In handling the entire system,
there is a lack of understanding of the different factors other than the high costs and
solid waste management, with only a few articles giving information on quantitative
analysis of municipal solid waste. Most of the studies show the actions and behaviors
of stakeholders and their roles in solid waste management, as well as the analysis of
different factors that affect the system. Most of the studies were conducted across
4 continents, in 22 developing countries, and in over 30 urban areas. A combination
of various methods that were used in this study was mentioned in detail in order to
encourage the stakeholders and to assess the factors influencing the performance of
the solid waste management in the studied cities (Guerrero et al. 2013).
The rapid increase in urban population booting economy and the high rise in the
standard of living in developing countries have greatly accelerated, increasing the
quantity and quality of the municipal solid waste generation (Minghua et al. 2009). It
is an important challenge to the environment. Municipalities, generally, are respon-
sible for waste management. They have to provide an effective and efficient system
for the inhabitants. Nevertheless, they are often facing many problems beyond the
ability of the municipal authority to handle the MSW (Sujauddin et al. 2008). This is
essentially due to financial resources, lack of organization, and complexity (Burntley
2007).
The generation of MSW in India has an obvious relation to the population of the
area or city, due to bigger cities generating more wastes. Annepu Ranjith (2012)
reported that the metropolitan area of Kolkata generates the largest amount of MSW
(11,520 TPD or 4.2 million TPY) among Indian cities.
Others Maharahstra
Madhya 15.6% 17.1%
Pradesh
3.5%
Rajasthan
3.8%
West Bengal
Gujarat 12.0%
5.4%
Karnataka Uttar
6.0% Pradesh
10.0%
Andhra
Pradesh
8.8% Tamil Nadu
Delhi 9.0%
8.9%
Fig. 1 Share of states and union territories in urban MSW generated. (Sources: Annepu, Ranjith
Kharvel. Sustainable Solid Waste Management in India. January 10, 2012. 2. Observations from
India’s Waste Crisis. Waste-to-Energy Research and Technology Council (WTERT), India.
November 2012)
Among the four geographical regions in India, Northern India generates the
highest amount of MSW (40,500 TPD or 14.8 million TPY), with 30% of all
MSW generated in India; and Eastern India (23,500 TPD or 8.6 million TPY)
generates the least, with only 17% of MSW generated in India. Among the states,
Maharashtra (22,200 TPD or 8.1 million TPY), West Bengal (15,500 TPD or 5.7
million TPY), Uttar Pradesh (13,000 TPD or 4.75 million TPY), Tamil Nadu (12,000
TPD or 4.3 million TPY), and Andhra Pradesh (11,500 TPD or 4.15 million TPY)
generate the highest amount of MSW. Among the union territories, Delhi (11,500
TPD or 4.2 million TPY) generates the highest, and Chandigarh (486 TPD or
177,400 TPY) generates the second highest amount of waste (Kharvel, Figs. 1
and 2).
There are significant variations in the composition of municipal solid waste
from municipality to municipality and country to country. This variation depends
mainly on the lifestyle, economic situation, waste management regulations, and
different industrial processes. The quantity and quality of the municipal solid
waste are critical for the determination of the appropriate handling and manage-
ment of these different kinds of wastes. To put up the waste-to-energy plant, such
information is essential within the municipality. Engineers and scientists can
decide on the utility of MSW as a fuel based on the calorific value and the
Class H
6%
Class G
5%
Class F
6%
Metros
Class E
37%
5%
Class D
4%
Class C
5%
Class B
8%
Class A
24%
Fig. 2 Share of different classes of cities in urban MSW generated. (Sources: Annepu, Ranjith
Kharvel. Sustainable Solid Waste Management in India. January 10, 2012. 2. Observations from
India’s Waste Crisis. Waste-to-Energy Research and Technology Council (WTERT), India.
November 2012)
elemental composition. Meanwhile, this information will help in predicting the

composition of gaseous emissions. Thereafter, this MSW is subjected to energy
conversion technologies including gasification, incineration, etc. However, the
possible hazardous substances found in the ash should be considered carefully
(American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) 2014). The utility of the
material either for composting or for biogas production as fuel via biological
conversion and the composition of the waste will provide valuable information
(Kumar et al. 2010).
Meanwhile, time has a great impact on the composition of MSW. The retention
time is important for biodegradation of such MSW, which converts the amount of
recyclable material, particularly the organic contents. Solid and hazardous wastes are
continuously posing negative impacts on the environment and have become the
biggest challenge for policymakers to deal with.
Municipal solid waste generation is increasing worldwide due to the increasing
population and development activities and is going ahead of the recycling, dis-
posal, and storage in special warehouses. Further accumulation of municipal solid
waste is fraught with serious negative consequences for both the population and
the environment. Therefore, all over the world, solid and hazardous waste
reduction, storage, and disposal, as well as recycling, have received increased and
serious attention.
Municipal solid waste is broadly divided into domestic, industrial, and biomed-
ical waste associated with health facilities and radioactivity. This waste can be
solid, liquid, or a mixture of solid, liquid, and gas phases. The storage of all waste
gradually makes changes due to their natural degradation and the impact on
external conditions. As a result, the sites of storage and disposal of waste may be
generated by new environmental hazardous substances, posing a serious threat to
the human environment if they spread into the biosphere. Therefore, storage and
disposal of hazardous wastes should be analyzed as storage of the physicochemical
process.
Concept of Bioremediation and Current Technologies
Bioremediation is a treatment technology that uses biodegradation of organic

waste, consisting of metallic containments, through stimulation of indigenous
decomposers (bacteria, fungi, and viruses) by providing certain amendments,
like adding oxygen, limiting nutrients, or adding endemic and exotic microbial
species. These organisms may be isolated from existing natural conditions or
introduced from externally applied microorganisms to degrade and transform
hazardous organic constituents into compounds of reduced toxicity and/or
availability.
Specific technologies fall into two broad categories:
1. Ex situ technologies may be in the form of slurry state, land treatment, solid state,
and composting.
2. In situ technologies.
Potential remediation may include some amendments such as nutrients or oxy-

gen, while other passive remediation may be of natural attenuation to adequately
characterize, model, and monitor the site to establish natural attenuation and protec-
tion of the potential environment.
Key Features of Bioremediation
1. Most bioremediation treatment technologies destroy the contaminants in the

specific soil profile.
2. These treatment technologies are generally formulated to reduce toxicity either by
destruction or by the transformation of toxic organic compounds into less toxic
compounds.
3. Indigenous microorganisms, preferably bacteria and fungi, are the most com-
monly used. Some other wastes may be mixed with specific bacteria or fungi
known to biodegrade the contaminants in question. Phytoremediation methods
may also be used to enhance biodegradation and stabilize the soil.
4. The addition of nutrients or electron acceptors (such as hydrogen peroxide or

ozone) to enhance the growth and reproduction of indigenous organisms may be
required.
5. Field application of bioremediation may involve:
(a) Excavation of site
(b) Soil handling
(c) Storage of contaminated soil piles
(d) Mixing of contaminated soils
(e) Aeration of contaminated soils
(f) Injection of fluid
(g) Extraction of fluid
(h) Introduction of nutrients and substrates
Current Technologies: Kinds of Bioremediation
The objective of bioremediation is to break down contaminants through

bio-augmentation and/or bio-stimulation of microorganisms that use the contamina-
tion as a food and energy source for their development and growth. Microbial cells
decompose organic matter through oxidation or reduction process and moisture
and/or nutrients to increase the favorability of the environment for microorganisms.
Bioremediation technologies can be used at ex situ or in situ environment.
Types of Bioremediation
The following are the different types of bioremediation techniques:
3.1.1.1 Bioventing
3.1.1.2 Enhanced bioremediation
3.1.1.3. Phytoremediation
3.1.1.4 Mycoremediation
3.1.1.5 Biopiles or windrows
3.1.1.6 Composting
3.1.1.7 Land farming
3.1.1.8 Slurry-phase biological treatment
The details of all these techniques are as follows.
Bioventing
Bioventing is an in situ remediation technology that involves the introduction (and
sometimes extraction) of air into the subsurface to enhance microbial activity and
facilitate biodegradation of organic contaminants adsorbed to soils in the unsaturated
zone. Bioventing is different from air sprigging, which is typically conducted at
higher flow rates to promote volatilization rather than biodegradation of volatile
organic compounds.
Analytical Trailer
Emissions
Blower Control
JP-4 JP-4
Lateral Vent Array
Vertical Vent Array
Fig. 3 Typical bioventing system
During venting, the air is injected at low rates to increase the oxygen content in
the subsurface and promote oxidation reactions. When concentrations are below the
lower explosive limit, gases, like methane or propane, can also be introduced to
promote the degradation of organic contamination under reducing conditions. Where
high concentrations of contaminants are present, it is possible that the soil pores can
become clogged with additional biomass generated during venting, reducing the
oxygen levels. The air injection can be useful to increase the oxygen levels under
these conditions (Fig. 3).
Enhanced Bioremediation
This technology is used in in situ conditions involving the addition of a chemical to
the subsurface to enhance microbial activity and facilitate biodegradation of organic
contaminants adsorbed to soils in the unsaturated zone.
Aerobic enhancement consists of the additional oxygen (an electron acceptor) to
the subsurface to increase the density of microbial organisms to assist with the
biodegradation of contaminants in the soil or groundwater.
However, oxygen release compounds (ORC) are more commonly used to
enhance aerobic bioremediation of groundwater; hence, ORC can also be applied
to the unsaturated zone. The ORC may be an appropriate oxidant or substances such
as hydrogen peroxide or ozone.
Anaerobic enhancement consists of the addition of an electron donor (such as
hydrogen or hydrocarbons) to the subsurface to increase the population of microbial
organisms to assist with reductive de-chlorination processes (anaerobic degradation)
in groundwater. The direct addition of hydrogen may be avoided, as during
Fig. 4 Typical oxygen-enhanced bioremediation system for contaminated groundwater with air
sprigging
anaerobic biodegradation, hydrogen is normally indirectly generated via fermenting

organic matter.
Other nutrients such as nitrate and sulfate can be supplemented to groundwater to
enhance anaerobic biodegradation of petroleum hydrocarbons (Fig. 4).
Phytoremediation
Phytoremediation is an in situ remediation technology that involves the use of plants
to remove or stabilize contaminants in soil and, to a lesser extent, groundwater.
Phytoremediation methods are generally used in the wastewater treatment through
reed beds for on-site biological treatment of sewage effluent.
Phytoremediation process involved the following activities:
• Enhanced rhizosphere biodegradation: through the release of natural sub-

stances from plant roots to supply nutrients to microorganisms which increase
biological activity
• Phyto-accumulation: the uptake of contaminants by plant roots and transfer of
the contaminants to the plant’s shoots and leaves
• Phyto-degradation: through the metabolism of contaminants in plant tissues
• Phyto-stabilization: the production of chemicals by the plant that immobilizes
contaminants at the interface between the roots and soil
Fig. 5 The different phytoremediation processes
Hardy species, such as eucalyptus, fern, rye, and fescue grasses, are often selected
for phytoremediation due to their fast-growing and robust nature and ability to
survive in saline and waterlogged soils (Fig. 5).
Mycoremediation
Mycoremediation is a type of in situ bioremediation process that uses fungal material
(mycelium) to accumulate and degrade contaminants in soils and groundwater. The
fungi are made up of dense network of branching (like plant roots) white hyphae
called mycelium. The mycelia secrete the enzymes required to decompose the
contamination; as such, the reaction is extracellular (outside rather than within the
fungi). Fungi may be used in breaking down petroleum hydrocarbons and some
chlorinated compounds and in stimulating native microbes and enzymes in situ.
Mycelium also accumulates heavy metals and the contamination can be removed
during harvesting.
The types of fungi used in mycoremediation are affected by the temperature, soil
pH, and availability (or lack) of oxygen. Typically, a mycelium-treated substrate that
Fig. 6 Schematic diagram of a typical bioventing system
is biodegradable in nature and straw are spread over contaminated soils, which
produce enzymes capable of decomposing contaminants over time (Fig. 6).
Some of the common fungi used in mycoremediation and the contaminants they
can treat are presented in Table 1 below.
Biopiles or Windrows
This method is generally useful, where petroleum hydrocarbon-impacted soils
are excavated and placed in a treatment area where agents are usually mixed into
the contaminated soils to enhance the degradation process. The soil can be put in
stockpiles (biopiles) or in rows (windrows). The removed soil needs to be
aerated, and moisture, temperature, oxygen, and pH can be adjusted to make
the process more effective. Leachate is required to be treated further to avoid any
contamination leaching into the soil and groundwater below the treatment area
(Fig. 7).
Biopiles can also be engineered and contain ventilation piping and blower,
irrigation piping, and/or sump and pump systems to facilitate aeration and drainage
to maximize degradation rates.
Composting
This is an ex situ bioremediation technology that involves the biological decompo-
sition of wastes under controlled conditions to a state in which it can be
handled, stored, and/or applied to land without adversely affecting the environment.
Table 1 Common fungi used in mycoremediation

Type of fungi Target contaminants
Shaggy mane Arsenic
Cadmium
Mercury
Elm oyster Dioxins
Wood preservatives
Phoenix oyster Cadmium
Mercury
Copper
Pearl oyster Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)
Cadmium
Mercury
Dioxins
Shitake PAHs
PCBs
Pentachlorophenol
Turkey tail PAHs
Organophosphates
Mercury
Button mushrooms Cadmium
King Stropharia E. coli and other biological contaminants
Source: CRC CARE National Remediation Framework Technology guide: Bioremediation: Infor-
mation correct at time of publication, Version 0.1: August 2018
Polypropylene cover
To gaseous air filter
Contaminated soil
Air/water
separator
Air
pump
Water/nutrient
Sand layer Perforated pipework supply tank
Leachate
collection sump HDPE liner
Fig. 7 Typical system of biopiles in solid waste
Contaminated soils are added to the composting process, and the contaminants are
degraded together with the degradable waste material into humus and inert
by-products (such as carbon dioxide, water, and salts).
Fig. 8 Typical layout of composting at landfill site
Composting is a special type of decomposition for which the conditions are

established to allow for optimal microbial activity. The correct proportions of carbon
and minerals in the compost mix (e.g., carbon-to-nitrogen ratio), good aeration, and
adequate moisture content are all important conditions to maintain. When the
conditions are right, the decomposition activity of microorganisms is very rapid,
and a large amount of heat is produced, and the temperature rises.
It is generally accepted that if the whole composting mass has been held at 55 C
or more for three consecutive days, the compost can be termed a pasteurized material
with significantly reduced numbers of plant and animal pathogens and plant prop-
agates. The composting process can be extended to produce a mature product with a
lower level of phytotoxicity and a higher degree of biological stability than pasteur-
ized compost (Fig. 8).
When the material is heavily contaminated or odorous, different systems will be
required, such as enclosed trenches or rotating drums where odor can be captured
during the composting process and treated. Aerobic conditions have to be
maintained through the contaminated medium to provide favorable conditions for
the microorganisms to survive.
Initially, microbial activity will be faster due to the increase in temperatures
during the decomposition process, and the most degradable contaminants will be
consumed. After this initial stage, the temperatures will drop until heat is no longer
generated, and the material is now converted into compost product. Due to high
microbial diversity (higher in comparison to healthy fertile soils), this expedites
degradation of the contaminants.
Fig. 9 Land farming to treat organic wastes
Land Farming
Land farming is an ex situ remediation technology that involves spreading impacted
soils in thin layers across a prepared surface and regularly turning the material to
enable airflow through the soil matrix (introducing oxygen to facilitate degradation).
The soil material is placed on a lined surface, with drainage control and bunding, to
minimize the potential for leaching and runoff of contaminants. The soil conditions
should be controlled to maximize the degradation rate, including moisture content
(via irrigation/spraying), aeration (by tilling), and pH (buffered to neutral by adding
acid or alkali).
Land farming may be useful to control volatile contaminants (such as petrol)
involved; volatilization may be a significant contributor to the loss of contaminants.
As part of such bioremediation works, where volatile emissions and odors are
possible, the requirements for emission management must be addressed. If the
process involves only volatilization without degradation, none of the regulatory
agencies will not accept land farming as an acceptable treatment option (Fig. 9).
Land farming may be useful in situ to treat soils up to approximately 1 m depth
(bgl). Soils are mechanically mixed to introduce oxygen to the subsurface and
facilitate the addition of nutrients and lime to reduce soil acidity.
Slurry-Phase Biological Treatment

The slurry phase is also an ex situ bioremediation technology that is performed in a
bioreactor to bioremediate a mixture of water and excavated soil. The soil is mixed
with water to slurry, which is determined by the proportions of the contaminants in
soils, the rate of biodegradation, and the physical nature of the soils. Prewashed soil
fines the contamination and the wash water is treated in the bioreactor.
The slurry contains between 5% and 45% solids depending on the nature of the
bioreactor. The soil remains suspended in a bioreactor vessel and mixed with
nutrients and oxygen. As per the treatment requirements, microorganisms, acid, or
Soil From Air

Mixing Process Discharge
Nutrient
Solution
Ambient
Air
SPARGER
Stirred Batch Reactor
Fig. 10 Typical process of slurry-phase biological treatment
alkali may be added. The soil slurry should be dewatered when biodegradation is
complete. This dewatered wash should also be recycled in the bioreactor to retreat
before disposal (Fig. 10).
Comparison of Technologies
The advantages and disadvantages of various bioremediation technologies, along

with the soil types and conditions for which each technology may be suitable, are
listed in Table 2.
Methodology for the Implementation of Bioremediation

Technology
Bioremediation techniques are developed to break down contaminants via the

stimulation of microorganisms using the contamination as an energy source for
development and growth. Different types of bioremediation techniques can be
applied in vivo or in vitro and under aerobic or anaerobic conditions. Soil, ground-
water, and vapor are all able to be remediated.
The following technical considerations should be kept in mind while considering
bioremediation methods:
• Physical characteristics of the soil

• Chemical characteristics of the soil
• Chemistry and concentrations of contaminants
Table 2 Comparison of bioremediation technologies

Bioremediation Treatable medium/
technology Advantages Disadvantages applicable conditions
Bioventing Fast degradation Contaminants may Permeable soils
rates volatilize during treatment Unsaturated soils
(in comparison to posing a potential vapor Can be applied under
other exposure risk and increased aerobic and anaerobic
bioremediation greenhouse gas emissions conditions
methods)
No excavation
required
Enhanced Can support rapid Requires correct oxygen/ Can be applied to soils
bioremediation degradation rates hydrogen and nutrient with high and low
May be used dosing and may need permeability
concurrently to several trial stages Can be applied under
address aerobic or anaerobic
groundwater conditions
contamination (groundwater)
Low cost May require addition
Minimal exposure of Dehalococcoides
No excavation bacteria for reductive
required de-chlorination
Can be applied in situ
or ex situ
Biopiles/ Generally low Potential exposure risks Permeable soils
windrows operation and during excavation. Aerobic application
maintenance cost Potential odor and air
emissions may require
management
Leachate may be an issue
and base liner, and/or
bunding may be required to
prevent migration of
contaminants to the water
table
Composting Low cost Bulking agents necessary Permeable soils
Generates heat Potential exposure to risks Aerobic application
(naturally) during excavation
Residual contamination
will require treatment
and base liner and/or
bunding may be required to
prevent contamination
migration to the water table
Treated material may not
be suitable for reuse or
building over if retained
on-site (dependent on
physical properties at
completion)
(continued)
Table 2 (continued)
Bioremediation Treatable medium/
technology Advantages Disadvantages applicable conditions
Land farming Low cost May not be suitable for Permeable soils
Simple design and high contaminant Aerobic application
setup concentrations
Potential dust, odor and
vapor exposure during
spreading of the soil and
aeration
Needs a large treatment
area (reducing treatable
volume)
Runoff collection facilities
must be constructed and
monitored
and base liner may be
required to prevent
contamination migration to
the water table
Slurry-phase Operational High cost Can be applied to soils
biological parameters can be Treatable volume (and rate) with high and low
treatment adjusted easily limited by size of permeability
Fast degradation equipment used Can be applied under
rates Potential exposure risks aerobic or anaerobic
during excavation conditions
Surface contamination
In assessing whether soil bioremediation is required to be done, moisture content,

available nutrients, contaminant mass, and distribution and physiochemical param-
eters are important factors. The hydrogeological factors such as aquifer permeability
and water quality will play an important role while treating and assessing ground-
water contaminations.
In view of the uncertainty of whether bioremediation will achieve the required
results, treatability studies can be undertaken to resolve the issues. These studies
can be undertaken in stages 1 and 2 through conducting treatability studies to
assess the ability of bioremediation techniques to meet the remediation objec-
tives. This is typically conducted as a series of bench tests. The second, more
detailed stage is to evaluate the application of the method under the specific site
conditions, usually conducted on-site as a pilot trial. The formulation of biore-
mediation action plans can be formulated on the basis of information obtained in
stages 1 and 2. The three-stage treatability test is required to be designed as
bioremediation system to determine specific operating requirements and perfor-
mance criteria; to enable completion of a bioremediation action plan, additional
data will be required.
Feasibility Assessment
The feasibility of bioremediation includes the following considerations:
• Whether the contaminants are sufficiently biodegradable and there is the confi-
dence that the remediation targets will be met within an acceptable timeframe
• Whether the bioremediation material will be suitable for future use or disposal,
taking into account the amendment material added, other contaminants present,
and the by-products and residuals of the treatment
• Whether the extent and distribution of contamination are sufficiently well known.
• Whether the physical-chemical composition and heterogeneity of the soil will
allow sufficient uniformity of treatment to meet the bioremediation targets
• Whether selected biodegrading organisms are naturally present or need to be
added
Sufficient background data is essentially collected to evaluate the applicability of

bioremediation technology. Some of the confidence levels are required that the
selected bioremediation method will achieve the required treatment outcome, and
then other issues must be considered to determine whether it is a suitable technology
for the site. These may include:
• Are the sufficient microorganisms present and have the contaminant bioavailabil-
ity sufficient to enable degradation?
• Did the relevant regulatory agencies agree to accept the bioremediation technol-
ogy as a viable means of remediation?
• Is it confirmed that the contaminants have degraded, and have not been simply
diluted by the material added or mixing operations, or volatilized and impact in
ambient air? If there are any losses in the process, are they not acceptable to the
regulatory agency?
• Whether approval of regulatory authorities is required to plan to use these
technologies?
• Is the treated material reused as backfill on the site or as clean elsewhere, or is
stabilization or landfill disposal required? Is there is any remnant biodegradable
material present that would release methane or carbon dioxide concerns, or a
geotechnical concern (physical stability)?
• What are the by-products of the parent compound/s? Are they more toxic than the
parent compound/s, and does this risk require additional precaution and assess-
ment? Does the breakdown product require a different treatment method (such as
the production of vinyl chloride during reductive de-chlorination of PCE)?
• Is there any risk of contamination migrating to other environmental segments
through the use of this technology (e.g., incorrect controls during land farming
resulting in the transfer of contaminants from soil to the atmosphere)?
• Will other stakeholders (such as local government or the public) accept the use of
the technology, particularly those stakeholders that can have a significant bearing
on whether the technology is applied at the site?
• Are there any sensitive sites nearby that would not be compatible with the
proposed operation?
• Is there a time constraint, and can the bioremediation application meet this
constraint?
• Is the expected order of cost of treatment acceptable?
Data Requirements
The following key technical considerations are required for successful implementa-
tion and design of a bioremediation system:
• The physical properties of the soil

• The chemical composition of the soil
• The chemistry, concentrations, and distribution of contaminants within the soil
materials
Physical Properties
The physical composition of the material to be treated needs to be well characterized.
Important factors include:
• Soil type and heterogeneity: There will be an impact on air, water, and contam-
inant migration pathways differing grain sizes, and the presence of coarse frag-
ments of material (such as concrete or bricks) may affect and prevent the
distribution of oxygen or nutrients through the contaminated soils.
• Organic matter: High organic matter present will affect the supply of oxygen to
microorganisms, which may impact biodegradation.
• The permeability and plasticity of the material: The distribution of vertical
oxygen and nutrient will affect if the soil has low permeability. Low permeability
soils may be helpful in situ applications.
The composition of the material to be treated needs to be well-characterized.
Important factors include:
• For the location and to treat contamination that exceeds certain concentrations,
distribution, concentrations, and mass of contaminants are required to be assessed
in the soil at the site.
• Range of contaminants, their concentrations, and physical form and their ability
to degrade, volatilize, or inhibit the rate of microbial degradation. Volatility is
important for slurry-phase biological treatment, where the contaminants could
volatilize in the reactors before degradation. Some of the contaminants (like
heavy metals) can have a toxic effect on microorganisms and inhibit degradation.
The kind of contaminant may be important as to whether biodegradation will
occur.
• The transport of water will improve electron acceptors (such as oxygen), nutri-
ents, and microorganisms to assist in biodegradation (via injection wells or
pumping, etc.) during ion exchange and filtration mechanisms of the soil to be
treated to assess what effect these will have on microorganisms
• The physicochemical parameters like pH, electron acceptors, nutrients, tempera-
ture, and toxicity to assess which strain will be most effective at treating the
contaminants present.
• The contaminant solubility and bioavailability of vitamins for microorganisms are
influenced by pH, with bioremediation techniques commonly performing opti-
mally with pH levels ranging from 6 to 8.
• The situations are oxidizing or decreasing, manipulated through redox potential
and oxygen content.
• The nutrients may be introduced for microbial growth (and mobileular division).
• Sorption of solids relies on contaminant bioavailability capacity to solids and can
be subtle in soil macro-pores (bioavailability for microbial reactions decreases
and relies upon the contaminants which are strongly sobbed to soils or are inside
macro-pores and are much less bioaccessible).
• The charge of metabolism and degradation is affected by temperature. The
biodegradation charge commonly will increase with temperature.
Maximum Allowable Concentrations

The maximum allowable concentration and variation in concentration of the con-
taminants and by-products of treatment within the treated soil must be determined. If
terribly demanding shutdown, criteria are applicable, and then bioremediation tech-
nologies might not be enough to satisfy the factors, and extra “polishing” stages of
treatment could also be needed. As an example, criteria for substances like chlori-
nated organics could also be terribly demanding (e.g., <1 mg/kg of total chlorinated
organics) and should not be promptly accomplished by bioremediation. In such
circumstances, extra cycles of treatment could also be needed, leading to preventa-
tive price or the necessity for subsequent treatment by another technique that, by
itself, might accomplish the factors a lot cheaply than biodegradation. Specific
concentration concerns the following:
• The most allowable concentrations of contaminants (such as serious metals or

asbestos) which will stay when treated and which might preclude the supposed
use or disposal of the treated soil or inhibit the biodegradation processes.
• The maximum allowable concentrations of volatile parts, so that volatiles do not
endanger the environment or human health risk during excavation or treatment;
the maximum allowable quantities and concentrations of different materials, such
as contaminated concrete or plastic clay, which will prohibit the distribution of
microorganisms or the movement of gases or nutrients within the submerged that
are required to facilitate biodegradation and thence have an effect on the unifor-
mity (and completeness) of treatment.
• The maximum allowable concentrations of reagents and perishable material
added to the soil to facilitate biodegradation and which can stay after treatment
(e.g., can the residual concentrations or gases produced (such as methane series or
carbon dioxide) have an effect on the supposed use or disposal of the treated
material).
• Whether there’s a priority regarding the microorganisms that will be given
throughout or when treatment and will cause a risk to people or the environment,
as well as the maximum allowable concentrations that would apply.
• If phytoremediation is into consideration, the material concentrations and their
depth are a key issue – high concentrations of bound contaminants could inhibit
plant growth, limiting the viability of phytoremediation to realize the redress
objectives. If contamination is deep and extends on the far side of the foundation
zone, then redress of this material might not occur.
Regulatory Requirements
For restrictive needs, the restrictive agencies (particularly those accountable for
environmental protection, planning, and licensing treatment facilities) ought to be
consulted to determine the particular needs that relate to obtaining the mandatory
approvals and licenses, as well as the controls that will be expected. This can be
significantly relevant wherever emissions to the atmosphere are planned or
attainable.
Treatable Contaminants
Bioremediation technologies are doubtlessly able to treat a good variation of:
• Volatile organic compounds

• Semi-volatile organic compounds
• Petroleum hydrocarbons
Bioremediation of PAHs is feasible in designed biopiles or windrows with the

addition of compost, nutrients, and surfactants to unharness contaminants to the
liquid part. High mass PAHs and aged crude oil merchandise are of low bioavail-
ability and are so not typically appropriate for treatment by bioremediation, signif-
icantly phytoremediation, unless solely minor reductions in concentration are
needed. Some higher-boiling point halogenated compounds like PCBs, dioxins,
and furans and fluorinated compounds like PFOS are often terribly difficult to
degrade and are unlikely to be appropriate for treatment by bioremediation. Infor-
mation on the biodegradability of contamination teams and therefore the most
popular conditions (anaerobic or anaerobic) is summarized in Table 3.
Treatability Studies
If it’s unsure whether or not bioremediation can attain the rectification objective or
be applicable for the particular web site conditions, it should be necessary to conduct
a treatability study. Treatability studies additionally enable estimates of remedial
prices and technology potency to be refined.
Table 3 Contaminant biodegradability and the preferred conditions

Microbial
degradability Preferred
Contaminant High Low No conditions
Mineral oil Short-chain mineral oil X Aerobic
hydrocarbons hydrocarbons
Long-chain/branched X Aerobic
mineral oil hydrocarbons
Cycloalkanes X Aerobic
(Mono)aromatic X Aerobic
hydrocarbons
Monoaromatic Phenols X X Aerobic
hydrocarbons Cresols Aerobic
Catechols X Aerobic
Polycyclic 2–3 ring PAHs (e.g., X Aerobic
hydrocarbons naphthalene)
Aromatic 4–6 membered ring PAHs X Aerobic or
hydrocarbons (e.g., benzo(a)pyrene) Anaerobic/
Aerobic
Chlorinated Tetrachloroethene, X Anaerobic
aliphatic tricloroethane X Anaerobic
hydrocarbons Trichloroethene
Dichloroethane, X Anaerobic/
dichloroethene, vinyl Aerobic
chloride
Chlorinated Chlorophenols X X Anaerobic
aromatic (superchlorinated) Anaerobic/
hydrocarbons Chlorophenols (low Aerobic
chlorinated)
Chlorobenzenes X Anaerobic
(superchlorinated)
Chlorobenzenes (low X Anaerobic/
chlorinated) Aerobic
Chloronaphthalene X Anaerobic/
Aerobic
Polychlorinated biphenyls X Anaerobic
(PCBs) (superchlorinated)a
Polychlorinated biphenyls X Anaerobic/
(low chlorinated) Aerobic
Nitroaliphatic Glyceryl trinitrate X Aerobic
compounds g-Hexachlorocyclohexane X Anaerobic/
(lindane) Aerobic
Pesticides b-Hexachlorocyclohexaneb X X Anaerobic/
Triazines Aerobic
Aerobic
(continued)
Table 3 (continued)
Microbial
degradability Preferred
Contaminant High Low No conditions
Dioxins PCDD/PCDF X X Anaerobic/
2,3,7,8-PCDD/PCDF X Aerobic
Free cyanides Anaerobic/
Aerobic
Aerobic
Inorganic Complex cyanides X X Aerobic
compounds Ammonium nitrate X Anaerobic
Sulfatec X Anaerobic
a
The degradation process and susceptibility to degradation are different for planar and non-planar
highly chlorinated PCB congeners
b
Microbially transformable but not degradable
c
Activity of sulfate-reducing bacteria results in precipitation of metal sulfides or production of
hydrogen sulfide gas
Designing the treatability study might need input from a variety of technical
specialists as well as environmental scientists/engineers, chemical engineers,
mechanical engineers, and air quality specialists to make sure that the study is
meant to get the info needed to modify the foremost applicable implementation
strategy to be developed.
The requirements for extra info ought to be determined through a review of the
particular bioremediation technology being planned. If the technology has been
widely applied and the results are quickly accessible, it should be possible to
extrapolate info from previous case studies to avoid duplication and scale back
project prices.
If it’s determined that treatability testing is needed to adequately assess the
appliance of bioremediation or to help in value appraisal, thought must lean to the
staging and level of detail of the testing. Typical stages of testing may be directed to
rectification screening, rectification choice, and rectification style, no matter whether
or not aerobic or anaerobic bioremediation is concerned.
The process concerned in every of those stages is printed below, for the case of
aerobic bioremediation, and this method is mostly applicable to anaerobic
degradation.
The objectives of the treatability testing ought to be determined at showtime, and,
though these are website-specific, treatability testing should determine the
following:
• Will the planned bioremediation technology meet the rectification objectives in a

very timely and price effective manner?
• Are there decent material degrading microorganisms present?
• What square measure the optimum wet, nutrients, and pH conditions to facilitate
material degradation?
• Do any according decreases in material concentrations square measure the result
of the bioremediation treatment and not the result of volatilization, action of
contaminants from the soil, or sorption?
Bench Testing
Initial screening or bench-scale treatability studies comprise the primary stage of
treatability testing, to assess whether or not biodegradation may be a viable choice to
treat the precise contaminated material.
The screening test area unit is typically low cost and comparatively quick to
complete (approximately a number of weeks or a number of months to get the
results). The initial screening test area unit was carried out in a laboratory utilizing
simple instrumentation, like shake flasks, soil pans, or suspension reactors, and
utilized saturated and unsaturated soils, slurries, and numerous binary compound
solutions. Microorganisms are often endemic to the precise website, cultured, a
commercially available mixture, or a mix of all of these.
Various parameters are often adjusted throughout the initial screening, together
with pH, contamination loading rates, and chemical element and nutrient available-
ness, to enhance the potential success rate.
Setting the information quality objectives for the screening treatability testing at
the beginning is significant to get the required results. Sometimes the main goal of
this preliminary treatability testing is to ascertain whether or not biodegradation can
occur within the specific contaminated material. The objectives of the initial screen-
ing tests don’t ordinarily embrace assessing whether or not the rectification pack up
criteria are often met. The testing is often completed within a number of weeks, once
it’s evident that the contamination concentrations have decreased significantly,
though not essential to the extent needed to fulfill the precise pack up criteria.
Pilot Trial
The next stage of treatability testing is to gauge the application of biodegradation for
the precise website conditions and to ascertain whether or not the rectification
criteria and pack up goal area unit are possible to be met. The knowledge obtained
within the second stage of testing is sometimes spare to alter the development of the
rectification action arrange (RAP).
The main objectives for the second stage of treatability testing are:
• Assess contamination concentrations achieved following treatment (to verify

whether or not the appointive rectification criteria are often met).
• Determine the populations, chemical element input technique, nutrient load, etc.
needed for economical treatment.
• Characterize the composition and physical nature of the ultimate material to
substantiate that it is often expected to be appropriate for the meant recycle or
disposal.
This stage needs additional effort (and cost) than the initial screening testing and
customarily takes many months to arrange and implement. These tests aim to more
closely replicate the physical and chemical parameters of the location under inves-
tigation and therefore the specific bioremediation technology being thought of. The
tests ought to be undertaken on the actual soils to be treated within the full-scale
rectification program. However, it ought to be noted that given the tiny quantity of
fabric utilized in the tests (in comparison to the particular volume to be treated), full-
scale treatment condition area unit is likely to differ, particularly wherever in-place
application is being considered.
At advanced sites, wherever the unchanged application is being thought of,
this stage of treatability testing could also be undertaken on-site, ideally in a very
tiny section of the realm to be remediated, exploitation strategies and instrumen-
tation just like those planned for the total scale application to alter a correct
estimate of whether or not biodegradation can work and might meet the rectifi-
cation criteria.
Finalizing Style
If further information is needed to alter the correction system to be designed, the
third stage of testing is also necessary to ascertain specific necessities and perfor-
mance criteria and supply enough info to alter the completion of a RAP. The key
objectives of the third stage of treatability testing are also, for example:
• Obtain all information and data needed to alter the remedial program to be
designed.
• Refine the correction price estimate.
• Confirm the speed of biodegradation and also the concentrations of the treated
medium (to guarantee they meet the correction criteria).
• Confirm that the composition and physical nature of the treated material can
permit its utilization or disposal.
These studies square measure is sometimes expensive and should take several
months to finish, since the benefit of getting a lot of specific operation style
parameters and price estimates ought to be weighed against the price of the general
remedial program.
The tests square measure is sometimes conducted, employing a mobile treatment
unit brought onto the website. The instrumentality used ought to be designed to
make sure that the information obtained ten figures for the complete scale unit.
Anaerobic Bioremediation
The process of treatability testing for anaerobic bioremediation will involve the same
staged approach outlined above. Within the case of anaerobic treatment, the acces-
sible atomic number 8 should be removed (or reduced). This may be achieved by
delivering excess negatron donors (reducing agents) to microorganisms, which can
consume the atomic number 8 that will be present.
Different negatron acceptors (nitrate, carbonate, or sulfate) square measure are

needed to alter bacterium to facilitate anaerobic, denitrifying, salt-reducing, and
methanogen conditions, and totally different by-products and metabolic intermedi-
ates are made. Anaerobic tests rely mostly on the sort of microorganisms that may be
accustomed to successful biodegradation.
The oxidation-reduction potential of the medium to be treated has to be reduced to
more or less 150 mV to 350 mV at pH scale seven to facilitate the expansion of
most anaerobic organisms. The precise oxidation-reduction potential is needed, and
also the concentration of the dosing agent to attain such an amount depends upon the
particular anaerobic organism.
The oxidation-reduction potential can verify that the microorganisms’ square
measure is present and active within the medium and, as such, the particular
anaerobic organisms to be aroused within the elaborated treatability testing ought
to be determined during the initial screening tests.
Validation
The following info describes the particular validation applicable for bioremediation,
to help validation designing among the RAP. Readers’ square measure is directed to
the NRF Guideline on validation and closure, which, among alternative things,
provides additional info on every one of the lines of evidence.
Recommended lines of proof for the validation of bioremediation in soils or
groundwater include:
• The measured decrease in contamination concentrations

• An assessment of the microbiota present to interrupt contamination
• The chemical science and organic chemistry of the atmosphere
The latter 2 lines of proof demonstrate whether or not contamination mass loss
may be a result of biodegradation processes or whether or not it’s due to nonde-
structive processes like action, dilution, or dispersion.
In situ and ex situ bioremediation generally need totally different lines of proof to
validate.
In Situ Bioremediation
In addition to the COC, amendments like nutrients moreover as carrier fluids injected
into the underground ought to be monitored.
Depending on the character of the ability, surface and groundwater monitoring is
also needed for the length of the bioremediation operation and for a period post-
completion to ensure that contaminants haven’t migrated throughout the redress
method (e.g., displaced by the injection of carrier fluids).
The validation of unmoved groundwater redress ought to comprise groundwater

monitoring:
• In the plume
• Up- and down-gradient of the plume
• Sufficiently long run to account for differences due to the variations
Depending on the remedial methodology used, validation monitoring of biore-

mediation in groundwater could also include an assessment of the air distribution
pressure in a geological formation, the natural action of the groundwater and vadose
zone, changes in fluid pressures, and changes in groundwater chemistry. It’s
counseled that cross-sectional contour plots adjusted on the trail of the groundwater
flow area unit advised to be ready as a part of the validation method to know the
distribution and reduction of contaminants.
It is essential to analyze not only concentrations of the COC but also biodegra-
dation products to determine that the first contaminant area unit degrading instead of
merely getting into areas of lower hydraulic conduction. Testing of organic chem-
istry parameters like volatile fatty acids and dehydrogenase activity is also helpful to
work out whether or not biodegradation has occurred.
Ex Situ Bioremediation
The number of samples collected and analyzed for validation purposes had to be
sufficient to provide statistically reliable results, taking into consideration the
intended use of the soils.
When soil remediation involves a static or turning pile (e.g., biopile), sampling
has to avoid shallow locations as they are not representative of the pile. While
heterogeneity is likely to be important, it could be reduced if the pile is typically
turned. Following the removal of the soils from the treatment location, the underly-
ing space has to be valid to verify that contamination has not migrated vertically
through the underlying liner. Before reusing treated soil on things, they must first be
valid to ensure that they meet land use and/or validation criteria relevant to things
and its setting. Wherever treatment occurs off the website, the fabric should be valid
before being imported back onto things.
It should be noted that monitoring, acceptable cowl, and potential treatment of
ventilated gases and leachate must be undertaken.
Health and Safety

Bioremediation will expose web site employees to safety and health hazards due to
exposure to the biological agents involved, as well as exposure to vapors, noise, and
slip/trip hazards. The particular redress technology and style can confirm the partic-
ular risks that ought to be assessed as a part of the RAP.
Table 4 discloses some of the hazards related to bioremediation and management
mechanisms’ area unit. The list is meant to provide an indication of the hazards that
may be associated with soil laundry application. They are going to vary considerably
Table 4 Indication of hazard potentials

Hazard Sources of exposure Suggested controls
Process Splashing or leaking chemicals used Use appropriate storage containers,
chemicals to facilitate the biodegradation process inspect containers for leaks and
Responding to an emergency release damage
of process treatment chemicals or fuel Install eye wash and emergency
(for excavators, etc.) shower
Prepare and train for spill containment
Appropriate bunding to assist
containing any spills
Ensure use of personal protective
equipment (PPE)
Site Off-gassing or releasing contaminants Work “up-wind” of disturbed soil,
contaminants during excavation and spreading/ when possible
storage and handling of soil to be Segregate treated feedstock until
remediated tested
Routinely monitor work areas; some
contaminants require an initial
assessment of exposure (e.g., lead)
Ensure use of PPE
Dust Releasing dust while excavating soils Spray water or use dust suppressants
and placing in treatment area/zone, on storage piles
and in the addition of reagents Do not operate earth-moving
Release of pathogens during or after equipment during high winds
treatment Ensure use of PPE
Ergonomic Lifting or performing any other Provide conveniently located
risks movement with too much force and/or equipment for the job, like correctly
in an awkward position, or repeating sized tools
the lift/movement too often Train workers on ergonomic risks and
prevention
Slips, trips, Storing construction materials or other Keep walking and working areas free
and falls unnecessary items on walkways and in of debris, tools, etc.
work areas Keep walking and working areas as
Creating and/or using wet, muddy, clean and dry as possible
sloping, or otherwise irregular Perform a job hazard snalysis
walkways and work surfaces Ensure use of PPE, including fall
Constructing and/or using improper arrest systems
walkways, stairs, or landings or Train workers on fall hazards and use
damaging these surfaces of ladders
Creating and/or using uneven terrain Use an observer (spotter or signal
in and around work areas person) when visibility is limited
Working from elevated work surfaces
and ladders
Using damaged steps into vehicles
(continued)
Table 4 (continued)
Hazard Sources of exposure Suggested controls
Moving Moving and stockpiling untreated and Train equipment and vehicle operators
vehicles treated soils using earth-moving on limitations of equipment and
equipment drivers
Train equipment and vehicle operators
in safe operation
Set acceptable speed limits and traffic
patterns. Ensure that equipment has,
and workers use, backup alarms,
mirrors, and seatbelts
Set parking brake, and if on incline,
chock wheels
Ensure equipment has required
rollover equipment
Establish vehicle inspection schedules
and procedures
Do routine maintenance
from site to site, so the list should not be used as a substitute of an in-depth hazard
assessment of the operation, which ought to be provided in the RAP.
Reader’s area unit is directed to the NRF Guideline for any data on health and
safety on redress sites, as well as risk assessment, the hierarchy of controls, and
steered documentation (Table 4).
Phytoremediation Method
Phytoremediation, the utilization of plants to remedy environmental media, is being

pursued as a brand-new approach for the cleanup of contaminated soils and waters,
as well as groundwater. Plant-assisted bioremediation, typically said as a kind of
phytoremediation, involves the interaction of plant roots and also the microorgan-
isms related to these root systems to remedy soils containing elevated concentrations
of organic compounds. These techniques may give efficient strategies of remediating
soils and groundwater contaminated with metals, radionuclides, and numerous kinds
of organics, with fewer secondary wastes and fewer environmental impacts than
would be generated using traditional rectification strategies. All plants extract
necessary nutrients, as well as metals, from their soil and water environments.
Some plants, referred to as hyper-accumulators, have the power to store giant
amounts of metals, even some metals that don’t seem to be needed for plant
functioning. Additionally, plants will take up numerous organic chemicals from
the environment and degrade or otherwise process them for use in their physiological
processes. Phytoremediation technologies are within the early stages of develop-
ment, with laboratory analysis and restricted field trials being conducted to work out
processes and refine strategies. Extra analysis, as well as for biotechnology, is being
conducted to enhance the natural capabilities of plants to perform rectification
functions and to research different plants with potential phytoremediation applica-

tions (Black 1995; Brown 1995).
Applicability
Contaminants
Contaminants that have been remediated in laboratory and/or field studies using
phytoremediation or plant-assisted bioremediation include:
• Heavy metals (Cd, Cr(VI), Pb, Co, Cu, Pb, Ni, Se, Zn)
• Radionuclides (Cs, Sr, Ur)
• Chlorinated solvents (TCE, PCE)
• Petroleum hydrocarbons (BTEX)
• Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)
• Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)
• Chlorinated pesticides
• Organophosphate insecticides (e.g., parathion)
• Explosives (TNT, DNT, TNB, RDX, HMX)
• Nutrients (nitrate, ammonium, phosphate)
• Surfactants
Site Conditions
Phytoremediation and plant-assisted bioremediation are are most useful when soil
contamination is restricted within 3 ft of the surface and groundwater contained
within 10 ft of the surface. These technologies are applicable to sites with low to
moderate soil contamination over massive areas and to sites with massive volumes
of groundwater with low levels of contamination that must be cleansed to low (strict)
standards (Brown 1995; PhytoKinetics, Inc., Company Information, available at
http://www.cache.net/~pkinetic/phyto.htm (9 May 96)).
Processes of Phytoremediation
Phytoremediation is based on certain natural processes carried out by plants
including:
• Uptake of metals and certain organic compounds (i.e., moderately water-soluble,

log Kow ¼ 0.5 to 3, such as BTEX) from soil and water.
• Accumulation or processing of these chemicals via lignification, volatilization,
metabolization, and mineralization (transformation into CO2 and water)
• Use of enzymes to break down complex organic molecules into simpler mole-
cules (ultimately CO2 and water)
• Increasing the carbon and oxygen content of soil around roots (and so promoting
microbial/fungal activity) through the release of chemicals (exudates) and decay
of root tissue
• Capture of groundwater (even contaminated groundwater) and utilization for
plant processes
Fig. 11 (a) Schematic model of different phytoremediation technologies involving removal and
containment of contaminants; (b) physiological processes that take place in plants during
phytoremediation
Types of Phytoremediation
Several classification schemes were found relating to the types of phytoremediation,
the most common of which is presented below (Fig. 11).
• Rhizofiltration, the absorption, concentration, and precipitation of heavy metals

by plant roots
• Phytoextraction, the extraction and accumulation of contaminants in harvestable
plant tissues including roots and surface shoots
• Phytotransformation, the degradation of complex organic molecules to simple
molecules and the incorporation of these molecules into plant tissues
• Phytostimulation or plant-assisted bioremediation, the stimulation of microbial

and fungal degradation by release of exudates/enzymes into the root zone
(rhizosphere)
• Phytostabilization, involving absorption and precipitation of contaminants, prin-
cipally metals, by plants, reducing their mobility and preventing their migration to
groundwater (leaching) or air (wind transport) or entry into the food chain
In addition, groundwater migration can be affected through the use of deep-

rooted trees such as poplars to capture groundwater and retard contaminant migra-
tion. The trees utilize the water and then transpire it, potentially depressing the local
water table. If enough trees are utilizing groundwater in a limited area, the water
table may be depressed “up to the equivalent of 3 ft of rainfall per year” in semiarid
areas. Through the capturing process of trees, contaminated groundwater that would
have migrated down gradient is held in the root zone of the poplars, where degra-
dation can occur through plant processes (phytoremediation) and plant-assisted
bioremediation (phytostimulation).
Harvesting/Disposal of Plant Material

Once plants have accumulated waste materials, plant shoots are harvested and roots
removed, with disposal or consequent process ways addicted to the toxicity of the tip
product of the in-plant organic chemical process and also the storage locations and
relative concentrations of contaminants among plant part.
If organic contaminants’ square measure degraded to harmless compounds,
disposal might not be needed. If vital accumulation takes place solely in roots,
then solely these tissues should be disposed of or processed. The foremost ordinarily
mentioned method for coping with metal-enriched material is controlled combus-
tion, which ends up in ash with high metal content. It’s hoped that economically
possible methodology of metal recovery from this ash is going to be developed,
additionally reducing the environmental impacts of this technology. Radiologically
contaminated material may be glassy like alternative hot wastes. Standard disposal
ways like landfilling might also be potential in some instances. Preliminary data
indicate that wood from trees that have taken up/degraded ethylene and contain
metabolites of ethylene is used for pulp.
Other ways of plant part treatment include:
• Sun, heat, and air drying

• Composting
• Pressing and compacting
• Leaching
Implementation
Phytoremediation techniques’ area unit is still being tested, piecemeal starting from
workplace to field-scale. The current analysis includes:
• Lab studies to research the processes behind phytoremediation

• Screening studies to search out appropriate plants for additional investigation
• Bench- and pilot-scale testing of promising plant species
• Limited and all-out field trials
Groundwater Remediation Methods
Rhizofiltration
Surface water rhizofiltration could also be conducted in place, with plants being fully
grown directly within the contaminated water body. If groundwater is found inside
the rhizosphere (root zone), rhizofiltration of groundwater can also be in place.
Alternately, rhizofiltration might involve the pumping of contaminated groundwater
into troughs crammed with the big root systems of acceptable plant species. The big
surface areas provided by these root systems yield economical absorption of metals
from the contaminated groundwater into root tissues.
In addition to removal through absorption, metals also are aloof from groundwa-
ter through precipitation caused by exudates (liquids discharged from plant tissues).
These precipitates are filtered from the groundwater when it passes through the plant
troughs and before treated water is aloof from the method loop. Roots are harvested,
and reckoning on the species of plant used, shoots could also be transplanted to grow
new roots. Plants are replaced within the system to confirm constant operation
results.
Rhizofiltration using sunflowers has been employed in the removal of radionu-
clides from surface water near the city (strontium and cesium) and in water using a
rhizofiltration system, as described above, at a DOE facility in Ohio (Brown 1995).
Phytotransformation
Surface water correction via phytotransformation may be accomplished in ponds or
wetlands. Additionally, groundwater may be remediated in situ by constituted plants
like poplars or ex situ by pumping water to troughs or created wetlands containing
acceptable plants if the formation is within the zone approach. Within the phytotrans-
formation method, plants take up organic contaminants and degrade them to less
poisonous or nontoxic compounds (Black 1995; Brown 1995; PHYTOKinetics, Inc.,
Company data, out there at http://www.cache.net/~pkinetic/phyto.htm (9 might 96)).
This technique is being tested on explosive-contaminated groundwater (TNT and
RDX) at Milan Army Ammunition Plant in Tennessee by the US Army Corps of
Engineers Waterways Experimental Station (WES) (Black 1995; Brown 1995).
Additionally, the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program
(ESTCP) is evaluating the ability of trees with deep roots to degrade ethylene and
reducer gift within the formation (ESTCP FY95 comes, “Plant increased Bioreme-
diation of Contaminated Soil and Groundwater,” out there at http://www.acq.osd.
mil/ens/ESTCPProjSum.html (May 1996)). The US Air Force is attending to eval-
uate phytoremediation through field studies followed by cell cultures and
bio-chamber studies.
Plant-Assisted Bioremediation
This technique involves the installation of acceptable plants in areas during which
near-surface bioremediation is being conducted. The plants give chemical element
material from liquids free from roots and thru the decay of root tissue. Additionally,
the atomic number 8 free from the basic systems of those plants will increase the
atomic number 8 content within the bioremediation space. These additions to the soil
as a result of plant activity increase the rates of microorganism activity and the rates
of contamination degradation. The abovementioned ESTCP conjointly involves the
study of the useful effects of plant roots on the rate of in situ bioremediation by
microorganisms (Black 1995; ESTCP FY95 comes, “Plant increased Bioremedia-
tion of Contaminated Soil and Groundwater,” out there at http://www.acq.osd.mil/
ens/ESTCPProjSum.html (May 1996)).
Soil Remediation Methods
Phytoextraction
This method involves the removal of metals, radionuclides, and sure organic
compounds (i.e., crude hydrocarbons) by direct uptake into plant structure. Imple-
mentation of a phytoextraction program involves the planting of one or more
species that are hyper-accumulators of the contaminants of concern. Amendments
(i.e., fertilizer, water, etc.) could also be needed, as determined from preliminary
field testing, to confirm prospering plant growth. Lengths of your time before
gathering the plants are determined from preliminary testing, and when this era of
your time is reached, plant structure is removed, and, if necessary, a replacement
crop of plants is planted. Though testing has targeted on single plants, many
species could also be used at a website, either at the identical time or after, to get
rid of over one material.
Characteristics of plants able to perform phytoextraction include:
• Ability to accumulate and tolerate high concentrations of metals in harvestable

tissue;
• Rapid growth rate
• High biomass production (this ends up in additional metal removed per planting)
(Black 1995)
The DOE field trials involving phytoextraction of metals and radionuclides

from soils are being conducted in association with Cornell University, at sites in
Montana and American state (Brown 1995). Also, a study is being conducted by the
University of Iowa and Kansas State University, in association with the unsafe
substance centre (HSRC) at Kansas State, to see the potency of poplars to require
up and accumulate arsenic and the atomic number 48 in soils.
Phytostabilization
Phytostabilization, as said above, is using sure plant species to soak up and precip-
itate contaminants, commonly metals, lowering their bioavailablity and the capacity
for human publicity to those contaminants. This method may be used to re-set up a
vegetative cowl at websites wherein herbal plants are missing because of excessive
metal concentrations in floor soils or bodily disturbances to surficial materials.
Metal-tolerant species may be used to repair plants to the websites, thereby lowering
the capacity migration of infection thru wind erosion and delivery of uncovered floor
soils and leaching of soil infection to groundwater (erosion and leaching are not
unusual in unvegetated areas).
Characteristics of flora suitable for phytostabilization at a specific website online
include:
• Tolerance to excessive ranges of the contaminant(s) of concern

• High manufacturing of root biomass capable of mobilize those contaminants thru
uptake, precipitation, or reduction
• Retention of relevant contaminants in roots, rather than switch to shoots, to keep
away from unique managing and disposal of shoots (Black 1995; Brown 1995;
PHYTOKinetics, Inc., Company Information, to be had at http://www.Cache.Net/
~pkinetic/phyto.Htm (nine May 96).)
Phytostabilization discipline researches are being carried out at the University of

Iowa and Kansas State University, together with the HSRC at Kansas State. These
exams contain the re-vegetation of a mine tailings website online in Kansas,
containing increased ranges of cadmium, lead, and zinc to lessen wind and water
erosion.
Plant-Assisted Bioremediation
Techniques for soil remediation using plant-assisted bioremediation are the same for
the groundwater application described above. This technique is being tested at a
Chevron site in Ogden, Utah, using alfalfa to address fuel contamination and at the
University of Iowa using poplar trees to address atrazine contamination.
Phytoremediation Technology Performance
General
The use of phytoremediation is currently limited to research activities and limited
field testing. While several recent and ongoing applications have reportedly been
successful in lowering contaminant concentrations, full-scale remediation projects
have not been completed, and regulatory approval is not yet in place. Reported
results show some potential for practical applications of these techniques to achieve
remedial objectives and regulatory approval; however, 2 or 3 more years of the initial
test are necessary (Black 1995).
Specific methodologies for application to contaminated sites have standardized,
but general principles have been established. The general steps followed in the
design and implementation of a phytoremediation project, for any of the techniques,
include:
• Site characterization, including determination of soil and water chemistry/condi-

tions, climate, and contaminant distribution
• Treatability studies to determine the rates of remediation and appropriate plant
species, the density of planting, location, etc.
• Preliminary field testing at the site to monitor results and refine design parameters
• Full-scale remediation
• Disposition of resulting affected plant material (Phyto Kinetics, Inc., Company
Information, available at http://www.cache.net/~pkinetic/phyto.htm (9 May 96)
Cost Information
Current estimates of costs for phytoremediation vary widely, and little information
was found as to the conditions on which the estimates were based. A cost estimate
for phytoextraction included $10,000 per acre for planting, with total remediation
costs, including maintenance, monitoring, verification testing, etc. estimated at
$60,000–$100,000 per acre. Another estimate placed costs at approximately $80
per cubic yard of contaminated soil (Black 1995). Removing radionuclide contam-
ination from water using sunflowers was estimated to cost “from $2 to $6 per
thousand gallons of water treated, including waste disposal and capital costs”.
Phytoremediation Technology Advantages

The advantages of the various types of phytoremediation are outlined in Table 5
below.
Phytoremediation Technology Limitations

All phytoremediation/plant-assisted remediation techniques have the following pos-
sible disadvantages:
• Long length of time required for remediation (usually more than one growing
season).
• Treatment is generally limited to soils at less than 3 ft from the surface and
groundwater within 10 ft of the surface.
• Climatic or hydrologic conditions (e.g., flooding, drought) may restrict the rate of
growth of types of plants that can be utilized.
• Ground surface at the site may have to be modified to prevent flooding or erosion.
• The accumulated contaminants may still enter the food chain through animals/
insects.
• Soil amendments may be required, including chelating agents to facilitate plant
uptake by breaking bonds binding contaminants to soil particles.
Precautions for Implantation of Bioremediation Technology
The increasingly challenging problem is socioeconomic and industrial development,

water pollution, soil pollution, and atmospheric pollution prominent. For the sake of
pollution control, the governments of many countries have formulated various
Table 5 Advantages of the types of phytoremediation

Migration
Advantage Rhizofiltration Phytoextraction Phytostabilization control
Can be performed with X X X X
minimal environmental
disturbance
Applicable to broad X X X X
range of contaminants,
including many metals
with limited alternative
options
Possibly less secondary X X X X
air and/or water wastes
generated than
traditional methods
Organic pollutants may X X
be degraded to CO2
and H2O, removing, as
opposed to
transferring,
environmental toxicity
Cost-effective for large X
volumes of water
having low
concentrations of
contaminants to low
(stringent) standards
Topsoil is left in a X
usable condition and
may be reclaimed for
agricultural use
Soil can be left at site X
after contaminants are
removed, rather than
having to be disposed
or isolated
Cost-effective for large X
areas having low to
moderately
contaminated surface
soils
Reduces volume of X
contaminated material
to be landfilled or
incinerated*
Can achieve X
remediation goals
without using toxic
chemicals
(continued)
Table 5 (continued)
Migration
Advantage Rhizofiltration Phytoextraction Phytostabilization control
Reduce the risk of X
exposure (during
cleanup) by limiting
direct contact with
contaminated soils
Plant uptake of X
contaminated
groundwater can
prevent off-site
migration
policies, and scientific researchers are actively carrying out applied research regard-
ing environmental remediation. Various studies show that sustained release technol-
ogy can be used for the bio-/phytoremediation of underground water, sewage,
drinking water, rainwater, soil, and atmosphere.
Underground Water Remediation
As for underground water pollution problems, Li et al. (2013) conducted a pilot-

scale study on the remediation of underground aquifer polluted by hydrochloric ether
using zero-valent iron-sustained release carbon technology. By injecting a zero-
valent iron-sustained release carbon agent (7200 kg) into the aquifer at underground
9 ~ 18 m and conducting regular monitoring of pollutant concentration, it was found
that removal rates of 1, 1-dichloroethane, 1,2-dichloroethane, and chloroform in the
water reached 87.57%, 99.97%, and 99.07%, respectively, after 7 months, and their
half-life time periods were 115 days, 46 days, and 70 days, respectively. In situ
sustained release of oxidant has also been extensively applied to underground water
remediation (Kang et al. 2004; Watts and Teel 2006). Chokejaroenrat et al. (2015)
investigated the degradation of methyl orange by zero-valent activation of persulfate
(PS). PS was dosed by PS sustained release material. It is observed that, in the
presence of PS sustained release material (paraffin, PS mass ratio ¼ 1:3) and zero-
valent iron (paraffin, zero-valent iron mass ratio ¼ 1:4.7), PS was released at the
beginning in large quantity and the concentration reached 5000 mg/L. Methyl orange
could be effectively removed within 50 h, 100 mg/L. Therefore, this sustained
release technology can be taken as a pollutant control method for a long time.
A substantial amount of research indicates that permanganate of potash (KMnO4)
is often applied to underground water remediation as a green oxidant. Environmen-
tally friendly materials, paraffin and silica sand, have been used to improve the use
efficiency of KMnO4 (Zeng et al. 2013), used as composite materials to organize a
composite-type KMnO4 sustained release solid through the melting-forming
method. There is a gradually increased time with the sustained release quantity of
KMnO4. At 13 days for sustained release KMnO4 with paraffin/silica ¼ 1:6, the
cumulative release percentages of KMnO4 reached 28.3% and 58.8%, respectively.
This sustained release material could realize the sustained and controlled release of
KMnO4. Wang et al. (2013) used a KMnO4 sustained release agent to degrade
landfill leachate and found that the chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal rate
could reach as high as 57.1% with the minimum precipitation, which was only 8.5%
of the speed when pure KMnO4 was added. Besides, existing studies have found that
biodegradable macromolecular materials are often used as coating carriers to elon-
gate the service life of oxidizing agents and improve underground water remediation
efficiency (Yang and Li 2013; Yang and Wang 2013). While applying hemp fiber,
polybutylene succinate, and polyethylene as raw materials, for the remediation of
nitrate-polluted underground water prepared a sort of sustained release carbon
source material. The nitrate-nitrogen removal rate is often maintained above
96.0% during 66 days of operation.
Sewage Treatment
Urban sewage treatment, an important constituent of a neighborhood of environ-

mental protection, is vital to protect the local ecological balance, improve natural
conditions, and eliminate environmental pollution. Some scholars have used new
kinds of solid sustained release carbon sources to strengthen nitrogen removal by
denitrification of sewage, and thus the denitrification rate increased by about 10%
(Pei et al. 2014; Tang et al. 2014; Guo 2012). Besides, Xu et al. (2013) developed
a completely unique sustained release dephosphorization tablet to reinforce
sewage treatment by anaerobic-oxic (A/O) process. This sustained release
dephosphorization tablet is slowly dissolved under scouring action of water flow,
and meanwhile, it maintains a specific strength and shape. When its dosage is
2 tablets (200 g/each tablet) per ton of sewage, 82–87% treatment efficiency could
be reached. This study acknowledged that removal efficiency was expected to be
further elevated if sludge backflow within the system might be effectively improved.
Chen (2001) proposed a sewage treatment method with ecological concrete. COD
and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) of a heavily polluted river water decreased
by above 50% after pretreatment in sewage passes through a plug flow-type eco-
logical concrete water treatment facility. The improved water quality results from
treatment at an ecological concrete treatment facility, i.e., STP. After treating at the
treatment facility, the removal rate of total phosphorus (TP) exceeded 70%, which
for total nitrogen reached 20%. Cavallaro et al. (2014) explored the separation of
oil from the solution with alkanoate-modified halloysite nanotubes (HNTs).
The potential for such modified HNTs in oil-polluted water treatment with an
adsorption capacity of 2.6 g n-decane per 100 g HNTs at 23 C was obtained.
Zhao et al. (2013) studied the treatment efficiency of dye-polluted water with HNTs.
The utmost adsorption capacities of rhodamine 6G and chrome Azul S were
43.6 mg/g and 38.7 mg/g, respectively. As compared with kaolinite, HNTs showed
twice higher absorbency.
Drinking Water Treatment
In recent years, raw pollution and secondary pollution of pipe network water have
posed a severe challenge to beverage safety. To affect this challenge, sustained
release technologies make their contributions. Sustained release disinfectant
containing silver compounds has been used as a replacement kind of water
treatment agent to inhibit virtue growth and corrosion (Gao et al. 2002; Lu
2007). Hu et al. (2014) developed a kind of silver-loaded diatomite. When silver
content was 1.46%, it could completely kill Escherichia coli during a water
sample within 30 min, and therefore the leaking amount of silver was always
50 μg/L, whether it had been soaked or filtered. The silver-loaded diatomite was
considered to be promising and secure in beverage treatment. Wang (2014)
prepared silver-loaded activated carbon with the vacuum impregnation method.
When the silver loading quantity was 0.97 wt%, it could kill Escherichia coli
at a degree of 107 CFU/mL within 120 min. This method is effective, the
sustained release of silver, and thus maintains a high sterilizing effect. Therefore,
it’d be classified as a replacement kind of advanced beverage treatment
technology.
Additionally, taking a replacement kind of sustained release disinfection tablet
due to the study object, Yang et al. (2011) evaluated its effect on killing
Escherichia coli and controlling the whole bacterial count within the beverage.
The prepared disinfection tablet could realize the effective control of Escherichia
coli indicated within the results obtained. And when the valid concentration of
chlorine is 0.3 mg/L at contact time 30 min, the entire colony count is done.
There are not any significant influences on the disinfection effect on changes in
water quality parameters like pH, water temperature, and chromaticity had Ding
et al. (2013) also developed a replacement kind of sustained release solid dioxide
disinfectant for beverage treatment. It had the advantages of stability when
compared to traditional dioxide disinfectant, convenient storage and transporta-
tion, long-acting time, etc. On coastal cities and the frontier defense giving the
freshwater shortage, which solved beverage problems mainly by transporting
and storing water, Li et al. (1994) have developed a sustained release disinfectant,
which was prepared by blending stable dichloride isocyanuric acid with macro-
molecular adhesive during a particular proportion. This sustained-release
disinfectant had an extended sustained release time, generally 8–13 days. This
might efficiently disinfect stored water for over consecutive 25 days upon one
administration. With regard to the trivalent chromium pollution in beverage,
research scholars have proposed an emergency nondestructive remediation pro-
cess, which used a sustained-release ferric chloride-magnetic module as a puri-
fication agent (Chen et al. 2009). The mesitite-magnetic module has the only
remediation ability of trivalent chromium. Trivalent chromium within the surface
water is usually treated to satisfy beverage standards within 3 h under normal
conditions, and thus the treatment process generates no obvious harm to
organisms.
Rainwater Treatment
In a few years, the idea of a sponge metropolis has been proposed. With the intention
of saving water assets and enhancing the city;s ecological environment, many
researchers desire to purify rainwater runoffs earlier than they infiltrate into the
soil to preserve underground water or are reused to complement municipal water
(inclusive of panorama water) (Fei et al. 2016; Ren). With a connection with the
mature revel in America in rainwater conservation and preliminary rainwater puri-
fication, Gao et al. (2007) designed a fixed Chinese rainwater conservation and usage
and preliminary rainwater purification systems, which solved preliminary rainwater
purification issues even. It found out preliminary rainwater purification specifically
via soil conservation and purification, plant purification, herbal precipitation, per-
meation, and filtering. Based on this layout idea, many pupils have carried out
studies on rainwater sustained release technologies. For instance, a rainwater series
and sustained release tool for the foundation region of timber has been invented,
which can stabilize water use with between the wet and dry seasons, relieve water
use stress during the dry season, and decrease water shipping and decrease plantation
value (Xu S). In the meantime, sluggish underground permeation can significantly
enhance water usage efficiency. Lin et al. (2010) reported that the water-absorbent
polymer-phenolic aldehyde-foamed plastic, while introduced into environmental
mineral cloth, ought to enhance rainwater purification capability to a superb extent.
When 10 bentonites were introduced, the elimination fee of BOD5 in rainwater can
be accelerated to 90% and COD elimination fee to 80% with purification impact.
Moreover, as water absorbent polymer had a terrific water-soaking up property,
water-maintaining property, and sustained release impact, this cloth ought to recog-
nize rainwater purification and storage.
Soil Remediation
Sustained release technology has additionally found its application in soil remedy.
(2013) fancied a sustained release chemical with a soil remedy impact that was
ready by mixing perishable polyhydroxy alkanoates with organic and inorganic
nutrient substances. Underneath the action of soil microorganisms, polyhydroxy
alkanoates may be slowly degraded. The degradation of merchandise will give
nutrient substances required by soil microbic growth and, thus, promote serious
metal ionization by soil microorganisms. What is more, these degradation mer-
chandise also can act as nutrient substances for plants to market plant growth and
improve soil remedy potency. (2012) used a gradient dilution methodology to sort
mixed microorganism that may degrade. The mixed microorganisms were then
immobilized onto turfy soil exploitation the sorption methodology. Results indi-
cated that turfy soil immobilized with mixed microorganism will operate as a
microbic sustained release agent. Application of this microbic sustained release
agent created the degradation rate of fossil fuel organic compound in contaminated
soil (30 g/kg oil content), increasing from 24.3% (the case of degrading bacteria-
free) to 28.4% for a 30-day remedy time.
In view of alpine and arid climate and zinc-deficient soil structure in upland areas
of China, researchers have found that palygorskite, a natural ecological material,
options physical property, a sustained-release property, dispersity, suspension prop-
erty, and displacement property; therefore, it may be used for chemical unleash
management, soil property improvement, contaminated soil remedy, saline land
improvement, etc. (2014) projected exploitation palygorskite and craft waste deriv-
atives (lignosulfonate acid) as raw base materials to arrange multicomponent and
multifunctional sustained release Zn chemical through the answer chemical change
methodology. With functions that embrace cathartic Zn chemical, riveting water,
conserving soil wetness, and rising soil, this product may be applied to the technical
fields of eco-environmental protection and agricultural fertilizers. This technology
will contribute to realizing waste usage and reducing supply, a reference for the
applying of sustained-release micro-fertilizers within the ecological rehabilitation
engineering field.
In recent years, phytoremediation technology has been thought to be a vital
means of remediating contaminated soil and is endlessly applied. Researchers
found that sustained release complexing agents will increase the collective absorp-
tion of serious metals by plants, thus, considerably rising phytoremediation potency
(Xie and Chen 2012).
Indoor Air Purification and Atmospheric Pollution Remediation
As for atmospherically pollution, biological strategies are confirmed to be econom-

ical (Wang et al. 2014; Deshusses 1997), for example, biological filtration is a good
technique of removing harmful and detestable substances within the exhaust gas.
Wanga et al. (2014) have developed a biological filler of exhaust gas with sustained-
release performance techniques. This filler is characterized by high nutrient content,
smart air porousness, and powerful load and impact resistance. Nutrient substances
of the filler will slowly unleash through the synergistic result of dissolution and
diffusion and microbic degradation. These biological filters are often stably used for
a protracted time. (2010) developed a sustained release agent that takes paraffin and
rosin because of the sustained release matrix, binary compound, and biomethane
matter and investigated diffusion laws of the effective repressive component, acet-
ylene. Results showed that once the mass fraction of rosin within the matrix was
200 and therefore the mass magnitude relation of matrix and binary compound was
1:1, the hardness and compactness of the sustained release matrix were improved
together with a diffusion constant of alkyne reached 2.3 10–8 cm2•min 1
(R2 ¼ zero.9901). Experimental results tested that this sustained release agent may
effectively cut back the emission of biomethane from artificial sources sort of
municipal solid waste lowland.
For indoor pollution issues, analysis students have developed dioxide
sustained release air purification devices. Once dioxide unleash rate is 7.4 and
ratio is within the rangw of 29–31%, 59–61%, and 89–91%, it will effectively
purify venturous substances like aldehyde generated from interior decoration.
Though slowly free dioxide gas will effectively eliminate odor indoor and clean
the air, dioxide itself is harmful. Therefore, this technology is being incessantly
improved in order that it is often applied with as few aspect effects as doable
(Wang et al. 1997).
Merits and Demerits of Bioremedition Technology
Every technology has its own merits and demerits. Accordingly, bioremediation
waste management has its own merits and demerits which are given in Table 6
below.
Merits of Bioremediation
As mentioned above, waste management involves the collection and disposal of both
hazardous and nonhazardous wastes from all the sectors of society. We shall now
look in detail the merits of waste management or the benefits of proper garbage
disposal.
This Practice Is Highly Lucrative

The Journal of Waste Management says that the revenues generated by waste
management would be high by $60 million by 2018. But, there is a unit solely a
couple of those who sincerely contemplate this as associate trade into varied aspects
of waste management like employment and reusing and reap the advantages.
Now several firms’ area unit try forward to associate themselves with this trade
and area unit prepared for a protracted-term investment.
Keeps the Environment Clean and Fresh

Perhaps, the best advantage of waste management is keeping the surroundings
contemporary and neat. These waste disposal units conjointly help the individ-
uals stay disease-free as all the resulting wastes’ area unit are properly disposed
Table 6 Merits and demerits of bioremediation waste management

S.no Merits Demerits
1 Practice is highly lucrative Process is not always cost-effective
2 Keeps the environment clean and fresh The resultant product has a short life
3 Saves the Earth and conserves energy Needs more global buy-in
4 Reduces environmental pollution The sites are often dangerous
5 Waste management will help you earn Practices are not done uniformly
money
6 Creates employment Waste management can cause more problems
and handled. More variety of waste disposal units are often placed throughout
the tier-1 and tier-2 cities, ensuring that the waste disposal method is often
prepared. Conjointly a degree that warrants our thought here is that this advan-
tage is often taken into consideration, providing intensive and correct safety
measures’ area unit enforced together with correct waste. There is no use in
merely implementing a half-baked technique if it doesn’t beneft the individuals
and also the surroundings. This can be the most effective effects of correct waste
disposal.
Saves the Earth and Conserves Energy

This characteristic of waste management includes specifically employment facet.
Employment of waste helps in reducing the thinning out of trees. This cutting
of trees is principally used in the assembly of paper in hot water. Although the
paperless workplace is a new trend that’s widely practiced, with the assistance
of employment, we are able to conserve energy and reduce our consumption
of paper. By utilizing this methodology, we are able to use recycled waste to
create high-quality papers instead of relying on trees. Also, employment
wants solely a token quantity of energy for utilization and complete process.
The resultant product is likely to be a renewable supply of energy that is
eco-friendly.
Reduces Environmental Pollution

As previously stated, proper waste management not only eliminates surrounding
waste but additionally reduces the intensity of greenhouse gases like alkane and
monoxide, which are emitted from the wastes accumulated. The depth of the present
landfills and combustion is going to be checked, thereby thinning out the harmful
factors that have an effect on the environment.
Waste Management Will Help you Earn Money

Can you believe me when I say that everything I’ve said above is completely true?
Yes, waste management can you a few extra dollars each month. Actually, there are a
number of firms that will pay you for your waste. From previous and used bottles to
tin cans and e-wastes, all types of wastes are collected and paid for. These wastes are
then separated based on the extent of pollution they cause to the environment, and
these wastes are then recycled for various purposes. There are crash courses avail-
able to assist you in recycling your trash. Above all, by following this methodology,
you’ll raise associate awareness among your fellow individuals while earning
money, which is a win-win situation.
Creates Employment
Again, this facet is unbelievable for you right?
You might even wonder how this is possible. However, all aspects of waste
management necessitate an enormous quantity of labor. From the gathering to the
ultimate step of segregation, each part requires workforce, resulting in an enormous
number of job opportunities.
Demerits of Waste Management
We have currently seen the merits of waste management thoroughly. In the same
way, it has demerits and is worth a second look.
The Process Is Not Always Cost-Effective

Yes, it will pay the contributors, but the reality is that this method requires plenty of
money, time, and land to set up and run a plant. Because the quantity of waste being
contributed to the stuff unit grows, so does the number of plants that process these
resources.
Setting up a large manufacturing plant clearly necessitates a large sum of money,
and this management can begin reaping profits only after a long period of time.
Hence, this is not a short-term profitable investment.
While marketing more and more garbage in landfills costs only $50 per ton, using
them correctly costs $150 per ton, which is more than triple the price, and so several
businesses have switched to the lowland technique itself.
The Resultant Product Has a Short Life

This is also true since the resulting recycled product can’t be expected to be of high
quality because the product was created from the remains of a trashed waste product
and a large number of used parts.
The recycled product, though eco-friendly, is expected to have a shorter life than
the intended original.
The Sites Are Often Dangerous

As the waste management sites embrace the landfills to utilization units beneath its
aegis, these sites square measure extremely prone to fungus and microorganism
growth, thereby resulting in numerous diseases.
Even the rubble formation is accelerated by such microorganism growth, which
makes it all unsafe for the employees of United Nations agency to work there. It
additionally causes widespread pollution and releases harmful chemicals. These
chemicals, once mixed with a beverage or other expendable items, create a high
quantity of danger to human health.
The Practices Are Not Done Uniformly

Still, an oversized scale of those waste management practices square measure done
solely as a little scale method and is usually confined to residential homes, schools,
and faculties and isn’t practiced during a uniform manner in giant industries and
conglomerates.
It is not even practiced globally, because the world level consists of curb oil spills,
ocean disposals, and decreasing the tree felling.
Waste Management Can Cause More Problems

Though waste management creates employment, it solely has the power to provide
low-quality jobs. These jobs embrace right from sorting the rubbish collector to the
intensive and grueling jobs that square measure required within the factories and
outlets. Daily basis assortment of garbage can make the streets look unpleasant and
unsanitary feat excess rubble on the streets to rot up.
Even once the roaring completion of the ultimate stage, several chemical stews
are left behind that must be properly and fully disposed of; otherwise, they’ll add the
ultimate purpose of waste management go to waste and to threat to the environment.
Also, within the square measures wherever these management units are a gift, it’s
detected that the groundwater gets affected. So, it too causes a substantial extent of
pollution and land pollution.
Thus, considering the professionals and cons of waste management, we are able
to solely notice that the final word goal of waste management depends on waste
minimization and edge solely. However, the aspects of utilization associated with
process wastes cannot be omitted since they attribute an environmental flavor to our
space of study.
It conjointly makes the entire method to be economically viable and increases the
sustenance of the method, thereby creating it less liable to the legal frameworks and
conventions of every country. The energy result in the producers to the customers
should be maintained because it is within the original ecosystems and also the
utilization ought to add bicycle with the generalities.
Thus, not even one facet is often deleted from the entire method, t constant time.
The method too cannot be stopped by considering the demerits alone. It ought to be
enforced step by step and will move from a little scale trade to a bigger one, thereby
eliminating the issues that arise within the midway by finding appropriate methods
and solutions for the issues.
The government too ought to support the observes by easing the principles and
inspiring all its voters to observe constantly in their households and might conjointly
offer an award for those that practice these measures in a good manner.
Methods like vermicomposting, generating energy from star cells and e-wastes,
and misusing recycled water for social unit practices are often simply preached to
commoners in an exceedingly simple to follow manner. This will aid and enhance
the fertility of our soil, reduce environmental pollutions, and increase the ground-
water level, ultimately making our environment a safe haven to live. This will be the
real legacy we have to leave behind for the forthcoming generations.
Conclusion
The crisis of waste management has created a rise in publicly awareness. Sadly this
awareness could also be too late, and also the public has very little data of the impact
their waste has had on the setting. Despite the fact that there are many waste
management technologies in use, several of them produce different sorts of pollution.
This chapter has summarized this technology accessible in waste management and
also the potential uses of a more modern technique known as bioremediation. With
increasing analysis, this technique will offer an answer to the waste management crisis
if it’s employed in conjunction with current strategies. Bioremediation is additionally a
very important technique of land and water reclamation. Sites antecedent thought to be
unprofitable have the potential for recycle once they’re treated with microbes. Biore-
mediation has been shown to be a good technique of decontamination while not
exploiting any cyanogenic residues. Microbes employed in the method vanish because
the waste is degraded and come back to their traditional population size. Once
treatment of the location is complete, continuous observance is critical to make sure
that traces of the stuff are eradicated. Of these technologies, bioremediation has been
verified to be the foremost effective technique of waste reduction and also the least
damaging to the setting. Landfilling and burning are shown to be the foremost
damaging and haven’t created an answer to the waste management crisis.
This chapter has additionally tried to elucidate waste management brainstorming
and also the necessity of every technique in such an inspiration. One technique alone
won’t solve our waste disposal issues. The key to the management setup is waste
reduction, recycling, and burning. New strategies like bioremediation are necessary
within the waste management setup since they’re going to offer future alternatives to
landfilling and burning. Continued studies of recent technology ought to be inspired
as supplemental strategies of waste disposal and process. They should not be sought
after as a substitute to existing strategies till they’re verified to be higher than older
technology. As new treatments square measure projected and tested reliable, they’ll
be integrated within the overall management theme.
A solid setup for educating the general public on waste management and strategies
ought to be of primary concern to any government agencies (state and federal) making
waste management plans. Proper education on the crisis existing nowadays in waste
management can facilitate the general public to perceive why cooperation in waste
reduction and utilization programs is critical. Earlier education on waste management
may additionally drive kids to hunt educational activity and positions in environmental
fields as they develop, so making certain new voices within the fight to the earlier the
general public becomes responsive to the growing issues related to landfills, incinera-
tors, and different waste sources, the earlier an answer will be found to alleviate them.
Although bioremediation might not be the last word resolution to the issues of
waste management, it’s a step within the right direction. Rather than sitting and
looking ahead to the setting to wash itself, scientists’ square measure is testing the
potential of microbes to try and do the reclamation work faster. Some enterprising
scientists have already begun to promote this technology on little sites in want of
detoxification. Hopefully these technologies are going to be effective on larger
program sites throughout the world. If this becomes a daily apply, billions of rupees
saved within the cleanup of those sites can be accustomed to develop different
strategies of waste management.
Recommendations
The public must be educated about each of these technologies and their benefits and
drawbacks. It is important for public officials, environmental planners, and environ-
mental activists to work together to present all waste management and reduction
programs. There is a need to formulate a comprehensive plan concerning methods of

waste management for India. In a comprehensive plan, source reduction, recycling,
landfilling, incineration, and bioremediation need to be addressed as they are all
important methods of disposal and management. Increasing public concern on
problems associated with soil, water, and land contamination has caused increasing
awareness, leading to new research in waste management planning. There are
several important steps in any management plan. First, standards for quality (air,
water, soil) must be set which represents a desirable or at least an acceptable level to
the society affected. Next, the existing quality must be determined by monitoring.
Once this quality is known, plans must be developed which include the standards set
and a permitting process.
There are several important parts to creating a recycling plan which could help solve
current problems with burying and burning waste as a component part of the overall
waste management plan. Mandatory recycling plays an important part in increasing
participation by the public in any recycling program. With proper education, mandatory
recycling programs throughout India have a 90% participation rate. Economic incen-
tives to haulers and households are another method of soliciting participation in
recycling programs. One of the most effective methods of educating the public is
through the public school system. Teaching younger people the values of recycling in
school is important since as these children grow, they not only will continue to practice
what they have learned but will also pass on this information to other generations.
Another important part of the recycling plan is the need for local, state, and state
governments to buy products made with recycled materials. The concerned agencies
must purchase recycled products made locally to make their industry more compet-
itive with other countries. Other economic incentives must be made to ensure the
marketability of recycled materials, especially to manufacturers. Some incentives for
manufacturers are below market rate loans to encourage them to locate in a particular
area and create markets for locally recovered materials. This scrap-based
manufacturing creates jobs and new skills, encourages investment, and enlarges
the manufacturing tax base of the local economy.
Each method of waste processing and disposal has a place in the waste manage-
ment plan. Every technology available must be examined to help define the problems
of waste management and each should be utilized to reach a solution to this
environmental crisis. Incineration alone may not be the solution to a community’s
problems, especially if there is already concern over air quality in that area. That
community may be better off adding a recycling program and utilizing biomedical
technology to reduce their landfills in size and to protect the surrounding soil and
groundwater from leaching contaminants.
Educational programs should be designed for all ages concerning the options of
waste management. Public involvement can be crucial in finding solutions to
problems that affect the whole community. As stated earlier in the recycling plan,
the school can provide an important median for training children on the importance
of waste management and their future lifestyles.
The government should take an active role in creating public information films,
seminars, and booklets concerning the waste management crisis facing India and
other countries today. Information highlighted should include summaries of each

waste processing and disposal option and any new technology such as bioremedia-
tion which is being researched.
The research and development of new technologies such as bioremediation
should also be aided by the Indian Government since waste management is a concern
for the whole country. A national commission involving specialists on waste man-
agement should be developed which studies the pros and cons of current methods
and potentials of new technology.
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05.072
Bioremediation of Oil-Contaminated
Effluent Pits and Soil Plot for Pollution 39
Control and Environment Protection
Yashwant Singh Yadav, P. C. Nath, P. K. Hazarika, and

Sanjay Bhutani
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1040
Bioremediation Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1042
Technology Development Stages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1043
Crude Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1043
Characterization of Oily Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1043
Bioremediation Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1044
Historical Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1046
Need for Bioremediation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1047
Major Contributors of Oil Spillage in Oil Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1047
Principle of Bioremediation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1054
Bioremediation Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1054
The Biological and Chemical Processes of Bioremediation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1055
Environmental Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1057
Factors Affecting Rates of Microbial Degradation of Hydrocarbons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1057
Chemical Composition of Petroleum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1059
Concentration of the Petroleum Hydrocarbons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1059
Adaptation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1059
Phytoremediation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1060
Bioremediation by INBIGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1060
Materials and Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1061
Field Application of Bioremediation in Effluent Pits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1063
Determination of Oil Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1064
Case Studies of Bioremediation by INBIGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1064
Photographs of some Bioremediated Pits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1069
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1069
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1074
Y. S. Yadav · P. C. Nath · P. K. Hazarika · S. Bhutani (*)

Institute of Biotechnology and Geotectonic Studies (INBIGS), A&AA Basin, Oil and Natural Gas
Corporation (ONGC), Jorhat, India
e-mail: yadav_yashwant@ongc.co.in; nath_pc@ongc.co.in; hazarika_pk2@ongc.co.in;
bhutani_sanjay@ongc.co.in

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_49
1040 Y. S. Yadav et al.
Abstract
Crude oil contamination in effluent pits and soil plots is a major environmental
challenge during various activities of hydrocarbon exploration and production.
Some hydrocarbon compounds are carcinogenic and neurotoxic. Contamination
of oil into soil and water bodies cuts off oxygen to the underneath flora and fauna
and therefore is harmful. Bioremediation exploits the ability of microorganisms to
eliminate the petroleum pollutants from environment and cleanup of oil. Micro-
bial degradation of oil contaminants is an environmentally friendly process and
an inexpensive technology which leads to complete mineralization of oil into
carbon dioxide and water.
In the present research and field work INBIGS has employed bioremediation
to accelerate the natural degradation of spilled oil thus mitigating the adverse
ecological impact. INBIGS isolated different microbial strains from crude oil-
contaminated soil samples of ONGC oil fields including surfactant-producing
bacteria and preserved and maintained it by regular activation. A mixed microbial
consortium capable of degrading oil was developed by INBIGS in collaboration
with Tezpur University, mass cultured in INBIGS, and then applied along with
isolated native bacteria and nutrients at various oil-contaminated effluent pits of
Assam Asset with great success. Taking few examples, the oil content of effluent
of GELEKI Pit-1 was degraded from 950 ppm to 7 ppm, i.e.,99.2% degradation
in 2 months and 2 days: GELEKI Pit-2 from 1200 to 6 ppm, i.e.,99.5% degraded
in 4 months and 10 days; and GELEKI Pit-3 from 910 to 5.9 ppm, i.e., 99.3%
degradation in 2 months and 2 days. Field implementation resulted in bringing
down the oil content below 10 ppm in all effluent pits. Above results were
achieved in cost-effective manner, and the growth of flora and fauna was
observed in the bioremediated effluent and soil pits. All the field jobs lead to
achieve the goal of timely control of pollution, site reclamation, and environment
protection.
Keywords
Bioremediation in oil industry · Microbial treatment of soil and effluent pit ·
Pollution control by bioremediation · Hydrocarbon degradation by microbial
consortia · Bioremediation in ONGC
Introduction
Soil and water contamination is a common phenomenon in most of the oil explora-
tion sites. During different drilling operations, though utmost care is taken to avoid
any oil/grease contamination in spite of that some leakage of lubricating oil and
grease occurs and accumulated at the waste pit as floating layer. During the stuck
pipe complication, oil spotting has to be carried out to release the pipe. The spotted
oil has to be circulated out, and spotting fluid mixed oil is required to be treated for
39 Bioremediation of Oil-Contaminated Effluent Pits and Soil Plot for. . . 1041
reclamation. During this activity in the well, lots of oil contamination may occur in
the site.
During production testing if the formation pressure is not enough to bring the oil
to the surface, then the brine of the well is displaced by application of nitrogen. Any
oil accumulated at the bottom from the formation comes out with brine during
nitrogen cut and is discharged in the waste pit/oil pit. During blowout in the well,
lots of oil spillage occur at the site and nearby areas which cause contamination in
the soil and water bodies. During transportation oil spill may occur due to leakage in
oil carrying pipe line which causes oils spill and gets accumulated in the leakage
area. Leakage in the oil storage tank, accident of oil carrying vehicles, trains, ships,
etc. also cause oil spill. Oil sludge of the tanks can also create oil contamination in
the soil and water. Oil is toxic in nature; therefore decontamination of oil is an utmost
requirement.
The decontamination of soil and water from pollutants using microorganisms
(bioremediators) is known as bioremediation. There are essentially two approaches,
described as in situ and ex situ. In situ methods are those in which the contaminated
material is treated at the site, whereas when the material is physically removed to be
treated elsewhere, it is referred to as ex situ. It is possible for bioremediation to occur
under natural conditions, but it takes longer time due to lack of proper nutrients and
more suitable bacteria present in the nature. Therefore, stimulation is required by the
application of fertilizers (biostimulation). It has been shown that through the addition
of matched microbe strains to the medium, the effectiveness of the resident microbe
population for decomposing contaminants may be enhanced.
Bioremediation of crude oil-contaminated effluent/soil/sludge has been recog-
nized as an effective tool worldwide. The popularity of bioremediation is due to its
ability to completely clean up the environment in eco-friendly and cost-effective
way. Bioremediation is a process by which chemical substances are degraded by
bacteria and other microorganisms. The use of these microorganisms has been
successfully applied for the treatment of waste and wastewater in controlled systems.
The hazardous oily waste is composed of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH).
The TPH constitutes a complex mixture of alkane; aromatic hydrocarbon; nitrogen-,
sulfur- and oxygen-containing compounds (NSO); and asphaltene fractions. Oil
contamination has severe impacts on the plant and animal ecosystem including
human health. Crude oil exposure may cause damage to the lungs, liver, kidneys,
intestines, and other internal organs. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) may
lead to cancer. Inhalation leads to headache, nausea, dizziness, and respiratory
irritation. BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene, and xylene) cause mutations,
cancers, birth defects, nervous disorders, liver disease, depression, irregular heart-
beats, etc. Oil-contaminated soil loses its fertility and has impact on seed germina-
tion. Hence disposal of the oily waste in an improper manner may cause a serious
environmental problem. Oil spill also results in marine contamination which may
have adverse environmental impact. In various operations of oil production, pro-
cessing, and storage, large volumes of waste are generated as oily sludge.
Petroleum is a rich source of organic matter, and the hydrocarbons within it are
readily attacked aerobically and anaerobically by a variety of microorganisms.
Petroleum or its products in nature when get exposed to air and moisture become
amenable to microbial attack. The term bioremediation refers to the cleanup of oil
and elimination of the petroleum pollutants or other pollutants by microorganisms.
Compared to physicochemical methods, bioremediation offers an effective technol-
ogy for environmental protection because majority of components of crude oil are
biodegradable, and oil-degrading microorganisms are ubiquitous.
Though contaminated oil is primarily degraded by a combination of environmen-
tal factors such as photooxidation, volatilization, leaching, etc., its fate to a very large
extent is determined by the indigenous microbial population and the conditions
conducive for their growth. This is attributed to the enormous metabolic diversity
of microorganisms to degrade numerous organic compounds for complete mineral-
ization to CO2, water, and biomass. Biodegradation thus constitutes the major route
for the elimination of hydrocarbon pollutant from the environment. Therefore, the
worldwide market potential for bioremediation is quite high as per the organization
of Economic Cooperation and Development.
In the past major oil spills contaminated the coastal marine environment with tons
of crude oil. In most of these cases, indigenous microorganisms degraded many of
the petroleum hydrocarbons but at very low rate. This was because population of
hydrocarbon degraders was generally less than 1% of the total microorganisms,
which increases to 10% in polluted habitats, and also the degradation was limited by
the nonavailability of nutrients like nitrogen or phosphorous. Mixed cultures having
varied metabolic potential are commonly proposed as inoculum for seeding to
bioremediate contaminated sites. A genetically engineered hydrocarbon-degrading
Pseudomonas was the first organism patented in the USA, although that organism
has never been used to treat a contaminated site.
Among microorganisms, bacteria and even fungi play a key role in biodegrada-
tion of harmful hydrocarbon components. They attack hazardous organic com-
pounds in one of the following ways:
(a) Mineralization: The compound is oxidized to CO2, water, and biomass.

(b) Mineralization with co-metabolism: It is a gratuitous metabolic transformation
of a substance by microorganism growing on another substrate. The organism
derives energy and biomass from the substrate which gets mineralized and not
from the co-metabolized substrate which gets transformed to nontoxic form in
the process.
(c) Biotransformation: The pollutant is not mineralized but gets transformed to
another compound which may or may not be toxic.
Bioremediation Technology
This is an attractive alternative strategy to physical removal/destruction of pollut-

ant by incineration which is at least ten times costlier to bio-treatment. It can be
applied to different types of sites like effluent, soil, sludge, groundwater, marine
habitat, etc.
Technology Development Stages
Three main stages lead to successful development of bioremediation technology:
(a) Site characterization: This requires site assessment to know whether bioreme-
diation technology is appropriate for restoration of damaged ecosystem. This
mainly involves chemical characterization of the contaminant and physicochem-
ical analysis of the damaged site.
(b) Treatability study: This involves designing and drawing criteria and parameters
based on the Information obtained from study on kinetics of degradation of the
contaminant.
(c) Commercialization stage: Finalization of treatment approach, procurement,
fabrication, and pre-commissioning of required equipment’s for operation and
monitoring of parameters.
Crude Oil
Crude oil is liquid petroleum in its unrefined state. The principle chemical elements
(90% of the weight of crude oil) are carbon and hydrogen, which are combined in a
series of compounds called hydrocarbon. Other components in crude oil are sulfur,
nitrogen, and oxygen compounds in very small proportions. Sulfur compounds
include mercaptans, thiophens, and thioethers. Oxygen occurs in crude in mainly
asphaltenes and naphthenic acids, while N compounds are homologues of pyridine
or alkylated quinolines. Other elements found in crude oil in trace amounts include
iron, silicon, aluminum, and nichrome.
Characterization of Oily Waste
Total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) was extracted from a known quantity of oily
waste by solvent extraction method by Soxhlet extractor using various solvents like
hexane, methylene chloride, and chloroform consecutively. The extracts were pooled
and dried at room temperature after distillation of solvents in a fume hood. The
amount of TPH recovered was quantified by gravimetric method.
The sediments/ash content in the residual oily sludge was measured by heating
the sludge, after TPH extraction, at 600 C for 5 h using a crucible and subsequent
cooling to room temperature. The amount of ash recovered was quantified gravi-
metrically (Mishra et al. 2001).
The extracted TPH was further fractionated for various fractions like alkane,
aromatic, NSO, and asphaltene fractions. A known quantity of TPH was dissolved in
n-pentane. The insoluble fraction (asphaltene) was quantified.
The soluble fraction was further loaded on silica gel column and eluted with
different solvents. The alkane fraction was eluted with hexane, followed by the
aromatic fraction that was eluted with benzene. The NSO fraction was eluted with
chloroform and methanol.
Alkane and aromatic fractions were concentrated by evaporation of solvents, and

then 0.2μl of each was analyzed by gas chromatography to identify all the com-
pounds present in the alkane and aromatic fractions by matching the retention time
with authentic standards (Mishra et al. 2001).
Bioremediation Approaches
It is established that virtually all types of hydrocarbons are susceptible to microbial

degradation, and hence the relevance of using the biotechnological approach using
the microbial capability for bioremediation of the hazardous waste is justified.
Bioremediation has emerged as one of the most promising treatment options for
oil contamination. Bioremediation has been applied as a cost-effective, ecologically
friendly, and efficient treatment technology for the contamination of hydrocarbon
polluted soils.
Two basic forms of bioremediation are currently being practiced:
1. Microbiological approaches involve augmentation of one or more species of

indigenous specific microorganisms of a contaminated site. The rationale is to
increase the rate of pollutant degradation because of increased density of con-
taminant specific microorganisms
Two types of microorganisms can be used to augment at sites:
(i) Use of prepackaged contaminant-specific microorganisms. The number of firms

is known to market prepackaged microorganisms having varied capabilities to
degrade variety of organic contaminants.
(ii) Second method involves selection, culturing, and application of site-specific
strains exhibiting desirable degrading qualities. This requires isolation of con-
taminant-specific microorganisms from the site, growing it in large quantity in
the laboratory and applying it on the site.
Generally, a site that is recently contaminated by a high concentration of a

pollutant and requires rapid cleanup is treated using this microbiological approach.
2. The microbial ecology approach involves use of indigenous contaminant spe-

cific microbial community in the affected area. It requires identifying and
adjusting certain physical and chemical factors that may be impeding the rate
of degradation in situ. A site that has been contaminated for some time and the
concentration of contaminant is of moderate level is generally treated using this
approach
Bioremediation Treatment Technologies

Bioremediation treatment technologies have been broadly divided into two catego-
ries based on whether biodegradation is stimulated in situ or carried out ex situ.
(a) In Situ Bioremediation Techniques: Bioremediation of organic contami-

nants in situ requires stimulation of the degrading activities of endogenous microbial
populations by augmenting the site with nutrients and/or external electron acceptors.
Alternatively, it may involve the addition of potent, exogenous microbial inoculum,
with or without nutrient and electron acceptor supplementation.
The requirement of nutrient addition (N, P) has been extensively studied with
respect to hydrocarbon contaminated marine environments and soil/aquifer system.
Serious accidental oil spills in the marine environment have provided the impetus for
large-scale bioremediation experiments involving addition of nutrient cocktails to
marine and foreshore environment. This approach has been practiced with varying
degrees of success. In many soil bioremediation applications, nutrient addition has
been combined with percolation of oxygen saturated water, air sparge, or bioventing.
Hydrogen peroxide has also been widely used as an alternative oxygen source in
percolation trials.
Bioventing is a technique used to add oxygen directly to a site of contamination
in the vadose zone (unsaturated zone). To initiate bioventing, vacuum is applied
onto the well to force accelerated air movement through the contamination zone.
The main objective of bioventing is to stimulate in situ aerobic degradation. In
cases like gasoline spills, due to forced aeration, pollutant volatility becomes an
issue. However, the air contaminated with volatile components can be treated
biologically by passing the air through aboveground soil beds in a process called
biofiltration.
Anaerobic degradation process may offer an effective alternative to aerobic in situ
bioremediation of chlorinated compounds. Chlorinated aliphatic and aromatic com-
pounds are some of the most troublesome groundwater contaminants. These com-
pounds are toxic and carcinogenic in their low concentrations and tend to resist
aerobic degradation. They are reported to get transformed anaerobically by a process
called reductive de-halogenation. The chlorinated compounds act as the electron
acceptor, and in the process the chloride moiety is removed from the molecule and
replaced by hydrogen.
Many chlorinated aliphatic solvents such as trichloroethane and trichloroethylene
are also known to be biologically recalcitrant in the presence of oxygen. These
compounds are transformed by co-metabolism using methane as a substrate.
Methane provides both carbon and energy for microbial growth, while the chlori-
nated solvent gets coincidently metabolized due to broad substrate-specific methane
monooxygenase enzyme.
(b) Ex situ bioremediation: Ex situ bioremediation is a biological process in
which excavated soil is placed in a lined aboveground treatment area and aerated to
enhance the degradation of organic contaminants by the indigenous microbial
population. Under aerobic conditions, specific microorganisms can utilize organic
contaminants such as petroleum hydrocarbon mixtures, polycyclic aromatic hydro-
carbons (PAH), phenols, cresols, and some pesticides as a source of carbon and
energy and degrade them ultimately to carbon dioxide and water. Ex situ bioreme-
diation techniques are usually aerobic and involve treatment of contaminated soils or
sediments using solid or slurry phase systems.
Land Farming
It is the most conventional bioremediation technology commercially used for several
kinds of wastes and contaminated soils. A treatment bed lined by a high-density
polyethylene plastic sheet is constructed to collect the contaminated soil. Sand is
placed on plastic sheet for protection of bed. Contaminated soil is spread over the
sand. Degradation rate is increased by augmentation of nutrient, buffer, or microbes.
Soil is periodically tilled for mixing out oxygen contact. This technique has been
used for remediation of heavily contaminated petroleum waste.
Composting
This technique is relatively cheaper and has higher degradation potential compared
to land farming. The technique involves physical removal of contaminated soil or
sediments to specially constructed platforms or compost sheds. It is mixed with
composting material like straw or wooden chips to enhance water and air holding
capacity and improve physical handling properties. Periodic mixing or turning is
applied in order to ensure adequate aeration. Composting techniques are used for
remediation of highly contaminated sites and have proved successful for military
sites contaminated with explosives such as TNT, RDX, and tetryl.
Slurry Bioremediation
This is a batch treatment technique in which excavated soils or sediments are mixed
with water and treated in reactor vessels or in contained ponds or lagoons. It is
adequately aerated and mixed, and nutrients together with surfactants or dispersants
as per requirement are added. Effective bioremediation has been achieved using this
technique for sediments contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons, pentachloro-
phenol, polychlorinated biphenyls, creosote, coal tars, etc.
Phytoremediation
Phytoremediation is a bioremediation process that uses various types of plants to
remove, transfer, stabilize, and destroy contaminants in soil and groundwater. It is
defined as “the use of green plants and the associated microorganisms, along with
proper soil amendments and agronomic techniques to contain, remove or render
toxic environmental contaminants harmless.”
Historical Perspective
In March 1989, 41 million liters of Alaskan North Slope crude oil was spilled from
the Exxon Valdez in the Prince William Sound Alaska. This resulted in contam-
ination with oil of approximately 2100 km of rocky inter tidal shorelines in that
region. Conventional cleanup using physical methods failed to remove all the oil
on the beaches and under the rocks in the beach sediments. Exxon together with
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in May 18 decided to test bioremediation
technology as a cleanup strategy. Case study of using bioremediation technology
for cleaning Exxon Valdez oil spill caught public’s attention, generating intense
pressure on the parties responsible for the spill for a prompt and effective response.
It is interesting to consider what happens when oil is released into the marine
environments. Almost all commercially used oils, upon release into the marine
environment, float and spread on the water leading to increase in surface area. This
enhances evaporation of components containing up to about 12 carbons and
dissolution of few compound with an appreciable aqueous solubility. The floating
slick also adsorbs water and some of the compounds get photooxidized in the
slick. This is a natural phenomenon aided by wave energy. If the spill is near land,
it is likely that some oil will reach shoreline. Physical collection is the first choice
of recovery. The oil is collected with skimmers, and this was the method applied
on Exxon Valdez spill. Bioremediation played major role in the cleanup of the
Exxon Valdez spill.
Microbial ecology approach was used as a strategy. Site analysis of polluted
beaches showed presence of hydrocarbon-degrading microorganisms. Plentiful car-
bon in the form of spilled oil and sufficient oxygen was available for biodegradation
process. However, the intrinsic degradation rates were limited mainly by low
availability of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous. The sites were amended
by fertilizer nutrient formulations. A liquid oleophilic fertilizer (Inipol EAP-22) that
could adhere to the oil covered surfaces and a slow release water-soluble fertilizer
(Customblen) were tested as nutrient sources to augment the process of bioremedi-
ation. Within 2 weeks after application of the fertilizer, there was a visible decrease
in the amount of oil on rock surfaces treated with fertilizer formulations. About
three- to eightfold increase in the oil removal over the intrinsic biodegradation rate
was observed (Bragg et al. 1994).
Need for Bioremediation
It is particularly important to address oil polluted waters/soil as soon as possible as

the contamination can have the potential to damage environment and affect the
health of living bodies. Besides the varying rates of biodegradation, researchers have
consistently documented a lag time after oil is spilled before indigenous microbes
begin to break down the oil molecules. This lag time is related to the initial toxicity
of the volatile fractions of the oil, which evaporate in the first few days of a spill.
Microbial populations must begin to use oil and expand their population before
measurable degradation takes place, a period usually lasting several days. This fact
becomes very important when considering the appropriateness of bioremediation as
a quick or first response technique.
Major Contributors of Oil Spillage in Oil Industry
Drilling and production process are major contributors of oil spillage in upstream oil
industries. Let us discuss both processes one by one and understand possibilities of
oil spillage in various steps.
The Drilling Process

There is possibility of oil spill during drilling process. Oil spillage may occur during
onshore and offshore oil well drilling. Drilling of a well involves risks of oil spillage
in various steps. To understand technical issues causing oil spillage, let us under-
stand the steps of drilling process.
(i) Plan the Well: Basing on the analysis of seismic data of geophysical and geo-
microbial prospecting and interpretation of hydrocarbon prospect, a well for
drilling is released. Once the surface locations and well objectives are known,
geologists work with the drilling engineers and mud engineers to develop a
GTO (geotechnical order) having details of drilling proposals. However, all
statutory requirements (environmental, mines and safety, land acquisition,
etc.) are acquired during the final stages of the planning process when a
solid well proposal is developed.
(ii) Perform Shallow Gas Survey: To ensure there are no shallow gas hazards
which may result in a kick or blowout at very low depth, a shallow gas survey
is performed to identify the locations and depths of any potential shallow gas
hazards. Preliminary surface locations and well trajectories may be altered
from the original well proposal to avoid these shallow gas hazards.
(iii) Prepare the Well Site: The site preparation involves building clearing land
for use by the rig, building access roads to the well site or well pad,
constructing infrastructure for water, water disposal, and electricity; lining
up of all mud pits to prevent groundwater or water table contamination; and
digging waste pits for cutting storage with proper HDPE lining. The site
preparation may involve multiple contractors and companies to perform all
of the required work. A lot of site preparation time and the environmental
footprint can be minimized if multiple wells are drilled from same site for oil
field development.
(iv) Set the Conductor Casing: Prior to the arrival of the drilling rig, drill site is
prepared by hardening the locations, making cellar pit and rig base with
cement concrete. An Auger unit (in hard rock regions) will drill a large
diameter hole capable of accommodating 18 in. to 36 in. conductor casing.
Nowadays air hammer techniques are used to drill hard rocky formations. In
soft rock regions or at offshore locations, a diesel hammer may be used to
hammer the conductor casing into place. The conductor casing may go to
depths of 40–300 ft. depending on the location. The conductor casing is
typically set through the top soil and loose rocks to the bed rock. The objective
of the conductor casing is to isolate the wellbore from the top soil to ensure
that loose debris do not enter the well during early drilling operations. The
conductor casing is then cemented into place.
(v) Move In and Rig Up (MIRU): Once the well site is prepared and the
conductor casing is in place, the rig is brought on the location. Most land
rigs are transported on multiple trucks, once the rigging up process begins.
Rigging up of the well consists of taking the rig modules from the trucks and
assembling the rig, setting up all of the rig system, testing these systems, and
masting them up. Once the rig is rigged-up for the first well, then the rig can
simply be skidded over to the next location without having to Rig-down if

multiple wells have to be drilled from same site.
(vi) Spud the Well: After the rig has been inspected and all of the systems are
tested ok, the well can be Spudded. Spudding a well refers to starting the
rotary drilling operations for that particular well.
(vii) Drill Down to the Surface Casing Depth: The first section of the well to be
drilled is the section that goes down to the predetermined surface casing depth
(casing point). Obviously, for this section of the wellbore, the drill bit diameter
must be smaller than the ID (inner diameter) of the conductor casing. In this
shallow section of the wellbore, freshwater aquifers (both for personal and
municipal use) exist. As discussed earlier, shallow gas hazards may also exit at
that depth. The objectives of drilling this first section of the well are to allow
the setting and cementing of the surface casing to:
• Protect the wellbore and freshwater aquifers by placing a steel and concrete
barrier to isolate the water table from the well.
• Protect the well from the aquifer (cutting of the drilling fluids with fresh
water).
• Protect the well from shallow gas hazards.
This section of the well is drilled through the most environmentally sensitive
depths. Consequently, when this section of the hole is drilled, it is typically
drilled with the most environmentally friendly drilling fluid (possibly either
air or fresh water) and cased and cemented as soon as possible to alleviate any
potential of contaminating freshwater aquifers. By running the surface casing
string, we are putting the environmentally sensitive water table behind pipe
and protecting it from any contamination due to future well (drilling and
production) activities. This is accomplished by putting casing in the well
and cementing the same.
(viii) Installation of Blowout Preventer (BOP): The BOP is then installed on the
surface casing string to prevent any blowout in the well during the further
drilling of the well.
(ix) Continue This Process to Drill to the Next Casing Point: This drilling
process is continued to the next predetermined casing point. The selection of
these intermediate string casing points depends on the fracture pressure of the
formations to be drilled (the pressure that causes the formation to fracture), the
locations of any lost circulation zones, any high-pressure zones, caving zone,
hydrocarbon bearing zones, etc. After drilled down to the predetermined
casing depth, intermediate casing is lowered and cemented.
(x) Continue This Process to Drill to Total Depth (TD): Once the final inter-
mediate casing string is lowered and cemented, the drilling process is contin-
ued until the well reaches the TD (total depth) of the well. At this point, the
well is said to be TD’ed.
(xi) Log the Well with Open-Hole Logs: At this point, the subsurface formation
is exposed to the well and open-hole logging tools can be run in the well.
Open-hole logs are used to measure certain properties of the subsurface
formation that are of interest to the geologists and engineers working on the
well and the reservoir.
(xii) Run and Cement the Production Casing String or Liner: If a production
casing string or production liner is to be used for the completion of the well,
then they are run and cemented at this time.
(xiii) Compete the Well: After production casing, production BOP is installed and
well is put under production testing for hydrocarbon.
(xiv) Rig Down and Move Out: After completion of the well, the rig down is
carried out and moved to the next location for drilling.
Oil Spillage from Drilling Operations

During all these drilling operations, utmost care is taken to avoid any oil/grease
leakage. However, due to the equipment failure during operation, some leakage of
lubricating oil and grease may occur and accumulated in the waste pit as floating
layer. Again during the stuck pipe complication, oil spotting has to be carried out to
release the pipe. The spotted oil has to be circulated out and spotting fluid mixed oil
required to be treated for reclamation. During the well activity and killing operation,
accumulated oil may be surfaced out and can flow to the waste pit. During blowout
in the well, lots of oil may flow out and contaminate site and nearby areas.
Fig. 1 Drilling process

Bioremediation is a suitable process to remove the oil contamination in soil and

water (Figs. 1, 2, and 3).
Production Process
Production installations may also contribute in oil spillage. Production is the process
of extracting the hydrocarbons and separating the mixture of liquid hydrocarbons,
gas, water, and solids, removing the constituents that are non-saleable, and selling
the liquid hydrocarbons and gas. Production sites often handle crude oil from more
than one well. Oil is nearly always processed at a refinery; natural gas may be
processed to remove impurities either in the field or at a natural gas processing plant.
A brief of production installations and step-by-step activity is as follows:
Crown block
Stationary
pulley
Travelling block
Derrick
Hook
Geared top-
drive drilling
pipeline
motor
Steel
Swivel
Draw-works (hoist) cable
Drilling mud
DC electrical drive Steel

Coupling Brake cable
Transmission Draw-
DC motor works Hoist cable
drum dead-end
anchor
Hood-
load
sensor
Casings Drilling
Drill-pipes cuttings
separator
Heavy-weight
drill-pipes
Borehole
Drilling mud
(HWDP)
pumping facility
Collars
Drilling tool
Drilling
Drilling mud pipeline
mud pit
Fig. 2 Rig description

Battery energy
storage system
Crown block
Diesel fuel
storage tank Derrick
Pulley
Diesel system
motor Top drive
Synchronous VSD unit
generator SG1
Diesel
motor 600V/50Hz 3ph Top-drive
Synchronous AC voltage drilling motor
generator SG2 system Steel
cable Swivel
Diesel
motor Synchronous Draw-works
generator SG3 drive VSD unit Draw-works (hoist) DC
electrical drive
DC motor Hoist cable
Winch dead-end
Diesel anchor
motor Synchronous
generator SG4
Rig floor
Drilling
Diesel generator powerplant Blowout mud
preventer recovery
Drilling fluid (BoP)
Mud pump (mud) pipeline
drive VSD
unit Drill-pipes
Drilling fluid
(mud) flow
Casings Drilling fluid
processing
Borehole
(separator)
Mud Mud
pump pump
1 2 Drilling fluid
(mud) pit
Motor A Motor B Motor B Motor A
Tool (drill bit)
Mud pump (MP) 1 dual Mud pump (MP) 2 dual
electrical drive electrical drive
Fig. 3 Drilling installation work flow chart
(i) Site Abandonment
Site abandonment involves plugging the well(s) and restoring the site when a
recently drilled well lacks the potential to produce economic quantities of oil or gas
or when a production well is no longer economically viable. In such abandoned well,
any quantity of crude oil that is surfaced during testing operations from the formation
may contribute to contamination of the abandoned site.
(ii) Oil Production Process
Onshore oil terminals generally have fired heaters followed by separators and
coalesces to stabilize the crude and remove any produced water and light hydrocar-
bons. Onshore separators tend to operate at a lower pressure than the offshore
separators, and so more gas is evolved. The associated gas is generally compressed,
dew-pointed and exported via a dedicated pipeline. If gas export is uneconomical,
then it may be flared. Onshore terminals frequently have large crude oil storage tanks
to allow offshore production to continue if the export route becomes unavailable.
Export to the oil refinery is done by either pipeline or tanker.
Onshore gas terminals may have facilities for removal of liquids from the
incoming gas stream. Gas treatment processes may include glycol dehydration, gas
sweetening, hydrocarbon dew-point control, and gas compression before gas distri-
bution to users.
During the transporting of oil through pipelines, vehicles, trains, and ships, oil
spillage occurs by accidental cases (Figs. 4 and 5).
Fig. 4 Production flow chart
Crude oil Wholesale and

gathering lines Manufacturers retail sales
Product
Crude oil from Chemicals and deliveries
wells on land feedstocks
Jack
pump
Pump
station Refined products
transmission lines Pump
Crude oil station
storage and
treatment
tanks Refinery and
chemical Buld storage facility
plant (tank farm);
distribution terminal
Crude oil
transmission Home Heating Oil
lines Bulk
Crude oil from product
offshore drilling storage
platforms facility
(tank farm)
Storage facility (tank farm) Local gasoline

Crude oil for direct-served user such
offloaded from delivery
as airports
overseas tankers
Fig. 5 Description of production process

Principle of Bioremediation
Crude oil is a composite mixture of thousands of different chemical compounds. As

the composition of each type of oil is unique, there are different ways to deal with
them through microbes and flora. Bioremediation can occur naturally or can be
encouraged with addition of microbes and fertilizers. The microbes present in the
soil first recognize the oil and its constituents by biosurfactants and bioemulsifiers,
and then they attach themselves and use the hydrocarbons present in the petroleum
as a source of energy and carbon. The low solubility and adsorption of high-
molecular-weight hydrocarbons limit their availability to microorganisms. The addi-
tion of biosurfactants enhances the solubility and removal of these contaminants,
improving oil biodegradation rates.
The constitutes of oil differ distinctly in volatility and susceptibility to biodegra-
dation. Some compounds are easily degraded, some resist degradation, and some are
nonbiodegradable. The biodegradation of different petroleum compounds occurs
simultaneously but at different rates because different species of microbes preferen-
tially attack different compounds. This leads to the successive disappearance of
individual components of petroleum over a time period.
Microorganisms produce enzyme in the presence of carbon sources which are
responsible for attacking the hydrocarbon molecules. Many different enzymes and
metabolic pathways are involved to degrade a hydrocarbons contained in petroleum.
But lack of an appropriate enzyme will either prevent attack or will act as a barrier to
complete hydrocarbon degradation.
Bioremediation Strategies
(A) Biostimulation: Some microorganisms are present in the contaminated site, but
for effective remediation, growth of microorganisms should be stimulated.
Biostimulation is a process of adding nutrients, electron acceptor, and oxygen
to stimulate existing bacteria involved in bioremediation. This is the process of
optimizing the environment condition of the remediation site.
Additives are usually added to the subsurface through injection wells. Subsur-
face characteristics such as groundwater velocity, hydraulic conductivity of the
subsurface, and lithology of the subsurface are important in developing a
biostimulated system. The indigenous microorganisms present in the soil are
responsible for degradation of the pollutant, but biostimulation can be improved
by bioaugmentation.
(B) Bioaugmentation: Bioaugmentation is the addition of a group of indigenous
microbial strains or genetically engineered microbes to treat the contaminated
soil. It is effective where native microorganisms are not identified in the soil or
do not have the metabolic capability to perform the remediation process.
(C) Anaerobic Degradation: Most of the bioremediation method aims in enhanc-
ing oxygen supply to contaminated sites assuming that the principle mechanism
of hydrocarbon removal is aerobic respiration. But addition of urea- and ammo-
nia-based fertilizers sometimes used for oil spill bioremediation can potentially
exert an oxygen demand due to biological ammonia oxidation. On some sites,

mass transfer of oxygen may not be sufficient to replenish oxygen consumed by
microbial metabolism. Under such conditions anaerobic hydrocarbon degrada-
tion may be of relevance.
The Biological and Chemical Processes of Bioremediation
It is important to define bioremediation in the context of biodegradation, a naturally

occurring process. Biodegradation is a large component of oil weathering and is a
natural process whereby bacteria or other microorganisms alter and break down
organic molecules into other substances, eventually producing fatty acids and carbon
dioxide. Bioremediation is the acceleration of this process through the addition of
exogenous microbial populations, through the stimulation of indigenous
populations, or through manipulation of the contaminated media using techniques
such as aeration or temperature control.
Biological Process
Many microorganisms possess the enzymatic capability to degrade petroleum hydro-
carbons. Some microorganisms degrade alkanes, others aromatics, and others both
paraffinic and aromatic hydrocarbons. Often the normal alkanes in the range of C10
to C26 are viewed as the most readily degraded, but low-molecular-weight aromatics,
such as benzene, toluene, and xylene, which are among the toxic compounds found
in petroleum, are also very readily biodegraded by many marine microorganisms.
More complex structures are more resistant to biodegradation, meaning that fewer
microorganisms can degrade those structures and the rates of biodegradation are
lower than biodegradation rates of the simpler hydrocarbon structures found in
petroleum. The greater the complexity of the hydrocarbon structure, i.e., the higher
the number of methyl-branched substituents or condensed aromatic rings, the slower
the rate of degradation (Fig. 6).
s
ism O
an
2O
+H
2
g
or
+H
CO
o 2
icr Oil
M O
2
CO
Oil H2
+
CO
2
Microorganisms eat Microorganisms digest oil and Microoganisms

oil or other organic convert it to carbon dioxide (CO2) give off CO2 and
contaminant and water (H2O) H2O
Fig. 6 Principle of bioremediation

Chemical Process
The major metabolic pathways for hydrocarbon biodegradation are well-known.
The initial steps in the biodegradation of hydrocarbons by bacteria and fungi
involve the oxidation of the substrate by oxygenase, for which molecular oxygen
is required. Alkanes are subsequently converted to carboxylic acids that are
further biodegraded via ß-oxidation (the central metabolic pathway for the
utilization of fatty acids from lipids, which results in formation of acetate and
enters the tricarboxylic acid cycle). Aromatic hydrocarbon rings generally are
hydroxylated to form diols; the rings are then cleaved with the formation of
catechol which are subsequently degraded to intermediates of the tricarboxylic
acid cycle. Interestingly, fungi and bacteria form intermediates with differing
stereo chemistries. Fungi, like mammalian enzyme systems, form trans-diols,
whereas bacteria almost always form cis-diols (many trans-diols are potent
carcinogens whereas cis-diols are not biologically active). Since bacteria are
the dominant hydrocarbon degraders in the marine environment, the biodegra-
dation of aromatic hydrocarbons results in detoxification and does not produce
potential carcinogens. The complete biodegradation (mineralization) of hydro-
carbons produces the nontoxic end products carbon dioxide and water, as well as
cell biomass (largely protein) which can be safely assimilated into the food web
(Atlas 1995) (Fig. 7).
Fig. 7 Principal pathway of Hydrocarbon

bioremediation
O2
Initial attack by oxygenases
Degradation by peripheral
pathways
C2
C4
+ Intermediates C6
NH4 of
3– TCA cycle
PO4
2– C5 CO2
SO4 O2
3+ Respiration
Fe
Biosynthesis H2O
Cell biomass
Growth
Environmental Requirements
Optimum environmental conditions for the degradation of contaminants are reported

as (Table 1).
Microbial growth and activity are readily effected by pH, temperature, and
moisture. Although microorganisms have been also isolated in extreme conditions,
most of them grow optimally over a narrow range of parameters, so it is important to
achieve optimal conditions.
If the soil is acidic in nature, it is possible to raise the pH by adding lime.
Temperature affects biochemical reaction rates, and the rate of many of them doubles
for each 10 rise in temperature. Above a certain temperature, however, the cells die.
Plastic covering can be used to enhance solar warming in late spring, summer, and
autumn. Available water is essential for all the living organisms, and irrigation is needed
to achieve the optimal moisture level. The amount of available oxygen will determine
whether the system is aerobic or anaerobic. Hydrocarbon are readily degraded under
aerobic conditions, whereas chlorinate compounds are degraded only in anaerobic
condition. To increase the oxygen amount in the soil, it is possible to till or spurge
air. In some cases, hydrogen peroxide or magnesium peroxide can be introduced in the
environment. Soil structure controls the effective delivery of air, water, and nutrients.
To improve soil structure, material such as gypsum or organic matter can be applied.
Low soil permeability can impede movement of water, nutrients, and oxygen; hence
soils with low permeability may not be appropriate for in situ bioremediation.
Factors Affecting Rates of Microbial Degradation of Hydrocarbons
The principle abiotic factors that influence the rates and extent of microbial trans-
formations are temperature, pH, moisture level (for soil), chemical composition,
concentration, and physical state of the contaminant hydrocarbon.
Table 1 Optimum environmental conditions

Condition required for microbial Optimum value for an oil
Parameters activity degradation
Soil moisture 25–28% of water holding capacity 30–90%
Soil pH 5.5–8.8 6.5–8.0
Oxygen Aerobic minimum air-filled pore space 10–40%
content of 10%
Nutrient N and P for microbial growth C:N:P ¼ 100:10:1
content
Temperature 15–45 20–30
Contaminants Not too toxic Hydrocarbon 5–10% of dry weight
of soil
Heavy metals Total content 2000 ppm 700 ppm
Type of soil Low clay or silt content
Source: Vidali (2001)
(a) Temperature
The temperature can act both on the metabolic activity of the microbial
populations and on the physical and chemical nature of petroleum. The low temper-
atures are typically associated with little or no biodegradation of many organic
substrates (Alexander 1999). Petroleum biodegradation usually declines due to the
suppression of the microbial growth rates and metabolic activities under low tem-
peratures and toxic components in crude oil. At low temperatures, the viscosity of oil
increases, reducing the degree of oil spreading in soil and water. Low temperatures
also retard the volatilization of short chain alkanes and hence increasing their
solubility and amount in water and soil, respectively. Consequently, their microbial
toxicity is increased (Leahy and Colwell 1990). Many long-chain alkanes solidify
below 10 C; many form crystals at 0 C (Margesin and Schinner 2001), thereby
reducing the bioavailability to the microbial forms.
With the increase in enzymatic activity of mesophilic and thermophilic microor-
ganisms associated with increasing temperatures, it is expected that biodegradation
rates to be enhanced to a certain extent, typically in the range of 30 C to 40 C.
Above 40 C, the membrane toxicity of hydrocarbons is increased, thus hindering
biodegradation (Bartha and Bossert 1984).
(b) pH
Biodegradation rates are highest at a pH near neutrality (Alexander 1999; Leahy and
Colwell 1990). In acidic soil environment, biodegradation of crude oil is usually dom-
inated by fungal population, which are generally more tolerant to low pH environments. It
was postulated that initial fungal attacks on the hydrocarbons might have produced
intermediates for further degradation by bacteria. At the other extreme, alkaliphilic
bacteria, which were effectively degrading phenol from wastewater optimally (pH,
7.5–10.6), have been isolated from highly alkaline lake and industrial effluent.
(c) Oxygen
Molecular oxygen is fundamental in hydrocarbon degradation. In the aquatic

ecosystems, biodegradation is limited by oxygen deficiency particularly when an oil
spill is limited to a thin slick on the water surface. However, in aquatic sediments, water
movement is severely restricted by the small pore sizes. The heterotrophic activity may
occur but the thin surface layer remains anaerobic. Any oil sinking below 1–2 cm layer
of topsoil is expected to persist for long time. Sinking oil is usually tar balls that are
generally recalcitrant to biodegradation. In soil, availability of oxygen is determined by
the rates of microbial respiration, the type of oil, and the presence of available substrates
that can lead to oxygen depletion (Bartha and Bossert 1984).
(d) Nutrients
In any environment, the ratio of C/N/P must be maintained at about 120:10:1

to sustain any microbial activity. Typically, the supply of nutrients other than C
exceeds the requirements of the resident microbial population. However, the
situation changes considerably if a compound that is potentially utilizable is intro-

duced into the environment in significant amount. During oils spills, the sudden or
continuous loading of high amounts of C upsets this ratio by producing high C/N or
C/P ratios or both, thus detrimental to microbial growth. Furthermore, waters in the
oceans, lakes, rivers, soils, and aquifers containing oil or petroleum typically have
too low concentrations of these inorganic nutrients at the interface between the
water-insoluble pollutants and the aqueous phase to support the microbial activity
that could accelerate degradation (Alexander 1999).
Chemical Composition of Petroleum
Due to variable chemical structures and molecular weights, petroleum hydrocarbons

differ in their susceptibility to microbial attack as follows: n-alkanes > branched
alkanes> low-molecular-weight aromatics > cyclic alkanes (Leahy and Colwell
1990). Biodegradation rates are highest for saturates, followed by light aromatics
with high-molecular-weight aromatics and polar compounds being highly recalci-
trant to biodegradation (Leahy and Colwell 1990). Fedorak and Westlake (1981)
reported a more rapid degradation of aromatic hydrocarbons compared to n-alkanes.
.
Concentration of the Petroleum Hydrocarbons
While the rates of microbial uptake and biodegradation of water-soluble compounds

are usually proportional to the concentration of the compound, the same cannot be
said for compounds with low aqueous solubility and those which can exert mem-
brane toxicity at high concentrations. The biodegradation rates of high-molecular-
weight PAHs such as naphthalene and phenanthrene are related to their aqueous
solubility rather than their concentrations in a given solution. On the other hand, high
concentrations of highly soluble or volatile organic compounds may be detrimental
to microbial forms due to their toxicity. Dibble and Bartha (1979) found that
biodegradation activities in oil sludge occurred between oil concentrations of
1.25% and 5%, and it was found best at 5%. Oil loadings (>5%) lead to a decline
in microbial numbers due to increase in toxicity. Del’ Arco and Franca (2001)
supported this using sandy sediment deliberately contaminated with petroleum.
Tarabily (2006) reported complete cessation of activity when the concentration of
water-soluble fractions exceeded 50%. In addition to toxicity, high concentrations of
petroleum may also inhibit microbial growth by upsetting the C/N/P ratios. Oxygen
limitation may also hinder microbial growth when a thick layer of oil forms on the
surface of water body, preventing oxygen transfer into the aqueous phase.
Adaptation
Prior exposure to hydrocarbon contamination confers adaptation to microbial pop-

ulation, and it may often lead to enhanced mineralization. Grosser et al. (1991)
recorded 55% pyrene mineralization in soil when the inoculum was grown on pyrene
compared to 1% mineralization by indigenous population. Al-hadhrami et al. (1997)
also reported higher metabolic activity when the inoculum was grown with crude oil
as a substrate compared to nutrient broth.
Phytoremediation
This may be defined as the treatment of environmental problems by using plants in

situ so to avoid the need to dispose the contaminant material elsewhere.
Phytoremediation may be applied to the amelioration of contaminated soils, water,
or air, using plants that can contain, degrade, or eliminate metals, pesticides,
solvents, explosives, crude oil and its derivatives (refined fuels), and related con-
taminating materials.
It should not be imagined that every type of contaminant can be disposed of
by means of microorganisms. Heavy metal contaminants, e.g., Cd2+ and Pb2+,
tend to resist interception by microorganisms. In such cases, phytoremediation is
useful because the toxins are bioaccumulated into the body of plants, above-
ground, which can then be harvested and removed. By measuring the oxidation
reduction potential (redox) in soil and groundwater, along with pH, temperature,
O2 retention, concentrations of electron acceptors and donors+, and of decom-
position products, such as CO2, a measure of the bioremediation process can be
obtained.
Bioremediation by INBIGS
Institute of Biotechnology and Geotectonic Studies (INBIGS), ONGC Jorhat, is

implementing bioremediation in different oil fields of Upper Assam and Jorhat Basin
utilizing bacterial consortium isolated in its laboratory.
INBIGS in collaboration with Molecular Biology and Biotechnology Depart-
ment (MBBT) of Tezpur University, Assam, has also isolated a bacterial consor-
tium capable of degrading petroleum crude oil from contaminated soil. The
bacterial consortium was obtained from the oil-contaminated soil of well sites,
Assam and Assam Arakan Basin, and mixed with appropriate carrier. It was
observed that the product when applied in both oil-contaminated aquatic and
terrestrial sites could restore the site to its original condition within a few months.
This is a good example of microbiological approach of bioremediation where
contaminant-specific organisms were augmented on the site. The mixed microbial
consortium was maintained, multiplied, and then applied by INBIGS at various
oil-contaminated effluent pits of Assam and Assam Arakan Basin with nutrients –
urea, rock phosphate, and NPK.
Oil content was monitored periodically and observed gradual decrease by bacte-
rial action. Restoration of sites was successfully completed by bioremediation using
the said bacterial consortium.
(a) Isolation and identification of oil-degrading microbial strains
INBIGS isolated different hydrocarbon-degrading microbial strains from crude oil-

contaminated soil samples of ONGC oil fields and preserved and maintained it by
regular activation and reactivation in INBIGS MEOR Laboratory. These strains were
mixed with C-II consortium developed through collaborative R&D project including
surfactant-producing bacteria. Augmented consortia was applied at various biore-
mediation jobs in different oil fields of ONGC A&AA Basin, Jorhat Asset, and
Assam Asset. A brief account of isolation and morphological and molecular char-
acterization of augmented strains of CII is given below.
(b) Isolation
For isolation of hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria, enrichment culture technique

was used. 1.0 gm of crude oil-contaminated soil samples was collected from oil-
contaminated sites of ONGC oil fields of upper Assam and inoculated in Bushnell-
Hass medium. The final pH of the culture broth was adjusted to 7.0+ 0.2.
Autoclaved crude oil (2%) was added to the culture as a sole source of carbon and
energy. The culture was kept in a shaker incubator with 180 rpm at 370 c. After
10 days of incubation, 1 ml from the culture broth was transferred to an another
Erlenmeyer flask containing 100 ml of Bushnell-Hass medium supplemented with
2% crude oil and incubated at the same condition. This process was repeated for four
to five times.
The pure single individual bacterial strains from the above culture were finally
obtained by serial dilution technique followed by spread plate method. Bacterial
strains were grown in L-B agar medium at 370c and incubated overnight. In the
following day, morphological characters were observed under a colony counter and
recorded as follows (Table 2).
(c) Preparation of seed culture
Mineral salt medium (MSM media) was used for preparation of seed culture from
developed consortium. In a 3000 ml conical flask, medium was taken and sterilized
in autoclave at 121 C temp. and 15 psi pressure for 15 min. This medium was
inoculated with mixed consortium under aseptic condition in laminar air flow
equipment. Many such sets were prepared so as to get sufficient seed culture required
for the preparation of large quantity of bulk culture. N-hexadecane (1%) was added
to each flask as a sole carbon source. For jubilant growth of microbes, all the flasks
were placed in a shaker incubator at 180 rpm and 37 C temperature for constant
mixing and aeration. Presence and growth of the microbes in the flask were con-
firmed visually and also under microscope. Developed microbial consortium from
these flasks were then transferred into fresh medium for further growth, and there-
after the process was repeated periodically to develop and maintain an active mixed
1062
Table 2 Morphological characters of bacterial isolates

Bacterial Molecular taxonomic designation/code Gram straining and microscopic
Isolates name Form Elevation Margin Color study
INB-1 Bacillus sp. Circular Raised Curled Dirty white Gram+ve, bacillus
INB-2 Brevundimonas diminuta Irregular Convex Entire Opaque Gram–ve, bacillus
Shiny white
INB-3 Dysgonomonas sp. Circular Raised Entire Bright Gram–ve, cocci
yellow
INB-4 Xanthomonadaceae sp. Circular Flat Entire Opaque Gram–ve, bacillus
Light yellow
INB-5 Stenotrophomonas maltophilia Circular Convex Entire Cream Gram–ve, bacillus
Y. S. Yadav et al.
microbial consortium. Developed consortia in the flasks were used as inoculum for
preparation of bulk culture.
Mineral salt medium was prepared using urea, magnesium sulfate, ammonium
sulfate, calcium chloride, disodium hydrogen phosphate, ferrous sulfate, copper
sulfate, boric acid, manganese sulfate, zinc sulfate, molybdenum trioxide, and n-
hexadecane.
(d) Mass culturing of oil-degrading consortia
Mass culturing of isolated oil-degrading microbes was carried out in a nutrient

medium having same composition of MSM media. Constant agitation was carried
out by a mechanical stirrer and pH of the medium was maintained in the range
7.0–7.5 by adding sodium hydroxide pellets throughout the culturing phase. The
MSM media was sterilized in autoclave at 121 C temp. and 15 psi pressure for
15 min. After sterilization, the media was cooled to room temperature and inoculated
with the fresh seed culture prepared as above. Air was supplied to the bulk culture by
an air compressor through a line filter of 0.2μm. The crude oil from the respective
site was added as the sole carbon source to acclimatize the microbes to the crude
type. Growth of the microbes was ascertained by determining the optical density at
600 nm and also by microscopic examination.
Field Application of Bioremediation in Effluent Pits
The consortium was applied on oily waste by manual spreading at regular intervals
of 1 month. Specially designed nutrient formulation, containing nitrogen (N),
phosphorous (P), and potassium (K) compounds, was dissolved in water and spread
uniformly to the bioremediation site with the help of water sprinkler. This was done
to enhance the population of the microbial consortium and also to mitigate the initial
toxic shock due to the oil contamination while application on the oily waste in the
field. Mixing of oily waste and microbes was done by tilling of bioremediation sites.
A farm by-product “NEOSORB” was used to remove the free oil from the surface
of the effluent pits before bioremediation job where it was necessary. The product is
of vegetative origin and is completely biodegradable. Before its application in field,
it was tested at INBIGS for its oil adsorption capacity. Each bag containing 10 kg of
“NEOSORB” was sprinkled in each pit to adsorb free oil where floating free oil
found more than 1%. After adsorption of free oil, the flakes of NEOSORB were
again collected manually with the help of net for mixing with soil for further soil
bioremediation.
The bulk culture prepared in tanks at INBIGS was transported to various oil fields
of ONGC, A&AA Basin, Jorhat. Field application of the microbial culture was
carried out in the different effluent pits. Microbial culture was applied to the area
with the help of sprayer followed by sprinkling of nutrients minerals (urea, NPK, and
rock phosphate). Effluent samples were collected periodically from the pits and
analyzed in the laboratory by UV-VIS spectrophotometer and pH meter for
determination of oil content in ppm and pH, respectively. The change in size of oil
lumps and appearance of floating oil layer (before and after bioremediation) was
observed visually. The bioremediation process at different sites was monitored and
was carried out periodically till the oil content came down to safe environmental
limit, i.e., less than 10 ppm.
(a) Tilling and watering: Tilling of the bioremediation sites was done at a regular
interval of once in a week to maintain aeration for the microbial consortium at the
bioremediation sites. This was done with the help of a tractor or soil excavator like
Hitachi/JCB. Watering of the bioremediation sites was done as per the require-
ment to maintain the moisture content of the soil for quicker biodegradation.
(b) Sampling: Oily waste samples were collected from the bioremediation sites at zero
day, i.e., before application of microbes on the bioremediation site and at every
30 days interval after application of the microbial consortium. The bioremediation
site was divided in four equal blocks, which were further divided in four sub-
blocks. Equal quantity of samples was collected randomly from each sub-block,
i.e., total 16 samples were collected from 1 site. Samples were collected using a
hollow stainless steel pipe of 3 inch diameter and 50 cm. in length and by inserting
the same vertically on the bioremediation site from the surface till the bottom in one
particular point. This was done to collect uniform samples from each depth of the
bioremediation site. The samples were collected in sterile plastic containers. The 16
samples were mixed uniformly to get a homogenized composite mixture, which
was considered as the representative sample from the site. Mixing was done in a
large container by hand using hand gloves.
(c) Monitoring of bioremediation process: Samples of oily waste from the biore-
mediation site were collected at zero day and after regular interval till the
completion of the job. The samples were analyzed for the selected parameters.
Determination of Oil Content
(a) In effluent samples, 10 ml of effluent sample is thoroughly mixed with 10 ml of

dichloromethane (CH2Cl2) in a separating funnel. Rigorously shake the mixer
for 5 min. Leave the sample for 15 min for separation. After gravity separation
CH2Cl2 layer was transferred to a cuvette and then oil in ppm was determined
using spectrophotometer.
(b) In soil samples, 2 gm. of soil sample was taken in a thimble, and oil content
was extracted using Soxhlet apparatus at 60 C for 7 h in petroleum ether
(40–60 C). The extracted oil content was determined by weight after evapora-
tion of the solvent.
Case Studies of Bioremediation by INBIGS
INBIGS started bioremediation job in the effluent pit of BRDC, DVP, in the year of
1999–2000.The oil content of effluent was initially 126 ppm. After application of
microbes, it was reduced to 5 ppm in 38 days. The field trial of bioremediation in

effluent pit itself was conducted for the first time by INBIGS and found successful.
This innovative and very cheap technology was developed in-house by INBIGS.
Field Implementation of Bioremediation

(a) A mixed microbial consortium was developed, mass cultured in INBIGS Lab,
and then applied in the effluent pit of BR#49,KH#14, and KH#19 for bioreme-
diation of oil in the year 2001–2002.Toxicity of untreated and treated effluent
was also studied. After application of microbes, oil content in the effluent pits of
BR#49, KH#14, and KH#19 was reduced to 8, 8, and 5 ppm, respectively, from
the initial oil concentration of 120, 80, and 115 ppm, respectively.
(b) In the year 2002–2003, a mixed microbial consortium developed in-house and
was mass cultured in laboratory and then applied in the effluent pits of
Khoraghat GGS for bioremediation of oil. The initial oil content of the effluent
in Khoraghat GGS-I was 4216 ppm. After application of microbial culture, it
was reduced to 93.86 ppm in 120 days, recommended repeat bioremediation job
to reduce further oil content of the effluent below the specified limit of Assam
Pollution Control Board. Similar encouraging results of bioremediation were
obtained in case of Khoraghat GGS-II also.
(c) Bioremediation job was successfully done in the oil-contaminated soil sites of
Borholla GGS, Nambar GGS, Khoraghat GGS-I, and Borholla well site resulted
in significant biodegradation of total petroleum hydrocarbons. Although biore-
mediation is a slow process and is not comparable to the speed of mechanical or
chemical means, it is more effective in the long run to remove even the traces of
hydrocarbons. After application of microbial bulk culture along with nutrients at
Borholla GCP Part-I and Part-II, Borholla GGS, Khoraghat GGS-I, Nambar
GGS Part-I and Part-II, and Borholla GCP near well site, the oil concentration of
contaminated soils were found reduced.
(d) Bioremediation jobs were implemented in effluents of RDS GGS-I and KPAA.
The oil concentration of RDS GGS-I, flare pit no. 1 and 2, reduced from 670
ppm and 730 ppm to 45 and 80 ppm. The oil concentration KPAA waste pit
no. 1 and 2 reduced from 590 and 630 ppm to15 and 30 ppm in year of
2007–2008.
(e) A mixed microbial consortium capable of degrading hydrocarbon pollutants and
biosurfactants production was developed in Tezpur University, mass cultured in
INBIGS laboratory, and then applied along with nutrients at various oil-spilled
soil sites of Borholla, Khoraghat, and Kalyanpur fields and in the effluent pits of
BJAA, MRAG, and BRDM in Assam and Assam Arakan Basin. Oil degradation
of 70–90% was observed in the oil-contaminated soil, and more than 90%
degradation was observed in the effluent pits.
(f) In the year 2011–2012,a mixed microbial consortium capable of degrading
hydrocarbon pollutant and biosurfactant production was applied along with
nutrients at various oil-spilled soil sites Nambar GGS, effluent pit MRAI,
Borholla cluster 1, BRAH, HZAB effluent pits, HZAC effluent pit, production
installation ELAA, and effluent pits of NOAA in Assam and Assam Arakan
Basin. Oil degradation ranging from 77% to 87% was achieved in the oil-
contaminated soil, and oil degradation ranging from 75% to 98% was achieved in
the effluent pits.
(g) To bioremediate the petroleum pollutants which have been generated during
drilling activities in the oil fields of Assam and Assam Arakan Basin and Assam
Asset, a mixed microbial consortium capable of degrading oil was developed,
mass cultured in INBIGS, and then applied along with nutrients at 13 effluent
pits, viz., CLAA, KHAX, KHAY, and NRAG of Assam and Assam Arakan
Basin, Jorhat, and GKGP of Upper Assam Asset, Sivasagar. Oil contamination
in these effluent pits were observed up to 475 ppm after removal of free oil
floating on the effluent pits by oil absorbent. In the bioremediation study, oil
degradation was achieved as high as 98% in 2–4 months. Total about 14,213 m3
of effluent was bioremediated in 2014–2015 and oil content brought down to
APCB acceptable norms, i.e., <10 ppm.
(h) The bacterial consortium, which was developed through collaborative R&D
project with Tezpur University (C-2 Consortium), initiated innovative idea for
bioaugmentation and biostimulation. CII is mass cultured in INBIGS and then
applied along with nutrients at various effluent pits of LPEF and GKIG of Assam
Asset. The oil content of effluent of LPEF Pit-1 was degraded from 345 to
8 ppm, i.e., 97.6% degradation in 4 months and 2 days; that of in LPEF Pit-2 is
reduced from 264 to 6 ppm, i.e., 97.7% degraded in 3 months and 3 days; and in
LPEF Pit-3 from 216 to 9 ppm, i.e., 95.8% degradation in 1 month and 26 days.
In GKIG Pit-1 oil content is reduced from 345 to 9 ppm, i.e., 97.3% degradation
in 3 months and 11 days; GKIG Pit-2 from 390 to 10 ppm, i.e., 97.4%
bioremediation in 6 months and 10 days; and GKIG Pit-3 from 425 to 4 ppm,
i.e., 99% bioremediation in 6 months and 10 days.
(i) Effluent of SUAB Pit-1 was degraded from 2100 ppm to 4 ppm, i.e., 99.8%
degradation in 3 months and 3 days; that of SUAB Pit-2 from 1950 ppm to
8 ppm, i.e., 99.5% degraded in 3 months 3 and days; and in SUAB Pit-3 from
1250 ppm to 8 ppm, i.e., 99.3% degradation in 2 months and 15 days. Similarly
in SUAB Pit-4, oil content is reduced from 868 ppm to 4 ppm, i.e., 99.5%
degradation in 2 months and 15 days. Effluent of SUAA Pit-1 was degraded from
880 ppm to 4 ppm, i.e., 99.5% degradation in 4 months and 8 days. A total
approx. 28025.74 M3 of effluent was bioremediated in 2016–2017.
(j) In year 2017–2018 mass-cultured microbes were done in INBIGS and then
applied along with nutrients at various effluent pits like BRAJ, KHBB, SUAA,
and BJAA and in one soil plot of SUAA of A&AA Basin. The oil content of
effluent of BRAJ Pit-1 was degraded from 1520 ppm to 5.8 ppm, i.e., 99.61%
degradation in 2 months and 18 days; of BRAJ Pit-2 from 2050 ppm to 5 ppm,
i.e., 99.76% degraded in 4 months and 24 days; of BRAJ Pit-3 from 2150 ppm to
6 ppm, i.e., 99.72% degradation in 5 months and 24 days; of BRAJ Pit-4 from
120 ppm to 10 ppm, i.e., 91.67% degradation in 1 month and 12 days; of KHBB
Pit-1 from 2250 ppm to 9 ppm, i.e., 99.6% degradation in 5 months and 4 days; of
KHBB Pit-2 from 2160 ppm to 8 ppm, i.e., 99.62% bioremediation in 5 months
and 4 days; and of KHBB Pit-3 from 1915 ppm to 7 ppm, i.e., 99.63% biore-
mediation in 5 months and 4 days. Effluent of SUAA Pit-2 was degraded from
1650 ppm to 7 ppm, i.e., 99.56% degradation in 3 months and 4 days; of SUAA
Pit-3 from 1450 to 6 ppm, i.e., 99.59% degraded in 3 months and 4 days;
bioremediations in the soil pit are continuing with further treatment.
Bioremediation job and oil degradation were being monitored till the oil content
is down to the acceptable limit. A total of 27 pits of approx. 23344.6 M3 of
effluent and 25MT of soil were bioremediated in 2017–2018.
Growth of flora and fauna was observed in all the bioremediated effluent pits.
Some types of algae and small fishes were also observed in the cleaned pits.
Field implementation resulted in bringing down the oil content below 10 ppm in
2–6 months in all effluent pits. Bioremediation immensely helped in removal of
oil from effluent; thus this process was found to be an effective tool in environ-
ment protection (Fig. 8).
Figures 9a and b above are drawn from field implementation data of effluent pits of
well LPEF and GKIG. Figure 9c is from lab experiment data with C-2 bacteria same
as used in the above pits and one control without adding any bacteria.
Rate of biodegradation LPEF pit-3 Rate of biodegradation LPEF pit-1

250 400
216 345
oil content(ppm)→
350
200
oil content(ppm)→
300
150 250
200 Oil content (ppm)
100 Oil content
52 (ppm) 150 120
95
50 100
9 50 24.6 8
0
0
0 24 56
Nos of days→ 0 24 56 93 122
Nos of days→
Rate of biodegradation LPEF pit-2

300 264
oil content(ppm)→
250
200
150 Oil content
(ppm)
100 68
50
15 6
0
0 24 56 93
Nos of days→
Fig. 8 Graphical representation of oil degradation

Fig. 9 Showing the rate of biodegradation with no. of days for above effluent pits along with a
laboratory experiment carried out at INBIGS
The following is observed:
• Rate of biodegradation was sharp high after the addition of microbes, up to

24 days in LPEF, 101 days in GKIG, and 50 days in lab experiment.
• After that the rate of degradation becomes moderate in both the effluent pits and
throughout the control sample.
• After 93 days in LPEF and 132 days in GKIG resembled as natural degradation as
like in control sample.
• This may be due to the microbes consume some fraction of oil very easily, but
some portion of oil was difficult for bacteria to degrade. Degradation rate of
normal C10-C16 compound was faster. Branched aromatic hydrocarbons showed
slower rate of biodegradation. In presence of oxygenase, alkanes and aromatic
compounds were converted to carboxylic acids via β-oxidation. Branched hydro-
carbon conversion to carboxylic acids was slower because of complex structure.
The oil content came down to acceptable limit 10 ppm in 122 days in LPEF and
190 days in GKIG.
• Therefore, more experiments are required to be carried out, and there is a scope to
isolate another suitable bacterial consortium for speedy degradation of the said
fraction of the oil.
• pH was observed in appropriate range for growth of bacteria throughout the field
implementation process.
• Variation in number of days taken for bioremediation was dependent on the initial
oil content present in the effluent at respective sites.
• Other factors were considered as similar for all the pits.
The range of bulk parameters is presented in the following table. Neutral to

slightly alkaline pH range is conducive to bacterial growth. Oil content after
bioremediation is reduced to less than 10 ppm, i.e., below the prescribed limit of
pollution control norm (Tables 3 and 4) (Figs. 10 and 11).
Photographs of some Bioremediated Pits
See Figs. 12, 13, 14, and 15.
Conclusion
During the various operations of drilling, production, transportation, etc., oil leakage
may occur which leads to environmental pollution. Various preventive measures are
taken by oil and gas industries to minimize the environmental pollution. Bioreme-
diation is an environment friendly method for treatment of oil contamination.
Moreover it is a cost-effective technology and hence economical.
Table 3 Oil degradation rate at various bioremediated sites (2000–2020)

Oil content (ppm)
Before After Time Oil
Sl bioremediation bioremediation taken degradation
no Site name (ppm) (ppm) (days) (%)
1 BRDC 126 5 38 96
2 Khoraghat GGS-I 4216 93 120 97.7
3 KHAV Pit-1 113 10 150 91
Pit-2 130 9 150 93.7
4 LPEF Pit-1 345 8 122 97.6
Pit-2 264 6 93 97.7
Pit-3 216 9 56 95.8
5 GKIG Pit-1 345 9 101 97.3
Pit-2 390 10 190 97.4
Pit-3 425 4 190 99
6 SUAB Pit-1 2100 4 93 99.8
Pit-2 1950 8 93 99.5
Pit-3 1250 8 75 99.3
7 BRAJ, Pit-1 1520 5.8 78 99.61
Pit-2 2050 5 144 99.76
Pit-3 2150 6 174 99.72
Pit-4 120 10 42 91.67
8 KHBB, Pit-1 2250 9 154 99.6
Pit-2 2160 8 154 99.62
Pit-3 1915 7 154 99.63
9 SUAA, Pit-2 1650 7 94 99.56
Pit-3 1450 6 94 99.59
10 ELAA (Soil plot 1) 6.31 0.6 210 90.5
(Soil plot 2) 21.3 0.76 240 96.4
Table 4 Oil degradation rate at various bioremediated sites in 2019–2020

Oil content before Oil content after Time Oil
Sl bioremediation bioremediation taken degradation
no. Site (ppm) (ppm) (days) (%)
1 GKBV Pit-2 270 4.6 106 98.29
2 GKBV Pit-3 79 3.6 57 95.44
3 JPAA Pit-1 49.4 4.7 114 90.48
4 JPAA soil 17.3 0.8 114 95.37
plot
5 GKBT_SBS 104.2 4.4 252 95.77
Pit-1
6 GKBT_SBS 122.8 3.6 252 97.06
Pit-2
7 GKHA Pit-1 73.1 4.4 80 93.98
8 GKHA Pit-2 76.2 4.6 80 93.96
Chart 1:#BRDC Chart 2:#Khoraghat GGS 1

5000
140 126 4216
oil content (ppm)→

4000
120 Oil content Oil content

100 3000
80
2000
60
40 1000
93
20 5 0
0 0 120
0 Nos of days→ 38 Nos of days→
Chart 3:#KHAV pit-1 Chart 4:#KHAV pit-2

140 130
113
120

120
100
100 Oil content
80 Oil content
60 80
40 60
20 10
40
0
0 150 20 9
Nos of days→ 0
0 150
Nos of days→
Chart 5: ELAA SOIL PLOT - 1 Chart 6: ELAA SOIL PLOT - 2

7 25
6.31
21.3
6
Oil 20
Oil content(%)
oil content (%)→
oil content (%)→
5 content(%)
15
4
3 10
2
5
1 0.6 0.76
0 0
0 210 0 240
Nos of days→ Nos of days→
Chart 7: #LPEF PIT 1 Chart 8: #LPEF PIT 2

400 300
345 264
350
250
Oil
300
Oil content
200
250 content
200 150
150
100
100
50
50
8 6
0 0
0 122 0 93
Nos of days→ Nos of days→
Fig. 10 Graphical representation of oil degradation of effluent pits

Fig. 11 Graphical
representation of oil
300
Chart 9:#GKBV PIT 2
degradation of different 270
effluent pits Oil content
250

200
150 120.2
100
52
50
19
4.6
0
0 30 55 88 106
Nos of days→
20
Chart 10: #JPAA SOIL PLOT
17.3
15.5 Oil content
15
10
5.1
5
0.8
0
0 27 114 176
Nos of days→
Chart 11:
120 #GKBTS_SBS PIT 1
104
100
■ Oil
80
60
40
24
20 14.3
4.4
0
0 64 168 252
Nos of days
Fig. 12 GKHA
Fig. 13 GKBT_SBS
Fig. 14 JPAA (soil plot)

Fig. 15 GKBV
Bioremediation is popularly used worldwide for cleaning oily effluent and petro-
leum hydrocarbon-contaminated soil. The bioremediation process utilizes hydrocar-
bon utilizing microbes and nutrients to decompose contaminants transforming them
into nonhazardous by-products, i.e., water, carbon dioxide, and biomass. It was
carried out in various oil-contaminated effluent and soil pits of A&AA Basin and
Jorhat Asset with great success for last 20 years. Bioremediated soil is found to be
nontoxic and has no adverse effect on seed germination. Bioremediation technology
has helped the oil and gas industries in disposal of their oil waste/sludge in an
environment-friendly manner. However, more tests may be carried out for improving
the time period of bioremedial action to reduce the required time for reclamation.
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Bioremediation: Harnessing Natural Forces
for Solid Waste Management 40
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1078
Concept of Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1079
The Exigency to Harness Natural Forces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1080
Bioremediation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1081
Principle of Bioremediation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1082
Factors Affecting Bioremediation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1083
Organisms (Biological Agents) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1083
Bioremediation Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1085
Bioattenuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1086
Classification of Bioremediation Based on the Type of Natural Agent Involved . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1088
Microbial Bioremediation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1088
Mycoremediation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1090
Phycoremediation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1091
Phytoremediation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1092
Enzymatic Bioremediation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1092
Oxidoreductases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1094
Hydrolases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1095
Bioremediation Techniques for Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1096
Landfarming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1097
Biocomposting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1097
Bioleaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1098
Bioreactors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1098
Bioventing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1099
Applications of Bioremediation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1100
Limitations of Bioremediation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1100
N. K. Sahota (*)
Department of Pharmacy, Rayat-Bahra Institute of Pharmacy, Hoshiarpur, Punjab, India
R. Sharma
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Sachdeva College of Pharmacy, Gharuan, Punjab, India

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_107
1078 N. K. Sahota and R. Sharma
Synthetic Biology: An Emerging Ingenious Technology in Escalating Bioremediation

Efficacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1101
Bioremediation Comprehending a Circular Economy Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1102
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1104
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1105
Abstract
Rapid growth of urbanization and industrialization plus the carefree and negligent
approach of man toward the environment has incurred a negative effect on its
overall quality and has led to an unprecedented burden of solid waste. Continuous
and controlled accumulation of industrial and urban wastes into the environmen-
tal sink has posed a major global challenge of solid waste management that needs
to be confronted with utmost prominence and diligence. Unregulated and
improper disposal of solid waste poses a grave risk of environmental pollution.
In this scenario, bioremediation is an invaluable toolbox for wider application in
the realm of environment protection. Bioremediation is a natural biological
mechanism of cycling wastes into another form that can be reused by other
organisms. It offers a possibility to clean up the environment by exploiting the
nutritional versatility of the microorganisms for biodegradation, detoxification,
and removal of pollutants. It includes all three processes that take place in nature
in order to biotransform an environment, already altered by contaminants, to its
original status. Depending upon the degree of contamination, bioremediation
strategies generally include bioattenuation, biostimulation, and bioaugmentation.
The success of any of the strategies is ultimately dependent upon the presence of
an appropriate enzyme system. Several advanced techniques applied for effective
and easy remediation of waste material include bioventing, landforming,
bioleaching, bioreactor, biocomposting, and phytoremediation. Logical applica-
tion of bioremediation by harnessing the natural forces of biodegradation proves
it to be an eco-friendly and cost-effective way to degrade, reduce, recycle, and
thus manage the waste.
Keywords
Bioremediation strategies · Microbial bioremediation · Phycoremediation ·
Phytoremediation · Waste management
Introduction
The web of Mother Nature is intricately interwoven in such a peculiar way that the
quality of life on the blue planet is the reflection of the overall quality of its
environment. However, rapid growth of civilization and urbanization in general,
while of industrialization in particular, has negatively impacted this index by creat-
ing an ecological imbalance in nature. Over the past many decades, the quality of the
environment has deteriorated exponentially, and this ramification is predominantly
attributed to the industrial sector along with substantial contribution by the urban
40 Bioremediation: Harnessing Natural Forces for Solid Waste Management 1079
sector. Unconstrained, improper, and illegitimate discharge/disposal of industrial as

well as urban waste into the environmental sink has resulted in the increase in the
number of contaminated sites worldwide, polluting all the fundamental elements of
the environment alike (soil, water, and air). Contamination of any element of the
environment to any extent/degree inflicts adverse effects on human health and
damages the environment, affecting the flora and fauna, and the sustainability of
life on our planet.
The residues/by-products of various human activities left behind in the environ-
ment in the form of waste have been a major concern for intercontinental political
powers and scientific communities. The dumping of hazardous waste (like rubber,
plastic, agricultural waste, industrial waste, pharmaceutical waste, and nuclear
waste) into the environment is very noxious and malignant to all walks of life. The
aberrant amassing of solid waste in the environment has posed a grave risk to many
forms of life to such a magnitude that some of them are on the verge of extinction.
The problem associated with contaminated sites has assumed increased prominence
and aroused concerns worldwide to address this issue with diligence. Disposal and
environment-friendly management of the wastes have become a universal priority.
Biological treatments to remediate the polluted sites proffer a potentiality to
square up with the peril of waste accumulation in the environment. Employing
microorganisms and some plant species to bioremediate the waste materials has
many merits in being economical, beneficial, productive, non-disruptive tools and a
sustainable approach for eliminating hazardous chemicals. Bioremediation employs
the natural metabolic activities to biodegrade and biotransform the pollutants, even
when they are present in low concentrations. The process of bioremediation is
invigorated by utilizing a congruous set of microbial enzyme systems. The ultimate
intent of the bioremediation is to degrade, detoxify, mineralize, or transform the
contaminants into an innocuous state.
Concept of Waste
Human activities produce a wide range of by-products that accumulate in the

environment in the form of waste. Waste arises in many different forms, and its
characterization can be expressed in several forms (Amasumo and Baird 2016).
Some common characterizations used in the classification of waste include the
physical states, physical properties, reusable potentials, biodegradable potentials,
source of production, and the degree of environmental impact. According to their
physical state, wastes can be classified as liquid, solid, and gaseous wastes.
Depending upon the source of their generation, wastes can be classified as house-
hold/domestic waste, industrial waste, agricultural waste, commercial/institutional
waste, mining waste, and demolition and construction waste. Further, waste can be
hazardous or non-hazardous regarding its impact on the environment. Agricultural,
mining, manufacturing, and other industrial processes leave behind a plethora of
organic and inorganic compounds. Most of these compounds are of toxic nature and
are extremely detrimental to the environment, particularly soil and groundwater.
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), solid

wastes mean any garbage or refuse; sludge from a wastewater treatment plant, water
supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility; and other discarded material
resulting from industrial, commercial, mixing, and agricultural operation and from
community activities. It is important to note that the definition of solid waste is not
limited to wastes that are physically solid. Many solid wastes are liquid or semi-solid
or contain gaseous material. Among all the wastes, solid waste is probably of more
importance, not so much because of hazards but more because of its volume. Solid
waste generation is based on economic development, density of population, size of
urban habitation, and consumption rate of consumer goods (Glawe et al. 2006).
The solid wastes can be further categorized on the basis of the source of their
generation into municipal solid waste, industrial solid waste, agricultural solid waste,
and hazardous solid waste. The municipal solid waste stream is diverse and contains
a wide variety of wastes that can be of organic or inorganic nature, with each
category including both hazardous and non-hazardous waste.
Organic waste originates from living organisms (plant or animal), whereas
inorganic waste is of mineral origin. The most important characteristic of the organic
fraction of the municipal solid waste is that almost all the organic components can be
converted biologically to gases and relatively inert organic and inorganic solids.
Organic waste can be found in municipal solid waste, industrial solid waste, as well
as agricultural solid waste. Organic materials composing the municipal solid waste
include food, paper, cardboard, wood, sewage, sludge, and yard waste, whereas the
organic fraction of industrial waste covers a wide spectrum including most of the
components of municipal organic waste as well as countless other materials like
paper mill sludge, meat processing wastes, brewery wastes, and textile mill fibers.
Inorganic fraction includes the materials that are difficult to biodegrade and take a
very long time to disintegrate. It includes metals, glass shards, tin cans, bottles,
plastics, polythene, etc. Toxic inorganic compounds such as copper, lead, silver,
arsenic, boron, and chromium are classified as priority pollutants and are toxic to
microorganisms.
The Exigency to Harness Natural Forces
In recent years, the accumulation of the hazardous solid waste has intensified the soil
and water pollution. The damage caused by the contaminants to the flora and fauna
has crossed all the limits, and hence now, there is no scope for ignorant attitude
toward the environmental affairs. A framework of coherent and efficacious strategies
of the waste management needs to be adopted for the development of techniques to
combat the threat of all types of wastes. The quest for developing eco-friendly
strategies to mitigate the plight of solid waste has brought all the environmentalists,
health practitioners, and scientific scholars across the globe to a common platform to
address this issue with intense assiduity. Initial attempts to remove contaminants
were mainly directed toward physical and chemical methods. However, these
methods have many drawbacks as these technologies usually involve complicated
procedures, which sometimes are ineffective against the contaminants and are
economically unfeasible as well. This proposes the need of a viable, efficient, and
cost-effective alternative. Nature exhibits a remarkable trait of natural restoration,
where it plays the key role of a remediator by correcting the mess created by the most
ignorant creature – humans. Science has discovered an effective way to harness
nature’s forces in the form of bioremediation for reclaiming or restoring the polluted
soil and water, by using their inherent properties.
Bioremediation is thus a natural waste management process based on the guide-
lines of natural processes. It has provided problem-solving opportunities in the field
of solid waste by detoxifying/eliminating wastes. Bioremediation, while based on a
simple concept, incorporates a complex system of biological processes involving
natural agents. Microorganisms aid nature in decomposing, recycling, and rectifying
imbalanced chemical conditions in soil and water. Natural degradation of the
contaminants is considered a very promising backup with great potential when
dealing with certain types of contaminated sites. Bioremediation using microorgan-
isms is an alternative treatment strategy that is not only effective and economical but
also minimally hazardous, versatile, and environment-benign. Moreover, the process
of bioremediation can be customized according to the needs of the polluted site in
question and the contaminant to be treated. Bioremediation is more cost-effective
than other methods, and the low cost is largely attributed to the small quantities or
total absence of added agents and microbial biomass to start up the biotreatment
process. Above all, the public acceptance of biological methods of waste manage-
ment is preferred over the other physicochemical methods.
Bioremediation
By definition, bioremediation is a process which relies on biological mechanisms to

reduce (degrade, detoxify, mineralize, or transform) the concentrations of pollutants
to an innocuous state (Azibuike et al. 2016). It implements natural forces to remove
or neutralize contaminants, allying with living systems to detoxify contaminated
environments. Biodegradation processes do occur in nature, so bioremediation offers
the possibility to clean up the environment by natural biological activity to enhance
the same biodegradation processes that already occur naturally. Bioremediation
exploits these biological activities (predominantly the metabolic activities of the
natural agents) to mitigate and, if possible, to completely eliminate the noxious
effects of pollutants and toxins from soil, water, and other environments. Bioreme-
diation processes typically involve the actions of many different microbes, plants,
and fungi which are able to bind, extract, and/or transform contaminants to create
less toxic, healthier, and increasingly resilient and vital ecosystems. Thus, it is often
referred to as a clean-green and environmentally benign method/technology which
abates or cleans up conterminous wastes from the environment. Organic wastes are
biologically degraded under controlled conditions to an innocuous state or to levels
below concentration limits established by regulating authorities (Muller et al. 1996).
Contaminant compounds are transformed and rendered harmless by the living

organisms through reactions that take place as a part of their general metabolism.
Bioremediation employs living organisms, primarily microorganisms or their
products to treat the pollutant sites to remediate it and restore it to its original
condition. Microorganisms are vital for efficient functioning of ecosystems on
earth, and the factors affecting metabolisms, composition and abundance of
microbes, and microbial communities may disturb the ecosystems (Nweke et al.
2007). Microorganisms are ideally suited to the task for detoxification and degrada-
tion of the contaminants because they possess the enzymes that allow them to use the
environmental contaminants as food and due to their small size they are able to
contact contaminants easily. Bioremediation processes are typically based on the
co-metabolism action of one organism or a consortium of microorganisms (Coelho
et al. 2015). The versatility of microbes to degrade a vast array of pollutants makes
bioremediation a technology that can be applied in different soil conditions (Sylvia
et al. 2005).
Bioremediation is dependent on an interdisciplinary approach involving various
sciences – microbiology, biotechnology, biochemistry, engineering, ecology, geol-
ogy, and chemistry (Boopathy 2000). The goal of bioremediation is to biotransform
toxic materials into non-toxic ones so that they enter natural biogeochemical cycles
more quickly (Naik and Duraphe 2012). As bioremediation can be effective only
where environmental conditions permit microbial growth and activity, its application
often involves the manipulation of environmental parameters to allow microbial
growth and eventually the degradation to proceed at a faster rate. The success of a
bioremediation application highly depends on the characterization and monitoring
completed before and during its implementation (Hazen 2010).
Principle of Bioremediation
The concept of bioremediation includes biodegradation, biotransformation, and

mineralization. Bioremediation functions basically on biodegradation which may
refer to complete mineralization of organic contaminants into carbon dioxide, water,
inorganic compounds, and cell protein or transformation of complex organic con-
taminants to other simpler organic compounds by biological agents like microor-
ganisms. According to Hornung (1997), biodegradation is the breakdown of
organic substances into smaller organic or inorganic molecules, biotransformation
is the alteration of contaminant molecules into less or non-hazardous molecules, and
mineralization is the complete biodegradation of organic materials into inorganic
constituents.
The process of bioremediation enhances the rate of the natural microbial degra-
dation of contaminants by supplementing the indigenous microorganisms (bacteria
or fungi) with nutrients, carbon sources, or electron donors or by adding an enriched
culture of microorganisms that have specific characteristics that allow them to
degrade the desired contaminant at a quicker rate. The ultimate aim of bioremedia-
tion is to at least reduce pollutant levels to undetectable, non-toxic, or acceptable
levels, that is, within limits set by regulatory agencies, or ideally to completely
mineralize organic pollutants to carbon dioxide.
Factors Affecting Bioremediation
From an ecological point of view, bioremediation depends on the various interac-

tions between three determinants – pollutants (contaminating agents), organisms
(biological agents), and environment. The control of bioremediation processes is a
complex system of many factors involving existence of microbial populations,
availability of contaminants to microbial populations, and environmental conditions
(Naik and Duraphe 2012). Interactions of these factors affect biodegradability,
bioavailability, and physiological requirements, which are important in assessing
the feasibility of the bioremediation (Tiedje 1993). Bioremediation can be tailored to
the needs of the polluted site in question, and the specific microbes needed to break
down the pollutant are encouraged by selecting the limiting factor needed to promote
their growth. Successful microbial bioremediation is achieved when microbes inter-
act within their niche, under the most favorable conditions (Ricardi et al. 2005).
Table 1 illustrates the key factors influencing the process of bioremediation.
Organisms (Biological Agents)
The importance of the biological factors is often realized while implementing

bioremediation techniques (Srivastava et al. 2014). In bioremediation, microorgan-
isms with biological activity including bacteria fungi, algae, and yeast can be used in
their naturally occurring forms. The choice of the organisms employed is variable,
depending upon the nature of the polluting agents, and needs to be selected carefully
as they only survive in the presence of a limited range of chemical contaminants
(Coelho et al. 2015). Biological agents having specific metabolic capability are
introduced to the contaminated site for enhancing the degradation of the waste.
According to the choice of biological agent employed to do the task of cleaning up
the polluted site, the bioremediation is classified into microbial bioremediation,
mycoremediation, phycoremediation, and phytoremediation.
Contaminant (Contaminating Agents): The bioavailability of contaminants
and their concentration, type, solubility, chemical structure, and toxicity directly
influence the microbial growth and activity.
Table 1 Key factors influencing the process of bioremediation

Biological agents Bacteria, fungi, algae/protozoa, plants
Contaminating Contaminant concentration, contaminant bioavailability
agents
Environmental pH, temperature, moisture content, nutrients, presence/absence of electron
factors acceptors/donors, redox potential, soil type
(a) Contaminant concentration: Higher concentrations of the contaminants

have toxic effects on the biological agents present at the site of remediation,
whereas lower concentrations may prevent induction of degradation
enzymes. Some organic and inorganic compounds are toxic to the targeted
life forms (Asira 2013).
(b) Contaminant bioavailability: Contaminant bioavailability depends upon the
degree to which they are sorb to the solids or are sequestered by the molecules in
the contaminated media or diffused in macropores of soil. Bioavailability of
contaminants is lower for contaminants that are more strongly sorbed to solids,
enclosed in matrices of molecules in contaminated media, and more widely
diffused in macropores of soil (ICSS 2006).
Environmental Factors: The actual interaction between the biological and

contaminating agent depends on the metabolic characteristics of microorganisms
and physicochemical properties of targeted contaminants which in turn depend upon
the environmental conditions of the site of interaction (Abatenh et al. 2017). An
array of environmental factors include pH, temperature, moisture contents, avail-
ability of nutrients, presence/absence of electron acceptors and donors, redox poten-
tial, and soil type (Table 1).
(a) pH: pH affects the solubility and biological availability of nutrients, metals, and
other constituents, thus impacting the metabolic activity of the employed bio-
logical agent. Higher or lower pH values showed inferior results; metabolic
processes are highly susceptible to even slight changes in pH. Bioremediation
processes preferentially proceed at a pH of 6–8 (ICSS 2006).
(b) Temperature: Temperature directly affects the rate of bioremediation as the rate
rises to an extent with the increase in temperature and vice versa (ESTCP 2005).
It is the most important factor to determine the survival of microorganisms and
composition of hydrocarbons. Biological enzymes participate in the degradation
process at an optimum temperature and will not have the same metabolic
turnover for every temperature. Also, the degradation process for a particular
compound needs a specific temperature.
(c) Moisture content: Microorganisms require adequate water to accomplish their
growth. Soil moisture content has an adverse effect on biodegradation agents
(Abatenh et al. 2017).
(d) Nutrients: Nutrients are the building blocks of life and are required for cell
growth and division. Along with other ideal growth conditions, there must be
availability of appropriate amounts of nutrients to the microbial population to
enable the microbes to employ their metabolic activities to degrade pollutants.
Microorganisms break down contaminants by using them as a food source by
metabolizing them with a food/energy source. Microorganisms are well known
for their ability to break down a huge range of organic compounds and absorb
inorganic substances. One of the primary variables affecting the activity of
bacteria is the ability and availability of reduced organic materials to serve as
an energy source (Boopathy 2000). Organic contaminants provide a carbon
source to the microbes and electrons which the organisms can extract to obtain
energy. More specifically, bioremediation involves the production of energy in a

redox reaction within microbial cells.
(e) Presence or absence of electron acceptors/donors: Microorganisms gain energy
by catalyzing energy-producing chemical reactions that involve breaking chemical
bonds and transferring electrons away from the environment. The electron donor
and electron acceptor are essential to ensure the growth of microorganisms.
Electron acceptor receives electrons in the energy-producing oxidation-reduction
reaction that are essential not only for the growth of microorganisms but also for
bioremediation. Common electron acceptors in bioremediation are oxygen, nitrate,
sulfate, iron, manganese, carbon dioxide, and some pollutants (chlorinated sol-
vents, explosives, oxidized metals, and radionuclides). Electron donors include
sugars, fats, alcohols, natural organic material, fuel hydrocarbons, and a variety of
reduced organic pollutants. In bioremediation, the organic contaminant often serves
as an electron donor. Lack of suitable electron donors or acceptors is, in many cases,
the key reason for pollutants to persist in the environment (Wang et al. 2020).
Oxygen is generally preferred election acceptor because of the higher energy yield
and because oxygen is required for some enzyme systems to initiate the degradation
process. The amount of available oxygen determines whether the overall delivery
system of the bioremediation process is aerobic or anaerobic. Depletion of
dissolved oxygen results in the establishment of anaerobic conditions in the
environment (Rane and Bhojwani 2016).
(f) Redox potential: Redox potential describes the system’s overall reducing or
oxidizing capacity. It is influenced by the presence of electron acceptors such as
nitrate, manganese oxides, iron oxides, and sulfate (ICSS 2006). Redox poten-
tials provide an indication of the relative dominance of the electron acceptor
classes (EPA 2000).
(g) Soil type: Soil structure controls the effective delivery of air, water, and nutri-
ents. The soil with low permeability may not be appropriate for in situ clean-up
techniques as low permeability can impede the movement of the air, water, and
nutrients.
Bioremediation Strategies
Bioremediation strategies to combat the hazardous waste (containing contaminants)

are an effective and eco-friendly way by employing the biological agents (indige-
nous and exogenous) for various remediation processes, which have unequivocally
been proved fruitful in many aspects. Depending upon the magnitude of interference
of the contaminants in the environment, bioremediation is generally considered to
include bioattenuation, biostimulation, and bioaugmentation (Singer et al. 2005;
Fig. 1). Bioremediation approaches are generally classified as in situ or ex situ. In
situ bioremediation involves treating the contaminated waste material at site, where
organic pollutants are biologically degraded under natural conditions to either
carbon dioxide or water or an attenuated transformation product. Ex situ bioreme-
diation involves the removal of the contaminated waste from the environment, to be
treated elsewhere under controlled conditions required for bioremediation to occur.
Fig. 1 Bioremediation: types, techniques and strategies
Each bioremediation strategy administers a framework in which the appropriate

detoxifying enzymes must operate, and the required biochemical and physical
characteristics of these enzymes are determined by the bioremediation strategy in
which they are employed.
Bioattenuation
Bioattenuation is the natural way to degrade the pollutants with indigenous micro-
organisms, hence called natural attenuation or intrinsic remediation/bioremediation.
The natural attenuation employs nature’s biological, chemical, or physical process to
reduce the mass, toxicity, mobility, volume, or concentration of contaminants in

environmental media under favorable conditions. The process involves monitoring
natural progress of degradation to ensure that the contaminant concentration
decreases with time. It relies on nature’s processes to biotransform the pollutants
into less harmful chemicals by biodegradation or by naturally occurring chemical
reactions that are stimulated by microorganisms. The time required for
bioattenuation depends on the type of pollutants and site conditions. The processes
contributing to natural attenuation are typically acting at many sites, but at varying
rates and degrees of effectiveness, depending on the types of contaminants present
and the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of the soil and groundwater
(EPA 1996). In some cases, the natural populations adapt to the contaminant
conditions and are able to convert the contaminants to non-hazardous end products
rapidly enough to prevent impact “downstream.”
Natural attenuation is an in situ bioremediation technique and may be destructive
or non-destructive. Destructive processes destroy the contaminant, whereas
non-destructive processes do not destroy the contaminant but cause a reduction in
contaminant concentrations. Natural processes may result in the reduction of con-
taminant mass, the reduction of contaminant concentration, and finding contami-
nants to soil particles so that they do not spread or migrate very far (EPA 1996).
Bioattenuation is carried out within biological processes (aerobic and anaerobic
biodegradation), physical phenomenon (advection, dispersion, dilution, diffusion,
volatilization, sorption/desorption), and chemical reactions (ion exchange, complex-
ation, abiotic transformation) (Abatenh et al. 2017).
Biostimulation: Biostimulation is the process of optimizing the environment
condition of the remediation site if natural degradation does not occur or is too
slow, i.e., the environment has to be manipulated so as to start and increase the rate of
the bioremediation. It is an in situ bioremediation technology. The focus is mainly on
the stimulation of indigenous or naturally existing bacteria and fungal communities.
Biostimulation covers a range of approaches that encourage the growth of chemical-
degrading microorganisms already residing in the contaminated soil – firstly, by
supplying fertilizers, growth supplements, and trace minerals, and secondly, by
providing other environmental requirements like pH, temperature, and oxygen to
speed up their metabolism rate and pathway. Not only do the appropriate organisms
need to be present in the soil, but the remediated soils themselves must be suitable
for the growth of the appropriate organisms in terms of general physicochemical
proportions including bioavailability of contaminants and nutrient availability (Scott
et al. 2008). The presence of a small amount of nutrients can act as a stimulant by
turning on the operons for the bioremediation enzymes (Abatenh et al. 2017).
Bioaugmentation: Bioaugmentation is the process of addition of pollutant
degrading microorganisms (natural/exotic/engineered) to augment the
biodegradative capacity of indigenous microbial populations in the contaminated
area. It involves applications of indigenous or allochthonous wild-type or genetically
modified microorganisms to polluted hazardous waste sites in order to accelerate the
removal of undesired compounds. Bioaugmentation is both in situ and ex situ
bioremediation techniques. Genetically engineered microorganisms have shown
potential for bioremediation of soil, groundwater, and activated sludge, exhibiting
the enhanced degrading capabilities of a broad range of chemical and physical

pollutants (Abatenh et al. 2017).
Bioaugmentation should be applied in soils – with low or undetectable number of
contaminant-degrading microbes, containing compounds requiring multi-process
remediation, for small-scale sites or which the cost of non-biological methods
exceeds the cost for bioaugmentation. Like biostimulation, bioaugmentation requires
a suitable soil environment to achieve the required levels of bioremediation, and the
rate of detoxification is tied to the rate of microbial proliferation (Scott et al. 2008).
These two approaches are not mutually exclusive – they can be used simultaneously
(Sylvia et al. 2005).
Classification of Bioremediation Based on the Type of Natural

Agent Involved
Bioremediation is a waste management technique that involves the use of naturally

occurring organisms such as bacteria, fungi, and plants to biodegrade and neutralize
the hazardous pollutants/contaminants. Biodegradation is the transformation of
organic materials by living organisms, with primary biodegradation (loss of parent
substance) yielding other organic compounds and ultimate biodegradation or min-
eralization leading to inorganic end products and biomass (Brown et al. 2020). There
are several organisms which specialize in the remediation of the environmental
pollutants. Microorganisms, mainly archaea, bacteria, and fungi, undertake the
overwhelming majority of biodegradation and are major contributors to nutrient
and energy cycling in the biosphere (Das and Dash 2014). The natural capacity of
microorganisms to biodegrade mitigates the effects of deliberate or accidental release
of organic pollutants by preventing their accumulation in the environment (Brown
et al. 2020). The classic type of bioremediation includes microbial bioremediation,
mycoremediation, phycoremediation, and phytoremediation (Fig. 1).
Microbial Bioremediation
Microorganisms in the environment have always broken down waste, and humans
have always (knowingly and unknowingly) used these in agricultural, domestic, and
industrial activities (Litchfield 2005). Microbial bioremediation makes use of micro-
organisms and/or their derivatives (enzymes or spent biomass) to clean up environ-
mental contaminants (Tekere 2019). Microorganisms directly degrade contaminants
rather than merely transferring them from one medium to another, employ metabolic
degradation pathways, and can be used in situ to minimize disturbance of the clean-
up site (Rathoure 2017). Microbial bioremediation uses the microorganisms to either
degrade organic contaminants or to bind heavy metals in more inert and less
bioavailable forms. Microbial remediation is done either by breeding bacteria in
high numbers and then introducing them into contaminated areas or by creating ideal
conditions in the affected site to make it an ideal habitat for the bacterial growth to
occur (Darwish 2013). Some bacteria search the contaminant and move toward it
because they flexibly exhibit the potential as a chemotactic response (Thapa et al.
2012). The biodegradative pathways have been widely reported in bacteria from
various genera, a few of them being Mycobacterium, Pseudomonas, Bacillus,
Corynebacterium, Alcaligenes, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Shigella, Strepto-
coccus, Enterobacter, Aeromonas, Rhodococcus, and Acinetobacter.
Microbial bioremediation can be classified into two categories on the basis of the
nature of substrate being removed or degraded – microbial remediation of organic
contaminants and microbial remediation of inorganic contaminants (Srivastava et al.
2014). Since a wide array of pollutants can be present at a contaminated site,
therefore, different types of microorganisms are required for effective remediation
results.
Both aerobic and anaerobic life forms have the potential to carry out the process
of biological degradation and transformation. Different nutritional requirements
apart; both types of organisms have the basic need of organic carbon and a source
of energy. The efficiency of the degradation process is related to the potential of the
particular microorganisms to introduce molecular oxygen into the hydrocarbon and
to generate the intermediates that subsequently enter the general energy-yielding
metabolic pathway of the cell (Coelho et al. 2015). Oxygen is the key player for
assigning the task of remediation (of the contaminated area) to the relevant microbial
species aerobic/anaerobic in accordance with its availability. Based on these criteria,
microbial remediation is classified as aerobic bioremediation and anaerobic biore-
mediation (Fig. 1). Most of the bioremediation systems run under aerobic conditions,
but anaerobic conditions make it possible for microbial organisms to degrade
otherwise recalcitrant molecules. Hydrocarbons are readily degraded under aerobic
conditions, whereas chlorinate compounds are degraded only in anaerobic
conditions.
(a) Aerobic bioremediation: Aerobic bioremediation is the most common form of

oxidative bioremediation where oxygen is provided as the electron acceptor for
oxidation of pollutants. Under aerobic conditions, microorganisms use contam-
inants as carbon substrate and use oxygen as electron acceptor to convert these
organic contaminants into carbon dioxide, water, and microbial cell mass.
Aerobic metabolism is more commonly exploited and can be effective for
hydrocarbons and other organic compounds such as petroleum hydrocarbons
and some fuel oxygenates. Many microorganisms are capable of degrading
hydrocarbons using oxygen as the electron acceptor and the hydrocarbons as
carbon and energy source. Aerobic bacteria recognized for their degradative
abilities are Pseudomonas, Alcaligenes, Sphingomonas, Rhodococcus, and
Mycobacterium. These microbes have often been reported to degrade pesticides
and hydrocarbons, both alkanes and polyaromatic compounds.
(b) Anaerobic bioremediation: Anaerobic bioremediation involves microbial reac-
tions occurring in the absence of oxygen. It involves addition of an electron
donor to deplete background electron acceptors and stimulates the biological
and/or chemical reduction of the oxidized pollutants. Electron acceptor in this
case is other than oxygen, as it utilizes inorganic chemicals (nitrate, sulfate, and
iron) as electron acceptor. Anaerobic bacteria are not as frequently used as
aerobic bacteria. End products can include methane, hydrogen gas, sulfides,
elemental sulfur, and dinitrogen depending upon the electron acceptor. Anaero-
bic bioremediation can be employed to treat a broad range of oxidized contam-
inants. Anaerobic bioremediation encompasses many processes including
fermentation, methanogenesis, and reductive dechlorination. The organic frac-
tion of municipal solid waste is widely used as a feedstock for anaerobic
digestion by microbial consortium in absence of oxygen and is a primary source
of biogas (Abudi et al. 2016).
Mycoremediation
Fungi are natural decomposers which are powerful planetary healers and disaster
responders (Darwish 2013). Fungi are responsible for breaking down most of the
earth’s plant and woody material into life giving soil by deploying their digestive
enzymes to biodegrade various recalcitrant, persistent and harmful pollutants. Fungi are
easy to grow and produce a substantial biomass. Mycoremediation can be an econom-
ical, eco-friendly, and effective strategy to combat the ever-increasing problem of soil
and water pollution. Mycoremediation represents a biological tool to degrade, trans-
form, and immobilize environment contaminants (Bosco and Mollea 2019), and the
final products are reported to be less toxic or more biodegradable than the parent
compounds (Silva et al. 2019), which emphasizes the potential of fungi as remedial
agents. Fungi are long recognized for their abilities to transform a broad range of
recalcitrant compounds using known specific intracellular and extracellular oxidative
enzymes. Fungi are able to degrade very low or non-detectable concentration levels and
withstand a wide range of pH, further enhancing their degradation capacity. Robust
growth of fungus, vast hyphal network, production of versatile extracellular lignolytic
enzymes, high surface area to volume ratio, resistance to heavy metals, adaptability to
fluctuating pH and temperature, and presence of metal-binding proteins make fungi an
ideal candidate for the remediation of various pollutants. Various fungi and their
derivatives are employed for the remediation of a diverse array of pollutants such as
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, antifungal
drugs, antibiotics, heavy metals, detergents, cyanotoxins, dyes, pharmaceuticals, and
phthalates (Akhtar and Amin-ul Mannan 2020).
Mycoremediation employs both filamentous fungi (molds) and macrofungi
(mushrooms), and both these classes possess enzymes for the degradation of a
large variety of pollutants. Filamentous fungi show some peculiar characteristics
like the development of a multicellular mycelial network suited to soil colonization
and translocation of nutrients and water, the production of many bioactive com-
pounds and extracellular enzymes, and the unique capability to co-metabolize many
environmental chemicals. Filamentous fungi which are able to synthesize a lot of
aspecific enzymes generally show a higher resistance to high contaminant concen-
tration as compared to bacteria (Harms et al. 2011).
The most suitable fungi to be used in soil remediation are basidiomycetes and, in
particular, the ecological groups of saprotrophic (white rot) and biotrophic fungi.
The saprotrophic basidiomycetes include the wood-degrading fungi and use the dead
organic matter as a carbon source. Among these the white rot fungi are considered
mainly for their leading role in efficiently degrading both lignin and cellulose
biopolymers till the complete mineralization. Some of the important representatives
of the white rot fungi include Phanerochaete chrysosporium, Pleurotus ostreatus,
Trametes versicolor, Bjerkandera adusta, and Agaricus bisporus. The biotrophic
basidiomycetes comprehend ectomycorrhizas which obtain the carbon source from a
mutualistic plant partner. The ectomycorrhizal fungi can assemble and recycle the
nutrients from the organic matter of the soil. The representatives of the
ectomycorrhizal fungi include Amanita spp., Boletus spp., Gautieria spp., Hebeloma
spp., and Lactarius spp. These characteristics make the fungi more advisable in soil
bioremediation than yeasts and bacteria (Bosco and Mollea 2019).
Phycoremediation
Phycoremediation is the remediation strategy involving the use of macroalgae or a

microalgae and cyanobacteria for the removal or biotransformation of pollutants,
including nutrients and xenobiotics from the wastewater and carbon dioxide from the
air. The microalgae are commonly known as phytoplanktons, whereas macroalgae
are commonly known as seaweeds. The green cell factories of microalgae can
simultaneously confront many problems, for example, pH correction, sludge
removal, total dissolved solids (TDSs), reduction removal of biological oxygen
demand (BOD), and chemical oxygen demand (COD). Microalgae have the capa-
bility to remove environmental toxicants such as heavy metals, hydrocarbons, and
pesticides through various mechanisms ranging from biosorption, bioconcentration,
and biotransformation to volatilization (Phang et al. 2015). Bioremediation with
macroalgae is a potential means for recovering nutrients from waste streams. Macro-
algae have a higher photosynthetic efficiency than that of terrestrial plants. Seaweeds
have been reported to remove excess nutrients such as sodium, potassium, calcium,
magnesium, chloride, iodine, and bromine from industrial and agricultural effluents.
It is also documented that seaweeds take up major metallic pollutants such as lead,
chromium, mercury, uranium, selenium, zinc, arsenic, cadmium, copper, and nickel.
Phycoremediation technology assures nil sludge generation, and as a result, there
is no disruption of surrounding, non-contaminated areas. Phycoremediation com-
prises several applications such as oxygenation of the atmosphere, nutrient removal
from municipal wastewater and effluents in organic matter, carbon dioxide seques-
tration, transformation and degradation of xenobiotics, and treatment of acidic and
metal wastewaters. Algae can be applied widely for the bioremediation of wastewa-
ter, resulting not only in the treated clean water but also in the production of a useful
biomass. The resultant biomass can serve as feedstock for numerous valuable
products including food, feed, and biofuel as well. Growing microalgae using
wastewater can provide a viable alternative of tertiary biotreatment coupled with
simultaneous production of value-added biomass with various benefits such as

production of biofuels; anti-oxidants; anti-cancerous, anti-obesity, anti-viral, and
anti-bacterial compounds; and poultry and animal feed additives (Kiran et al. 2016).
Phytoremediation
Phytoremediation presents an efficient, “green clean,” environmental, low-cost, and

eco-friendly technology that uses plants to reduce or remove inorganic and organic
pollutants from the environment (Pilon-Smits and Le Duc 2009). It works with the
natural capabilities of plants to repair and regenerate toxic soils, groundwater, and
surface water (Darwish 2013). Pollutants can be stabilized or degraded in the
rhizosphere and sequestered or degraded in plant roots and leaves (Pilon-Smits and
Le Duc 2009). Phytoremediation works best at sites with low to medium amounts of
pollution. Phytoremediation can be mainly classified as phytostabilization,
phytoextraction, rhizodegradation, and phytodegradation (Gajić et al. 2018).
Phytostabilization uses plants (excluders) to reduce the mobility and bioavail-
ability of organic pollutants in the surrounding environment preventing their migra-
tion in the soil and groundwater or their entry into the food web. These plants limit
the uptake of pollutants in higher concentrations, i.e., they immobilize pollutants in
the substrate or in plant roots. Phytoextraction uses plants (accumulators) to accu-
mulate metal(oids) in the roots and aerial parts of the plants (Reeves and Baker
2000). Uptake of pollutants from the environment and their accumulation are
achieved through the formation of chelates and sequestration of the metal in the
vacuole of roots and leaves (Kidd et al. 2009). Rhizodegradation uses plants with
large and dense root systems and rhizobacterial strains, which enhance microbial and
fungal activity in the rhizosphere and break down organic pollutants (Pilon-Smits
and Le Duc 2009; Ma et al. 2011). These plants facilitate degradation of organic
pollutants by stimulating microbial and fungal activity releasing exudes (organic
acids, sugars, amino acids, phenolics, and enzymes – dehalogenase, nitroreductase,
peroxidase, and laccase) (Ma et al. 2011). Phytodegradation implies degradation of
organic compounds by plant enzymes within roots or leaves to simple molecules,
such as carbon dioxide and water. The network of detoxification, degradation, and
storage of organic compounds in plants can be divided into three steps – activation
and transformation of organic compounds, conjugation, and storage/elimination
(Burken 2003).
Enzymatic Bioremediation
Enzymatic bioremediation is an appealing alternative to the remediation of the

contaminated sites, by availing the degradative potential of the enzymes. It refers
to the use of naturally occurring enzymes in microorganisms or plants to degrade or
reduce harmful, undesirable, and recalcitrant environmental pollutants in order to
clean contaminated sites (Karigar and Rao 2011). In general, biotransformation
enzymes for bioremediation are present in bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals.
Among biological agents, enzymes have a great potentiality to effectively transform

pollutants at a detectable rate and are potentially suitable to restore polluted envi-
ronments (Rao et al. 2010). Effective and affordable remediation requires highly
specialized enzyme systems.
Enzymes may act intracellularly, i.e., in the presence of or inside their originating
cells; extracellularly, i.e., both in the presence or absence of their originating cells;
freely, i.e., soluble in solution and the catalysis will be homogenous; or immobilized,
i.e., linked through different links to a solid matrix and the catalysis will be
heterogeneous (Gianfreda and Rao 2004). The secretion of enzymes into the extra-
cellular environment by soil-dwelling fungi and bacteria is vital for global elemental
turnover and may be the rate-determining step in the recycling of natural plant and
microbial biomass. The extracellular enzymes may explain a degradative function
and transform polymeric substances into partially degraded or oxidized products that
can be easily taken by cells (Gianfreda and Rao 2004). Therefore, the use of
extracellular and/or cell-free enzymes has been proposed as an innovative remedi-
ation technique, using their ability to break down bonds within organic compounds
and/or catalyze their transformation into less toxic and more biodegradable forms
(Ruggaber and Talley 2006). Free enzyme remediation uses purified or partially
purified enzymes to catalyze contaminant detoxification. It is not dependent upon the
growth of intact organisms, and so the rate of detoxification is directly linked to the
catalytic properties of the enzymes employed and the concentration of enzyme
applied. Equally, the lack of reliance on whole organisms allows the bioremediation
of nutrient-poor soils. Enzymes are the main affecters of all the transformations
occurring in the biota. They may produce extensive transformation of structural and
toxicological properties of contaminants and even their complete conversion into
innocuous inorganic end products (Rao et al. 2010).
The most significant features of the enzymes are their unique substrate specificity
and catalytic ability, their capability to act in the presence of many toxic even recalci-
trant substances and/or under wide range of environmental conditions which are often
unfavorable to active microbial cells (i.e., relatively wide temperature, pH and salinity
ranges, high and low range of contaminates). Also they exhibit low sensitivity or
susceptibility to the presence of predators, inhibitors of microbial metabolism, and
drastic changes in the contaminant concentrations. Most organic compounds and many
inorganic ones are subject to enzymatic attack through the activities of living organ-
isms. Detoxifying enzymes are promiscuous and have different affinities and velocities.
Their protein nature makes them susceptible to different factors like heat, pH, or
substrate availability. Pollutants might undergo biodegradation reactions like dechlori-
nation, cleavage, oxidation, or reduction by different enzymes.
Bench studies and field studies have shown enzymatic treatment to be a feasible
option for bioremediation (Ruggaber and Talley 2006). Microorganisms possess
several enzyme systems working individually or in groups for the degradation of
recalcitrant organic compounds. For bioremediation purposes, biotransformation
enzymes mainly belong to four biochemical types – oxidoreductases, hydrolases,
transferases, and translocases. The most representative classes of the enzymes that
play a vital role in the degradation of organic contaminants are oxidoreductases and
hydrolases.
Oxidoreductases
Oxidoreductases catalyze the biochemical energy yielding reactions that involve cleav-
age and transfer of electrons from the donor to the acceptor. This class of enzymes
mediates the detoxification of toxic organic compounds through oxidative coupling in
various bacteria, fungi, and higher plants. Most of the microbial remediation of organic
pollutants is due to the presence of promiscuous oxidoreductase enzymes which can
degrade various kinds of pollutants. The oxidoreductases participate in the humification
of various phenolic substances that are produced from the decomposition of lignin in
soil environments. Oxidoreductases can detoxify toxic xenobiotics, such as phenolic or
anilinic compounds, through polymerization and copolymerization, with other sub-
strates, or binding to humic substances (Park et al. 2006).
(a) Oxygenases: Oxygenases play a pivotal role in the metabolism of organic

compounds by increasing reactivity or water solubility or bringing about cleav-
age of the aromatic ring. Oxygenases have a broad-spectrum range and are active
against a wide range of organic compounds. Specific oxygenases degrade the
halogenated organic compounds (pollutants) present in herbicides, pesticides,
insecticides, fungicides, hydraulic and heat transfer fluids, plasticizers, and
intermediate chemical synthesis.
(i) Monooxygenases: Monooxygenases act as biocatalysts in the bioremedia-
tion process due to their high region selectivity and stereoselectivity in a
wide range of substrates. Monooxygenases catalyze desulfurization,
dehalogenation, denitrification, ammonification, hydroxylation, biotransfor-
mation, and biodegradation of various aromatic and aliphatic compounds
(Karigar and Rao 2011, Arora et al. 2010).
(ii) Dioxygenases: Dioxygenases are multicomponent enzyme systems that
primarily oxidize aromatic compounds and serve as part of nature’s strategy
for degrading aromatic molecules in the environment. These enzymes are
mainly used for bioremediation of wastes from pharmaceuticals, chemical,
and colorant.
(b) Laccases: Laccases belong to the enzyme family of multicopper oxidases.
Laccases are widely expressed in nature and can be obtained from fungi, plants,
bacteria, lichen, and insects, with laccase from each species exhibiting particular
catalytic characteristics and sequences. These are versatile enzymes capable of
oxidizing a large number of phenolic and non-phenolic molecules due to their
low substrate specificity using oxygen as electron acceptor and generating water
as a by-product. Fungal laccases aid bioremediation through the oxidation of
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon plastics, phenolic compounds, and dyes and
the degradation of pharmaceutically active compounds, among others (Arregui
et al. 2019).
(c) Peroxidases: These enzymes are produced in bacteria, fungi, and plants. Per-
oxidases are a large group of enzymes which play a vital role of breaking up
peroxides in various biological processes. These enzymes catalyze the reduction
of peroxides and the oxidation of a variety of organic and inorganic compounds.
Peroxidases are able to transform a variety of compounds following a free radical

mechanism, thereby yielding oxidized or polymerized products. The transfor-
mation of these pollutants is accompanied by a reduction in their toxicity due to
loss of biological activity, reduction in the bioavailability, or the removal from
aqueous phase, especially when the pollutant is found in water. Peroxidases from
different sources are relatively non-specific and provide fungi the unique ability
to degrade a broad array of environmental pollutants such as dioxins, poly-
chlorinated biphenyls, petroleum hydrocarbons, municipal wastes, industrial
effluents, herbicides, and pesticides (Marco-Urrea and Reddy 2011).
(i) Lignin peroxidase: Lignin peroxidase is a glycoprotein that catalyzes the
hydrogen peroxide-dependent oxidative depolymerization of lignin. These
enzymes exhibit versatility in the degradation of xenobiotics and com-
pounds with both phenolic and non-phenolic constituents. The prospective
industrial application of lignin peroxidase spans through various sectors
such as biorefinery, textile, energy, bioremediation, cosmetology, and der-
matology industries. The high redox potential of lignin peroxidases and
their ability to oxidize materials recalcitrant to degradation motivate for
their prospects in biopulping, bioleaching, bioremediation through textile
dye transformation, decolorization of distillery effluent and other waste
effluent treatment, and the degradation of herbicides.
(ii) Manganese peroxidase: It is a glycosylated heme containing extracellular
enzyme present in bacteria and white rot fungi. It catalyzes the oxidation of
Mn2+ to Mn3+ which in turn causes the oxidation of several phenolic
substrates. These are one of the earliest peroxides employed for the envi-
ronmental pollutant degradation and can catalyze the oxidation of a large
spectrum of phenolic compounds monomeric and dimeric phenols in the
presence of hydrogen peroxide.
(iii) Versatile peroxidase: Versatile peroxidases are the enzymes belonging to
the superfamily of plant, fungal, and bacterial peroxidases and exhibit a
versatile nature by oxidizing diverse substrates under different environ-
mental conditions (Knop et al. 2015). Versatile peroxidases catalyze oxi-
dation of a wide range of substrates from hydroquinones and substituted
phenols to bulky recalcitrant lignin directly, without redox mediators.
Versatile peroxidase from fungus Pleurotus ostreatus and Bjerkandera
fumosa are stated to degrade the xenobiotic aromatic pollutants leached
into terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems through the use of herbicides and
pesticides. Versatile peroxidases are also shown to possess the capability of
catalyzing the oxidation of chlorinated biphenyls and poly hydroxyl hydro-
carbons (Rodríguez et al. 2004).
Hydrolases
Hydrolases primarily perform as a biochemical catalyst that uses water to break a

chemical bond. Bacterial enzymatic activity is a generally imperative process
involved in the hydrolysis of organic pollutants. Extracellular microbial hydrolytic

activity is a foremost step in degradation and consumption of organic polymers.
Extracellular hydrolytic enzymes such as lipases, cellulases, proteases, hemicellu-
loses, and glycosidases are of much importance due to their application in biomass
degradation and bioremediation.
(a) Hydrolytic lipases and esterases: Esterases can hydrolyze short-chain fatty
esters, whereas lipases hydrolyze long-chain acylglycerols. Esterases/lipases
may split the most important chemical bonds like ester bonds of the chemical
pollutant to change their toxic behavior. These enzymes are excellent
biocatalysts for various reactions like esterification, transesterification,
aminolysis, alcoholysis, etc., which make them an imperative group of
biocatalysts as well as an indispensable tool in bioremediation. Their peculiar
characteristic makes them significant and effective enzymes for the biodegrada-
tion of oil spill, food waste, plastic waste, organophosphate, and insecticides.
Lipolytic activity of lipases is responsible for the severe diminution of the whole
hydrocarbon in the contaminated area (Sharma et al. 2019); therefore, it is the
most useful indicator parameter for testing hydrocarbon degradation in soil.
Esterases catalyze the hydrolysis of a wide variety of aliphatic and aromatic
carboxylic and thiocarboxylic esters. Some bacteria could degrade parathion,
methyl parathion, fenitrothion, chlorpyrifos, isazofos, coumaphos, and diazinon
by using esterases.
(b) Proteases: Proteases belong to the group of enzymes that hydrolyze the peptide
bonds in the polypeptide chain. These are present in bacteria, fungi, plants, as
well as animals and play a significant role in the natural degradation of organic
waste. Proteases hydrolyze the solid proteinaceous wastes generated from var-
ious types of food processing industries, oil refineries, dairy processing indus-
tries, meat industries, poultry farms/industries, and fishery and leather industries
as well.
(c) Cellulases: Cellulases catalyze the cellulolysis and decomposition of cellulose
polysaccharide by simply breaking down β-1, 4-glycosidic bonds. Cellulases are
a naturally occurring complex of various enzymes that act serially or synergis-
tically to decompose the cellulosic material. Cellulases are produced by micro-
organisms, algae, protozoans, crustaceans, and insects. Cellulases play an
important part in the biodegradation of different biomass wastes like forest
waste (wood), agricultural wastes (sugarcane bagasses, rice husk, corn cob),
industrial wastes (paper), and municipal solid waste.
Bioremediation Techniques for Waste Management
Waste in any form is a peril; therefore, proper disposal, processing, and management
of the waste are a pressing challenge owing to its serious repercussions (environ-
mental pollution, public health risk, and scarcity of dumping land). Hence, to ensure
the protection of the environment, welfare of human health, and conservation of
natural resources of the earth, bioremediation is reckoned as a viable and sustainable

waste management strategy. Bioremediation is highly involved in degradation,
eradication, immobilization, or detoxification of diverse chemical wastes and phys-
ical hazardous material from the surroundings through the all inclusive action of
microorganisms (Abatenh et al. 2017). Various bioremediation strategies and tech-
niques have been developed to perform the task of remediating the waste so as to
clean up the environment (Fig. 1).
Landfarming
Landfarming is the bioremediation process which involves the incorporation of

contaminated soils, sediments, or sludge into the soil surface and periodically tilling
to aerate the mixture. This technique is used for years in the management and
disposal of drill cuttings, oily sludge, and other petroleum refinery wastes. It is a
full-scale bioremediation technology in which waste, soil, climate, and biological
activity interact dynamically as a system to degrade, transform, and immobilize
waste constituents. Based on the nature of its biochemical processes, landfarming is
considered aerobic bioremediation, whereas depending upon the location of the
process, it is considered either as in situ or ex situ. Ex situ landfarming requires a
shorter treatment time, is easier to control, and can treat a wide range of contami-
nants as compared to in situ landfarming (Lukíc et al. 2017). The intent of
landfarming is to employ the microbial communities to remove organic contami-
nants mainly through their conversion into carbon dioxide and water. Successful
landfarming depends on specific conditions such as well drained soil, the biodegrad-
ability of pollutants by existing microorganisms, an abundant presence of microor-
ganisms, and appropriate environmental conditions (pH, availability of nutrients and
moisture content) (Lukíc et al. 2017). Benefits of landfarming lie in its simplicity and
cost-effectiveness and it does not produce residuals. Landfarming has its own
limitations such as a large space is required for this technology and conditions
affecting biological degradation are largely uncontrollable, which increase the length
of time to complete the bioremediation. Moreover, inorganic contaminants will not
be biodegraded. Wastes containing organic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, oily
sludge, wood preserving wastes, and certain pesticides have been successfully
treated by landfarming.
Biocomposting
Composting is a way of obtaining a stable product from biological oxidative

transformation, similar to that which naturally occurs in the soil. Remediation in
composting can be accomplished by mixing contaminated soils with fresh, high-
energy feedstock or by simply adding a mature, finished compost to contaminated
soil (Craig 2006). Composting is an aerobic ex situ process that can be done in the
aerated static piles, in-vessel systems, or with windrows. Composting with aerated
static piles (biopiles) is effective means of remediating petroleum contamination.

The composting process is viewed primarily as a waste management method to
stabilize organic waste such as manure, yard trimmings, municipal biosolids, and
organic urban wastes. The composting process and the use of mature compost
provide an inexpensive method for managing hazardous industrial waste streams
(solid, gas, or liquid) and for remediating soil contaminated with toxic organic and
inorganic compounds. Not all organic chemicals are amenable to biodegradation by
composting. Composting has been proposed as one the most attractive alternatives
for waste disposal on account of its low environmental impact and cost, as well as its
capacity for generating a valuable product used for increasing soil fertility or as a
growing medium in agriculture and horticulture.
Bioleaching
Bioleaching (or biomining) is a process in mining and biohydrometallurgy (natural

processes of interactions between microbes and minerals) that extracts valuable
metals from a low-grade ore with the help of microorganisms such as bacteria or
archaea. Bioleaching is the application of Fe/S oxidizing metabolism to promote
solubilization of metals from solid matrices (Fonti et al. 2016). Bioleaching has been
investigated as environmental technology for the recovery of valuable base metals
from urban and industrial wastes, e.g., printed circuit boards, spent batteries, cathode
ray tubes, spent refinery catalyst, and sewage sludge. Microbial bioleaching that
employs acidophilic microorganisms and fungi to treat hazardous wastes, such as
electronic wastes, spent catalysts, steel slag, and sludge containing heavy toxic
metals is one of the important bioremediation approaches. This process involves
sulfuric and organic acid acidification by acidophilic bacteria and fungi, respectively,
and the generation of ferric iron (Fe3+) through oxidation by acidophilic microor-
ganisms (Srichandan et al. 2019).
Bioreactors
A bioreactor refers to any manufactured device or system that supports a biologically

active environment. The use of well-designed microbial bioreactors is acknowledged
as an efficient way to ensure that microbial growth and processes occur in a
controlled environment that provides the necessary optimum conditions. Bioreactors
represent highly controlled methods of treating contaminated soil and groundwater,
and the process can be either aerobic or anaerobic. Bioreactor is a vessel or an
engineered device designed for optimal growth and metabolic activity of the organ-
isms through the action of biocatalyst, enzyme, or microorganisms and cells of
animals or plants. The raw material could be an organic or inorganic chemical
compound or even complex material. Bioreactors can be classified based on their
mode of operation as well as the mechanisms and materials involved in designing

these bioreactors. Variables that affect the operation and efficiency of a microbial
bioreactor relate to biotic and abiotic factors that affect microbial growth and those
factors that relate to the reactor design and configuration (Tekere 2019). Biological
treatment in slurry phase is usually a batch process and is successfully used to
remediate soils, sludge, and groundwater contaminated by hydrocarbons, petro-
chemicals, solvents, pesticides, wood preservative, and other organic chemicals
(Cookson 1995). Compost-based reactors offer a controlled in-vessel biological
approach to convert biodegradable hazardous materials to harmless and stabilized
by-products by using microorganisms under elevated temperature (Cookson 1995).
Aerobic composting is used to degrade sewage sludge, whereas anaerobic processes
are more suitable for hazardous waste treatment. It has been demonstrated that
composting technology is suitable for pentachlorophenol, refinery sludges, insecti-
cides contained in cannery wastes, explosive-contaminated soil, ethylene glycol
contained in landfill sludges, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
Membrane Bioreactors (MBRs): Membrane bioreactors are advanced biologi-
cal wastewater treatment technologies that combine biological wastewater treatment
processes with membrane filtration to produce a high-quality effluent. They have a
significantly smaller footprint compared to conventional activated sludge processes
and are ideal for processing biodegradable organic matter in wastewater. MBRs
primarily target biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand
(COD), and total suspended solids (TSS). Typical applications include wastewaters
from beverage plants, pharmaceutical industries, dairies, fruit and vegetable pro-
cessing plants, and petrochemical facilities and refineries. Depending upon the
nature of the wastewater and the treatment goals, a typical membrane bioreactor
used may be aerobic (MBR) or anaerobic (AnMBR). Often advanced technologies
of the bioreactors include sequencing batch reactors (SBRs and AnSBRs), moving
bed biofilm reactors (MBBRs), upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactors,
and hybrid systems (anaerobic + aerobic).
Bioventing
Bioventing is the process of inducing the oxygen or air flow into the unsaturated
zone of the soil which increases the rate of natural in situ degradation of the targeted
contaminants. The intent of bioventing is to use air movement to provide oxygen for
aerobic degradation using either indigenous or introduced microorganisms. The rate
of oxygen and nutrient supply, the depth of water level from the surface, and the
degree of temperature are the major influencing factors of bioventing. The air must
diffuse into the soil moisture for use by the microorganisms. Air can be introduced
through injection wells and/or by circulating existing oxygen through vacuum
extraction. In order for bioventing to work, sufficient water must be present in the
unsaturated zone to permit the enzyme transfers necessary for biodegradation. High
soil moisture or low-permeability soils reduce bioventing performance. By nature,

bioventing promotes aerobic degradation of organic contaminants and is suitable for
sites contaminated with fuel compounds like gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel as well as
other biodegradable chemicals. The bioventing method is primarily applied for the
removal of fuels, non-halogenated volatile organic compounds (VOCs), semi-
VOCs, pesticides, and herbicides from the polluted sites (Lee et al. 2006).
Bioventing basically assists in the degradation of volatile organic compounds
(VOCs) as vapors move slowly through biologically active soil (CPEO 2009). The
advantage of this technique is the minimum exposure to both the public and the
surrounding environment.
Applications of Bioremediation
Bioremediation is an inbuilt remediation technology of our planet with its implica-

tions in the degradation of a broad spectrum of pernicious and persistent organic and
inorganic toxicants, present in the waste materials that accumulate on land mass and
in water bodies. Many such sites can be fully restored and revitalized by the
intervention of various bioremediation strategies. Highly contaminated sites can be
turned toxin-free by implementing appropriate bioremediation techniques. Landfills
that are overloaded, leached, or decommissioned are well-suited to bioremediation.
Overflowing on-site sanitation systems that contaminate soil and groundwater are
also highly responsive to biological treatment. Environmental abatement due to
overuse of fertilizers and animal waste products can also be reverted via bioreme-
diation. At industrial sites chemicals used in production are spilled or discharged in
effluents. Heavy metals like lead and chromium are tough to remediate, but many
lesser pollutants are biologically neutralized. Accidental chemical spills during
transportation including petroleum can be biologically treated. Petroleum products
and wood preservatives are highly receptive to bioremediation. Various studies have
reported that mine site tailings can be extremely toxic, and bioremediation efforts
have proved to be very successful in detoxifying old mine quarries and pits.
Limitations of Bioremediation
Bioremediation has indisputably emerged as a meritoriously exceptional and pub-

licly accepted candidate for dealing with certain types of contaminated sites. How-
ever, despite being hailed as a panacea for fruitful and secure clean-up technology,
bioremediation does have its own limitations. Apart from the sound fundamental
knowledge about bioremediation techniques, there is need for providing a straight-
forward, pragmatic view of the processes involved in bioremediation, their pros and
cons, and the prime issues to be taken into account while considering the proposals
for bioremediation. Table 2 summarizes various pros and cons of the process of
bioremediation.
Table 2 A brief summary of advantages and disadvantages of the process of bioremediation

Advantages Disadvantages
Natural and ecologically comprehensive Toxicity and nature of biodegradation products
process, as the residues of the biological are unpredictable; they may be more persistent
treatment are usually carbon dioxide, water, and recalcitrant than parent compounds,
and cell biomass having adverse impact on the environment
Potentiality to completely degrade and Uncertainty to claim whether remediation is
transform the hazardous compounds into cent-percent accomplished owing to dearth of
non-toxic end products standard parameters to define the aspect of
absolutely clean and uncontaminated site
Perspective to employ in situ bioremediation While employing ex situ bioremediation
techniques does not disrupt the normal techniques, excavation and removal of
activities and also cut down the transportation contaminants will not only disrupt normal
costs activities but also impose the additional
transportation costs
Minimal risk of human exposure ensures the Transportation of hazardous waste increases
safety of workers the risk of human exposure to toxic
compounds
Inexpensive, profitable, and economically Certain bioremediation technologies involve
feasible technology involving minimal high cost capital for manufacturing and
equipment, obligations designing various equipment, along with high
operational costs as well
Synthetic Biology: An Emerging Ingenious Technology

in Escalating Bioremediation Efficacy
There is tremendous expansion in bioremediation efforts for reverting the detrimen-

tal effects of environmental contamination; and to device up sustainable approaches
in using natural resources without further degrading the environment is among the
top priorities of researchers across the globe. Recent advancements in biotechnology
have generated new approaches for managing, sensing, and remediating pollutants,
including the transformation of waste into value-added molecules or energy. Syn-
thetic biology that has the potential to play a central role in the development of
bioremediation strategies is turning out to be a lucrative alternative to the costly and
environmentally deleterious methods of remediation.
Synthetic biology is built on the existing technologies involving the applica-
tion of engineering principles to molecular biology. It is an emerging field of
research which couples the knowledge and methods of biology, engineering, and
other related fields to develop organisms with enhanced and robust traits of
interest applicable for the conservation of ecosystems. The potential for effective
decontamination is increased when considering developments in engineering
synthetic microbial consortia, rather than individual strains, for the same pur-
pose. By distributing the metabolic burden into multiple strains, the process can
be optimized, and undesirable effects, such as toxicity, can be minimized
(Athanasakoglou 2019).
A notable progress has been observed in the success rate of bioremediation with
the role of specific genes and enzymes applicable via synthetic biology methodol-
ogies. Engineered biological systems containing strong oxidative enzymes have
been developed, typically bacteria and fungi, for bioremediation, and used to recycle
recalcitrant polymers and xenobiotic materials. Many plants can also be engineered
to increase their ability to uptake and immobilize various pollutants in the environ-
mental systems. With the help of novel cell-free or cell-based solutions offered by
synthetic biology, individual species of microorganisms, microbial ecosystems com-
posed of multi-species communities, or metabolic parts of them are engineered to
better utilize, remediate, and conserve our natural resources and even produce useful
compounds from waste.
Synthetic biology is addressing the decontamination and remediation strategies
for xenobiotics and related compounds from the environment. It aids in the conser-
vation of environment and rescuing the contaminated natural resources by engineer-
ing the genetic circuits, metabolic pathways, and enzymes in the microorganisms,
which serve as biosensors for toxic contaminants, act as natural agents for bioreme-
diation, and function as cell factories to produce useful compounds such as food,
chemicals, and energy from the industrial and agricultural waste materials (https://
www.genscript.com).
Bioremediation Comprehending a Circular Economy Perspective
Waste management practices must take into account every opportunity to reduce the
generation of waste and to recycle the waste already generated, in addition to waste
collection, disposal, and storage. The strategies for waste management integrated
with the concept of circular economy are a beneficial factor both environmentally
and economically. Circular economy is a systematic approach to economic devel-
opment, designed to benefit businesses, society, and environment. The objective of
circular economy is based on exploiting the available resources for as long as
possible so as to extract the maximum benefit from them while in use and then
recycle them to recover and regenerate the products to be reused in future. This
restorative and regenerative economy is based on three principles – to figure out
waste and pollution, to keep products and materials in use, and to regenerate natural
systems. It figures out the negative impacts of economic activity that cause damage
not only to human and animal health but to other natural systems also. Circular
economy favors activities that preserve value in the form of energy, labor, and
materials.
The environmental matrices (land mass and water bodies) are being continuously
converted into potholes/sinks of unregulated and untreated toxic waste material
dispersed from various sources. Moreover, the natural resources are under immense
pressure as the rate at which they are exploited and consumed is far greater than the
rate at which they can be replenished. To achieve a cleaner and greener environment,
focus should be principally dedicated to develop and implement innovative clean-up
strategies assisted by advanced scientific techniques so as to restore the
contaminated sites for fruitful outcomes and to promote environment regeneration.

The prime need of the present times is to harness the natural forces and utilize the
energy in an efficacious manner to reduce the accumulation of waste so as to
minimize or eliminate the environmental pollution, thus reducing the negative
impacts on the ecosystems. Since there is an increased recognition of the exigency
to preserve the earth’s natural resources, the essence of bioremediation is to maxi-
mize the net environmental benefits of clean-up while restoring the natural resources.
Bioremediation has the potential to provide an innovative and sustainable solution to
decontaminate the polluted horizons, by utilizing these sites (whether contaminated
land or wastewater) to boost the economy. Hence, bioremediation has the merits of
being a protagonist of circular economy by regenerating and reviving the natural
systems. The increase in the prominence of bioremediation as a tool in the circular
economy is because it offers broad prospects to achieve a balanced consumption and
production statistics for enhanced economic growth and healthy environments for
sustenance of life on earth.
The natural agents (bacteria, fungi, algae, and plants) are unarguably the key
players in the progress of circular economy based on bioremediation. Microorgan-
isms employed in the task of remediation rely on the environmental wastes as their
food source, reducing the load of waste. They produce a plethora of extracellular and
intracellular enzyme systems which act as biocatalysts to convert the organic
contaminants into numerous products that contribute to the environmental stability
and sustainability by mitigating the negative impacts of the waste materials and
improving the resource efficiency. Enzyme immobilization technology is a produc-
tive tool for environmental stewardship with economic benefits for degradation,
detoxification, and removal of persistent recalcitrant pollutants, owing to their
remarkable properties of stability, recycling efficiency, and repeated usability.
Bioremediation of the industrial or domestic wastes under anaerobic condition
can be utilized to manage the waste and to produce fuels as well. Biomethanation has
a strong potential for the production of energy from organic wastes, which helps to
reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and carbon dioxide emission. Biogas is the
gaseous by-product obtained during anaerobic digestion which is rich is methane
along with a significant amount of other gases like carbon dioxide. Nutrient-rich
liquid digestate obtained from anaerobic digestion can be used as the cultivation
medium for natural agents (microalgae), performing biogas upgrading carbon diox-
ide sequestration and digestate bioremediation simultaneously. Spent mushroom
substrate (usually considered a waste product) has its application to promote circular
economy. It can be used as compost, as a substrate for other mushroom-forming
fungi, and as animal feed, to produce enzymes and biofuels, thus making agricultural
production more sustainable and efficient. Phytoremediation utilizing plants’ degra-
dative mechanisms is an emerging bio-based, solar energy-driven, and less disrup-
tive technology reported to possess high biomass yielding capacity. Excess nutrients
in wastewaters can be recovered and further reprocessed via phytoremediation to
produce raw materials, fertilizers, and food additives which have their respective
applications in the chemical, agricultural, and food industries. Integrating bioreme-
diation with carbon dioxide sequestration for revitalizing contaminated land while
deriving bio-products from renewable and waste biomass promotes a sustainable

bioeconomy. Biomass grown in a multi-contaminated soil can be used for energy
purposes without any negative impact on the environment.
Microorganisms play a crucial role in creating a circular production cycle for
plastics, where they are reused, recycled, and upcycled through their conversion to
biodegradable polymers, which allow the return of carbon to nature in a managed,
safe, and sustainable way. Circular systems make effective use of bio-based mate-
rials by encouraging many different uses for them as they cycle between the
economy and the natural systems. A circular economy avoids the use of
non-renewable resources and preserves or enhances the renewable ones, for exam-
ple, by returning valuable nutrients to the soil to support regeneration or using
renewable energy as opposed to relying on fossil fuels. Synthetic biology can
contribute to circular economy by proffering a bio-based, controlled, and cost-
saving alternative to the chemical processes that adopt biocatalysts developed
through metabolic engineering which enable the production of degradable plastics,
food, and biofuels.
The application of the concept of “green chemistry” proposes the development of
green, sustainable, efficient, and low-cost solutions for soil, sediment, and water
bioremediation. It aids in generating an innovative, enhanced, and sustainable econ-
omy. Green chemistry focuses its prime attention toward decreasing and preventing
the generation of pollutants at their sources. Green environmental approaches are key
to minimize or, if possible, eliminate any ecologically unsafe components, for
reclamation of the contaminated soil, air, and water. Phytoremediation is the most
promising green technology which is considered to be an inherently safer clean-up
process.
The implementation of different bioremediation clean-up strategies to remediate
the site in question must take into consideration all the options to maximize the
overall environmental rejuvenation including the economical aspects. Bioremedia-
tion is a slow process and occurs over a long period of time, so the changes in the
dynamics of the natural systems might not be evident for several years. Therefore,
periodic assessment of the contaminated site is a must for any further modification in
the treatment process. Diligent master planning and thorough site surveys are a must
for ecological restoration and preservation of contaminated sites for reuse as green
space. It is the foremost duty of the policy-makers and governments to propose and
impose strict rules and regulations pertaining to eco-friendly and affordable waste
management practices. And, it is the moral duty of industrial organizations and
individuals as well, to make sensible and logical choices while following these rules
and regulations for effective management of resources to revitalize and restore the
natural systems.
Conclusion
Earth’s natural biodiversity is in jeopardy due to the accumulation of waste loaded

with toxic compounds in the environment. Bioremediation is eulogized as a note-
worthy panacea to the jeopardizing ramifications of the waste on the environment. It
is an astounding trait of nature to remediate the contaminants, recycle the wastes, and
restore its resources in a plausible manner. Advancement in the technology has
extended the prospects of success of various bioremediation techniques to a great
deal. It is a reliable technology and can be used simultaneously with other physico-
chemical treatment methods for the management of a wide array of environmental
contaminants. It has the ability to remove the potentially harmful substances from
the environment in a way that can be both highly economical and less intrusive than
other methods. Enzymatic bioremediation is an innovative technology that supports
the perspective of expunging the contaminants by cashing in the enzyme potential of
the microbes. The substantial and pragmatic effects of enzymatic bioremediation
play a key role in eradicating the hazardous components from the environment. The
success of bioremediation lies in its ability to degrade/detoxify the contaminants,
curtail the extraction and consumption of natural resources by recycling waste
materials, and efficiently conduct the management of waste to diminish the environ-
mental impacts of its accumulation.
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100013
Part III
Plastic Waste Management, Rubber Waste
Management, Textile Waste Management, and
E-Waste Management
Utilization of Plastic Wastes and Its
Technologies: An Overview 41
Arenjungla Kichu and Nirmala Devi
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1112
Global Scenario of Plastic Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1113
Plastic Waste Generation: Indian Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1114
Plastic Waste Management: Current Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1114
Landfilling of Waste Plastics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1115
Recycling of Plastic Wastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1115
Mechanical Recycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1116
Chemical Recycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1116
Plastic Waste Management: Modern Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1117
Plasma-Assisted Pyrolysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1118
Biodegradable Plastics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1119
Other Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1121
Recent Approaches in India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1124
Waste Plastic to Fuels (Pyrolysis) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1124
Plasma Pyrolysis Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1125
Polymer-Blended Bitumen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1126
Co-processing of Plastic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1126
Toward Circular Economy Through Green Chemistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1126
Conclusion and Moving Forward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1128
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1129
A. Kichu
Department of Science and Humanities, National Institute of Technology Nagaland,
Dimapur, Nagaland, India
N. Devi (*)
Central Institute of Petrochemicals Engineering and Technology, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_50
1112 A. Kichu and N. Devi
Abstract
Plastic, a highly useful and convenient material, ever since its inception over
110 years ago, has become one of the most useful and versatile material of interest
in material science with a wide range of applications. Its uses can be seen from
agriculture, medical industry, furniture industry, coating, and wiring to packaging
films, IV bags, and containers and are more likely to increase with the ongoing
worldwide developments in the plastic industry. It is of no denial that both
industry and society are heavily reliant on its usage. The fact that it is heavily
used is because of its versatile properties ranging from high resistance to corro-
sion, lightweight, high strength, transparency, low toxicity to durability, and low
manufacturing cost. However, these particular properties that make plastic useful
have also made it into one of the world’s greatest environmental problems.
Plastics, due to its durability, stay in our environment for hundreds of years in
the form of large waste or even in smaller pieces; invisible to our naked eyes, it
chokes marine life and propagates up the food chain. Managing plastic waste is
one of the most critical sectors of today’s world because of continuous increase in
plastic use, its nonbiodegradability, and direct harmful effect to society. In
addition to technical and environmental complications, there are administrative,
economic, and societal tribulations that must be addressed. This chapter focuses
on the overview of plastic wastes, current scenario, and some of the conventional
and modern approaches to plastic waste management.
Keywords
Plastic waste · Modern approaches · Recycling · Wood-plastic composites ·
Green chemistry · Circular economy
Introduction
Plastics are highly useful and convenient because of their versatility and wide
range of applications. Due to its high resistance to corrosion, lightweight, high
strength, transparency, low toxicity to durability, and low manufacturing cost, its
uses can be seen in versatile applications ranging from agriculture, medical
industry, furniture industry, surface paint and coating, wiring industry, and pack-
aging films to IV bags, laboratory, to household containers, etc. and are more
likely to increase with the ongoing worldwide developments in the plastic industry.
It is of no denial that both industry and society are heavily reliant on its usage. In
today’s world, some of the petroleum-based polymers are used in engineering and
special applications, manufacturing of rotors for wind turbines and tunnels, etc.,
while other plastics such as polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene
(PS), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), etc. are some plastics used in commodity house-
hold and household applications. Most of the plastics used today are petroleum-
based. Plastics, by definition, are simple synthetic polymers consisting of small
41 Utilization of Plastic Wastes and Its Technologies: An Overview 1113
molecules (monomers) linked together by covalent bonds in a repetitive formation.

They are, in general, nonreactive, noncorrosive, lightweight, and durable. How-
ever, the particular properties that make plastic useful and the most wonderful
material also make it one of the world’s greatest environmental problems. Since
plastics stay in the environment for hundreds of years, it chokes marine life and
propagates up the food chain. Millions of mammals, birds, reptiles, and fish are
reported to be killed every year by the ingestion of plastic bags among which
turtles are said to be affected the worst. Reportedly, all seven of the world’s turtle
species are already either endangered or threatened. In India, waste management
and disposal is the most neglected sector. About 90% of the wastes in India are
currently disposed of by open dumping which enters into municipal drainage lines
and chokes it resulting in floods as experienced in Mumbai, 1998. Moreover,
according to International Agency for Research and Cancer (IACR), plastics like
vinyl chloride are considered carcinogenic to humans and mammary carcinogen in
animals. Some scientists have rightfully called for reclassifying plastics as hazard-
ous waste. Chromated plastics release harmful toxins through the soil and con-
taminate the groundwater environment. Under Stockholm Convention on
Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), many polybrominated flame retardants are
listed due to its hazardous properties. Phthalate plasticizers such as benzyl butyl
phthalate (BBP) and di(2-ethylene) phthalate (DEHP) are categorized as poisonous
which impairs reproduction. Managing plastics waste is the most critical sector
because of continuous increase in plastic use, its nonbiodegradability, and direct
harmful effect to society and also due to its hazardous properties. In addition to
technical and environmental complications, there are administrative, economic,
and societal tribulations that must be addressed. Unscientific disposal of plastic
wastes triggers environmental degradation due to their long biodegradation period;
therefore, logical methods for reducing their negative effects should be applied
(Banerjee et al. 2009; Masters 2004; Ismail and Hashmi 2008).
Global Scenario of Plastic Waste
The usage of plastics has increased sharply from 1.5 million tons to 299 million tons
in between 1950 and 2013 as reported by the study of Lebreton et al. (2017), and
thereby it was estimated that global plastic production could triple by 2050
(Lebreton et al. 2017). In a study carried out by Eva Sevigné-Itoiz et al. (2015), it
is reported that 80% of the waste patches in the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans are
plastics (Sevigné-Itoiz et al. 2015). Plastic additive markets are growing at about 3%
annual rate in Europe and Asia, whereas China is predicted to grow at 8–10% (www.
plastemart.com). India, on the other hand, is predicted to be higher than that of China
and any other developing countries. Plastic wastes are estimated to about 16% of the
total weight of municipal solid waste as reported by the study of Sutharat Muenmee
et al. (2015). According to several studies in 2010, global annual plastic waste is
roughly 270 million tons of which eight million tons, i.e., 3% of total, goes to ocean.
Moreover, the fact that plastics persist in the environment for hundreds of years
assures that considerable concern has to be focused on plastic waste management in

coming days (Muenmee and Wilai 2015).
Plastic Waste Generation: Indian Scenario
According to DNA news, India ranks 12th in the list of top 20 countries that
disburses maximum amount of plastic waste with China in the forefront followed
by countries in Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Nigeria, Bangladesh, and
South Africa. A study conducted by the Central Institute of Plastics Engineering
and Technology and Central Pollution Control Board (CIPET-CPCB) on the
“Assessment and characterization of plastic waste in 60 major Indian cities”
observed that 94% of plastic waste generated is thermoplastic and recyclable,
while the rest 6% is nonrecyclable thermoset plastics. 67% of the plastic waste
belonged to the low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and high-density polyethylene
(HDPE), 10% to PP (polypropylene), and 8.66% to PET (polyethylene terephthalate)
among others. The data indicates that the largest single sector of plastics use in India
is from the packaging industry constituting about 52% of the total waste. Thus, the
highest consumed plastic in India is LDPE followed by HDPE and PP. Another study
conducted by the University of Georgia, USA, reported that India accounts for 83%
mismanaged waste (Muenmee and Wilai 2015; SGCCI 2000; NPWMTF 1997; He
et al. 2015; Deepthi et al. 2018), which is indeed a matter of concern and necessitates
sustainable solution.
Plastic Waste Management: Current Scenario
The current methods for plastic waste disposal are incineration, landfilling, and
mechanical and chemical recycling. Most countries, especially the developing
countries, opt for landfilling due to its low costs. However, it creates high risk of
environmental concern because of the deterioration of land quality over time due to
higher extent dumping of plastic wastes. Dumping plastic waste in the open space is
a common practice, but the available spaces get exhausted soon and reduce the
fertility of the soil if not scientifically managed. Also, plastic carries pollutants such
as chloro-organic compounds and other organic pollutants which get transferred to
aquatic organisms, and, thus, dumping in open space deteriorates the environment.
Incineration is a prevalent process but very expensive. Improper incineration gener-
ates dioxin, furan derivatives, and heavy metals which further raises environmental
issues (Miskolczi et al. 2009; Angyal et al. 2007). Another effective method is the
thermal degradation of plastic waste by cracking long chains of polyethylene,
polypropylene, and polystyrene into gases and liquids hydrocarbon. However,
steam cracking emits olefin, aromatic and sulfur, while thermal degradation emits
high olefin and aromatic content (Lopez-Urionabarrenechea et al. 2012; European
Commission 2018). Nowadays, pyrolysis process is getting more popular especially
in polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The presence of chlorine in PVC has been a major
concern; therefore improved pyrolysis such as dechlorination method is used

(Al-Salem et al. 2009). Thus, so far, the best approach to tackle the ongoing plastic
waste problem is the idea of reduce, reuse, and recycle. With increasing number of
new initiatives, support from governments, and leading manufacturers, gradual
change is being accomplished (Gershman, Brickner & Bratton, Inc 2013). However,
the change is really slow. Moreover, recycling is costly and recycling alone does not
reduce the plastic consumption. A drastic change in our human behavior and
lifestyle is needed to abstain ourselves from excessive or unnecessary plastic use.
Therefore, in addition to reducing, reusing, and recycling, fundamental changes such
as modification of plastics and regeneration need to go hand in hand with effective
recycling and reuse.
Landfilling of Waste Plastics
Disposing of waste under the soil cover is called landfilling where some plastic
degrades due to environmental factors, such as sunlight, moisture, temperature,
biological activity, etc. Plastic polymers are also degraded by enzymatic oxidation
or hydrolysis where functional groups that make the plastic resin more prone to
degradation by enzyme are created. However, most plastics are resistant against
microbial attack and, therefore, persist in environment potentially harming life and
contaminating groundwater. Burying waste plastics also reduces the possibilities for
recovery of any secondary raw materials or energy for further use. Therefore, the
most efficient way is to replace the conventional plastics by biodegradable polymers.
A lot of biodegradable polymers such as polylactide (PLA), polyglycolide (PGA),
polycaprolactone (PCL), polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), poly(butylene succinate)
(PBS), and poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) are commonly known
where PLA is found to be the most promising candidate (Jamshidian et al. 2010;
Saikia and de Brito 2014). PLA is obtained from a very sustainable resource, i.e.,
lactic acid in corn. However, PLA has a very low thermal property and therefore its
application is restricted above 60 C (Iucolano et al. 2013). But due to its faster
degradation property (approx. 12 months), this material is still being implemented on
an industrial scale. Although the landfilling is the most common and economical
practice to toss out plastic waste in places where abundant spaces are available, it is
one of the most disadvantageous practice in the long run because of creation of
methane and land pollution.
Recycling of Plastic Wastes
A large number of efforts have been devoted to develop innovative technologies in

order to sort out, segregate, and recycle plastic wastes. Plastic waste separation
techniques may be manual or automated. Another way to separate plastic waste is by
triboelectric separation. In a triboelectric separator, the plastics are rubbed against
each other and during the process, one material becomes positively charged and
other becomes negatively charged or neutral. Plastic waste is also separated by using
a technique called speed accelerator technique developed by Result Technology AG
based in Switzerland. In this technique a high-speed accelerator is used to delaminate
the shredded waste, and the delaminated material is separated by air, sieves, and
electrostatics. Paint and coating can be removed by grinding, abrasion, dipping the
coated plastics into suitable solvents, etc. (Luckachan and Pillai 2011). The various
approaches that have been proposed for recycling of waste plastics mainly include
primarily mechanical and chemical recycling methods.
Mechanical Recycling
Mechanical recycling separates plastic polymer from its associated contaminants

through melting, shredding, and other related processes. Here, plastic resins are
separated basing on the variation in melting points. But the process recycles only single
polymer plastics such as PE, PP, PS, etc. However, this technique becomes an issue
because supplying heat or energy causes photooxidation, and moreover as it operates at
a temperature of 200–300 C, many toxic gases are generated (Elvers et al. 2016).
Chemical Recycling
Chemical recycling or feedstock recycling is based on depolymerization processes.

It includes different approaches like pyrolysis, liquid gas hydrogenation, viscosity
breaking, steam or catalytic cracking, etc. Recycling by the chemical method is
popular mainly due to non-catalytic thermal cracking, catalytic cracking, and deg-
radation (Bogaerto et al. 2002). One common example of chemical recycling is
heating of PET in methanol, dimethyl ester of benzene-1, 4-dicarboxylic acid
(dimethyl terephthalic acid) at 600 K to form ethane-1,2-diol, and dimethyl ester.
(a) Pyrolysis
Among the many alternative chemical recycling processes, pyrolysis
has received the most attention. In pyrolysis, plastics are decomposed into
gases and oils in absence of oxygen. The major compounds generated
through pyrolysis are hydrogen, methane, carbon monoxide, and carbon
dioxide gases. Along with it, tar oil stream containing acetic acid, acetone, and
methanol and a char consisting almost pure carbon with some inert materials are
also generated. The effective temperature of pyrolysis for waste plastic streams
varies from 400 C to 650 C or higher. Pyrolysis at elevated temperature
(>600 C) generally produces small gas molecules while at low temperature
(<400 C) gives rise to more viscous liquids. However, there are number of
advantages of pyrolysis process which includes:
• Reduction of carbon dioxide emissions
• Reduction in landfilling
• Fastening up the commercialization of products
• Producing products that produces electricity and heat
(b) Gasification
Gasification is a thermal chemical process which converts carbon-based
material into syn gas (containing carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen,
and methane gas) which can be used for heating, lighting, and power generation.
One of the main advantages of the gasification process is using air instead of
oxygen alone. Direct gasification technique involves the use of a vertical fixed
bed gasification system where air is utilized as gasifying agent. Direct gasifica-
tion is cost-effective; however, presence of nitrogen dilutes the fuel gases and
could reduce the calorific value of the fuels. Gasification technique is mainly
used for PVC, PP, and PET. In the gasifier, the feedstock is first homogenized
into smaller particles and then inserted into the gasifier. Feedstock passes
through several temperature zones where a sequence of reactions occurs before
the syngas produced is removed from the chamber. At the furnace outlet, the
syngas is cooled to below 2000 C to prevent the formation of dioxins and
chlorides which contain plastic solid waste. The gas then passes through a gas
scrubber and remaining hydrogen chloride is neutralized by alkalis. This syn-
thetic gas is used as a raw material to produce chemicals such as hydrogen and
methanol (Jamshidian et al. 2010; Saikia and de Brito 2014; Iucolano et al.
2013). The most significant advantages of gasification process (Iucolano et al.
2013) are it is cost-effective, can help in declining the landfill, and helps to stop
the open dumping of plastic waste.
(c) Hydrogenation
The process of adding hydrogen is called hydrogenation. Plastic wastes are
recycled by adding hydrogen. A typical example of hydrogenation of plastic
solid waste is seen in PVC where agglomerated PVC is kept between 300 C and
400 C for depolymerization and dechlorination. The major products of the
hydrogenation reaction of plastic solid waste include hydrochloric acid, haloge-
nated solid residues, and gases.
India has about 20 thousand recycling industries, but because of the contin-
uous rise in proportion of municipal solid waste and technical complications
involved in the recycling process, it has been found that recycling alone cannot
solve the environmental concern. Moreover, plastics cannot be recycled over and
over again for they later become unfit for further reprocessing. For instance, a
single PVC bottle in a batch of PET type of plastic resins ends up spoiling the
whole batch and may even damage the equipment. Therefore, waste prevention
and resource recovery should be the fundamental principle to sustainable devel-
opment (Elvers et al. 2016).
Plastic Waste Management: Modern Approaches
A lot of research is being carried out all over the world to develop new technologies
for recovery of resources from plastic waste. Mechanical recycling has been most
preferred; however homogeneity and uncontaminated plastics are required for this
process. Therefore, incineration has been accepted as the simplest and most effective
method, and alternative to it is the gasification or pyrolysis. However, conventional
methods of pyrolysis lead to many byproducts which are difficult to separate and be
utilized, while incineration is not favorable from entropic aspects. As a result, lately
attention has been paid to plasma-assisted pyrolysis and plasma gasification.
Plasma-Assisted Pyrolysis
Thermal plasma technology is an attempt to destroy hazardous waste rather than

recycling. In recent years, due to economic issues, the interest in energy and resource
recovery from waste has grown significantly. Plasma-assisted pyrolysis has lots of
advantages over conventional pyrolysis because it provides high temperature and
high energy for reaction and therefore undergoes certain reactions that do not take
place in conventional pyrolysis. The technology has demonstrated lower emission of
dioxins and furans than the accepted limit by the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA), USA. Also, when carbonaceous solids are injected into plasma, they give rise
to CO, H2, CH4, C2H4, and other hydrocarbons or valuable gaseous fuels. Plasma
technology also falls in the category of non-burn technology, thus can be used for
different waste that cannot be treated with burn techniques (Bogaerto et al. 2002;
Pfender 1988; Matsuda 1998; Pfender 1999; Moustakas et al. 2005).
The plasma pyrolysis system can be shown as in the Fig. 1.
Feeder Section
The feeder is used for feeding the waste materials in the primary chambers. In
primary chamber, waste is pyrolyzed at high temperature (>1000 C near pyrolysis
Fig. 1 Flow diagram of plasma (courtesy of CPCB (2016; Ashter 2016)

zone and >650 C close to chamber wall). After the preheating, organic waste is fed
into the primary chamber where it is decomposed in an oxygen-starved environment.
In primary (pyrolysis) chamber, gases such as methane, carbon monoxide, and
hydrogen, are produced. The pyrolysis gases are combusted in a secondary chamber
which increases its temperature between 800 C and 1000 C which forms CO2 and
water vapor.
Plasma Torch and Power Supply

Plasma torch comprises three graphite electrodes (one anode and two cathodes). DC
power supply is used to produce plasma arcs among these electrodes. Plasma torch
converts electrical energy into heat energy in an efficient manner. It is used to heat
the primary chamber where pyrolysis takes place.
Scrubber
In scrubbing chamber 12pH NaOH solution is sprinkled using a pump. The hot gases
coming out from the secondary chamber are quenched in Venturi scrubber and
finally scrubbed in the secondary scrubber.
Induced Draft Fan and Chimney

The gases such as CO2, H2O are released in the environment using induced
draft fans.
Pyrolyzer/Reactor
Hot plasma is generated using plasma torch and power supply which are then used
for the disposal of waste. There are two types of plasma arcs: transferred arc and
non-transferred arc. Graphite plasma torch is used for the disposal of plastic waste.
Plasma torch has three graphite electrodes (one anode and two cathodes) which are
connected with power supply. Plasma torch then converts electrical energy into heat
energy which is used to heat the primary chamber (Puncochar et al. 2012; Binici and
Aksogan 2016).
Biodegradable Plastics
Biodegradable plastics are defined as those plastics that are degraded into water,
carbon dioxide, and humus under specific conditions by microorganisms. Biode-
gradable plastics are considered as an obvious solution to the plastic waste manage-
ment problem, but research has proven that they still lag behind fossil-based
polymers in required properties.
Since the 1970s, attempts have been made to create all sorts of biodegradable
plastics, mostly from renewable materials such as potato starch, sugar cane, and
cellulose, but despite these efforts, biodegradable products currently account less
than 5% of all plastics in the market. This could also be because of their compara-
tively high cost. But moreover, according to a study by University College Dublin,
published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology in August 2018, some
biodegradable plastics when discarded into the environment persist for a very long
time. It was reported that only two types of biodegradable polymers promptly
dissolve in the ocean, thermoplastic starch and polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB); other-
wise the rest ends up as garbage or in the stomachs of whales. According to Ramesh
Babu Padamati, a senior research fellow in the polymer materials research unit at
Trinity College Dublin, many biodegradable plastics do not even degrade in a natural
environment; therefore certain conditions such as temperatures and microbial culture
should be maintained and that chemical engineers should find right balance between
material’s ability to biodegrade and create appropriate chemical, thermal, and
mechanical properties.
Scientists have also made various attempts some of which are controversial in
closer look, such as (1) oxo-biodegradable plastics and (2) hydro-biodegradable
plastics. Oxo-biodegradable plastics are made using the same technology as con-
ventional plastics. They are made from polymers such as PE, PP, and PS where a
small amount of pro-degradant additives such as salt of manganese or iron is added.
These pro-degradant catalyzes the abiotic degradation process because the metal
speeds up fragmentation when exposed to oxygen and heat, and, thereby, these
additives reduce the molecular structures into lower compounds such as ketones,
alcohols, carboxylic acid, etc. which can then be consumed by bacteria and fungi.
Oxo-biodegradable plastics are currently said to be made from naphtha, a byproduct
of oil refining. However, even if oxo-degradable plastics rapidly break down through
exposure to sunlight and oxygen, they are still said to persist as huge quantities of
microplastics which are extremely harmful to the environment.
Hydro-biodegradable plastics are made from plant sources such as starch whose
degradation is initiated by hydrolysis. However, many of such plastics contain 50%
of synthetic plastics derived from oil, while genetically modified crops are also used
in some. But it has been seen that while making raw materials to make such plastics,
a significant amount of fossil-fuel energy and water is consumed, while residues
from starches like bitter cassava from tapioca are said to be seriously toxic. As a
result, such plastics are seen to have more detrimental effect than good.
Therefore, experts are of the view that a lot more developmental work needs to be
done by modifying the microbes, or microbial cell factories, using various metabolic
engineering techniques, knocking out genes, and improving biochemical pathways
to make proper monomers of the plastics. For instance, Japanese researchers in 2016
reported a type of bacteria called Ideonella sakaiensis which breaks down PET into
its basic building blocks. In 2018, researchers from University of Portsmouth created
a mutant version of this enzyme which reportedly broke down the PET more
efficiently by 20% as compared to the original enzyme. And in this way, the
researchers hope that such modifications of enzyme and further studies could help
clean up the world’s seas and land that are contaminated with plastics, in the future.
Recently, research interest has been growing toward developing bioplastics as
they are considered to be an alternative to petroleum-based polymers. Due to their
renewability, environmental friendliness, availability, and sustainability, they are
considered the most promising candidates to replace the nonbiodegradable
petroleum-based materials. The word “bioplastic” is used for both bio-based plastics
and biodegradable plastics. However, not all bio-based plastics are biodegradable
and not all biodegradable plastics are bio-based. Bio-based plastics are biologically
synthesized from natural origins such as plants, animals, or microorganisms (Gironi
and Piemonte 2011; Nagalakshmaiah et al. 2019).They can either be made by
extracting sugar from plants like corn and sugarcane to convert into polylactic
acids (PLAs), or they can be made from polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) engineered
from microorganisms. Common biopolymers such as cellulose, chitosan, starch,
collagen, and soy protein are also frequently used. Over the recent years, microbial
degradation and valorization of plastic wastes have surfaced increasingly with
special focus on plastics such as PE, PS, PP, PUR, and PET. Some microorganisms
and enzymes that are capable of degrading plastics include Rhodococcus ruber
C208, Bacillus sphaericus Alt, Arthrobacter sp. GMB5 and GMB7, Pseudomonas
sp. E4 and AKS2, Xanthomonas sp., Sphingobacterium sp., mealworms (Tenebrio
molitor), superworms (Zophobas atratus), etc. However, there is a lack of under-
standing in the depolymerases which contributes to breaking down of plastics, and,
therefore, more efforts are needed to understand such mechanisms along with
rational protein engineering (Huo and Yu 2020; Fesscha and Abebe 2019).
Other Technologies
Lately, utilization of waste products for construction materials has become signifi-
cant in tackling the environmental issues. Many works have been published regard-
ing the use of plastic waste such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle,
polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe, high-density polyethylene (HDPE), expanded poly-
styrene foam (EPS), glass-reinforced plastic (GRP), polycarbonate, thermoplastic
recycled polystyrene, and polypropylene fiber in manufacturing concretes
(Shanmugapriya and Santhi 2017; Jha et al. 2014; Sayadi et al. 2016; Pastor et al.
2014; Wang et al. 2014; Dalhat and Al-Abdul Wahhab 2017; Yang et al. 2015). Here,
plastics are added in the form of plastic aggregates (PA) or plastic fibers (PF) to the
concrete mixture in order to replace coarse aggregates and common steel fiber,
respectively.
Since PA has lower bulk density than granite, limestone, or basalt, thus, to make a
lightweight concrete, PA are used. Common steel fibers are also replaced by plastic
fibers (PF) as reinforcement to improve mechanical and strength durability (Becker
et al. 2001). Efforts have also been made to add plastic polymers in asphalt concrete
to improve its quality. Appiah et al. 2017 conducted a case study by using HDPE and
PP in constructing roads in Ghana. They found that the addition of thermoplastic
modifiers to conventional bitumen improved the viscoelastic behavior of the bitu-
men and changed its rheological properties. They thereby concluded that waste
plastic-modified bitumen carries great promise as an alternative recycling method
for plastic waste management in Ghana, as well as a nontraditional, modified binder
for road construction (Appiah et al. 2017). More studies presented that each polymer
has their own effects in the asphalt physical properties. For example, HDPE
increases the temperature and aging resistance, PP widens the plasticity range and
improves the binder’s load resistance, and ethyl vinyl acetate (EVA) stiffens the
asphalt, much like a hard plastic, so it is considered a plastomer. Styrene butadiene

(SB) and styrene butadiene styrene (SBS) block copolymers can increase the
elasticity of the asphalt, much like a rubber band, so they are considered elastomers.
Another group of elastomeric polymers, styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) latex poly-
mers, increases the ductility of asphalt cements (Appiah et al. 2017; Morgan and
Mulder 1995; Becker et al. 1994; Giavarini 1994; Heshmat et al. 1995; Isacsson and
Lu 1995a; Daly et al. 1994; Zielinski 1989; Defoor 1990; Serfaas et al. 1992). Waste
plastics are also used as a fuel in cement kilns because the extreme temperature
inside the kilns reduces the possibility of generating toxic gases. Recently, the waste
plastics are reused as fuels instead of coke or pulverized coal in blast furnace during
smelting of iron (Giavarini et al. 1993). And last but not the least, recent innovations
have turned heads to a new material on the scene called wood-plastic composites
(WPC) which as the name suggests is a material created from a unique blend of
natural wood and plastic fibers. The most exciting thing about WPC is that it can be
created entirely from recycled materials which starts as a paste and can be molded to
almost any shape and size, including arched or bent shapes. In addition to it, wood-
plastic composite is moisture-resistant and rot-resistant and is currently gaining
momentum in the market all over the world. A study performed at National Institute
of Technology Nagaland, India, focused on improving the mechanical and water-
repelling property of local waste teak wood dust and recycled polypropylene (Figs. 2
and 3) and found promising results.
A plastic waste management center (PWMC) in Guwahati, Assam, a center of
CIPET, an autonomous institution of the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers,
Government of India, is conducting skill development and entrepreneurship gener-
ation through plastic wastes. For example, as a part of one of their projects, plastic
dustbins were distributed in some selected area, two each at every household, and
villagers were requested to store the plastics wastes in the dust bins provided to them.
Local workers of the center and vicinity areas collected the wastes from the indi-
vidual village houses. The plastic wastes collected were used as raw material for the
waste recycling plant at the center. The center utilizes a universal mechanical
recycling facility and converts plastic wastes such as PE, PP, PSA, ABS, PET, etc.
to value-added end products. The entire process is self-sustaining and generates
awareness as well as employment generation in the plastic waste sector. Thus, waste
plastics are treated as a source of raw materials and not as environmental and societal
burden.
Plastics are rarely used as virgin. Several additives such as peptizers, plasti-
cizers, lubricants, flow promoters, antioxidants, stabilizers, flame retardants, etc.
are used in plastics during processing. These hazardous chemicals which are used
in very small amounts are mostly persistent organic pollutants that possess great
concern. The contamination of new products developed from recycled plastics
materials may contain persistent organic pollutants and other toxic substances
generate human and environmental exposure. This is the greatest challenge pos-
sessed by recycling technology and needs major attention and focus in research
field. Finding eco-friendly alternatives to the additives or finding innovative
solutions to this problem or will take plastics as whole and recycling technology
to a new pinnacle.
Fig. 2 Different steps of making and testing wood polymer composite sheets
Fig. 3 Water uptake study of waste-based wood polymer composites
Recent Approaches in India
Various approaches and technologies are aimed at to solve the problem of plastic
waste management in India and worldwide. Among them, some approaches to
effectively utilize the waste plastics in India are summarized below.
Waste Plastic to Fuels (Pyrolysis)
Pyrolysis is defined as the breaking down of polymer molecules into smaller

molecules in the presence of heat and catalyst (such as aluminum oxides, fly ash,
red mud, and calcium hydroxide) in an inert atmosphere (Kakuta et al. 2008).
Depending upon the process followed, pyrolysis of plastics has an average yield of
45–50% oil, 35–40% gases, and 10–20% tar (Daly et al. 1994). Compared to other
developed countries, India has yet to generate a business model for the conversion of
plastic waste to fuel. The Indian Institute of Petroleum, a Council of Scientific and
Industrial Research Laboratory, in Dehradun, developed a unique process of
converting polyethylene and polypropylene to fuels like gasoline or diesel. It is
reported that the technology is capable of converting 1 kg of plastic to 750 ml of
automotive grade gasoline. Rudra Environmental Solutions, Pune, has designed
and developed a pyrolysis plant where 1 ton of plastic waste can be converted to
600–650 L of fuel with almost 60% conversion rate. M K Aromatics Ltd. has set up
two plants in Goa to convert plastic waste to fuel. Hydroxy Systems Pvt. Ltd.
Hyderabad has adopted a different technique in the production of fuel oil from
plastic waste. It has been claimed that the process is safe, controllable, and
pollution-free and also holds the approval of the State Pollution Control Board.
The facility has the capacity to convert around 13–15 t of plastic waste per month
into approximately 500 L of fuel. Hence, in order to successfully establish the
business model to convert plastic waste to fuel for both industrial and domestic
use, it is crucial to develop proper infrastructure and also to create better customer
awareness (Kakuta et al. 2008; Ashter 2016; Wong et al. 2015).
Plasma Pyrolysis Technology
In India to introduce a cleaner and safer technology, Facilitation Centre for Industrial
Plasma Technology (FCIPT), Institute for Plasma Research, had taken initiatives to
develop plasma pyrolysis technology with the financial support from Technology
Information Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC) and Department of
Science and Technology (DST), New Delhi. FCIPT successfully developed and
demonstrated plasma pyrolysis technology to dispose organic waste and commis-
sioned first prototype demonstration model in Goa for biomedical waste disposal
(Wong et al. 2015; Nema and Ganeshprasad 2002; Nema 2007). With financial
support from Centre for Fire, Explosive and Environment Safety (CFEES), Defense
Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), FCIPT has even successfully
worked on recovering electrical energy while disposing plastic and cotton waste
(Nema et al. 2016). The CPCB 2016results suggested that the emission of toxic
pollutants such as dioxins and furans was lower than the prescribed norms set for
hazardous waste incinerators. Emissions from the exhaust of FCIPTs plasma pyrol-
ysis system as found in literature reports are tabulated in Table 1.
The possibility of recovering energy is also discussed basing on the pyrolysis of
polyethylene.
½CH2 CH2 n þ H2 O þ Heat ) xCH4 þ yH2 þ zCO þ Soot

þ higher HC ð1Þ
CH4 þ H2 O ) CO þ 3H2 ð2Þ
C þ H2 O ) CO þ H2 ð3Þ
When the electrical energy passes through plasma, the energy is utilized for
melting of plastics and bond dissociation (degradation) and in endothermic
Table 1 Emissions from the exhaust of FCIPTs plasma pyrolysis system (Nema et al. 2016)
Pollutants CPCB Stnd. Plasma system
CO 100 mg/Nm3 40–85 mg/Nm3
NOx 400 mg/Nm3 7–25 mg/Nm3
Dioxin and furan 0.1 ng/Nm3 TEQ 0.01 ng/Nm3 TEQ
reactions. It is then followed by the combustion of CO and H2 and CH4 gas

exothermically releasing energy in the form of heat and light.
CO þ § O2 ¼ CO2 ΔH ¼ 67:63 Kcal ð4Þ
H2 þ § O2 ¼ H2 O ΔH ¼ 57:82 Kcal ð5Þ
CH4 þ O2 ! CO2 þ H2 O ΔH ¼ 212:22 Kcal ð6Þ
Polymer-Blended Bitumen
For enhancing the quality of roads and pavements, utilization of plastic waste is being
carried out at various cities in India. The procedure is considered simple. Plastic waste is
first segregated and then shredded to a particular size (2–4 mm). The shredded plastic
waste is then added to the aggregate, and the bitumen is heated to 160 C to result in
good binding. The first plastic road in India was built in 2002 in Jambulingam Street of
Chennai. In the year 2004, the KK Plastic Waste Management Ltd, Bengaluru, laid
250 km of roads in Karnataka. Similarly in 2015/2016, the National Rural Road
Development Agency laid around 7,500 km of roads using plastic waste. It is reported
that, currently, there are more than 21,000 miles of plastic roads in India and for every
km of road (3.75 m width), 1 ton of plastic (10, 00,000 carry bags) is used for every ton
of bitumen that is saved reassuring that it not only mitigates plastic waste management
but even ensures petrochemical resource conservation (King and King 1986; Isacsson
and Lu 1995b; Zorrob and Suparama 2004).
Co-processing of Plastic
Using of waste materials as an alternate fuel or raw materials in industrial processes

such as cement plants is known as co-processing. The advantage about this technology
is that it can substitute the use of coal and petroleum in industries like the cement plants.
As, for example, a collaborative work between Gujarat Pollution Control Board
(GPCB), recycled paper-based industries and cement industries in Gujarat state of
India succeeded in having a scientific solution of utilizing this technology by designing
it a new way, and paper mills got rid of their enormous plastic wastes generated as
cement plants started utilizing the waste plastics of paper industries (Shah 2018). The
good news is that in 2012, Gujarat’s success story encouraged neighboring Rajasthan to
utilize the paper waste plastic-based technology as thermal substitute for cement kilns
that promoted circular economy and overall reduction in pollution.
Toward Circular Economy Through Green Chemistry
As per “The Ellen MacArthur Foundation” report on the New Plastics Economy, it is
estimated that 100 million marine animals die each year due to discarded plastics and
that by 2050, there could be more plastic than fish in the world’s oceans. Plastics, as
discussed before, are a highly valuable material because they are not only convenient
but have significant role to play in economy and business of modern world.
According to the World Economic Forum, every year, globally there is a loss of
$80–$120 billion from plastic packaging waste alone. Therefore, it is crucial to stress
on safe and efficient distribution of the plastic products among the consumers. This
can be done by moving the plastics toward a circular economy and stopping the
“take-make-dispose” model of consumption. As of now, plastics products get
manufactured, bought, used briefly, and then thrown away making it highly
unsustainable. According to a “Science Daily” report, globally, only 14% of the
plastic reaches the recycling plants where only 9% gets recycled, which means the
left overs are disposed in fragile ecosystems, while 40% ends up in landfill which
contributes to huge economic losses. Therefore, it has become largely significant for
the production company to take fast and radical action against plastic products.
The implementation of “circular economy”, a nascent concept to improve the
resource and energy efficiency, has been proposed by Leontief. A circular economy
is restorative and regenerative by design. The concept deals with how materials
constantly flow around a “closed-loop” system, rather than being used once and then
discarded. According to World Business Council for Sustainable Development
(WBCSD), circular economy can identify the environmental priorities covering
information about material flow, carbon, water, and ecological footprints and can
develop an advanced concept that can change the businesses, government, and the
performance of societies. Heading toward a circular economy will also aid in
achieving the UN Sustainable Goal on Sustainable Consumption and Production.
Since circular economy aims in balancing the economic growth, resource sustain-
ability, and environmental protection, integration of green chemistry principle and
circular economy should be implemented by the government, in industries, and in
education.
Green chemistry principle should be integrated into the circular economy con-
cept, using five strategies: (i) establishment of cross-departmental collaboration,
(ii) development of cleaner production and green polymer product, (iii) provision
of integrated chemical management system, (iv) implementation of green chemistry/
polymer education program, and (v) construction of a business model supporting the
principles. “Plastic” must become a responsibility for each producing company. The
company should set goals to reduce the use of virgin plastics by redesigning their
products and aim on collecting more plastics for recycling rather than selling. The
companies along with the government can collaborate and set up industries that can
produce high-quality recycled products and ensure that 100% of their plastic pack-
aging must be fully reusable, recyclable, or compostable. The government and the
companies can strictly focus on disciplinary elements of redesign-reduction-recov-
ery-recycle-reuse (5Rs) practices.
Since, the concept of green chemistry has been holistically developed to synthe-
size less hazardous chemicals and products, prevent wastes, atom economy, design
benign chemicals, design for energy efficiency, design for degradation use of
renewable feedstock, preventing pollution, reducing environmental impact, and
thereby, enhancing economic benefits since 1990s. It generally highlights the design
of safer chemicals, the use of catalysts rather than stoichiometric reagents, and the
prevention of waste production and prevents pollution in molecular level and

benefits human health, environment, and sustainability. To date, several presidential
green chemistry challenge awards are given to honor the technologies and significant
innovations in plastics sector that incorporates green chemistry pathway into plastic
design, manufacture, and applications and thereby promote the environment, sus-
tainability, and circular economy. Thus, achieving sustainability and circular econ-
omy by using the pathway of green chemistry is thought to be the most excellent
solution pathway for the growth of future plastic engineering and polymer industry.
Thus, the application of green chemistry concept emphasizes on building sustain-
ability and role of chemists in achieving it. This is a foundational component to
achieve the circular economy in the area of plastics. A circular system in polymer
chemistry or more specifically in the life cycle of a plastic, starting from laboratory,
production to use with zero or minimal waste possesses utmost potential in future
plastic industry. For instance, a Unilever company in Chile has moved from using a
nonrecyclable folding carton for three detergent brands – Omo, Drive, and Rinso – to
a 100% polyethylene (HDPE) bag which is recyclable, saving 1,634 t a year. In
Brazil, in 2018, they launched a 3-L bottle for Omo laundry detergent brand, with a
formula at six times the concentration of the original, so it can be diluted in people’s
homes which have reportedly reduced the volume of plastic used by 75%. In India,
Gujarat- and Rajasthan-based cement industries are already using paper-based waste
plastics for reducing their thermal energy requirement from coal or petroleum (Shah
2018) and promoting circular economy.
Conclusion and Moving Forward
It is clear from the published reports and literature that currently waste plastic
technology-based products like WPCs are significantly growing in the Indian and
international market. Despite its initial focus only on decking, it has been extending
its applications including doors, railing, façade, and furniture and is often considered
as the new face of the furniture industry. This is because of their biggest strength in
its ability to resist rotting and decaying and also because of its eco-friendly proper-
ties (Deka et al. 2012; Rathnam et al. 2020). In 2018, the country head (WPC)
company, Alstone, has started to invent WPC doors and doorframes. However, there
is indeed a lot more to work on plastic waste-based WPC products to grow in this
field. Good thing is that, beyond WPCs, a lot of research is being conducted
worldwide to further improve the plastic waste-based products. Some of these
waste plastic-based products possess great potential as booming industry in future.
Waste plastic-based WPC is only an example. There are number of products and
ways that need rethinking and redesigning plastics to provide safer, less hazardous,
green, and circular solutions.
It is time to reboot the plastic industry with circular solutions. There is no denial
that there lies an urgent need of new innovations in the area of waste plastics that will
be able to create a circular economy. Bringing in systemic change and innovations in
recycling technology and redesigning plastics is thus the need of this hour. Company
should collaborate with the government and with each other and invest in infrastruc-
ture of waste industries, making recycling more efficient. To help boost recycling
rates, global programs and partnership must stress on emerging green technologies
and explore means to develop new “closed-loop” business models that can allow
plastics to enter fully into a circular economy model.
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Integrated Strategy of Plastic Waste
Management to Green Environmental 42
Sustainability and Health Care
Sugumaran Karuppiah and Mahalakshmi Mathivanan
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1134
Universal Consequence of Left-over Plastics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1135
Plastic Manufacture, Ingesting, and Waste Generation: Worldwide Consequence . . . . . . . . 1135
Plastic Manufacture, Ingesting, and Waste Generation: Indian Consequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1135
Reducing the Consumption of Plastic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1138
Edification and Consciousness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1139
Refining the Discarding of Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1139
Removal and Assortment of Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1140
Processing and Sustainability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1141
Avoiding Littering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1141
Waste Management Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1142
Energy Recovery from Plastics Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1143
Ecological Pollutant Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1143
Management of Plastic Left-over . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1144
Reuse, Recycling, Ignition, and Landfill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1144
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1145
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1145
Abstract
Plastics are an essential measure of culture and are used differently. A setup of
molecular monomers assured composed to custom macromolecules is composed
of plastics. Owing to nondegradability and the production of noxious vapors
during incineration during ignition, there are growing concerns. There is growing
solicitation in wrapping, farming, and vehicles and biomedical due to the
S. Karuppiah
School of Chemical and Biotechnology, SASTRA Deemed University, Thanjavur, India
e-mail: sugumaran@biotech.sastra.edu
M. Mathivanan (*)
School of Civil Engineering, SASTRA Deemed University, Thanjavur, India
e-mail: mahalakshmi@civil.sastra.edu

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_52
1134 S. Karuppiah and M. Mathivanan
development of the preferred form color and description expedient to consumers.

Owing to advances in information technology, intellectual, and smooth wrapping
systems, they are indispensable for the new century. Efforts are under way to
build an effective and accurate conversation between sustainable raw materials
and advanced polymeric products through new technologies that are greater in
relations of efficiency, environment, and charge. In tributaries and shoreline areas,
due to indiscriminate dumping by consumers, aquatic contamination is rising at a
wilder pace. R&D strategies are currently focusing on exploring whether marine
organisms’ ingestion of plastic debris results in harmful revelations for people
who eat seafood with precise significance to plasticizers, phthalates, stabilizers,
heavy metals, methyl mercury, lead cadmium, and BPA. There is a connection
between the biological effects of pollution and the subsequent economic effects
and losses. The establishment in developing countries of reasonable, efficient,
and genuinely defensible left-over management performs as a pillar of sustainable
development.
Keywords
Plastic waste · Solid waste management · Microplastic · Left-over · Ingestion
Introduction
As well as the efforts to tackle global warming, environmental concern generated by

insufficient waste management encourages steps toward ecological managing of the
organic segment of the waste. A selection of techniques for waste organization and
left-over reduction are combined in integrated waste management (Ackerman 2000).
It may include the burial of left-over in sanitary landfills and the combustion of
unused in incinerators for bulk burn. As town populations endure to increase and
ingesting habits change, solid waste supervision has become a problem of growing
universal concern. For a broad variety of synthetic or semi-artificial organic solid
resources, plastic is the general name. Plastics are usually high-molecular-weight
polymers. Typically they are artificial, furthermost often originating from petro-
chemicals, although most of them are moderately natural. To enhance performance,
a polymer can comprise other condiments such as plasticizers, stabilizers, lubricant,
UV-absorbing material, and flame retardants. All facts of anthropological life, such
as wrapping, cultivation, aquatic transport, building, telecommunications, education,
medicine, transport, protection, and customer durables, have been permeated by
plastics. Due to their ease of manufacturing, one of the causes for the great success of
plastics is because of the immense variety of properties exhibited by them. There-
fore, the need for plastics in recent existing has increased to boost the eminence of
existence.
The amount of plastic left-over in municipal solid waste (MSW) is growing
owing to inhabitant’s growth, construction accomplishments, and lifestyle fluctua-
tions. The health and environmental consequences concomitant with the
42 Integrated Strategy of Plastic Waste Management to Green Environmental. . . 1135
management of solid left-over are growing, especially in the background of emerg-

ing nations and environmental clearance regulatory necessities (Benjamin et al.
2015). Since the 1960s, while scheme assessments primarily target precise, designed
schemes which have been used to assist SWM agencies in developed countries, the
SWM sector in developing nations is dominated by collection and removal. It should
be understood that the waste created during healthcare accomplishments transmits a
potential danger of contagion and injury relative to additional form of discarded.
With procedural fundamentals for proper calculation, data analysis, preparation,
appropriate funding, teamwork, and administration, the implementation of a coun-
trywide policy for appropriate waste handling can be an important step in reducing
greenhouse gas (GHG) releases over regulated composting progressions, mechanical
biological waste handling, waste air management, etc.
Universal Consequence of Left-over Plastics
Plastic Manufacture, Ingesting, and Waste Generation: Worldwide

Consequence
Universally, almost 140 MT of plastics are manufactured every year. Recent studies
in Western Europe reported that the total annual consumption of plastics was 49 MT
(in 2003) at 98 kg per capita. In Western Europe, the decadal development
(1993–2003) of annual plastic intake was 34 kg per capita. In 2000, the universal
demand for plastic extracts stood at around 9.9 MT with a worth of US$19 billion
(Birgisdottir et al. 2013). Approximately 80% of universal plastic condiments are
used outside the European Union by the United States, China, India, and Eastern
Europe.
However, with over 1 52 MT of plastic consumption in 2004, Southeast Asia,
particularly India and China, has appeared as the global spearhead in plastic inges-
tion. In Europe and Asia, plastic preservative arcades are rising at nearby 3% yearly
rate, while China is expected to rise at 8–10%. Annual plastic consumption is
measured at 38.9MT in the United States, closely followed by 38.8MT per year in
China. India, with an overall yearly ingestion of 12.5 MT (Eerkes-Medrano et al.
2015), is similarly expected to be the third major consumer arcade for plastics in
2009. With a regular progress rate of 12%, plastic ingestion in India grew exponen-
tially in the 1990s. The current growth rate of plastic consumption in India is also
estimated to be greater than that of China and some other emerging country and
similar to that of the United Kingdom (Figs. 1, 2, and 3).
Plastic Manufacture, Ingesting, and Waste Generation: Indian

Consequence
India manufactured 0.363 MT of plastic polymer in1990–1991; however, an unprec-

edented 890% rise in a decade leads to 3.2 MT (2000–2001) of total plastic
Plastic consumption (KT) in India

5000 300
Plastic consumption (KT) in UK
4500
Plastic production (MT) in global
250
4000 Plastic consumption (KT) in global
Plastic production (MT) in India
3500
Plastic consumption (KT)
200
Plastic production (MT)

Plastic production (MT) in UK
3000
2500 150
2000
100
1500
1000
50
500
0 0
1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005
Year
Fig. 1 Relative research of universal plastic manufacture with ingestion (Banerjee et al. 2014)
production. The production of plastics in India further increased to 4.77 MT in

2005–2006, of which polypropylene (PP) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE)
are the highest; India produced 0.363 MT (Free et al. 2014) of plastic
polymer in 1990–1991, but an unprecedented 890% rise in a decade leads to
3.2 MT(2000–2001) of total plastic production. The production of plastics in India
further increased to 4.77 MT in 2005–2006, of which polypropylene (PP) and high-
density polyethylene (HDPE) are the highest. In India, plastic consumption per
captica was found to be 0.8 kg in 1990–1991, but it was increased significantly to
3.5 kg (2000) within a decade, though it was quite far below the universal average
(18 kg). Nevertheless the predictable per capita plastic ingestion estimates in 2021
may spread a significant amount of 10.9 kg, which appears accurate given the speed
with plastics. Packaging represents India’s largest single plastic use sector. In almost
half of all packaged goods, the region interpretations for 42% of plastics ingestion
and plastic are the substantial choice. In addition to wrapping, plastics are moreover
widely cast off in customer goods such as furniture, housewares, and construction
and in the industrial sectors (Fig. 4).
Though the investigation results from the Countrywide Plastic Waste Manage-
ment Task Force, wrapping accounts for 52% of the total plastic ingestion in India.
This is consistent with the configuration of consumption in other nations such as the
United States and the United Kingdom, where wrapping has the determined portion
of entire plastic ingestion. The crucial usage of this percentage of plastics ingestion
with 0.93 MT (Japan Ministry of the Environment 2003) of waste plastics and
1000
1970
900 1975
1980
800 1985
1990
1995
700
2000
Plastic consumption (KT)
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
LDPE PS LLDPE HDPE PP PVC
Type of plastic
Fig. 2 Typical development proportion of fresh plastic ingestion (Banerjee et al. 2014)
25% 19% HDPE

LLDPE
9% PS
others
LDPE
20% PVC
6% 17%
PP
4%
Fig. 3 Ingestion of dissimilar fresh plastic mastics (Banerjee et al. 2014)
Packaging
7%
24% 42% Building
construction
13%
Industrial goods
14%
Consumer products
Others
Fig. 4 Fraction of plastic ingestion by diverse arcade segment

household wastes were discarded annually. Although a substantial part of this waste
is recovered by rag pickers, a substantial quantity of it is each stained with organic
substance or not deemed suitable for additional handling. In India, due to its
truncated cost, chemical edifice, physical recompenses, and great durability, PE,
PP, and PVC lead the arcade.
Polyolefins In India, 1.3 MT of plastic left-over is generated yearly, (Kang et al.
2015) which is 36% of the total plastic consumption of India. Almost 42% of the
total plastic waste generated is reprocessed in India by 20,000 reprocessing pro-
ductions with a total prospective of 0.37 MT/annum. In 2000–2001, greater than
5,400 tonnes of plastic left-over were produced per day in India, according to
NPWMTF (1997). The fraction of plastics in MSW also augmented from 0.7% in
1971 to 4% in 1995. The absence of biodegradability of profitable polymers,
especially castoff in wrapping, manufacturing, and cultivation, has attracted com-
munal care to a hypothetically enormous problem of environmental accretion and
contamination that could persevere for eras. Plastic waste removal has prospective
harmful possessions on the surroundings, and, consequently, maximum energy
recovery in order to maintain ecological sustainability should be a logical method.
The concept of ISWM is to articulate verdicts about waste generation, material
reprocessing, and ultimate waste disposal.
Reducing the Consumption of Plastic
The reduction in consumption of waste products after efficient processing is valu-

able, but often difficult to accomplish due to food security and deficiency of
expediency (Beitzen-Heineke et al. 2017). Nevertheless, it is also possible to prevent
needless wrapping (e.g., double packaging) or use eco-friendlier substitutes. Grow-
ing understanding of customer selection’s environmental impacts over official (i.e.,
in institutes) or casual instruction is a long-term policy to minimize plastic use, for
example, foremost to the selection of microbead-free replacements that could be
assisted by consistent labeling (Chang 2015; Santos et al. 2005; Ambrose et al.
2019). Growing claim for plastic-free goods would cause businesses to redesign
their goods, but there is a scarcity of alternatives that require strategies that are
beneficial to their growth.
Grasp and control strategies (Ashrafi et al. 2018; Landon-Lane 2018), comprising
guideline of consumption, constraint of ads, and prohibition of one time use goods,
can be complemented by voluntary acts by trades known as corporate social
responsibility (CSR). While customers are backing these initiatives, as exposed by
the devastating public support (94%) of the European Union’s naval clutter inter-
vention (Flash Eurobarometer 2016), the same does not always extend to producers
and sellers, such as the argument that European packaging manufacturers (Pack2Go)
violated the free movement of products when France forbidden one time use plastic
flatware (La transition 2018; Perchard 2018).
On the other hand, the proposed lessening of frivolous plastic mover stacks in
Europe (Directive 2015), intended at minimizing the annual damage of eight billion
plastic stacks to the masses (Kasidioni et al. 2015), has resulted in fees for earlier
unrestricted plastic masses in some countries, foremost to a 74% lessening in use in
Portugal (Martinho et al. 2017) and 90% in Ireland, a move only appraised by the
rise in sales of rubbish bags (Convery et al. 2007). Backing for administration
policies can also differ between buyers and vendors, demanding careful
consideration.
Edification and Consciousness
Learning is a strong weapon in the battle beside (micro)plastic contamination (Potts

et al. 2011), as shown by the greater quantities of oceanic clutter retrieved from
beaches haunted by poorly trained residents in Brazil and the rejection of items
containing micro droplets by people exposed to consciousness wars. Nevertheless,
up until recently, knowledge on (micro)plastic contamination was minimal, with
73% of Chilean learners not understanding the microplastic unruly (Hidalgo-Ruz
and Thiel 2013).
As 80% of examined inquiries seek to retrieve evidence (Dabbagh and Kitsantas
2012), the Internet can be used as an educational tool, while social media provides
chances to occupy with information (Jansen et al. 2008; Selwyn 2007), which
currently has a superior effect than other data vents (Miller 2009). While investigat-
ing the patterns in the keywords “microplastics” and “microbeads” on examination
devices and communal broadcasting, the progression of the public’s improved
awareness of “microplastics” was witnessed, as well as the configuration of actions
consisting of consecutive media announcement of news, social media sharing, and
activating knowledge looking for behaviors on examine engines, prominent to an
alternate.
In addition, learning and attentiveness programs would be effectively converted
hooked on long-term improvements in performance (Grasmick et al. 1991), such as
minimizing littering by moral responsibilities rather than inadequate littering penal-
ties (Burgress et al. 1971). Education and knowledge must also concentrate on
realistic measures, including reducing the use of toxic goods, reducing scattering,
and enlightening recycling rates, which may benefit from the online behavior of
customers. However, reducing the use of plastics depends on the accessibility of
plastic-free substitutes.
Refining the Discarding of Waste
The following order is focused on waste management: minimize, reuse, recycle, and
recover. Although the importance is to reduce and reclaim, to interfere in fabrication
and use such waste can be created and appropriately accomplished as a reserve by
means of an effective Integrated Waste Management System. It is demanding to
reuse packaging, necessitating packaging retrieval, categorization, and refilling, and
so it is rarely secondhand external of high-value products, such as integrated circuit
technology and cars. Therefore it should be recycled when waste is made, and
merely after it is not biodegradable for use as feedstock or for vitality retrieval and
merely when ultimate left-over, such as ash, is landfilled.
Appropriate management of solid discarded reduces plastics in the surroundings,
thereby reducing disintegration into microplastics (Wu et al. 2017). In Taiwan, for
example, changes in waste controlling strategies, such as plastic bag and plastic
tableware bans (the “Plastic Constraint Policy”) and compulsory waste categorization
(Recycling Act and Compulsory Trash-sorting Policy), have been successful in
decreasing the proportion of waste disposal (from 0.9 to 0.48 kg capita-1) and
substantially reducing plastic bottles, metal drink cans, and plastic bags. Similarly,
councils through greater modest spending in waste supervision in Australia have less
clutter on their shore (Willis et al. 2018). Moreover as established in the modern Basel
Resolution contracted by more than 180 nations (Basel Convention 2019), guidelines
are currently in place for skill in diverse plastic scrap among nations, limiting the
capacity to transfer plastic waste and accumulative the need for local resolutions.
Execution of Integrated Waste Management Systems is costly and sluggish,
however. Emerging nations which lack waste supervision may not automatically
be able to device such composite arrangements. In these situations, it is important to
manage waste in order to reduce threats to communal healthiness and the manufac-
ture of nautical clutter. For this purpose, it is possible to use landfills and incinerators
as the key waste management techniques, potentially transforming them into more
sustainable practices.
Removal and Assortment of Waste
The principal step is to collect the discarded through the aggregation of sources
(consumer collection) or through post segregation (Bing et al. 2014). The assortment
of sources is desired since it is inexpensive and decreases waste emissions. Waste
removal, which is more or less appropriate for customers (and, conversely, for munic-
ipalities liable for assortment) includes door-to-door crew, with or lacking fees,
(b) curbside assortment, and (c) buying-back hubs (purchasing litter) or drop-off
hubs. Profitable enticements to improve reprocessing charges can be optimistic, such
as in buy-back schemes wherever an amount of money per package or weight is
established (or refunded) to the customer, or undesirable, in the case of payments
varying in mass and form of waste (with lesser recycling fees) in door-to-door assort-
ment (Sidique et al. 2010) or by the use of smooth garbage containers. The location of
payment morals is however a gentle undertaking: higher payments can lead to pro-
hibited discarding or left-over incineration, while low fees would not disturb waste
ingestion and segregation. Buy-back schemes, on the other hand, minimize littering,
illegal waste, and collection costs. For example, after the introduction of the container
deposit legislation, the buy-back program (Schuyler et al. 2018) decreased the number
of beverage containers on the coast of the United States and Australia.
A cost-benefit analysis of the payment reimbursement sequencers for infusion
containers in Israel showed the commercial profits of this policy, primarily through
preventing the transport of high capacity, low-mass brew containers via the pro-
cessing of curbside waste (Dace et al. 2013). Although this assortment approach is
linked to higher reprocessing charges and decreased scattering, it is also analyzed for
its high cost, improved environmental influence through the simultaneous mainte-
nance of payment reimbursement and curbside assortment systems, and high
reprocessing proportions in certain nations, although the non-application of this
strategy (Eriksson and Finnveden 2009). Thus, for each area and content, the use
of payment reimbursement or buy-back schemes must be separately assessed.
Processing and Sustainability
Door-to-door fee assortment also has the prospective to low left-over per capita and
increased participation in reprocessing. While this approach is expensive for com-
munities, costs can be lesser than landfilling and environmental left-over recovery,
and it reflects the principle of “pay-as-you-throw.” In areas like Germany and San
Francisco, USA, such door-to-door services are already being successfully intro-
duced. Door-to-door schemes, however, enable residents to supply discarded in their
homes, endanger communal well-being and discretion, and have high ecological
influences resulting from time-consuming fossil-fueled-vehicle discarded assortment
paths (Tanskanen et al. 1998).
Alternatively, smart waste ampoules released by occupant cards, permitting only
restricted waste volumes to be deposited at every opening, may deliver curbside
waste assortment and legal use of discarded payments based on the capacity gener-
ated by each domiciliary. An increase in the number of left-over containers in
curbside assortment, as well as an increase in the variety of source segregation
containers, may boost recyclability and left-over dumping but should take into
interpretation an upsurge in fossil-fueled-vehicle assortment exertions and a
decrease in the bulk of single waste tributaries, which may increase the cost of
recycling (Lavee 2010).
Avoiding Littering
Another contributor to marine litter is the improper handling of waste, known as

littering. Awaiting now, penalties have been pragmatic to littering as a inhibitive
process. Sanctions though are counterproductive since they call for continuous
observing. Thus, they should be paired with constructive supports, such as providing
rewards for the proper removal of left-over (Ignatyev et al. 2014) or attractive to the
individual’s moral responsibilities, because social penalties such as embarrassment
(self-imposed) or humiliation (socially imposed) may reduce conduct. Optimistic
supports comprise tax inducements or schemes for the repayment of deposits, which
can also be recycled to boost reprocessing proportions (Gu and Ozbakkaloglu 2016).
Plastic reprocessing is a multifaceted procedure consisting of (1) the processing
of separate left-over by customers or in hubs; (2) the segregation of recyclables and
the removal of pollutants; (3) polymer and color grounding and separation; (4) the
extrusion into pellets of every polymer and pigment; and (5) the sale of reprocessed
pellets to industrial firms. Polymer-based segregation of left-over is extremely
challenging and can negotiation the absolute eminence of reprocessed plastics.
Principal reprocessing (closed-loop) produces high-eminence plastics from
unpolluted products commonly manufactured by producers (e.g., plastic back
shields on flat-screen TVs), while tributary reprocessing (relegation) produces
lesser-quality plastic from polluted plastic to be used in fewer challenging uses
(e.g., building resources, fabrics, bitumen, concrete, and complexes). Recycled
plastics can preferably be used in long-lasting and robust applications. Asphalt
(Najafi 2013) and concrete can also be mixed into shredded plastic waste to
strengthen its properties. Assorted polymers or assortments of plastics and non-
plastics (e.g., timber) can also create strong and low fee thermoset complexes using a
cross-linking compatibilizer agent (Peeters et al. 2012; Poulikakos et al. 2017) that
can be recycled for example, as railway sleepers (Ferdous et al. 2015).
Aggregates can eliminate the essential for polymer segregation and are stronger
than their traditional equivalents (e.g., timber) for outdoor use, but cannot be extra
recycled:
(a) The high charge of the reprocessing practice relative to the low charge of new
plastics
(b) The deterioration and pollution of plastics, which restrict their use and the
number of reprocessing cycles (Braungart et al. 2007)
(c) The low recycling potential of certain plastic items, such as fabrics, stretchy
wrapping, or coated plastics
Instead, manufacturers demand a persistent resource of standard-quality raw

materials, often difficult to attain with reprocessed plastic (Craighill and Powell
1996). We are optimistic that these issues can be solved by growing reprocessing
proportions, improving the eminence of reprocessed products, and technical
advances in the reprocessing progression. Reprocessing is the chosen form of
waste supervision (Bernardo et al. 2016; Arena et al. 2003; Chilton et al. 2010;
Lee and Xu 2005; Ross and Evans 2003), taking into account the environmental
impacts. Recycling PET and PE, for instance, needs just half the energy required to
manufacture virgin polymers (Arena et al. 2003). High carbon-based pollution and
little capacity to substitute virgin plastics however can courtesy recycling completed
incineration (Lazarevic et al. 2010). The environmental influences of recycling are
typically the result of nonrenewable vitality use, conveyance, and the introduction of
pitches and condiments (Gu et al. 2017).
Waste Management Strategies
Nevertheless in waste management, recycling is also a priority. Reprocessing pro-

tects water and vitality, decreases discharges of pollution, decreases the essential for
landfills, generates employment and increases indigenous economies, decreases
resource ingresses, and expands the surroundings in general. Nations should attempt
to increase their reprocessing proportions for these purposes. As previously men-
tioned, recycling can also become sparingly viable by enlightening principal
reprocessing, placing dues on fresh plastics or over the compulsory expenditure of
reprocessed plastics in all items. However, not all plastics can be cast off assorted;
polluted and despoiled plastics are not ideal for reprocessing but can be used as
feedstock’s or in the retrieval of energy.
Energy Recovery from Plastics Waste
The heat rate of plastic waste can be used excellently by substituting coal, according
to the CPCB report. The practice of plastic left-over as substitute energy, besides
with a decrease in CO2 discharges, will help reduce energy costs. It is entirely burned
at greater heat through co-incineration of plastic left-over in blast incinerator and
cement furnaces, and slag, which remains as discarded, can be added used as cement
and road erection. Because of the scorching of plastic left-over in the practice, there
is no risk of generating toxic emissions, and the process is safe according to
environmental norms. Establishments such as airport and railways required the
development of an environmentally sociable waste organization scheme for the
discarding of their premises produced plastic left-over (Klein et al. 2015). There is
a crucial requirement to escalation community awareness to decrease the encum-
brance of rejected plastics, as individuals are accountable for the contamination
triggered by plastics. In recent years, new strategies have been made to, formulate
upcoming plastic waste management strategies. In addition, upgrading technology
for the removal of plastic waste is most important. In order to assist in sorting and
segregating in accordance with IS14535:1998, virgin plastic goods shall be catego-
rized with a plastic documentation code.
Ecological Pollutant Strategies
Its impact on the environs and anthropological health is due to the excess use of
plastic materials. In essence, because of its nonbiodegradable nature, plastic is
currently considered a severe global ecological and health issue. Plastic vessels
and coats help retain food healthy, but in the human body, they can moreover consent
overdue neurotoxins like BPA. From pipes and floors to furniture and garments,
PVC is used for everything, but it includes substances called phthalates that have
been involved in male generative disorders. Research works have also exposed that
later in life (Nate Seltenrich 2015), childhood revelation to ecological toxins may
have substantial negative possessions. New logical approaches suitable for observ-
ing of various phthalates in different ecological, biological, and other atmospheres
are increasingly in demand. Most commonly, separation and spectrometric
approaches are used. However, due to their high compassion, fair selectivity, simple
mechanization and miniaturization, and particularly low venture and organization
charges, recent electroanalytical techniques can also play a convenient part in this
area, which creates them ideal for large-scale observing.
Management of Plastic Left-over
Plastic waste is processed in India at a rapid rate of urbanization. Socioeconomic

growth, the degree of industrialization, the operating sector, and environment condi-
tions also affect waste generation rates. In order to minimize the quantity of waste
discarded on landfills by discriminating assortment, reuse, reprocessing, and retrieval
of several solid waste, communities at large, municipalities, and local experts promoted
by regulation have established guidelines for waste management (OECD 2001). In
nations where waste supervision schemes are measured progressive, one of the tech-
niques of reprocess, recovering, landfilling, or ignition is used to handle plastic waste
disposal. A substantial punishment for noncompliance with the guidelines for success-
ful enforcement should be included. Every year, India produces approximately 1.5 MT
of plastic left-over. It collects and handles less than a quarter of the waste.
Reuse, Recycling, Ignition, and Landfill
Re-use involves traditional reprocess where the object is used for the similar purpose
again and new-life reclaim where a different function is used for it. Recycling, on the
other hand, is the breakdown of the castoff product into fresh ingredients that are
used to produce new ones. Reuse helps protect time, currency, vitality, and posses-
sions by taking and exchanging valuable items without reprocessing them (OECD
2002a). Saving energy and raw materials by substituting several single-use goods for
one reusable product decreases the amount of products that essential to be made.
Reprocessing is a mechanism by which waste constituents are converted into fresh
goods in order to avoid the waste of hypothetically usable constituents.
A place for the removal of waste ingredients by interment and considered to be
the eldest method of waste management is a landfill place also known as a discarding
ground. Landfills have traditionally been the most common technique of organized
left-over removal and endure in many places across the globe. In India, the
reprocessing industry is scattered between the formal and informal industries.
Prescribed reprocessing units are recorded, pay taxes, and are paid for by the
municipality. Some landfills, such as the temporary storage, merging, and transition
or treating of waste materials (categorization, handling, or reprocessing), are often
used for waste management purposes.
A landfill can also apply to soil filled with rocks instead of waste constituents, so that
it can be used for a particular persistence, such as constructing firms. These areas may
involve extreme trembling or liquefaction of the ground during a major seismic activity
if they are not stabilized. Incineration is a method of waste management that includes
the combustion of waste materials containing organic substances (OECD 2002b). The
word “thermal treatment” defines incineration and other high-temperature waste han-
dling schemes. Waste material incineration turns the waste into ash, fire gas, and heat.
The ash is primarily made up of the waste’s inorganic constituents, which can proceed
in the form of dense swellings or particles borne by the outlet gas.
Conclusion
The major avoidance of contamination and discarded can be accomplished by

directing factories to remove or minimize the quantity of toxic substances used in
manufacturing, to lessen food packaging things and to create goods that latter longer
and are informal to reprocess, reclaim, and restore. It seeks to decrease the complete
waste manufactured at the source. In addition, we should inform and inspire indi-
viduals to purchase recycled goods, fix damaged objects, recycle, reuse, and com-
post products. Public well-being, the surroundings, resource scarceness, climate
revolution, and public awareness and involvement in developed countries have
served as SWM carters toward the existing paradigm arrangement improvements
required to sort, collect, and handle relevant waste. It is proposed to devise and apply
incentive policies for reprocessing activities and to create reprocessing funds.
The management activities of plastic biomedical left-over are also one of the
significant aspects of infection prevention and must be controlled. Landfill leachates
are essential to be checked at periodic intervals for phthalates and their metabolites,
metals, and other potential xenobiotics to protect them from argumentative effects.
Abundant policy and regulatory approaches that inspire energy retrieval from waste,
constrain choices for crucial waste removal, promote waste recycling and reuse, and
promote left-over minimization directly affect GHG emissions from waste. In the
postconsumer era, the extended producer responsibility [EPR] principles expand
manufacturer responsibility, offering a durable inducement to restructure goods
using less resources as well as those with higher reprocessing potential (OECD 2001).
In marine systems where it has spread globally to even the most inaccessible haunts,
contamination by plastics and polymeric produces is a growing environmental difficult.
Smaller-scale plastic parts, microplastics (particles <5 mm), have stretched high
concentrations in waters and residues and interact in a variety of ways with organisms
and the environment. Efficient and accurate conversion of renewable raw ingredients
into inventive polymeric produces is superior in terms of enactment, environment, and
budget. Discarding practices are required in line with international strategies and
security. All-polymer implants designed or developed in the future should address
ecological sustainability and be healthy and biocompatible with surface handling
possibilities to allow for decreased resistance and wear through the lifespan of the
implant. Due to indiscriminate disposal practices, marine pollution levels are growing.
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Recent Innovations in Chemical Recycling
of Polyethylene Terephthalate Waste: 43
A Circular Economy Approach Toward
Sustainability
Amandeep Singh, S. L. Banerjee, K. Kumari, and P. P. Kundu
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1150
Introduction of PET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1150
Introduction of Circular Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1151
Physical Properties of PET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1152
Synthesis of PET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1154
Esterification Reaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1154
Transesterification Reaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1154
Applications of PET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1155
Recycling of Post-Consumer PET: Circular Economy Concerns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1157
Primary/Re-extrusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1157
Secondary/Mechanical Recycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1158
Tertiary/Feedstock/Chemical Recycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1158
Quaternary Recycling/Energy Recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1161
Glycolytic Depolymerization of PET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1161
Catalyzed Glycolysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1161
Subcritical and Supercritical Glycolysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1165
Microwave-Assisted Glycolysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1166
Enzymatic Glycolysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1167
PET Recycling, Circular Economy, and Sustainability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1168
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1173
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1173
A. Singh (*) · S. L. Banerjee

Department of Polymer Science and Technology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India
K. Kumari
Department of Chemical Engineering, S.L.I.E.T, Longowal, India
P. P. Kundu
Department of Polymer Science and Technology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India
Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_53
1150 A. Singh et al.
Abstract
This chapter introduces the recent innovative trends in the sustainable and green
chemical recycling of post-consumer-discarded polyethylene terephthalate (PET)
waste and their pertinence to substantiate and understand the conception of circular
economy. This chapter also includes a comprehensive worldwide view on linear
economy of plastics, especially PET, and its shift onto circular economy. PET is a
multipurpose and highly recyclable polymer resin. It is a thermoplastic polyester
synthesized through the polymerization reaction between ethylene glycol (EG) and
terephthalic acid, initially prepared in 1940 by DuPont chemists in North America.
PET is a comparatively inexpensive, resealable, burst-resistant, light in weight, and
recyclable in nature. Due to thermostability, transparency, and optimum strength, the
PET became a first pick for packaging material. The PET is a nonbiodegradable in
nature; therefore post-consumer-discarded PET (called PET waste) needs to be
recycled for further use inclining the sustainability aspect. The PET resin and
package productions being used nowadays are progressively streamlined and con-
sume energy in less amount; thus PET bottles are subjected for recycling and
depolymerized back into monomers and/or oligomers through various chemical
methods such as hydrolysis, methanolysis, glycolysis, etc. after serving the primary
application. The waste management is a transition step toward a circular economy.
From the synthesis of PET for primary end use to its chemical depolymerization
assignment, various dependent aspects of circular economy such as local economy,
global trade, and short- and long-term business associations play a vital role. The
policy makers must ensure that each bit of the waste disposal practices has an
accordance with circular economy, human health, as well as the environment
ecosystem. It is a high time for the India to ameliorate the availability and accessi-
bility of policy-related information for common man to make them aware about the
importance and the need of plastic recycling in order to conserve the nonrenewable
sources. As per the PET Resin Association (PETRA, USA) report, in 2012, the PET
recycling rate was ~31% in the USA, where 52% in European Union. According to
the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA, USA), the municipal solid waste in the
USA contains ~1% (w/w) PET waste materials.
Keywords
Circular economy · Sustainability · Chemical recycling · Polyethylene
terephthalate · Waste management
Introduction
Introduction of PET
The synthesis and post-consumer disposal of synthetic polymers, i.e., PET,

are always regarded as unsustainable. Therefore, the synthesis of biodegradable
polymers according to the green chemistry principles is being comprehensively
43 Recent Innovations in Chemical Recycling of Polyethylene Terephthalate. . . 1151
used since couples of years. The concerns for the sustainability lie in each and
every synthesis (Hong and Chen 2017). The first ever PET was synthesized in
1940 in England by the Calico Printers Association Fellows J. Rex Whinfield
and James T. Dickson while they were analyzing the properties of phthalic
acid. But due to the confinements of World War II, the patent for PET synthesis
could not be filed. Meanwhile, by 1945 in the meantime, the DuPont company
had initially started the practical synthesis process for PET from terephthalic
acid in 1945, and thereafter it has started to develop Dacron fiber in 1953.
Thenceforth, the Imperial Chemical had begun to fabricate PET fiber in 1954
and branded it as Terylene. PET polymer had become the most developed
synthetic fiber globally in next 20 years. Subsequently, about in 1970, the
most amended methods for stretch molding processes were devised in order
to produce the most durable beverage transparent bottles, and this application
had become the second most over the fiber production. The PET film was
developed in 1950 and was primarily used as the photographic film, video film,
and radiographic films; thereafter it was also used as packaging materials with
flexible features. Later, PET was modified by reinforcing with fiberglass to
make it suitable for injection molding and extrusion process. In the early
1970s, PET was stretched through blowing techniques to developed three-
dimensionally oriented structures, and this technique initiated the rapid exploi-
tation of PET to prepare light, durable, and indestructible bottles. PET may be
produced from ethylene glycol (EG) and either terephthalic acid (TA) or
dimethyl terephthalate (DMT). Continent-wise PET production capacity in the
year of 2017 is shown in Fig. 1.
Introduction of Circular Economy
However, the practice to eradicate the synthetic polymers after end use is really a
problematic task. One of the ways to eradicate the synthetic polymers is
landfilling; however, it does not serve the recovery of the material value. Another
option is to degrade them in the oceans, but it would create calamitous environ-
mental aftermaths. The mechanical recycling of synthetic polymers abides due to
a substantial loss in their quality. Thus, there is a need to make a way to recycle
the synthetic polymers in such a way that it allows for a channelized approach in
order to demonstrate a circular economy. The PET is regarded as one of the
predominately employed polymers over the globe. After the end use, the post-
consumer PET waste is either recycled mechanically, landfilled, or incinerated.
Also, the PET waste is depolymerized through various chemical procedures in
order to retrieve the monomers. The monomers and oligomers are used further in
order to produce new “virgin” PET polymer. The conceptual representation of
liner economy, reuse economy, and circular economy is shown in Fig. 2. The
population of the world is rising enormously, and it is putting the bad impact on
the environment. In order to be ascertained about the enough good food, potable
water, and opulence in 2050, it is very necessary to shift from the linear economy
to the circular economy.
Global PET Production Capacity (2017)
21% China
31%
Africa
South America
Middle east
17% Europe
2%
North America
4%
Asia (-China)
15% 10%
Fig. 1 Continent-wise PET production capacity in the year of 2017
Fig. 2 Conceptual representation of liner economy, reuse economy, and circular economy
Physical Properties of PET
PET polymer consists of repeating units of the ethylene terephthalate monomer, and
it belongs to polyester family. The repeating C10H8O4 units polymerize together in
order to form PET. The molecular structure of PET is shown in Fig. 3.
PET comes in the category of thermoplastic resin, a material which get loosen to a
liquid on high temperature, and one reversing, it gets harden over again (Crippa and
Morico 2019). Due to possessing of resin property, it is possible to mold the
thermoplastic polymers into various structures as well as shapes. Hence, being a
O O
H2
H O C C O C C OH
H2 n
PET
Fig. 3 Molecular structure of PET polymer
thermoplastic resin, the applications of PET in various fields are widely diverse. PET
materials possess transparency, chemical resistance, tearing resistance, gas barrier
properties, and other all required parameters for packaging; thus major fraction of
overall production goes to serve the packaging industry where PET resins are
molded into bottles, biaxial-stretched extruder films, blown films, tubes, blisters,
trays, labels, containers of high strength and rigidity, labels, etc. through injection
molding, pullout extruder, axial-stretched extruder, blown extruder, etc. Although,
due to the depressed softening, temperature, i.e., 70 C, bounds the PET from being
used as a packaging material for the hot beverages and foods. Fully amorphous,
partially crystalline, and highly crystalline states of the PET can be tuned by
incorporating the suitable additives. Post owing to the patent by DuPont chemical
company in 1940 the research has flourished in the direction of developing new
polymers in order to fiber fabrication. Basically, the PET polymer is a lightweight,
transparent resin and possesses semicrystallinity. It ranges from low rigidity to high
rigidity and that depends upon the synthesis process. PET polymer is a strong and
impact-resistant on higher order of crystallinity. PET polymer serves almost the
applications under 60% crystallinity level. However, in the case of polyester fibers,
the PET consists of more than 60% crystallinity. The transparent products are
obtained by cooling down the molten polymer rapidly below the Tg (glass transition
temperature) that ended up with the formation of an amorphous solid (Scheirs and
Long 2005). The polymer obtained through such way possesses amorphous nature
because no sufficient time was given to molecules to arrange them in order; thus they
located themselves in an arbitrary way. On allowing the molten polymer to be cool
down slowly at room temperature, molecules of polymer get located in very order
that imparts the crystallinity within the polymer. In this way, instead of shaping a
single large crystal, PET polymer forms spherical semicrystalline structures known
as spherulites which contain several tiny crystallites while getting crystallized from
an amorphous solid. When light strikes such molecule, it gets scattered while
crossing the interphase boundaries between the amorphous regions and crystallites.
Such scattering from the interphase boundaries attributes that the PET is crystalline
as well as opaque, i.e., generally white in color. One of the widely used properties of
PET material in order to substantiate its physical properties is intrinsic viscosity
(IV) (Thiele 2007; Gupta and Bashir 2002). The IV of PET polymer is determined
through extrapolating the nil concentration of relative viscosity (ηrel) up to a specific
concentration taken in dl/gram unit. The value of intrinsic viscosity is unitless, and it
is dependent upon the backbone chain length of the polymer. In the case of longer
chained polymers, the intermolecular entanglement takes place with high
Table 1 Intrinsic viscosity of various grades of PET and their applications

Intrinsic viscosity range of PET Applications Grade
0.40–0.70 Textile Fiber grade
0.72–0.98 Technical, tire cord
0.60–0.70 BoPET (biaxial oriented PET film) Film grade
0.70–1.00 Sheet grade for thermoforming
0.70–0.78 Water bottles (flat) Bottle grade
0.78–0.85 Carbonated soft drink grade
1.00–2.00 Monofilament Engineering plastic
complications that enhanced the viscosity, whereas short-chained polymers have less
viscosity. The chain length of the PET polymer is controlled in the polycondensation
process. The PET resins having different values of intrinsic viscosity and their
corresponding applications are shown in Table 1.
Synthesis of PET
The PET is produced through two methods given below.
Esterification Reaction
The first method to synthesize the PET is an esterification reaction between TA with
MEG; both are obtained from the crude oil, along with water as a by-product. TA is a
dicarboxylic acid, an aromatic acid whose molecular structure consists of an aro-
matic ring along with terminal two carboxyl groups (–COOH), whereas the EG is an
alcohol, a diol whose molecular structure consists of two numbers of hydroxyl
groups (–OH). In the presence of catalyst, the hydroxyl groups of EG and carboxyl
groups of TA react together to form ester (–COOR) groups. The numerous numbers
of PET units joined together by ester linkage to form a long chain of PET polymer.
Thereafter, n number of BHET monomer undergoes polycondensation reaction and
produced PET polymer having n number of repeating unites along with 2n-1
numbers of water molecule.
Transesterification Reaction
The transesterification reaction starts from the reactant DMT that is easily purifiable,
instead of TA. In this step, the dimethyl terephthalate (DMT) (C6H4(CO2CH3)2)
reacts with excess amount of EG at 150–200 C in the presence of a base catalyst to
form white-colored needle-shaped crystals of BHET monomer along with methanol
as a by-product. A continuous distillation process to remove the methanol is required
to proceed the reaction in forward direction. In second step, the BHET monomer
goes under polycondensation process at the temperature of 270–280 C and
produced PET polymer chain along with EG as by-product. Transesterification and

esterification reaction to synthesize the PET are shown in Fig. 4.
Applications of PET
The crystallization of PET polymer takes place when the PET resin is stretched out
while in production. The obtained semicrystalline form of PET made it textile fiber
with high strength and it is branded with various trademarks, i.e., Dacron
(by DuPont Company, America) and Terylene (by Imperial Chemical Industries,
England). The PET fibers possess inherent stiffness which makes them highly
resistant toward the structural deformation; thus PET fibers bestow the anti-
wrinkling in the fabrics. The PET fibers are blended along with various fibers,
i.e., wool, cotton, rayon, etc. for strengthening the underlying attributes of fibers to
be blended by adding the capability to the fabric for recovering from the wrinkles.
PET is also made into the fiber fillers which are also prepared from PET and are
used in the furniture, insulated clothing, pillows, mattresses, etc. If the yarning of
PET is done in a very fine filament forms, then it is utilized as artificial silk,
whereas if PET is yarned in a filament of large diameter, then it is utilized for the
carpets preparation. Other applications of PET in the industrial sector include yarns
of automobile tire, drive and conveyor belts, reinforcement for the hose pipes, seat
belts, medical PPE kits, diaper top sheets, nonwoven fabrics, disposable medical
garments, etc. Nowadays PET represents more than 50% of the global yields of
synthetic fibers. The PET is being utilized alone, or it is mixed with cotton or wool
to give the fibers better washing, wear, and crease-resistance properties. Along
with the molecular weight of the PET polymer, the extent of polymerization
reaction (ξ) that is generally measured by the equilibrium constant of the reaction
(K) depends upon the physical conditions on which the polymerization step took
place. The properties of produced resin significantly depend upon the ξ value. The
polymerized product, i.e., PET resin, is found in molten state with high viscosity;
thus for the fiber production, PET resin is spun into fibers directly, or it is solidified
for further processing as a thermoplastic material. The changes in the chemical
composition of PET polymer are carried out to incorporate specific desired prop-
erties for particular applications in packaging. The modifications in the composi-
tion usually are of a chemical nature in order to ease the alteration of the PET
polymer from various crystalline forms. A minor quantity of a suitable comono-
mer, i.e., 1,4-cyclohexane-dimethanol or isophthalic acid, diminishes the crystal-
lization rate that permits the preparation of thick bottles and sheets. The
purification of PET polymer is difficult to carry out; therefore the insurance of
high purity of acid and alcohol in the esterification reaction is very important. The
terephthalic acid can easily be purified by the process of crystallization, and the
ethylene glycol is purified by the vacuum distillation process. As far as the food
packaging applications of PET are concerned, the PET material with high molec-
ular weight with high purity is recommended. The practical economic recovery of
catalysts after the completion of the polymerization reaction is a green chemistry
concept. Thus, the catalysts are used in very less amount in order to accelerate the
1156
A. Singh et al.
Fig. 4 Transesterification and esterification reaction to synthesize PET

polymerization reaction process of PET. The widely used catalyst in polymeriza-

tion process is SbO3, but various salts of Ge, Co, Ti, Mg, Mn, and Zn are also
practiced. Copolymer: In addition to pure PET polymer obtained through homo-
polymerization, the blended PET polymer obtained through copolymerization
process is also a subject to be discussed in current context. The motive behind
the development of a copolymer is to meet a specific requirement that otherwise
would not be served by homopolymer. For instance, instead of ethylene glycol, by
adding cyclohexanedimethanol into the polymer backbone, the lowering in melt-
ing point of the polymer occurs. The cyclohexanedimethanol-based PET is
regarded as glycol-modified PET (PET-G). The PET-G is a transparent thermo-
plastic amorphous phase polymer and is very suitable for sheet extrusion and
injection molding and extruded as filament in additive manufacturing, etc. Fur-
thermore, in order to replace the 1,4-(or para-) linked terephthalate units, iso-
phthalic acid is used instead of terephthalic acid. The reaction of EG with
1,2-(ortho-) substituted or 1,3-(meta-) substituted terephthalate unit incorporate
an angle in the chain with respect to attachment site of phenyl ring that alters the
crystallinity of polymer. A suitable monomer is chosen to form the copolymer PET
(co-PET) as per the desired requirement. The co-PETs are favorable for several
molding applications, i.e., thermoforming process, that are carried out in order to
fabricate the blister and tray packaging from co-PET film and glycol-based amor-
phous PET-G film. Other way around, the crystallinity is considered as an impor-
tant factor for such applications where the dimensional and mechanical stability is
in focus. Especially, for the PET bottles, a little optimum proportion of isophthalic
acid, cyclohexanedimethanol, diethylene glycol (DEG), or some other comono-
mers is used. On using a little proportion of comonomers, the crystallization of
PET is slowed down but not precluded exclusively. Therefore, the PET bottles can
be obtainable through the stretch blow molding process, and they possess both
adequate crystallinity and transparency, sufficient enough to acts as an appropriate
stumbling block for gases, i.e., CO2 in carbonated drinks.
Recycling of Post-Consumer PET: Circular Economy Concerns
Primary/Re-extrusion
The primary recycling or 1 recycling of PET is an oldest way of recycling, and it is a

widely popular technique due to the low cost and easiness, but it demands only
non-contaminated kind of waste PET scrap as well as it deals with only one kind of
waste material that makes it an unpopular choice for industrial recyclers (Bartolome
et al. 2012; Al-Salem 2009; Al-Salem et al. 2009). The 1 technique of PET
recycling emphasizes the reuse of post-consumer-discarded PET products in their
original stage. This process considers the “in-plant” recycling of the PET waste
products that are produced during the process and have same characteristics to the
original PET products. The demerit of such technique is that the product has a limit
of recycling process.
Secondary/Mechanical Recycling
The secondary recycling of PET polymer that is also known as the mechanical
recycling was initiated in the 1970s at industrial level. This process consists of the
isolation and segregation of the PET products from other contaminants, and then
cleaned PET flakes are reprocessed into granules through the mechanical methods.
The mechanical recycling process of PET consists of various steps, i.e., isolation and
sorting of PET wastes, followed by the removal of contaminants from the PET;
thereafter the size is reduced through mechanical grinding and crushing and then the
extrusion of PET waste flakes by heating, and the last is the reformation step in
which a new form is given to the extruded PET resin (Aguado and Serrano 1999). If
the PET waste has complex contaminations, then it becomes more difficult to recycle
it through mechanical recycling. The mechanical recycling has various positive
aspects itself, but still it possesses few weaknesses. The basic drawback of mechan-
ical recycling is lack of homogeneity, as the PET wastes are of different kinds having
different viscosity; thus a pile of PET waste consists of heterogeneity. Another
drawback is about the degradation that occurs in the product properties with each
recycling step. As the polymerization step of PET polymer is reversible in nature,
therefore on apply the heat during mechanical recycling, results in the mechanical
stresses as well as photo-oxidation that further devolved the properties of the
product.
Tertiary/Feedstock/Chemical Recycling
The chemical recycling process of PET process is used alone or can be used along
with the mechanical recycling. The chemical recycling is a process through which
the changes are imparted into the chemical skeleton of the polymer. PET polymer is
chemically converted into its monomers (TA, EG) or partially depolymerized in
order to obtained oligomers (BHET) by a chemical reaction. The monomers pro-
duced from chemical recycling are further utilized for polymerization reactions to
develop the virgin PET product. Chemical recycling method converts the big-sized
PET polymer into comparatively smaller-sized molecules as per the suitability in
order to use it as a feedstock material (Francis 2016; Olah et al. 2009). The PET
polymer can be dissociated into its monomers through various reagents, i.e., glycols
(thus process is known as glycolysis), alcohols (alcoholysis), water (hydrolysis),
acids (acidolysis), etc. Other methods are hydrogenation, glycolysis, ultrasound
degradation, thermal cracking, catalytic cracking followed by reforming, gasifica-
tion, pyrolysis, photodegradation, and degradation in the microwave reactor. Various
methods of chemical recycling of PET are shown in Fig. 5.
Hydrolysis
Hydrolysis of PET flakes is a chemical recycling method that consists the reaction
between PET polymer and water in either acidic, alkaline, or neutral medium. This
reaction leads to the depolymerization of PET into its constituent monomers, i.e., TA
Fig. 5 Various methods of chemical recycling of PET
and EG. The drawbacks of this method include the requirement of very high
temperatures and pressures (usually T ¼ 200–250 C, P ¼ 1.4–2 MPa) along with
extended duration of depolymerization reaction. Due to the involvement of the high
cost, the hydrolysis of PET is considered as a kind of forbidden method. The
hydrolysis of PET is divided into three categories on the basis of nature of medium.
Neutral hydrolysis: In this technique, the hydrolysis of PET is carried out either
directly in the steam/hot water stream or placed in autoclaves under high pressure
(usually, 1–4 MPa) and high temperatures (200–300 C). It has been reported by
Karayannidis et al. (2002) that the neutral hydrolysis is more efficient when the
temperatures is kept above 245 C; additionally, the complete depolymerization of
PET takes place nearly 275 C by yielding 95% TPA content by weight. Alkaline
hydrolysis: The soft-drink post-consumer bottles are cut into the small pieces
(flakes) and thereafter used for the alkaline hydrolysis. Afterward, the autoclave is
used to keep the temperature between 120 C and 200 C in the case of aqueous
NaOH solutions, whereas temperature is kept between 110 C and 120 C in the case
of aqueous KOH solution. Sulfuric acid is utilized in order to assort the high-purity
terephthalic acid. It is accounted that approximately 2% (by weight) mixture of
isophthalic acid and terephthalic acid is produced and the rest of 98% content is
found as pure TPA. Acid hydrolysis: In this method, usually, conc. H2SO4 is used,
but some other mineral acids, i.e., HNO3 and H3PO4 acid, are also used. In several
studies, it has already been recorded by Yoshioka et al. (2001) that the depolymer-
ization process of PET bottle waste using HNO3 can be carried out by maintaining
the temperatures that range between 70 C and 100 C. Moreover, the hydrolysis of
PET flakes can be carried out in the presence of 96% H2SO4 even at room temper-
ature (de Carvalho et al. 2006). Out of all three types of hydrolysis methods for PET,
the neutral hydrolysis method attains high interest because this method is regarded as
more ecofriendly and have green chemistry approach, than the other two methods.
The only one failure of this method is that all the impurities present in PET flakes go
into the TPA. Therefore, the product of this reaction is believed to be comparatively
less pure than the TPA obtained in acid or alkaline type of hydrolysis (George and
Dimitris 2007; Liang 2001).
Methanolysis
In this method the PET flakes are reacted with methanol keeping the temperatures at
180–280 C and pressures at 20–40 atmospheric. DMT and EG are formed in this
reaction as main products. In general, methanolysis reaction to degrade the PET
flakes takes place if the reaction is catalyzed by a typical transesterification catalyst.
The most common transesterification catalyst being used is zinc acetate. However,
some other catalysts, i.e., cobalt acetate, lead dioxide, magnesium acetate, etc., are
also used for the methanolysis reaction for PET degradation. In the beginning, the
PET methanolysis process was formulated for the purpose of to recover and to treat
the PET wastes that may generate in the production cycle. But, after looking into the
possible uses, the methanolysis process is taken as a viable method for the PET
recycling especially for solid waste management. The products, i.e., DMT and EG,
obtained from the methanolysis are generally separated out and then purified by the
method of distillation and crystallization. The purified DMT is safe to reuse in the
further PET polymerization reactions, and it shows similar properties as of virgin
DMT. As compared to the BHET monomer (that is obtained by the PET glycolysis),
the DMT (that is produced by the PET methanolysis) is regarded of higher purity in
terms of physical contamination.
Glycolysis
Glycolysis is one of the techniques that are employed to recycle the PET, chemically.
Glycolysis method is regarded as more convenient method because this method
possesses some characteristics those are not fulfilled by other methods. The advan-
tages of PET glycolysis include the following (Bartolome et al. 2012; Abdelaal et al.
2011): it’s capable to operate in a broad temperature range, i.e., 180–240 C; this
process is comparatively faster and brought depolymerization in short time; and also
an ameliorated depolymerization of PET can be achieved by increasing the quantity
of glycol used. High yielding percentage as well as the quality of TA can be
accomplished when the glycolysis is carried out in the presence of catalyst. Different
catalysts are used under different conditions of pressure and temperature for the
glycolysis of PET. The effect of several catalysts on the glycolysis of PET is
thoroughly investigated (L’opez-Fonseca et al. 2010). Without catalyst, the glycol-
ysis process takes up to 5 h to initiate the conversion process and takes approxi-
mately 9 h to produce the product with maximum yielding. But when an appropriate
catalyst is used, the same process gets initiated within few seconds, and glycolysis
process gets completed in a short period of time as compared to non-catalyst
glycolysis. Various catalysts, i.e., metal salts, hydrotalcites, ionic liquids, etc., are
among the widely used catalysts for glycolysis of PET. All these catalysts have their
own specific properties and functioning with respect to specific reaction conditions.
Moreover, the enzymes have also been found recently to be applicable for biodeg-
radation of PET polymer and hence regarded as biocatalysts. The polyurethane is
one of the components prepared from rPET and widely used in biomedical applica-
tions, i.e., drug delivery, tissue engineering, etc. (Singh et al. 2020).
Quaternary Recycling/Energy Recovery
The quaternary recycling method for PET degradation concerns to the extraction of
energy from the PET materials. The most efficient method to repress the organic
materials’ overall volume that involves the extraction of energy is the incineration
method. The incineration method can be considered as a feasible solution for PET
degradation because it delivers appreciable amount of energy from the plastics, but
this method consists of potential human health, environment, and ecosystem risks
due to the emission of airborne hazardous contents; hence this method is not
contentedly acceptable.
Glycolytic Depolymerization of PET
The published researches regarding the kinetics of glycolysis of PET (Campanelli

et al. 1994; Chen and Chen 1999) suggests that the rate of glycolysis process remains
very sluggish in absence of the catalyst and a complete degradation of the PET
polymer into the BHET monomer is not attained. Additionally, during the glycolysis
of PET polymer, a considerable quantity of some other oligomers is also formed
along with the BHET monomer. This leads to a trouble to recover the BHET
monomer from the reaction mixture. Therefore, the efforts are being put into to
develop an extremely effective catalyst system and to optimize the reaction param-
eters (i.e., time, reaction temperature, molar ratio of PET and EG, molar ratio of PET
and catalyst) in order to increase the reaction rate as well as the yielding of BHET
monomer. Some of the glycolytic depolymerization methods for PET degradation
are discussed below.
Catalyzed Glycolysis
The most common way to increase the rate of glycolysis is the catalysis. As the
glycolysis of PET is a transesterification reaction, therefore, the metal-based cata-
lysts associated to transesterification are most commonly used to enhance the PET
glycolysis reaction rate. Schuchardt et al. and Helwani et al. have reported the
catalysts being used for the catalyzed glycolysis (Schuchardt et al. 1998; Helwani
et al. 2009). The presence of free electron pair onto the oxygen of EG inducts the
glycolysis reaction by approaching the carbon of carbonyl group (–C¼O) of the PET
polyester group (R–0 C¼O0 –O–R). The hydroxyethyl group (–CH2CH2OH) of the
EG makes a bond with the carbon of (–C¼O) group of the PET cleaving the
polyester long chain (high molecular mass) into the short-chain oligomers (less
molecular mass) which further convert into BHET monomer. The reaction rate for
glycolysis process can be controlled by various parameters, i.e., reaction pressure,
reaction temperature, PET/EG molar ratio, PET/catalyst molar ratio, and the amount/
type of the catalyst. However, the conversion of the dimer into the BHET monomer
is of a reversible type process. Therefore, prolonging the duration after reaction
reaches to the equilibrium causes the equilibrium to shift to backward direction, i.e.,
product to reactant side (reaction quotient Qc > equilibrium constant Kc), that raises
the quantity of the dimer in reactant side at the expense of BHET monomer as per the
Le Chatelier’s principle of concentration stress. Therefore, to know about the
optimum reaction conditions along with the selection of suitable catalyst for the
glycolysis process is very important in order to eradicate the chances to reverse the
reaction.
Metal Salt
The eco-friendly active metal salts as catalysts are used for PET glycolysis process.
The active metal salts are regarded as environmentally friendly and green catalysts,
as they are not harmful to the ecosystem. A comparative analysis of catalyst
potentiality of four metal salts, i.e., sodium carbonate (Na2CO3), sodium bicarbonate
(NaHCO3), sodium sulfate (Na2SO4), and potassium sulfate (K2SO4), along with
widely used conventional catalyst, i.e., zinc acetate (Zn(ac)2), was carried out by
(Khoonkari et al. 2015). It was found after comparison that the zinc acetate brought
nearly 65% yielding, whereas Na2CO3, NaHCO3, Na2SO4, and K2SO4 metal salt
catalysts brought nearly 50%, 46%, 15%, and 2% yielding, respectively, by
maintaining 196 C temperature and 7.6:1 molar ratio of EG/PET. Additionally,
the influence of EG/PET molar ratio and temperature on the glycolysis reaction was
also carried out. The results exhibit that when temperature is increased, the yielding
of BHET monomer is also significantly increased. When temperature increases from
165 C to 180 C, the yielding of glycolysis process is also increased, and it has
found that the optimum temperature to get maximum yielding is 180 C because
further increment in temperature does not brought any change. By increasing the
molar ratio, overall yield of the reaction is possible to improve, but it is limited due to
the limited effect of temperature. With increasing EG/PET molar ratio from 4 to
6, the yielding of the product is increased, but further increment in molar ratio does
brought any remarkable improvement in the yielding. Therefore, after achieving the
optimum conditions for temperature, i.e., 180 C, EG/PET molar ratio, i.e., 6, and
the selection of an appropriate catalyst along with its percentage, the product can be
obtained with maximum yielding. All four metal salt catalysts were compared with
conventional Zn(ac)2 catalyst. Although the Zn(ac)2 catalyst yielded the maximum
product in the temperature range of 180–195 C, thus, it is regarded as most efficient
catalyst for glycolysis in mentioned temperature range that is also said to be an ideal
efficiency (L’opez-Fonseca et al. 2010; Imran et al. 2013). L’opez-Fonseca et al.
(2011) addressed various probable issues associated with metal acetate catalysts, i.e.,
nonbiodegradability, nongreen catalyst, no control on the formation of reaction
products (monomer, dimer, and oligomers), their toxicity, and laborious separation
process. L’opez-Fonseca et al. (2011) have also investigated into the influence of the
time, reaction temperature, molar ratios, catalyst types, and catalyst amount on the
depolymerization process. The origin of PET waste is also a key factor, thus the
effects of the type of PET waste being used (i.e., transparent, colored, degree of
crystallinity, additive/virgin etc.), on the glycolysis reaction is also an interest seeker
parameter. In order to investigate the effect of temperature, the glycolysis of PET was
carried out at 165–195 C for 8 h of duration, at three different EG/PET molar ratios
(3:8, 5:7, 7:6) and also at three different PET/catalyst molar ratios. In order to
analyze the influence of reaction time on final yielding, the reaction was carried
out in two different ways, first, without any catalyst, and, second, with catalyst. The
results indicated that in case there is no catalyst, the glycolysis reaction rate remains
extremely low, thus, more than 8 h of reaction duration needed to accomplish the
same yielding percentage (i.e., 70%) as could be achieved within 1 h in the presence
of catalyst. It is noteworthy that in case if glycolysis reaction takes extended time
duration due to the excess formation of water and increased BHET density in
product side, then this reaction will be reversed which makes it non-favorable for
glycolysis as it would lack in efficiency. Therefore, prolonged reaction duration for
glycolysis is never a desirable thing. L’opez-Fonseca et al. (2011) also have looked
into the effect of the temperature by decreasing it from 196 C to the 185 C (boiling
point of EG) and found that the yield of BHET has obtained as 67% that was 70%
earlier. On further decreasing the temperature, i.e., 165 C, the yield of BHET has
obtained 34% only.
High Surface Area Catalysts: Nanocomposite-Based Catalysts

Nowadays, the nanomaterials are widely used in all the fields of applications due to
their diverse and tunable properties. Nanomaterials are being used in the polymer
industry in couples of years. One of the widely used nanomaterials is of nanoclay-
based. Hydrotalcite is a nanoclay itself, and it is used as a nano-catalyst for the PET
glycolysis for the purpose of imparting some specific properties in glycolyzed
product, i.e., BHET. The catalytic efficiency of hydrotalcite in the PET polyconden-
sation reaction was analyzed by (Xue et al. 2013). However, the surface of
hydrotalcite needs to be functionalized by different treatments in order to make it
suitable for polycondensation catalyst (Sharma et al. 2013). It is also analyzed that
on calcination the activity of hydrotalcite catalyst decreases, significantly. But, on
reversing the process, i.e., rehydration of calcinated hydrotalcite catalyst, it shows
comparatively improved catalytic activity as compared to untreated hydrotalcite
catalyst. The catalytic activity of hydrotalcite depends upon the molar ratio of
Mg+2 to Al+3 in its chemical composition. It has been found that highest catalytic
activity of hydrotalcite occurs if the molar ratio of Mg+2 to Al+3 is kept as two. The
substitution of the CO32 ionic cite of hydrotalcite by comparatively more nucleo-
philic functional groups, i.e., –OH, –RO, etc., makes hydrotalcite more effective
catalyst, thus brought out a faster polycondensation reaction. The chemical structure
of hydrotalcite clay has two constitutional parts – primary part that consists of
lamination of sheets into the plates, and secondary part of structure is agglomerated
plates ended up in loose particles. The hydrotalcite clay having larger sheet size
exhibits less catalytic activity as compared to smaller sheet-sized hydrotalcite.
Besides, the milling off of hydrotalcite clay into smaller particles brought negligible
effect on catalytic activity that might be due to the fact that on milling off the
particles of hydrotalcite makes it interact on plate level that is not considered as an
effected cite. The hydrotalcite clay sheets get expanded while the polycondensation
reaction. However, after the polycondensation process is completed, the hydrotalcite
clay is isolated, and it is reused for another polycondensation process. The catalytic
reactivity of expanded hydrotalcite clay is found to be higher because of high surface
area as compared to normal hydrotalcite (Parashar et al. 2013). The Dow chemical
company (Michigan, USA) has recently patented about a layered double hydroxides
(LDHs)/hydrotalcite (HT)-like compounds and claimed that they are safe, econom-
ical, and most effective catalysts for the production of PET. They have claimed that
synthesized HT-like compounds are hazardless for ecosystems thus are suitable to
use for food contact packaging without any confinements. The optimization to get
superior catalytic activity of HT-like compounds for PET polycondensation reaction
includes fine tuning of molar ratio of Mg+2 to Al+3 in its chemical compositions, the
length and thickness of the layers, interlayers distances, –OH functional groups
content, the nature of counter balancing anions, i.e. –OH, –RO. The depolymer-
ization of PET flakes can be accomplished within few minutes using hydrotalcite
(Al/Mg/CO3) catalytic system in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) solvent. Further, the
oligomer produced can be treated with NaOH in CH3OH at the room temperature
that forms the precipitations of EG and MT in CH3OH. The depolymerization of
PET flakes in the presence of hydrotalcite catalyst depends upon the reaction
temperature. The outcomes exhibit that the catalytic activity of hydrotalcite is
increased if the reaction temperature is increased gradually that further leads to
high rate of depolymerization of PET. The maximum yielding of EG and MT was
achieved (~98% conversion) at the temperature of 190 C within 10 min. Rest of the
oligomers (~2%) remained dissolved into DMSO solvent and can be separated out
by simple distillation process. The depolymerization reactions of PET were carried
out by taking various concentrations of the hydrotalcite catalyst, and it is found that
the PET depolymerized completely in 10 min when 0.5 gm amount of catalyst was
taken. On further lowering the concentration of catalyst (i.e., 0.05 gm), the PET
flakes take significantly high time to be depolymerized. Therefore, the conclusion
drawn is that hydrotalcite catalyst system in the vicinity of an appropriate solvent,
i.e., DMSO is capable to depolymerize the PET flakes into its oligomers, within
10 min. Thereafter, the obtained oligomers can be converted through room temper-
ature transesterification reaction into EG and DMT. Once reaction is completed, the
hydrotalcite is isolated and used for further reactions even with improved efficiency.
Recyclable Catalyst: Ionic Liquid

Wang et al. have initiated the study in 2009 about the ionic liquids to be used for the
glycolysis of PET (Wang et al. 2009a). The use of ionic liquids for glycolysis process
over other metal-based conventional catalysts makes the purification of products

easier. Various ionic liquids were prepared and were used to perform the glycolysis
of PET at various temperatures and reaction times. It has been reported that by using
1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide ([bmim] Br) ionic liquid-based catalyst for
PET glycolysis reaction, cent percent conversion of PET into its monomers was
accomplished in 8 h reaction time at 180 C. Since, the ([bmim] Br) catalyst is
regarded as an efficient catalyst in reference to the conversion rate. Recently, the Fe
holding magnetic ionic liquid was used as a catalyst for the PET glycolysis reaction.
It is reported that Fe containing magnetic ionic liquid catalyst demonstrated
improved catalytic activity as compared to the traditional metal salt catalyst or the
pure ionic liquid catalyst along with the quantity of the catalyst influencing
the conversion of PET and selectivity of BHET monomer (Wang et al. 2009b).
Thereafter, Yue et al. (2011) have studied about catalytic activity and found that a
basic [bmim]OH catalyst shows improved catalytic activity as compared to [bmim]
Br and [bmim] Cl ionic liquid catalysts.
Subcritical and Supercritical Glycolysis
The subcritical as well as supercritical glycolysis process of PET with ethylene

glycol EG in order to produce BHET is investigated by several researchers since
couples of years to acquire a process for PET recycling. In one of the studies by
(Imran et al. 2010), the supercritical glycolysis has put through by maintaining the
reaction temperature and pressure as 450 C and 15.3 MPa, respectively. The
subcritical glycolysis of PET was accomplished by maintaining the reactions
conditions as 350 C temperature and 2.49 MPa pressure, and in another lot the
temperature and pressure were kept as 300 C and 1.1 MPa, respectively. The
yielding of BHET monomer was obtained as 90% when PET was glycolyzed by
either of the methods. By keeping the PET/EG weight ratio as 0.06, it has found
that the optimum reaction time for supercritical glycolysis process has come as
30 min, whereas for subcritical glycolysis process, it comes as 75 min
(350, 2.49 MPa) and 120 min (300 C, 1.1 MPa). The supercritical glycolysis of
PET at 450 C and 15.3 MPa yields BHET monomer with the conversion rate of
93.5% in 30 min of reaction time, while in the subcritical glycolysis at 350 C/
2.49 MPa and 300 C/1.1 MPa reaction conditions, the yielding of BHET with the
conversion rate 94% takes 70 min, and conversion rate 92% takes 120 min,
respectively. The reason behind the fast rate of reaction in supercritical conditions
may be due to the high kinetic energy and solvent density. Furthermore, the active
ester linkages present in PET gets dispersed uniformly at the supercritical condi-
tions that increase the rate of reaction of glycolysis process. These results obtained
from glycolysis of PET suggest that the maximum yielding, i.e., 90%, of BHET
can be attained in a substantially short reaction time, i.e., 30 min by maintaining
the supercritical conditions, i.e., 450 C and 15.3 MPa. The yielding of BHET
monomers through sub- and supercritical glycolysis of PET becomes the function
of reaction conditions, i.e., temperature and pressure post-30 min of the reaction
initiation. The maximum BHET monomer was yielded as 93.5% at 450 C

temperature and 15.3 MPa pressure. It has been observed that the increment in
BHET monomer yielding was merely 10.1% when temperature was raised from
300 C to 400 C, whereas it was 83.06% while raising the reaction temperature
from 400 C to 450 C. The greater increment in BHET yielding (83.06%) from
400 C to 450 C was due to the reason that in this temperature range, the EG goes
through the state transition from subcritical to supercritical that subsequently
enhanced the glycolysis reaction rate of PET in a short duration.
Microwave-Assisted Glycolysis
The microwave-assisted glycolysis process is considered superior over other

process in terms of reaction duration. It occurs at considerably higher rate than
other conventional processes, i.e., electrical heating. In glycolysis reaction PET
reacts with the EG to form BHET monomer along with other oligomers molecules
of high weight. The produced oligomers are water-insoluble due to high molecular
weight; therefore they are mixed in water and then can be separated out through
filtration. The filtrate contains BHET monomer, unreacted EG molecules, and
some water soluble dimers/oligomers. The filtrate is cooled down so that BHET
monomer can be precipitated out; those were later on purified by the recrystalli-
zation process. The needle-shaped white crystals of BHET are obtained. The effect
of the reaction time and the molar ratio of PET/EG content on the yielding of
BHET during microwave-assisted glycolysis is analyzed by Chaudhary et al.
(2013). Researchers have found that the yielding of BHET monomer increases
significantly along with the procession of microwave-assisted glycolysis reaction,
and thereafter if the reaction is left to proceed for further extended duration, the
BHET monomer yielding decreases. This decline in BHET yielding can be
assigned to the polycondensation process of BHET that predominates the glycol-
ysis process. The molar ratio of PET/EG as 1:2 comes out to be adequate for the
microwave-assisted glycolysis reaction. By taking this ratio, the yielding of BHET
accomplishes to nearly 20% after half an hour reaction duration. By increasing the
PET/EG molar from 1:2 to 1:6, the yielding of BHET monomer increases,
significantly. On conventional electrical heating, the glycolysis process takes
comparatively longer duration to get accomplished. In this process, conversion
of PET into its monomers after 8 h achieves 100% at 190C temperature along with
44% yielding of BHET by keeping PET/EG ratio at 1:6. In order to promote
increase in the yielding percentage of BHET, the glycolysis of the produced
oligomers remained as residue from 1st glycolytic cycle which is recommended
in another step rather than continuing the 1st glycolytic cycle for prolonged
duration. For this intention, the oligomer obtained in 1st glycolytic cycle as residue
can be reacted with the EG to the formation of BHET. It has been found that while
residual oligomers are exposed to microwave irradiation for 10 min, the entire
amount converts into the BHET monomer.
Enzymatic Glycolysis
The depolymerization methods for PET based on the biotechnological environ-

mental friendly concepts, i.e., enzyme catalysis, possess vast advantages as com-
pared to the conventional chemical-based methods. Such processes are nowadays
attracting the attentions of researchers from throughout the globe (Schulte et al.
2013). For this purpose, the knowledge of enzyme technology is very much
essential. The enzymatic methods for PET glycolysis is advantageous over other
methods and it consists the concept that the action of bio enzymes by putting
negligible energy under the modest conditions without any need of expensive
efforts, is very encouraging for the depolymerization of PET (Fischer-Colbrie
et al. 2004). The enzymes used for biodegradation of PET are usually extracted
from a variety of bacterial and fungal sources (Ronkvist et al. 2009). The member
enzymes of the cutinase (Then et al. 2015), lipase (Eberl et al. 2009), and esterase
(Tokiwa et al. 2009; Oeser et al. 2010) classes are found to be capable for PET
biodegradation. It has been found by Vertommen et al. (2005) that the extent of
PET biodegradation using the cutinase enzyme extracted from Fusarium solani pisi
and lipase enzyme extracted from the Candida antarctica can be calculated by
measuring the quantity of obtained soluble biodegradation products, those that are
produced after a certain period of biodegradation of PET, through reversed phase
HPLC method. Synthetic polymers, i.e., PET are conceived as nonnatural sub-
strates for the enzymatic reactions; thus such polymers are regarded as nonstandard
material for biodegradation that leads to draggy rate of enzymatic reaction (Tokiwa
and Suzuki 1977). Researchers (Silva et al. 2011) have put forward the protein
engineering studies through which the affinity of cutinase enzyme toward PET
polymer as well as ability to hydrolyzation can be significantly increased. The
degradation of synthetic polymers begins at higher reaction temperature. Conse-
quently, the site-specific mutagenesis along with protein engineering approach
needs to be executed to enhance the cutinase enzyme’s thermal stability. Studies
carried out on the enzymatic biodegradation of PET polymer shows that the
limitation can be overcome by increasing the flexibility of polymer chain by
heating the PET in its amorphous phase that makes it fairly accessible toward
enzymatic biocatalytic site (Marten et al. 2005). Thus, the special configuration of
polymeric chains, their flexibility, and the type of solvent being used play a major
role in degradation. Unfortunately, the enzymatic biodegradation reactions are
sluggish and their efficiency is very low, i.e., 15%. However, in order to address
the issue, many research fellows have demonstrated about how the rate of enzy-
matic degradation can be enhanced. Out of many, one method is to add tiny amount
of hydrophobin recombinant fusion enzyme along with the main biocatalytic
enzyme. The hydrophobins are proteins those that are rich in cysteine amino acid
and have capability to develop a hydrophobic layer coating. The additional
hydrophobins, i.e., HFB4 and HFB7, are capable to modify the physical and
chemical properties of the surface of biocatalytic enzyme that results in approxi-
mately 15-fold increment in the PET biodegradation (Ribitsch et al. 2013, 2015).
PET Recycling, Circular Economy, and Sustainability
The PET polymer is a fully recyclable material. The recycled PET is named as rPET.
In early 1990s, PET has replaced the PVC at large proportion that is a less recyclable
material and has high molecular weight. While using the PET material instead of
PVC for plastic bottle manufacturing reduces the weight of bottle by 30% that leads
to lesser emissions from transportation and logistics process. PET is already the most
recycled material in entire world, but its collection and rate of recycling deviate
extremely from country to country. The plastic industries are taking opportunities of
general awareness and working with the cooperative groups, NGOs, local bodies,
governments, and other companies to raise the rate of plastic recycling along with
participating in the formal as well as informal systems of waste management in order
to use recycled polymers, i.e., rPET for the development of new products. For the
recycling process, first PET materials, i.e., bottles, are collected and sorted; washed
with normal and alkaline water, i.e., NaOH solution; and then cut into small chips/
flakes, washed again, and thereafter extruded into continuous thick thread that is
palletized later on as per the requirement. These pallets are melted down later to form
new products. The rPET materials are used either to form new bottles by blown
molding or to form various products, i.e., clothing, carpets, industrial products, etc.
All the involved stakeholders including plastic producers, recycler firms, governing
authorities, and end user should work hand in hand on a four-point strategy in order
to ascertain the second life for plastics. The four-point strategy consists of collection,
collaboration, innovation, and engagement. The collection as well as separation of
post-consumer PET bottles is possible to achieve only by active involvement of all
concerned stakeholders. The European Union has framed a target for the year of
2025 to accomplish bottles collection and recycling rate as 90% for sustainability
interest, and that is not possible to attain without active involvement of the stake-
holders. Starting from the collection of post-consumer-discarded PET bottles to end
user of rPET products through various ways of consumer chain, the recycling of PET
involves a cyclic circular economy or the idea of circularity. Other two attributes of
four-point strategy including “to be innovative” and “mutual engagement.” The
packaging bottle manufacturing developers are much concerned to invest into
designing the highly sustainable packaging and also spending a big proportion of
their profit money into the research to find out innovative novel packaging materials
from renewable, natural, and nonfossil-based origins. Companies are organizing
various campaigns in order to make their consumers aware and educated about the
opportunities associated with PET recycling and their righteous role to bring up a
circular economy loop into many lives. The various chemical techniques for PET
recycling emerged as novel techniques for a changeover toward a circular economy
especially for packaging related PET wastes (Meys et al. 2020; Singh et al. 2017,
2018). In order to ascertain about the environmental and ecological benefits associ-
ated with chemical recycling, have brought in a reproducible LCA-based technique
that estimates ecological as well as environmental benefits from chemical recycling
methods. The researchers have employed this technique to analyze the impact of
recycling of packaging waste of PP, PET, LDPE, PS, and HDPE plastics on the
environment. The outcomes estimated that all the chemical-based pathways of PET
recycling lead to abridge the global warming consequences as well as the diminution
of fossil resource if the sorted wastage of plastic packaging is used. Various waste
incinerators being used nowadays are facing mainly two problems: first, they have
depressed efficiency of producing heat/electricity, and, second, they have high
carbon emissions. The maximum capability to dilute the impacts of global warming
and depletion of fossil resources can be attained through chemical upcycling of post-
consumer-discarded PET into the 1,4-cyclohexane dimethanol rather than to go for
energy recovery through incinerators. An ideal chemical upcycling of post-
consumer-discarded PET can obviate approximately 4.2 kg of CO2- equivalent and
nearly 1.4 kg of oil – equivalent to 1 kg mass of PET wastage. The impacts of global
warming and depletion of fossil resources can be cut down even for the depressed
conversion rates, i.e., 70% of biodegradation. Instead of treating the collected plastic
waste in the solid waste incinerators at municipal level, the energy extraction
processes are nowadays being executed through the mechanical recycling or through
cement kiln combustion. If the reduction in the impacts of global warming is taken as
a major concern, then the collected plastic wastage should be considered either for
mechanical recycling or in cement kilns, rather than converting them into the fuels or
refinery feedstock. Topic-based online search was carried out in Science Direct
database by writing various keywords, i.e., “circular economy,” “PET recycling,”
“circular economy, PET recycling”, and “circular economy, PET recycling, sustain-
ability.” The results were customized in two ways – first, only research papers and
review articles shall be shown in final results, and, second, in the duration of 2016 to
2020. The results were shown by the number of research papers and review articles
of the last 5 years from 2016 to 2020, shown in Fig. 6. The graph shows that these
interlinked areas of research are gaining the attention of researchers; thus the number
of publications is significantly increasing from 2016 to 2020. It is remarkable that the
along with the “PET recycling” and “circular economy,” the topic “sustainability”
was associated in merely 28 papers in 2016, and it was enhanced by 414% in 2019
with 114 research publications. The publications about “PET recycling” have
increased by 70% in 2019 compared to those in 2016. Such details about the
publications show the interest of researches in the circular economy concept.
The concept to develop the circular economy over linear economy leads to
putting an appropriate increment in the plastic recycling within the loop of economy
in order to accomplished the human needs by keeping resource extraction minimum,
and it also attracts the attention of governmental policy makers, legislations (Zhijun
and Nailing 2007), and individual industries shown in their action plans (Bocken
et al. 2016). The European Commission (EC) has pursued a motivational campaign
to promote the strategies for circular economy especially for the plastics. An
objective has been framed by the EC in order to ascertain that 10 million tons
amount of plastics will have to recycled to produce new products by the year 2025
and out of total amount, approximately 25% of recycled plastics shall be used for
bottle production (Setboonsarng 2019). There are a number of textile as well as other
industries that come out in support and are using rPET up to a reasonable proportion
in their products. Various novel real-time applications of rPET are being searched
No. of publications (Research papers + Review papers)
4500 PET recycling
Circular Economy
Circular economy, PET recycling

3000
Circular economy, PET recycling,
Sustainability
1500
0
2020* 2019 2018 2017 2016
Fig. 6 Science Direct database by searching “circular economy,” “PET recycling,”

“circular economy,” “circular economy + PET recycling,” and “circular economy + PET recycling
+ sustainability” keywords
and explored in order to breakthrough an advanced generalized method for

reclaiming the PET fibers for further various applications. In order to support the
recycled material-based market, recently, a Thai-based company named Indorama
Ventures and some other companies have invested a huge sum for the PET reclama-
tion plants (Setboonsarng 2019). Unremarkably, putting circular economy forward
will have a large capability in order to connect the society for a mutual goal, and
further it will bring an excellent coordination among the companies, civil society,
local government, and other stakeholders by working out together without harming
and using natural resources very expeditiously, along with increasing the benefits
(Lieder and Rashid 2016) and serving the useful applications (Tukker 2015) to more
individuals. Since the last decade, the literature has been explored intensively for the
circular economy potential associated with the PET life cycle especially for bottle-
to-bottle method. It has been found that the use of rPET is increased significantly for
the bottle manufacturing between the year of 1991 and 2011 nurtured by the
betterment in the decontamination capabilities with super clean process of recycling
(Welle 2011). Rochat et al. (2013) have advocated the bottle-to-bottle recycling
pathway claiming the environmental economic and social benefits calculated
through material flow analysis (MFA), life cycle assessment (LCA), and multi-
attribute utility theory (MUT). In another research, Kuczenski and Geyer (2013)
explained that the bottle-to-bottle recycling pathway for the Californian scheme
of refundable plastic bottles is not harming the environment and ecosystem.
Nevertheless, the applications of rPET have been approached beyond the bottle
production industry; despite it, a primary purchase of the rPET object for a specific
application shall impel the other productions, i.e., sheet, fiber, and film, etc., to
depend on the virgin PET. The acceptability for the plastic products is slumping
among the people, and the replacement of vPET with rPET in the bottle manufactur-
ing is progressively turning into a selling argument. Increasing the use of rPET to
produce new bottles may lead toward the maximizing material efficiency as well as
minimizing the environmental harms. The data shows that nearly 4.6% of PET in the
US market in the year of 2016 was going around in the closed loop for bottle-to-
bottle recycling pathway, whereas nearly 9.8% of PET was circulated through an
open-loop manner toward the applications of films, sheets, fibers, etc. An integrated
assessment of MFA-LCA framework showed (Lonca et al. 2020) that increasing the
closed-loop recycling pathway in the bottle manufacturing industry will neither cut
down the production of vPET nor decline the emission of GHG in the views of entire
the market. A simplified representation of the actual US PET flows with tested key
circularity parameters is shown in Fig. 7. The closed-loop recycling pathway for
PET is considered to be beneficial for ecosystem and environment even if it is not
recycled. It can be made to be circulated as much as maximum rounds in circular
economy loop in order to utilize it at maximum extent. The main focus should be on
the ways to discover the methods for increase the collection rate of post-consumer
bottle as well as to improve the efficiency of recycling process. The attributes
Fig. 7 (a) simplified representation of the actual USA PET flows with tested key circularity
parameters. (b) slopes representing the influence of key parameters to the total impacts on climate
change of the US PET market, such that, e.g., (ΔI)μ ¼ (Iμ1-Iμ0) / (μ1-μ0). The lower it is, the lesser
overall impacts (Lonca et al. 2020). (Reproduced with due permission from Copyright Clearance
Center RightsLink ® Elsevier])
increasing the circularity of one product for circular economy may or may not be
beneficial for other products as well. The circular strategies for a specific material at
product level may or may not provide the significant benefits if the material is
considered for final use that has no option of recycling. It is regarded as a more
beneficial material than recovered quantities. Integrating the material circularity
assessment (MCA) with LCA led to knowing about the trade-offs among the
circularity of materials, environmental performance, and life cycle of the material.
The aggregated usefulness of LCA and MFA helps to figure out the overall risk
associated with burden shifting which is caused by the unintended outcomes of the
market effects taking place beyond the scope of an individual product. The assess-
ment of circular strategies in order to establish circular economy loop is needed at the
product level believing a wider reach of analysis in case there is a competition
among the users in same material market. Nevertheless, a significant number of
benefits can be anticipated after putting through the circular economy on the larger
scale. For example, a bottle production company may not experience a straight gain
by opting the use of rPET in order to produce further products but being in favor to
the PET circularity within the market level, i.e., putting the effort to increase the
collection and plastic reclamation instead of focusing on to increase the competition
in the market of rPET, may contribute in ascertaining the sustainability of PET bottle
market.
The circular economy interprets a more sustainable and an alternative model to
the conventional linear economy. A linear model of economy consists the produc-
tion, utilization, and thereafter disposal of the product. Whereas in the circular
economy approach, the resources are kept in use for as prolonged period as
possible, by taking out the maximum value while in use, and thereafter regenerate
the products when its service life ends. The diverse properties of the plastics make
them capable to play an important role in order to experience a resource efficient
as well as more sustainable future. Due to light in weight, the durable and versatile
plastics help in to save the key resources, i.e., water and energy, in various fields
of service consisting building and construction sector, packaging, automotive and
renewable energy sector, etc. In order to develop an efficient pathway for the
circular economy, it is essential to confirm that the decisions around an appropriate
solution should be based on the sustainability associated with the entire life cycle
instead of considering merely efficiency aspects of resource only at the last use of
the product. All the plastics put a substantial involvement into the circular econ-
omy when the life cycle of their entire life is analyzed. Our economy has been
linear since a long time because the natural as well as crude oil-based raw
materials are being used to produce the products, and they were discarded after
end use, i.e., packaging materials without thinking about their recycling or reuse.
The future will not go anymore hand in hand with the concept of linear economy;
thus, it is need of the hour to shift onto the circular economy concept. That
consists of the preventing of waste materials by enabling the materials and
products more efficient and easy to reuse and recycle. The new raw materials
needed to develop objects must be produced sustainably by maintaining the human
and natural environment intact.
Conclusion
Circular economy is an economic practical and executable system through which the
products are designed to be used/reused up to a maximum extent. From the
beginning, the selection of material and designing of the product should be match
the concept that ensures zero materials lose, zero output of toxins, attainment of
maximum utilization from each process, component and material. If the circular
economy concept is employed rightly, it is beneficial for the economy, society, and
the environment as well. The materials associated with the packaging must be
designed in accordance to any of the systems named reuse system, recycling system,
and the composting system. As far as the new plastic economy is concerned, none of
the plastic is considered to be waste or pollutant for the environment. Three major
goals are needed to be achieved to make such economy true that results in the
creation of circular economy for PET. This chapter emphasizes on the complete
elimination of all the unnecessary and problematic plastic products; impart the
innovation to make sure that the plastics being in use are easily reusable, recyclable
by physical (preferred)/chemical method, or compostable/biodegradable; and ensure
the circulation of PET items being in use to hold them within the economy loop for
extended duration so that we can keep them out of the environmental concern.
Without the continuous elimination of unnecessary PET products, circular economy
concept cannot be attained. As the demand of plastic packaging materials seems to
be two-folded within coming two decades, it seems an inconceivable task to
maintain this incoming stream of the PET materials into the economy to make it a
circular economy. Also, in order to accomplish a circular economy, the quantity of
the material that requires to be circulated and enroll in the economy has to be
decreased. Since the last couple of years, a significant increment in the business as
well as in the government interest has been reported in terms of the dedication and
action on the “reuse” concept in various forms, i.e., single lab level, pilot lab level,
research initiatives, technology transfer, and reuse-focused novel startups.
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Stakeholders Perception of Used Plastics
44
Bishal Bharadwaj and Rajesh Kumar Rai
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1178
Plastic Waste and Its Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1180
Solid Waste Situation in Nepal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1181
Solid Waste Management in Nepal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1182
Municipal Solid Waste Management in Nepal (SWM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1183
The Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1187
Theoretical Framework: Integrated Solid Waste Management (ISWM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1189
Method and Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1191
ISWM in Nepalese Municipality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1192
Stakeholders’ View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1192
Plastic Waste and Its SWM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1192
Management and Cost Responsibilities of SWM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1193
The Solution to Plastic Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1195
Recover Material from Solid Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1197
Sustainable Financing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1199
Environmental and Social Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1200
Complementing Strategies for the ISWM in Nepal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1200
Household Behavioral Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1201
Scaling up the Recovery Rate and Collection Efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1201
Tax and Charges on Plastic Goods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1202
Landfill Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1202
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1203
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1203
B. Bharadwaj (*)
School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
e-mail: bhardwaj.bishu@gmail.com
R. K. Rai
School of Forestry and Natural Resource Management, Institute of Forestry, Tribhuvan University,
Kathmandu, Nepal

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_54
1178 B. Bharadwaj and R. K. Rai
Abstract
Used plastics are nondegradable solid waste; responsible for soil and water pollu-
tion. The use of plastic bags and packaging is increasing. There are strong voices to
impose a ban on plastics in general and single-use plastic bags in particular in many
parts of the world. However, stakeholders involved in the plastic supply chain have a
different economic motive and have different opinions regarding the plastic ban and
management strategy. This chapter is based on the primary data collected through
the interview with 100 respondents from 5 different stakeholders and secondary
information from 43 municipalities of Nepal. This chapter assessed the stakeholders
perception of plastic waste management and then developed the integrated solid
waste management for Nepal. The findings suggest that stakeholders have their own
idea and constraints to manage used plastics. Producers oppose ban policy, whereas
NGO and environmental activists see it as a solution. Stakeholders were inconclu-
sive on whether an additional levy on plastic discourages its use. Producer and
policymaker fear levy on plastic will increase the price for numerous consumer
goods affecting employment and low-income consumers. Collectors suggest that
segregation and the increased price of recyclables would boost the employment and
recovery rate. Municipalities, who are responsible for solid waste management, seek
support from central government. Despite these discrepancies, all stakeholders
agreed that recycling and reuse of used plastic could be the common point of
agreement. In their view, recycling of waste promotes business for collectors, pro-
vides raw material to processors, reduces the waste burden, reduces import of
plastic, and contributes to keeping the environment clean.
Keywords
Solid waste management · Stakeholders · Recycling · Collectors · Plastic
Introduction
Consumption is the founding block of the global economy. Consumption is linked to

waste generation, including solid waste. Both consumption and solid waste are
increasing. Management of the increased solid waste is becoming challenging day
by day, due to several reasons. First, the production of solid waste is increasing,
needing more resources and effort to tackle it (Karak et al. 2012). A daily global
waste production is three and a half million tons – ten times compared to a century
before – and the production is increasing (Washington Post, 21 November 2017).
This increasing production of solid waste demands environmental resources such as
land and water bodies; and management chain requires human resources, informal
though. Also, it threatens the capacity of urban infrastructures such as drainage
system (Pervin et al. 2019).
Second, the combination of material into the waste is changing due to the nature
of waste produced. The characteristics of waste are shifting from organic to
44 Stakeholders Perception of Used Plastics 1179
inorganic and complex materials that are hard to handle. Increasing innovation and
expansion of a complex production system produce a complicated combination of
materials such as colored plastic. After the consumption, these products, used for
packaging, enter into the waste stream and change the waste characteristics. This
ultimately becomes more complicated to manage. For instance, the production of
nuclear waste from an X-ray machine or medical waste is increasing. When the
waste after the use of these materials enters into the waste, they are hard to segregate
and manage. These materials in the waste risk human health and environment for a
long duration of time. The growing use of plastic is another challenge.
Third is the socio-ecological aspect of solid waste management (SWM). Since
SWM is a multiscale and have multi-stakeholders. It involves a large number of
stakeholders and socio-ecological factors such as population, environmental
buffering capacity, and management capabilities. The population is not evenly
distributed. Some areas are densely populated, such as in South Asia, where
finding an appropriate landfill away from residential areas is challenging. A
rapidly increasing population in this region will make SWM more complex in
the future. Shrinking buffering capacity of the environment is another important
ecological aspect impacted by poor waste management. The environment acts as
a sink of waste from the economic process. As the environment is already
overloaded with waste and pollutants, adding a little more may cross the buff-
ering capacity of the ecosystem and result in unexpected damages. GHG emis-
sion from the burning of fossil fuel and other activities is a serious concern. The
additional emission from solid waste will have a severe consequence. Besides,
ocean and water bodies already have loads of plastic and toxic materials into it;
adding one more unit may worsen the quality more than it would have done a
few decades before. With reduced carrying or buffering capacity of the environ-
ment and ecological system, an increased flow of waste is likely to have
immense consequences in the future.
Fourth, the disparity in waste management capacity across the cities is another
challenge. Some cities have an effective SWM so that the final quantity of waste that
reaches landfill is much smaller than the volume produced. For example, the facts
and figure about materials, waste, and recycling provided by the US Environmental
Protection Agency (accessed in 2020 August 31) show that the production of waste
is increasing over time. However, the amount of waste in the landfill is almost
constant in recent decades, due to recycling and waste-to-energy recovery. On the
other hand, South Asia is experiencing rapid urbanization with an increasing volume
of waste production due to the limited resources and capacity of South Asian cities;
the flow of waste is likely to increase with an increased negative impact. Cities in
developing countries will attract more rural migrants and will serve as a waste
production center. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs
suggests that currently 55% of the population live in urban areas and the urban
population will constitute 68% of the total population by 2050 (DESA 2018). In
developing countries, solid waste is one of the major problems of local authorities.
Municipalities are preliminary responsible for household level and one of the high-
cost activities (Guerrero et al. 2013).
However, waste is also a resource as it denotes unused or unwanted materials.

Unused for one could be usable for others. Technology helps to convert waste into
many consumable resources such as waste to energy. Recovery of waste material
provides essential resources to the different sector such as raw material for industries
and fertilizer for agriculture. Besides this, waste management is already an ample
employment opportunity, though informal work environment continues to challenge
the whole process. The municipality can generate revenue from SWM, such as the
fee for collection and revenue by selling recycling. Besides this, an extended benefit
includes the increased price of the property in cleaner neighborhood (Nepal et al.
2020) and carbon credit from GHG reduction through SWM (Zheng and Suh 2019).
Plastic Waste and Its Challenges
Increasing use of plastic has become global, and concern on plastic waste production
and its broad-ranging impact is contributed by all three factors mentioned in the first
section. Increasing use of plastic has a positive contribution to the solid waste
stream. Darrin Qualman illustrated that the global production of plastic is increasing
exponentially. The production of plastic was deficient until 1940, which has reached
more than 400 million ton a day. Increasing use of plastic is associated with its
strength. For example, plastic is convenient to use and provides several commercial
advantages. From medical equipment to food packaging, plastic provides several
advantages such as lightweight, nonconductive, waterproof, flexibility, and strength.
It also contributes to reducing organic waste. However, its environmental conse-
quences are a major concern. Plastic is made up of petrochemical – with high GHG
emission footprint. A significant portion of the plastic used is disposable after use.
Water bottle, for instance, is used once and thrown away. Polythene bag has also a
similar story. These are frequently used items and disposable use of plastic pushed
the solid waste volume up. Usually, plastic takes a too long time to decay and
decompose; and remain in the environment and landfill, probably up to 1000 years.
Also, plastic clogs the drain, causing flooding. This can threaten the capacity of
urban infrastructure, particularly of drainage during the rainy season (Pervin et al.
2019). Further, animals ingest it. According to plastic statistics from Ocean Cru-
saders, a million sea birds and a hundred thousand sea animals die due to the plastic
ingestion and entangling. They indicate mismanaged plastic waste disposed of in the
ocean is a major source of plastic pollution. Increasing use and wide externalities to
environment, plastic pollution has now become a global concern (Haward 2018).
Weak solid waste management is responsible for the release of used plastic into the
environment. Absence of SWM means households have to either burn it or release it
into the environment. Even if municipalities in a developing country are collecting
the waste; they are dumping it somewhere outside the residential areas such as river
bank and forest, these practice release a vast amount of plastic into the environment.
These plastics pollute environment and threat human/animal life for hundreds of
years. Also, burning is one way of managing plastic waste and common practice in
developing countries. The toxic pollutant from the burning plastic harms human
health. Plastic is light, dispatched around the city to reduce the aesthetic and
cleanliness of the city. Another way of managing plastic is to reuse and recycle.
This will reduce the plastic disposed into the environment and generate resources for
the municipality. Therefore, improving SWM in developing countries will have
twofold contributions: (i) financing SWM and (ii) reduced environmental damage.
The municipal SWM is very challenging and costly activity, which likely to
escalate in the future. This is not only a waste issue but also the social, geopolitical,
financial, and environmental problem. Developing countries have poor infrastruc-
ture, weak supply chain, low technological capacity, and low social acceptance
toward waste management. Therefore, SWM is more challenging in the global
south (Guerrero et al. 2013). The case of the developing world is vastly different.
Therefore, a proper and comprehensive view of SWM practices in urban areas of
developing countries and a framework to operationalize the waste management is
critical. This chapter aims to fulfil this gap with the SWM story of Nepal.
Solid Waste Situation in Nepal
According to a report by the World Bank, a daily average solid waste production of
Nepal is 0.12 KG per capita. This quantity is far less compared to an average daily
production of solid waste (0.6 kg per capita) in the underdeveloped country
(Hoornweg and Bhada-Tata 2012). A reason could be low urbanization and per
capita income. Nepal has seen rapid urbanization in recent years. The urban popu-
lation has increased from 13.9% to 17% between 2001 and 2011 (CBS 2012). The
proportion of household living in urban settings in newly reformed municipalities is
around 64% (CBS 2017). Besides, high population density, urbanization is also
characterized with the increased consumption of processed food products and
complex economic activities. Usually, processed food products have a longer shelf
life that uses plastic, paper, and metal for packaging, handling, and transportation
(Ngoc and Schnitzer 2009). The urban households have a higher demand for
electronic appliances such as television, fridge, computer, and mobile phones.
Increased consumption of these various products not only increases the volume of
solid waste but also increases the variety of materials in the solid waste stream. The
composition of solid waste has both spatial and temporal variations (Miezah et al.
2015). For instance, densely populated cities have a high percentage of inorganic
material such as plastic and paper as compared to the sparsely populated cities. For
instance, Kathmandu – the capital city of Nepal – has 64% of organic material and
16% of plastic in the solid waste, whereas Narayan municipality, a small town in the
mid-western hills, has 85% of organic material and 7% as plastic in its solid waste.
The contribution of inorganic material is also changing over time. Plastic waste is
increasing gradually, while the share of metal is being reduced (SWMTSC 2008,
2012). This might be due to the increased use of plastic material instead of metal in
the production process. Plastic waste is one of the major concerns of the urbaniza-
tion. Plastic waste is increasing gradually over the year in Nepal (see Fig. 1). The
Fig. 1 Plastic and organic material in a municipal solid waste stream over the year. The data is from
various sources such as study reports and survey data
share of plastic was minimal in 1970, and now it is up to 10% of the total waste
(SWMTSC 2012).
Based on the import data from the Department of Custom and population
projection from central bureau of statistics, plastic use has increased from 5.04 kg
per person to 11.35 kg per person between 2010 and 2016. It is difficult to estimate
the weight of plastic imported in pieces and length, hence excluded in these
estimates. This figure excludes the recycled plastic, import of finished plastic
goods, plastic used to pack the imported goods, and plastic embedded in other
products such as laptops and mobile. On an average, per capita waste production
was 62 kg per person per year in 2012. It was estimated that plastic constitutes about
15% (3.52 t) of the daily solid waste (24 t) produced by a municipality. Of total
plastic waste produced, 64% (2.26 t) is collected and dumped through municipal
waste collection service (SWMTSC 2012).
Solid Waste Management in Nepal
Nepal had its first waste management institution in 1891 as Safai Adda
(Safai ¼ cleaning, Adda ¼ office). This institution mobilized cleaners in the
Kathmandu Valley – to clean the road and public places. The waste management
responsibilities were then transferred to Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, and Lalitpur –
three municipalities in the Kathmandu Valley, in 1950. The initial phase of SWM
was to collect solid waste and throw away from the residential areas.
SWM was not an issue a few decades back. Especially before the people movement
in 1990, urban areas were not crowded, plastic was still new, and households used to
practice farming on some form such as kitchen garden or small farm even in Kathmandu
Valley. Household used organic waste as manure, sell the recyclable to collector, and
dump or burned remaining waste. There was open space such as river bank and public
places where households used to dump their waste. An urban household survey in 1996
showed that around half of the urban households dumped solid waste in the public or
fixed place, 17% burned it, 16% were served by municipal solid waste collection
service, and 15% of household used to make compost (CBS 1997).
SWM started to become an issue as urban area gradually expanded, and cities
started to receive migrants. The urban household survey, 1996, revealed that 59% of
the surveyed households perceived unmanaged solid waste as a major environmental
problem in their locality. During that period most of the waste was organic, and use
of plastic was negligible, which constitutes only 0.3% of the total waste (Pokhrel and
Viraraghavan 2005). With an increased urbanization and use of plastic waste, plastic
and other materials in the solid waste increased, and SWM started to became a public
concern. Municipalities were implementing several solid waste reduction and man-
agement activities at their capacity. Hetauda Municipality, for instance, implemented
a ban on the use of a single-use plastic bag in 1995. Biratnagar Municipality
implemented solid waste collection in 1997. However, municipalities lack a strong
legal framework, resources, and technology to address SWM concerns. These
decentralized SWM initiatives scaled up rapidly after the implementation of the
Local Self-Governance Act (1999). The Act devolved SWM responsibilities to the
municipality. After the enforcement of the Act, the municipality can implement their
SWM, collection fee, and landfill sites. After the decentralization of the responsibil-
ities, several municipalities started to implement the SWM and solid waste reduction
initiatives. A program was aiming public mobilization. Suiro Abhiyan (iron hook
campaign) in Hetauda and Bharatpur municipality during 2005 provided hooks at
household level. The participating households collected plastic in the hook, which
was collected periodically by the respective municipality. In addition, municipalities
were encouraging the use of organic waste such as waste to biogas and waste to
composting providing compost bin in subsidy. Several NGOs were also engaged in
solid waste collection and management activities such as Nepal Pollution Control
and Environment Management Center and Urban Environment Management Soci-
ety. Recently different private ventures are emerging to collect the used material and
recycle it, such as Khaalisisi ® and Doko Recyclers ®. Although an informal
rag-picking is a common practice in Nepal, these ventures are more sophisticated
with the improved service mechanism and more attractive price.
Municipal Solid Waste Management in Nepal (SWM)
Nepal observed a rapid urbanization with new urban centers around the highway in
the recent decades. A decade-long insurgencies and civil war fueled rapid migration
from rural to town around the east-west highway (Subedi 2014). A report from
UNFPA shows that 27 out of 75 districts, in the mid-hills, have a negative trend in
the population growth from 2001 to 2011. In addition, several village development
committees were upgraded to municipalities during 2014 and 2015, as they meet the
criteria to become municipalities. Due to the rapid and unplanned urbanization,
SWM started to become an issue everywhere, especially in the municipality with a
high population density. The demand for hospital and hazardous waste was also
increasing. Cross-municipality collaboration for integrated SWM is in urgent need
and starting gradually. Nepal introduced the Solid Waste Management Act (2011) to
address all emerging issues in SWM. The Act has provisions related to SWM
system, collection fee, responsibilities of residents, and fine for noncompliance.
Two years later, the Government of Nepal enforced regulation to implement the
Act. In 2015, Nepal adopted the federal governance system. The constitution of
Nepal provided authority to local governments to manage solid waste. Municipali-
ties can formulate their own SWM Act and implement it.
Ilam Municipality implemented a plastic bag ban in 2010 (Bharadwaj et al. 2021).
The ban was successful in reducing the use of a single-use plastic bag in the town.
Other municipality followed suit. Mechinagar and Damak, for instance, enforced a
similar kind of ban. However, not all municipalities, who intended to enforce a
complete ban, were unsuccessful due to resistance from the stakeholders such as
retailers and plastic good producers. Ministry of Forests and Environment (then the
Ministry of Environment) implemented a plastic bag reduction and control directive
in 2011. The directive prohibited the use of plastic bag thinner than 20μm. This
partial ban – ban on plastic bag thinner than 20μm – became a convergence point for
all stakeholders. Retailers were allowed to use the plastic bag but of thicker size
(>20μm), and producers could continue to the bag production. Several municipal-
ities followed the directive and implemented the partial ban. In 2013, Kathmandu
metropolitan city declared a complete ban on a plastic bag. However, the association
of plastic good producers/manufacturers challenged the plastic bag ban in the
Supreme Court of Nepal. The Supreme Court ordered to halt the decision until the
case is finalized. In the absence of enforcement, this ban becomes ineffective. Two
years later in 2015, the Government of Nepal decided to ban the use of the plastic
bag in Kathmandu Valley with a strong legal footing. The ban was published in the
Government Gazette, and the preparation was well planned. However, the enforce-
ment loosened 2 weeks later as a disastrous earthquake hit the central region of
Nepal including Kathmandu Valley (Bharadwaj et al. 2020a).
In 2012, there were 58 municipalities in Nepal. Now, there are 6 metropolitan
cities, 11 sub-metropolitan cities, and 276 municipalities. In 2012, a daily waste
production of 58 municipalities of Nepal was 1435 t. The daily waste production
varies across municipalities from 1.99 to 499 t (SWMTSC 2012). Of total waste,
only 57% (822 t) reaches to a landfill site as municipality adopts locally feasible
SWM practices. Figure 2 illustrates the general SWM practice in Nepal.
Municipality collection system only serves one-third of the total waste produced.
There are two major approaches to a collection. Some municipalities use their
resources and mechanism to collect the waste from door to door. Municipal garbage
truck moves around the road and household dump waste into the truck. About 81%
44
Stakeholders Perception of Used Plastics
Fig. 2 Solid waste management practice in Nepal. The data are based on surveys from CBS (2011, 2014) and ADB (2013a)
1185
of households are using the formal waste collection services provided by the
concerned municipality. Few municipalities also have private parties involved in
the waste collection (Rai et al. 2019b). In total, 28% of households use private
collection facilities. The waste collection service provided by the private sector is
similar to the municipal waste collection service. Around four-fifth (82% of sample
households) used a traditional approach to manage their solid waste. The traditional
approach includes using organic waste as animal feed or manure, burying, or burning
of inorganic waste. Nearly half of the sample households use solid waste as manure
in the kitchen garden and agricultural land. Besides, 27% of the households dump
solid waste. The most popular spots to dump the waste are the rivers and public land.
Similarly, 21% of households either burn it or bury it.
A small portion of waste is to recover and recycle. There are several channels of
material recovery. The first step is the household level segregation of recyclable
materials. Households store the recyclable material separately. The material includes
a metal such as iron, glass (beer bottle), and plastic material. They sell the collected
material to private collectors who visit door to door. New and more formal collectors
are also emerging in cities such as Khaalisisi ® and Doko Recyclers ®. These com-
panies collect recyclable material with modern customer services such as collection
membership and on-call collection of recyclable materials.
The second phase of recovery happens during the collection. Some materials are
recovered by the garbage collector, sold to collectors. Private waste collection
service provider directs their garbage collection employee to recover the recyclable
materials so that they can clean and sell them. However, the collected waste reaches
directly to the dumping site.
Dumping site is the main place where informal material recovery happens since
rag pickers collect some of the recyclable materials. They have to collect these
recyclables as fast as possible, particularly before the waste is covered by sand and
gravel. But Dhankuta Municipality collects the solid waste and then dumps it to the
transfer station. Here, the private waste company recovers all the materials and sell
them. In return, they pay revenue to the municipality. This is the municipality with
the best SWM practice in Nepal.
The abovementioned SWM suggests that segregation of solid waste happens in
several stages. First, households segregate recyclable at home. Recyclers visit door
to door to buy these materials such as iron, glass bottles, or some plastic good. The
second stage of the segregation is institutional. Some municipalities such as
Madhyapur Thimi Municipality collect glass and metal waste separately. Some
municipalities provide bins to encourage waste segregation at households and
make compost. However, the scale of material recovery is very small. This small-
scale recovery removes a small fraction of solid waste from the mainstream.
Disposal of solid waste is the most critical and challenging part of SWM in Nepal.
Municipalities have adopted different types of disposable practices as per their
convenience. Out of 58 municipalities, 30 dumped the collected waste in open
areas; 13 municipalities disposed of nearby river banks; 5 used controlled dumping
where solid waste is dropped in designated areas then burn, bury or treat it;
3 municipalities do not have any dumping arrangement; and 6 municipalities have
landfill site. The disposal of collected waste is mostly either in open site or riverbank.
These are the cases from old well-established municipalities.
The Problem
Urbanization is rapidly increasing in Nepal. Now, there are 293 municipalities. More
and more people are likely to live in urban areas (Subedi 2014). Increase in urban
population is associated with an increase in solid waste (Pokhrel and Viraraghavan
2005). Majority of a municipality does not have waste management practice. Despite
several municipalities having collection facilities, SWM is limited to throwing waste
away from the sight of people. Only a few have landfill sites. To put this in Nepalese
context, municipal current SWM is simply collecting waste and through away from
eyesight.
On the other hand, the contribution of plastic, a nondegradable waste, is increas-
ing in the solid waste stream (Pokhrel and Viraraghavan 2005). The quantity of
plastic imported into Nepal has almost doubled from 2009 to 2017. Increasing use of
plastic is linked to an increased share of plastic into the waste stream (Bharadwaj
et al. 2020). In 2004, the share of plastic in solid waste was roughly 8% which was
11% in 2013 (ADB 2013). This increasing urban population, coupled with poor
waste management, will release a huge amount of plastic into the environment.
In the focus group discussion, a municipal official raised three major challenges
in SWM in Nepal: (i) SWM finance, (ii) not in my backyard (NIMBY) psychology
of municipal residents, and (iii) stakeholder cooperation in the SWM process.
Financial resource in municipalities of developing countries is an obvious chal-
lenge. On top of this, demand for SWM is low as the municipality lacks several other
essential services such as blacktop road. On average, the municipality spends 5% of
its total budget in SWM, which ranges from 0.07% to 24.34% (mean solid waste
cmanagement cost is roughly USD46/t ) (SWMTSC 2012; ADB 2013). A part of
this cost is recovered from substantial waste collection fee (Rai et al. 2019) –
however, only a few municipalities charge for waste collection such as Dhankuta
and Bharatpur. Although municipal residents have shown their willingness to pay for
solid waste collection services, concerned municipality has not managed such
practices (Rai et al. 2019).
SWM cost depends on several attributes such as frequency of collection, cover-
age, type of landfill, and service charge structure of solid waste facilities. For
instance, Dharan and Damak sub-metropolitan cities spend as low as USD 7 for a
ton of solid waste, while Dhankuta Municipality, which of the leader of SWM in
Nepal, spends around USD23 per ton of solid waste management. Average SWM
cost is USD 10 and USD 22 per ton in Lalitpur and Kathmandu metropolitan cities,
respectively; however, they also have private facilities for solid waste collection such
as Doko Recycler ® and Khaalisis ®.
Solid waste collection cost in developing countries constitutes 20–50% of the
total SWM cost (Hoornweg and Bhada-Tata 2012). High collection cost is due to
scattered settlements, cost of vehicle operation, wages, and infrastructure of the city.
SWM Act (2011) specifies collection as a household responsibility. Many munici-

palities have enforced service charge. Nevertheless, household considers solid waste
collection fee as a forced burden, and many of them do not participate (Rai et al.
2019). Municipal officials have experienced that every municipal resident wants a
clean city without an additional fee, and elected officials consider this as a regular
job with no additional investment.
The second issue is NIMBY. Nobody wants the dumping site near their home. In
contrast, everybody wants the municipality to collect their waste and throw it
somewhere away from them. NIMBY is a challenge in SWM, globally; and Nepal
is not an exception (Ferronato and Torretta 2019). NIMBY tends to be more assertive
when SWM becomes a low priority, and this issue applies to Nepal. Poor waste
management roots into household waste behavior. In Nepal, people use plastic to
pack organic waste. Municipalities do not separately collect the recyclable and other
waste. This waste is then transferred to dumping site without treating in open truck or
tractors. Then these vehicles spread stinky smell and also drop waste on the way.
Such poorly managed waste transfer practice annoys community living in the route
of the dumping site. Then the waste is dumped in open space away from household
such as river bank. After the waste is dumped, it starts to decay and produces stinky
smell in the nearby community. Wild animals such as street dogs and crow drag the
plastic with waste and spread around the dumping site.
The poor SWM practice produces negative externalities as (a) smell and latchet
from the landfill site, (b) dispersion of waste mainly plastic by air and animals from
the landfill site and during transportation, (c) heavy traffic during transportation in
dumping site of big cities like Kathmandu, and (d) social impact caused by dogs and
vulture in a landfill site. This ultimately pollutes the urban environment and
increases the risk of animals. As a result, property price lowers and the efficacy of
urban infrastructure reduces (Pervin et al. 2019; Nepal et al. 2020). These are the
main reason behind the protest against the dumping site by the nearby community.
Several municipalities are struggling to spot the landfill sites due to the local
resistance.
The third challenge is the weak coordination among the SWM stakeholders.
Needless to say that, segregation at household is an integral aspect of SWM.
However, this is a challenging part too. This is affected by the constructed infra-
structure rather than the attitude of the individuals. In an urban area, people use their
maximum space for building construction. Only, limited space could be available for
other activities such as a kitchen garden. Usually, only a few households in the city
center of Nepal practice kitchen garden or keep animals. Not having a kitchen garden
or animals means they have to throw away their organic waste. Households pack
organic waste in plastic because of its nature to decay fast. They throw waste in open
spaces if they do not have a collection facility. If the municipality collects waste, they
put this into the garbage truck. When all materials are packed into the same garbage
truck, it spoils everything during the transportation and makes segregation almost
impossible.
The private sector is another influential stakeholder. Without their support, SWM
improvement is almost impossible. A case of stay order granted by the Supreme
Court in the plastic bag ban decision by Kathmandu metropolitan is an example.

There are two major types of stakeholders in private groups. The first type is
collectors, who collect recyclable materials. The collection of recyclables is their
main source of income and livelihoods. Locally they are called Khali sisi (literally
means empty bottle), as they loudly speak out khali sis purano kagaj (empty bottle
and old paper) while they visit door to door. In other words, they can be considered
as an initiator of the circular economy. The second important private stakeholders are
plastic good manufacturers. They can facilitate the circular economy by producing
recyclable packaging. It helps to improve material recovery and boost to a recyclable
collection system (Bharadwaj et al. 2020b). A producer can buy recyclable and use it
as raw material.
Central government can influence the entire SWM through tax and incentives.
For example, if they increase the tax for raw plastic import, then the recycling will be
positively incentivized through the increased price of recyclable plastic. The gov-
ernment can implement a packaging standard that enforces producer to use recycla-
ble products. The role of NGO and civil society role in environment-friendly
practices are unavoidable. These organizations can bring collective action and
agendas to save the environment with improved service to people and providing
opportunities for the private sector. Similarly, the introduction of the reusable bag
helps to save the environment and provides greater value for the consumers.
The situation mentioned above indicates that the SWM problem is not just about
the collection or disposal of household waste but an outcome of the overall urban
planning. South Asia produces 334 million ton of waste each year, and almost 90%
of the waste is mismanaged (Kaza et al. 2018). This mismanaged waste poses serious
consequences such as plastic in the bay of Bengal (Eriksen et al. 2014). Also, this
mismanagement imposes a cost to society as a loss of the valuable resources that can
contribute to the socioeconomic development of these developing countries.
Solid waste in Nepal has several types of plastic. Colorful plastic packets, partic-
ularly the packaging of food items in Nepal like instant noodles and biscuits, are very
difficult to recycle (Smithers 2018). Goods of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) are
easy recyclables, which are used to produce inferior plastic goods. Practices around the
world show that a considerable percentage of plastic can be recovered and recycled.
Several municipalities have imposed a ban on plastic (Bharadwaj 2020a). Despite all
these efforts, the problem of plastic waste is increasing unexpectedly and creating
complexity in waste management. In this context, this chapter aims to explore the
aspects of integrated solid waste management (ISWM) in Nepal, especially focused on
plastic waste, and propose an ISWM framework for Nepalese municipalities.
Theoretical Framework: Integrated Solid Waste Management

(ISWM)
Municipal SWM is an important part of urban planning. It is a complex process that

includes a series of steps having multidimensional effects on various part of society.
SWM also engages a diverse set of stakeholders in different steps of the process. Any
effective SWM has to achieve broader societal goals. Also, external environmental
concern has become an integral aspect of any environmental systems, including
SWM. For example, waste is a source of GHG emission. Hence, municipalities can
contribute to the decarbonization of the economy by improving the SWM.
A poor SWM system is linked to an urban disaster such as city flooding. These
disasters threat the lives and wealth of the urban dweller. They also damage the urban
infrastructure and reduce their efficiency to serve the city dwellers (Pervin et al.
2019). Besides this, SWM engages a wide range of stakeholders. An effective SWM
aims to articulate the interest of stakeholders while achieving the core goal of SWM.
City dwellers may seek a predictable and cost-effective collection system, whereas
SWM employees may look for higher pay due to the nature of the work. The
politician may resist investing budget in the SWM. Besides, it is also a feedback
loop on broader socioeconomic factors. Material recovery, for instance, could
provide raw material to the industry by providing employment and substituting the
import.
Therefore, improvements of SWM have to engage all stakeholders and aim to
contribute to societal benefits such as emission reduction and align with cross-
cutting themes such as sustainability and good governance.
Integrated sustainable solid waste management framework was developed and
improved to understand who should do what and how (Anschütz 2001; WASTE
2015). This framework views SWM as a system comprised of different process and
stakeholders. This approach comprises of three aspects: stakeholders, elements, and
considerations and focuses on reduce, reuse, and recycle. It expects all stakeholders
to operate following the principles of equity, effectiveness, efficiency, and sustain-
ability (Anschütz 2001; Shekdar 2009).
ISWM assumes stakeholders may have their particular interest on SWM. These
stakeholders aim to influence the SWM process to secure, if not increase, their
benefit. Therefore, a common consensus or integration of stakeholders interest is a
condition to SWM (Shekdar 2009). Various stakeholders, from waste source to the
final disposal site, are engaged in the SWM (Guerrero et al. 2013). SWM interven-
tion has to understand their interest. This understanding will help to identify
appropriate interventions favored by all stakeholders. For instance, a ban on the
plastic bag will affect the plastic industry which might obstruct the overall process.
Integrating their interest may provide coherent and robust SWM. Similarly, house-
holds segregate waste. If waste collection service does not separate the collected of
the segregated waste, then it spoils the efforts of households to segregate waste.
Material and its recovery are the second aspects of ISWM. Since solid waste is
made of various materials, they have different value and impacts. Glass, for instance,
has high recycling value, whereas some toxic materials such as radioactive waste
from X-ray machine could have a severe impact on human health. The flow of
material is an integral part of the social system, and SWM should fully concentrate to
manage the material flow is. In the absence of management, plastics release into the
environment and become a pollutant. At the same time, when it is recycled and
supplied to the industry, it becomes a source of employment and income. The solid
waste life cycle starts from the production of materials and ends up with long-term
impacts in the waste disposal area. However, the impact of the material varies
widely. For instance, organic materials can be decomposed easily, whereas plastic
requires several steps for processing. Some materials have reuse value while other
recycled back to use. Understanding material contents through the process of
creation, flow, and disposal can lead to effective SWM strategies and approaches.
For instance, they are imposing a ban on seriously impacting waste like asbestos.
Other aspects of ISWM are social acceptance, cost and efficiency, and imple-
mentation and technical aspect of SWM. Waste management is a sub-system of
society. Therefore, SWM has to be designed as a social entity that satisfies the
socioeconomic need. Usually, municipal authorities design interventions targeting a
particular aspect of SWM or bias toward specific stakeholders, For example, some
municipalities encourage households to segregate waste at their home. However,
they fail to provide a separate collection service for degradable and nondegradable
waste. Garbage truck mixes the waste that makes a household effort to segregate a
waste of time and effort. Such isolated approach may increase the burden to a
particular stakeholder and fails to materialize the benefits. ISWM seeks to answer
“Who is responsible for what? Furthermore, how?,” so that every stakeholder has
their role to play.
ISWM focuses on promoting circular economy such as reusing and recycling.
This process honors the waste hierarchy and its appropriate mobilization. For
instance, organic material can be used to prepare compost at household, a plastic
bottle can be sold to the recycler, glass can be provided to the municipal recycling
garbage truck, and other waste could go to general waste for high-tech recovery. This
process makes SWM cost-effective, participatory, and efficient. Existing empirical
studies suggest SWM interventions such as recycling, recovery, and segregation
reduce the cost and increase the revenue and are a crucial element for sustainable
financing municipal SWM (Nepal 2008; Lohri et al. 2014).
ISWM explores multiple aspects of SWM to provide valuable information to
SWM planning through the analysis of the overall system (Guerrero et al. 2013;
WASTE 2015). Therefore, this study used the ISWM framework to understand
municipal SWM in Nepal and develop a localized framework to provide a common
ground for all stakeholders linking them together and considering pollutants as
resources.
Method and Data
This study used both qualitative and quantitative approaches to understand the SWM
in Nepal. So doing this study discusses the ways ISWM can improve the existing
SWM in municipalities of Nepal:
(a) Stakeholder survey: The first step is to understand the engagement of stake-
holders in SWM. We surveyed 20 collectors, 23 local government officials
(including an executive officer, elected officials, and staff engaged in environ-
ment management), 15 respondents from NGO, 25 respondents from
policymaker (official from the ministry of finance, ministry of Local develop-

ment, and national planning commission), and 18 good plastic producers. The
questionnaire has two parts: the first part is generic on the perception of
pollution, SWM process, and responsibilities. The second part of the question-
naire intends to collect stakeholder specific information. For example, collectors
were asked about the price of recyclable plastic, and producers were asked about
their willingness to pay for additional plastic levy.
(b) Material and its recovery: This analysis used recent information on material
recovery and its contribution to sustainable financing to analyze the material
contained in the solid waste of Nepal (Bharadwaj et al. 2020). Besides, the
analysis focused on plastic to explore the material recovery; however, it also
discussed the potential of other materials in the solid waste that can be recovered
and recycled.
(c) Other aspects: ISWM has several aspects, such as sustainability and governance.
This analysis derived information from the aforementioned stakeholders and
discussed how the circular economy can contribute to achieving these aspects.
For this secondary information from existing studies was analyzed.
ISWM in Nepalese Municipality
There are four major aspects of ISWM in Nepal. The first one is the stakeholders.
The earlier section discussed the four major types of stakeholders in plastic waste
management of Nepal. These stakeholders are engaged in different activities of the
SWM. Municipality – a local government – is the core stakeholder who is respon-
sible for SWM in Nepal. Collectors and producers are part of the private sector, who
are involved in the collection and utilization of plastic recyclable. Similarly, NGO is
a civic group that pushes environmentally friendly and better SWM. Central gov-
ernment provides fund and enforces incentive to plastic use and SWM. The survey
result by each of this stakeholder is discussed below.
Stakeholders’ View
Plastic Waste and Its SWM
Of total respondents, 90% agreed that the use of plastic is increasing. Three out of
four respondents agree that plastic is a major source of environmental pollution in
Nepal. Approximately, one-third of the respondent agreed that the current tax in
plastic is low, but around 70% supported that the levy on plastic should be
increased. When asked about their preference to increase the cost of plastic to
make biodegradable items such as cups and bags cheaper, 78% of respondents
were positive. Similarly, 88% of respondents prefer to use biodegradable if there is
no price discrimination between plastic and biodegradable goods. The responses
show that stakeholders are aware of the increasing use of plastic and environmental
pollution. Most of the stakeholders have a positive attitude toward biodegradable

substitute.
However, collector and producer have a different view as compared to others.
Half of the producers agreed that plastic is a pollutant. More than half of the collector
and producer did not agree that plastic is a major source of pollution. Majority of
them also thought that the current tax rate is either fair or high and there is no need to
increase the charge on plastic goods. However, they were in favor of biodegradable;
most of them agreed to use biodegradable if the price does not exceed to that of
plastic (Table 1).
Management and Cost Responsibilities of SWM
There is wide agreement on “who should do what to manage municipal solid

waste” (Table 2). Out of total respondents, 83% suggested that segregation of
solid waste is the responsibility of the households, and they have to bear the cost of
segregation (68%). Also, they consider that collection (65%), transportation
(80%), and landfill management (59%) are the responsibilities of the municipality.
Therefore, the municipality has to cover the cost of collection (76%), transporta-
tion (72%), and landfill management (53%). One-third of respondent suggests that
the central government has to manage and cover the cost of landfill site
management.
Respondents were asked about the responsibilities of plastic pollution; the
responses were mixed. Almost one-third mentioned that plastic pollution is the
responsibility of consumer followed by central government (25%), producer
(21%), and local government (19%). This suggests that respondents think the
municipality is responsible for the SWM but do not consider municipality as a
primary response agency for the environmental pollution caused by the plastic
good. Three in four respondent says local government has to be funded for SWM.
Similarly, 54% of respondents supported the idea of charging 5% additional tax
on plastic good. Among the respondent, 65% mentioned that the financial
resources collected from the increased tax should support local government to
improve their SWM practices such as landfill site construction.
Levying plastic will alter the demand and supply of the goods. Respondents were
asked about the chain effect of the increased tax or charging a levy on plastic goods.
On the recycling side, 94% agreed that an increase in plastic tax would increase the
price of plastic goods; hence, the selling price of recyclable plastics will also increase
(76%). About two-thirds (67%) agreed that an increase in the price of recyclable
would increase the collection of used plastic, which will ultimately substitute the
import of plastic (65%). On the demand side, 63% agreed that an increased tax on
plastic would reduce its demand and increases the demand for biodegradable
substitute (81%); hence, people will be encouraged to use biodegradable substitutes
(78%). Similarly, more than three-fourth (77%) respondents favored the option to
slightly increase the cost of plastic cups and bags to encourage the biodegradable
option in the market.
1194
Table 1 Stakeholders view of plastic pollution and its management

Issues Overall Collector Producer NGO/activist Local level Policymaker
Plastic as a pollutant Agreed (82%) Agreed (85%) Majority Agreed Agreed (93%) Agreed (88%)
disagreed (100%)
Plastic is major source for environment Agreed (76%) 55% didn’t 61% didn’t Agreed Agreed Agreed
pollution agree agree (100%) (100%) (100%)
The local level should be funded for SWM Agreed (73%) Agreed (70%) Agreed (68%) Agreed (63%) Agreed (88%) Agreed (82%)
Increase charge Agreed (70%) 60% didn’t No one agreed Agreed (86%) Agreed (77%) Only 48%
agreed (100%) agreed
The current tax rate is Less (37%) Fair Higher or at Low Fair or low Fair
least fair
Favor cost of plastic to make biodegradable Yes (78%) Yes (75%) Yes (50%) Yes (93%) Yes (71%) Yes (96%)
cheaper?)
If the price of the biodegradable and plastic Biodegradable Biodegradable Biodegradable Biodegradable Biodegradable Biodegradable
item is the same, what will you use? (88%) (100%) (89%) (93%) (73%) (87.5%)
B. Bharadwaj and R. K. Rai
Table 2 SWM management and cost burden
Who should manage? (# of responses)

Responsibilities Segregation Collection Transport Landfilling
Household 83 26 4 2
Municipality 13 65 80 59
Central government 1 5 13 34
Producer 3 4 3 4
Who should pay for the cost (# of responses)
User (household) 68 14 2 1
Manager (municipality) 14 76 72 53
Tax collector (central
government) 9 6 18 34
Producer (importer) 9 4 8 12
The Solution to Plastic Waste Management
How can municipalities resolve the issues related to SWM in general and plastic
waste in particular is a critical challenge in Nepal. Respondents were asked to rank
the four potential strategies. The first was to continue the existing plastic manage-
ment. The second strategy is to top up a levy on the plastic bag and set up the
mechanism to redistribute it to the municipality to achieve the set standard of SWM.
The third option was to increase the price of the plastic bag equal to biodegradable
alternatives. The fourth option was to use a mix of interlinked actions. This option
was to create a fund by enforcing additional charge on plastic goods and mobilize the
fund. In this option, the municipality will get the same amount of money they will
collect by selling the recyclable plastic. The fourth option got an average rank score
of 1.6 (1 being the best and 5 being the worst rank values), whereas the option
continue current practice received the highest average value (3.4). Majority of
respondents (92%) do not prefer to continue the current practice of plastic manage-
ment. More than half (58%) of the respondents ranked the fourth option as the best
option (see Fig. 3).
However, each stakeholder has their preference to implement plastic management
options. The first stakeholders are the environmental activists, who work for NGOs
or environmental campaign. This group of stakeholders are lobbying for a ban on
plastic products such as a single-use plastic bag. They believe that an increased tax
on plastic motivates both consumers and producers to switch into a biodegradable
and reduce the use of plastic as packaging materials. They view existing custom duty
on plastic is substantially low. As a result, other alternative materials cannot compete
with plastic products. They see the promotion of traditional items such as bamboo
products and jute bags which are potential alternatives. Several respondents among
this cohort of respondent see that recycling can contribute to the reduction of plastic
pollution and recycling promotion should include awareness programs.
Integrated approach 58.3
Increase palstic price to promote biodegradable 20.2
Conditionlevy for plastic SWM 13.1
Continue Current practice 8.3
0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0
Fig. 3 Percentage of the respondent by their choice of solid waste management scenarios
Collectors seek plastic waste management differently. They do not see the
plastic ban as a solution. They suggest that a ban on plastic will have negative
impacts on their employment and business. In their view, proper management of
plastic waste contributes to waste management while supporting employment and
economy. Almost all collectors stated that plastic recyclable has a huge market,
but the price of recyclable is low. On average, a plastic recycler collects 130 t
of plastic each year. They pay on an average NRs 13 per kg for used plastic bag
to rag picker or street collector; and they sell after cleaning at NRs 20 per
kg. Their major problems are low price, getting the material, and management
of waste such as space to clean. They don’t consider the market of recyclable as a
problem.
However, not all plastic is collected. Usually, collectors do not collect hard plastic
and fancy-colored plastic such as a package of noodle and tobacco. They have two
suggestions to improve the existing condition: (i) imposing an additional levy on the
plastic bag may discourage import and motivate recycling and (ii) implementing
standards on packaging plastic, which uses around 60% of plastic. This encourages
recycling and boost-up recovery. However, these two actions should be
complemented by public awareness, household segregation, robust collection
chain, and providing recyclable collection facility.
Plastic industries have a strong objection to environmental policy reforms that
discourage or regulates the use of plastic (Dauvergne 2018). The resistance was also
observed in Nepal. Half of the producers disagreed that the plastic is a pollutant. All
producers expressed that the existing tax is either high or fair. They strongly disagree
that a plastic levy is an appropriate approach. They suspect that additional tax may
affect low-income consumers as it increases the consumer prices through several
points, for instance, packaging and raw materials. However, they agree that addi-
tional tax discourages import and encourage recycling which could be the best
solution that can supply raw materials to the plastic industry and reduce the pressure
in the landfill site. In response to shifting to biodegradable alternative, they suggest
that incentive can motivate producers to shift. The producers also see recycling as a
policy option as it will increase the supply of plastic to industry and also help other
business such as the collection chain. So doing will ease SWM and avoid release of
plastic into the environment.
Policymakers agree that local government requires support for SWM and addi-
tional tax on plastic could reduce the use of plastic. However, they suggest that
additional tax will increase the cost of raw material for industry and consumer goods.
This increase will push the price up, hence, may face political resistance. Majority of
them have considered that the existing tax rate is fair. Policymakers favored
recycling is the most appropriate measures of plastic reduction. They also mentioned
that promotion of alternatives such as paper bag and single-use biodegradable
utensils, recycling, awareness, polluters pay principle, and charging plastic bag
levy can help reduce the use of plastic. They also suggested that segregation at the
household level and encouraging the production of a substitute to plastic good is
crucial initial steps.
Local government officials are seeking support to manage municipal waste. They
are worried about the increasing volume of plastic in the solid waste and exploring
an effective way to deal with plastic waste. They revealed that waste collection tariff
without quality SWM service results in resident resistance. They know what is going
wrong in SWM but hesitate to act because of its complexity and cost. They believe
segregation at source is helpful in improved SWM but has to be facilitated by the
municipality. They are inconclusive about whether the tax on plastic is fair or low,
but they consider that the federal government has a crucial role in landfill facilities.
In conclusion, each stakeholder has their agenda about plastic goods. Environ-
mentalists are in favor of ban and tax on the plastic bags with the promotion of
alternative and recycling. On the other hand, producers and collectors rejected the
option like ban and tax, but they suggest recycling and promotion of alternatives as
to the possible acceptable actions. Policymakers and local government are a bit
reluctant toward the levy, but they mention local government needs financial
resources for SWM and highlight the benefits that recycling can provide. All
stakeholders mentioned that household segregation of solid waste is a critical aspect.
Recover Material from Solid Waste
Material is the second component of ISWM. Organic material continues to dominate

solid waste but decreasing over time. In 2012, 71% of the solid waste was made up
of organic waste. Organic waste contains kitchen waste and green waste produced
around households. Contribution of plastic is also increasing a percent every 4 years.
In 2004, 7% of waste was plastic which reached 8% in 2008 and 9% in 2012.
Similarly, the contribution of the paper is also increasing (see Fig. 4 for detail).
Recycling and reuse are the dominant strategies in the waste hierarchy (Quartey
et al. 2015; Cole 2018). However, all materials in the solid waste are not recyclable.
Plastic, for instance, is recyclable in different forms such as a water bottle and white
single-use bag. Nevertheless, colored plastic packaging is costly and sophisticated to
recycle. Several countries have packaging standards that set out the quality and
standard of packaging material. This standard facilitates recycling. However, the
introduction of such a standard is effective only if recycling facilities are accessible
(Zaman 2018). Practices across different countries show that recycling capacity and
Organic waste Plastic paper glass metal textiles rubber and leather Other
2012 72 9 12 10 4 11
2008 61 8 9 4 1 21 14
2004 62 7 8 2 1 21 16
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Fig. 4 Material contained in the solid waste in 2004, 2008, and 2012. (Source: Solid Waste
Management Technical Support Center, Lalitpur)
collection system determine the extent of solid waste recycled. Germany, for
instance, recycles more than 60% of the household waste (PLANETARK 2018).
Recycling is a globally accepted SWM strategy, supported by the stakeholder’s
survey result presented in section 4.1.
Organic materials in the waste can be used in a different form. Subsistence
agriculture is a traditional practice. In this practice household compost their organic
waste such as agricultural waste and kitchen waste to supply manure to the field.
This practice can be revived by encouraging the kitchen garden – which is the most
common and traditional practice. Households also use organic kitchen waste, espe-
cially food waste to feed cattle and pet animals. This practice is the main reason
behind the successful waste management in Dhankuta Municipality. The municipal-
ity has the best SWM practice in Nepal due to their household segregation and
recovery of materials from the waste through a private company. However, for this to
succeed, minimum landholding in urban areas is important. Implementation of
minimum open space will motivate households to develop a kitchen garden where
organic waste supplies manure. Removing organic waste from the waste chain will
supply clean and dry waste that is easy to segregate and recycle.
Nepali municipalities have possessed a huge amount of recoverable materials
(Pokhrel and Viraraghavan 2005). A recent study analyzed the material recovery
potentiality from Municipal Solid Waste of Nepal and suggested that 6.05 t of
plastic can be recovered daily from the collected municipal waste in Nepal
(Bharadwaj et al. 2020). However, the recovery of material depends on the collection
efficiency and material recovery rate. For example, a 15% recovery rate will recover
2134 t of plastic waste at 33.7% collection efficiency. When collection efficiency is
increased to 66.7, while keeping the recovery rate at 15%, more than double (4220 t)
of plastic is recovered. The extent of increasing material recovery rate will be more
effective as compared to increasing collection efficiency. Collection efficiency is
more with SWM, whereas recovery rate is both technical and social. Household
segregation, for instance, is crucial for recovery, but without technical capacity, the
material is hard to segregate and recycle.
Material recovery depends on two factors: (i) collection efficiency and
(ii) recovery rate. In Fig. 5, we show a fraction of recoverable material at different
l
l i
l
i
l
i l
l l
l i
i
l l
i i
Fig. 5 A schematic presentation of the plastic waste reduction framework
collection efficiency. Based on achieved CE and 12% of plastic MRR, only 0.61% of
the total waste produced can be recovered. Plastic recovery would increase to 1.2%
and 1.6% of total waste if CE increases to two-third and 90%, respectively. In the
2012 scenario, a percent increase in plastic MRR will increase the recovery by
0.04% of plastic waste and 0.02% of total solid waste.
Sustainable Financing
SWM cost is one of the concerns of municipal authorities, as it may constitute

about half of the total municipal budget in developing countries (Henry et al.
2006). Nepalese municipality spends around 7% of their budget in SWM.
Recycling can provide needful financial resources to municipalities. According
to recent estimates by Bhardwaj et al. (2020); recovering plastic from the solid
waste and selling it to the collector can cover from 27% to 138% of plastic
proportionate SWM cost. Recycling plastic can provide NRs 127 million revenue
when recovered plastic is sold at NRs 30 per kg. Similarly recovering paper, metal,
and other material from the solid waste will increase revenue. Another source of
finance is a collection fee.
Sustainable financing is also a function of efficient expenditure. The cost of SWM
in Nepal is NRs. 2347 per ton to NRs 4673 (USD1 ¼ NRs87 in 2012). This huge
difference cost indicates that Nepali municipality can benefit from the reduction of
the SWM cost. Reduction on SWM cost is associated with efficient machines, cost-
saving collection setup such as replacing labor-based collection by a mechanical
garbage truck. Another poorly explored financing option is an indirect gain from the
clean city. A recent study in Nepal investigated the benefit of cleaner neighborhood
in urban areas of Nepal (Nepal et al. 2020). The study estimated that a cleaner
neighborhood would have an 11–25% higher price as compared to others. The
higher price of the property means more revenue from the property tax. Recovering
materials with long-life material will also increase the life of the landfill sites and
reduce the landfill management cost.
Environmental and Social Benefits
Sustainability is the key aspect of ISWM which can be achieved through environ-
mentally sound practices (Ngoc and Schnitzer 2009). The use of plastic has doubled
in the recent decade. Bharadwaj et al. (2020) estimated that 45% of total waste could
be reduced out of total waste even if half of the organic waste is composted and other
materials are recovered. Material recovery supports a clean environment in several
ways. First, it reduces the release of waste into the environment. For instance, 48.7 t
of paper is recoverable from the waste stream in Nepal. Second, it reduces the use of
raw resources that are associated with GHG emission. For example, recovering and
reusing a kg of plastic from waste will reduce the use of 2 kg of petrochemical.
Recovery of waste helps to have cleaner neighborhood, which will increase the value
of the household property (Nepal et al. 2020). Recycling of material will reduce the
import of these materials that contribute to narrow the trade deficits – a challenge in
the public financing of Nepal. Recycling provides several other benefits, such as
employment in the recycling chain.
Complementing Strategies for the ISWM in Nepal
There are some best cases being practiced in Nepal such as household segregation in
Chitrawan Municipality, single-use plastic bag ban in Ilam Municipality, landfill site
management in Pokhara metropolitan city, and effective collection system in
Bharatpur sub-metropolitan city. However, none of these strategies is either suffi-
cient or financially sustainable because they do not cover the entire SWM system.
The experience also showed that when these practices are integrated, as practiced in
Dhankuta Municipality, the SWM system becomes cost-effective and environmen-
tally sound.
The finding highlights the need for ISWM for generating revenue to offset the
cost and avoiding plastic released into the environment. ISWM is considered as
one of the best alternatives to manage plastic waste (Borg 2018; Thornton 2018).
Stakeholder converges at recycling to manage the increasing plastic waste in
Nepalese municipalities. Recycling has the potentiality to recover and recycle
the waste but requires several complementing strategies to be successful. Figure 5

provides a framework that enables recycling of solid waste and implements ISWM
in Nepal.
Household Behavioral Change
Household is an integral aspect of ISWM. Improving recovery rate and collection

efficiency demands substantial household behavioral change. Behavioral change is a
two-way process where municipality interventions are critical. Household participa-
tion to collection service, for instance, is influenced by the predictability of the
collection service. When collection services are predictable and transparent, house-
hold willingness to pay for collection services also increases (Rai et al. 2019).
Household segregation is the backbone of material recovery. Segregation behavior
is possible with a mix of multiple interventions such as awareness and a separate
collection system.
It is important to note that requesting household to segregate the solid waste is not
sufficient. It has to support composting practices and kitchen gardening at house-
hold. When organic waste is used at household, the remaining waste is easy to
segregate. SWM Act, 2011, of Nepal makes households responsible for segregation,
and noncompliance could result in NPR 500 fine per incident. The practice of
segregation at household is almost nonexistent due to the absence of monitoring
and enforcement. Segregation at source recovers clean and high-price recyclable and
avoids nondegradable waste entering the waste stream. Household segregation also
reduces the collection cost and makes organic waste available for use at house to
reduce the overall volume of the waste. Also, sensitization plays a vital role in
behavioral change and also increases willingness to pay a levy for use (Madigele
et al. 2017; Latinopoulos et al. 2018). Collectors suggest that increased plastic tax
may contribute to encourage plastic recycling because of the increase in the price of
plastic.
Scaling up the Recovery Rate and Collection Efficiency
Producers indicate that around 60% of the imported plastics are used in making
packaging materials. According to the collectors, they do not collect several plastic
items such as colored plastic and hard plastics. These items are not feasible to recycle
and worthless to collect. Therefore, improving the packaging standard is an impor-
tant step to make used plastic appropriate to recycle technically. The enforcement of
the standards increases the efficiency of the overall recycling process.
Another strategy to increase material recovery is to increase the collection
efficiency. The municipality should provide predictable service and separately
collect recyclable and nonrecyclable. Better urban planning is also critical for
improved collection system. For example, allowing construction of residential
house in areas without road network will make garbage collection complicated.
Proper management of public land and riverbank will also demotivate households to
dump their waste in these lands illegally.
Tax and Charges on Plastic Goods
In Nepal, the current tax rate on plastic depends on the origin of the imported goods.
A good originated in India is taxed 4–27% compared to 5–30% tax rate on the plastic
goods that originated elsewhere. Only 40 items pay the excise duty. Almost all
plastic items pay value-added tax – 13%, except for a few items, such as carboys and
laboratory equipment. Average total tax, including VAT, is between 18.65% and
54.25%.
Nepal tariff on plastic goods is higher compared to the developed countries and
lower than the South Asian countries (WTO 2018). High-volume imported plastics
including polyethylene and polypropylene, which covers half of the import, are
charged 10% duties, excluding value-added tax. Most of the imported plastic items
have a tax rate of around 10%, and the small fraction of imported items has very high
tax. Among the surveyed respondent from the producer, 66% have stated that an
additional 3% tax on plastic import could be acceptable. Majority of the
policymakers and producers fear a policy to increase tax as they consider that it
leads to the increased price of many goods. The existing plastic tax can also be
improved. The vast majority of stakeholders agreed that increasing plastic tax would
discourage the use of plastic goods and encourage recycling. Therefore, a policy to
charge pollution fee on the plastic goods may be appropriate, however, requires a
detail investigation on broader implications.
Landfill Management
Landfill site management is a major challenge in Nepal. Deep-rooted NIMBY

psychology in municipal residents has faced a serious problem. Several efforts to
construct a landfill site in a different part of Nepal have failed. A few years back, the
government initiated an integrated landfill site in Morang district of Nepal. The
landfill aimed to serve several municipalities and provide standard SWM in the
region. However, the project was terminated before the construction of the landfill
site due to agitation from the local community. Resident’s NIMBY psychology is
also linked with the trust of the municipality. The resident has bitter experience with
the municipality regarding the location of the landfill site. Usually, municipalities
make several commitments to get local support for the landfill site. As soon as the
landfill starts to operate, the municipality ignores its commitments.
The landfill site in Dhankuta Municipality is located in the city area. It is well
managed and has a garden in the reclaimed landfill. Several groups of people from
different municipality and offices visit the landfill site. Environment officer of the
municipality mentioned that it took a long time to convince people; however, people
acceptance is due to a combination of several activities that starts from the household
segregation to the recovery of materials. This case suggests that poor management is
the problem.
Conclusion
The increased consumption of plastic is a threat to the environment, human health,

and urban infrastructures. The externalities of plastic use are associated with poor
solid waste management (SWM). The SWM is a comprehensive system with several
stakeholders with their interests. A wide range of materials makes the SWM com-
plex. These materials have different demand in the market and also require different
recovery method. Further, SWM in municipalities of developing countries is also
associated with unplanned urbanization and absence of other urban facilities such as
road. However, SWM is an important aspect of resilient cities. The results suggest
that stakeholders’ interests converge at recycling of plastic, consistent with wide
acceptance to a circular economy. However, recycling plastic needs a wide range of
complementing and interlinked interventions. These interventions aim to increase
recovery and collection efficiency to improve recycling and reduce waste. This
chapter proposes a framework for reducing plastic waste.
Acknowledgments The authors acknowledge with gratitude the funding and support from the
funding and support from South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics
(SANDEE) at the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). However,
the views as well as interpretations of the results presented in this research are those of the authors
and should not be attributed to their affiliated organizations or their sponsors.
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Biopolymer-Based Liners for Waste
Containment Facilities: A Review 45
Evangelin Ramani Sujatha and Subramani Anandha Kumar
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1208
Biopolymers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1210
Hydraulic Conductivity of Biopolymer-Treated Soils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1211
Strength of Biopolymer-Treated Soils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1215
Durability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1218
Sustainable Development and Circular Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1219
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1219
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1220
Abstract
Waste containment facilities use compacted clay liners or geosynthetic clay liners
as barriers to deter the transport of leachate into the soil environment. These liners
suffer disadvantages like higher thickness and volume change in compacted clay
liners and internal erosion, migration of bentonite, and the possibility of degra-
dation in geosynthetic clay liners. Both liners have to be installed in the site over
the existing ground on which the waste is to be dumped and are not sustainable
solutions. The need for novel sustainable waste containment liners for use in
various applications like impounding hazardous waste, liners for controlling
leachate migration in municipal solid waste, control seepage of contaminated
fluids into the ground, etc. is therefore necessary. Biological methods can provide
a sustainable solution to control seepage and provide impermeable barriers to
contain the waste. Biopolymers are natural polymers extracted from various
natural sources and provide a viable option to modify existing in situ soil as
liners. They have a low environmental impact, are nontoxic, and do not pollute
the soil or the groundwater. Studies by various authors show that biopolymers
E. R. Sujatha (*) · S. Anandha Kumar

Centre for Advanced Research on Environment, School of Civil Engineering, SASTRA Deemed to
be University, Thanjavur, India
e-mail: r.evangelin@gmail.com; sujatha@civil.sastra.edu

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_61
1208 E. R. Sujatha and S. Anandha Kumar
modify the soil’s hydraulic conductivity favorably by converting the permeable

soil into an impermeable layer. The soil’s hydraulic conductivity on using popular
biopolymers like xanthan gum, guar gum, and β-glucan has shown a significant
reduction from 10–3 to nearly 10–9 cm/s. Biopolymers also render the soil less
compressible and improve its strength. These properties address the disadvan-
tages of conventional liners making biopolymers the right choice to modify in situ
soil into liners. Though limited studies have been conducted on their durability,
results show that soil’s biopolymer stabilization is stable for one year without
degradation. Hence, biopolymer-treated soil can be recommended for use as a
liner for waste containment facilities.
Keywords
Sustainable development · Liner · Waste containment · Biopolymer · Hydraulic
conductivity
Introduction
Waste disposal through landfills is still the most common method adopted till date
despite the popularization of other methods like recycling, incineration, and
composting (Rubinos and Spagnoli 2018; Vaverková et al. 2018). Landfills are
an integral component of the solid waste management systems in industrialized
nations like the USA, France, England, Germany, China, etc. (Agamuthu 2013)
though they are the least preferred option and the number of landfills over the
years has shown a sharp decrease. Rubinos and Spagnoli (2018) in their study
report that the urban centers around the world generate wastes to the tune of
1300 MT/year. In the USA, 136 MT of waste are landfilled while in the European
Union; nearly 23% of the wastes are disposed through landfilling (USEPA 2016).
China disposes nearly 60.2% of its waste in landfills (Mian et al. 2017). Solid
waste management in developing countries to a vast extent is done through
landfilling. Open dumps, landfills without gas recovery systems, and illegal
landfills are widely prevalent in developing countries (Srivastava et al. 2015).
Open dumps account for nearly 51% of the waste disposal system in Asia alone
(Srivastava et al. 2015). Gas and leachates are the two main emissions from
landfills. Gas emissions are predominantly methane and contribute to global
warming considerably. Leachates contain hazardous compounds, heavy metals,
organic content, metalloids, etc. (Emmanuel et al. 2019; Kjeldsen et al. 2002).
They contaminate the soil, groundwater, and also other water sources in the
vicinity of the landfill area. These emissions are a serious environmental threat
to the local geo-environment.
Clay liners are most commonly adopted in waste containment facilities to min-
imize the percolation of leachates into the soil. Compacted clay liners and
geosynthetic clay liners are extensively used as liners and covers in engineered
fills (Emmanuel et al. 2019). Compacted clay liners (CCLs) have low hydraulic
45 Biopolymer-Based Liners for Waste Containment Facilities: A Review 1209
conductivity and high heavy metal & leachate attenuation capacity. They are also
more economical than other treatment methods (Morandini and Leite 2015; Uma
Shankar and Muthukumar 2017). But they suffer from limitations like high volume
change, formation of desiccation cracks on drying, and instability (Uma Shankar and
Muthukumar 2017). They pose construction difficulties and clay used as liners (i.e.,
bentonite) is also of limited availability off late (Phanikumar and Uma Shankar
2017). Geosynthetic clay liners (GCLs) have been considered as an improvement
over the CCLs owing to their lesser hydraulic conductivity and thickness. Also, the
installation of GCLs is comparatively less time-consuming and much easier than that
of CCLs. They also have serious disadvantages like the possibility of punching
shear failure and loss of bentonite with time (Bouazza et al. 2009). The most notable
of its limitation is its low leachate attenuation capacity in comparison with CCL
(Emmanuel et al. 2019; Uma Shankar and Muthukumar 2017) underlining the need
for alternative baseliners.
Compacted soil liners are now gaining importance over the CCLs and GCLs.
Their construction cost is lower than that of other types of clay liners, and also,
they present the unique advantage of using the existing soil and require no
transportation and laying of liner materials. Additives like fly ash, gypsum, lime,
cement, etc. can also be added to stabilize the in situ soil (Phanikumar and Uma
Shankar 2011; Sivapullaiah and Baig 2011). Several authors have investigated the
suitability of numerous materials as an alternative to CCL such as sand- bentonite-
coal ash mixes (Sobti and Singh 2019), sand-bentonite-glass fiber composite
(Mukherjee and Mishra 2019), shale-clay mixtures (Li et al. 2017), coal gangue
(Wu et al. 2017), ground granulated blast furnace slag amended with bentonite and
cement (Manikanta and Uma Shankar 2019a), sawdust blended with bentonite and
cement (Manikanta and Uma Shankar 2019b), fly ash-cement mixtures
(Phanikumar and Uma Shankar 2016), and steel slag (Herrmann et al. 2010) to
modify the in situ soil and use it as a baseliner. But these modified liners despite
their better performance have caused some serious environmental concerns. For
example, cement in its production stage releases greenhouse gases like carbon
dioxide (Chang et al. 2016b, 2019b), and the use of additives like fly ash, steel slag,
and other industrial byproducts has caused grave environmental concerns (Li et al.
2017) and challenges in practical applications. This underlines the need for a
sustainable, environmentally friendly, and economic material for use as an additive
in compacted clay liner.
The choice of biological materials as an additive for soil stabilization is gaining
importance off late (Anandha Kumar and Sujatha 2020, 2021; Ayeldeen et al. 2016;
Chang et al. 2015a, b, 2016a, b; Kwon et al. 2019; Latifi et al. 2016b). They present a
practical alternative for improving the properties of the in situ soil to suit the
requirement as clay liners. This study reviews the choice of biopolymer-treated
soil as modified in situ clay liners. The three most important aspects of a clay liner
related to its performance are its strength, hydraulic conductivity, and capacity to
attenuate the migration of heavy metals into the soil. The effect of biopolymer on
these parameters is reviewed to advocate the choice of biopolymers for use as an
additive in modifying the soil as clay liners.
Biopolymers
Biopolymers are organic polymers, and they are synthesized from biological systems
like plants, animals, microorganisms, etc. and are finding immense potential in the
construction industry and soil stabilization (Anandha Kumar and Sujatha 2020;
Chang et al. 2015a; Chen et al. 2013; Dejong et al. 2011; Kwon et al. 2019).
Biopolymers are derived from various natural sources like plants, bacteria, animal
sources like shells of crustaceans, and dairy products (Choi et al. 2020). They are
made up of monomeric units that are linked in a large formation. These natural
polymers like straw, natural bitumen, and sticky rice mortar have been used in the
construction industry since ancient times (Chang et al. 2016b). Biopolymers take a
longer period of time to decompose (Ghadir and Ranjbar 2018), and the products of
decomposition are water, carbon dioxide, and a small quantity of ammonia. Bio-
polymers can be broadly classified as polysaccharides, polypeptides, and polynu-
cleotides (Kalia and Avérous 2011). Polysaccharides are composed of polymeric
carbohydrate chains that are made of monosaccharide units and are found abun-
dantly in nature (Belitz et al. 2009). Polysaccharide biopolymers are in general
hydrophilic owing to the presence of numerous surface hydroxyl groups (Clark
and Ross-Murphy 2005; Kalia and Avérous 2011), forming viscous hydrogels with
water. Hydrogels are formed when the polymer network imbibes water. Their
viscosity varies with the biopolymer–water content and the presence of counterions
that may be alkali or alkali earth metal ions (Chang et al. 2016a; Izawa and
Kadokawa 2010). The increase in the biopolymer–water content and the presence
of counterions lead to the increase in viscosity of the hydrogels.
Biopolymers find immense use in agriculture, food production, medical industry,
cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals (Saha and Bhattacharya 2010) as stabilizers, thick-
ening agents, and gel-forming agents. Biopolymers also find a wide range of
applications in the construction industry, particularly in geotechnical engineering.
In the construction industry, biopolymers are used as plasticizers for concrete
mixtures, cementitious grouts, and drilling fluids (Chang et al. 2016b; Choi et al.
2020). The various applications of biopolymers in geotechnical engineering include
strengthening the soil (Chang et al. 2015a, 2016b; Sujatha and Saisree 2019),
modifying the consistency of the soils (Chang et al. 2019a), controlling the perme-
ability of the soil (Anandha Kumar and Sujatha 2021; Cabalar et al. 2017), providing
erosion resistance (Hataf et al. 2018; Ko and Kang 2020), soil stabilization (Chang
and Cho 2014; Ghadir and Ranjbar 2018; Ghasemzadeh and Modiri 2020), and
improving the resistance of the soil against seismic forces. The biopolymers com-
monly used to modify soil properties are xanthan gum, gellan gum, β-glucan, guar
gum, chitosan, agar gum, starch, casein, humic acid, etc. (Chang et al. 2016b; Choi et
al. 2020).
Biopolymers modify the properties of the soil matrix through bio-clogging and
bio-cementation (Chang and Cho 2014; Wani and Mir 2020). Bio-clogging refers to
the void filling in the soil through a biological process, for example, through a
microbial activity that helps in the reduction of permeability of the soil. Bio-
cementation is the aggregation of soil particles through biological materials that
bind the particles in the soil matrix (Ivanov and Chu 2008). The mechanism of
strengthening is governed by two important factors (i) rheology of the hydrogels and
(ii) the chemical bond that forms between the soil particle and the biopolymer
(Chang et al. 2016a). The chemical bonds can either be ionic or hydrogen bonds
depending on the charged nature of the biopolymer (anionic, cationic, or nonionic).
These processes are similar to soil grouting but are more economic and environ-
mentally friendly than chemical grouting (Khatami and Kelly 2013). They leave a
low carbon footprint than other conventional soil stabilization techniques (Chang et
al. 2016b).
Hydraulic Conductivity of Biopolymer-Treated Soils
Biopolymers are very effective in controlling the hydraulic conductivity of the soil
(Anandha Kumar and Sujatha 2019, 2021; Chang et al. 2016b). Choi et al. (2020)
report that the hydraulic conductivity of the biopolymer-treated soils reduced by the
order of 3–4 times the magnitude with less than 8% biopolymer content (Choi et al.
2020). This substantial reduction in the hydraulic conductivity is ascribed to the bio-
clogging effect of the biopolymers. Hydrogels are formed with the addition of water,
which in turn expands in volume with further absorption of water and fills the void
spaces in the soil, causing pore-clogging/pore-plugging as shown in Fig. 1.
This makes biopolymers suitable for hydraulic applications like slurry walls,
seepage barriers for containment facilities, and grouting (Chang et al. 2016b).
Table 1 shows the influence of biopolymer type and dosage on the hydraulic
conductivity of the treated soils. The wide range of variation in the biopolymer
dosage indicates that factors like fines content in the soil, type of clay minerals, size
and shape of soil particles, temperature, aging, and curing conditions affect the
hydraulic conductivity of the treated soils (Choi et al. 2020).
Singh and Das (2019) studied the hydraulic conductivity of biopolymer-treated
expansive soil and observed that the hydraulic conductivity decreases with the
Fig. 1 SEM images of the biopolymer-treated soil. (a) Xanthan gum–clay soil blend (Anandha
Kumar and Sujatha 2021). (b) Guar gum–clay soil blend (Sujatha and Saisree 2019)
Table 1 Effect of biopolymer on hydraulic conductivity
1212
USCS Optimum Permeability (cm/s)

Sl. No. Biopolymer type Soil type classification content (%) (from–to) Reference
1. Sodium alginate Poorly graded sand SP 0.4 10 2 – 1.8 10 4 (Wen et al. 2019)
2. Gellan gum Poorly graded sand SP 2 2.1 10 4 – (Chang et al. 2016a)
8.2 10 9
3. Xanthan gum High-plasticity silt CH 1 9.1 10 9 – (Singh and Das 2019)
7.4 10 9
4. Guar gum Highly compressible MH-CH 2 2.87 10 3 – (Sujatha and Saisree
silt–clay 2.57 10 4 2019)
5. Xanthan gum Soft marine soil CH 0.5 3.37 10 6 – (Kwon et al. 2019)
0.29 10 6
6. Xanthan gum Low-plasticity clay CL 1 6.5 10 7 – (Cabalar et al. 2017)
1.2 10 7
7. Xanthan gum Clayey silt – 1 5 10 4 – 8 x 10 6 (Martin et al. 1996)
8. Guar gum Clayey sand SC 2 10 4 – 3 10 8
9. Sodium alginate Clayey sand SC 1 10 4 – 2 10 8
10. Xanthan gum Clayey sand SC 1 10 4 – 3 10 9
11. Xanthan gum Ottawa sand – 1 g/l 1.74 10 2 – (Khachatoorian et al.
4.36 10 3 2003)
12. Polyester poly(3- Ottawa sand – 1.74 10 2 –
hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) 4.52 10 5
13. Polyglutamic acid (PGA) Ottawa sand – 1.74 10 2 –
6.48 10 4
14. Guar gum Ottawa sand – 1.74 10 2 –
1.34 10 3
15. Chitosan Ottawa sand – 1.74 10 2 –
6.10 10 4
E. R. Sujatha and S. Anandha Kumar
45
16. Guar gum Silty sand +18% – 2 1 10 4 – 10 7 (Bouazza et al. 2009)

17. Sodium alginate kaolin 0.5 1 10 4 – 10 7
18. Xanthan gum 0.5 1 10 4 – 10 7
19. β-Glucan Lean clay CL 2 1.03 10 2 – (Anandha Kumar and
7 10 9 Sujatha 2020)
8
20. Xanthan gum Clayey sand CL 1 1.03 10 2 – 10 (Anandha Kumar and
21. Guar gum Clayey sand CL 1 1.03 10 2 – Sujatha 2021)
6 10 8
Biopolymer-Based Liners for Waste Containment Facilities: A Review
1213
increase in biopolymer dosage as the viscosity of the pore fluid increases and clogs
the voids in the soil matrix with the formation of highly viscous gum-like hydrogels
(Singh and Das 2020). This clogging further restricts the movement of fluid through
the treated soil matrix. A similar reduction in permeability is also observed in
clean sands. The hydraulic conductivity of sand reduced from 8.46 10–5 to
2.84 10–11 cm/s with the addition of 1.5% xanthan gum (Cabalar et al. 2018).
The reduction in permeability of these granular soils was attributed to void filling
that caused pore-plugging and binding of the soil grains through the formation of
hydrogels (Bouazza et al. 2009; Cabalar et al. 2018; Ivanov and Chu 2008;
Khachatoorian et al. 2003). Ayeldeen et al. (2016) in their study also observed a
reduction in the hydraulic conductivity of the biopolymer-treated sands and silts
(xanthan gum, guar gum, and modified starch) and attributed the reduction to the
formation of cross-linking elements that formed in the void spaces of the soil matrix
obstructing the flow of water through the soil matrix. They also observed that the
volume of these cross-linked elements increased with the biopolymer dosage. In the
case of nonionic biopolymers like guar gum, the accumulation in the void spaces was
wider and thicker, filling the void spaces more effectively (Ayeldeen et al. 2016). The
comparative study of the hydraulic conductivity of xanthan gum and guar gum
treated soil showed that xanthan gum was more effective in controlling the hydraulic
conductivity than guar gum owing to its charged nature (Anandha Kumar and
Sujatha 2021). Gellan gum-treated soils also show an effective reduction in hydrau-
lic conductivity owing to the water retention capacity and pore-filling nature of the
gellan gum hydrogels on saturation (Chang et al. 2016a). Also, the hydraulic
conductivity of the granular soil samples is sensitive to confining pressure indicating
that it is dependent on the structure of gellan gum in the void spaces (Chang et al.
2016a). Biopolymer-treated soils modify the hydraulic conductivity of the soil in a
very short duration of time compared to other conventional stabilizers like cement
(Chang et al. 2016b).
Ayeldeen et al. (2016), Cabalar et al. (2017), and Anandha Kumar and Sujatha
(2021) studied the effect of time/aging on the hydraulic conductivity of biopolymer-
treated soils. Ayeldeen et al. (2016) report the hydraulic conductivity of sand and silt
increases with an increase in the curing time as the hydrogels shrink on dehydration
causing gaps in the soil matrix which act as paths for water movement. Cabalar et al.
(2017) observed that initially up to 7 days, there is a decrease in the hydraulic
conductivity of biopolymer-treated clean sand but with further increase in time,
hydraulic conductivity tends to increase. Anandha Kumar and Sujatha (2020)
observed in their study on clayey sand that hydraulic conductivity decreased with
the curing period for the investigated time period (i.e., 28 days). Chang et al. (2016a)
have also observed a decrease in hydraulic conductivity with time in both sand and
Saemangeum soil for a period of nearly 6 days. Bouazza et al. (2009) used xanthan
gum, guar gum, and sodium alginate to stabilize silty sand and reported a decrease in
hydraulic conductivity with aging to a period of 70 days. The authors attributed this
decrease in hydraulic conductivity to the formation of hydrous gels. Martin et al.
(1996) also observed a decrease in hydraulic conductivity of soil treated with sodium
alginate over a period of 6 months. These observations indicate that the type of soil
and degree of saturation are important factors that govern the hydraulic conductivity
of sand with aging. The study on the hydraulic conductivity of biopolymer-treated
soil strongly advocates the choice of biopolymer stabilization for in situ soil to be
modified as baseliners as the decrease in hydraulic conductivity can very effectively
attenuate the movement of leachate and heavy metals into the soil.
Strength of Biopolymer-Treated Soils
Biopolymers act as a cementing agent (Choi et al. 2020) and tend to aggregate the soil
particles, and these aggregates show higher resistance to loads. Chang et al. (2015a)
report that factors like the dosage of biopolymer, type of soil, water content, and
method of mixing affect the strength of the treated soil. Several studies show that
biopolymer dosage and type of soil are the most influential factors (Anandha Kumar
and Sujatha 2020; Ayeldeen et al. 2016; Chang et al. 2015a, b, c, 2016b; Chen et al.
2019) that influence the strength of biopolymer-treated soils. A minimum dosage of
biopolymer, say 0.5–2% to the dry weight of soil, shows a considerable increase in the
strength of the soil (Anandha Kumar and Sujatha 2020; Chang et al. 2016b; Chen et al.
2019). Literature points out that UCS of the soil increases with the biopolymer dosage.
Also, it is observed that the maximum biopolymer dosage is limited to 5% as beyond
5% uniform mixing of biopolymer and soil is not possible owing to the higher
viscosity of the biopolymer hydrogels (Choi et al. 2020). Also, the rate of increase
in strength approaches an asymptotic value with an increase in the biopolymer content
of 3–4% (Choi et al. 2020; Qureshi et al. 2017). This increase in strength can be
ascribed to the interparticle bonds that are caused by the biopolymer hydrogels (Chang
et al. 2015a; Choi et al. 2020). They have a high specific surface and are electrically
charged, enabling the soil–biopolymer interactions, which again contributes signifi-
cantly to the increase in strength (Chang et al. 2016a). The charged nature of bio-
polymers like xanthan gum, gellan gum, Persian gum, Ca-alginate, Na-alginate, etc.
causes bridges to be formed between soil particles and improves the particle alignment
in the soil matrix (Chang et al. 2015b, 2016b). Table 2 presents the summary of UCS
value for various biopolymers, biopolymer dosages, and types of soil.
Generally, in clays, the biopolymer bonds with the charged clay particles through
hydrogen bonding and cation bridging (Chang et al. 2015a) when the biopolymers
are also charged in nature like in the case of biopolymers like xanthan gum, gellan
gum, Ca-alginate, Na-alginate, and chitosan, but in the case of nonionic biopolymers
like guar gum, the formation of ionic bonds and these bonds contribute to the
increase in strength of the soil. Therefore, the entire soil matrix along with the
hydrogels in the pore spaces of the soil matrix participates in the strengthening of
soil. In the case of sand, particles are not charged, and hence hydrogen bonding/
electrostatic bonding is ruled out. Strengthening is therefore is a result of the
interparticle cohesion and friction that is mobilized. In coarse-grained soils, the
interparticle strength is gained through the formation of dehydrated gel that supports
the sand particles (Qureshi et al. 2017). The biopolymer forms gel matrices and
interacts with the sand particles as a coating on the surface, between particles
Table 2 Effect of biopolymer on strength of the soil
1216
Sl. USCS Optimum content UCS (kPa) (from–

No. Biopolymer type Soil type classification (%) to) Reference
1. Sodium alginate Poorly graded sand SP 0.4 140 – 260 (Wen et al. 2019)
2. Xanthan gum Low-plasticity clay CL XG, 1.5 184.5 – 338.5 (Ghasemzadeh and Modiri
(XG) GG, 1 357.6 – 421.2 2020)
Guar gum (GG) PG, 2
Persian gum
(PG)
3. Gellan gum Poorly graded sand SP 2 0 – 434.6 (Chang et al. 2016a)
4. Xanthan gum High-plasticity silt CH 1 985 – 1171 (Singh and Das 2019)
5. Xanthan gum Red mud ML 0.5 245 – 1204 (Reddy et al. 2020)
Guar gum 245 – 900
6. Xanthan gum Red mud ML 0.5 102 – 536
Guar gum 102 – 469
7. Xanthan gum Lateritic soil CH 1.5 171 – 406 (Rashid et al. 2019)
8. Xanthan gum Well-graded sand with silt SW-SM XG, 4 181 – 7087 (Soldo and Miletić 2019)
Guar gum GG, 4 181 – 3277
β-Glucan (BG) BG, 4 181 – 2467
Alginate (ALG) ALG, 2 181 – 2044
Chitosan (CHI) CHI, 4 181 – 1059
9. Guar gum Highly compressible silt– MH-CH 2 152 – 418 (Sujatha and Saisree 2019)
clay
10. Xanthan gum Soft marine soil CH 1 2600 – 3400 (Kwon et al. 2019)
11. Xanthan gum Bentonite – 1 286 – 2580 (Latifi et al. 2016a)
12. Xanthan gum Kaolinite – 1.5 150 – 1180 (Cabalar et al. 2017)
13. Xanthan gum Low-plasticity clay CL 3 396 – 823
14. Xanthan gum High-plasticity silt MH 2 52 – 338 (Ayeldeen et al. 2016)
15. Modified starch High-plasticity silt MH 2 52 – 570 (Lee et al. 2019)
E. R. Sujatha and S. Anandha Kumar
45
16. Guar gum High-plasticity silt MH 2 52 – 840

17. Xanthan gum Inorganic, silty sand SM 2 210 – 4900
18. Xanthan gum Kaolinite – 1 440 – 2540 (Chang et al. 2015a)
19. Xanthan gum Sand – 1 0 – 880 (Chang et al. 2015a)
20. Xanthan gum Poorly graded sand with SP-SM 1 220 – 3680
silt
21. Xanthan gum Red yellow soil – 1 1000 – 4940
Biopolymer-Based Liners for Waste Containment Facilities: A Review
1217
through cementation and within the pore spacing by filling the voids with hydrogels
(Chang et al. 2015a). Chang et al. (2016a) observe that the strengthening effect is
better in clay soil than in sands owing to the ionic/hydrogen bonds between the clay
particles and the biopolymer as they are electrically charged.
The water content of the treated soil strongly influences its strength (Chang et al.
2015a, b; Chen et al. 2019). Chang et al. (2015a) and Chen et al. (2019) showed that
dehydrated soil shows higher UCS and stiffness than wet or submerged soil in sands
and attributed the enhanced strength to the formation of high-tensile biopolymer
dehydrates like films which are also thick in the sand matrix. Similar results were
observed by authors like Chang and Cho (2012) and Chang et al. (2015b) in
biopolymers like β-glucan and gellan gum. On saturation, the biopolymer being
hydrophilic absorbs water, weakening the bonds that lead to a drastic reduction in the
strength of the biopolymer-treated soil (Chang et al. 2015a). Chang et al. (2015a)
also reported that in the case of clay, an interaction between the hydrophilic
biopolymer and adsorbed water in clay particles causes the change in strength on
saturation but also pointed that a similar reaction is not possible when clay particles
have hydrophilic double-layer surfaces.
The common methods of mixing biopolymer and soil are dry and wet mixing
methods. In the dry mixing method, the biopolymer is added as a dry powder and
mixed with soil thoroughly before the addition of water, while in the wet mixing
method, it is first mixed with water to form a hydro-solution and then added to the
soil (Chang et al. 2015a). UCS of dry mixed samples shows higher strength than that
of the wet mixed samples. The superior strength of the dry mixed samples can be
attributed to the viscosity and solubility of the biopolymer in water (Chang et al.
2015a). Also, there is a possibility that the monomeric threads can break when
mixing the biopolymer hydro-solution to the soil.
Literature shows that a biopolymer is a very promising alternative to conventional
additives that are used for improving the strength of the soil (see Table 2). They are
more economic than traditional stabilizers as they yield better results with the
addition of a small quantity of biopolymers. For example, Chang et al. (2016a)
reported that sand treated with 2% gellan gum yielded a strength higher than the
strength of sand treated with 12% cement. Though biopolymers are sensitive to
changes in water content, the published results indicate that biopolymer-treated soils
exhibit an appreciable degree of resistance to cycles of wetting and drying (Chang et
al. 2016a; Chen et al. 2019; Sujatha and Saisree 2019). The unconfined compressive
strength of clayey soil on rewetted soil is greater than 200 kPa, and for sand it is
50 kPa (Chang et al. 2016a). Biopolymer-treated soil can therefore be advocated for
modifying the in situ soil as a baseliner for landfills and waste containment facilities.
Durability
Biopolymers are natural organic materials and are sensitive to the changes in water
content making them susceptible to degradation. These characteristics of biopolymer
mandate that a study on the durability of biopolymer-treated soil is necessary to
recommend them for practical long-term application. The increase in the UCS and
stiffness of biopolymer-treated soil samples with aging indicates that there is no

material decomposition with aging (Chang et al. 2015a; Singh and Das 2019). Authors
like Chang et al. (2015a), Singh and Das (2019), and Sujatha and Saisree (2019) have
studied the behavior of biopolymer-treated soils under wetting and drying cycles and
freeze and thaw cycles. These studies reveal that the biopolymer-treated soils show
minimum cumulative soil loss and moisture content change when compared to
untreated soil. This resistance to extreme conditions has been attributed to the change
in the viscosity of the pore fluid and subsequent modification in the rheology of the
biopolymer-treated soil (Singh and Das 2019). The interaction between the soil
particle and biopolymer monomer mimics adhesive action and helps the soil to resist
degradation. Studies also indicate that at higher biopolymer contents, the resistance to
loss of volume and change in moisture content is lesser than at lower biopolymer
contents (Sujatha and Saisree 2019). From these studies, it can be inferred that
biopolymers can be used for long-term geotechnical applications particularly as
seepage barriers. These findings also reinforce the fact that biopolymer stabilized
soil is suitable as a baseliner in landfill and waste containment facilities.
Sustainable Development and Circular Economy
Biopolymers are natural materials and can be produced ex situ and applied in the field.
They can be commercially produced at a large scale with better quality control. They are
carbon neutral in most cases and in some cases like xanthan gum are carbon negative
(Chang et al. 2016b). Their use can limit the choice of conventional soil stabilizers like
cement which emit greenhouse gases at their production stage (Chang et al. 2016b).
They form stable hydrogels and do not cause harm to the local soil environment. They
are also capable of promoting green cover owing to their organic nature. But most
biopolymers are at present costly when compared to the conventional additives that are
used to stabilize the soil. The market prices of the biopolymers are dependent on their
purity leading to higher manufacturing costs. In geotechnical applications, purity is not a
necessary property, and production costs can be reduced by compromising the purity.
The inclusion of carbon emission trade imposed on manufactured stabilizers like cement
renders the option of biopolymer-treated soil more competitive with only 3.6% higher
costs than cement stabilized soil (Chang et al. 2016b). Also, biopolymers are extracted
from plant or animal sources, which in itself can lead to further opportunities for
economic growth through the cultivation of these biopolymers. Also, greater demand
for biopolymers can lead to larger production and lower costs. Hence, biopolymers offer
an eco-friendly and competitive option for improving the properties of the in situ soil to
be used as baseliners, side liners, and cover in landfills.
Conclusion
Environmental concerns raised by conventional stabilizers like cement underline the

need for an environmentally friendly and sustainable material for soil stabilization.
Biopolymers offer a viable alternative that is both sustainable and competitive. They
have tremendous potential to reduce carbon emissions and promote the growth of
vegetation which is a major advantage when used as covers for landfills. They are a
major step forward in environmental conservation. They are effective at a lower
dosage and have lesser water requirements compared to conventional stabilizers.
The presence of fine particles in the soil can improve the strengthening effect further.
Biopolymer treatment increases the strength and reduces the hydraulic conductivity
of the soil through bio-cementation and bio-clogging. Biopolymer-treated soil seals
the void spaces and acts as a hydraulic barrier almost immediately on mixing with
soil and water. They are effective in both granular soil and clay. They are amenable
to various modes of introduction into the soil like grouting, mixing, injection, and
spraying. Biopolymers can be used for geotechnical applications like deep mixing
based on their viscous nature. Despite their attractive benefits, there are also several
challenges in adopting biopolymer stabilization in the field like the economic
feasibility, workability, equipment, possible degradation in the long term, and their
inherent water-sensitive nature. But their numerous advantages make them a prom-
ising choice soil stabilizer.
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2017.01.016
Solid Waste Management in Textile
Industry 46
Monika Patel, Ankita Sahu, and Ravikant Rajak
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1227
Classification of Textile Fiber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1228
Natural Fiber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1229
Regenerated Fiber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1229
Synthetic Fiber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1229
Environmental Impact of Fibers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1230
Cotton and Wool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1230
Rayon and Tencel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1231
Nylon and Polyester . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1231
Classification of Textile Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1231
Pre-consumer Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1232
Post-consumer Textile Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1232
Soft and Hard Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1233
Causes of Textile Waste Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1233
Industrialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1233
Modern Lifestyle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1233
Rapid Change in Fashion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1233
Easy and Cheap Availability of Textiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1234
Lack of Consumer Awareness About Environment Friendliness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1234
Lack of Strict Government Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1234
Lack of Classic Designs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1234
Low Popularity of Secondhand Clothing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1235
Lack of Systematic Pipeline of Textile Recycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1235
Major Textile Waste-Generating Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1235
Necessity of Textile Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1235
M. Patel (*)
A. Sahu
ICAR – Central Institute for Women in Agriculture, Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India
R. Rajak
RNTC Agriculture College, Deoghar, Birsa Agricultural University, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_57
1226 M. Patel et al.
Principles of Textile Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1237

Rethink . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1237
Reduce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1237
Reuse/Upcycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1238
Recycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1238
Reintroduce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1238
Upcycling and Recycling of Textile Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1238
Traditional Textile Upcycling and Recycling Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1239
People of Wagdi Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1240
People of Kathiyawad Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1240
Traders of Secondhand Clothing (SHC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1240
Real Fabric Zari (Gold and Silver Work) Extractors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1240
Fabric Scrap Collectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1241
Secondhand Clothes (SHC) Retailers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1241
Modern Textile Waste Upcycling and Recycling Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1241
Modern Concepts of Textile Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1246
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1246
Extended Producers Responsibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1246
Take-Back Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1247
Recycling-Based Entrepreneurship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1247
Online Market Place . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1247
Circular Textile Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1247
Benefits of Textile Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1248
Reduction of Environmental Pollution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1248
Positive Impact on Economy of Country . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1248
Clothes for the Poor and Disaster Relief Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1249
Conservation of Natural Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1249
Reduction of Pressure on Virgin Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1249
Enhancement of Creative Ability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1249
Contribution Towards Business Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1250
Employment Regeneration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1250
Global Impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1250
Social Progress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1250
Constraints for Indian Textile Recycling Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1251
Lack of Awareness Among Citizens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1251
Lack of Proper Channel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1251
Neighbor Country Competitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1252
Lack of New Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1252
Lack of Government Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1252
Things to Consider for Improving Waste Management Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1252
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1253
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1254
Abstract
As a result of economic development, many developing countries started their
own manufacturing companies. Among these, textile and appeal companies
generate significant amount of solid wastes in developing countries. Textile
industry is the second largest source of pollution after oil industry. This industry
is complex because of its involvement in a very long way from production of raw
materials to disposal. It includes variety of processes like fabric production,
cutting, sewing, yarning, dyeing, etc. Developing countries mainly have poor
46 Solid Waste Management in Textile Industry 1227
solid disposal methods. The concept is avoiding waste before generation. This
type of management is a whole system approach and it eliminates waste rather
than managing the waste. There are five principles to achieve the aim: rethink,
reduce, reuse, recycle, and reintroduce. So there is a need of this type of solid
waste management for having an environmentally and economically sustainable
future. In this chapter, the details of solid waste management in textile industry is
elaborated.
Keywords
Textile waste · Textile waste management · Sustainable environment
Introduction
Every year, hundreds of new textile products are developed with sustainability as a
focal point. With increased buying power of consumers, more textiles are dumped
after their life cycle. This is creating the alarming pollution of landfills. This landfill
site may have serious human and environmental effects. After disposal, the textiles
age and decompose at the landfills. The decomposition of such materials releases
toxic greenhouse gases and also pollutes water bodies directly and indirectly.
Scientists are trying to find prospective in the moon and other planets after they
tap most of the earth’s resources. Land space is now reduced and valued more than
ever before. In this scenario, it is important for the textile industry to move towards
better waste management practices. In the near future, it will be impossible for waste
to be dumped on landfills (Bertram and Chi 2016; Huang et al. 2018).
There is an end to every textile material, after which it is discarded. It may
decompose in a few years if the fiber is 100% normal, but the population outbreaks
have made scientists find new sources. The growing population demands more
clothing, which is estimated to be 99 million tonnes per year, which cannot be
fully met by natural fibers (Mukherjee 2017). There is a growing need for people
from the fabric where blends and mixtures of textiles are inevitable. Blends are
mostly petrochemical-derived synthetics that are harmful to the ecosystem. To sum
up, the fibers are of two types: natural and synthetic origin. Textile materials made
from natural fibers are biodegradable, while synthetic materials pose a risk of being
non-compostable (Khalili et al. 2017).
This sector of industry create major environmental pollution. Production of raw
materials, fibers, through spinning, weaving, dyeing, manufacturing, and finishing
processes are labor-oriented works, and these have harmful effects on human health
(Fletcher and Grose 2011). The impacts caused by incorrect disposal of these can
pollute the soil, contaminate water and air, and cause a series of harmful impacts on
the pillars of sustainability: environment, society, and economy.
Sustainability is the priority of any segment of the textile industry, from fiber
cultivation to shipping and life cycle evaluation. The entire product life cycle is
checked and then certified in the event of quality certification or ISO. Once the fabric
is found not to be wearable, it is either thrown away in landfills or discarded. Some

nations have organizations that collect and distribute old textiles to orphanages and
countries in the third world. Goodwill is one such charity house that works in the
direction of making one person’s waste to another person’s money (Koch and
Domina 1999; Hawley 2006; Wang 2017).
Growing market consciousness is one of the driving force for development
of eco-friendly goods. The marketing and promotional policy has also shifted
to eco-friendliness (Charter and Polonsky 2017). Customers do not downgrade
the recycled goods. Recent research has established a positive attitude in
buying recycled textile fabrics that are eco-friendly and healthy for the skin.
The research also shows that this is seen in men rather than in women. It may
be that men look more at content and women to fashion (Raut et al. 2016). The
use of recycled fabrics in their items has now moved to multinational fashion
brands.
Classification of Textile Fiber
Textile is the material which is woven from natural or synthetic fiber. Different types
of fibers are woven into yarns, then plies and then into textile (Long 2005). Fibers are
divided into two types, natural fiber and synthetic fiber. Wool, silk, cotton, hemp,
flax, and glass fiber are natural fibers. Synthetic fiber are generated from petroleum.
Acrylic, nylon, and polyester are synthetic fibers. Recently, nanomaterials have been
introduced into the textile industry.
Fiber can be classified into various categories based on different guidelines. Fiber
can be divided into two kinds according to length: staple fiber and filament. Fibers
can be categorized into two groups according to origin: natural fiber and man-made
fiber, while man-made fiber can be further divided into regenerated fiber and
synthetic fiber (Fig. 1).
Cotton and wool are environment-friendly and biodegradable; although the raw
material of rayon and tencel are renewable, but still the processing procedure creates
some environmental pollution due to chemical usage. But nylon and polyester
production processes are responsible for nitrous oxide emission. Both are synthetic
fibers and nonbiodegradable (Jain and Gupta 2016).
Classification of textile fiber
Natural fiber Regenerated fiber Synthetic fiber
Fig. 1 Classification of textile fiber

Natural Fiber
Natural fiber comes primarily from plants, animals, and minerals. Cotton accounts
for 35% of the global clothing fiber market. It is a soft, white, and fluffy staple fiber
that grows mainly in tropical or subtropical regions around the globe, such as
America, Africa, India, and parts of China (Mistra 2010). As the most traditional
fashion fiber, cotton contributes the largest share in the textile industry. As one of the
largest textile exporters in the world, China is the world’s largest cotton producer,
making cotton production a key driver of economic development and, in particular,
supporting China’s small-scale peasant economy. Wool is the most essential textile
fiber obtained from the hair of sheep or other animals due to its many unique
properties. Highly flammable and highly durable, it can reach up to 50% when wet
and 30% when dry. Wool has outstanding moisture wicking properties, drawing
moisture into the center of the fiber so it doesn’t feel damp or soggy to the wearer.
The quality and price of the wool depends primarily on the diameter of the fiber.
Regenerated Fiber
Regenerated fibers are the fibers regenerated by extrusion and precipitation from
natural raw materials such as cellulose and protein. The first regenerated fiber is
rayon made from the most available natural polymer cellulose. Rayon is like cotton
which is hydrophilic and biodegradable (Hergert and Daul 1977). Depending on the
manufacturing process, rayon may be weak and extremely water-absorbent or as
strong as strongest fibers or like steel (Hergert and Daul 1977). There are two
methods of creating rayon in history: the viscose discovered by Cross Bevan and
Beadle in 1892; the cuprammonium produced by Despaissis (Hergert and Daul
1977). Tencel (also known as Lyocell) is another form of regenerated cellulose
fiber made from wood pulp. It is as soft as cotton, solid as polyester, and warm
as wool.
Synthetic Fiber
Synthetic fiber is developed from chemical substances and typically created by heat
to melt the fiber polymer to a viscosity appropriate for spinnerette extrusion (US EPA
1995), forming the thread. With use in both fiber and textile technologies, synthetic
fiber makes up half of all fiber usage. Nylon, polyester, acrylic, and polyolefin
dominate the market for all synthetic fibers, accounting for almost 98% of the
production volume of synthetic fibers, with polyester alone contributes around
60% (Mcintyre 2004). These fibers are nonbiodegradable. In 1930s, nylon emerged
as the first synthetic fiber as a replacement for silk used in fabrics, bridal veils,
carpets, musical strings, and rope. There are many positive qualities of nylon, such as
light weight, exceptional tensile strength, toughness, and harm resistance. One
reason why nylon so widely used in toothbrushes to garments is that it is flexible,
simple to dye, and easy to manufacture. Nylon dries quickly, but is heat sensitive and
it should be washed and dried in cool environment. Polyester, which accounts for
40% of the global clothing fiber market (Mistra 2010), was invented in Britain in the
early 1940s and became popular in the 1950s due to its durability and unique
properties. Polyester is durable and immune to biological damage, such as mildew,
but some wearers can experience irritation. The polyester processing process is
similar to nylon (Chen and Davis Burns 2006). Polyester is also made from poly-
ethylene terephthalate (PET) derived from ethylene glycol and either dimethyl
terephthalate (DMT) or terephthalic acid (TPA) similar to plastic drinking bottles
(US EPA 1995).
Environmental Impact of Fibers
Two examples are taken from every type of fibers for analyzing the environmental
effects in the whole production process.
Cotton and Wool
Cotton is the world’s most popular clothing fiber, and it is biodegradable. It allows many
customers to regard it as an environmentally friendly commodity. In fact, cotton is not so
environmentally friendly, but renewable in itself. Cotton is vulnerable to insect and
fungal attacks, leading to the heavy use of pesticides and fungicides, thereby contam-
inating the soil and underground water. It is estimated that cotton uses just 3% of the
world’s agricultural space, but about 25% of the world’s pesticides, according to Yates
(1994). Except pesticides and fungicides, defoliants are also used prior to cotton
harvesting (Grayson 1984). Cotton farming use heavy amount of water. Global cotton
products need 256 gm3 of water per year in 1997–2001, which accounts for 2.6% of
global water consumption (Hoekstra et al. 2005).
Very long chemical and physical processing methods add several poisonous and
hazardous chemicals. For example, formaldehyde or similar products have been
used on cotton to enhance the wrinkle recovery of fabrics (Needles 1986). In spite of
its natural characteristics, the production of cotton also has a negative effect on the
climate. Scientists are doing their hardest to mitigate the bad impact of the produc-
tion of cotton. Transgenic cotton has resistance to insects and fungi, and it minimizes
the use of pesticides and fungicides (Myers and Stolton 1999). The use of dyes can
be minimized by growing colorful cotton through selective breeding or from natural
mutants (Robbins 1994). Traditional cotton plays dominant role in the cotton
production (Chen and Davis Burns 2006).
Wool is a renewable product, but it has also side effects on the environment.
Overgrazing of sheep create soil erosion. It affects soil aeration, and this creates
problem in seed germination. Another issue that excess sheep manure can cause is
pollution by runoff water (Kadolph and Langford 2007). Wool also needs to be
treated with certain chemicals, such as dye to modify or enhance the output
characteristics. Scientists can now breed a type of sheep with colored wool that can
decrease the use of dye. But replacing conventional wool with natural colored wool
is still very far away (Chen and Davis Burns 2006).
Rayon and Tencel
Although the raw material is renewable, due to the application of chemicals during
rayon processing cause some environmental problems (European Commission
2003). In the early 1990s, Tencel emerged as an environmentally friendly commod-
ity in the market. It is created by a process of solvent spinning, which uses the
solvent as the amino oxide. There are no by-products of the whole process and
luckily all the solvent in the process can be extracted, filtered, and recycled (Kadolph
and Langford 2007). Tencel is also biodegradable, although it is still a relatively new
fiber and is not as commonly used as rayon (Chen and Davis Burns 2006).
Nylon and Polyester
The manufacturing process also releases nitrous oxide that can deplete the earth’s
ozone layer although the solvent washing is not involved in the nylon production
process. Some chemicals are applied to the spinning solution, except dyes to alter the
filament’s physical and chemical properties until the fibers are shaped (Chen and
Davis Burns 2006). As like other petroleum materials, nylon is difficult to decom-
pose under normal conditions, and this results in long-term accumulation in the
landfill without recycling.
The carpet industry is working on recycling of nylon from carpet by converting
nylon fibers into caprolactam, which is used as the raw material for nylon (Chen and
Davis Burns 2006). But unfortunately, most of the nylon enters the garbage dumps
(La Mantia 2002), as recovering process is costly. Recovering process has more
adverse impact. Polyester can be recycled and converted again into fresh polyester
materials, and therefore it reduces landfills. Every year in the USA, an estimated 2.4
billion bottles are kept out of landfills through the manufacturing of 100% recycled
polyester fibers (Rudie 1994).
It is estimated that processing of polyester fiber from recycled polyester fiber
minimize air emissions by 85% compared to the production of polyester fibers from
raw materials (Chen and Davis Burns 2006). But the quality of recycled polyester
might not be as good as virgin polyester fiber (Kadolph and Langford 2007).
Classification of Textile Waste
In order to manage the textile waste, first step is to know the sources of waste. This
can be classified as pre-consumer waste and post-consumer waste based on con-
sumer usage (Fig. 2). Other classification of waste can be done as manufacturing and
Pre consumer waste
Based on consumer usage
Post consumer waste
Fig. 2 Classification of textile waste based on consumer usage
Soft and Hard waste
Based on manufacturing Wool and Non wool

and recovered waste
Clean and Dirty waste
Fig. 3 Classification of textile waste based on manufacturing and recovered waste
recovered/reclaimed waste, soft and hard waste, wool and non-wool waste, and clean
and dirty waste, etc. (Fig. 3) (Jain and Gupta 2018).
Pre-consumer Waste
It is the manufacturing waste or postindustrial waste which is generated by textile

industry through first stages of the supply chain. This consists of yarn waste, garment
cutting waste, trimming waste, print trials, errors in dye lots, production surplus, and
end of rolls. On an average, about 15% of fabric used in garment production is cut,
discarded, and wasted in the initial process (Beitch 2015). Industry arranges their
own landfill disposal services or pay landfill fees for dumping (Chavan 2014). Every
year approximately 75% of the pre-consumer waste is recycled (Wang et al. 2003).
Post-consumer Textile Waste
It is the household waste and dirty waste after consumer use. It consists of any type
of garments or household articles which are discarded by consumers or retailers of
appeal. These are discarded either because they are worn out, damaged, outgrown, or
have gone out of fashion (Wang et al. 2003). Approximately 25% of the total post-
consumer textile waste is recycled. Nylon can be recycled to fishing net and can be
used for fishing in the ocean (Jain and Gupta 2018).
Soft and Hard Waste
Textile waste generated from carding, combing, drawing, and spinning are called as
soft waste. Waste generated from spinning, twisting, weaving, and knitting is called
as hard waste (Jain and Gupta 2018).
Causes of Textile Waste Generation
Industrialization
When global population was less and resources were abundant, there was no
problem in recycling. But with population explosion and industrial revolution,
different types of nonbiodegradable wastes came into existence (Vishnoi 2013).
After introduction of synthetic fibers in the twentieth century, there is rapid boom
in the production of textile industry which eventually led to more pre consumer and
post-consumer textile waste.
Modern Lifestyle
Modern lifestyle is a significant contributor to landfill waste. Modern day products

are more overpackaged and are consumed at a high level, contributing even more to
the waste stream (Hawley 2006). Ever-changing fashion in developing nations like
India is also responsible for more textile waste generation. The buying behavior of
upper middle classes and middle classes have changed in the last two decades. This
change is good for fashion business but not for environment. Shopping in big
lucrative malls has become more a way of life and addiction. E-shopping has become
easy and cheap. Finally this mentality is contributing towards carbon emissions and
global warming.
Rapid Change in Fashion
Rapid change in fashion demands for ongoing replacement of old products with
something new and updated products (Hawley 2006). A trend of “throwaway”
fashion is growing among young consumers. Rapid change of fashion life and low
price of clothes are main reasons for growth of unwanted items (Joung and Poaps
2013). So to meet the global demand of clothes, natural fibers are replaced by
synthetic fibers, and this cause more non-biodegradable waste generation (Farrant
2008). In last decade fast fashion changes the purchasing power of consumers which
led the problem of overconsumption.
Easy and Cheap Availability of Textiles
With rapid growth of textile business, the retail prices for textiles have fallen due to
the availability of cheap clothes. Global textile suppliers have concentrated over
low-priced clothes with short life cycle (Joung and Poaps 2013). In the UK, “over the
last decade women have doubled the purchase of wear items.” According to the
office for National Statistics, the price of women’s clothing has fallen by 34%
compared to the price of the same in the year 1995. This is supporting the throwaway
culture and subsequent negative environmental impacts (Farrant 2008).
Lack of Consumer Awareness About Environment Friendliness
Consumer disposal behavior and their awareness about environment plays a vital
role in reusing the product till its end of life and then send for recycling rather than
landfill (Muthu et al. 2012). Appropriate textile disposal practices are more impor-
tant for recovering textile waste through recycling (Joung and Poaps 2013). The
consumer stage use of garments cause water pollution due to usage of detergents,
bleaches, etc. So consumers need awareness regarding maintenance of clothes,
lifespan of clothing, and aftereffect on environment. Low-quality garments are freely
traded without eco-labels while higher quality products are traded with compulsory
eco-label. In countries like India, people are less concerned about this label, and this
type of attitude creates water pollution without any valid reason.
Lack of Strict Government Policies
Scientists from developed countries are working in the direction of recycling

whereas developing countries like India is waking up towards this issue. In India,
government policies are good enough in papers but poor enough for practical
reinforcement (Norris 2010). Therefore, government should take initiatives and
viable policies for trainings of self-help groups, disposal of waste, and awareness
camps for environment conservation.
Lack of Classic Designs
The high speed and low cost production of textiles put pressure on working
conditions and environmental standards (Fletcher 2008). Design with durability
should be prioritized as this is the sustainable approach. Before the industrial
revolution, clothes were individually tailored according to body size, shape, and
style choice. But now the mass production of ready-to-wear clothing has created
havoc on environment. Ready to sale clothes are causing problems with poor fit for
most of the consumers (Laitala 2010). Clothing should be durable, comfort, aes-
thetic, and ease of maintenance with proper design and shape to satisfy the long-run
consumer needs.
Low Popularity of Secondhand Clothing
Usage of secondhand clothes is not widely spread, and generally it is considered for
low-income groups. It is not appreciated as a good substitute of firsthand clothes and
people are unaware of secondhand cloth shops, so they are not widely available (Jain
and Gupta 2018).
Lack of Systematic Pipeline of Textile Recycling
Textile recycling practices has gained a momentum. People are gradually becoming
more aware of textile recycling and use of recycled products. In countries like India,
still there is no stringent policy for controlling the unnecessary textile dumping. So
textile recycling, upcycling, and reverse logistics pictures are not so clear.
Pre-consumer wastes are comparatively easy to collect but post-consumer wastes
pose lot of problems regarding collection, sorting, and transportation (Farrant 2008).
Major Textile Waste-Generating Activities
Textile manufacturers undertake a range of waste-generating activities like washing,

drying, warping, weaving, dyeing, printing, finishing, quality, process control, and
warehousing. Fabric waste is the main waste generated by this sector. These include
soft fiber waste, yarn spinning (hard fiber) waste, beaming waste, off-cutting,
packaging, and spools. Wet finishing processes require approximately 200 l of
water per kilogram of fiber and this make wastewater the largest waste in the sector
by volume (Jain and Gupta 2018).
Necessity of Textile Waste Management
The textile industry is second largest source of pollution after oil industry. This
industry is complex because of its involvement in a very long way from production
of raw materials to disposal. Both production and consumption processes produce
lots of textile waste. It is necessary to consider all the stages of manufacturing of
textiles for recycling and upcycling of textile waste. There is an urgent need for
effective textile waste management to stop its adverse effects on environment and its
creatures (Jain and Gupta 2018). Following facts about textile wastes trigger all
environmentalists to think seriously in the direction of textile waste management:
• After oil industry, textile industry creates major source of water and air pollution,
and it is also responsible for global greenhouse gas emission.
• Total solid waste generated by 217 million urban people is 83.8 million tonnes in
2015. It is expected to increase 221 million tonnes in 2030 (Agarwal et al. 2015).
More than a million tonnes of textiles are thrown away every year as a piece of
clothing lasts approximately about 3 years. The post-consumer waste is increased
by 40% in between 1999 and 2009, but the recycling rate is increased by 4% only.
• Nowadays, approximately 80–90% of textile wastes are polyethylene terephthal-
ate polymer and are nonbiodegradable like plastic bottles. Synthetic materials are
quite resistant and are not so easy for degradation (Tortora and Collier 1997).
Polyester and nylon are nonbiodegradable and are unsustainable for environment.
Major portion of textile industry produce polyester, and it requires 70 million
barrels of crude oil per year for production. It takes an estimated 500 years for its
biodegradation (Styles 2014). Nylon production emits a large amount of nitrous
oxide, the most ubiquitous greenhouse gas.
• After biodegradation, textiles form methane gas which is released into the air and
increase greenhouse gas emissions (Roznev et al. 2011). They easily clog out
drainage and waterways as most of them are nonbiodegradable (Vishnoi 2013).
• Approximately 40% of our clothing are made up of cotton. Cotton crop is a heavy
water dependent crop. Apart from farmland and heavy amount of water, cotton
farming consumes about 10% of agricultural chemicals and 25% of world’s
pesticides (Chen and Davis Burns 2006). Approximately one-fourth of total
chemicals produced worldwide are consumed by textile industry. Cotton farming
is heavily relied upon the agrochemicals which enter into our food chain and
cause biomagnification (Aiswariya and Amsamani 2010). Organic cotton farming
is a good alternative, but it is also expensive to grow as compared to conventional
cotton farming. Manufacturing a pair of T-shirt and a jean needs approximately
5,000 gallons of water. Organic cotton still needs huge amount of water for its
dyeing and other processes. So cotton garments carrying the “organic” tag are not
out of carbon footprint.
• Textile industry is responsible for water pollution, and it is the third top industry
for wasting water. Fresh water is required for dyeing process and then dye
untreated wastewater is discharged into the nearby rivers and then eventually to
the sea. Textile industry dump their lead, mercury, arsenic, nonylphenol
containing chemicals into the river, and it adversely affect the health of locals
and aquatic life. During textile use stage, the discharge of phosphates containing
wastewater promotes growth of green algae which can harm aquatic lives (Farrant
2008). Waterless dye technologies have been developed but have not yet been
popularized as the new technology is expensive and works on few fabrics.
• Asia is major hub for textile industry, and it exports textile to other parts of the world.
Approximately 90% of textile are transported by container ship each year; these ships
consume fuel by tonnes per hour and then air pollution to the coastal areas.
Principles of Textile Waste Management
Textile waste is generated at every stage of production. 5 R’s principle of textile

waste management is very important tool to solve this problem (Fig. 4). These are:
rethink, reduce, reuse, recycle, and reintroduce.
Rethink
Environmentally friendly waste management is the first and most effective compo-
nent of waste management. From production, manufacturing, buying to after use of
textiles, one should take wise decisions by keeping the environment as foremost
important gift (Jain and Gupta 2018).
Reduce
Manufacturing methods that require less natural resources and generate less textile
waste should be adopted. Textile materials with high strength and durability should
be the prime importance of consumers which result in less amount of textile waste
(Jain and Gupta 2018).
Rethink
Reintroduce Reduce
Principles
Recycle Reuse
Fig. 4 5 R’s principle of textile waste management

Reuse/Upcycle
Clothes should be reused again as secondhand clothes. Upcycling is reusing of waste

clothes without destroying or sending to municipal waste, and same clothes are used
to form something new. Upcycling is more energy efficient than recycling, and it
helps to decrease the cost of recycling (Farrant 2008).
Recycle
Recycling is to reprocess the used waste items to make new items. This can reduce
energy consumption, air pollution, water pollution, etc. (Farrant 2008). Recycling is
the process of obtaining wealth from the waste, and this strategy is adopted widely
(Sule and Bardhan 2001).
Reintroduce
Recycled textiles should be introduced into the market and can be launched as new
brand. They can be tagged as recycled products with huge respect (Jain and Gupta
2018).
Upcycling and Recycling of Textile Waste
Textile wastes varied in terms of different shape, size, color, form, quality, etc., and
so almost 100% usable textile waste can be modified to different products either by
upcycling or recycling techniques.
Upcycling is the reuse of existing products within the same production chain. The
end products are disassembled and again reassembled to new and different products.
For centuries, the reuse and upcycling process are going on with considerable
amount of creativity and vision. Most of the upcycled products are handmade and
sustainable products. Upcycling includes using of old sarees for making of beautiful
carpets (Jain and Gupta 2018).
Recycling is breaking down of end products into the previous raw materials to
create new products. Textile recycling use pre-consumer and post-consumer waste.
Those waste are broken down to yarn and then yarn is used for waving different new
products. Sometimes yarns are broken down to fiber sage for making new textile
materials (Jain and Gupta 2018).
Stages of textile waste recycling are as follows:
Primary recycling: It is the original recycling process, where man-made fibers
such as polyester are recycled back to its original form.
Secondary recycling: It is for the conversion of waste textile materials into other
purpose materials with lower level of physical, mechanical, or chemical properties.
For example, discarded textiles can be converted into wipers. This recycling
involves lots of processes such as cutting, shredding, carding, etc.
Tertiary recycling: It involves processes like pyrolysis, gasification, hydrolysis,
etc. for conversion of the waste materials into basic chemicals. Conversion of plastic
waste materials into its original chemicals is an example of tertiary recycling (Muthu
et al. 2012).
Quaternary recycling: It is the conversion of fibrous solid wastes into its original
form (Muthu et al. 2012).
Traditional Textile Upcycling and Recycling Processes
By using numerous techniques and artistic brain, both pre- and post-consumer textile
waste can be reused. Already many household and craft products are made using
textile waste. Many times, nonwoven, braiding, weaving, knitting, quilting, patch-
work, puppets, etc. techniques were used by both household and craft sectors to
create useful and decorative products.
Textile Waste Upcycling and Recycling Processes at Household Level

The upcycling process of household textile waste is a part of livelihood in many
communities. This practice is considered as low standard livelihood of poor families.
Soft clothes of new born child can be used as a substitute for sanitary napkins in later
stage. Unused sarees and other old clothes are good for moping and dusting
purposes. Old woolen and fabric clothes can be used as stuffing materials of toys,
pillow, mattresses, etc. Precious silk sarees can be used as the cover of sophisticated
sofa cover, cushion cover, pillow cover, curtains, bed cover, etc. Old-fashioned
clothes can be redesigned to fit the new fashion (Jain and Gupta 2016). Passing of
precious textile materials from generation to generation is the good practice in many
parts of world. The popular Buddha robe “Kasaya” is made of patched pieces of
donated clothes throughout his life. Lord Buddha is depicted with such a robe draped
over his body. Japanese Boro textile (kimono, sleeping futone covers, etc.) are made
after repairing cotton cloth scraps with indigo dye by the poor communities. These
textiles are passed from generation to generation with further stitching of sashiko
stitch (running stitch). Patched quilts with unique embroideries by Americans are an
excellent example of upcycling waste of fabric scraps. The growing pop culture also
motivates for reuse or upcycling of products (Mitchell 1936; Leonas 2017).
Textile Waste Upcycling and Recycling Processes at Crafts Sector

Apart from household activities, there are some upcycled crafts based on creative
expression. These crafts are mainly female-dominated livelihood activities of poor
communities and tribes. Kantha work of Bengal is one of the oldest textile recycling
practice where the old muslin sarees are used as base material for beautiful running
stitch work. The Bakarwal and Gujjar tribes of Jammu and Kashmir and Rajasthan
use various recycled textile crafts as a part of their old ancestral tradition for
preserving old clothes. Tribes of Jammu and Kashmir convert old woolen blankets
into handmade rugs by using acrylic yarns. Similarly, tribes of Rajasthan do patch,
embroidery work and mirror work to add beauty in the old textile products. Different
accessories like cap, bags, wall hangings, cushions, bed covers, etc. are also created
by recycled textiles (Bairagi 2014). Chindi durries of Haryana is famous for using
strips of old sarees, shawls, dupatta, and other garments for weaving their new
handmade products. Many African tribes use textile waste for making beautiful
jewelry in their unique design.
Still many organized and unorganized communities do textile recycling as a
traditional livelihood activity. Indian textile industry is incomplete without mentioning
the following communities who play vital role for textile waste recycling business.
People of Wagdi Community
Wagdi community people are working in textile recycling business since long before
the concept of sustainability. They are originated basically from Mahesana region of
Gujrat state (India), and they collect post-consumer goods in exchange of utensils
(Bartans); they are spread almost all over the India. This recycling business is
women-dominant livelihood and men of the family sell out those collected garments.
In last decades, this community was doing good business, but with changing fashion
and bargaining style, they faced problems (Jain and Gupta 2016).
People of Kathiyawad Community
These people sell the diamond garments mostly in craft lane of Janpath at Connaught
Place, Delhi. The creative design was mainly carried out by the ladies of Kathiyawad
community of Gujrat. They sell their costly textile products in very reasonable
prices. This community is considered in the above hierarchy of the people of
Wagdi community. Traders sort and mend the garments in different categories.
Valuable and precious textiles are sent to the retailers and finally to consumers
Traders of Secondhand Clothing (SHC)
Middle men between the collectors and retailers of secondhand clothing are called as
traders. They sort, clean, and mend the clothes and sell those in different markets
Real Fabric Zari (Gold and Silver Work) Extractors
Real gold and silver zari extraction business is still in practice by old businessmen of
shops of Kinari Bazaar, Chandni chowk, Old Delhi area. Extraction of real zari work
from silk sarees are the precious findings for the people involved in this business.
Bartan wala give costly utensils in exchange of these precious old real zari fabrics
(Bairagi 2014).
Fabric Scrap Collectors
These are the individuals who collect and sort fabric scraps from different clothing
manufacturing places and sort them according to color and fabric type. In general,
these types of storage and separation areas are located nearby textile sites from where
they can easily collect the scraps. Sanjay Nagar, Old Faridabad, Jamunapaar, etc. are
some of the places where this kind of selection and separation processes are
performed. This form of Katrans (fabric scraps) are traditionally used by various
modern industries dependent on textile recycling such as paper making, fabric,
cellulose industry, durry (carpet) making, etc. The fabric scrap dealers monitor this
types of job (Jain and Gupta 2016).
Secondhand Clothes (SHC) Retailers
Some of the unorganized flea markets for the secondhand clothes sale are Janpath,
Connaught Place, Sarojini Nagar, Lajpat Nagar, Shankar Market (Jamunapaar), etc.
These are the final destinations for the selling of SHCs from the USA and other
European countries illegally. Among young urban populations, these are very
popular places to buy trendy clothing.
The number of these flea shops has increased tremendously in recent years in various
local markets of Delhi and other Indian metro cities to catch the attention of fast and
trendy young people. People can very easily get trendy clothes on very fair prices. In last
few years, the number of these flea shops has increased tremendously in various local
markets of Delhi and other metro cities of India to capture the attention of fast and
fashionable youth. They can get branded fashionable garments on a very reasonable
prices very easily. These SHC flea markets are not just confined to old markets like
Sarojini Nagar, Lajpat Nagar of Delhi. These garments can be seen in different local
markets and malls and have become a tough rival to clothing department stores, but their
strategy is restricted to metropolitan areas (Bairagi 2014).
Modern Textile Waste Upcycling and Recycling Processes
Modern day textile upcycling and recycling processes can be subdivided into three
types as following (Fig. 5).
Mechanical Recycling
In general, mechanical recycling is used for items with single fiber material fabrics to
recycle the fibers, yarns, and fabrics. The discarded garments are opened up, then
Textile waste upcycling and recycling processes
Mechanical recycling Chemical recycling Bio recycling
Fig. 5 Types of modern textile waste upcycling and recycling processes
disassembled, and smaller bits of fabrics are removed. To continue the breakdown, it
is then passed through a spinning drum and fibers are obtained. This activity is
referred to as garneting. The resulting length, fineness, strength, polymer, and color
characteristics of the fiber decide the consistency and the most suitable new end
product. Waste obtained from the manufacturing supply chain would usually yield
recycled fibers of greater quality than those collected from post-consumer waste.
Good quality yarns are used in fabric, sheeting, and upholstery. In other structures
(i.e., concrete), nonwoven fabrics, carpet underlays, shoe inlays, vehicle sound and
thermal insulation, home insulation, toy padding, and other end items, lower-quality
fibers are used as reinforcement. The wool recycling industry is hundreds of years
old. After wearing threadbare clothing (i.e., wool sweaters), it was gathered and
shredded into individual fibers and then made into blankets (Ravasio 2013).
Panipat’s Shoddy industry is known as the global textile recycling capital, and
this is one of India’s most effective, competitive, and relatively oldest industrial
textile recycling industry. It recycles approximately 1,44,000 tonnes of secondhand
clothing discarded annually by many developed nations. Secondhand garments are
used as a raw material for making low-quality items such as blankets, shawls,
carpets, etc. 1.5 tonnes of shoddy yarn produces roughly three tonnes of textile.
The garments are first sorted and then the whole opened and broken up into fibrous
mass. These fibers are then colored, carbonized, and turned into spun woolen yarns
from which blankets are made (Ravasio 2013).
In 2006–2007, approximately 22,028 tonnes of used clothing were imported
(Ravasio 2013). In 2007–2008, this number rose to 37,000 tonnes, and then almost
six times to that (218,698 tonnes) in 2008–2009 in shoddy production. But this
world famous recycling industry has deteriorated in recent years and lost its identity,
benefit, and charm due to its tough fight with cheaper, warmer, and lightweight
polyester blankets, and many other issues such as economic slowdown and restricted
shoddy yarns product range. Until 2012, Panipat had about 600–700 shoddy yarn
and textile factories (Rebello 2015). But it has only 150 units now. The value of
production decreased significantly from Rs. 35 crores to 90 crores per month. SHC
container imports also decreased from 800 containers per month to 300 containers
per month.
According to one of Jharcraft’s (Jharkhand Silk Textile & Handicrafts Develop-
ment Corporation Ltd.) technical experts, silk waste fibers are used as insulating
layers in very high-quality sleeping mattresses as more warmth is given by silk

fibers. They used thermoset resins and recycled cotton as an alternative to clothing
processing to make thermoset composites that they used to make fashion accessories
(Zonatti et al. 2015).
One of the world’s largest sports processing companies sorts and shreds 100%
cotton sweaters. They use sandy cotton fiber that is used in “Punch-n-Kick” sacks
(Hawley 2006). Contributions have also been made to the silk industry, where waste
produced during soil rearing and reeling operations in the silk industry has been
established. The oil was extracted from pupae gathered in the silk industry. Sericin,
which was considered waste in the silk industry, now has a very high commercial
value in cosmetic products industry, and it is available at a price of Rs 5000/kg
approx.
Chemical Recycling
It is a form of recycling process that is used primarily to recycle fibers and blends. It
is possible for chemical recycling of synthetic fibers, including polyesters, poly-
amides, and polyolefins. Chemical recycling comes under the tertiary recycling
class, which allows fibers to be broken down for re-polymerization. In particular,
because of the disparate physical and chemical properties of the fibers in the waste,
blends are difficult to recycle. Chemical recycling processes require higher energy
consumption and expenditure in capital is high, so this choice is only feasible for
large-scale producers (Jain and Gupta 2018).
One of the most widely used clothing and home textile materials is cotton and
polyester blends. When used with blended products, chemical recycling has proven
effective as it uses a process of selective degradation. The fibers can be chemically
separated and then reformed into new fibers in cotton and polyester products. At
present, a process using N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide, which dissolves cellulose, is
being created. Filtration removes the dissolved cellulose and polyester, and respins
the captured polyester into a fiber, filament, or yarn. Dissolved cellulose can be used
to produce regenerated cellulosic fibers, like lyocellulose fibers (Jain and Gupta
2018).
A combination commonly used in high-performance sportswear and athletic wear
is nylon and spandex. The percentage of nylon is usually much higher than that of
spandex, and it is possible to recycle and reuse nylon. It is understood that by
dissolving it in solvents such as N-dimethylformamide, spandex can be separated
from blended fabrics. This solvent, however, is costly and there are environmental
concerns about its use. In order to degrade the spandex, the blended fabric was first
treated with heat and then subjected to a washing system using ethanol, which
essentially eliminates the spandex residue, leaving only the nylon (Yin et al.
2013). Some of the brands use recyclable materials in their products are Tenjin,
Aquafil, Martex fiber, Evrnu, Ecoalf, Timberland, Nike, Speedo, Adidas, Hanes,
H&M, The North Face, Patagonia, Cone Jeans, etc. (Leonas 2017).
Many producers of carpets, suppliers of fiber and chemicals, recycling compa-
nies, and academic institutions are actively exploring different approaches for
fibrous waste recycling. The methods provide chemical pathways for
depolymerization of nylon, recovery of carpet fiber, plastic resins, direct extrusion of

mixed fibers, carpet waste, soil reinforcement fibers, waste-to-energy conversion,
and carpet for cement kilns as feedstock (Wang et al. 2003).
Instead of wood pulp, recycled fibers are used in paper production. In terms of
intensity and consistency, these papers are very strong. By chemical alteration, pure
white cotton fibers can be transformed to superabsorbent polymers and can be used
for the manufacture of medical textiles, i.e., in diapers, bandages, and pads.
For the production of composite materials, there is a possibility of processing
cellulose in powder form, which can be used as fillers, or for blending with other
polymers. It is also possible to make super absorbent agro-textiles for water storage
and managed water release for plantation in arid or desert terrain (Vishnoi 2013). It is
also possible to see excellent use of fiber cellulose in the medical field as well as in
the manufacture of different medicines and life-saving membrane medical devices.
PET plastic water bottles, used polyester garments, scraps of fabrics, waste yarns,
or other plastics are broken into small pieces from which chips are developed. The
chips are decomposed to form dimethyl terephthalate, which is then repolymerized
and spun into new fibers, filaments, and yarns of polyester.
By producing pellets/pellets, polypropylene that is commonly used in the man-
ufacture of sportswear (Vishnoi 2013). In 1993, Patagonia was the first company to
recycle PET bottles to manufacture the first polyester fleece jacket. They currently
recycle various industrial waste, plastic bottles, and worn out clothes into approxi-
mately 82 different items, such as insulated pants, down jackets, and beanies.
Eco-spun (Welspun Inc.) is a brand that sells recycled fabric made from recycled
plastic bottles. Every year, nine million plastic-based waste is disposed of in the
landfill and such critical work can be an excellent choice for the category of recycled
textiles in processing of such waste. A standard-sized sofa can cover up to 200 PET
bottles (Charter and Polonsky 2017) Eco-fi develops textiles made from 100%
recycled PET fabrics and is used in a range of applications, such as home textiles,
automobile interiors, decors, upholstery, art products, etc. The blends with wool in
the market are also very common.
Lutradur ECO is another brand that uses disposed PET bottles and produces
yarns. A 2 l PET bottle is made of 1 m2 of cloth. Seaqual fiber is processed by
upcycling ocean waste. In 2017, this special project is implemented to transform
plastics into textile fibers (Aishwariya 2018).
Safeleigh is launched by Leigh fibers. It use the cut scarp of protective clothing
such as clothing for firemen, bullet proof vest, and combine with aramid for building
a clothing line as a natural character that has flame retardancy nature (Hawley 2014).
K-sorb (Eco-sorb international) manufactures regenerated textiles for use in
industry, sludge stabilization, and various environmental rehabilitation programs.
Barnhardta is a very old recycling company that supplies regenerated, recycled, and
recycled cotton as homogeneous blends with a lower absorption rate than virgin
cotton. Stein fibers are produced by the importation of textile waste around the
globe. This is one of the most popular brands in the field of technical textiles such as
filtration, insulation, automotive, packaging, and invisible textiles (Aishwariya
2018).
Bio-recycling
By running them through willow machines, most of the mills extract the valuable
short fibers from the blow room waste, which in turn leaves a
non-resalable residue called “willow waste.” The scope of cotton waste mostly
lies in manufacture of tissue paper, linoleum, plastic and regenerated fibers,
upholstery fabric, curtain cloths, cover cloths, sheets, towels, shirts, quilts,
underwear, carpet, industrial roller cloth, electrical cabling, etc. (Vishnoi 2013).
The processing and production of biogas from willow dust is another important
achievement of the numerous research institutions that have been adopted by
textile mills.
A researcher in India has found that willow waste can be processed to become
compost, allowing a viable enterprise for making organic cotton possible. Their
work was aimed at bio-managing cotton waste through a three-tier system of
interaction between enzyme-earthworm-microbes.
An attempt was made to transform hospital textile waste, domestic and post-
industrial waste, effluent waste, diapers, sanitary pads, and other nonwoven (dis-
posals) into compost and to determine the compost properties of various textile
waste. The study focuses on the success of growing cotton using prepared compost
as an aid and innovation in organic cotton cultivation (Aiswariya and Amsamani
2010).
In recent times, awareness of the ill effects of nondegradable synthetic mate-
rials has opened up enormous opportunities for manufacturers to think of com-
postable textiles. Nappy pads, wipes, mulching sheets for agro-textiles, interiors
for cars are the products which can return to nature after their life cycle
(Aishwariya 2018).
This is the era of nonwovens and waste disposal. So the research in the industry
can focus on materials with 100% natural origin that can be completely degraded
when they are thrown into the landfill after their life cycle. So, the natural and
regenerated fibers can be processed in this way. Biodegradable PLA plastics are
already in the market. PLA (polylactic acid) is derived from corn. The natural
antimicrobial properties are further enhanced and applied to medical textiles.
So, the fabric is compostable when it is thrown into the landfill (Radhakrishnan
2015; Schneider 2016; Mejía et al. 2017).
Various works are being done on the use of postindustrial waste about compost
and the application of bio-manure to plants. Fortification and enrichment is possible
by using effective microorganisms to make the medium more nutritious to soil, plant,
and water bodies (Aishwariya and Amsamani 2012). Natural fibers tend to degrade
easily when they are cut into smaller particles and then disposed of. The technique is
particularly appreciated in the interior design and automotive sector, where the use of
natural fibers can also reduce the weight of car and ensure better mileage. The
packaging of textiles, which focuses mainly on research and business opportunities
with eco-friendly textile materials, is now in the process of making compostable
bags. Natural fibers of the least size possible and made of nonwovens can be a very
efficient material for manufacturing carrying bags to replace waste (Palamutcu 2017;
Keune 2017; Dissanayake and Perera 2016). Harmful textile effluents are also
treated with microorganisms and further amplified in order to ensure safe disposal
(Krishnamoorthy et al. 2015; Guha et al. 2015).
Modern Concepts of Textile Waste Management
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
The task of an organization to maximize its positive impact and mitigate its negative
impact on society is “social responsibility.” In other words, it is the belief that
corporations should be actively concerned with the welfare of society as a whole.
For individuals and states, as well as organizations, the principle of social respon-
sibility is applicable. An organization’s social responsibility is referred to as “cor-
porate social responsibility.”
All over the world, the idea of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is on the rise.
CSR operations in India are regulated by clause 135 of the Companies Act, 2013. It
encourages businesses to invest at least 2% of their total net profit on CSR operations
in the preceding 3 years. In clause 135, only firms of a certain size are included. The
rules applied to the concerned companies having a net value of `500 crore or more, or
an annual turnover of `1000 crore or more, or an annual net profit of `5 crore or more.
A study on “Ethics and Social Responsibility in Indian Textile Industry” was
carried out in and around Coimbatore and Tirupur, Tamil Nadu. It revealed that
manufacturing units are not at all concern about the river water pollution, ground
water pollution, water scarcity problem, land degradation, aquatic life, human life,
and complete environment. The textile industries in Tirupur are not socially respon-
sible, according to 85% of respondents, and they do not carry out proper social
welfare activities. They are more concerned with clients, exports, and income. Most
respondents revealed that companies only operate on paper in compliance with labor
legislation, rules, and regulations, but in practice, there are issues such as child labor,
no specific working hours, no right to join an association, and bad working condi-
tions (Venugopal et al. 2015).
Extended Producers Responsibility
This modern concept has gained lot of attention. Before the processing of that
garment, the original manufacturer must consider the recycling and proper manage-
ment of textile waste. Before making them, it is their duty to think about the waste
management of the goods. Companies should have a waste management system and
have to reuse, upgrade, or recycle their waste items. It is likely that this take-back
method is based on closed loop or open loop thought. Both off-cuts, waste and goods
can be managed inside the factory’s own processes in closed loop thinking, while
recycling can be achieved by any other outside partner in open loop thinking
(Niinimaki 2015). These principles are very new to the Indian textile industry.
Take-Back Program
Many brands and retailers have shown interest in this dilemma and have begun to
take control of their goods outside retail, with incentives to establish take-back
schemes. They started bringing back worn out products in 2005 (Chavan 2014).
Big Bazaar, Lifestyle, Stop Shoppers, etc. in India are some of the big brands that
also provide their customers with this kind of schemes.
Recycling-Based Entrepreneurship
Jaagruti (paper waste recycling), Goonj (textile waste recycling), Conserve India
(plastic bags and other fabric waste), Weee recycle India, Chinta, Shuddi,
Vatavaran, Nepra, Pick me up, etc. are some of the NGOs that are working in
India on various concepts focused on recycling. Goonj is a well-known name that
specifically focuses on the recycling of textile waste. It operates in 21 Indian states
for multiple works like disaster relief, humanitarian assistance, community devel-
opment programs etc. Anshu Gupta founded this NGO. This NGO got Ramon
Magsaysay Award in 2015 and it became the first NGO to emphasize clothing as a
fundamental yet unaddressed need that deserves a position on the development
agenda. Recycling of discarded clothes and other household goods can generate
some useful products such as sanitary napkins. A vast network of 500 volunteers
and 250 partners gathers and delivers 1,000 tonnes of materials each year. It runs
projects in villages and slum areas for infrastructure and socioeconomic growth
Online Market Place
There are many social networking sites, online websites, and apps like Twitter,
Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, etc. which are providing platform for purchasing
recycled products, garments on rent or SHC (secondhand clothing). These days
organic, recycled, and upcycled products are getting popular.
Circular Textile Program
It aims to create a mechanism that ensures that textiles are recycled and upcycled
in a closed loop. We must begin to consider waste as an indicator of inefficient
design, manufacturing, and usage trends in order to close the loop, and partially
move our attention from the waste management industry to the entire supply
chain itself, in order to improve waste reduction strategies through new recycling
technologies, market demands, and changed customer behavior.
Benefits of Textile Waste Management
There are many benefits of textile waste management, but few important are listed
below.
Reduction of Environmental Pollution
Reduction of pesticides in cotton farming and toxic dyes in manufacturing reduce

water pollution and land degradation. These techniques also help to reduce toxic
chemicals in every stages from fiber to fashion. Reuse and recycling of the donated
clothing result into a safe environment compared to purchasing new garments made
from virgin materials. So, textile waste management is responsible directly or
indirectly for clean and green environment (Woolridge et al. 2006). There is an
environmental advantage when goods are recycled or upcycled, as a result of
avoiding the environmental cost associated with the manufacturing of new products
and waste disposal. Environmental credits can be issued if it can be shown that
environmental burdens can be avoided (Woolridge et al. 2006).
Textiles account for more greenhouse gas savings per pound reused or recycled
textiles than paper, plastics, and glass combined (Chavan 2014).
Some textiles are made from nonrenewable sources, such as the nylon made from
petroleum, that is not a sustainable behavior if great consumption of this resources,
although the global petroleum conservation can support the demand of resource for
at least another several hundred years at the rate of current consumption (Wang
2010).
Recycle is an environmental choice for the post-consumer textile, since it can
improve the material efficiency and reduce the consumption of the energy. But the
recycling rate of textile is very low because of the diversity of fibrous waste,
structure, and high recycling cost. For example, the cotton is usually not recycled
due to the presence of dyes and other fibers. In the USA, only 15.9% of textile waste
was recovered in 2007 (US EPA 2008), the unrecovered textile waste accounted for
about 4% of the content of landfills (Divita and Dillard 1999). That proves the textile
recycle is still not enough, which results in the high cost of the final disposal. Except
for that, the recycling process is very complicate.
Positive Impact on Economy of Country
Trade laws forbid the free movement of used textiles between certain countries as
a justification for banning trade, causing infestation and adverse effects on young
industries. However, there is no question that textile recycling has a positive
impact on many organizations. Recycling textiles is a part of the underground
economy in many parts of the world. It is also not even accounted for in national
economic statistics in certain instances (Hawley 2006). Recycling leads to raising
the economic status of the family and the country as a whole. The survival of
the Wagdi group in India is entirely dependent on SHC collection and further
trade.
Only 1.8% of energy is required for the manufacturing of these goods from virgin
materials that are used for reuse of one tonne of polyester clothing. Only 2.6% of
energy is required for manufacturing these goods from virgin materials those are
used for the reuse of one ton of cotton clothing. This energy conservation helps in
raising economy of country.
Clothes for the Poor and Disaster Relief Purpose
Donations provide clothes for those who are unable to afford from their own
expenses. SHCs received by charitable organizations from developed nations are
exported to underdeveloped nations. These clothes are available to improve their
living standards at very fair prices. Due to their inexpensive and bulk processing,
recycled shoddy blankets are commonly used for disaster relief.
Conservation of Natural Resources
According to Chavan (2014), 4.2 trillion gallons of water would be saved if 75% of
textile waste diversion were done. That is enough for supplying 27.8 million houses
and it will save 17 million tonnes of CO2. 7.5 million cubic yards of landfill space
would be saved which is equal to getting 3.5 million vehicles off the roads. The 5.8
times could fill the empire State building.
Reduction of Pressure on Virgin Materials
Demand for virgin resources is reduced by recovered textiles. In the recycling

processes, washing materials and energy use also occur, but they are far less resource
intensive and polluting than the processes involved in manufacturing of textiles from
virgin fiber (Vishnoi 2013).
Enhancement of Creative Ability
A modern idea and potential movement of sustainability and environmentalism has

brought the fashion industry new approaches and new sense for finding fashion in
sustainable items. There are designers, companies, policy makers, academics, and
numerous organizations who make creative thinking about maintaining their own
specific ways in order to create new goods and policies that go hand in hand with
environmentalism (Jain and Gupta 2018).
Contribution Towards Business Generation
Recycling and upcycling offers numerous opportunities at the craft, manufacturing,

and household level to create different companies. Companies can get greater profits
by eliminating charges associated with lowering buying material prices, increasing
efficiency, minimizing the cost of care, recycling of solid waste, and creating an
alternate revenue source. According to the Secondary Materials and Recycled
Textiles Association (SMART) and the Council for Textile Recycling Stream,
thousands of companies and organizations employ thousands of workers and they
are diverting some two million tonnes of textile waste from solid waste (Wang et al.
2003).
Employment Regeneration
Recycling and upcycling is an integrated process that starts with the collection of
recyclable materials from sites such as homes, drop-off points, centers, and busi-
nesses for construction and demolition. These recyclable materials go through a
rigorous sorting process after collection to separate different materials as well as
different quality goods.
In order to perform work, recycling companies require skilled and semiskilled
workers. By offering recycling training programs, several recycling organizations
and associations play a major role in creating social awareness. The US scrap
industry created over 150,000 direct jobs and 323,000 indirect jobs in 2015.
Global Impact
For a single individual or country, waste management is not advantageous. The

world is worried about waste and its side effects on the climate. Efforts are being
made jointly to address the problem. This allows the nations to bind. The textile
recycling industry is both a small and a big one. Rag dealers are small, indepen-
dently operated family-owned companies. They are closely connected to a global
network that transfers used clothing around the world through brokers and long-
term partnerships that have taken generations to set up (Hawley 2006). In other
words, emerging or underdeveloped nations often absorb the SHC of developed
countries. It is a two-way advantage in various respects for both the sender and the
client.
Social Progress
All sustainability efforts lead for better organizations, corporations, and nations
aligned with environmentalism. A critical social and environmental role is
performed by the multi-billion dollar worldwide recycling industry. In terms of
conserving the world’s resources that drive social change, the industry has no peer
(Vishnoi 2013).
Constraints for Indian Textile Recycling Industry
Lack of Awareness Among Citizens
People in India are not very conscious of concepts like recycling and its advantages.
The proportion of the population conscious of this is almost zero. Owing to the
impact of Western culture, buying and discarding clothing behavior in urban com-
munities has changed dramatically. They believe in buying at random. It is not
necessary to take care, preserve, and correctly discard clothing information. There is
a recycling logo on big branded clothing polybags, but there is no proper under-
standing of the meaning (Jain and Gupta 2016).
The quantity of discarded cloths has increased a lot in urban areas, but because of
customer negligence, lack of knowledge, and not so simple accessibility, Burtan
Wali (Wagdi community people who collect SHC) do not collect proportionate
quantities of clothes. As a consequence, these individuals have very little income
and are forced to shift their business.
Demand for recycled shoddy items that are woolen blankets has declined sharply
in recent years. Some of the key reasons for this low demand are change in weather,
economic downturn, limited inferior quality products of shoddy yarn, and the most
importantly alternative development of polyester blankets that are comparatively
cheaper, lighter, and warmer.
Custom made clothing is still popular in India than readymade clothing. There are
endless numbers of roadside tailors, boutiques, and small garment construction units
that are not licensed and accredited to meet the demands of the masses. They do not
follow any rules and regulations for garment design. In contrast to the pre-consumer
waste created by this unorganized garment construction industry, scraps of
pre-consumer textile waste provided by the organized sector and SHC are channeled.
Varied fabric trims in colors, fabric structure, and forms are dumped into the landfills
(Vishnoi 2013).
Lack of Proper Channel
In India, there are not such proper and organized channels for the disposal of waste
as developed nations do. It seems that government funding and policies are marginal.
The ideas of garment bins and donation centers in India are far behind. There are a
few NGOs such as Goonj, Chintan, etc. functioning in the direction of textile waste
recycling, but some locations are very confined to the work area. The old and
productive recycling channel of textile wastes, i.e., the Wagdi people, the Katiawad
community, etc. are losing its income, businesses, and identity due to lack of
knowledge, negligence, and support (Jain and Gupta 2016).
Neighbor Country Competitions
For example, Bangladesh and Pakistan have become formidable rivals for the Indian
garment industry. As a result, the production of clothing in the organized export
clothing sector is comparatively poor. The production of pre-consumer fabric scraps,
which has a negative impact on companies and individuals associated with fabric
scraps, is directly impacted by low garment production (Jain and Gupta 2016).
Lack of New Technologies
In the field of disposal, India is estimated to rise by about 3–5%, which will increase
proportionate disposal in landfills (Vishnoi 2013). Day by day, textile production and
both pre- and post-consumer textile waste are growing. For the recycling of mass
waste, recycled goods from small scale recycling industries are not enough. We
cannot restrict production for a better economy and livelihood, but with modern
technology and varied product ranges, we can find endless efficient textile recycling
practices.
Lack of Government Support
There are several government waste management and recycling policies, but they are
poorly implemented, so active government support and involvement is required to
facilitate recycling-based research work, NGOs and, most significantly, the
upliftment of communities and individuals who have long been working with
recycling-based activities (Jain and Gupta 2016).
Things to Consider for Improving Waste Management Practices
Implementing waste management improvements may require forward planning and

some changes to the way your business operates. For example:
• Proposed actions such as on-site wastewater recycling and other waste manage-
ment systems are need to be discussed with managers, safety representatives at
work, unions, insurers, investors, suppliers, and customers to identify potential
risks to quality, productivity, working conditions or safety to ensure that they are
acceptable.
• Employee training and awareness-raising is required for successful implementa-
tion of action plans and support for introduction of new equipment or processes,
such as better separation of waste into fiber types, colors, and processes that
maximize recycling opportunities and “waste” value.
• Results are more likely to be achieved and maintained with a proper written plan
and clear objectives for all management areas. Prioritize the actions and consider
starting with the “low-hanging fruit” for quick gains and enthusiasm.
• Monitoring the waste generation and disposal by checking the invoices of
collectors or benchmarking production against the purchase of raw materials is
important for environmental compliance, stock control, and for measuring
improvements.
• Costs, savings, and recovery periods for the waste reduction options provided by
the overleaf are a rough guide only. They include estimates of upfront costs such
as capital, labor, and installation cost.
The suitability and benefits of each option depend on the nature and size of
businesses and scope of application. They should comply with local environmental,
safety, and other requirements. The waste hierarchy provides a framework for waste
management: avoid, reduce, reuse, recycle, and dispose. Waste prevention generally
delivers the best financial and environmental results.
Conclusion
Due to the abovementioned constraints, the prevention measure of textile waste has
some limitations. After considering the situation of textile industry, textile waste
and textile consumption rate, the prevention schemes should be formulated
according to the demand of designers, consumers, retailers, and charitable organi-
zations. The designer provides eco-design plan, while the consumer purchase
environmental-friendly product and send the discarded textile to the retailers and
charitable organizations or reuse it. Finally, the charitable organization is in charge
of the recycling and reuse of discarded textiles. In order to implement the
suggested prevention schemes very well, the following points should be
considered:
• Clothing made from the recycled materials are less competitive than one from
virgin materials due to low price of virgin materials. It is necessary to levy
environmental tax to the virgin material in order to improve the market
competitiveness of the secondhand clothes or apparel made from recycled
materials.
• Small countries having limited textile waste create big obstacle for the develop-
ment of textile waste disposal industry. This situation decides that the charitable
organization and secondhand company should cooperate with other countries
disposal company in order to reuse the textile waste effectively.
• Most of the stakeholders involved into the textile waste prevention do not get
visual benefits from the textile waste prevention. The policy makers should
establish some measures to stimulate the stakeholders for maximizing textile
waste recycling. Financial subsidy can be provided to the stakeholders.
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Turning Plastic Wastes into Textile Products
47
Hande Sezgin and Ipek Yalcin-Enis
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1258
Plastics: From Production to Waste Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1258
The Recycling Methods of Plastic Wastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1261
Textile Industry and Sustainability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1263
Recycling of Plastics in Textile Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1263
Closed-Loop and Open-Loop Approaches in Recycling Plastic Wastes in the Textile
Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1265
Recycled Pet Fiber in Textile Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1267
Fast-Fashion Trend in Textile Sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1270
The Role of Life Cycle Assessment in Circular Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1270
Example of a Life Cycle Assessment of rPET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1272
Consumer Attitudes Toward Recycled Textiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1274
Precursor Brands and Retailers of Textile Industry Supporting the Use of Recycled
Plastics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1276
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1279
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1280
Abstract
Plastic is a component of many consumer products and constitutes most of the
output and final products of the manufacturing industry. Plastic materials, which
are used in almost every sector, constitute a large part of the solid waste volume in
proportion to their usage rates. About 300 million tons of plastic waste is
produced every year but sadly most of them are not recycled. Looking at the
textile industry, it is clear that synthetic fibers have replaced natural fibers in
recent years owing to their low cost, and this has made plastic materials one of the
most important sources of the textile sector. However, the increasing decrease in
H. Sezgin (*) · I. Yalcin-Enis

Textile Technologies and Design Faculty, Textile Engineering Department, Istanbul Technical
University, Istanbul, Turkey
e-mail: sezginh@itu.edu.tr; ipekyalcin@itu.edu.tr

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_105
1258 H. Sezgin and I. Yalcin-Enis
raw material resources has turned the interest in recycled materials as raw
materials in the textile industry, as in all other sectors. Today, it is known that
many textile companies use recycled plastics as synthetic fiber raw materials in
order to reduce their costs and support nature and sustainable economy. In this
chapter, recycling plastic wastes into textile products is examined based on
applications in textile sector and the positive effects of these applications to the
circular economy and the environment.
Keywords
Plastic wastes · Recycling · Textile material · Upcycling · Waste generation
Introduction
Plastics are regarded as one of the most crucial threats to the environment. Due to the
fact that all plastics are made of organic compounds, one of the disadvantages is that
the extinction processes in nature are quite long (Muslim and Basuki 2016). This
situation necessitates the management of many processes regarding the collection
and reuse of plastic waste. Recycling of plastic waste has two main advantages.
These are conserving natural resources by reducing the petroleum-based raw mate-
rial consumption and thus making the environment more liveable (Jafari 2019).
The textile and clothing industry, which meets the need for covering (which is one
of the basic needs of people), is one of the most global industries in the world, as well
as one of the most environmentally damaging sectors (Desore and Narula 2018). The
need for textile materials increases day by day, making natural fiber resources
insufficient and increasing the usage of synthetic fibers in the textile sector
(Mukherjee 2017).
Waste plastics, which are an important source of raw materials for the textile
industry where natural resources are gradually decreasing, are discussed in this
chapter in terms of recycling methods, their use in the textile industry, and the
advantages this situation brings to the environment and sustainability.
Plastics: From Production to Waste Generation
Plastics are versatile materials that meet the demand in every industry, from the
clothing and automotive industries to medical and electronic supplies (Rahimi and
Garcia 2017). They are synthetic polymers and categorized into two main groups as
thermoplastic and thermoset plastics. Thermoset plastics solidify after being melted
by heating, and the transition from liquid form to solid form is one way. The structure
of the thermoset plastics is highly cross-linked. Thermoplastics, which are mostly
produced by injection and compression molding methods, are plastics that can be
softened by heat and hardened by cooling. The carbon atoms they contain in their
structures turn thermoplastics into non-biodegradable materials, and this situation
47 Turning Plastic Wastes into Textile Products 1259
causes thermoplastic materials to turn into plastic waste at the end of the use (Telli
and Ozdil 2015; Tshifularo and Patnaik 2020).
Plastics, invented in the 1860s, entered the industry in the 1920s (Gourmelon
2015). Plastic was discovered in England by Alexander Parkes as a mixture of
nitrocellulose, camphor, and alcohol under the name of “Parkesin” in 1862. At
that time, rubber was used for materials to be shaped with molds instead of plastic
(Brydson 1999; Singh et al. 2017a). In 1922, Hermann Staudinger invented
macromolecules, which he called polymers, through the polymerization process,
contributing to the rapid development of the chemical industry and therefore the
plastic industry. In the 1940s, the plastics industry exploded and became one of
the fastest-growing global industries. Glass and metal materials are beginning to
be replaced by plastics for food packaging, which led to an increase in production
worldwide, especially after the 1970s (Gourmelon 2015; Kayan and Kucuk
2020). While the first sandwich plastic packages started to be used in 1957,
disposable plastic products such as plates, forks, spoons, and glasses were put
on the market in the 1960s, and after a short while, plastic bottles were used for
the first time in soda drinks and patented in 1973 (Kayan and Kucuk 2020). When
the consumption values between 1990 and 2004 are analyzed, it is seen that the
annual amount of metal consumption was doubled every 9 years, while plastic
consumption was doubled every 4 years. Statistics reveal the rapid increase in the
consumption of plastics clearly. Excluding rubber and fibers, the world plastic
production reached 25 million tons in 1976 and 90 million tons in 1990 with the
developing technology (Muslim and Basuki 2016). Plastic materials are widely
preferred due to their unique functional properties as well as their low cost
(Magnier et al. 2019).
The largest market for plastics is the packaging sector, which promotes the
transition from reuse to disposable containers. This led to a share of municipal
solid wastes in plastics, which accounted for less than 1% by mass in the 1960s to
10% in 2005 in middle- and high-income countries (Geyer et al. 2017). Nowadays,
plastic wastes constitute 12.3% of municipal solid wastes by weight (Tshifularo and
Patnaik 2020). In addition to packaging, almost all aspects of daily life like transport,
telecommunications, clothing, footwear, etc., plastics are preferred. Moreover, tech-
nically modified plastics can find a place in high-tech applications including medical
purposes, generation of renewable energy, or saving the energy in transport systems
(Thompson et al. 2009).
The usage life of plastic packaging materials is 1–3 months, and they take their
place in solid waste fields shortly after their production. On the other hand, the
lifetimes of plastics in durable consumer goods vary between 1 and 5 years, and the
lifetimes of plastics used in the construction industry range between 5 and 25 years.
Therefore, the place that this waste group will occupy in the solid waste fields is
lower than that of plastic packaging wastes. For this reason, the solid waste problem
caused by plastic packaging materials is more important. Polyethylene materials
(low-density polyethylene, high-density polyethylene, and linear low-density poly-
ethylene), which constitute 50% of these packaging wastes, constitute 11% by
weight of the solid wastes (Ozturk 2005).
The Society of the Plastics Industry gave descriptive codes (1–7) to thermoplas-
tics in 1987 in order to facilitate the classification of thermoplastic materials and thus
increase their reusability. They gave these codes according to their chemical struc-
tures and application areas. While code “1” is given to the polyethylene terephthal-
ate, which is mostly used in water bottles and plastic bags, code “2” is given to the
high-density polyethylene which is mostly used in oil bottles, plastic detergent
bottles, and plastic toys. When we look at codes “3” and “4,” we see that they are
used for polyvinyl chloride (general usage area, plastic curtains and shampoo
bottles) and low-density polyethylene (general usage area, garment bags), respec-
tively. Polypropylene with code number “5” is used in microwave food trays and
yoghurt/cheese containers, while polystyrene with code “6” is used in egg cartons
and cutlery. Other plastics that are not included in these six groups are coded with the
number of “7.” The triangle arrow logo with a number written in the middle is
usually located at the bottom of the product (Telli ve Özdil, Telli and Ozdil 2015;
Rahimi and Garcia 2017).
Recycling is a process in which a material that is no longer used is prepared for
use by reprocessing. The most important purposes of producing materials with this
method are to reduce the water and energy consumption that are used during material
production while also minimizing waste and environmental impacts. It is a very
advantageous process compared to incineration and landfilling methods (Tshifularo
and Patnaik 2020). According to the statistics of 2018, roughly 8.3 billion metric
tons of plastic have been produced, and 6.3 billion tons of that production has
become a waste in landfills which means only 9% of it is recycled. If this current
situation continues, there will be 12 billion tons of plastics in landfills by 2050. On
the other hand, the plastic waste amount in the oceans was roughly 150 million tons
in 2017, while by 2050, there will be more plastics by weight than fish in the oceans
(Carr et al. 2019). Nowadays, it is almost impossible not to encounter plastic things
while walking on the beach or swimming in the sea. These macro-sized pieces of
plastic damage ecologically and commercially important species, including mussels,
marsh grasses, and corals. On the other hand, mammals, reptiles, and birds can be
harmed by eating or entangling these plastic materials (Rochman et al. 2013).
Moreover, the effect of microplastics is similar or more dominant compared to the
effect of macroplastics (Crippa et al. 2019). Micro-sized plastics have the potential to
leach into food, and fish, invertebrates, and microorganisms ingest microscale
plastics from synthetic (polyester or acrylic) clothing and plastic-containing cleaning
products. Studies in humans and mussels have shown that ingested and inhaled
microplastics enter cells and tissues and damage them (Rochman et al. 2013). The
waste microplastics are identified in 114 aquatic species by the researchers. In a
recent study, it is stated that around 25 microplastics present in over 90% of plastic
bottled water tested across eleven major brands across nine different countries which
declares microplastics are everywhere in our daily lives (Carr et al. 2019).
Recycling of plastics has many advantages such as decrement in production
emissions (like cobalt, manganese salts, sodium bromide, antimony oxide, and
titanium dioxide), toxic emissions from incinerators, and petrochemical pollution
(Leonas 2017; Tshifularo and Patnaik 2020). Thanks to the recycling of high
amounts of plastics, fossil fuel-based products are expected to be prevented; nitrogen

oxide, carbon dioxide, and sulfur dioxide emissions and greenhouse gases such as
carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, and chlorofluorocarbons will be reduced. In
addition, the amount of energy, water, and chemicals used in plastic production
process will decrease as a result of plastic recycling (Tshifularo and Patnaik 2020).
For instance, from ten polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, 450 g of polyester
fiber can be produced. 2/3 less energy and about 90% less water is required to
produce recycled polyester fabrics compared to the virgin one. By using 2 kg of
recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) fiber, a gallon of gasoline and enough
water for one person for 5 days (drinking) can be saved (Mukherjee 2017).
In addition to many advantages, plastic waste recycling has also some disadvan-
tages. While some recycling processes powered by fossil energy have an impact on
climate change, costly life cycles such as the transportation of waste from one region
to another are some of the negative effects of recycling of plastic waste on the
environment. Moreover, the new product produced has lower melt viscosity,
mechanical properties, and thermal resistance compared to the first product
(Tshifularo and Patnaik 2020). Although plastics provide benefits according to
their functionality, the risks and drawbacks that arise are negligible. For this reason,
the economy of plastics should evolve from a waste-producing system to a system
that preserves the value and benefits of plastics but eliminates existing drawbacks
(Crippa et al. 2019).
The Recycling Methods of Plastic Wastes
Plastic waste recycling is divided into four main categories. These are primary
(closed-loop) recycling, secondary (mechanical) recycling, tertiary (chemical)
recycling, and quaternary (incineration) recycling methods (Kumartasli and Avinc
2020; Singh et al. 2017b; Rahimi and Garcia 2017).
Primary (closed-loop) recycling: The primary recycling method is also called
closed-loop process or re-extrusion process (Al-Salem et al. 2009). With this
method, single-type, non-contaminated plastic wastes whose properties are very
similar to pure material are recycled (Singh et al. 2017b). In this method, waste
plastics are ground into small pieces, mixed with the original plastic material, and
finally processed again (Kumartasli and Avinc 2020). This technique is highly
preferred because of its convenience and the quality of the product that is very
similar to the original product (Singh et al. 2017b). Plastic bottles produced with
a mixture of recycled PET and virgin PET are a good example of primary
recycling (Rahimi and Garcia 2017). However, since many plastic materials in
the packaging industry are used together with materials such as paper and
adhesive, this situation restricts the use of the primary recycling method (Hope-
well et al. 2009).
Secondary (mechanical) recycling: The most preferred method of recycling
plastics is the secondary recycling method, also known as mechanical recycling
(Ragaert et al. 2017). The method is commercialized in the 1970s (Park and Kim
2014; Tshifularo and Patnaik 2020). The main steps of mechanical recycling are
collecting, sorting, washing, grinding, and reprocessing. Depending on the content
and nature of the recycled plastic material, some of these steps may be repeated
several times, some steps may not be performed, or the sequence of process steps
may change (Ragaert et al. 2017). This method includes different reprocessing
methods such as screw extrusion, injection molding, and blow molding techniques
(Singh et al. 2017b). In the secondary recycling method, although there is a mechan-
ical recycling similar to the primary method, unlike the primary recycling, the
quality of the materials produced in this method is lower than the original material,
so the areas of use also differ (Rahimi and Garcia 2017). The chemical structure, the
thermal properties, and the mechanical properties of the material to be recycled have
a very important effect on the mechanical recycling of that material. Considering
these features, it is known that the thermoplastic materials that can be recycled by the
secondary recycling method are polyethylene terephthalate and polyethylene (Garcia
and Robertson 2017).
The advantages of mechanical recycling are that the process is simple, eco-
friendly, and its requirement of low investment. On the other hand, the decrease in
viscosity/molecular weight during the process is one of the main disadvantages of
the process. Also, the dyeability and printability properties of the resulting product
may be impaired due to the cyclic and linear oligomers formed during mechanical
recycling. At this stage, researchers and manufacturers have developed awareness in
the past two decades to prevent this drop in viscosity (Park and Kim 2014; Muslim
and Basuki 2016; Tshifularo and Patnaik 2020). Plastics recycled in this way are
generally used in production of windows, pipes, and grocery bags (Tshifularo and
Patnaik 2020).
Tertiary (chemical) recycling: Tertiary recycling is also known as chemical
recycling (Kumartasli and Avinc 2020). The chemical recycling method is a method
that is compatible with the principles of sustainable development (Park and Kim
2014; Ragaert et al. 2017; Tshifularo and Patnaik 2020). In this recycling method,
the polymer is depolymerized into its oligomers and monomers and then polymer-
ized again in the chemical method (Telli and Ozdil 2015). This method is intended to
achieve higher monomer percentages with shorter reaction times (Tshifularo and
Patnaik 2020) and suitable for heterogeneous and contaminated plastic waste mate-
rials (Ragaert et al. 2017).
The depolymerization process of PET differs according to the chemicals (water,
methanol, ethylene glycol, etc.) that are used. Some of these processes are hydroly-
sis, glycolysis, methanolysis, ammonolysis, and aminolysis (Muslim and Basuki
2016; Ragaert et al. 2017; Telli and Ozdil 2015). Among these methods, glycolysis
and methanolysis are the most preferred ones (Kumartasli and Avinc 2020). In
glycolysis, which is the oldest method used in the depolymerization of PET, PET
is separated into its oligomers by being depolymerized by glycolysis decomposition
(Ragaert et al. 2017; Singh et al. 2017b; Kumartasli and Avinc 2020). The
methanolysis process of PET is based on its decomposition into its monomers by
processing with methanol at high temperatures (180–280 C) and pressures (20–
40 atm) (Ragaert et al. 2017; Kumartasli and Avinc 2020). Chemical recycling of
PET leads to more environmental impact compared to the mechanical recycling of

PET (Majumdar et al. 2020).
Chemical recycling provides advantages over other methods thanks to the pres-
ence of depolymerizing agents, resin synthesis, and monomers (Tshifularo and
Patnaik 2020). However, it is a fact that plastics produced by chemical recycling
method are more expensive due to the reasons such as raw material and operational
costs (Ragaert et al. 2017; Garcia and Robertson 2017).
Quaternary (incineration) recycling: Since plastics recycled by the primary,
secondary, and tertiary methods begin to lose their properties completely after
reaching a certain number of recycling cycles, incineration is the preferred recycling
method for these plastics. Incineration recycling process is also known as quaternary
recycling method (Singh et al. 2017b). The purpose of burning waste plastics used in
this method is to recover their energy in the form of heat (Scott 2000; Park and Kim
2014; Garcia and Robertson 2017; Rahimi and Garcia 2017; Kumartasli and Avinc
2020). Due to the fact that plastic materials are petroleum-based, they release
high-calorie energy when burned, but volatile organic components, smoke, particu-
late-bound heavy metals, and air pollutants such as CO2, NOx, and SOx, which are
released during the combustion process, limit the use of this method in the environ-
mental terms (Park and Kim 2014; Singh et al. 2017b; Rahimi and Garcia 2017). It is
also known that the energy obtained by burning the waste plastic materials is less
than the energy obtained by recycling them (Garcia and Robertson 2017; Rahimi and
Garcia 2017). The use of this method, which is more suitable for the conversion of
mixed plastics as there is no need for separation, is increasing owing to the ascending
effectiveness of new incinerators (Singh et al. 2017b; Garcia and Robertson 2017).
Textile Industry and Sustainability
Considering the energy, chemicals, and water used in the textile industry, it is of
great importance to develop environmentally and socially responsible designs in
order to ensure and support environmental sustainability (Desore and Narula 2018).
The circular economy makes it possible to incorporate plastic waste into the
production cycle. The circular economy aims at reducing the materials in the
production, distribution, and consumption processes, as well as ensuring the reuse
and recycling of the products. Many companies are encouraged to use more recycled
plastic materials in their products under the circular economy. In this context, these
companies are working on recycling plastic waste collected from the oceans into
new products (Magnier et al. 2019).
Recycling of Plastics in Textile Industry
Polyester, polyamide, acrylic, and polypropylene constitute 98% of the synthetic

fiber market. During the productions of synthetic fibers, a high amount of energy is
needed. For instance, energy used per production of 1 kg of polyamide fiber is
around 250 mJ. When we compare the virgin and the recycled PET fibers, the energy
used per production of 1 kg of fibers is 125 mJ and 66 mJ, respectively, which means
that by using recycled polyester instead of virgin PET, the energy usage is reduced
by half (Mukherjee 2017). In a similar way, in a study of Rasel and Sarkar, it is stated
that embodied energy values (mJ/kg) for virgin high-density polyethylene, polypro-
pylene, polystyrene, and polyvinylchloride are also reduced to almost half values for
recycled materials which also results in almost the half price ($/kg) of these recycled
materials in comparison to the virgin ones (Rasel and Sarkar 2019). Moreover, CO2
emissions per ton of the virgin PET are 9.52 kg, while it is only 5.19 kg for recycled
PET. In addition to the values of PET, these CO2 emission values of organic cotton
and the conventional cotton fiber are 3.75 kg and 5.90 kg, respectively. Therefore,
although it cannot compete with organic cotton, it is possible to say that the amount
of CO2 emitted to nature together with the use of recycled polyester is less than the
amount released by the conventional cotton (Mukherjee 2017).
Textile materials go through many different production processes from fiber to
finished garments. In every production stage, many natural resources such as water,
oil, and soil are consumed, various toxic chemicals are used, and as a result, large
amounts of carbon dioxide and tons of waste are generated. In order to ensure
sustainable garment production, all these stages of production must support sustain-
ability. By using waste materials as raw materials instead of using new raw materials
in the textile industry, raw material costs are reduced, profitability is increased, and
the effects on the environment are minimized (Pamuk and Illeez 2018; Desore and
Narula 2018). Environmental pollution, the availability of raw materials, and syn-
thetic fibers with low cost are the main factors that affect recycling in the textile
sector (Tshifularo and Patnaik 2020). Unfortunately, consumers have a lot of mis-
information about the raw materials used in textile materials. For example, cotton is
considered to be an environmentally responsible fiber since it is a natural, cellulosic
fiber. However, during the cultivation of the cotton plant, water resources are
consumed; heavy pesticides and various chemicals are used. In Table 1, some fibers
used in the textile industry are classified according to their environmental effects. In
this table, Class A contains the least environmentally hazardous fibers, while Class E
contains the most environmentally hazardous fibers (Pamuk and Illeez 2018). As can
be seen from the table, recycled natural (cotton) and synthetic fibers (nylon and
Table 1 Classification of environmental effects of some textile fibers (Pamuk and Illeez 2018)
Class A Class B Class C Class D Class E
Recycled cotton Tencel Conventional Virgin Conventional
hemp polyester cotton
Recycled nylon Organic cotton Ramie Polyacrylic Virgin nylon
Recycled In conversion Polylactid acid Modal Rayon
polyester cotton
Organic hemp Conventional Bamboo viscose
flax
Organic flax Wool
Generic viscose
polyester) cause the least harm to the nature, while fibers such as cotton and wool are
among the fibers that harm nature the most. When we compare the effects of the
virgin and recycled forms of synthetic fibers to the nature, it is observed that recycled
polyester and recycled nylon are in Class A, while virgin polyester and virgin nylon
are in D and E classes, respectively. This situation reveals how much the use of
recycled fibers in textile sector reduces the damage to nature.
Closed-Loop and Open-Loop Approaches in Recycling Plastic Wastes

in the Textile Industry
From the environmental perspective, closed-loop and open-loop approaches are used
for waste management. The closed-loop recycling approach is based on the basis that
the natural properties of the recycled material and the properties of the original
material are close to each other, so that the recycled material can take the place of
the original one. Thus, it is possible to use this recycled material as a raw material in
the same product group. In the open-loop recycling approach, the properties of the
recycled material do not give similar results with the properties of the original
material. For this reason, recycled material is evaluated in different application
areas in this cycle (Huysman et al. 2015).
As an example for closed-loop approach, PET shavings obtained from waste PET
bottle should be used in PET bottle production. Environmentally speaking, it is
essential to use the waste product in the same product group. Waste PET bottle is
environmentally more valuable if it is used in PET bottle production again, because,
in this way, the material gains a primary raw material quality and captures a longer
life cycle. However, studies show that waste PET bottles will not be used as PET
bottles again. Therefore, instead of producing PET bottles with a closed loop, it will
be more appropriate to use waste PET bottles in different areas with open-loop
approach. The textile sector comes first among these different fields (Telli et al.
2012). Moreover, in terms of textile industry, an open-loop recycling approach
consists (i). pre-consumer textile waste such as offcuts from the cutting process;
(ii). post-consumer textile waste in the form of whole garments; and (iii). post-
consumer PET bottles that may be manufactured into recycled PET fibers (Payne
2016). Since the closed-loop recycling approach is thought to be more beneficial in
comparison to the open-loop recycling approach, the one should not be preferred to
other as stated in a study of Geyer et al. (2015). In addition to chemical and legal
restrictions, losses in mechanical and physical properties during recycling limit the
closed-loop recycling potential. Many studies in the literature have reported that the
mechanical properties of plastic recycled from household waste are reduced com-
pared to the properties of untreated plastic (Eriksen et al. 2019). Within the scope of
the study realized by Eriksen et al. (2019), domestic PET, polyethylene, and poly-
propylene wastes were analyzed in terms of thermal degradation, processability, and
mechanical properties in order to examine the suitability of closed-loop recycling in
terms of material quality. Although the results showed that PET plastic is the most
suitable plastic for closed-loop recycling, it was also emphasized that moisture
control should be done well throughout the process. On the other hand, it was found
that the tensile strength values of the reprocessed polyethylene samples were higher
than that of virgin one and that non-food bottles were suitable for use in closed-loop
recycling. It was observed that the mechanical properties of reprocessed polypro-
pylene decreased compared to the mechanical properties of virgin one, and it was
observed that many polypropylene wastes cannot be used in closed-loop recycling
due to the difference in properties and processability between different polypropyl-
ene packaging materials.
Figure 1 shows the recycling and reuse routes for textile and plastic wastes. The
processes that textile material passes from raw material until it reaches the user are
summarized in Fig. 1. The use of polymers obtained by recycling the used textile
products with the closed-loop approach and the use of the polymers obtained by
recycling waste plastic bottles by using the open-loop approach (down cycling)
instead of using virgin raw materials as raw materials in fiber production are shown
in the diagram. In addition, used textile materials can be recycled into fiber form or
fabric form with the closed-loop approach and can be included in the production at
the yarn spinning or garment production stages of the process steps. As a different
example of the open-loop approach (down cycling), the transformation of used
Fig. 1 Recycling and reuse routes for textile and plastic wastes. (Reused under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License from Journal of Cleaner Productions, Elsevier Publications
(Sandin and Peters 2018))
textile materials into products such as rugs, blankets, or insulation materials is shown
in the diagram.
Although not used by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
life cycle assessment (LCA) (ISO 14044), down cycling is a term that describes the
change in inherent properties and mostly a quality loss for the open-loop system
(Geyer et al. 2015) resulting in less economic value (Payne 2016) in the recycled
material.
Developments in the recycling technologies of the plastics led to the emergence
of a new source of raw materials for the textile industry due to price and ecological
advantages. This raw material source is mostly PET polymers obtained from PET
bottles, which are the most suitable material for recycling as a result of the studies of
the American Plastic Council. Because, when life cycle analysis is examined, PET
bottles, which constitute 30% of the highest consumption of PET-based materials
among plastics, can be recycled more easily, it loses its property less and can find
more use after conversion (Telli et al. 2012). Moreover, a plastic bottle does not
disappear in nature for 3000 years, and when a ton of plastic is recovered, 14,000
kWh energy is saved (Tayyar and Ustun 2010). Recycling of waste PET bottles was
carried out for the first time in 1977 (Tshifularo and Patnaik 2020; Kumartasli and
Avinc 2020).
Recycled Pet Fiber in Textile Industry
As mentioned above, the Society of Plastics Industry gave descriptive codes to

thermoplastics, and among thermoplastic materials, they gave the code “1” to the
PET-based products, which they think the priority of recycling should be given to it
(Telli and Ozdil 2015).
Recycled fibers do less harm to the environment than other fibers. They use less
energy, consume less resources, and consume less chemicals if they are not dyed. All
textile materials can be recycled and used in low-quality end products, especially as
reinforcement products. However, the lack of innovation in the recycling sector
limits the use of these materials. For many years, transactions have been made using
the same technologies. Recycled fibers are obtained by breaking the fabrics with the
help of cards and openers/garnets. However, this process causes shortening of fiber
lengths and worsening of their properties. For this reason, only low-quality yarns are
obtained from recycled fibers. Innovations on this subject are needed for longer fiber
production, and this kind of innovation has brought to the textile sector by the plastic
recycling sector (Telli et al. 2012).
Polyethylene terephthalate is one of the packaging plastics that is gaining more
and more importance among manufacturers as it is an excellent barrier material with
low cost and high strength, thermal stability, and transparency (Muslim and Basuki
2016). In every second, nearly 20,000 plastic bottles are manufactured globally,
while in 1 min one million bottles are bought and from 2017 to 2021, 20% increment
is expected in these numbers (Carr et al. 2019). However, over 75% of plastic water
bottles are not recycled, and more than 121 million tons of waste are generated each
year. The amount of post-consumer polyethylene terephthalate drink bottles around

the world is approaching 5 million tons per year, and these are banned and cannot be
reused due to the hygienic requirements as well as a decrease in viscosity due to the
degradation in the PET molecules thus a decrease in mechanical strength (Muslim
and Basuki 2016).
Polyester fiber is the most widely used material for textile applications with its
advantages such as flexibility, lightness, reduced wind and friction resistance, low
stretching and shrinkage, wrinkle-free, fast drying, and abrasion resistance proper-
ties (Rane et al. 2019). With 49% of global fiber production, polyester is the most
preferred fiber in the garment industry, and its production is more than 63,000
million tons, annually. On the other hand, such a big sector brings along serious
risks. The production of polyester fabric contains a significant amount of chemicals
and by-products that both harm the environment and cause health problems on living
things (https://textileexchange.org, 2018, Accessed 27 Oct 2020).
60% of the produced PET is transformed into a fiber (Tshifularo and Patnaik
2020; Majumdar et al. 2020). PET packaging, which is used for the purpose of
placing liquid foods on the market, can be converted into PET chips (burrs, flake) in
recycling plants (Telli et al. 2012). With the huge demand in polyester goods, the
textile industry becomes one of the most promising industries for the utilization of
these recycled PET chips (Tayyar and Ustun 2010). Food and beverage containers
and bottles follow it in second place. The rest of the application areas is listed as
sheets and films, non-food containers and bottles, strapping, and the others (Sarioglu
and Kaynak 2018). Since polyester fiber is the most important alternative to cotton, it
is a very demanding material in the years when the annual amount of cotton is very
low (Tayyar and Ustun 2010). The friction spinning method and the rotor spinning
method can be widely used to produce recovered yarn from PET recycled fibers.
When the yarns produced from recycled fibers and virgin fibers are compared, it is
thought that the recycled yarns will be economically advantageous in the long run,
although the strength and elongation values are quite lower (Vadicherla and
Saravanan 2014). Moreover, due to the high crystallinity value of the recycled
PET compared to the virgin one, recycled PET yarns have higher tenacity than the
virgin yarns (Telli and Ozdil 2015; Muslim and Basuki 2016). On the other hand, it is
also possible to obtain recycled yarn by twisting the recovered fibers by ring
spinning method (Vadicherla and Saravanan 2014).
Fibers can be obtained from PET chips by chemical or mechanical methods (Telli
et al. 2012; Leonas 2017). Polyester, polyamide, and polyolefin are some of the
synthetic fibers that can be chemically recycled (Leonas 2017). Chemical recycling
comprises the breaking of the polymer into its molecules and then reforming them
into a yarn (Mukherjee 2017). PET chips can be separated up to molecular level by
chemical treatment steps and then re-polymerized. Although the chemical treatment
stage is costlier than mechanical processes, this process is important since the
increase in fiber quality during the recycling process is a very important parameter
and a usable fiber quality can be obtained with chemical treatment (Telli et al. 2012).
Chemically recycled PET can be used in filament production as well as unsaturated
polyester resin, which is frequently preferred in fiber-reinforced polymer
composites. Oligo-esters from PET glycolysis are used as starting materials for the
production of PET chips (Kumartasli and Avinc 2020). Since PET fiber is generally
used as a mixture in the textile industry, it is difficult to recycle PET polymers from
them. Therefore, PET bottle waste is preferred in obtaining PET polymers (Anabal
2007). Fiber production from recycled PET flakes is also carried out by the method
of melt spinning in mechanical recycling. Generally, PET flakes are extruded into
fiber form, but sometimes fiber flakes are formed into granule or pellet forms and
then extruded (Park and Kim 2014).
Producing a fabric from polyester recycled from waste plastic bottles involves the
following steps:
• Collected waste PET bottles are sterilized, cleaned, dried, removed from their
labels, and sorted according to their color. Sorting of PET bottles is an important
and critical step. In this process, PET bottles are basically separated from PVC,
polyethylene, and other plastic containers manually. Instead of manual sorting,
micronyl treatment can be used at this stage due to its more affordable cost.
• The bottles are grinded into chips and then the chips are dried to remove their
moisture. For easy reprocessing, grinding process comes after sorting in which
PET is ground into flake form. After grinding, first, hot wash (with NaOH and
detergent at 80 C) and then cold wash with water are done. Following these two
washing processes, the drying process comes, and this step is also very crucial.
Here, minimizing the moisture content will decrease the hydrolytic degradation
effect while increasing the melt strength. Drying conditions generally take place
between 140 and 170 C for 3–7 h. Since it is desired to contain less than 50 ppm
of water in the PET flakes, the flakes are dried before being fed to the extruder.
• The dry PET granules are first melted, passed through a melt metering pump to
control and filter the flow, and then are extruded through the nozzle. Quenching
air cools the extruded filaments and the continuous filament bundles are obtained.
• With the drawing, crimping, and spin finishing stages, these filament bundles are
cut into specific lengths to obtain polyester staple fibers. In the drawing stage, the
filaments are pulled out for further processing. The crimping stage assists in
improving the inter-fiber adhesion that leads to enhanced cohesive forces
among them, and finally for achieving smoother fibers, the spin finish process
is done.
• This yarn is then dyed and rolled into bales, and it is ready to be converted into a
polyester fabric (Muslim and Basuki 2016; Rane et al. 2019).
The main end uses of recycled fibers and yarns are home furniture, reinforcement
materials for concrete and polymeric composites, towels, construction sites, carpets,
floor coverings, handkerchiefs, accessories, nonwovens, and acoustic insulators
(Vadicherla and Saravanan 2014; Muslim and Basuki 2016). Moreover, the fillings
of sleeping bags, pillows, and beds and insulators can be the alternative end-use
applications that allow the use of colored recycled PET flakes. Nonwoven fabrics
from recycled PET used as filters and absorbents are mostly produced by the spun
bonding method (Kumartasli and Avinc 2020). It is also possible to use recycled
plastic in applications such as shrinkable films, some pipe productions, sandwich

structured laminates, and some containers for industrial use (Sarioglu and Kaynak
2018; Ozturk 2005). In some areas of geotextiles where aesthetic properties are not at
the forefront, recycled polymers can be preferred with their physical and mechanical
properties similar to virgin polymers (Davies and Horrocks 2000).
Fast-Fashion Trend in Textile Sector
In the 1980s, four phases constituted the fashion life cycle. These are promotion and
adoption of the products; growth and increase in the acceptance of the products by
the public; and mass conformity and the declining period of the fashion products.
Besides, the fashion calendar at that time was mainly composed of two seasons (the
spring/summer and the autumn/winter seasons). However, in the 1990s, this situa-
tion changed, and the product range started to expand and respond faster to the
trends. With the addition of 3 to 5 interim seasons to the current seasons in the
fashion calendar, the fast fashion term started to take its place in the literature
(Bhardwaj and Fairhurst 2010).
The term “fast fashion” refers to a fast-response system that promotes waste. In
the textile sector, which has changed with great speed and continuity, the waste
problem has become an indispensable subject, and the concept of sustainability has
come to the fore (Pamuk and Illeez 2018). Today, the fashion industry has become a
highly competitive field, and this has led to the need to constantly renew the product
range in stores, which increases the profit margin for the seller and unfortunately
shortens the life cycles of the products (Bhardwaj and Fairhurst 2010). In addition, it
is a known fact that products produced with fast fashion understanding are of very
low quality (Long and Nasiry 2019).
The fast fashion trend harms nature in many different areas, apart from the large
amount of textile waste it generates. Natural resources, synthetic materials, and
chemicals which are used in very high amounts and also CO2 emission in delivery
and transportation processes are the leading ones (Roozen and Raedts 2020). It is
thought that clothing consumption comes up to 5% of the environmental impact and
carbon emissions of households (Pamuk and Illeez 2018).
The Role of Life Cycle Assessment in Circular Economy
Today, although the linear economy model has been used for a long time and is
considered successfully by many people, it has shown that this economic model is
coming to an end due to the many systemic problems that have become problematic
in recent years. The chronically increasing amount of waste appears to be the biggest
of these problems, and this situation causes a serious loss of value when the materials
lost in the waste are considered. Circular economy targets production and consump-
tion systems that envision minimum material use and result in minimum energy loss
through reuse, recycling, and recovery methods. Circular economy includes both
recycling of waste and eco-design products that are recyclable (Haupt and Zschokke
2017).
According to the different approaches, while circular economy can be defined as a
philosophy that covers the society and the global economy, it is emphasized that life
cycle analysis or life cycle assessment is a tool used in this way (Haupt and
Zschokke 2017). Thus life cycle assessment is a leading tool to support decision-
making for sustainable development. According to the US Environmental Protection
Agency, the life cycle assessment is used to evaluate the potential environmental
impacts of a material, product, process, or activity. The life cycle assessment
assesses all direct and indirect environmental impacts of the life cycle from material
acquisition to production, use, disposal, or reuse. This is why the basic principle of
the life cycle assessment is represented by “cradle to grave” (Brusseau 2019). In
other words, life cycle assessment is frequently preferred to determine the techniques
to be used in recycling and to obtain the final product with the expected properties
from recycled wastes (Tshifularo and Patnaik 2020).
Life cycle assessment used to analyze environmental impacts based on ISO
standards 14,040 and 14,044. It consists of four steps: goal and scope definition,
inventory analysis, impact assessment, and interpretation (Brusseau 2019; Tshifularo
and Patnaik 2020).
Goal and scope definition: At this stage, the purpose of the study, scope, and
boundaries of the system are defined, the target audience is determined, and the
functional unit with options to be compared is included (ISO 2006; Perugini et al.
2005). The system boundary is an important definition for life cycle assessment and
defines what will be included in the life cycle assessment and what will not. For
example, the definition of the system boundary for rPET may include the collection
of waste from various locations (e.g., municipal centers) and transport to production
centers (e.g., melt spinning or meltblown units) (Periyasamy and Militky 2020).
Inventory analysis: This is the second stage in which all material and energy
inputs and outputs that cross the border with the environment are collected through-
out the life cycle of the product or the service system (ISO 2006; Perugini et al.
2005). The life cycle depends on inventory (LCI) data and assumptions (Tshifularo
and Patnaik 2020).
Impact assessment: The magnitude and significance of a system’s potential
environmental impacts are evaluated at this third stage (ISO 2006; Perugini et al.
2005). Life cycle assessment covers also the comparisons between these impacts
(Finnveden et al. 2009).
Interpretation: This is the last stage in which the findings obtained within the
purpose and scope of the study are defined, qualified, controlled, and evaluated. The
entire life cycle assessment process is reviewed, and the assumptions are checked for
consistency (ISO 2006; Perugini et al. 2005).
The life cycle assessment results state that recycling and waste collection can
have positive environmental consequences, thanks to waste that is separated effi-
ciently before the recycling process. In addition to ISO standards 14,040 and 14,044,
ISO standard 14,067 is also aimed to be used for the analysis of the carbon footprint
(Tshifularo and Patnaik 2020). Moreover, in general the life cycle assessment does
not take into account the economic or social aspects of a product. However, the
International Standards Organization (ISO) declared that it has expanded the life
cycle assessment methodology by introducing the 14,070 Standard series such as
ISO 14071 and ISO 14072 in addition to ISO 14066. Thus, economic or socioeco-
nomic categories are assigned numerical values (Antelava et al. 2019).
Governments encourage the use of the life cycle assessment globally, which
paves the way for the use of the life cycle assessment in very creative areas. Life
cycle assessment applications, which were previously limited to studies that only
examine effects such as cumulative energy use and solid waste, are now based on the
evaluation of more complex effects such as biodiversity and noise and have spread to
a wide variety of areas such as waste incineration, construction materials, military
systems, and tourism (Guinée et al. 2011). Life cycle assessment can be used to
evaluate the environmental performance of circular product designs, as well as to
evaluate large-scale processes such as the transition to a more circular economy.
Common to both life cycle assessment and European Conformity is the reduction of
environmental impacts (Haupt and Zschokke 2017). However, European Confor-
mity supports the closing of material loops, upcycling rather than downcycling, and
places a huge responsibility on manufacturers as to what to do when their products
reach end of life, and this process can make it difficult to execute and interpret the
life cycle assessment as well as the linear business approach (Dieterle et al. 2018).
Thus it can be recommended not to apply circularity in situations where conflicting
processes are encountered between life cycle assessment and European Conformity
(Haupt and Zschokke 2017).
Example of a Life Cycle Assessment of rPET
Shen et al. studied the environmental impacts of recycling PET bottles into fiber
form by using life cycle assessment. In this study, mechanical, semi-mechanical,
back to oligomer, and back to monomer methods were used. In addition, three
approaches have been applied for open-loop methodology. These are cut-off,
waste valuation, and system expansion. Non-renewable energy use, global warming
potential, abiotic depletion, acidification, eutrophication, human toxicity, freshwater
aquatic ecotoxicity, terrestrial ecotoxicity, and photochemical oxidant formation
were analyzed as environmental impact indicators, and the results were compared
with those of virgin PET and some other fibers. Although there is a difference in the
data obtained based on the allocation method used, the savings for non-renewable
energy use and global warming potential were recorded in the range of 40–85% and
25–75%, respectively. This makes rPET fibers noticeable in terms of an environ-
mental impact compared to virgin PET. On the other hand, although chemically
recycled fibers can have a wide range of applications compared to mechanically
recycled fibers, mechanical recycling is the most environmentally friendly option in
recycling methods. Since PET fiber cannot be recycled mechanically repeatedly,
closed-loop recycling methods such as bottle-to-bottle recycling can also be inte-
grated into this recycling process, as PET can be recycled many times before being
Natural resources:
e.g. crude oil &
nature gas Collection of post-
consumer waste bottles
Baled PET bottles waste
T
Amorphous PET
polymer Production
Flake Production
PET bottle grade resin

production
Pellet production
PET bottle production

Fibre production
1000 kg fibre
Use phase of PET

bottle Textile/nonwoven
production
First Life
Use of textile/
Cradle-to-factory gate second life nonwoven products
Second Life
First Life
Waste management
T Transportation service
Second Life
Emissions to air/
water/soil
Fig. 2 Cradle-to-factory gate system boundary of recycling PET fibers from waste PET bottles,
splitting the first life and the second life based on the cut-off approach. (Reused from Shen et al.
With the permission of Elsevier Publications)
turned into fiber in an open-loop system. However, at this stage of the study, it is
suggested to investigate the effect of recycling systems on the environment, the
effect of the number of cycles, and the effects of different allocation methods for
open-loop and/or closed-loop recycling (Shen et al. 2010).
Figure 2 demonstrates the cradle-to-factory gate system boundary of recycling
PET fibers from waste PET bottles, splitting the first life and the second life based on
the cut-off approach. In Fig. 2, the first life and second life of PET are cut/divided
into two independent product lines. According to the cut-off principle, used bottles
from the first use are regarded as waste, and the “cradle” of the second life is the
collecting and transporting the used PET bottles. While PET bottles are obtained
from PET polymer that is acquired from natural resources in the first life, there is the
cradle-to-factory gate second life section, which includes collecting these waste PET
bottles, turning them into pellets, and production of fiber in the second life. After this
section, the creation of yarn, fabric, and garments from the produced fibers and
finally the waste management process are included in the second life of PET (Shen et
al. 2010).
Consumer Attitudes Toward Recycled Textiles
In the textile sector, which is mostly consumer-oriented, supply and demand are
shaped by the knowledge, values, and perceptions of the customers (consumers)
(Desore and Narula 2018). Although the attitudes of consumers toward recycled
products are generally positive, there are also those who approach these products
negatively due to the perception that the quality is low or it will have less value
(Magnier et al. 2019).
While there are numerous benefits perceived by consumers in general of using
recycled products, the performance, financial, time, and obsolescence risks stated by
Weelden et al. (2016) for refurbished products are among the hesitations that can also
be considered for recycled products. These negative responds of consumers were
studied in several studies. For instance, Achabou and Dekhili (2013) examined the
consumer perception of the use of recycled materials in luxury products. According
to the results of the studies conducted with the French luxury clothing brand, the use
of recycled materials in luxury products negatively affected consumer preferences,
and this situation led to the conclusion that there is an incompatibility between
recycling and luxury products. Although consumers seemed to be closely related to
environmental risks, they refused to see this responsible behavior in the products of
luxury brands and emphasized that product quality is the most important criterion of
choice. Within the scope of the study by Hamzaoui Essoussi and Linton (2010),
there is an assessment of the price premium that consumers express their readiness to
pay for products with reused or recycled content. In a study conducted with a total of
49 consumers for seven different product types, it was concluded that the functional
risk perceived by the consumer has a statistically significant effect on consumer
purchasing decisions. Findings supported that willing to pay varies by product.
While recycled product with low functional risk and relatively high consumer
willing to pay becomes an attractive item when associated with the identity of a
company, a product with high functional risk has low economic appeal, makes the
company look poor quality, and also creates a perception of dangerous products.
These results are important in terms of the marketability of products made with
recycled and/or reused materials.
On the other hand, the source of material for recycled products also has an
important effect on consumers’ perception. For instance, products containing plas-
tics recycled from oceans may create a lower-quality perception in addition to
contamination risk that is defined by Baxter et al. (2017) as an impurity that causes
people to feel uncomfortable or even disgusted when using specific products that
contain previously used or recycled materials. Examples for contamination
perceptions can be the recycled PET water bottles which are not as shiny as the
original or the textile goods including the recycled textile fibers which have an
unpleasant odor compared to the original fibers (Magnier et al. 2019).
A study of Magnier et al. (2019) examined consumers’ attitudes toward products
made from recycled ocean plastic. The findings of the study conducted with 258
Dutch consumers revealed that the most important determinants of consumer pur-
chase intention were expected conscience, value for money, and perceived function-
ality. In addition, one of the factors negatively affecting the purchase intention is
stated as the risk of the contamination. A comparison was also made between
product categories, for example, it was concluded that the quality expectations and
purchase intention for textile products were lower than for durable and fast-moving
consumer goods packaging. On the other hand, when the results of the study
conducted for sweaters and running shoes among textile products were evaluated,
it was concluded that the participants’ purchase intention was higher for running
shoes made of ocean plastic than for sweaters. It has been declared that the results of
the study will help understand the consumer attitude toward products made from
recycled ocean plastic and help companies develop strategies to effectively market
such products. It has been understood that especially luxury ready-to-wear compa-
nies should be careful when promoting textile products made of ocean plastic and
highlight quality and durability issues in their communications (Magnier et al. 2019).
Many people are unaware of how a garment is produced and the environmental
damage of the process. This is due to the non-transparent processes. It is important to
increase the communication between the consumer and the producer regarding the
answers to the questions of getting value for money and what quality products mean
(Vehmas et al. 2018).
Although consumers are mostly interested in sustainable consumption, this issue
does not preclude convenience and low price, as they generally lack knowledge of
the environmental effects of clothing consumption and have negative attitudes
toward the sustainable clothing (Paço et al. 2020). The main factors determining
purchasing behavior are income level, education level, and gender. For example, it is
known that although men know more about environmental issues, women are more
concerned about the environmental problems (Hamzaoui Essoussi and Linton 2010).
Similarly, it is stated by Achabou and Dekhili (2013) and Desore and Narula (2018)
that younger women are the most concerned consumers by environmental and
ethical issues in terms of textile products.
On the other hand, since price and quality are the key factors while purchasing a
garment, purchasing and wearing eco-friendly garments provide consumer social
approval which means social and emotional values are also effective on buying
decisions (Chi 2015). Moreover, the buying behavior is partially affected by guilt
and insufficient knowledge of environmentally friendly clothing (Harris et al. 2016).
Thus it is thought that companies will be able to reach this consumer group more easily
thanks to expressions such as organic, recycled, durable, waste reduction, and/or
carbon footprint reduction that they will add to their brands and product labels (Chi
2015). On the other hand, people who are generally interested in recycling issues are
also interested in clothes made from recycled fibers in textiles (Paço et al. 2020).
Desore and Narula (2018)divided the buying decision process of consumers into
five stages. These are (I) need recognition, (II) information search, (III) alternative
evaluation, (IV) purchase decision, and (V) post purchase behavior. In the first (need
recognition) and second phases (information search), the negative perception of the
consumer can be eliminated by providing the consumer with more information about
the sustainable garments and the manufacturing process and content of the garment
produced. In the third (alternative evaluation) and fourth (purchase decision) stages,
the consumer compares traditional product prices with those of recycled ones. At this
stage, since the trust of the consumer to the producer is the most important factor,
brands, eco-labels, and standards play an important role in the consumer’s final
decision. The fifth and the final stage (post purchase behavior) behavior is deter-
mined by the quality and durability of the purchased product.
Precursor Brands and Retailers of Textile Industry Supporting the

Use of Recycled Plastics
Sustainability studies are carried out by many companies in the textile and apparel
industry, which is one of the most damaging industries in the world (Shen et al.
2017). The Recycled Polyester (rPET) Commitment was created by Textile
Exchange in 2017 in order to encourage the brands and retailers to use recycled
polyester by 25% up to 2020. Fifty-nine companies such as Adidas, Gap Inc., H&M,
IKEA, Lindex, Timberland, etc. joined to this commitment. Although 2020 was
given as a target, in 2018, 36% growth in the use of rPET fiber was reached. The
benefits already achieved are stated as:
• 2.868 million bottles diverted from landfill

• 35.329.509 kg reduction in human toxicity
• 1.849.464 mJ saved on primary energy demand
• 122.823 kg of reduced CO2 (https://textileexchange.org, 2018, Accessed 27
Oct 2020)
By recycling polyester including post-consumer plastic bottles and post-industrial

waste from manufacturing wastes, Repreve ® fibers were produced by Unifi, and
these fibers were used by several brands including Quicksilver, Patagonia, Roxy,
Katmandu, Adidas, and etc. To produce rPET for these brands, over 630 million
plastic bottles were collected from the landfill. Unifi also announced that it aims to
recycle 20 billion bottles by the end of 2020 and 30 billion bottles by the end of 2022
(Kumartasli and Avinc 2020; Leonas 2017). Under the Repreve ® Textile Takeback
Program, together with the partners like The North Face, three million pounds of
takeback fabric was also used in other categories including apparel, automotive,
hospitality, healthcare, and contract furnishings (Leonas 2017).
An example of companies using Repreve ® fibers is Penti. The Turkish underwear
company Penti, in collaboration with Unifi, recycled 1,000,000 plastic bottles and
more than 5 tons of industrial nylon waste found in nature. In the 54 piece collection,
which includes underwear, home wear, socks, sportswear, and tights product groups,
presented under the name “I’M IN,” where Repreve ® yarns are used instead of
conventional polyester and polyamide materials, 45% less energy, 20% less water,
and 30% less emissions were consumed (Erarslan 2020).
H&M announced that it is the sixth largest recycled polyester consumer in the
world in 2018 by recycling 325 million PET bottles. In 2017, they designed an
intricate pleated gown with plastic waste collected from the coastline (Mukherjee
2017), and 100% recycled nylon and polyester were used in the Weekday swimwear
brand produced by H&M at the same year (Kumartasli and Avinc 2020). Apart from
H&M, there are other companies that prefer recycled fibers in their swimwear
collections. American designer Mara Hoffman manufactures all of the swimming
suits in her collection from recycled nylon and recycled polyester. They used
ECONYL yarn made from 100% recycled nylon (usually from fishing net, industrial
waste, and fabric waste) for solid swimming suits and Repreve ® yarn made from
100% recycled polyester (usually from plastic bottle) for their textured swimming
suits. With the Repreve ® fabric they have used since 2017, 7.767 lbs. of waste were
taken from landfills and recycled (https://marahoffman.com/pages/our-materials,
Accessed 27 Oct 2020). British swimwear company Batoko, founded in 2013,
produces swimwear from polyethylene terephthalate plastic waste to combat the
injustices created by the fast fashion system. Until 2017, they recycled approxi-
mately 220,000 plastic bottles in their swimwear production. In addition, printing
processes in swimwear production are carried out by digital printing method, which
saves water and energy and uses non-toxic inks. The company, in which packaging
operations are carried out with biodegradable packaging, donates a portion of the
profits it generates every year to the Marine Conservation Society (Brady 2019).
Italian beachwear company Repainted also uses 100% ECONYL yarn in its prod-
ucts. The most important features of these products made from recycled nylon are
their resistance to chlorine, sea salt, and sunscreens (Ras 2019).
One of the places where recycled fibers are most preferred is shoe production.
Due to the request of Timberland, Camtex Fabrics produced a recycled material for
shoe linings in 2012 that includes at least 50% recycled PET bottles. Therefore, the
use of rPET started to be used for the Timberland brand. In 2014, Timberland
increased the use of renewable, organic, and recycled (ROR) materials in its foot-
wear up to 79% (Leonas 2017). French shoe manufacturer Veja has produced the
material called B-mesh (bottle mesh) obtained from the recycled plastic bottles
intended for use in shoes and accessories. While three recycled plastic bottles are
used for each shoe production, it is stated that this fabric is both breathable and
waterproof. At the same time, they have produced a completely environmentally
friendly shoe by using rubber and organic cotton in the remaining parts of the shoe
(Wolfe 2020). American-based shoe company Rothy’s produces machine-washable
shoes using 3D knitting machines with recycled fibers obtained from plastic water
bottles located in the landfills. The company has also initiated a program called
“Rothy’s Recycling,” in which users will send their used shoes to the company and
in return they will be sent as recycled yoga mats, insoles, and other environmentally
friendly products for free to the customers (Wolfe 2020).
It is also known that Adidas aims to use recycled plastic in all its products by 2020
(Kumartasli and Avinc 2020). They have released a collection of swimwear and
shoes called “Parley for the Oceans.” The running sneakers were 3D-printed, and the
upper part of the shoes is from ocean waste (Mukherjee 2017; Leonas 2017). Since
2010, Nike has recycled more than three billion plastic bottles and used them in its
products. For example, recycled polyester was used in the jerseys of the US
basketball team at the Summer Olympics and US Women’s football team at the
FIFA World Cup (Kumartasli and Avinc 2020).
Marks and Spencer have produced non-allergic, machine-washable (at 50 C),
soft-touch, cushioned material with medium support properties from recycled plastic
bottles (Vadicherla and Saravanan 2014). Guru Athletics have produced yoga towels
made of 80% polyester recycled from plastic pop bottles and 20% natural cotton
fibers (Vadicherla and Saravanan 2014). Almost 100% of the polyesters produced by
Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited (IVL), the largest PET producer with a
20% market share worldwide, are recycled for the home textiles such as bedspreads,
blankets, and chair padding. In India, 50,000 tons of recycled fibers per month are
produced by recycling PET bottles which is approximately 50% of the virgin
polyester produced in this country (Kumartasli and Avinc 2020).
Some luxury brands have a variety of products made from recycled raw materials.
For example, there is a Stella McCartney shoe collection made of biodegradable and
recycled plastic. Viktor and Rolf have a new collection using fabrics from previous
collections (Vehmas et al. 2018). Prada used recycled nylon made from ocean
plastics, fishing nets, and textile waste in the bag collection named “Re-Nylon.”
The company stated that they will use recycled nylon in all of their products from
2021 (Barr 2019). Besides, Gucci, one of the luxury brands, uses Econyl (recycled
nylon) fiber in their clothes and bags and also encourages the utilization of recycled
plastics in heels of the shoes (Moorhouse and Moorhouse 2017). Fashion designer
Vivienne Westwood designed Lily Cole an evening gown with fabric made from
recycled plastic bottles for the Oscar Ceremony in 2016 (Moorhouse and Moorhouse
2017).
Levi’s Waste-Less™ Jeans are made of at least 29% postconsumer plastic which
is recycled from eight plastic bottles (Vadicherla and Saravanan 2014). Camira, a
British textile company, produces woven fabric by recycling plastics collected from
oceans and beaches. Fifty percent of the fiber used is recycled plastics, while 26
plastic bottles are used per meter of fabric (Dezeen 2020). G-Star RAW company has
designed the world’s first denim collection originated from ocean plastic
(Moorhouse and Moorhouse 2017).
One of the most recent examples of utilizing recycled plastics in the textile
industry is the new collection of Coca-Cola Turkey and Mavi Jeans. Coca-Cola
Foundation, the Nature Conservation Center, and the United Nations Development
Program came together in Kemer (Turkey) to launch a pilot scheme. Plastics
collected by KOLLEKT application, which supports community-based recycling,
were recycled and used in the production of four t-shirts in this special collection.
Each t-shirt production is made from one to two recycled PET bottles (Gencoglu
2020). Proceeding with the motto of “Ethically made underwear,” Girlfriend
Collective brand produces sports bras and leggings from recycled plastics. The
recycled polyester they use is obtained from used plastic bottles in Taiwan, while
the recycled polyamide they use is produced from used fishing nets. They recycled
5,348,317 plastic bottles for their production in the year of 2020 (Wolfe 2020).
Spanish clothing brand Ecoalf, serving since 2012, designs upcycle products by
recycling used plastic bottles, fishing nets, and tires. One of Ecoalf’s most important
projects is the “Upcycling the Oceans” project. In this project, more than 3,000
fishermen from 37 different ports in Spain dump the garbage they find in the oceans
to the Ecoalf waste bins at the ports. By doing this, it is ensured that both the oceans
are cleaned and the waste materials are brought back to the production chain. Ecoalf,
which does not limit its sustainability philosophy to only the products it produces,
opened a flagship store in Berlin in 2017, which is designed with completely
recycled materials. While everything, from the cement used in the walls to the
rugs on the floor, is made from recycled materials, the power is also provided by
green energy (Ibanez 2019).
Patagonia has been producing fleece jackets from used plastic soda bottles since
1993. After the success of Patagonia company with this product, many companies
started to produce polar jackets from waste plastic bottles. The company uses
recycled polyester in many different products, from t-shirts to thick cold weather
clothing (Ras 2019). American clothing company ADAY produced a jacket called
“The Waste Nothing” using fabric produced by recycling 41 water bottles. The
product with kimono sleeves can be worn as a jacket or as a shirt when turned inside
out. When the life of the garment is over by the user, it can be recycled back into a
new fabric (Segran 2018). Kind Bag, a British bag company, produces shopping
bags to replace plastic bags using waste plastic bottles. The company, which pro-
duces a bag from approximately six waste plastic bottles, demonstrates the impor-
tance it attaches to sustainability and nature by donating 10% of its profit to the Just
One Ocean charity. The famous bag company Kanken has produced a bag by
recycling 11 waste plastic bottles in its special collection, and the “spindye” tech-
nology, which provides less water consumption, was used in the dyeing of the bag
(Henderson 2020).
It is also seen that recycled fibers are used in the production of protective fabric
face masks, which are an indispensable part of our daily lives with the COVID-19
pandemic. Petit Pli brand has produced 100% recycled polyester washable fabric
mask made from plastic bottles against the coronavirus pandemic. The mask is
designed to stand on the neck like a soft collar and to cover the nose and mouth
when necessary. The mask has a pocket that allows adding an extra disposable filter
and is suitable for machine wash at 30 C (Block 2020).
Conclusion
In line with the developing environmental awareness, environmental protection

gradually ranks among the main policy priorities of the countries all over the
world, and waste management has a dominant place among the environmental
protection policies. The waste management strategies aiming at preventing the

depletion of natural resources and transforming the produced waste from being a
threat to the environment and human health and turning it into an input for the
economy form the basis of the sustainable development approach, which is increas-
ingly adopted as a priority policy goal in the world.
Considering the speed of technological growth, plastics with their notable bene-
fits will play a significant role among the materials’ future. Since the second half of
the twentieth century, plastics used in almost all areas of social life began to be
harmful to humans, animals, and other living things, briefly all environmental
elements, due to their fragmentation into very small particles. From medical appli-
cations including tissue and organ scaffolds/implants to lightweight materials of
upcoming airplanes, there are several end uses that promise a golden age for plastics.
However, current production, usage, and disposal methods should be changed to a
sustainable model for a more liveable future.
Textile, which is the second most polluting sector in the world, increases the
amount of waste considerably with the spread of the concept of fast fashion, and its
harm to nature is becoming unstoppable. In addition to the recycling of textile
materials, the benefit of the raw materials used from recycled materials to the cyclic
economy is clearly demonstrated.
Nowadays, where the new trend is to obtain products from recycled raw materials
for a sustainable world, evaluating the wastes of the plastic sector in the textile
sector, which has a very high production volume, is the biggest proof that there is
still a hope for our planet.
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Sources and Fates of Textile Solid Wastes
and Their Sustainable Management 48
Md. Shafiul Islam and Jahid M. M. Islam
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1286
Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1287
Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1287
Principle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1287
Textile Solid Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1289
Sources and Common Fates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1289
Sustainable Development in Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1292
Sustainability in the Context of Textile Solid Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1294
Current Strategies to Treat the Textile Solid Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1295
Case Study: Bangladesh Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1296
Some Promising Methods for Textile Solid Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1298
Composting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1298
Regeneration of Valuable Products from Textile Solid Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1299
Radiation Technology to Decontaminate Textile Sludge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1299
Briquettes from Textile Sludge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1301
Conclusion and Future Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1301
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1302
Abstract
Textile industry, one of the biggest and most complicated polluting industries in
the world, produces textiles and apparels, contributing to depletion of water,
energy, and other natural resources and releases both liquid and solid wastes.
Although there are several established strategies to treat the textile effluent (liquid
waste), treatment of textile solid waste (especially textile sludge) is still highly
M. S. Islam
Department of Chemistry, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA
Department of Applied Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Noakhali Science and Technology
University, Noakhali, Bangladesh
J. M. M. Islam (*)
School of Science, Monash University Malaysia, Subang Jaya, Malaysia

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_109
1286 M. S. Islam and J. M. M. Islam
challenging. As a result, these industries cause a great threat to environmental

sustainability and the ecosystem. In these regards, there is no alternative to
developing a more suitable method to treat textile solid waste to meet the
human needs but still reducing the load of textile waste into the environment
and, thereby, maintaining an ecofriendly behavior. This chapter incorporates the
sources, qualification, and quantification of textile solid waste and their sustain-
able and reasonable management approaches. The main focus is given on the
textile sludge and the strategies to decontaminate it. Designing products by using
textile solid waste for socio-economic and ecological well-being is also
discussed.
Keywords
Textile solid waste · Textile sludge · Sludge management · Radiation processing ·
Zero waste technology
Introduction
Textile industry is one of the major important industries over the world that provides
a large employment opportunity and thereby contributes to the economy of many
countries (de Souza et al. 2010). The textile industry consists of heterogeneous
structure and complex production chains (European Commission 2003) that con-
nects several types of backward linkage industries to the textile industry. Population
growth has made the textile industry as well as the apparel industry as one of the
biggest consumer industries in the world from the viewpoint of greater consumption
(Sandin and Peters 2018). Besides, due to the growing consumption of human being,
aside from textile industries, new and new sectors are emerging focused on textile
design and distribution. But unfortunately, while producing the goods, the textile
industry generates not only solid wastes but also huge amount of liquid wastes. As a
result, the generated wastes impose significant effects on environment. Textile
industries produce liquid waste containing dyes and finishing chemicals that con-
taminate surface as well as ground water (Wallander 2012), and even it produces a
significant amount of solid waste and emits greenhouse gases (GHGs). Therefore,
the textile industry is considered as the second most polluting industry in the world
(Sweeny 2016) and a major contributor in climate change (Connell 2015). Ecolog-
ical concern has thus come into discussion with few significant issues: how the waste
will be treated and how the waste will be reduced. Not only the industrialists but also
the consumer society has accepted it as a new dimension for healthy well-being
(Scrase and Sheate 2002).
Industrial waste may have some benefits if they are treated and recycled properly
for specific purposes. The concern for having beneficial effects from industrial
wastes has evolved a practice named waste management practice. Recently, efficient
waste management practices have been observed in developed countries that main-
tain strict rules and regulations (Jordeva et al. 2015). Textile Solid Waste (TSW)
48 Sources and Fates of Textile Solid Wastes and Their Sustainable Management 1287
belongs to the industrial and non-dangerous waste category and is defined as “waste
of raw material referred to as fabric trims, scraps or parts rejected by defects” in
manufacturing processes of the clothing industry (Pinheiro and Francisco 2016).
Waste Management
Definition
As wastes are generated from different sources, they have profound effect on human
health and ecosystem. The effect will be either good or bad that depends on some
issues: either wastes will be treated, or they will be thrown away; if wastes are treated
for some sorts of benefit, how they will be treated? From the viewpoint of waste
treatment, it is deemed necessary to have a good knowledge on waste management
as well as waste governance. It is an earnest need to define waste management prior
to depict its principle.
According to Business Dictionary, “Waste management encompasses manage-
ment of all processes and resources for proper handling of waste materials, from
maintenance of waste transport trucks and dumping facilities to compliance with
health codes and environmental regulations.” The integrated definition of waste
management according to Wikipedia is as, “Waste management or Waste disposal
is all the activities and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final
disposal. This includes among other things, collection, transport, treatment and
disposal of waste together with monitoring and regulation. It also encompasses the
legal and regulatory framework that relates to waste management encompassing
guidance on recycling etc.”
Principle
Waste management incorporates the responsibility of government along with other

private organizations though it mostly involves government organizations – more
specifically local jurisdictions. It is an integrated approach employing both public
agencies and private sectors at various levels to interpret the sense of sound
governance. The principle needs to be approximately outlined as follows:
• To get an approval from regulatory control; i.e., this practice will control
unrestricted disposal of waste and unrestricted reuse of useful materials.
• To have an authorized release; i.e., this practice will control the authorized
discharge of waste to the environment and authorized reuse of useful materials.
• To maintain regulated disposal of waste and regulated transfer of useful materials
to other practices.
Although the chapter primarily focuses on textile industry solid waste manage-
ment system, it is significant to realize that several systems are dealing with waste or
items that could become waste. The scope of explaining waste management princi-
ple can be discussed further under following headings.
Waste Management Systems

It is convenient to identify six different systems regarding waste management
systems (Christensen 2011). The systems are tabulated as follows (Table 1).
Waste Management Criteria

The fundamental criteria are likely to provide a tailor-made and healthy handling of
all waste with a minimum of effort for the customer and the citizen as well as to
ensure the lowest possible load on the environment in terms of noise and contam-
ination of air, water, and soil. The following criteria should also be assigned in waste
management governance or planning such as:
• Provide a maximum of resource recovery from the waste while minimizing the
use of resources in the waste handling
• Be a safe and healthy occupation for the workers offering non-monotonous work
and achievable challenges
• Provide only little impact on the city with respect to traffic, vehicle exhaust, noise,
traffic accidents, and spill of waste
• Include aesthetic and architectural considerations in establishing waste collection
and treatment facilities
• Respect as a minimum current laws, regulations, and code of practice. Be
economically acceptable and fair
Table 1 Different waste management systems and their characteristics

Management systems Characteristics
In-house waste landfilling Waste from one industry may be used as a resource for another
industry. The system can promote waste minimization and waste
prevention.
Littering Litter is usually in the form of package and newspaper, and other
wastes arise from building renovation and old white goods that
demands public cleansing of affected areas and thereby become part
of waste management system.
Return system Sometimes waste can be processed for further use as a consumer
product. The system can benefit common people including the
products in business chain. For instance, batteries, car tiers and
electronic equipments, etc.
Municipal waste Municipal waste is generated by civil work and citizens, and some
management system types of wastes are released from small business and industries. The
management system needs public concern.
Industrial waste This management system includes how much waste the industry
management system release either in large or small volumes. The system incorporates the
authorities’ environmental approval and licensing of the industry.
Hazardous waste The system demands for special ways of collecting, storing, and
management system transporting the waste and maintains special rules and standards.
• Waste prevention and cleaner technology

1
• Reuse
2
• Recycling of materials
3
• Recovery in terms of material utilization and energy recovery

4
• Disposal including landfilling and mass burning without recovery

5
Fig. 1 Priorities of waste management, from the most preferred to less preferred techniques
Waste Hierarchy
The Western world and parts of Asia have since the early 1980s used the waste
hierarchy as the main credible to waste management. The wording used and the
name may vary, but the main message is that priorities in waste management should
be according to Fig. 1.
The waste hierarchy is a strong approach and easy to communicate and quantify if
the purpose is to avoid landfilling, but two aspects are not well addressed by the
waste hierarchy. One aspect is that waste minimization and cleaner technology is a
very difficult issue for local and regional bodies because they do not have the
mandate and power to address this. Waste minimization is primarily a state or
interstate issue, since globalized industrial manufacturing and marketing of products
must be the focus. The second aspect is that, as energy prices go up and the Kyoto
protocol forces many countries to lessen their use of fossil fuel, energy recovery
from solid waste may be as beneficial as material recovery and thereby question the
rigid prioritization of material recovery over energy recovery.
Textile Solid Waste Management
Sources and Common Fates
As the consumer demand is leading to accelerated industrialization, while producing

the respective products, these industries are releasing a large volume of waste into
the environment. Therefore, the issue of waste management has gained much greater
attention over the society as most of the wastes are generated from industries which
cannot be closed as they are producing much needed products (Fujii et al. 2012;
Zurbrügg et al. 2012). Waste generation from textile industries is not an exception to
this. We should define the waste elaborately before we go further to their sources and
common fates.
Waste can be defined as the “things that people do not need anymore and want to
get rid of” (Nielsen and Schmidt 2014). According to the Basel Convention on the
Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal of
1989, Art. 2(1), “‘Wastes’ are substance or objects, which are disposed of or are
intended to be disposed of or are required to be disposed of by the provisions of
national law.” Waste can also be defined according to Waste Framework Directive
2008/98/EC, Art. 3(1), in which the European Union defines waste as “an object that
the holder discards, intends to discard or is required to discard.”
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), 1976, solid waste means any
garbage or refuse, sludge from a wastewater treatment plant, water supply treat-
ment plant, or air pollution control facility and other discarded material, resulting
from industrial, commercial, mining, and agricultural operations, and from com-
munity activities. Nearly everything we do leaves behind are some kind of wastes.
Solid waste also can be depicted as non-liquid materials arising from domestic,
trade, commercial, agricultural, and industrial activities and from public services
(Sasikumar and Krishna 2009). Solid waste may consist of paper, textile, leather,
food waste, yard waste, rubber, metals, plastic, and glass (Daven and Klein 2008).
The daily source of textile solid waste is fibers that are made into fabric in the
textile industry. Besides, each step-in textile industry from raw material to final
product and product delivery to customer produces solid wastes. The basic steps
which are the sources of solid waste generation stated as collection planning,
planning the production process, material stock, design, folding, cutting, prepara-
tion for sewing, sewing, finishing, ironing, packing, product stocks, shipping and
client etc. The spans of clothing industry incorporate many phases starting from
raw materials processing to final products divided into segment’s, i.e., resource
production and extraction, fiber production and yarn manufacturing, textile
manufacturing to apparel assembly, packaging, transportation and distribution,
and finally usage, recycling, and ultimate disposal, and contribute a significant
part in municipal solid waste category (Karaosman et al. 2017). One of the most
significant reasons to generate textile waste is people demands new clothes on new
season along with the rising living standards of world population (Zamani 2014).
Predictions confirm that global fiber consumption will reach 110 million tons by
2020 (Voncina 2016). Above all, the sources of solid waste can be tabulated as
follows (Table 2).
In other way, textile waste can be classified as production waste, pre-consumer
waste, and post-consumer waste (Yalcin-Enis et al. 2019) listed below (Table 3).
Production waste comes from several textile manufacturing steps and varies
depending on the manufacturing step where the waste is generated (Wang 2010).
Pre-consumer waste includes unsold/damaged products in stores, and these products
come from design mistakes, fabric faults, wrong colors, etc. Post-consumer wastes
consist of products that the owners do not need to use it and the volume of this waste
is large compared to other wastes (Wang 2010).
Nowadays, most of the fabric-related solid wastes and scraps are recycled to
produce secondary products or used to generate energy (Fig. 2). However, one
Table 2 Waste generated in the clothing production process (Alshamrani et al. 2007)
Stages Generated waste
Collection Paper, fabric scraps, magazine; paperboard; defective parts; packing; printer
planning cartridges
Material stock Paper; metals (rivets, buttons); defective parts; zippers; thread; labels;
plastic; paperboard; fabric scraps
Design Paper; paperboard; plotter pens; fabric scraps; metal clips; plastic
Folding Paper; plastic; fabric scraps; paperboard; adhesive tape
Cutting Paper; fabric scraps; sewing machine sandpaper; paperboard; plastic
Preparation for Thread; fabric scraps; paper; elastic; plastic; cardboard box
sewing
Sewing Thread; paper; fabric scraps; plastic cones; needle; trims; stitching yarn
Finishing Thread; fabric scraps; trims; labels; adhesive paper; stitching yarn; plastic;
paperboard
Effluent Sludge
treatment
Packing Plastic; toner; labels
Shipping Paper; adhesive tape; paperboard.
Table 3 Different types of waste

Pre-consumer
Production wastes wastes Post-consumer wastes
Fiber Unsold products Worn-out products
Yarn Damaged products Damaged products
Cloth scraps Outgrown products
Flocks Out of fashion products
Sweeping
Fabric cut-offs
Fabric roll ends
Selvage
Waste from effluent treatment plant,
e.g., sludge
specific type of solid waste is totally overlooked, and there is no established

method to manage this waste. This solid waste is generated from the effluent
treatment plants of the textile industry and commonly known as textile sludge.
The contents of the textile sludge mainly depend on the initial textile effluent and
their treatment procedure. Industries usually categorize this sludge as
non-recyclable and dump it in landfill and waterbodies. Textile sludge contains
high BOD and COD characteristics and significant amount of very fine particulates
which cause air and water pollution mixing with air and water, respectively. In this
regard, considering the importance of the textile sludge management, in this
chapter, we will mainly focus on the aspects of this special type of textile solid
waste treatment.
Fig. 2 The model for industrial textile waste management (Rapsikevičienė et al. 2019)
Sustainable Development in Waste Management
As sustainable development incorporates the improvement of lifestyles and well-

being along with preserving natural resources and ecosystems, it always maintains
an equilibrium between the human need and environment. Sustainable develop-
ment is an intertwined approach which involves three basic dimensions, i.e.,
environmental sustainability, economic sustainability, and social sustainability
(Mensah 2019). Sustainable development is an outsmart prototype of the United
Nations. Based on the delicate balance between the human being and environment,
the sustainable development was defined by the report titled Our Common future
published by the Bruntland Commission in 1987. This commission defined the
sustainable development as “development that meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”
(Brundtland and Khalid 1987).
Sustainable development emphasizes on scrutinizing different aspects of devel-
opment in order to build a sustainable solution. As stated by Atkinson et al. (2007),
“sustainable is now prefixed to numerous and disparate policy objectives” (p. 16).
Glavic and Lukman (2007) indicate the focus of sustainable development as being
“the evolution of human society from the responsible economic point of view, in
accordance with environmental and natural processes” (p. 1884). Although there are
similarities in the definitions, there are also disagreements like the axiomatic foun-
dations of the dynamic models within which the concept has been explored, differ-
ences in disciplinary perspectives and the interpretation of sustainability at the policy
level (Common and Perrings 1992).
Table 4 Illustration of the dimensions of sustainable development principle

Economic Social/cultural Environmental
Elimination of extremes of wealth Equality of women and Independence of life
and poverty men
Work as worship Elimination of all forms of Nature a reflection of the
prejudice divine
Moderation Unity in diversity/justice Modesty – Earth source of all
our wealth
Be content with little Universal compulsory Unity in diversity
education
Voluntary giving Trustworthiness/respect Cleanliness
Profit sharing History – beliefs Kindness to animals and
preservation
There is a confusion between sustainability and sustainable development; some-

times these two terms are utilized interchangeably. Because, sustainability is often
thought to be as a long-term goal, while sustainable development implies the many
processes to achieve it (e.g., sustainable agriculture and forestry, sustainable pro-
duction and consumption, good government, research and technology transfer,
education and training, etc.). Ben-Eli (2015), on the other hand, observes sustain-
ability as a dynamic equilibrium between interaction of the population and its
environment so that the population develops its full potential without producing
irreversible adverse effects on the environment. From this viewpoint it can be
concluded that sustainability incorporates focusing human activities and their ability
to satisfy human needs without depleting or exhausting the productive resources at
their disposal. Therefore, it promotes thoughts on the way people should lead their
economic and social lives regarding the available ecological resources for human
development.
The goal of the sustainable developments is to enable all people throughout the
world to satisfy their basic needs and enjoy a better quality of life, without
compromising the quality of future generations. The guiding principles are stated
as follows:
• Living within environmental limits

• Ensuring a strong, healthy and just society
• Achieving a sustainable economy
• Promoting good governance
• Using sound science responsibility
The basic dimensions discussed under the principles of sustainable development

can be summarized in a tabulated form as follows (Table 4)
So, to secure sustainable development in the waste management, there should be
a collective effort from economic, social, and environmental perspectives. It is a
collective responsibility that encompasses the participation of all people and relevant
entities. From the broad aspect of thinking, it can be assumed that sustainable waste
management is built on the principle of participation that requires positive attitudes
of the people so that meaningful progress can be achieved with responsibility and
accountability for stability (Zhai and Chang 2019).
Sustainability in the Context of Textile Solid Waste Management
Textile industry is one of the complex industries in the world. While producing its
respective products, it produces heavy environmental load. Besides, it is responsible
for depleting natural resources as well as water resources and thereby causes the
change of environmental footprint. Therefore, sustainable waste management has
gained significant concern to reduce the alternation of ecological footprint by textile
industries. According to European Legislation, the advanced approach to waste
management based on the principle of “waste hierarchy” that corresponds to the
priorities of solid waste management (Golomeova et al. 2013). The practices under
this principle have also been being applied successfully to treat textile solid waste for
years. Textile solid waste management does not go further without this management
system. Waste hierarchy priorities based on sustainability are designed as follows in
the Fig. 3.
As natural fibers are not sufficient to fulfill the demand of growing population,
this driving force has compelled scientist and researchers to find new sources, i.e.,
synthetic fibers to meet this demand. Natural fibers are biodegradable while
synthetic fibers are not, even not compostable (Khalili et al. 2017). There is no
probable reason to reduce solid wastes completely; nonetheless, the term zero
waste has frequently discussed for waste management, and it is more than a
preventive approach regarding sustainability (Greyson 2007). Zero waste
Waste Minimization
Most Sustainable
Re-use
Recycle/Compost
Energy Recovery
Least Sustainable
Disposal
Fig. 3 Hierarchy in the priorities in the waste management sector

(ZW) is a whole system approach eliminating waste rather than managing waste
(Curran and Williams 2012). As sustainability concept is an integrated approach
that incorporates environmental, social, economic, and some other aspects, zero
waste concept is nothing exception to this. Zero waste stimulates the more
employment opportunities when compared to waste incineration and creates on
average 20 to 35% more jobs (Rathnayake et al. 2014). Therefore, zero waste
management is discussed under different segments such as eco-design, cleaner
production, product stewardship, inventory control, maintenance, and housekeep-
ing (Rathnayake et al. 2014). Zero waste management is considered to be the sixth
wave in the waste management chain, and it is the most holistic approach for the
twenty-first century for waste management system for gaining true sense of
sustainable waste management systems (Zaman and Lehmann 2011). However,
Zaman (2012) suggested that achieving zero waste goals was very hard because
100% recycle was not possible.
Current Strategies to Treat the Textile Solid Waste
Textile sludge contains several constituents like organic matter, nitrogen, phospho-
rous, and micronutrients in addition to dyes and heavy metals (Balan and Monteiro
2001). This sludge can be dried and processed under the techniques such as
densification and combustion for energy production. These treatment processes
guarantee sustainable production and reduce environmental impacts (Avelar et al.
2016).
The cotton textile industry residues and dry sludge are polydisperse, bulky with
low densities. The disposal of these wastes demands high cost of treatment. For this
reason, densification process of these residues can become an attractive alternative to
lessen the costs and convert them into an adequate biofuel that is considered as
valuable by-product. The densification process of these biomass, such as briquetting,
depicts the process of applying pressure on a mass of disperse particles, aiming to
produce a solid, compact, geometric high-density material (Li and Liu 2000). The
technology has several advantages such as improvement of the capability for
transportation and storage, the production of a biofuel with uniform burning quality,
and the reduction of the possibility of spontaneous combustion and biodegradation
of the residues.
The most challenging part is to treat the textile solid waste from the effluent
treatment plants, especially where dye effluents are involved. These dye effluents
eventually lead to generation of huge amount of environment polluting sludge
regardless the effluent treatment process, especially where activated sludge
process or physical coagulation/flocculation technology is used. This sludge
comes with a complicated toxic nature consist of the materials that cannot be
degraded or removed by the effluent treatment process such as dye residues,
surfactants, heavy metal ions, detergents, solvents, and recalcitrant compounds
(Chen and Wu 2018). So, if this sludge is not managed properly, it can easily
accumulate into the plants and eventually enters into the food chain. So, safe
sludge management is unavoidable and very important for environmental pollu-

tion abatement.
Conventionally, landfill and incineration are the two main strategies that are used
for textile sludge management. However, landfill has the disadvantage of hazardous
leachate production which may result in soil and groundwater contamination, and
most cases limits land applications (Turovskiy and Mathai 2006; Nessa et al. 2016).
On the other hand, from the regulatory perspective, incineration may be the most
effective method. However, it inevitably produces hazardous gases like dioxin and
nitrogen oxides and discharges into the atmosphere. Besides, incineration process
leaves a residual with high heavy metal concentration, which needs to be further
treated before dumping (Hu et al. 2015; Lin et al. 2014). This is why, instead of
landfill and incineration, more suitable sludge management process should be
established, i.e., re-utilization of sludge to mitigate its pollution and to reduce the
cost of treatment.
Case Study: Bangladesh Scenario
In the recent years, readymade garments have become the major export sector of
Bangladesh contributing to almost 80% of total export earnings (Anwar et al.
2018). Around 4000 readymade garments production facilities are currently
operating in the country, and the numbers are growing. These industries generate
around 2.82 million cubic meter wastewater per day. However, around 48%
industries still do not use any effluent treatment plant (ETP) resulting direct
discharge of wastewater in the waterbodies and thus polluting the environment
(Today 2011). The remaining 52% who are using the ETP are generating 1.14 kg
solid sludge per m3 of wastewater. In 2012, total generation of textile WTP
sludge was about 36.39 metric ton, but still there is no established method
to decontaminate this sludge (Nessa et al. 2016). Although there are some
land filling and incineration practices have been started, most of these solid
wastes are typically discarded into the environment without further processing
(Fig. 4).
However, the Department of Environment (DoE), Ministry of Environment and
Forests, Bangladesh, has already taken extensive initiatives to reduce inappropriate
sludge disposal practices and enforced proper guideline to sludge treatment (DoE
2015). The guideline stated that:
1. The producer of the sludge is responsible for the correct classification of the
sludge as described in these guidelines.
2. The classification of the sludge must be finalized:
(a) During the first 6 months of operation of a new treatment plant.
(b) Six months after the gazette notification of the guideline for an existing plant.
(c) During the first 3 months after changes regarding the origin of the wastewater,
classified as in Annex 2B, or the treatment of the wastewater occur.
Fig. 4 Textile waste pollution of Dhalaibeel which is a connecting canal to the river Bangshi in
Savar, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Canal was contaminated with textile effluent and solid waste resulting
different shades of colors. Dead fishes were also found. Picture was taken in 8 November, 2020.
(Image is used with photographer’s permission)
3. The producer of the sludge shall take the necessary measures to ensure the sludge
management fulfills the requirements of this document.
4. The producer shall take necessary measures to ensure that the sludge is recovered
or disposed of without endangering human health by pathogens or pollutants and
without using processes or methods which could harm the environment, in
particular present a risk to water, air, soil and plants and animals or cause a
nuisance through noise or odors.
5. The bodies concerned shall work toward:
(a) The prevention or reduction of sludge production and its harmfulness, in
particular by:
(i) The development and use of clean technologies more sparing in their use
of natural resources
(ii) The technical development and marketing of products designed to min-
imize waste and pollution hazards during manufacture, use and final
disposal
(b) The recovery of waste by means of recycling, re-use, or reclamation or any
other process with a view to utilizing resources or extracting secondary raw
materials
(c) The use of waste as a source of energy
The DoE is also set a maximum limit of heavy metal in the treated textile sludge
and the cultivation soil for sludge application (Table 5).
Table 5 Maximum allowable heavy metal content in textile sludge for disposal
Parameter In sludgea mg/kg dry substance In soilb mg/kg dry substance
Pb (Lead) 900 100
Cd (Cadmium) 10 1.5
Cr (Chromium) 900 100
Cu (Copper) 800 60
Ni (Nickel) 200 50
Hg (Mercury) 8 1
Zn (Zinc) 2500 200
a
The quantity is limited: < 3 t dry substance sewage sludge per ha in 3 years, < 10 t dry substance
sludge compost per ha in 3 years
b
Soil of the agricultural land before application of sludge
Some Promising Methods for Textile Solid Waste Management
Composting
Composting is one of the most popular as well as natural processes of recycling

organic waste materials into rich soil known as compost. The compost is formed by
aerobic decomposition of organic materials by microorganisms under controlled
conditions (Golomeova et al. 2013). The basic process of composting is illustrated
in Fig. 5.
Even composting is the third preferred choice in the integrated waste manage-
ment hierarchy; composting is one of the most suitable methods for textile solid
waste treatment because of its low processing cost and zero waste behavior (Yadav
and Samadder 2018). Biodegradable components of textile solid waste can be
managed by prepared compost or by producing other goods which will ultimately
go for composting after their life cycle. As examples, nappy pads, wipes, mulching
sheet for agro-textiles, and interiors for cars can be prepared from these types of
textile solid waste which will eventually back into nature after their life cycle
(Aishwariya 2018). Besides, due to environmental concerns, composite textiles are
made from natural fiber and synthetic biodegradable polymers like polylactic acid
(PLA). These composite textiles are mainly used in medical textiles and are com-
postable/degradable when thrown in the landfill (Radhakrishnan 2015; Schneider
2016; Mejía et al. 2017).
While composting, the textile solid waste is reduced to greater extent because of
the carbon dioxide, water, and other gases release. So this process not only reduces
the solid waste but also the compost product can be used as excellent fertilizer for
gardening, plantation, and crop production. Under natural conditions, the decompo-
sition process can last from several months to a year or even more, depending on
climatic conditions as well as on the waste components. However, the composting
process can be speeded up by fortification and enrichment. In this case effective
microorganisms are introduced to the composting system (Aishwariya and
Amsamani 2012).
Fig. 5 Process of composting
Regeneration of Valuable Products from Textile Solid Waste
As textile industries produce a large volume of solid waste, there is a challenge for
researchers and scientists to convert these wastes into valuable products. Recently
Weiyan Yin and coworkers has suggested a method to covert the textile waste fabrics
into adsorbents to remove heavy metal ion, for instance, Cu (II) ion selectively by
amidoxime- and triazole-functionalized waste cotton fabrics followed by azide-alkyne
click chemistry (Yin et al. 2018). Although there are several ways to remove heavy
metals from waste water such as adsorption, chemical precipitation, solvent extraction,
and membrane filtration, these bio-adsorbents made from textile wastes have green
and faster adsorption rates compared to others (Setyono and Valiyaveettil 2016).
Hossain et al. (2018) prepared environmentally friendly bricks from textile sludge
and successfully replaced 50% clay in the bricks manufacturing. The resulted bricks
also required much less firing temperature compared to the conventional brick making
process and thus reduced the risk of producing NOXs and SOXs from the sludge
incineration. Besides these, many other researches have been conducted to prepare
secondary products from the textile solid wastes which are tabulated in Table 6.
Radiation Technology to Decontaminate Textile Sludge
The dye materials are coagulated and precipitated in the chemical processed ETPs. So,
the textile sludge mainly has two components, i.e., precipitating salts and precipitated
dye. These precipitated and concentrated dyes have very high BOD and COD value
which is the main cause of the toxicity of the textile sludge. This is why, waterbodies
contaminated with textile sludge suffers from dissolved oxygen deficiency and possess
serious threat to the aquatic lives. Besides, if these dye materials enter to the food chain
before degradation, they can accommodate in kidney and liver of animals and human
being which may lead to damages of the vital organs.
Table 6 Valuable products prepared from textile solid waste and their applications
Solid waste
type Prepared products Sample preparation in brief References
Textile sludge Methylene blue Textile sludge was carbonized at high Rahman
absorbent temperature in the absence of oxygen to et al.
prepare the absorbent (2017a)
Textile sludge Soil conditioner Sludge was mixed with garden soil in Nessa
different ratios and used to grow red et al.
amaranth (Amaranthus gangeticus) (2016)
Textile Lightweight bricks Lightweight bricks were successfully Chen and
sludge, coal fabricated by using a mixture of ground Wu (2018)
ash, ground soil, textile sludge, and coal ash as the
soil raw materials
Textile Activated carbon for Dried textile sludge was mixed with KI Hui and
sludge, malachite green and KOH followed by heating at 90 C Zaini
sawdust adsorption for 1.5 h. The impregnated sample was (2020)
then activated at 700 C for 1 h
Textile sludge Organic Manure Textile sludge was biodegraded to be Raju et al.
used as manure (2020)
Textile sludge Partial replacement Collected sludge was dried, powdered, Rahman
of and used as cement replacement et al.
Portland cement/ (2017b)
sand in the
composition of
concrete
Textile sludge Biochars for oil Biochars were made by carbonizing the Sohaimi
removal textile sludge in laboratory tube furnace et al.
for 1 h in the absence of oxygen (2017)
Calcined Stabilizing material Sludge was mixed with Portland de Oliveira
textile sludge for highway soil cement CPIIF-32, dolomitic hydrated et al.
lime (49.5% CaO), and a slow set (2020)
cationic asphalt emulsion (RL-1C with
60.9% residue) as chemical additives to
be used as highway soil
However, studies have reported that the textile sludge is rich in organic com-
pounds and plant nutrients (Teixeira et al. 2007; Hue 1995) and has the potentiality
to improve soil properties, as it contains many plant nutrients such as N, P, and K and
could be an alternative to chemical fertilizers in agriculture. So, toxic textile sludge
can be turned into useful products if the dye materials of it can be degraded. Usually,
microorganisms do this job effectively, but it takes time and while doing it, they
consume the dissolved oxygen (if the sludge is disposed in waterbodies). Besides, as
the degradation happens in time-dependent manner (up to 1 year), there is always a
chance to enter in the food chain before degradation.
Radiation processing can play a very important role to solve the problem. Jahid
et al. reported that ionizing radiation like gamma radiation was very effective to
degrade the organic contents of textile effluent and thus reduced the BOD and COD
to a great extent (Islam et al. 2014a, b). Besides, this industrial sludge comes up with
water and contains azo dyes. So gamma radiation treatment may convert them into
amide, which can be converted into ammonium by hydrolysis (Bagyo et al. 1997).
So, the resulting nitrogenous compounds rich decontaminated sludge can be an
organic nutrient source for the plants as well.
Results reported by Islam et al. (2014b) also support the hypothesis. Gamma
radiation-treated textile effluent was found nontoxic to plants and was very effective
to induce plant growth compared to the control plants which were growth with
common cultivation practice. On the other hand, as gamma radiation has very high
penetration capability, the similar technique can be used on textile sludge to degrade
the dye compounds and can be used as chemical fertilizer. So, this gamma radiation-
based treatment practice can not only decontaminate the textile sludge; it also makes
it a good fertilizer.
Briquettes from Textile Sludge
These are also a huge possibility to produce condense briquettes from textile sludge
and scraps. Briquettes made from densification process have better energy parame-
ters, higher density, and higher heating value than raw materials (Stolarski et al.
2013). Due to the low moisture of the briquettes, the furnace rapidly reaches high
temperatures, producing less smoke and soot. In addition, the material resulting from
compression achieves higher flame temperatures and has increased thermal regular-
ity, thus maintaining homogeneous heat (Bhattacharya et al. 2002). Moreover,
briquettes have economic value because briquettes can be commercialized, generat-
ing income to the textile mills.
Conclusion and Future Perspectives
Nowadays, environmental organizations as well as the buyers are much more

concerned about the environmental degradation caused by textile waste. However,
most of the times people are so focused on textile effluent-related issues that they
often neglect the importance of textile solid waste management. This is why,
although most of the textile industries have functioning ETP, only a few are handling
the solid waste treatment. This problem is much more severe in case of textile sludge
treatment. Sometimes, many of the industries really don’t know what to do with the
sludge, and they eventually dump it to nearby waterbodies which is causing serious
environmental pollution. So, it is high time to prioritize the solid waste treatment for
sustainable development of the textile sector.
However, scientists all around the world are working to develop suitable textile
solid waste management strategies. Especially, the waste recycling and reusing are
getting much more attention as these lead to zero waste production system. Recycled
fibers are being used in automobile interiors, agro-textiles, reinforcement in
geotextiles, acoustics, textiles for building construction purpose, upholstery, package
textiles and food packing materials, and so on. Using recycled textiles for filtration
purposes is another easy but very effective management for the textile solid waste
(Zander et al. 2017). Besides, various product developments like building materials,
fertilizer, bio-absorbent, etc. are also in progress using textile sludge. So, hopefully
newer and newer approaches will come up to manage and utilize the textile solid
waste which will ultimately turn this environmental treat to a blessing to the
mankind.
Acknowledgments The authors would like to acknowledge Mr. Mohammad Samsur Rahaman,
Chemist, Echotex Ltd., Kaliakoir, Gazipur, Bangladesh for granting permission to use his photog-
raphy in Fig. 4.
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Reuse of Textile ETP Sludge into
Value-Added Products for Environmental 49
Sustainability
Subrata Chandra Das, M. Sarwar Jahan, Debasree Paul, and

Mubarak Ahmad Khan
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1308
Textile Wet Processing Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1309
Textile Sludge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1312
Harmful Effects of Textile Sludge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1314
Reuse of Textile Sludge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1315
Bricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1315
Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1318
Building or Construction Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1321
Fertilizers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1324
Biogas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1327
Adsorbent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1330
Defoamer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1331
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1332
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1333
Abstract
To produce colorful clothing and to meet the demand of our second basic needs,
enormous volume of water, chemicals, dyes, and pigments are used in textile and
clothing industries across the world. Therefore, huge amount of effluents has been
S. C. Das (*)
Advanced and Sustainable Engineering Materials Laboratory, Department of Manufacturing and
Civil Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Gjøvik, Norway
M. S. Jahan
BSCL Scientific Research Laboratory, Bombay Sweets & Co. Ltd., Dhaka, Bangladesh
D. Paul
Department of Textile Engineering, Mawlana Bhashani Science and Technology University,
Tangail, Bangladesh
M. A. Khan
Jute Polymer Unit, Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation, Ministry of Textiles and Jute, Dhaka,
Bangladesh

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_58
1308 S. C. Das et al.
emerged from these textile industries especially from textile dyeing, printing, and
finishing industries every year which is a threat for the environment. Textile
sludge is mainly the by-product of effluent treatment plant of a textile mill in the
form of solid or semisolid waste. Textile sludge is not biodegradable due to the
presence of toxic and harmful chemicals, heavy metals, organic matters, etc.; thus
the sludge can cause harm to the aquatic life, crop land, wildlife, and human
health. Recently, researchers from various fields have brought several ways to
save our environment from this sludge which can be very promising and viable to
maintain sustainability of the environment. This chapter will discuss the textile
wet processing industry, textile sludge, and its harmful effects. Then the reuse of
textile sludge into various value-added products are briefly presented such as
bricks, concrete, building or construction materials, fertilizers, biogas, adsorbent,
and defoamers.
Keywords
Textile ETP sludge · Textile waste · Solid waste management · Clay bricks ·
Sludge reuse
Introduction
Textile industry is the major export-oriented industry in Asia, more specifically in

China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, India, and Turkey which are the top five garment
exporter countries worldwide. There are various types of textile industry such as
spinning, weaving, knitting, wet processing (dyeing and printing), and garment
manufacturing industry. Among them, the wet processing industry is significant
for having various chemical processing operations such as desizing, scouring,
bleaching, mercerizing, dyeing, printing, and finishing processes where enormous
amounts of water, chemical agents, auxiliaries, and dyestuffs are employed (Paul
et al. 2017; Islam et al. 2011). In wet processing industry, huge amount of water is
required in every section; the consumption of water in different sections are 38% in
bleaching and finishing, 16% in dyeing, 8% in printing, 14% in boiler house, and
24% in others (Jhala and Bhatt 1995). For coloration of textile fabrics, enormous
quantities of dyestuffs and pigments are used in textile dyeing and printing industries
over the year; however, a significant amount of dyes remained unfixed and
discharged as wastewater or effluent. This wastewater contains heavy metals, toxic
components, suspended solids, and other organic and inorganic compounds. The
production of textile sludge is about 25 m3 per 1 million tons of wastewater where
two-thirds of this textile sludge are disposed of in the environment (Huang et al.
2011). Textile sludge produced from these wastewaters after the treatment in textile
effluent treatment plant (ETP) is one of the major concerns for the environmental
pollution. There are various substances present in textile sludge such as organic
compounds, various oxides, heavy metals, nitrogen, phosphorous, micronutrients,
pathogenic microorganisms, and other toxic and hazardous chemicals (Hossain et al.
49 Reuse of Textile ETP Sludge into Value-Added Products for Environmental. . . 1309
2018; Patel and Pandey 2012). Sludge can be disposed by landfilling or incineration,
but this will increase the extra cost for the industry. In the developing countries, in
particular, much of the textile sludge are openly dumped into the lands, lakes, rivers,
etc., as a result which leads soil, agricultural land, surface water and groundwater
contamination (Balasubramanian et al. 2006). In the case of land filling of the sludge,
there is a possibility of contamination of groundwater due to leachate. Since textile
sludge contains heavy metals such as Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, Al, Pb, Cd, Mn, Fe, Co, etc.,
and other harmful chemicals, so it will have a negative impact on aquatic life and
ecosystem, soil fertility, germination, food chain, and finally high risk for human
health (Mishra et al. 2019; Khan and Malik 2014; Kant 2012). In Bangladesh,
wastewater generation by textile mills is about 2.82 million m3 per day basis
which contributes to formation of solid textile sludge approximately 1.14 kg/m3 of
wastewater. The generation of textile ETP sludge was skyrocket from 0.113 million
tons to 36 million tons in the year from 2007 to 2012, respectively (WC 2009).
Hence, the rapid growth of textile sludge is unavoidable and will increase in the
future to meet the global demand of colorful textiles and clothing products to the
consumers. Moreover, textile industries are the main economic backbone of some
developing countries like Bangladesh and India. Hence, the generation of textile
sludge will be continued to grow rapidly in the future until any ecofriendly and
sustainable technology in textile wet processing will be introduced. But, to avoid the
harmful effects of this toxic and hazardous textile sludge and to ensure environmen-
tal sustainability, proper sludge management is necessary. Researchers and scientists
from various fields have tried to utilize the harmful textile sludge into some value-
added materials which are very promising and significant steps for the management
of textile sludge and environmental sustainability. The reuse of textile ETP sludge in
bricks (Hossain et al. 2016, 2017, 2018; Kumar et al. 2019), concrete (Zhan and
Poon 2015; Singh et al. 2019), building and construction materials (Goyal et al.
2019; Jian et al. 2020), fertilizers (Parvin et al. 2015; Nessa et al. 2016), biogas (Goel
2010; Kumar et al. 2020), adsorbent (Jahagirdar et al. 2015; Devi and Saroha 2017),
defoamer (Scheibe et al. 2018), etc., can be an effective way of reducing environ-
mental pollution as well as value addition in the harmful and unused waste materials
like textile sludge.
Textile Wet Processing Industry
There are several types of textile industry, among them textile wet processing
industry is the major contributor of environmental pollution due to the generation
of huge amount of wastewater and effluents which contain various pollutants. There
are various processing operations in a wet processing industry such as desizing,
scouring, bleaching, mercerizing, dyeing, printing, and finishing. In these various
processes, enormous amount of water is required, and various types of chemicals and
dyes are used. Table 1 shows the chemicals and auxiliaries used in various processes
of textile wet processing industry as well as pollutants generated from these various
processes. Generally, an average-sized textile manufacturing unit used water
Table 1 Chemicals used in and pollutants from textile wet processing operations (Karthik and
Rathinamoorthy 2015; Holkar et al. 2016; Periyasamy et al. 2019)
Process Chemicals used Pollutants
Desizing Enzyme, wetting agent, NaCl, Starch, hydrolyzed starch, waxes,
detergent, phosphate buffer ammonia, enzymes, salt, acidic pH
Scouring and NaOH, silicate (Na2O/SiO2), Alkalis, peroxides, hypochlorite,
bleaching Na2CO3, NaOCl, CaOCl, NaCl, chlorines, surfactants, silicates,
H2O2, surfactant, wetting agent, organic stabilizer, soaps, saponified
detergent, per oxide killer, acetic oils, disinfectant and insecticide
acid, washing agent, enzyme action residues, fats, hydrolyzed pectins,
deactivator, etc. proteins, sizes, waxes, high pH,
suspended solids, TDS, high COD,
natural colors, etc.
Mercerizing NaOH, acid High pH, NaOH
Dyeing Dyes, pigments, salt, caustic soda, Dyes, salts, surfactants, organic-
levelling agent, dispersing agent, processing assistants, sulfide, alkalis,
wetting agent, sodium hydrosulfite, acids, detergents, formaldehyde,
sequestering agent, acids, mordants, heavy metals like chromium, copper,
carriers, etc. high BOD and COD, TDS, etc.
Printing Dye or pigments, thickener, print Dyes, alkali, acids, thickeners,
paste, emulsifiers, binders, detergents, high BOD and COD,
surfactants, solvents, crosslinking waxes, oils, fatty alcohol,
agents, fixing agents, softening formaldehyde, urea, surfactants,
agents, defoamer, urea, preservatives solvents, metals such as chromium,
or biocides, alcohol, coupling agents, copper, aquatic toxicity, suspended
reducing agents, alkalis, glycerin, solids, etc.
glycols, printing oils, borax, etc.
Finishing Softeners, soaping agent, fixing Softeners, silicons, solvents,
agent, acetic acid, silicones, oxidizing agents, formaldehyde,
repellents based on fluorocarbons, enzymes, cationic compounds,
paraffins, flame retardants, chlorinated compounds, acetate,
antimicrobial agents, antistatic organic and inorganic compounds,
agents, brighteners, etc. resins, waxes, suspended and
dissolved solids, etc.
approximately 200 liter per kilogram of fabrics processed per day (Wang et al. 2011;
Kant 2012). A calculation performed by World Bank revealed that when a textile
fabric treated in dyeing and finishing processes, about 17–20% of wastewater is
produced from these processes (Kant 2012). For the production of clothing, there are
over 8000 chemicals and auxiliaries used in textile industries. It is also seen that
textile mills in India use approximately 80% of total production of 1,30,000 tons of
coloring materials such as dyes and pigments for apparel production processes (Naik
et al. 2013; Holkar et al. 2016).
The wastewater produced from these processes, viz., desizing, scouring,
bleaching, mercerizing, dyeing, printing, and finishing processes, contains a large
range of chemicals, unfixed dyes, or pollutants which are toxic and lethal, contrib-
uting to environmental pollutions. Dyeing process is the major contributor of
environmental pollution among all these various wet processing operations due to
Fig. 1 A typical ETP (a) and textile wastewater (b)
discharging dyes, dyeing additives, and other auxiliary chemicals to the environ-
ment. Usually, these dyes are not biodegradable and environmentally friendly due to
the presence of some aromatic chemical groups. The synthetic dyes used in textile
coloration contain heavy metals which are poisonous and carcinogenic. The waste-
water generated from textile wet processing industry is high in pH, BOD and COD,
and has high concentrations of dissolved solids, suspended solids, chlorides, sul-
fates, phenols, etc. The pollutants that cause water toxicity, are including salts,
surfactants, ionic metals and their complexes, formaldehydes, toxic organic
chemicals, biocides and toxic anions, detergents, emulsifiers and dispersants, etc.
(Periyasamy et al. 2019; Karthik and Rathinamoorthy 2015). Figure 1 shows a
typical ETP (a) and textile wastewater (b).
Dyeing is a coloration process, by which coloring substance (dyes and pigments)
is transferred from dye bath into fiber either physically or chemically; as a result the
textile material is colored by dyeing process. In textile industry, synthetic dyes are
mainly used. These dyes are produced from coal tar and intermediates of petroleum
industry. The presence of chromophore groups in dyes is responsible for color in
textile materials and the auxochrome groups for fixing the color in the materials. The
azo (–N¼N–), carbonyl (–C¼O), methine (–CH¼), nitro (–NO2), and quinoid are
the most significant chromophore groups. On the other hand, amine (–NH3), car-
boxyl (–COOH), sulfonate (–SO3H), and hydroxyl (–OH) are the most essential
auxochrome groups. The textile dyes can be classified as acid dyes, direct dyes, azoic
dyes, disperse dyes, sulfur dyes, reactive dyes, basic dyes, oxidation dyes, mordant
dyes (chrome dyes), vat dyes, optical or fluorescent brightener, solvent dyes, etc.
(Burkinshaw 2015; Wardman 2017). It is found that more than 10,000 various dyes
and pigments have been used industrially, and especially for synthetic dyes, global
annual productions are more than 7 105 tons (Khan and Malik 2014; Robinson
et al. 2001). Among all types of dyestuffs, azo dyes contribute to the largest market
share and constitute 60–70% of all organic dyes manufactured worldwide. A wide
variety of chemicals are added to dyes to increase dye adsorption into the fibers;
Table 2 Pollutants associated with various dyes. (Reused from (Periyasamy et al. 2019) with
permission from Springer Nature)
Dyes Fibers Pollutants
Reactive dyes Cotton, regenerated cellulosic, 5–30% unfixed dyes, 7–20% viscose rayon,
wool, or synthetics 10–20% lyocell, salts, alkalis
Direct dyes Cotton 5–20% unfixed dyes, salts, copper salt,
cationic
fixing agents
Basic dyes Acrylic 2–7% unfixed dyes, alkalis, acids
Acid dyes Wool 7–20% unfixed dyes, organic acids
Vat dyes Cotton 5–8% unfixed dyes, alkalis, oxidizing agents,
reducing agents
Sulfur dyes Cotton 20–30% unfixed dyes, alkalis, oxidizing and
reducing agents
Disperse dyes Polyester 5–20% unfixed dyes, reducing agents,
organic
acids carriers, acids
Chrome dyes Wool 5–7% unfixed dyes, organic acids, metals,
sulfide, salts
1:2 metal wool 2–8% unfixed dyes, organic acids, heavy
complex dyes metals, salts
these chemicals are organic-processing assistants, surfactants, salts, formaldehyde,

heavy metals, sulfide, etc., which are the major contaminants in the wastewater
coming from the dyeing operations (Sarayu and Sandhya 2012). The two key groups
present in dyes such as auxochrome and chromophore groups are also liable for the
pollution of dyeing wastewater (Szymczyk et al. 2007). Industrially batch, contin-
uous, or semicontinuous processes are available to dye textile fabrics or clothing
materials. During dyeing process of a textile material, usually all the dyes are not
fixed to the textile fibers; some percentage of dyes remained unfixed. Table 2 shows
the unfixed dyes and pollutants associated with various dyes.
Textile Sludge
Textile sludge is the materials generated from the textile wastewater or effluent
treatment plant (ETP) which is typically one kind of wastewater biosolids. It is
produced at various stages of treatment such as screening, primary settling, chemical
precipitation, and the activated sludge or trickling filter stage. During the treatment
operations of wastewater from textile wet processing, the ETP generates very high
amount of inorganic, biological, and organic mixed sludge. Textile sludge generally
contains high amount of organic matter, micronutrients, heavy metals, pathogenic
microorganisms, etc. (Hossain et al. 2018). Generally, the dyes and chemicals used
in textile wet processing industry ultimately are found in sludge in various amounts
which are toxic and extremely harmful for the environment as well as living beings.
If a wet processing industry used 50 m3 water per hour, then it can generate
Fig. 2 Textile mill ETP

sludge
approximately 1–10 tons of sludge per day in wet basis (Balan and Monteiro 2001;
Szymczyk et al. 2007). The fate of this huge number of toxic sludges may be in
landfilling, dump in the rivers or ocean, or incineration. Figure 2 shows textile mill
ETP sludge.
The textile sludge shows various characteristics depending on from which it is
collected in an ETP. Nessa et al. analyzed the properties of textile sludge in a textile
mill of Bangladesh and found 6.9 pH, 0.04 electrical conductivity, 80% moisture
content, 35% total organic carbon, 0.47% total nitrogen, 2532.9 mg/kg nitrate-
nitrogen, 0.63% total phosphorous, 0.0013% sulfur (S), 3634.1 10.9 mg/kg
sodium (Na), 4066 4.1 mg/kg potassium (K), 20565.3 246.1 mg/kg cal-
cium (Ca), 4634 9.3 mg/kg magnesium (Mg), 5.9 meq/L SAR (sodium absorption
ratio), and 11.1% sodium (Na) (Nessa et al. 2016). Patel and Pandey reported the
characteristics of textile sludge as 8.70 pH, 6.90 mS/m electrical conductivity,
916.23 kg/m3 density, 0.94 specific gravity, 10.50% moisture content, 89.50%
total solids, 3.60% total volatile solids (dry), 63.40% total fixed solid (dry),
11.20% organic carbon, and 991.57 kcal/kg calorific value (Patel and Pandey
2012). Hossain et al. studied textile sludge from mixture mass of ETP and filter
press section; they found 6.4–6.7 pH, 1.2–1.5 g/cm3 dry density, 36–38% water
absorption, 26–28% ash content, 10–12% volatile matter, and 8–9% moisture
content on dry basis (Hossain et al. 2018). There are various heavy metals found
in textile sludge such as Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, Al, Pb, Cd, Mn, Fe, Co, etc., and the quantity
is reported by various authors as shown in Table 3. There are various types of oxides
found in textile sludges such as Al2O3, CaO, Cr2O3, FeO, P2O5, SiO2, TiO2, SO4,
V2O5, MgO, MnO, Fe2O3, SO3, Na2O, K2O, etc., in different amounts (Jian et al.
2020; Goyal et al. 2019; Zhan and Poon 2015). Zhan and Poon analyzed oxides in
textile sludge by X-ray fluorescence (XRF) method and found the amount of oxides
in percentage (%) dry mass as 3.4% SiO2, 6.2% Al2O3, 2.79% P2O5, 0.87% CaO,
24.95% SO4, 0.53% TiO2, 0.82% MnO, 60.45% Fe2O3 (Zhan and Poon 2015).
Goyal et al. reported 3.8% SiO2, 0.3% Al2O3, 33.5% CaO, 18.9% Fe2O3, 0.4% SO3,
1% MgO, 0.06% Na2O, and 0.04% K2O in their study on textile sludge (Goyal et al.
2019).
Table 3 Concentration of heavy metals in textile ETP sludge

Heavy metal Anwar et al. Velumani et al. Nessa et al. Balasubramanian
(mg/kg) (2018) (2016) (2016) et al. (2006)
Cr 10 34.36 17.7 2.98
Ni 32 30.80 10.3 0.68
Cu 58 87.35 164.1 57.48
Zn 131 82.65 367.1 91.60
Al 76 – – –
Pb 12 101.13 9.7 12.1
Cd 5.6 BDL 0.3 3.96
Mn – – 122.9 –
Fe – – 4245 180.5
Co – – 1.0 –
Harmful Effects of Textile Sludge
The disposal of textile sludge is important; if it is not done perfectly, then hazard may
happen due to the toxic effects of the ingredients present in sludge. As textile sludge
contains huge amount of pollutants, unfixed dyes, various chemicals, and heavy
metals, so these ingredients from sludge can cause various harmful effects on aquatic
life, soil, and human health. Leaching is the process by which textile sludge enters
the soil, pollutes water body, and pollutes the farmland (Patel and Pandey 2012;
Anwar et al. 2018; Rahman et al. 2015).
Aquatic Life
Dyes, heavy metals, and other chemicals present in sludge can cause imbalance in
aquatic life. These can present in the water for long time due to its high thermal and
photostability to resist degradation. These chemicals hamper the entering of sunlight
into the water system; as a result photosynthetic function of aquatic plants or algae
is severely affected (Zaharia et al. 2009). The heavy metals are carcinogenic and
toxic to life, and the presence of these metals seriously affects the quality of water
bodies leading to damage to the aquatic life, inhibits the growth of microorganisms,
and affects flora and fauna. Azo dyes used in textile industry are highly toxic,
carcinogenic, and mutagenic. By ingestion these dyes penetrate the body and
metabolized by intestinal microorganisms causing DNA damage (Mishra et al.
2019; Gita et al. 2017). Hence, dumping or leaching of textile sludge into water
body is lethal to aquatic life such as microorganisms, algae, plants, fish, mammals,
insects, and other living species in water (Khan and Malik 2014; Holkar et al. 2016).
Soil
When textile sludge is subjected to soil or crop lands, then the ingredients present in
the sludge also pollute the soil; it clogs the pores of the soil resulting in loss of soil
fertility. The texture of soil gets hardened and penetration of roots is prevented (Khan
and Malik 2014). It is also found that the presence of sludge in soil, even in short
period, will decrease the water-soluble salts and organic matter content of soil as
compared to normal water-irrigated soil, and high concentration of textile sludge can
decrease the germination. It was found that ladyfinger and kidney bean were
decreased germination percentage in sludge-polluted soil (Chhonkar et al. 2000;
Ramana et al. 2002; Mishra et al. 2019). As a result, the crop production has
hampered, and the vegetables and crops that cultivated in the textile sludge-polluted
lands will carry these heavy metals and other chemicals, and ultimately it enters the
human body while consuming foods (Anwar et al. 2018; Rahman et al. 2015).
Health Risk
When textile sludge enter into the water system and soil or agricultural lands, the
chemicals and heavy metals present in it will damage the aquatic life and soil
productivity, and these toxic chemicals remain in the fish and crops which finally
enter into human body by consuming foods produced from these sources (Pang and
Abdullah 2013). Dyes contain mutagenic agents. The presence of azo and nitro
groups in dyes are the threat for human health such as these may cause cancer and
damage to DNA that can lead to genesis of malignant tumors (Mathur et al. 2012;
Pang and Abdullah 2013; Mishra et al. 2019). Various waterborne diseases such as
mucous membrane, dermatitis, perforation of the nasal septum, severe irritation of
respiratory tract, etc., can be spread with the presence of textile dyes in surface and
subsurface water through adulteration of aquatic systems (Islam et al. 2011). Health
risk associated with heavy metals present in textile sludge may be high blood
pressure, heart disease, kidney disease, abdominal pain, reduced lung functions,
muscular weakness and muscle cramps, reduced fertility, and may cause cancer, etc.
(Mishra et al. 2019).
Reuse of Textile Sludge
Many research works have been performed to utilize this harmful textile sludge into
value-added materials such as bricks, concrete, building or construction materials,
fertilizers, biogas, adsorbent, and defoamer. In this section, the reuse of textile sludge
in various materials is presented.
Bricks
Weng et al. revealed that firing temperature and sludge proportion are the two main
factors contributing the quality of textile sludge bricks. If sludge content is increased
in the brick samples, the decrease of brick shrinkage, water absorption, and CS
(compressive strength) is found. The weight loss on ignition of bricks was mainly
due to the burnt off organic substance present in sludge bricks during firing process.
With up to 20% sludge content to the bricks, the strength measured at 960 C and
1000 C temperatures satisfied the requirements of the Chinese national standards.
The metal leaching level experienced is low as found from the TCLP (toxic
characteristic leaching procedure) test of the sludge brick materials. The best-quality
bricks in this study recommended by the authors are 10% textile sludge content brick
with 24% moisture, manufactured in a molded mixture within the firing range
of 880–960 C (Weng et al. 2003). Baskar et al. studied the effect of sludge content
(3–30%) by weight, firing temperature of 200–800 C, and firing time of 2–8 h on
the quality of bricks. For 800 C, firing shrinkage up to 8 h and 6–9% sludge content
brick showed first- and second-class quality of bricks, whereas 6% sludge bricks
exhibited highest CS of 4.25 MPa, and 9% sludge bricks showed lowest CS of
3.54 MPa. But various temperatures displayed various CS such as 9% sludge bricks
provided CS of 0.92 MPa, 1.64 MPa, 2.07 MPa, 3.06 MPa, and 3.54 MPa for 25 C,
200 C, 400 C, 600 C, and 800 C, respectively. According to the Bureau of Indian
Standard (BIS), all sludge content bricks showed satisfactory outputs in terms of
shrinkage and weight loss properties. But above 9% sludge content bricks did not
satisfy the BIS norms for CS at the maximum temperature. The findings of this study
are that textile sludge can be used up to 9% by weight for brick manufacturing
(Baskar et al. 2006).
Begum et al. studied the brick properties made of textile sludge up to 50% with an
increment of 3%. The bricks with sludge up to 15% satisfied the BIS norms for CS
and water absorption. It was revealed that brick weight loss on ignition was mainly
attributed to the organic matter content in the sludge being burnt off during the firing
process. The characteristics of bricks such as efflorescence, density, and weight loss
on ignition for bricks with replacement of traditional materials with textile sludge up
to 15% also satisfied the requirements of the BIS. According to this study, it is
proved that up to 15% textile sludge can be effectively used to produce bricks
(Begum et al. 2013). Jahagirdar et al. used 0–35% sludge by weight, firing temper-
ature, and time varied to know the effects on CS, density, water absorption, efflo-
rescence, and ringing sound as per BIS. With the increase of sludge content in the
bricks, the density, CS, and ringing sound decreased, but water uptake and efflores-
cence increased. At 800 C (firing temperature) and 24 h (firing period), it showed
better performance in terms of CS with same textile sludge content as compared to
other firing temperatures and firing period combinations. Textile sludge up to 15%
can be used in bricks to obtain CS more than 3.5 N/mm2 (Jahagirdar et al. 2013).
Rahman et al. studied the performance of textile sludge bricks by adding waste glass
into sludge-clay mixture to produce bricks, and it was found that brick composition
of 10% waste glass, 30% sludge, and 60% clay showed highest CS and only 5%
water uptake. This result satisfied the requirements of first-grade brick as per Japan
Industrial Standard norms for common brick. At high-temperature firing process,
waste glass melted and clogged up the pores on the brick surface, thus improved the
performance of CS and lowered the water uptake. To examine the leachability of
heavy metals, leaching tests results revealed that there were no environmental
restrictions to use these bricks (Rahman et al. 2015).
Velumani et al. produced textile sludge bricks with various proportions of hypo
sludge, textile sludge, quarry dust, fly ash, and gypsum. All the combinations of fly
ash bricks made with the mix proportion (15–35% sludge) are found to have satisfied
the BIS norms for strength and durability criteria like water absorption and
Table 4 Composition of Sample name Textile sludge Soil Sand

different bricks. (Reused
E 50% 50% –
from (Hossain et al. 2018)
with permission from F 25% 75% –
Elsevier) G 25% 70% 5%
X 10% 90% –
Y – 100% –
N – 100% –
N: normal commercial brick, collected from a local manufacturer
near Dhaka, Bangladesh
efflorescence. It was found that CS is directly proportional to the volume of textile

sludge and hypo sludge. On the other hand, water uptake increased with the increase
of sludge up to 25%, but further increase of sludge up to 35% the water uptake value
decreased. The authors concluded that the fly ash sludge bricks gain strength and
durability during the curing period satisfying the criteria. Burning or firing is not
used, so it can save energy (Velumani et al. 2016).
Hossain et al. used gamma radiation of 15 kGy dose to detoxify the textile sludge
and then incorporate it into clay and sand to produce ecofriendly bricks. The firing
was done at 450 C for 24 h. Table 4 shows the compositions of various bricks which
are graded as E (50% sludge + 50% soil), F (25% sludge + 75% soil), G (25%
sludge + 70% soil + 5% sand), X (10% sludge + 90% soil), and Y (100% soil). A
normal commercial brick (N, 100% soil) was also compared with all the
manufactured bricks. With the increase of sludge content in bricks, increase is
found for bending strength, modulus, impact strength, and water absorption proper-
ties; however, decrease is found for density, weight loss, firing shrinkage, and
electrical resistivity properties. Aging tests in water, acid, alkali, and salt solution
showed the change of density for all bricks. For 50% sludge bricks (E), bending
strength, impact strength, and water absorption were found to be 1.5 MPa, 6.41 kJ/
m2, and 22.72%, respectively, as they satisfied the brick manufacturing requirements
(Hossain et al. 2018) (Fig. 3).
Different textile sludge/clay mixtures (0.5–5.25% dry sludge) were used to make
bricks, which were evaluated in terms of their CS and the leaching behavior studied
by Anwar et al. The fabricated fired bricks were observed up to 77% more CS
compared to average standard bricks and very low water uptake (0.8–1.3%) which is
acceptable for different uses. From the brick samples, very low amount of heavy
metal release was found by leaching experiment which can be negligible as com-
pared with minimum level of heavy metal contamination that can cause cellular
cytotoxicity (Anwar et al. 2018).
Kumar et al. produced bricks from textile ETP sludge incorporating with quarry
dust, fly ash, lime, and gypsum. The bricks made of 10% textile sludge, 30% quarry
dust and 40% fly ash with curing period of 28 days, observed 8.5% more strength as
compared with the companion specimens. It is also found that there were six mixes
with a CS that is greater than or equal to 3.5 N/mm2 and water uptake was less than
20% for all samples except three. Hence, the CS of all experimental bricks are higher
than that of the conventional brick, and the water uptake properties are in the
Fig. 3 “E” grade brick or

50% sludge brick. (Reused
from (Hossain et al. 2018)
with permission from
Elsevier)
acceptable range, so the bricks can be suitable for construction applications. The
brick sample made of 15% sludge, 25% quarry dust, 40% fly ash, 18% lime and 2%
gypsum mixture were found the minimum water uptake of 12.2%, which can be in
the category of high-class brick (Kumar et al. 2019). In a recent study, the effects of
textile sludge content up to 10%, and 950 C and 1180 C of firing temperature on
the quality of clay bricks as per British Standards (BS) norms were experimented by
Jewaratnam and Samat. At firing temperature 950 C, 5% and 10% sludge bricks
showed CS in the acceptable range in load-bearing brick class 5 requirements
(BS 3921), while at 950 C the 0% sludge brick and at 1180 C the 10% sludge brick
have showed CS more than 48.5 N/mm2 that can be classified as brick class B. The
increase of sludge content in the bricks increases the water uptake%; however, at a
fixed proportion, water uptake decreased with the increase of temperature. At 950 C
firing temperature, the firing shrinkage up to 10% sludge content was less than 20%
(considered as lower). After 21 days of curing, the 10% sludge content cement brick
showed CS of 27.53 N/mm2 and classified as load-bearing class 3 while for water
uptake only 0.73% which is very low (Jewaratnam and Samat 2020).
Concrete
Zhan and Poon studied the reusing of textile sludge to fabricate concrete blocks with
a lime-based pretreatment process. The pretreatment process performed to remove
ammonia in sludge can generate bad odor and strength loss in concrete blocks. The
concrete blocks were made with an aggregate to cement ratio of 12, 10, and 6, and
the pretreated sludge was adopted to replace the fine aggregate at a mass ratio
ranging from 0% to 30%. It was revealed that the concentration of ammonia in
sludge reduced significantly by lime-based pretreatment process. The concrete
blocks with a lower sludge content and lower ammonia concentration showed higher
CS and better volume stability. When the sludge content in the concrete blocks was
about 10%, the concrete blocks with an aggregate to cement ratio of 10 can satisfy
the minimum strength requirement for non-load-bearing applications. From the
leaching test, it was found that the toxic trace metals present in textile sludge could
be stabilized or solidified, and metal leaching from the concrete blocks was not a
concern. The authors concluded that reusing the textile ETP sludge for producing
non-load-bearing concrete blocks with acceptable CS and volume stability can be
feasible when appropriate pretreatment processes are used (Zhan and Poon 2015).
Arul et al. investigated the behavior of concrete and its mechanical properties with
replacement of cement with textile sludge, and a possibility was found to use textile
sludge up to 15% without adding any admixtures. Replacement of cement up to a
certain percentage may reduce emission of harmful gases thus resulting in reduced
emissions during the production of cement (Arul et al. 2015).
Lekshmi and Sasidharan studied the concrete materials made of textile sludge
content such as 0, 10, 15, and 20% at two different water cement ratios (0.4 and 0.5),
and then the CS, splitting strength, and modulus of elasticity were determined. The
authors pointed out the following findings (Lekshmi and Sasidharan 2015):
(i) With the addition of textile sludge content (%), the strength of concrete
decreased.
(ii) At 0% replacement of cement with textile sludge, the CS, splitting tensile
strength and modulus of elasticity was found the highest, and with percent
replacement of over 10%, the properties reduced significantly. So, 0–10%
addition of textile sludge in concrete can be optimum.
(iii) At 10% replacement of cement with textile sludge, the CS at 0.4 water/cement
ratio is 29.33 MPa which satisfied the IS norms (IS 15658-2006); 30 MPa is the
minimum CS for paver blocks.
(iv) The textile sludge concrete can be also used for constructing compound walls,
partition walls, garden tiles, and foot path slabs where RCC is not used as
textile sludge can corrode reinforcements and all other temporary structures.
(v) The concrete cost will be reduced significantly if textile sludge is used instead
of cement.
(vi) The production of ordinary Portland cement contributes about 7% of total
global greenhouse gas emissions. Hence, utilization of textile sludge to replace
cement can minimize the emission of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere, and
it is cost-effective as well as sustainable for the environment (Lekshmi and
Sasidharan 2015).
Joseph and Kumar studied the effects of quartz powder and textile sludge on
strength of concrete. Concrete samples were prepared by replacing cement by quartz
powder at 5, 10, and 15% by weight of cement and by textile sludge 5, 10, and 15%
by weight of cement. The authors also investigated the combined effect of quartz
powder and textile sludge on concrete by replacing quartz powder and textile sludge
in equal proportions of 5, 10, and 15% by weight of cement. It was found that with
the increase of textile sludge (%) as replacement of cement, the strength of concrete
decreased. With the 5, 10, and 15% replacement of cement by sludge, the highest CS
was obtained at 5%, and then the CS decreased with the increase of sludge content.
On the other hand, with the addition of 5, 10, and 15% quartz powder, an increase of
9.6% found at 10% quartz powder than the normal concrete (Joseph and Kumar
2017). Mariappan et al. used fly ash and textile sludge in concrete with banana fibers
by partial substitution of concrete by fly ash up to 30%, and textile sludge was
replaced by fine aggregate up to 20% and addition of banana fiber of 0.25% with
aspect ratio of 70 mm by the volume of M-30 mix by American Concrete Institute
(ACI) method. Textile sludge-based concrete performs and fulfills the basic proper-
ties of conventional concrete for the optimized water to binder ratio (0.45), and
strength-gaining mechanism did not uniform as like conventional concrete at initial
period of time, but it was as good as conventional concrete after 28 days. A
significant decrease of strength was found when textile sludge addition was more
than 20%. Finally, the authors concluded that up to 10% of cement can be replaced
by textile sludge without any unfavorable effect (Mariappan et al. 2018).
Singh et al. produced concrete from textile mill sludge and plasticizer. The fine
aggregates were replaced with textile sludge from 0 to 55% with 0.5% of plasticizer
(at the weight of cement). A slight increase of CS and splitting tensile strength were
found in concrete blended with 0–25% of textile sludge for all curing ages, and then
a significant decrease of strength occurred. Due to the hydroscopic natural of textile
sludge, it absorbed more water which significantly affects the water cement ratio in
all the mixes, and as a result strength loss occurred. Hence, 25% textile sludge
content can be utilized without compromising CS and splitting tensile strength of
concrete. With the increase of sludge content in concrete, voids were increased, and
the weight loss increased during chemical aging test, and much damage occurred by
acid solution, so sludge content more than 20% is not recommended by the authors.
However, the addition of plasticizer (0.5%) with textile sludge revealed improved
properties (Singh et al. 2019) (Fig. 4).
Recently, Loganayagan et al. reported the utilization of textile sludge into con-
crete materials as partial replacement fine aggregate up to 20%. The CS found for
0, 5, 10, 15, and 20% replacement of textile sludge was 19.21, 17.88, 9.33, 8.66, and
3.23 N/mm2, respectively, after 7 days of curing, and 22.46, 19.56, 13.44, 11.66, and
9.66 N/mm2, respectively, after 28 days of curing. The CS decreased with the
increase of sludge replacement in concrete, and the obtained bricks were not suitable
for applications. Due to the finer sludge particles than cement, the water demand and
volume got increased during mixing and the CS of the fabricated concretes reduced.
Fig. 4 Concrete specimens

after immersed in acid attack.
(Reused from (Singh et al.
2019) with permission from
Springer Nature)
Hence, the authors concluded that it was not possible to the partial replacement of
textile sludge for fine aggregate in concrete materials (Loganayagan et al. 2020).
Building or Construction Materials
Balasubramanian et al. reported the utilization of textile sludge in building mate-

rials according to BIS norms to assess the usability of textile sludge for structural
and nonstructural application by partial replacement of up to 30% of cement.
However, the combination of cement/sludge materials did not satisfy the necessary
strength for structural applications but can satisfy the nonstructural applications
such as flooring tiles, solid and pavement blocks, and bricks. Hence, the authors
concluded that for the application of nonstructural building materials, the replace-
ment of cement by textile sludge up to 30% can be feasible, and, further, they also
recommended the leachability and cost-effectiveness studies (Balasubramanian
et al. 2006).
Patel and Pandey studied the stabilization or solidification of textile sludge with
Portland Pozzolana Cement (PPC) to validate the utilization of sludge in construc-
tion materials. Some of the major findings of their study are highlighted below:
(i) With the increase of textile sludge in the solidified blocks, the CS was
decreased.
(ii) After 14 days in water curing, the CS was found from 2.78 MPa to 17.42 MPa,
and after 28 days it was from 3.62 MPa to 33.37 MPa. With the number of
curing days, the CS of the blocks was increased.
(iii) The number of curing days in water apparently did not change the density of the
sludge blocks such as density found 1236.38 kg/m3 to 1669.59 kg/m3 after
14 days and 1222.17 kg/m3 to 1688.72 kg/m3 after 28 days; the values are
almost similar.
(iv) The leaching of heavy metals from the stabilized or solidified sludge was not
found significant. But the authors recommended long-term leaching tests.
The authors concluded, based on their experiment and comparing with various
standards of construction materials, that after stabilization or solidification, the
textile sludge can be a potential material for construction applications (Patel and
Pandey 2012).
Rahman et al. studied the replacement Portland cement or sand by textile sludge
in building materials such as mortar and concrete samples. Textile sludge collected
from ETP and ground it as cement-like fine powder. It was found that with the
addition of textile sludge instead of cement or sand in mortar and concrete, the CS
and bending strength decreased, but water uptake and porosity of the materials were
increased. In mortar, highest CS was found to be 20 MPa with 25% replacement of
sand by textile sludge, and similar properties were found for 5% replacement of
cement by textile sludge when comparing with neat cement mortar. For concrete,
highest CS was found to be 12 MPa with 30% replacement of sand by textile sludge.
The findings from the leaching test of the fabricated mortar and concrete showed
very low concentration of leached hazardous elements which is significantly lower
than the standards of the Department of Environment in Bangladesh. From all these
results, the authors concluded that textile ETP sludge can be used as a replacement of
some traditional materials in nonstructural building components where lower
strength is required (Rahman et al. 2017) (Figs. 5 and 6).
The effect of replacement of cement by textile sludge on the properties of mortar
and paste is investigated by Goyal et al. and they highlighted the following findings
(Goyal et al. 2019):
(i) The replacement of cement content up to 5% by textile sludge can be feasible

without any deviation of the properties of mortar and paste.
Fig. 5 Test sample: (a) mortar specimen containing Portland cement, sand, and ETP sludge at the
ratio of 1:3.76:0.25, (b) mortar and concrete specimens with varying sludge content. (Reused from
(Rahman et al. 2017) with permission from Springer Nature)
Fig. 6 Scanning electron microscope image: (a) mortar specimens containing Portland cement and
sand at the ratio of 1:3 and (b) mortar specimens containing Portland cement, sand, and ETP sludge
at the ratio of 1:3.51:0.50. (Reused from (Rahman et al. 2017) with permission from Springer
Nature)
(ii) The incorporation of textile sludge in the mortar increased the water absorption
rate, and due to the inhibition of hydration reaction, the initial and final setting
time of mixes also increased.
(iii) Due to the greater specific surface area of sludge particles in comparison to
cement particles, the fluidity of cement-sludge paste decreased with the
increase in sludge content.
(iv) The replacement of cement by above 5% by textile sludge, the CS and split
tensile strength of the mortar decreased.
(v) Textile sludge addition up to 5% in the mix (mortar) decreased the permeability
of the material. At 5% sludge content, water uptake, sorptivity and chloride
penetration also reduced. Further, the permeation properties of mortars deteri-
orated with the addition of more sludge beyond 5%, due to lesser hydration
reaction and insufficient pozzolanic action in the mortars. For higher sludge
content in mortars, drying shrinkage also increased.
(vi) A more porous microstructure was found, mainly composed of ettringite,
voids, and lesser CSH gel, when higher quantity of textile sludge was added
to replace cement in the mortar.
(vii) For higher sludge content in mortars, drying shrinkage got increased and
strength decreased significantly. With the replacement of cement up to 5%
by textile sludge, no adverse effect was found after 90 days period of
investigation.
Oliveira et al. studied the calcined textile sludge as a stabilizing material for
highway soil where sludge and three additives such as lime, cement, and asphalt
emulsion were used in base and subbase of pavements. Their study was grouped into
four stages; the first stage was characterization tests, the second stage was physical
stabilization, the third stage was chemical stabilization and assessment of heavy
metals in the sludge, and the final stage was the addition of 10% of textile sludge
with chemical stabilizers (lime, cement, and asphalt emulsion) in amounts of 3%,
5%, and 7% as additives in a soil, according to the data found in the second stage. It
was found that the stabilization of mixtures of soil with textile sludge (10%) had the
potential to be used in pavement layers (base and subbase) and cement addition
ameliorated the best chemical stabilization for textile sludge (Oliveira et al. 2020).
In a recent work of Jian et al., the properties of hydration progress, CS, bending
strength, microstructure evolution, and metal leachability were investigated to assess
the effectiveness of ordinary Portland cement/textile sludge mortar at various content
of cement (0–20%). From the results obtained from the heat of hydration and
thermogravimetric analysis, it was revealed that due to the availability of organic
substances, ammonium compounds, and trace metals, textile sludge replacement for
Portland cement significantly retarded the hydration of cement at early and later age.
A significant fall of CS and bending strength occurred for sludge addition in sludge/
cement mortar, even at 5% cement replacement by textile sludge. After the age of
28 days, 71% and 42% fall of CS and bending strength occurred for 20% replace-
ment of cement by textile sludge. An increase of total pore volume was found for the
sludge/cement mortar by sludge addition as revealed in pore structure analysis, and
due to the sludge addition, the volume fraction of macropores increased and that of
the micropores reduced. Almost zero environmental risk was found by leachability
tests due to the fact that the toxic and hazardous metals present in sludge were
stabilized after the mixture of Portland cement which restricted the mobility of
metals in the cement/sludge mortar (Jian et al. 2020). Guha et al. constructed
lab-scale pavement by using both the raw and residual sludge as substituent of
sand in subgrade. By the incorporation of sludge and cement with various pro-
portions, the lab-scale blocks were prepared. The authors also recommended that
sanitary latrine ring and septic tanks can be made by this combination of sludge and
cement. Hence, the use of raw and residual sludge could be a viable, environmentally
friendly, and sustainable solution to the textile sludge disposal problems (Guha et al.
2016).
Fertilizers
Rosa et al. studied the short-term ecotoxicity potential of both fresh and stabilized
textile sludges by a battery of toxicity tests carried out with bacteria, algae, daphnids,
fish, earthworms, and higher plants. The ecotoxicity study revealed that fresh sludge
was more toxic than stabilized sludge in the case of solid or leachate, and after
120 days (4 months) of stabilization, the toxicity effects were not found significantly
in the sludge content (25% sludge : 75% soil (v/v), equivalent to 64.4 ton/ha), and a
significant increase of biomass yield was found for the earthworms and
higher plants. The rank of biological sensitivity endpoints was algae ≈ plant biomass
> plant germination ≈ daphnids > bacteria ≈ fish > annelids. The lack of short-term
toxicity effects as well as the stimulant effect found with higher plants and earth-
worms was a good indication of the fertilizer or conditioner potential of this textile
sludge, which after stabilization can be used in the restoration of a nonproductive
forest soil (Rosa et al. 2007). Araujo et al. studied the effect of composted textile
sludge on growth, nodulation, and nitrogen fixation of soybean and cowpea in a
greenhouse experiment. The sludge compost was mixed with soil at 0, 9.5, 19, and
38 t ha1 (based upon the N requirement of the crops, i.e., 0, 50, 100, and 200 kg
available N ha1). After plant emergence, the growth, nodulation, and shoot accu-
mulation of nitrogen (N) were determined at 36 days and 63 days. Nodule glutamine
synthetase (GS) activity and leghemoglobin content were evaluated 63 days after
emergence. It was found that the composted sludge had no harmful effects on nodule
number and weight, nodule GS activity and leghemoglobin content and N2 accu-
mulation in shoot dry matter in soybean and cowpea were higher than other
treatments with application of 19 t ha1 of compost. The authors verified that
composting can be an alternative way to reuse or utilize the textile sludge which
exhibited potential as fertilizer material (Araujo et al. 2007). Islam et al. studied the
content of essential macronutrients (N, P, K, S), Fe, total organic carbon, and total
organic matter in textile sludge and assessed its possibility to be used as a soil
conditioner or fertilizer in crop land. It was revealed that significant quantities of
plant macronutrient found in the sludge as compared with other common organic
manures and the value of N, P, K, and S found were 1.53–2.37, 0.09–0.14,

0.11–0.17, and 2.69–3.42%, respectively. The concentration of Fe was also found
significantly higher in sludge in comparison to soil which was 19.52%, and total
organic carbon and total organic matter were found to be 19.89% and 34.67%
respectively. After the application of 400 C temperature in textile sludge
revealed that it was thermally stable and the presence of moisture in the dried sludge
is also significant (Islam et al. 2009).
Kakati et al. studied the potential reuse of textile ETP sludge on the growth of
green gram (Vigna radiata L) as a fertilizer. The test results of sludge exhibited that it
carried enough amount of macro- and micro-nutrients, but the presence of lead,
ferrous sulfate, chloride, the total hardness, total volatile solids, and pH were found
higher in the sludge. As a fertilizer, it was observed that a mixture of more than 75%
textile sludge and 25% farmyard manure had an inhibitory effect on the growth of
plant; moreover, adverse effect on the growth of plant was also found for 100%
textile sludge as fertilizer. However, sludge content 10–25% as fertilizer could be
effective due to observation of maximal plant growth (Kakati et al. 2013). Easha
et al. characterized the ETP sludge from textile industry and focused on the reuse
potentiality as organic manure. The pH, organic matter, nutrient elements (N, P, K),
and metal content of the textile sludge were analyzed. The average values were 6.4
of pH, 80% of moisture content, 13.6% of organic matter; and the nutrient elements
such as N, P, S, and K were 8.18%, 0.60%, 0.0012%, and 0.06%, respectively.
Hence, according to the waste concern compost standard (WCCS), the values found
for pH, organic matter, and nutrient elements were within the acceptable limit. The
authors did not find toxic heavy metals such as Cr, Pb, As, and Cd in the sludge in
their study. Finally, the authors concluded that the properties of the sludge found in
their study can be used as organic manure (Easha et al. 2015).
Islam et al. applied gamma or ionizing radiation to completely detoxify the
wastewater and textile sludge by optimized dose of radiation and utilized the
obtained residues as liquid fertilizer. Since textile dyes are mostly stable nitrogenous
compound, hence, their degradation leads to generate water-soluble nitrogenous
salts which are readily available for uptaking by plants. Moreover, the chemical or
biological ETP can generate textile sludge which carries minerals and biomasses, so
this can improve soil fertility. From the field experiments, the authors found that the
plant growth was excellent without any harmful effect, but the raw textile sludge
contributed higher toxicity. Toxicity and heavy metal content test of the grown plants
showed that it was safe for human consumption; animals (rabbit) that consumed this
plants (grown in the treated sludge and effluent containing soil) had no significant
sign of complexity at any phase of life or during pregnancy (Islam et al. 2014)
(Fig. 7).
Gamma radiation was also used by Parvin et al. to detoxify the combined textile
effluents; after irradiation the total nitrogen and ammonium content was increased in
the effluents which can be utilized as a fertilizer containing irrigation water. After the
usage of irradiated effluents on spleen amaranth plants, increased value found for dry
mass (10.77 g), plant height (10.53/week), root length (19.00 cm), number of leaves
(6/week) than that of raw textile effluent and only water used plants. Heavy metal
Fig. 7 Amaranthus viridis

(local name: Danta Shak)
grown in soil, raw sludge, and
irradiated sludge mixed soil
preparations. (Islam et al.
2014)
content tests of the plants revealed that trace amount of heavy metal was absorbed by
plants, but mineral nutrient content was satisfactory. In addition, the satisfactory
results were also found for psychochemical parameter and the plant production rate
by gamma radiation dose of 10–15 kGy. Hence, the application of gamma irradiation
is a potential eco-friendly technology to detoxify textile effluents, and the treated
water can be used as irrigation water with fertilizing properties (Parvin et al. 2015).
Nessa et al. studied the impact of textile sludge on the growth of red amaranth
(Amaranthus gangeticus), and textile sludge was used as 0, 50, 75, and 100% with
soil for the pot cultivation of red amaranth, and then chemical analyses were done on
the harvested plants. Significant amount of plant nutrients (N, P, K), Fe, and total
organic carbon (TOC) was found in comparison to organic manure. The growth
parameters such as height, number of leaves, leaf area, and root length of the plant
were affected by the sludge content as shown in Table 5. For the 100% textile sludge
application, highest growth of plant was found due to the high content of plant
nutrients; however, the root length and number of leaves were not significantly
affected by the sludge. The analysis of red amaranth plant grown by the use of
textile sludge revealed that sludge did not increase the content of Cu, Co, Cd, Ni, and
Mn; however, Pb, Cr, Zn, and Fe content crossed the highest permissible limit
recommended by FAO/WHO. Hence, it is observed that textile sludge can improve
the nutrient contents of pot soil as well as growth of red amaranth and it can be used
as fertilizer if Pb, Cr, Zn, and Fe content can be controlled properly (Nessa et al.
2016) (Table 6).
Table 5 Effects of textile sludge content (%) on the height, number of leaves, leaf area, and root
length of red amaranth (Nessa et al. 2016). (Reused under open access license)
Days 0% sludge 50% sludge 75% sludge 100% sludge
Height (cm) 10 3.8 3.5 3.6 3.8
20 5.3 4.6 5.5 5.8
30 11.1 10.5 11.6 14.8
40 15.4 14.5 17 17.3
50 16 15.5 18 18.5
No. of leaves (avg.) 10 3 2.5 3 3
20 5.8 5.5 5 6.3
30 7.3 7 7 8.5
40 7.8 8 8.2 9
50 7.8 8 8.2 9
Leaf area (cm2) 10 1.4 1.2 1 1.5
20 10.4 11.2 8.5 11.6
30 15.6 16.8 12.8 17
40 20.8 22.4 17 23
50 26 28 21.8 29
Avg. root length (cm/pot) 50 5.1 4.1 4.8 5.9
Biogas
Goel developed anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR) to generate biogas from textile
effluent with the optimization of the process parameters such pH, temperature,
HRT (hydraulic retention time), and OLR (organic loading rate). For degradation
purpose, active bacteria were put as digested sewage sludge and in ABR, the
extremely colored wastewater was successfully treated. The decrease in color
(99.4%), chlorides (30%), as well as total solids (58%) for textile dye effluent was
viewed through anaerobic treatment in ABR. The value of chloride content was
decreased because of complex reactions of chloride ions with other anions
settling down as sludge. Methanogenesis of textile effluent was effectively
carried out in ABR, which provided highest biogas production (1.64 0.02 l/
d; methane content 83%) and COD removal (71.5%) at the optimized parameters
such as pH (6.8–7.3), temperature (30–35 C), HRT (4 days), and OLR
(0.5 kg/m3/d) (Goel 2010). Senthilkumar et al. studied the textile-colored waste-
water for the decolorization and elimination of degradable organics with tapioca
sago wastewater as a co-substrate in a pilot-scale two-phase upflow anaerobic
sludge blanket (UASB) reactor and process of biogas generation. It was found
that the process is very feasible and environmentally sustainable which generates
very less amount of organic sludge. At optimum mixing ratio of 70 : 30 (sago/dye
wastewater) and 24 h HRT, 88.5 and 91.8% were the maximum COD and color
removal efficiency, respectively. The highest biogas generation was found to be
1328
Table 6 Heavy metal concentrations measured in red amaranth plants (Nessa et al. 2016). (Reused under open access license)
Parameters Ni Zn Cu Cd Cr Mn Fe Pb
0% sludge (mg/kg) 7.8 3 26.6 7 9.6 0.7 0 1.9 0.8 93.9 2.9 2033 52.7 1.1 0.9
50% sludge (mg/kg) 12.2 3.1 73.6 45 0.3 0 0 5.3 0.6 160.5 13.6 3204.2 253.3 1.9 0.7
75% sludge (mg/kg) 6.4 1.1 168.4 65 15 2.5 0 41 236.8 22.2 2487.3 280.9 2 0.9
100% sludge (mg/kg) 3.6 3.1 241.1 185.4 14.3 0.3 0 1 0.3 156.8 1.5 1386.6 112.9 1.8 0.5
S. C. Das et al.
312 L/d at a rate of 0.42 L biogas/g COD for 70 : 30 (sago/dye wastewater)

mixing ratio (Senthilkumar et al. 2011).
Jeihanipour et al. studied the production of biogas from waste textiles by using
a two-stage process. The efficacy of a two-stage continuous stirred-tank reactor
(CSTR), modified as stirred batch reactor (SBR), and upflow anaerobic sludge
blanket bed (UASB) process was analyzed under batch and semicontinuous
conditions. To produce biogas from cotton/polyester and viscose/polyester with
no pretreatment or milling when comparing the single- and two-stage batch
digestion processes, it was found that gas generation efficacy is significantly
affected by the molecular structure of textile materials. On the other hand, due to
much accessible surface area for cellulose fiber degradation, pretreatment of
textile materials had very high effect on the generation of biogas in semi-
continuous process. The initial biogas production rate was higher and the lag
phase shorter in the two-stage batch process even though the complex structure of
cotton/polyester, in comparison with the single-stage CSTR. In CSTR and UASB
reactor, the semicontinuous two-stage process was managed a high OLR (organic
loading rate) with a shorter HRT (hydraulic retention time) while digesting
treated or untreated jeans textiles. Hence, by managing a serial interconnection
of the two reactors and their liquids in the two-stage process, the authors
developed a closed system which converted waste textiles into biogas
(Jeihanipour et al. 2013).
Apollo et al. studied the combination of UV photodegradation and anaerobic
digestion to treat textile dyes for efficient generation of biogas by using zeolite.
Generally, in a single treatment method, the UV photodegradation or anaerobic
digestion process was not effective in the case of removal of color and reduction
of COD, i.e., 70% and 54% reduction of color and COD, respectively, was found for
only UV photodegradation process, while only 32% and 57% removal of color and
COD, respectively, was found for anaerobic digestion process (as a stand-alone
process). Hence, to achieve highest efficiency, the combined process of UV photo-
degradation and anaerobic digestion was introduced in upflow fixed-bed reactors, to
degrade the color such as methylene blue dye with adding zeolite which worked as
support material for microorganism and photocatalyst in the bioreactor and photo-
reactor, respectively. This combined process resulted in high COD and BOD, and
color reduction efficiencies of more than 75%. The authors found that the action of
UV photodegradation prior to anaerobic digestion process increased the degradabil-
ity of methylene blue dye by threefold and biogas generation rose 2.7-fold than that
of non-UV treatment of the dye. Hence, the combined process where UV will be
done prior to anaerobic digestion can be a potential method of higher production of
biogas from textile effluents (Apollo et al. 2014). Recently, Kumar et al. also used
anaerobic digestion process to generate biogas from textile industry wastes by using
various co-substrates such as food waste and cow dung at the ratio of 1:1 through
biochemical methane potential tests under mesophilic temperature (35 C).
But, during the biomethane potential (BMP) assay, textile sludge alone did not
generate any biogas. The production of biogas was 524.4 mL/g textile sludge and
288.3 mL/g textile sludge in 30 days for cow dung and food waste-mixed textile
Fig. 8 SEM image of

incinerated sludge ash after
adsorption in 10 mg/lit dye
solution after 105 mins
(equilibrium). (Reused from
(Jahagirdar et al. 2015) with
permission from Springer
Nature)
sludge, respectively. The digestibility found 51% and 37% for cow dung and food
waste-mixed textile sludge, respectively. So, the biogas production and digestibility
were found higher for cow dung-mixed sludge. The volatile solid and ash content of
textile sludge was 5.9 gVS/L and 41.4 g/L, respectively. However, the experiment
was conducted on a small lab-scale basis, and the authors recommended to perform
the study into a pilot and long-term basis for assessing the industrial feasibility
(Kumar et al. 2020).
Adsorbent
Jahagirdar et al. studied the reuse of incinerated textile mill sludge at 800 C as
adsorbent for dye removal without any activation. Fig. 8 shows the porous nature of
textile sludge ash which can be applied as an adsorbent for the mitigation of Remazol
Blue (RGB) dye. Initial dye concentration, pH of the solution, and dosage of
adsorbent are the factors that control the adsorption of Remazol Blue dye. The
amount of Remazol Blue dye adsorbed on textile sludge-derived adsorbent increased
as the initial concentration increased as time increased and reached equilibrium after
105 mins. Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models observed favorable and
moderate adsorption (Jahagirdar et al. 2015).
Sohaimi et al. studied removal of oil from wastewater using adsorbent pro-
duced from textile sludge. Textile sludge biochar (TSB) was produced by car-
bonization in laboratory tube furnace in the absence of O2 for 1 h under N2 flow.
The optimization was done to study various factors such as pH, adsorbent types
and doses, initial concentration of oily wastewater, contact time, and temperature,
and the maximum adsorption capacity of TSB under optimized conditions was
172 mg/g. By the characterization techniques such as FTIR, Brunauer-Emmett-
Teller (BET) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM)
assessment, the effectiveness of TSB as oily wastewater adsorbent was validated.

More studies were performed such as kinetics of adsorption by pseudo-second
order and adsorption equilibrium by Langmuir isotherm. The adsorption was
controlled by film diffusion and physisorption as found by Boyd model and
thermodynamic studies. This experiment proved well the capacity of textile
sludge as adsorbent of oily wastewater which can further be regenerated by
using isopropanol (Sohaimi et al. 2017).
Devi and Saroha reviewed the manufacture of adsorbents from sludge to remove
different pollutants, and the performance depends on several factors such as pollut-
ants type, type of precursor sludge, carbonization time-temperature profile, and the
type of activation conditions used. The authors pointed out some factors to improve
the environmental sustainability and feasibility of the use of sludge-based adsorbents
(Devi and Saroha 2017):
(i) The chemical activation observed was very effective in the surface area devel-
opment and the performance improvement of the adsorbents.
(ii) Solvent waste including organic and inorganic impurities were found by the
usage of HCl washing and chemical agents.
(iii) More studies (long-term and pilot-scale) are required to know about the
leaching behavior of heavy metals present in the sludge-based adsorbents.
(iv) More studies are required to the regeneration of sludge-based adsorbents
employing different oxidants or peroxides.
(v) Potentiality found for carbonized sludge-based adsorbents leads to peroxide
activation as well as free radicals’ generation which can degrade the
contaminants.
(vi) The cost and feasibility of industrial scale production as well as environmental
sustainability must be evaluated
Defoamer
Scheibe et al. studied the application of textile sludge as defoamers and analyzed the
properties of the liquid fractions or bio-oils obtained from textile sludge by pyrolysis
process. Defoamers are chemical substance used over a column of foam already
made, with the aim of causing a rapid collapse of the bubbles. At 310 C and 500 C
temperatures, the pyrolysis was done. The produced bio-oils kept at refrigeration and
analyzed seperately after 7 days, and 2 months. The characterization such as
structure of bio-oils was measured by FTIR and the extraction of polar compounds
by solid phase micro extraction (SPME) coupled with gas chromatography/mass
spectrometry (GC/MS) analysis. The authors found that aromatic hydrocarbons,
amines, silicone, and organic sulfur compounds present in the pyrolysis oils and
1 mL of bio-oil produced from pyrolysis at 500 C can break down a column of foam
in less than 60 s (Bikerman test), which is comparable to the commercial antifoams.
Hence, these oils can be utilized as defoamers, even at the textile mill ETP itself.
The authors recommended more research to validate the symbiosis relationship and
Fig. 9 Textile sludge bio-

oils: (a) bio-oil fraction
obtained with pyrolysis at
310 C and (b) bio-oil and tar
fractions obtained with
pyrolysis at 500 C. (Reused
from (Scheibe et al. 2018)
with permission from John
Wiley & Sons)
feasibility of the silicon compound extraction from the bio-oil and its costs (Scheibe
et al. 2018) (Fig. 9).
Conclusion
Textiles and clothing are the indispensable part of human’s life, so the production of
cloths via textile industries will not be controlled, and the generation of wastewater
and sludges from textile industries will continue to grow in the future until the
implementation of an alternative technology which would be environmentally sus-
tainable, economically feasible, and socially acceptable. Currently, textile industries
such as spinning, weaving or knitting, and wet processing are responsible for various
types of pollution to the environment, but the wet processing operations including
scouring, bleaching, mercerizing, dyeing, printing, and finishing processes are the
major contributors of environmental pollution, and the pollution is extremely harm-
ful to the aquatic life, agricultural land, wildlife, and human health due to the
presence of toxic and hazardous chemical substances in the textile sludge. In this
circumstance, the reuse of this toxic and harmful textile sludge into useful products
such as bricks, concrete, building materials, fertilizers, biogas, adsorbent, and
defoamer is certainly a blessing for us which will not only minimize the environ-
mental pollution but also create value addition in the waste and unused textile
sludge. However, more research work and feasibility study are required to validate
the sustainability, economic feasibility, and consumer acceptance of the new prod-
ucts made from textile sludge.
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Bio-management of Textile Industrial
Wastewater Sludge Using Earthworms: 50
A Doable Strategy Toward Sustainable
Environment
Ananthanarayanan Yuvaraj, Ramasundaram Thangaraj, and

Natchimuthu Karmegam
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1338
Environmental Pollution Associated with the Textile Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1340
Textile Dye Pollution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1340
Solid Waste and Wastewater Sludge Pollution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1341
Disposal of Textile Industrial Sludge Employing Biological Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1342
Anaerobic Digestion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1342
Composting Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1343
Vermicomposting Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1345
Suitable Earthworm Species for Remediation of Textile Industrial Sludge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1345
Earthworm Degradation Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1346
Potential Earthworm Mechanism for Nutrient Enrichment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1347
Nitrogen (N) Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1347
Phosphorus (P) Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1348
Potassium (K) Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1348
Microelements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1348
Bioaccumulation of Heavy Metals in the Internal Body of the Earthworms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1349
The Pivotal Role of Vermicompost in Crop Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1349
Conclusion and Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1351
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1352
Abstract
Due to the rapid increase of industrial sectors in India especially textile
industries utilize a large quantity of freshwater to create different fabric
materials and other textile-related products. During the process, textile mills
A. Yuvaraj · R. Thangaraj (*)

Vermitechnology and Ecotoxicology Laboratory, Department of Zoology, School of Life Sciences,
Periyar University, Salem, Tamil Nadu, India
e-mail: thangaraj@periyaruniversity.ac.in
N. Karmegam (*)
Department of Botany, Government Arts College (Autonomous), Salem, Tamil Nadu, India

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_59
1338 A. Yuvaraj et al.
use various dyes such as azo, reactive, as well as triphenylmethane and

eliminate toxic effluent along with the excess amount of chemical dyes that
produce an enormous amount of wastewater sludge after the preliminary
treatment of effluent. The textile industrial sludge contains different heavy
metals including chromium, zinc, copper, lead, cadmium, and nickel. At
present, a large number of Indian textile industries discharge wastewater
sludge unscientifically. Currently, different disposal methods such as chemi-
cal, physical, and biological have been employed to combat and recover
essential nutrients from textile industrial wastewater sludge. Among them,
biological methods especially vermiremediation is one of the cost-effective
and eco-friendly techniques appropriate for waste management. The different
earthworm species effectively degrade the complex textile industrial organic
waste materials including wastewater sludge and a considerable amount of
toxic heavy metal ions bioaccumulate in the internal tissues (e.g., chlorogo-
genous tissues) of the earthworms resulting in limited metals in earthworm-
treated substrate. Besides, vermicompost has a significant quantity of essential
macronutrients (e.g., nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium), micronutrients,
humic substances, and plant growth-promoting hormones (e.g., auxins, cyto-
kinins, and gibberellins) which strongly enhance crop production. The textile
industrial wastewater sludge can be transformed into nutrient-
rich vermicompost which is an alternative for chemical fertilizers in agricul-
tural crop production.
Keywords
Textile sludge · Heavy metals · Earthworms · Essential nutrients · Hormones
Introduction
The fast development of the textile industrial sector produces about 1 trillion dollars
and contributes around 7% of the overall world exports (Desore and Narula 2018).
The textile industrial sectors utilize an enormous amount of freshwater for bleaching,
washing, and dyeing process and are the highest global contaminators (Hossain et al.
2018). Besides, textile industries consume a large amount of dyes which can be
categorized into two types: synthetic dyes and natural dyes, used for coloring textile
fibers of different categories (Fig. 1).
At present, most of the textile industries are using synthetic dyes more
than natural dyes. In general, textile dyes are associated with organic compounds,
mainly those dyes that are categorized as direct, reactive, and acids. Azo
dyes are employed to create different colors, and acid dyes are applied in
textile products such as nylon, silk, and wool (Rajesh Jesudoss Hynes et al.
2020). Direct dyes are widely used for nylon, rayon, and cotton fabrics,
and reactive dyes are usually employed for fabric materials. Apart from this,
certain textile industrial sectors (wool textiles) use metal-related dyes (Berradi
50 Bio-management of Textile Industrial Wastewater Sludge Using Earthworms: A. . . 1339
Fig. 1 Different industrial dyes employed in textile sectors
et al. 2019). Unfortunately, a wide variety of textile dyes contains high solubility
levels and also hard to remove through conventional methods.
The textile industry produces several environmental pollutants (i.e., sulfur,
nitrogen oxide, and volatile organic compounds) during the processing of fabrics,
fibers, and garments. After the completion of the textile process, wastewater/
effluent that is ejected consists of a high level of chemical oxygen demand
(COD), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), and nonbiodegradable organic com-
pounds like textile dyes (Orts et al. 2018). Textile dyes especially metal-related
dyes have carcinogenic chemical compounds that severely affect living organisms.
After the primary treatment, wastewater/effluent generates wastewater sludge. The
textile industrial sludge contains a significant quantity of organic matter, heavy
metals (chromium, zinc, copper, lead, cadmium, and nickel), certain micro-
nutrients, and pathogenic microbes (Bhatia 2017). Currently, untreated industrial
sludge is disposed into agricultural lands that migrate into the water bodies (see
Fig. 2a) during the rainy season and creates various environmental issues.
Fig. 2 (a) Eutrophication of water bodies due to the migration of textile wastewater; (b) textile
(dye) industrial wastewater sludge in dried form
The impact of heavy metals on the environment is depicted in Fig. 3. Therefore,

the present chapter aims to investigate the major problems caused by wastewater
sludge of the textile industries to human health and the environment and various
techniques to combat sludge pollution.
Environmental Pollution Associated with the Textile Industry
Textile Dye Pollution
The synthetic dyes along with a massive number of pollutants from textile indus-
tries generate fatal diseases in various animals as well as human beings and also
affect the ecosystem functions (Khan and Malik 2018). During the conventional
treatment process, a great quantity of dyes is bioaccumulated in sediments, and
several dyes can be moderately degraded (or) converted into other forms. For
example, azo dyes effectively produce hazardous aromatic amines during the
reduction process (Ito et al. 2016). Besides, a large number of textile industries
have been employing metal-complex dyes such as chromium, cobalt, and copper.
The above described toxic dyes along with intermediate chemical substances can
efficiently generate carcinogenic and mutagenic compounds (Vikrant et al. 2018).
These chemical compounds migrate into the water bodies during the rainy season
and accumulate in the gills of the freshwater fishes (Vargas et al. 2009) and also
affect the human organs through the food chain. Mainly, chromium-based com-
pounds (or) ions can create oxidative stress in animals and severely affect the
growth and photosynthesis in plants.
Fig. 3 Impact of heavy metal pollution
Solid Waste and Wastewater Sludge Pollution
In general, the primary solid wastes of the textile industry are non-polluting materials
such as packaging waste, specification yarn, scraps of fabric, and fabric products. A
huge amount of solid wastes is produced by cutting rooms. Apart from this, primary
treatment plants (wastewater/effluent) can produce an enormous amount of colorful
textile wastewater sludge as presented in Fig. 2b. The textile sludge consists of
hazardous organic compounds such as dyeing agents, aromatic amines, polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons, and perishable organics. On the other hand, sludge has
different heavy metals including zinc, copper, lead, cadmium, chromium, and nickel
(Man et al. 2018; Yuvaraj et al. 2020) (Table 1).
These harmful chemical substances in the textile sludge, particularly heavy
metals, affect human health and the environment. Nowadays, the main disposal
methods of textile industrial sludge are incineration and landfills. Nevertheless,
landfill disposal approaches can create soil and water pollution. Incineration of
textile sludge effectively breaks down the organic pollutants, minimizes the volume,
and inactivates the pathogenic microorganisms, but this technique produces large
amounts of secondary pollutants that threaten the environment (Wang et al. 2019).
Therefore, there is an urgent requirement for cost-effective and environmentally
friendly technology to minimize the pollution associated with textile industrial
sludge.
Table 1 Various chemical parameters of textile industrial wastewater sludge

Parameters Textile sludge References
pH (1:10 ratio – w/v) 8.15 Yuvaraj et al. (2020)
Electrical conductivity (dSm 1) 2.87
Total organic carbon (%) 19.35
Total nitrogen (%) 0.21
Total phosphorus (%) 0.12
Total potassium (%) 0.06
Cadmium (mg kg 1) 7.36
Copper (mg kg 1) 96.51
Chromium (mg kg 1) 97.87
Zinc (mg kg 1) 97.06
Arsenic (mg kg 1) Not detected Rosa et al. (2007)
Lead (mg kg 1) 20.96
Iron (mg kg 1) 3942.97
Manganese (mg kg 1) 30.64
Mercury (mg kg 1) 0.08
Molybdenum (mg kg 1) Not detected
Nickel (mg kg 1) 7.56
Selenium (mg kg 1) Not detected
Phenol (mg kg 1) 25.12
Aluminum (mg kg 1) 15,638.93
Disposal of Textile Industrial Sludge Employing Biological

Methods
Anaerobic Digestion
Anaerobic digestion (AD) is one of the biochemical processing methods appre-

ciated for the stabilization of organic waste materials including industrial waste-
water sludge, recovery of essential nutrients, and potential energy. In general, AD
operation involves four steps (i) hydrolysis, (ii) acidogenesis, (iii) acetogenesis,
and (iv) methanogenesis implemented by various microbial communities
resulting in the production of biogas (Ware and Power 2016) (Fig. 4).
The microbes break down the organic matter in the absence of oxygen (Kadam
and Panwar 2017) and produce carbon dioxide, methane, and a minimum amount
of other gases. In the first step of hydrolysis, industrial sludge and other organic
wastes contain different polymeric materials; during the hydrolysis process,
microbial communities convert polymeric materials into simple molecules such
as amino acids, sugars, and fatty acids. Further, these molecules are fermented by
acidogenic bacteria and generate gaseous components (like CO2 and H2) and
different volatile fatty acids. These components are connected with acetogenic
bacteria which produce acetic acid. Finally, methanogenic bacteria consume the
Fig. 4 Overall process of biogas production [adapted from Ravindran et al. (2021)]
intermediate materials of the four different steps (above described) and ferment
intermediate products to produce CO2, methane, and H2O (Bhatia et al. 2017).
All kinds of organic waste materials including industrial wastewater sludge can
be converted into value-added products through the AD process.
In fact, many countries are employing large-scale AD operative systems to
minimize different organic waste materials. For example, in a combined project
between the United Nations Development Program and MNRE (former Ministry
of Non-Conventional Energy Resources), totally 11 AD plants were constructed
(between 1997 and 2004) and were using municipal wastes, industrial
waste materials, and agricultural wastes for sustainable biomethane production
(Deodhar and Van den Akker 2005). Currently, effectively running AD large-
scale plants (capabilities >5,000 Nm3 biogas d 1 exist) are run by various indus-
trial sectors. But, the AD system contains several disadvantages such as high cost
of materials, difficulty in construction, and fluctuating gas pressure.
Composting Technology
The composting method is a biochemical, aerobic, and microbial process that

stabilizes the complex organic waste materials into stable (or) humus-like materials
(Table 2).
The microbial communities trigger the degradation of industrial wastewater
sludge and other organic matter; microbes consume a significant amount of nitrogen,
carbon, water, and oxygen as energy sources and produce heat, carbon dioxide, and
compost (Rastogi et al. 2020). During the composting operation, temperature elim-
inates harmful microorganisms. The microbial compost consists of essential nutritive
elements (e.g., N, P, and K) and plant growth-promoting substances that enhance
crop production.
Table 2 Difference between composting and vermicomposting process

Parameters Composting Vermicomposting
Process Three stages: Mesophilic phase
(i) Mesophilic
(ii) Thermophilic
(iii) Cooling stage
Type of organisms Microbial communities Microbes and earthworm species
involved in
decomposition
Waste materials Organic waste materials Industrial wastewater sludge and other
organic solid wastes
pH Not necessary Between 5 and 8
Moisture level Fine organic wastes: 55–65% 40–55% (suitable)
Rough organic waste materials:
70–75%
Initial carbon/ Between 20 and 50 30:1 (appropriate proportion)
nitrogen ratio
Final substrate Coarse texture materials may Finer texture, pathogenic microbes
characterization consist of pathogenic microbes free substrate, and heavy metals
and heavy metals accumulated in the internal body of
earthworms
Sources: Singh et al. (2011), Chowdhury et al. (2013), and Wu et al. (2014)
Generally, the composting process can be classified into three steps: (i) meso-
philic, there is a rapid degradation of small substances (e.g., sugars, fatty acids, etc.)
through mesophilic bacterial communities, and this stage increases the temperature
of the substrate; (ii) thermophilic, where complex organic materials (e.g., lignin,
hemicellulose, and cellulose) break down by thermophilic microorganisms; during
this stage, there is a gradual reduction of organic carbon due to metabolic actions of
heat-tolerant microorganisms; and (iii) cooling stage, where there is a decline in the
microbial activities and also a significant decrease in the substrate temperature. At
this stage, compost has an enormous amount of vital nutrients that stimulate the
mesophilic microbial population which degrade the remaining hemicellulose, cellu-
lose, and sugars from the substrate.
During the composting process, microbes play a pivotal role in the effective
decomposition of industrial wastewater sludge and other organic wastes. Moreover,
several workers have incorporated commercial microbes like microbial activator
super LDD 1 and effective microorganism (EM) are well documented by
Karnchanawong and Nissaikla (2014). These microorganisms efficiently stabilize
the lignocellulose, hemicellulose, and cellulose, causing modifications to the nutrient
levels and substrate temperature throughout the microbial composting operation
(Rastogi et al. 2020). However, various factors, such as temperature, pH, nutrient
content, porosity, particle size, C/N ratio, bulk density, oxygen supply, and moisture
content, can alter the composting process. The composting methods have several
advantages (producing nutrient-rich and humus-like compost) but also have several
drawbacks like odor, heavy metal pollution, and require a large area.
Vermicomposting Technology
At present, various disposal technologies have been used to recycle different organic
waste materials. Among them, vermicomposting technology (or) vermitechnology is
a viable method to combat several toxic wastes and soil remediation. The great
scientist, Charles Darwin, indicated that soil invertebrates especially earthworms as
the unheralded soldiers of mankind, and also Greek philosopher Aristotle
documented these lowly organized creatures as the intestines of the earth (Darwin
1881). About 3200 earthworm species have been recognized worldwide, and in
India, around 500 earthworm species have been documented by Julka et al. (2004).
The earthworms have many body segments and utilize a massive amount of various
organic wastes. During the digestion process, gut enzymes of the earthworms along
with the microbial communities break down the complex organic matter and release
a huge quantity of microbes via earthworm casts. The earthworm casts were
enclosed with different mucoproteins that generate great water-holding capacity
and slowly release potential nutritive elements. In fact, various European and
Asian countries are employing vermicomposting technology to reduce hazardous
waste materials and produce effective organic fertilizer (Graff and Makeschin 1980).
Suitable Earthworm Species for Remediation of Textile Industrial

Sludge
Generally, the earthworm species belonging to the family of Lumbricidae are usually
present in different countries including North America, Europe, Western Asia, and
other parts of the planet. West African countries consist of the Eudrilidae family of
earthworms, and Microchaetidae has been found in South Africa. Besides, the
Megascolecidae family of earthworms has been largely found in Australia and
eastern Asian countries, and the family of Glossoscolecidae dominates in Central
and South America. According to Lee (1985) and Edwards (1998), earthworm
species can be usually categorized into three groups:
(i) Epigeic species: These earthworms are small-sized, live in 3–10 cm deep soil,
have a short life cycle, high pigmentation, have rich reproductive rate, and feed
on animal excreta and various leaf litters (i.e., Perionyx excavatus, Eisenia
fetida, Eudrilus eugeniae, Eisenia andrei, and Lumbricus rubellus).
(ii) Endogeic species: These earthworms have medium-sized body, live in the
upper layer of soil, burrow up to 10–30 cm, have medium life cycle, have
low (or) absence of pigmentation, have low reproductive rate, and feed on
organic waste materials present in the soil (i.e., Octochaetona thurstoni,
Aporrectodea rosea, Proctodrilus oculata, Aporrectodea caliginosa, and
Octolasion cyaneum).
(iii) Anecic species: These earthworms are larger, live in the deep soil layer, deep
burrowers (30–90 cm), have longer life cycle, medium pigmentation, moderate
reproductive rate, and feed on soil as well as leaf litter (i.e., Aporrectodea
longa, Lumbricus polyphemus, Lampito mauritii, Lumbricus terrestris,

Aporrectodea trapezoides, and Lumbricus friendi).
Vermicomposting technology has attracted different environmental

researchers as a suitable approach for the degradation of industrial organic
waste materials. For example, Edwards (2004) indicated six earthworm species
(Eudrilus eugeniae, Dendrobaena veneta, Perionyx excavatus, Eisenia andrei,
Perionyx hawayana, and Eisenia fetida) have been used for effective waste
management. In fact, different epigeic earthworm species have been employed
worldwide to decrease industrial-based hazardous waste materials and produce
valuable vermifertilizer.
Earthworm Degradation Process
Organic waste materials (e.g., industrial wastewater sludge and other solid wastes)
can be broken down by different microbial communities. In vermicomposting
operation, earthworms along with microbes effectively convert the complex
organic matter into a nutrient-rich substrate (Suthar 2008a). During the food
ingesting process, earthworms maintain aerobic conditions; essential oxygen
(O2) enters into the surface moist skin of the earthworms, and also carbon dioxide
(CO2) is released through the skin. They maintain the level of aeration which
stimulates the microbial population. Various microorganisms secrete hydrolytic
enzymes that alter the nature of the substrate, whereas earthworms trigger the
degradation process. During the initial stage, earthworms consume small-sized
food particles, and the internal dorsal side of the pharynx that contains salivary
glands produces mucin as well as proteolytic enzymes. Besides, the earthworm
gizzard (thick-walled organ) effectively grinds (physical digestion) the ingested
food particles as depicted in Fig. 5.
In general, the vermicomposting process can be divided into two different
phases: (i) active phase (at the initial stage), and (ii) maturation phase (Lores et
Fig. 5 The complex digestion process in earthworms [adapted from Brown et al. (2004)]
al. 2006). At the initial (i) active phase, there is rapid digestion of organic wastes
by earthworms which strongly alter the physical and microbial parameters of the
substrate, and (ii) in the maturation phase, earthworms eject humus-like cast
materials. The period of the active phase depends upon the type of wastes, the
population density of worms, and the type of earthworm species used (Samal et al.
2019). The physical, chemical, and biological properties of waste material were
significantly altered by the earthworm gut-associated process such as homogeni-
zation, digestive course, mucus secretion, the addition of excretory materials, etc.
At end of the gut-related process, the worms eject cast materials (Samal et al.
2018). The final substrate materials contain two fractions: (i) wastes that are not
consumed by earthworms and (ii) processed waste materials. Thus, the
unprocessed organic matter is again broken down by microbial communities
present in the worm casts.
Potential Earthworm Mechanism for Nutrient Enrichment
The earthworm-based biofertilizer provides essential nutritive elements to the plants.

In general, plant-based nutritive elements can be characterized into two groups: (i)
macroelements include nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (Sindhu et al. 2017);
(ii) microelements include manganese, calcium, sodium, magnesium, molybdenum,
copper, boron, iron, and zinc. Currently, it is very essential to identify the proper
internal mechanism in the earthworms.
Nitrogen (N) Dynamics
Typically, several environmental researchers claim N as Total Kjeldahl nitrogen

(TKN), while other few workers documented N as total nitrogen (TN). It is
remarkable to express that TKN is the ammoniacal nitrogen and naturally bound
N but not involve nitrite-nitrogen (or) nitrate-nitrogen; whereas TN is the amount
of nitrite-nitrogen (NO2–N), nitrate-nitrogen (NO3–N), ammoniacal nitrogen
(NH3–N), and naturally bound N (Hill Laboratories 2018). Besides, an increase
of TN during the vermicomposting process by joint action of earthworms and
microbial communities enhance the TN availability. According to our previous
experiments, vermiconversion of textile mill sludge + cow dung employing Peri-
onyx excavatus and Eudrilus eugeniae for 60 days significantly increased TN
content at end of the experiment (Yuvaraj et al. 2020). Recently, Paul et al.
(2020) concluded that the vermiremediation of textile mill sludge along with
cow dung using Eudrilus eugeniae for 60 days resulted in raised TKN content.
During the vermicomposting process, earthworms release numerous metabolic
substances such as mucus, body fluid, and excretory materials which also enrich
the N profile in the end product (Gusain and Suthar 2020). The nitrogen-fixing
bacteria and dead earthworms (e.g., tissues) can increase the concentration of N in
the final substrate.
Phosphorus (P) Dynamics
Duration of composting (or) vermicomposting process and breakdown of complex

organic materials trigger the available P and total P (TP) content (Jain et al. 2018).
The earthworm species can convert insoluble-P into soluble-P during the waste
stabilization process. Particularly, the earthworm intestine consists of different
microbial communities especially P-solubilizing microbes which effectively pro-
mote the P mineralization process (Sharma and Garg 2019). The study of Bhat et al.
(2013) confirmed that earthworm Eisenia fetida-worked substrate materials (textile
mill sludge + cattle dung) contain a significant amount of total available P. Likewise,
Yuvaraj et al. (2020) reported that vermiconversion of textile mill sludge along with
cow dung using two epigeic earthworm species consists of a substantial amount TP
when compared to the composted substrate materials. Based on the pieces of
evidence, vermicomposting of industrial wastewater sludge including textile sludge
can produce nutrient-rich vermicasts. Indian agricultural soils have a minimum
amount of P content present in an unavailable form, therefore, require external P
fertilizer for crop production. The authors suggest that vermicompost has different
nutrient elements, humic substances, and plant-promoting hormones which can be
applied for large-scale crop production.
Potassium (K) Dynamics
The earthworms and several microbes play a pivotal role in the mineralization of K
during the vermicomposting process. Generally, when organic waste materials enter
the gut portion of the earthworms, the unusable organic K is converted into available
exchangeable K due to the enzymatic activities (Suthar 2010). Indian researcher
Garg et al. (2006) indicated that vermiconversion of textile mill wastewater sludge
amended with biogas plant slurry employing earthworm Eisenia fetida resulted in a
considerable amount of total potassium (TK) at end of the experiment. During the
decomposition process, the rapid loss of industrial-based organic matter and miner-
alization of wastes by microorganisms along with different gut enzymes of the
earthworms may enhance the K content.
Microelements
Rapid degradation of the industrial organic wastes by earthworms reflects on Ca

mineralization. The earthworms have calciferous glands (segments X–XIV)
that produce calcium carbonate which adjusts the level of pH, and excessive Ca
substances were ejected via worm casts which increases Ca level in vermicompost
(Yuvaraj et al. 2021). Several researchers (e.g., Prakash and Karmegam 2010;
Khatua et al. 2018; Rini et al. 2020) have documented that earthworm-worked
substrate contain a significant amount of Mg, Fe, Ca, and Mn. The experiments of
Suthar (2010) predicted one of the microalgae interconnects with newly eliminated
worm cast that may form a small amount of Mg. But there is a requirement for more
investigations to find the mechanism associated with the mineralization of
microelements.
Bioaccumulation of Heavy Metals in the Internal Body of the

Earthworms
The earthworms can alter the physical, chemical, and biological parameters of the
soil and modify the distribution and bioavailability of soil harmful pollutants (Curry
and Schmidt 2007). Undoubtedly, earthworms can be employed in the reclamation
and remediation processes. At initial, earthworms adsorb several toxic chemical
compounds including heavy metals from the contaminated wastewater industrial
sludge (or) other polluted solid wastes (Yuvaraj et al. 2018). Toxic substances can
enter into the internal body of the earthworms through feed (or) moist skin (Shi et al.
2014). Finally, heavy metals bioaccumulate in the internal (gut part) chloragogenus
tissue of the earthworms (Liang et al. 2011). The study of Suthar et al. (2014)
confirmed that tissues of the earthworm (Eisenia fetida) exhibited a greater concen-
tration of Cd (2.31–2.71 mg kg 1), Cr (20.7–35.9 mg kg 1), Pb (8.81–9.69 mg kg 1),
and Cu (9.94–11.6 mg kg 1). Similarly, a significant level of Cu (16.8–25.5 mg kg 1)
and Zn (103.7–143.3 mg kg 1) was also bioaccumulated in the internal body of
Eisenia fetida as reported by Suthar (2008b). Recently, the experiments of Yuvaraj et
al. (2020) demonstrated that a considerable amount of heavy metals (e.g., Cu, Cd,
Cr, and Zn) was bioaccumulated in the tissues of the epigeic earthworm
species Perionyx excavatus and Eudrilus eugeniae. According to published reports,
earthworms efficiently degrade the industrial wastewater sludge including
the textile industry, and a significant amount of toxic heavy metals is taken up
by the earthworms via different modes as presented in Table 3. In general,
the bioaccumulation process depends upon the physical, chemical, and biological
properties of the soil and duration of exposure.
The Pivotal Role of Vermicompost in Crop Production
There has been a growing interest in finding ways of decreasing the use of inorganic
fertilizer and pesticides in crop production. Earthworms can convert industrial
biowaste materials into nutrient-rich manure a process known as vermicomposting
an eco-friendly process. The use of organic amendment like vermicompost has been
long recognized as an effective means of improving soil fertility and health, increas-
ing crop growth and yields, and subduing plant diseases.
The different earthworm species utilize hazardous solid waste materials
(including industrial sludge) and produce valuable vermifertilizer. Therefore,
vermicompost has a rich amount of macro- and microelements that is suitable for
modern agricultural production. Recently, a bench-scale experiment by Yuvaraj et
al. (2019) indicates that vermicompost contains a high amount of macro- and
Table 3 Mode of action in earthworms on metal-polluted substrate materials

Source of Test earthworm Type of
contaminants species pollutants Mode of action References
Smelting Eisenia fetida Zn and Increase in availability of Zn Sizmur and
industry Pb and accumulation of Pb in the Hodson
gut of the earthworm (2009)
Heavy Eisenia andrei Cr, Pb, Bio-accumulation of Cr, Pb, Leveque et
engineering Cd, As, Cd, As, Zn, and Cu al. (2013)
zone Zn, and
Cu
Lead Eisenia Cu, Pb, Substantial accumulation of Andersen
recycling hortensis As, Cd, Cu, Pb, As, Cd, and Zn (1979)
industry and Zn
Mine Dendrobaena Zn, and Maximum gut bio- Roberts and
spoilage rubida Pb accumulation of Pb than Zn Johnson
(1978)
Metallurgy Aporrectodea Cu, Cd, Bio-accumulation of Cu, Cd, Nannoni et
unit caliginosa Pb, and Pb, and Zn al. (2011)
Zn
Textile mill Perionyx Cu, Cr, Bioaccumulation of Cu, Cr, Yuvaraj et
sludge excavatus and Cd, and Cd, and Zn in the tissues of al. (2020)
Eudrilus Zn earthworms
eugeniae
microelements and also enhances the growth of Abelmoschus esculentus plants.

Likewise, Atiyeh et al. (2000) reported that nutrient-rich vermicompost triggers
tomato and marigold plant growth (potting medium, Metro-Mix 360). Besides,
earthworm-based compost has beneficial microbes that also can improve plant
growth (Singh and Suthar 2012). Apart from this, several plant growth-promoting
hormones (e.g., auxins and cytokinins) found in earthworm-worked substrate which
improves crop production are well documented by Ravindran et al. (2016). The field
experiments of Karmegam and Daniel (2008) confirmed that vermicompost
increases the growth and yield of hyacinth bean, Lablab purpureus. Furthermore,
various researchers indicate that vermicompost significantly increased the growth
and yield of agriculturally valuable crops: Oryza sativa (Jayakumar et al. 2011),
Fragaria ananassa (Singh et al. 2008), Solanum melongena (Najar et al. 2015),
Daucus carota (Chatterjee et al. 2014), Solanum lycopersicum (Ravindran et al.
2019), and Abelmoschus esculentus (Hussain et al. 2017). The authors suggest that
synthetic fertilizers can severely affect the beneficial microbes of the agricultural
soils and result in the rapid decline of organic carbon. On the other hand, N fertilizer
creates nutrient imbalance, soil acidification, and accumulation of high salt content
in the soil (Sarma et al. 2017). The vermifertilizer exhibits a positive impact on
agricultural crops when compared to synthetic fertilizers as presented in Fig. 6.
Therefore, research studies have confirmed that vermicomposts have beneficial
effects on the growth of a variety of crops including cereals and legumes, vegetables,
ornamental and flowering plants, and field crops.
Fig. 6 Comparison of organic and inorganic fertilizer
Conclusion and Perspectives
The knowledge about the vermicomposting technology employing earthworm

species and their valuable impacts on the ecosystem has been utilized to advance
the composting process and also enhance the quality of the final vermicomposting
product. In this book chapter, textile industrial wastewater sludge and their impacts
on the soil and environment and various feasible disposal technologies have been
addressed. The textile industries utilize a great quantity of freshwater along with
different chemical substances for textile production. The primary wastewater
treatment plants produce a huge amount of sludge that contains organic matter,
several microelements, disease-causing microorganisms, and heavy metals such as
Cu, Cr, Pb, Ni, Cd, as well as Zn. Currently, this polluted sludge is disposed of in
open places that migrate into the agricultural lands and water bodies during the
rainy season. The textile sludge creates various environmental issues especially
water and soil pollution. Nowadays, different disposal techniques (e.g., physical,
chemical, and biological) have been used to treat contaminated textile sludge.
Among them, vermicomposting technology is one of the feasible options to
minimize textile sludge and produce nutrient-rich vermifertilizer. The earthworms
consume textile sludge, and gut-associated microbes, as well as certain gut
enzymes, degrade the complex organic matter. The toxic heavy metals enter into
the worm tissue through the skin (or) food and accumulate in the chloragogen
tissues of the earthworm. During the digestion process, there is a transformation of
insoluble nutrients into soluble forms and release of plant growth-promoting
hormones. Therefore, vermicompost can increase crop production and improve
the beneficial microbes in agricultural soil.
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Integrated Biotechnological Interventions
in Textile Effluent Treatment 51
Geetanjali Rajhans, Adyasa Barik, Sudip Kumar Sen, and
Sangeeta Raut
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1358
Non-biological Processes and Their Drawbacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1359
Physical Methodologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1359
Chemical Methodologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1361
Drawbacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1362
Biotechnological Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1362
Enzymes and Whole Cell Biocatalysts (WCBs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1363
Microbial Fuel Cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1365
Nano-biotechnology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1368
Functional Metagenomics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1369
Challenges and Future Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1370
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1371
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1371
Abstract
Water is an indispensable source for life on earth. With the rampant growth of
textile industry, ramification of significant amount of water consumption and
production of immense volumes of contaminated water has been well witnessed.
This highly polluted effluent being detrimental to the flora and fauna is often too
difficult to manage as it contains a substantial amount of toxic and recalcitrant
synthetic dyes. The unconventional processes based on biotechnological princi-
ples are enticing huge attention in the treatment of the toxic textile effluents, since
they often avoid utilization of large amount of supplementary energy and
chemicals, generates less sludge, cost-efficient, and environmentally benign.
These processes include but not limited to enzyme and whole cell-based
G. Rajhans · A. Barik · S. Raut (*)
Center for Biotechnology, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Siksha O Anusandhan (Deemed to
be University), Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
S. K. Sen
Biostadt India Limited, Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_111
1358 G. Rajhans et al.
biocatalysts (biodegradation of organic phenolic compounds and hydrocarbons

by means of immobilized enzymes and whole cells), microbial fuel cell technol-
ogy (integrating the biological organisms to generate electricity from the waste-
water by consuming the pollutants present in it), nano-biotechnology
(nanocatalysts pooled with an ulterior biological process to reduce color, COD,
aromatic compounds, and toxicity), and functional metagenomics (identify novel
genes that encode different classes of enzymes which are useful for bio-remedi-
ation). Regardless of some disadvantages, these processes are essentially power-
ful and can be gradually upgraded via advance biotechnological processes that are
associated with the production of highly degrading and resilient tailored organ-
isms. This is a sustainable approach to contributing innovatively to traditional
physicochemical processes. The tools of integrated biotechnology can thus be
used in the manufacturing of textile effluents as effective technical solutions.
Keywords
Bioremediation · Enzymes · Functional metagenomics · Microbial fuel cell
technology · Nano-biotechnology · Textile effluent
Introduction
Water pollution has gripped the globe like never before. None of the industries have
escaped from causing pollution. Among which, the textile sector needs to be
specifically and thoroughly addressed in its close relation with environmental
aspects. The global textile industry has a great impact on the market economy,
contributing to 7% of total global exports as well as employing about 35 million
people worldwide (Lu 2016; Desore and Narula 2018). Regardless of its overwhelm-
ing significance, this trade sector is one of the major global polluters and furthermore
utilizes large volumes of fuel and chemicals (Bhatia 2017). The textile sludge
exposes issues relating to huge volumes and undesirable composition, primarily
containing elevated amounts of heavy metal cations, micronutrients, pathogenic
microbes, and organic matter (Bhatia 2017). The effluent from textile mills is
extremely alkaline and strongly induces chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological
oxygen demand (BOD), total dissolved solids (TDS), and alkalinity. Additionally,
the dyes utilized in the textile industry are organic compounds highly soluble in
water, which are particularly categorized as reactive, direct, acidic, and basic. Thus
eliminating them by traditional methods is quite challenging. Moreover, their poten-
tial to color a specific substance is crucial owing to the existence of chromophoric
groups in its molecular structure. Nevertheless, the color fixation properties are
linked to the auxotrophic groups, which are polar and can bind to polar groups of
textile fibers. The color accompanying clothing dyes induces aesthetic damage to the
water sources as well as inhibits the light penetration into water, thus decelerating the
photosynthesis rate and dissolved oxygen rates impacting the whole aquatic ecosys-
tem. These textile dyes often serve as harmful, mutagenic, and carcinogenic agents
51 Integrated Biotechnological Interventions in Textile Effluent Treatment 1359
(Khatri et al. 2018), prevailing as environmental toxins and through whole food
chains inducing biomagnification so that species at higher trophic levels exhibit
greater levels of contamination compared to their prey.
Therefore, essential treatment strategies are required which aim to assure the
environmental sustainability of the upcoming generations through physicochemical
and biological technology or an amalgamation of both. The physicochemical
methods, though effective, entail the complication incurred by sludge unloading
and huge energy costs, inputs, or service. In contrast, the biotechnology interven-
tions incorporating microbial systems and advanced anaerobic methods provide
cost-efficient biological treatment approaches toward the elimination of significant
industrial contaminants. The recognition and utilization of enzymatic activity of the
novel microbial consortium by prospective bioremediation applications is a ground-
breaking method for the optimum biodegradation of intractable dyes and complex
sodium silicate compounds (Zabłocka-Godlewska et al. 2018). Microbial strains like
Phanerochaete sp., Bacillus sp., Trametes sp., and Pseudomonas sp. have become
plausible candidates for the treatment of wastewaters released from textiles indus-
tries and are widely studied in terms of degradation capacity. Immobilized methods
for microbial enzymes such as lignin-modifying enzymes, laccases, lipases, oxido-
reductases, etc. can decolor and detoxify toxic chemicals in a competent manner.
Efficient biotechnological interventions are therefore essential in order to minimize
adverse impacts and to foster safety, biodiversity, the environment, the economy and
a sustainable future.
Non-biological Processes and Their Drawbacks
The pre-treatment or decontamination of textile effluent can be carried out in the

following methods: primary, secondary, and tertiary (Fig. 1). Several physicochem-
ical techniques existing for treating these effluents have been discussed.
Physical Methodologies
Physical processes, including coagulation/flocculation, are used to eliminate con-

taminants prior to sedimentation and filtration. Coagulation results in the charge
neutralization which contributes to the creation of gelatinous material which could
be quickly separated out. And flocculation is an agitation method that leads to
agglomeration of the particle masses which eventually gets washed out of the
solution. The procedure often eliminates a few amount of color corresponding to
the reactive and vats dye. The real drawback is the passage of hazardous compounds
into the solid phase and the sludge accumulation, which need eventual processing.
The wastewater treatment using coagulation/flocculation method has been displayed
in Fig. 2.
Sludge disintegration can be accomplished by utilizing high-frequency electro-
magnetic waves such as microwaves and ultrasound techniques. Tiny gas bubbles
Fig. 1 Primary, secondary and tertiary treatment processes
Fig. 2 Caogulation/Flocculation of waste water treatment
can be produced by utilizing these waves, and when these bubbles collapse, high
temperatures and pressure gradients can be generated. This contributes to the
breakdown of cell walls with the release of intercellular matter, which can then be
more readily destroyed by microorganisms through anaerobic digestion. One
more physical approach being dye adsorption by an adsorbent decreases the
effluent color. Activated carbon, peat, bentonite clay, polymeric resins, and fly
ash are a few absorbents being employed to treat the effluent (Igwegbe et al.
2016). The main benefits of adsorbents for usage in textile wastewater treatment
Fig. 3 Nanofiltration setup for water filtration
are their high affinities and regeneration capacity. However, their high investment
and sludge production constrained the usage of absorbent in effluent treatment.
Other techniques such as ultrafiltration (UF), nanofiltration (NF), and RO have
also been explored in treating textile effluent. But their high cost restricts their
industrial-scale application. Water filtration utilizing UF setup has been shown in
Fig. 3.
Chemical Methodologies
Chemical oxidation methods are other class of method used for the treatment of
effluent water. In this method, electron moves from oxidant to the pollutant and
resulted in structural modification to safer compounds. Oxidizing agents such as O3
and H2O2 forms strong nonselective hydroxyl radicals at high pH values.
H2 O2 ! OH þ OH ð1Þ
Due to high oxidation potential, these radicals can efficiently break the conju-
gated double bonds of dye chromophores as well as other functional groups such as
the complex aromatic rings of dyes. The color of the effluent decreases due to the
subsequent formation of smaller non-chromophoric molecules. A 99% reduction of
rhodamine B dye with the use of H2O2, have been reported by Thao and Nguyen
(2017).
Processes like UV/TiO2, UV/H2O2, UV/O3, reactive UV/Fenton and other pho-
tochemical methods are centered on the effect of UV radiation and free radicals
formation. The production of high concentrations of hydroxyl radicals leads to the

decomposition of dyes to CO2 and H2O. The intensity of UV radiation, color
structure, pH, and dye composition are affected by the speed flotation. When the
oxidizing agent is used H2O2, UV light activates the decomposition of H2O2 two
hydroxyl radicals. Removal of dyes has also been carried out with Fenton’s reagent
which is a combination of H2O2 and ferrous ion. The reaction carried out is given in
Eq. (2):
Fe2þ þ H2 O2 ! OH þ OH ð2Þ
The degradation of organic dyes occurs due to the generation of free radicals
during the oxidative degradation of hydrogen peroxide. Previous literature reports
that the process works best with the pH between 3 and 5 (Ma et al. 2005). The
breakdown of organic compounds CO2, water, and inorganic compounds was due to
the oxidation process involving Fenton’s reagent.
Drawbacks
The physical techniques, like membrane filtration, involve shortcomings linked to

membrane fouling issues, shorter lifespan, and the rate of periodic replacement;
these should be included in every economic feasibility study (Andre et al. 2007). The
chemical techniques such as flocculation, coagulation, and oxidative processes seem
to be capable of dye removal; however they are expensive as well as involve disposal
problem. Examples of physical and chemical methods and related drawbacks have
been outlined in Table 1. Physicochemical technologies are well recognized in the
industry but are ineffective, are highly expensive, and entail restrictions in imple-
mentation due to the poor biodegradability of dyes.
Biotechnological Processes
The bioremediation is a method of degradation of toxins by biological candidates,

viz., bacteria, fungi, plants, etc. Microorganisms have diverse characteristics as
well as competence toward the biodegradation of recalcitrant chemicals. The
basics of microbiology, metabolism and bioenergetics, diversity and ecology,
biochemistry, evolution, breakdown of pesticides, dye stuff, organic and inorganic
compounds, and heavy metals hold propitious implementation. Microbes have an
inherent potential to disintegrate organic compounds in the contaminated areas.
Although the soil is inhabited by living biomass and is rich in all types of species,
the organism least explored to remove/degrade harmful compounds from the
environment are the fungi. Ecological adaptations and metabolism enable
microbes useful for bioremediation and waste processing. Some of the new
biotechnological approaches for the bioremediation of textile wastewater have
been listed below.
Table 1 Drawbacks of the various non-biological processes for textile waste water treatment
Treatment
Treatment processes Stage Drawbacks
Physical processes
Adsorption (activated carbon, Pre- Expensive, larger contact times, and
peat, coal ashes, wood sawdusts, treatment required in huge quantities
wood chips)
Ion exchange Main Specific application
treatment
Chemical processes
Coagulation and precipitation Pre-/main Difficulty in sludge disposal
treatment
Fenton process Pre/main Unreasonably expensive
treatment
Ozonation Main Unsuitable for disperse dyes and releases
treatment aromatic dyes
Oxidation with sodium Post- Expensive
hypochlorite treatment
Electrochemical oxidation Pre- Expensive
treatment
Emerging technologies
Membrane filtration Main Highly expensive, difficulty in separating
treatment dissolved solids
Ultrafiltration Pre- Eliminates suspended material and bacteria
treatment only, susceptible to oxidative chemicals (e.
g., sulfuric acid, nitric acid, persulfate, and
peroxide in high conc.), membrane damage
at pressure >3 bar
Photocatalysis Post- Expensive, only suitable for lesser amount
treatment of colored compounds
Sonication Pre- Relatively new process, requires full-scale
treatment application
Enzymes and Whole Cell Biocatalysts (WCBs)
Over the years, enzymes and whole cell-based biocatalysts have evolved dramati-
cally owing to their flexibility and functional sensitivity across a broad variety of
substrates for different industrial implementation. Synthetic biology and metabolic
engineering methods make provisions for innovative technologies, catalyzed by
biology-based, genome-scale computational systems. The protein engineering tech-
niques tend to be helpful in enhancing the catalytic efficiency. The metabolism of
microbes can be engineered via complex enzyme-catalyzed pathways and developed
them into whole cell biocatalyst (WCBs) in order to generate different biological or
industrial applications. Such developments offer exclusive prospects and pave the
way for new opportunities of microbial engineering with future high-value bio-
molecules for industrial executions. Also in presence of fermentation inhibitors,
selective microbes can be developed on a variety of complex biomass hydrolysates.
Under specific culture conditions, it also has the potential to generate large amounts
of intracellular lipids. The genomic, biochemical, and adaptive features of the
microbes render them a potential contender for the identification of economically
viable cell factories for the manufacture of enzymes, biofuel, and highly valued
products of industrial importance (Han et al. 2018; Almyasheva et al. 2018).
Enzymes have been recognized as the potent molecules to aid effective degrada-
tion of complex organic chemicals. There is evidence that numerous bacterial
species secrete non-specific cytoplasmic enzymes that act like azoreductases. This
enzyme class called azoreductases allows a catalytic reduction reaction leading to the
breakdown –N¼N– bond present in the azo group and aromatic amine synthesis.
The application of bacterial cytoplasmic azoreductases in the field of environmental
biotechnology has been reported by several researchers. Laccases (belonging to
enzyme class called phenoloxidases) have significant capacity for breakdown of
waste materials that contain aromatic compounds. These laccases cause the degra-
dation of complex polyaromatic polymers such as lignins. Sharma and Arora (2013)
and Placido et al. (2016) were shown to work with laccase enzyme at pH 5 to treat
fungal strains. The azo dye degradation by laccase involves the non-specific mech-
anism of free-radical formation, without forming toxic aromatic amines. A study
show that Trametes versicolor was able to decolorize the azo dye Orange G was by
97% (Casas et al. 2007). Other oxidoreductase enzymes like manganese peroxidase
attacks the phenolic compounds through the intermediary redox reaction with the
help of Mn2+/Mn3+ ions, whereas lignin peroxidase attacks the non-phenolic
methoxy substituted lignin subunits which behave as substrate. LiP recently extra-
cted from Ganoderma lucidum IBL-05 demonstrated a decoloration efficiency of
66%, 59%, 52%, 40%, and 48% for Sandal-fix Red C4BLN, Sandal-fix Turq Blue
GWF, Sandal-fix Foron Blue E2BLN, Sandal-fix Black CKF, and Sandal-fix Golden
yellow CRL dyes, respectively, which significantly enhanced to 93%, 83%, 89%,
70%, and 80% in case of LiP immobilized by Ca-alginate (Bilal et al. 2019).
The studies relate to the role of different enzymes in the removal of dye pollutants
from the textile discharge. These experiments have not been performed to assess the
long-term effects of such enzymes on the marine organisms in bodies of water after
the period of decontamination. It is therefore important to further examine the effect
on marine life and ecology protection of the ecosystem by textile waste water
processing technologies.
The decolorization by microbes relies on the adaptability and the optimized
activity of selected microbes. Both single strains and consortiums can be employed
to achieve decolorization. Several researches show the use of pure cultures for
decolorization, among which bacterial cultures are widely used. Researchers began
isolating pure microbial strains able to breakdown azo dyes in 1970s, with isolation
of Bacillus subtilis, Aeromonas hydrophila, and Bacillus cereus (Singh 2014).
Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain BCH is one of the isolated strains that demonstrated
98% decoloration of commercial azo dyes such as Remazol Orange 3R. Azo-
reductase activities were hindered by the presence of oxygen, when A. hydrophila
some other aerobic bacteria were examined for azo dye decoloration in aerobic state
by oxygen insensitive or aerobic azoreductases. Literature reports that the white-rot
fungus, Phanerochaete chrysosporium, has been observed to be the most frequent,

robust, and model organism for decolorization of various dyes from textile waste
waters. Moreover, the efficient color removal of both Orange G and Remazol
Brilliant Blue R was showcased by three promising strains, Ischnoderma resinosum,
Dichomitus squalens, and Pleurotus calyptratus (Eichlerová et al. 2005). In terms of
coloration efficiency in azo dye Congo Red, Trametes pubescens was also found to
be the effective coloring strain in submerged cultivation (Si et al. 2013). However,
some setbacks are noted during degradation of dye by white-rot fungi such as the
lengthy growth period, the demand of restrictive nitrogen conditions, unreliable
production of enzymes and large reactor size due to the long holding period for
maximum degradation.
Microbial Fuel Cells
Of the several alternate energy conversion processes identified from the recent
technical reports, huge interest has been gained by fuel cells that have higher
conversion capacity and power density relative to other methods. This fuel cell
device is an electrochemical system that can transform the intrinsic chemical energy
in fuel directly into electrical energy. The unconventional fuel cell is the organic fuel
cell or biofuel cell that operates much in the similar manner as the conventional
chemical fuel cell, though utilizes biological organisms as catalysts rather than noble
metal-based catalysts. When enzymes are used to accomplish electrode operation,
we have the so-called enzymatic biofuel cell; while microorganisms are responsible
for bioelectrocatalysis, we have the microbial fuel cell (MFC). By using clean and
renewable catalysts, MFCs offer a means to produce green and sustainable energy
and to treat wastewater, which is commonly used as a carbon source for the
electrochemical system. The connection between biology and electricity stretches
back to the year 1912, when M.C. Potter at the University of Durham was the first to
show that microorganisms could produce electrical energy (Potter 1911). This
system is beneficial over traditional fuel cell technology: it operates under moderate
conditions (at ambient temperature and physiological pH) and uses low-cost
materials.
Several microorganisms possess the potential to transfer electrons to the anode
directly with no requirement of an electron shuttle and therefore gaining much
interest for MFC application in dye bioremediation. Certain pure cultures like
Proteus hauseri ZMd44 and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Geobacter sulfurreducens,
and Betaproteobacteria have been reported to simultaneously degrade dyes as well
as generate electricity in mediator-less MFC systems (Fang et al. 2013). A report
shows an investigation on Pseudomonas-catalyzed MFC for degradation of azo
dyes such as congo red, methyl orange, reactive blue 172, reactive red 2, and
reactive yellow 145 (Jayaprakash et al. 2016). Some cases have shown that
intermediate products formed after decoloration of azo dyes, such as reactive
blue 160, act as redox-active chemical species mediating electron transfer in
MHCs.
Fig. 4 Microbial fuel cell
Most of the cases gave priority to anodized dye degradation, only a few
reported the degradation of dye in the cathode. The most plausible mechanism
for the breakdown of dyes is the co-metabolism reaction, where anaerobic
oxidation of the carbon source (co-substrate) leads to the formation of reducing
equivalents (electrons) (Fig. 4). Generally, the co-substrate was oxidized (elec-
tron donor) and a portion of electrons was transferred to the electrochemically
active bacteria accumulated on the anode, which passes through the external
circuit producing current. The other portion of electrons is transferred for reduc-
tive cleavage of azo bond in dye structure, therefore creating a competition for
reducing equivalents (electron donors) between the anode (electron acceptor) and
dye molecules in the MFC-specific. If there is no relationship between the
decoloration rate and the molecular weight, then the reduction reaction is a
non-specific extracellular reaction where the dye could act as an electron acceptor
supplied by the carrier of the electron transport chain of the cell membrane or by
the reduced compounds produced by anaerobic biomass. Conversely, an intra-
cellular reduction in azo dye requires the presence of an azoreductase enzyme
with a specific transport system for the uptake of the dye to reach its reductive
reaction center inside the cell. Thorough acclimatization and stabilization of the
MFC system is crucial for improving the performance of MFCs for color
removal. The textile anaerobic sludge-inoculated MFC may therefore favor
intracellular and extracellular reductions in anodine dye. The azo dyes were
tested as catholytes in MFC with the dual objective of providing an electron

acceptor facilitator and the possibility of dye removal. The reduction reactions in
the cathode chamber are illustrated by Goyal and Minocha (1985) and Menek and
Karaman (2005) stating that the –N¼N– azo bond reduced to hydrazo (Eq. 3) or
amine (Eq. 4), by consuming two or four electrons.
N ¼ N þ2e þ 2Hþ ! NH NH ð3Þ
N ¼ N þ4e þ 4Hþ ! NH2 NH2 ð4Þ
In MFC, the potentials are pH-adjusted standard potentials with respect to the
cytoplasm (neutral pH) of microbial cells. Similarly, 303 K (30 C) is the
commonly used temperature for incubation of bacteria on a lab scale. The
potentials of the cell should therefore be adjusted in accordance with the condi-
tions. The potentials of methyl orange-fed cathode with a concentration of
0.05 mM (pH 3.0) with 3 g/L of glucose-fed anode chamber with bacterial cells
produce ~0.7 V, which is close to the predicted maximum cathode potential of an
MFC using oxygen. In general, maximum electromotive force (emf) is given by
Eq. (5)
RT
Eɸ ¼ E0 ln ðɸÞ ð5Þ
nF
where the coefficient ɸ is the ratio of products to the reactants raised to the power of
their respective stoichiometric coefficients.
In the case of oxygen-aerated catholyte, the maximum emf value for half the
oxygen reaction is 0.805 V for pH ¼ 7 for 298 K. Similarly, for potassium
ferricyanide at pH ¼ 7 at a concentration of 0.22 mM, for half the reaction of
ferricyanide, the catholyte produces 0.361 V. Liu et al. (2009) concluded that
MFC-fed catholyte with methyl orange produces 0.710 mV of azo dye-fed
catholyte, concluding that the redox potential improves the rate of electron transfer
to cathode. However, the cathode potential with azo dye is in less practice than the
oxygen and ferricyanide. Cathode polarization indicates that pH is the limiting
factor at cathode fed with MFC. In most cases of MFC with dye degradation
studies, the maximum open-circuit value is in close proximity with the anode
potentials.
Latest findings of major MFC components such as anode, cathode and mem-
brane have reached new levels of development. But it is necessary to find compo-
nents that are environmentally sustainable and scalable for the treatment of
industrial textile effluent. Thus, the ultimate purpose of scaling the technology
for dye treatment with durability should concentrate more on the design aspect of
MFC rather than solution chemistry. Serving this purpose, it is better to try more on
electrode assembly with a membrane-less MFC in continuous operation, focusing
on a simple construction process in a cost-effective manner. This study could
provide a way for the direct application of MFCs to dying industrial effluents in
the future.
Nano-biotechnology
Nano-biotechnology is a biotechnological dimension dealing with the synthesis,

design, and stability of specific nanoparticles using biological tools. It can be
integrated with other technologies and can modify, endorse or explain the current
technical concept of platform technology. Nanotechnology use is anticipated
to widen to a broad range of applications in the future to help minimize
costs by reducing energy usage and attenuating pollution. In the current situation,
the bioremedial approach using adapted microbes has gained attention, eventu-
ally leading to the biomineralization of the intractable substance. The contami-
nation level caused by the varying configurations of synthetic dyes used in
the textile industry makes the naturally attenuated micro flora insufficient for
the “clean up” process. Major downsides are the rise in prohibitive costs, the
emission of carbon dioxide from biomineralization and the concentration of
substantial biomass content. In addition, the current application of nanotechnol-
ogy in bioremediation using nanoparticles has been the subject of pilot-scale
studies.
Nanoparticles have been used to enhance the deterioration of refractory dyes, as
they have special physical and chemical properties that are not present in bulk
products. These versatile nanoparticles can be utilized in different applications
including treatment of wastewater, drugs, energy storage, and bioremediation
(Huang et al. 2004; Jyoti and Singh 2016). In reductive reactions, nanoparticles
serve as effective catalysts. Many nanoparticles synthesized from different biolog-
ical materials, including Ag (Silver), Au (Gold), Zn(Zinc), silica, etc., are currently
used in several industries.
Due to its remarkable antimicrobial and catalytic properties, Ag nanoparticles are
widely used. Ag metal is able to construct stable nanoparticles and is used in a wide
range of fields including biosensors, bio-labeling, catalysis, photography, and opto-
electronics. In presence of a catalyst, the toxic dye methylene blue was completely
degraded within 33 min, by Ag nanoparticles synthesized with Actinidia deliciosa
fruit (Naraginti et al. 2017). In 12 min, the Ag nanoparticles synthesized by the
Parkia roxburghii extract leaf biomass could completely breakdown both methylene
blue and the rhodamine B (Paul et al. 2015).
In medicine, cancer therapy, drugs, and gene transfer, Au nanoparticles have been
used. Also in dye degradation, Au nanoparticles have been successfully involved.
For Au nanoparticles synthesized by Paderia foetida Linn could degrade toxic dyes
including methylene blue and rhodamine B within 12 min (Dutta 2017).
Due to their high surface area, non-toxicity, stable composition, photosensitivity,
higher reactivity, and economic performance, ZnO nanoparticles are also commonly
used. ZnO nanoparticles were used as catalysts for color degradation and are
considered as efficient photocatalysts. The basic compounds for the synthesis of
ZnO nanoparticles have been found in Artocarpus heterophyllus leaf extract, and
these nanoparticles was found to fully degraded bengal rose dye in 1 h (Vidya et al.
2016). Aspergillus sp. chemically synthesized ZnO nanoparticles successfully
degraded methylene blue dye (Jain et al. 2014).
On account of their high surface are stable structure, low toxicity, higher reactiv-
ity, photo-sensitivity, and cost-effectiveness; ZnO nanoparticles are widely used.
Dye degradating ZnO nanoparticles are considered to be effective photocatalysts.
ZnO nanoparticles synthesized by the Aspergillus sp. fungus were found to success-
fully degrade methylene blue dye (Jain et al. 2014).
Because of their special properties, metal nanoparticles including nickel (Ni),
molybdenum (Mb), silica (Si), copper (Cu), titanium (Ti), etc. have been emerging
out. Palladium (Pd) nanoparticles obtained from Catharanthus roseus leaf extract
showed effective phenol red degradation (Kalaiselvi et al. 2015). For the synthesis of
zirconium oxide nanoparticles, the leaves of Lagerstroemia speciosa have been
used, and these nanoparticles could degrade methyl orange dye by 94.5% (Sai
Saraswathi et al. 2017).
While nanoparticles are synthesized using biological materials, the presence of
nanoparticles in textile effluent after degradation is becoming a major concern.
Recovery and reusability of nanoparticles is required. Kitture et al. (2011) conducted
cytotoxicity tests of ZnO nanoparticles against SiHa cell lines and confirmed that
these nanoparticles are safer to use. Photocatalytic breakdown of Congo red by
Fe2O3 nanoparticles was sufficiently good but requires secondary treatment to be
used for irrigation purposes. It has been documented that after breakdown of methyl
green dye, Ag nanoparticles could be extracted from the reaction medium and could
be recycled.
Biogenically synthesized nanoparticles would play an influential role in the
treatment of wastewater in the future. Different metal nanoparticles, including Ag,
Cu, Fe, Zn, Sn, or Au, can be used to effectively process industrial effluents. Modern
dye degradation strategies are expected to be replaced by nanoparticles.
In the recent years, there were major attempts at synthesizing magnetic nano-
particles (MNPs) with a minimum scale of one dimension of 1–100 nm for larger
applications. The majority to be examined are silver, gold, palladium, and platinum.
These are usually synthesized by physical and chemical processes such as heating,
irradiation, and inflammable harmful solvents. These methods are cost-effective, but
generate toxic compounds and thus represent a threat to the environment. This
limitation makes it essential to develop a green route for the production of environ-
mentally sustainable nanoparticles, with features such as improved yield, cost-
effectiveness, and safety. The synthesis and stabilization of MNPs through the
green route depends on factors, including the green reducing agent, the reaction
media and the stabilizer.
Functional Metagenomics
The term “metagenomics” is defined as the genetic complementary analysis of the

overall ecosystem through direct extraction and subsequent cloning of DNA from
microorganisms. Functional metagenomics involves creating a metagenomic data-
base, such as a 25–40 kb of DNA inserts for cosmid or fosmid. For instance, the
metagenomic approach has contributed to the discovery of lipase and esterases
(Lopez-Lopez et al. 2014), amidases, and amylases as well as secondary metabolites

(Bashir et al. 2014). The discovery of distinct genes encoding enzymes with
potential versatility may be a valuable source of innovative applications in the
bioenergy field. A promising candidate in the bioremediation and biodegradation
of industrial effluents tends to be the latest heat-stable laccase from marine fungi and
cell factories. The functional metagenomic approach allows screening of a library of
effective novel biocatalysts such as oxidoreductases, esterases, lipases, and biolog-
ical agents. In addition, gene editing strategies will also assist microbial study in the
hunt for successful methods of handling textile effluents. Advances in the design and
engineering of nucleases, CRISPR-Cas9, ZFNs, TALENS, novel pathways, enzyme,
and protein engineering have offered superior tools for bioremedial applications.
Aplanochytrium sp., a strain derived from mangrove, was reported with Mala-
chite Green (MG) degrading activity with decolorization rate of 86.32% within
5.5 days (Gomathi et al. 2013). Despite global advancement in understanding the
microbial diversity in mangrove sediments, more than 90% of environmental micro-
organisms remain unculturable. The deterioration of MG by conventional cultural
based approaches is often difficult to assess. Cultural-independent metagenomic
database has been effectively used to identify new biosynthetic genes from a range
of habitats. Lac1, a laccase obtained from marine bacterial metagenome, was able to
degrade many industrial azo dyes under alkalescent conditions. Furthermore, 80% of
Reactive Deep Blue M-2GE (50 mg/L) was eliminated within 24 h by a novel
bacterial laccace Lac21, isolated from a metagenomic library on the South China
Sea (Fang et al. 2012).
However, the use of relatively low clone library performance in combination with
activity-based screening might reduce screening performance. The metagenomic
library focuses on the single functional gene and does not include a specific
environmental study with the ability and variability of the functional gene. A high-
performing tool for screening sequences and abundance of possible functional genes
is provided by the sequence-based sampling of metagenomics combination with the
databases such as Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), Cluster of
Orthologous Groups of Proteins (COG), etc. (Simon and Daniel 2009).
Challenges and Future Perspectives
Prior to disposal, the wastewater treatment in textile industries is a necessary

approach for reducing the cost of development and the stress of contamination.
Conventional techniques for wastewater treatment textiles involve a number of
combinations of biological, physical, and chemical processes, but these approaches
include high investments. Over a few years, outstanding accomplishments have been
made toward biotechnological applications in textile effluents, not only in the
elimination of color but also in the complete dye degradation. Biotechnological
treatment processes that can efficiently eliminate dyes from huge amount of waste-
water at low cost are preferred.
While numerous attempts have been made to bioremediate dye, complete degra-
dation of dye is still a problem for science. Also, there is a shortfall of scientifically
proven, bio-based technologies for the disposal of textile waste. Microbial degrada-
tion of dyes involves particular environmental conditions such as pH, temperature,
and nutrient components that inhibit the complex dye elimination from textile
discharge. Microbial degradation of azo dyes might results in mutagenic and carci-
nogenic aromatic amines. Another difficulty in case of microbial bioremediation is
optimal microbial biomass for the elimination of dye present in vast quantities of
textile wastewater. We hope that more advanced and sophisticated technologies can
be developed such that textile wastewater can be treated easily, at small expense, on a
commercial setup.
Conclusion
This chapter offers a comprehensive overview of emerging technology available for

decolorization and treatment of effluent as well as proposes possible biotechnolog-
ical approaches. The unprocessed wastewater discharges from the textile industry
have serious risk to global health, the ecosystem, and the financial system, including
upsurge of vector-borne diseases together with depletion of ecosystem services and
biological diversity. The compilation of valuable scientific knowledge is key to the
development of a global, foreign, and local action plan for the conservation of the
environment, the safe and productive reuse of wastewater. Therefore, strong actions
are needed to be enforced to avert the discharge of pollutants into aquatic systems.
Numerous innovative biotechnological interventions and advances of synthetic
biology, omics, and genetic engineering are the need of the time, which can tailor
microbial metabolism to make the microbes super effective in textile wastewater
effluent treatment.
Acknowledgments The Department of Science and Technology (DST/SSTP/Odisha/443) has

sponsored this research and is greatly acknowledged by the authors. The authors gratefully
acknowledge the support provided by Center for Biotechnology, Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (Deemed
to be University), Bhubaneswar.
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Effects of Marine Littering and Sustainable
Measures to Reduce Marine Pollution in 52
India
Satyanarayana Narra, Vicky Shettigondahalli Ekanthalu,

Edward Antwi, and Michael Nelles
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1376
Mobility of Plastic from the Economy to the Marine Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1379
The Current Situation on Global Marine Littering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1381
Global Mismanaged Plastic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1381
Global Ocean Plastic Source: Land Versus Marine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1382
Marine Littering in India Cause and Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1384
Pathways to Marine Littering in India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1385
Plastic Inputs from Indian River Catchments into the Global Marine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1386
Actions to Mitigate Marine Littering in India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1389
Impact of EPR on Recycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1391
Impact of Beach Cleaning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1394
Ocean Cleaning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1396
Awareness Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1396
Model Demonstrating the Current and Projected Impact of Several Waste Management
Pathways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1397
Importance of Collaborating International and Regional Marine Debris Network in
Mitigating Marine Littering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1399
Global Efforts to Support Marine Litter Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1399
G20 Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1400
Network Comparison and Connection Between Regional, National, and Global Marine
Debris Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1401
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1403
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1403
S. Narra · M. Nelles
Faculty of Agriculture and Environmental Science, Universität Rostock, Rostock, Germany
e-mail: satyanarayana.narra@uni-rostock.de; michael.nelles@uni-rostock.de
V. Shettigondahalli Ekanthalu (*) · E. Antwi
Faculty of Agriculture and Environmental Science, Universität Rostock, Rostock, Germany
e-mail: vicky.ekanthalu@uni-rostock.de; edward.antwi@uni-rostock.de

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_60
1376 S. Narra et al.
Abstract
Marine plastic pollution has increased significantly over the last few decades
and is creating a substantial amount of ecological, social, and economic
impacts. Plastic pollution is globally widespread, and researchers estimate
5–13 million tons of plastic enters the oceans each year. India, with a fairly
low per capita plastic use and high population of 1.36 billion, produces about
5.5 105 tons of mismanaged plastic that has a high possibility to enter the
ocean every year. India, with greater dependence on the informal waste
management sector and with the reputation of having top polluted rivers,
faces a huge challenge to tackling marine plastic pollution. Plastic in the
marine environment has a high tendency to get strangulated and ingested by
aquatic biota leading to physical and toxicological impacts on the marine
ecosystem and consequently affecting humans as the final consumer. The
main objective of this research is to depict the status and measures to be
taken to tackle marine plastic pollution in India. In this concern, a GIS map
has been created to depict the plastic input from different river basins of India.
Further, the guiding model has been developed, which aids in demonstrating
the strategical and technological solution by addressing the challenges of
marine litter in India. The predictive model suggested that India is producing
about 536 thousand tons of municipal waste per day. With a 50% increase in
the current efforts of various waste management pathways, there is a possi-
bility to manage additionally around 25% of the overall generated waste,
consequently decreasing waste flow into our ocean. Current research also
demonstrates the importance of collaborating international, national, and
regional marine debris networks with civil society, public and private partners,
and their effect on reducing the waste flow into our ocean.
Keywords
Marine plastic pollution in India · Marine litter · Plastic leakage · Municipal solid
waste management in India
Introduction
Marine pollution is one of the major challenges for the whole of humankind
which is significantly increasing since a few decades, and researchers estimate
that about 4.8–12.7 million metric tons of plastic is entering the ocean every year,
and without proper waste management strategies, this number is expected to
increase by ten times by 2025 (Jambeck et al. 2015). The primary cause of marine
pollution can be directly attributed to human activity which includes ineffective
solid waste management and wastewater treatment protocols, illegal dumping of
refuse, and lack of social and environmental responsibility. Occasionally, natural
disasters such as tsunamis, flooding, hurricane, and seasonal monsoons leave large
52 Effects of Marine Littering and Sustainable Measures to Reduce Marine. . . 1377
quantities of waste which find their way into the marine environment. The main
source of marine pollution comes from land- and shore-based activities.
Similar to the waste management practices, natural disasters, and social
responsibilities may play a role, the fact remains, however, that the fundamental
production and consumption pattern of humans in the last century has played a
significant role in creating this menace.
India is the second-most populous and sixth largest economy in the world.
India is one of the main contributors to marine plastic pollution with one of the
world’s top 10 polluted rivers, the longest shoreline, and islands that significantly
contribute to global ocean plastic pollution. Oceans are the ultimate recipient for
the improper management of all land-based pollutants, and the river together with
channels and drain acts as a transporting driver discharging all land-based pollut-
ants into the ocean. Hence, in contrast to the marine-based sources, land-based
sources are considered the predominant source for plastics input into the oceans
(Kershaw and Rochman 2015). India has a coastline of about 7500 km with about
25% of the population living along the coastal areas. Several major cities includ-
ing Chennai, Mumbai, Kochi, and Kolkata are located on the coastline which
directly influences marine-based ocean litter pollution. Additionally, India con-
tains 14 major, 44 medium, and 162 small rivers with a mean annual runoff of
1645 km3 (Gladby and Roonwal 1995). Together with the runoff water, the rivers
and channels act as plastic and waste transporters to the ocean. India’s longest
river the Ganges, solely with the total catchment area of 1.57 106 km2, is
estimated to flush 1.15 105 tons of plastic pollutants per year into the ocean
(Lebreton et al. 2017).
Since, the commercial development of plastic in the 1930s and 1940s, plastic has
become extremely dominant in the consumer market. In the year 2016, global plastic
resin production reached 335 million MT (PlasticsEurope 2018), a 750% increase
since 1975. More challenging is the inability of plastics to decompose naturally. This
means the majority of the plastics if not all of the plastics produced in the last
40 years are still present in some form even though it is not being used. Even in
advanced economic blocks like Europe, only 30% of plastics are recycled (Law
2017). Tracer studies thus point to a large number of plastics finding their way into
water bodies which eventually empties into the oceans. Plastic in the ocean has
become ubiquitous, and its presence is becoming increasingly abundant in the ocean
environment. This makes it more easily accessible for marine life, and they are
posing a substantial threat to the marine environment and potentially humans. As the
effect of weathering, plastic gets fragmented into smaller particles called
microplastics, and these microplastics have a high tendency to attract toxic chemical
pollutants and are easy for the smallest marine invertebrates like planktons to get
ingested and end in the food chain. Further, the significantly small size of micro-
plastics makes it extremely difficult to remove them from the marine environment
(Jambeck et al. 2015).
The utilization of compostable or biodegradable plastics can be one of the
better approaches to address marine littering. Currently, there are several interna-
tional standards available (ISO and ASTM level), which appropriately describe
the biodegradation of plastics in the environment (RespirTek Inc. 2020). Produc-

tion of biodegradable plastics, such as polylactic acid (PLA) and poly-
hydroxyalkanoate (PHA), has significantly increased for the last few years.
Unlike conventional composting materials, PLA is a compostable bio-based
plastic that requires a large industrial composting facility with hot, wet, and a
huge amount of compost-eating microbes. PHA is a marine-degradable polymer
(ASTM 7081) made from the off-gassing of bacteria, and the degradability of
PHA varies highly with depth, temperature, and available microbial communities.
PHA is ideal to be used in the application of functional biodegradation and can be
ideal for its application in single-use throwaway plastic applications, including
polyethylene lining on paper cups or straws (Marcus et al. 2017). The production
of biodegradable plastic has nearly doubled from 700 thousand tons in 2014 to
over 1.2 million tons in 2019 (European bioplastic). Indian bioplastic market is
still in an emerging stage with limited market players effectively operating in this
segment. Currently, the Indian bioplastics market is facing challenges with the
low awareness of these emerging markets; however, potential companies are
wishing to enter this market (Lepitreb 2014).
Even though measures such as increasing the production and use of biodegrad-
able plastics and marine-degradable plastics are generally good, it might take a
generation before some of these measures can yield the desired impact. It is crucial
to look at how to increase effective waste management or how human activity
inland can be properly modeled to ensure proper collection and treatment of solid
and liquid waste. In recent times, several waste management models have looked at
the promotion of the 3Rs – reduce, reuse, and recycle. While the reduction is
possible, changing lifestyles of people coupled with economic boom points rather
to increased generation of waste. So many of the countries with low per capita
generation of waste are expected to increase their per capita generation potential
once the economy begins to grow steadily or rapidly. Further, the general popula-
tion increase as has been observed in the life of mankind on this planet points to
increased generation of waste. Therefore, a general increase in waste generation is
expected in the coming years. India is no exception; waste generation is expected
to double from 62 million tons/annum to about 130 million tons/annum by 2050.
Reuse and recycles of waste are very much dependent on several factors such as the
level of infrastructure – collection and treatment. In as much as these general
principles of waste management are good, the critical role of the informal sector in
reuse and recycling is often neglected. Further, the role the informal sector could
play in the prevention of marine littering has not been a subject of investigation,
especially in India. Additionally, the combined effect of actions such as beach
cleaning, ocean cleaning, and the introduction of popular policies such as extended
producer principle and the banning of plastic bags on marine littering has not been
properly evaluated. This chapter discusses the marine littering in general and traces
the sources with specific references to India while proposing a policy option that
considers both the conventional solid waste management methods and non-
conventional actions and tries to provide a general outlook for future references
on dealing with marine littering in India.
Mobility of Plastic from the Economy to the Marine Environment
Plastic has become indispensable material of the modern economy due to its
unrivaled benefits integrated with low cost. Plastic usage has increased whopping
twenty times in the past 50 years, and it is estimated to double again in the next two
decades. Currently plastic has become an indispensable part of our daily life;
almost everyone comes in contact with plastics every day. In contrast, the con-
temporary plastic economy has a huge downside that is becoming more obvious in
everyday life. After a short life cycle, about 95% of plastic packaging material, or
a value of USD 80–120 billion, is lost to the global economy every year. A
staggering 32% of produced plastic packaging material escapes waste collection
systems and creates major economic costs by impacting the productivity of natural
systems such as the water bodies, marine network, and clogging urban infrastruc-
ture (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2016). The cumulative cost of such mis-
managed plastic packaging and the associated greenhouse gas emissions from its
production has been estimated by UN Environmental Program (UNEP) at USD 40
billion, which exceeds the entire plastic packaging industries profit pool. To
overcome these drawbacks, enhancing system effectiveness is required to achieve
better environmental and economic outcomes while continuing to harvest the
benefits of plastic packaging.
Marine plastic litter can be directly linked to market failure. In basic terms, the
price of the product does not illustrate the true cost of disposal, and this loophole in
the system allows the production and consumption of the plastic or materials in
higher amounts at a very low “figurative” price. Furthermore, the management of the
waste is done far away from the sight of the consumer, hindering the consumer to
know the actual end-life cost of the product. Figure 1 illustrates the mobility of
plastic from the economy into the marine environment.
One of the key challenges to address marine litter accumulation is the fact that
the sources of the litter are widespread. This problem is seen at the global level not
being limited to the Indian context. India has relatively high complications
because of the inferior waste management system and a higher percentage of
mismanaged plastic waste entering the marine environment. In addition to plastic
emission to the oceans and direct coastline littering through rivers, plastic debris
eventually reaches the ocean environment through the leakage from the global
value chain run by oil industries to various other production units and local
retailers to consumers, and this leakage is likely to happen intentionally and
unintentionally. Intentional littering includes the waste discarded consciously or
inappropriately which can come either from the industrial, commercial, or domes-
tic sector, and unintentional littering includes regular, unrestrained procedures of
extractive, manufacturing, and consumption that indirectly contribute to the
marine plastic pollution (Pravettoni 2018).
Creating an effective after-use plastics economy is of prime importance in
regulating marine plastic pollution. To achieving a successful reduction in plastic
leakage, it would require combined efforts along three axes: improving after-use
plastic infrastructure in the countries with high plastic leakage, increasing efforts
Fig. 1 Movement of plastic from economy to environment. (Reproduced with permission from
Pravettoni (2018)
to create economic attractiveness of keeping after-use plastic in the system, and

reducing the impact of after-use plastic when it does get mismanaged (Ellen
MacArthur Foundation 2016). The after-use plastic economy is not only crucial
in capturing more material value, but it also provides a direct economical
intensive by avoiding the leakage into the natural systems.
The Current Situation on Global Marine Littering
Global Mismanaged Plastic
Mismanaged waste is a material that is at high risk to enter the ocean ecosystem via
wind or tidal transport or carried into the coastlines from inland waterways. Mis-
managed waste composes of the material which is either inadequately disposed of or
littered. Inadequately disposed waste includes the waste which had the intention of
being managed via a formal waste collection system but ultimately gets mismanaged,
and the plastic waste here mainly includes the disposal in dumps and uncontrolled
landfills. The mismanaged plastic waste is not fully disposed of and possesses a high
risk of being leaked and transported into the natural environment and oceans via
waterways, winds, and tides. Unlike inadequately disposed waste, “littered waste” is
the waste that is dumped or disposed of without consent in an inappropriate location.
The trend in the mismanaged plastic is directly linked with the economy of the
country. Wealthy industrialized countries are generating a significantly higher
amount of plastic waste with every inhabitant contributing over 100 kilograms of
plastic waste per year (Lebreton and Andrady, Future scenarios of global plastic
waste generation and disposal 2019). In populous and developing countries, like
China and India, a lower per capita plastic usage is coupled with a higher population
density that will yield large volumes of plastic waste generated. High rates of plastic
waste generation combined with inappropriate waste management infrastructures in
densely populated developing economies will result in significantly higher volumes
of plastic waste generation and leakage into the environment. The present global
geography of mismanaged plastic waste generation is disproportionally higher in
Asian and African continents. The higher-economy countries, including most of
Europe, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North America, Australia, and South Korea,
have highly effective waste management infrastructure, and this directly implies that
the discarded plastic waste is securely managed. In contrast, across many low-to-
middle-income countries across South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, inadequately
disposed waste can be high. A huge amount of plastic waste produced in these
regions is inadequately disposed of and therefore at risk of polluting rivers and
oceans. The influence of mismanaged plastic waste is strongly reflected in the global
distribution of waste input into the ocean environment.
An understanding of the global picture on waste management is needed to address
the ocean plastic pollution problem. The countries across North America and Europe
produce significantly higher quantities of per capita plastic waste, but it is well
managed, and a very little quantity of the produced waste is at the risk of entering the
ocean environment. Figure 2 represents the global distribution of the mismanaged
plastic waste combined in the region of the world, in the year 2010 (this date is the
measure of the total waste mismanaged by population within 50 km of the coastline,
i.e., the produced waste in these regions has high risk of entering the ocean
environment). 60% of the world’s total mismanaged plastic waste is coming from
the countries in East Asia and Pacific regions. Countries under the South Asian
region rank second; however, it is noticeable that these regions have five times less
Europe and Central Asia

3.60%
North
America
0.90% Middle East and North Africa
30.00%
South Asia
11.00%
Sub-Saharan East Asia and Pacific 60.00%

Africa 8.90%
Latin America and
Caribbean 7.20%
Fig. 2 Global mismanaged plastic by region in 2010 (Jambeck et al. 2015)
with 11% of the total world’s mismanaged plastic. Following this sub-Saharan
Africa is at 9%, the Middle East and North Africa are at 8.3%, Latin America is at
7.2%, Europe and Central Asia are at 3.6%, and North America is at 1%.
Global Ocean Plastic Source: Land Versus Marine
There are several studies on establishing ocean plastic mass balance in our marine
networks. The principal focus of this section is to understand the source of plastic,
where the plastic is getting accumulating, and how far and deep it goes once plastic
enters the marine network. This reasoning is crucial in optimizing the mitigation
strategies and also to plan the future ocean cleanup measures. Mitigation of marine
littering requires the combination of preventive and curative approaches, from
controlled consumer demand and better waste management infrastructure with
appropriate collection technology.
Plastic in the marine environment can arise from both land- and marine-based
sources. The pathway and the sources of marine litter are diverse, and the exact
quantities and the paths of the plastic waste inputs are not fully known. However,
there is a lot of research that aims to determine the exact quantities and types of plastic
litter and pathways in the environment. Most of the plastic in our oceans originates
from land-based sources, and the studies suggest that developing economies are
responsible for higher pollution (Jambeck et al. 2015). The study also showed that
almost 83% of the 4.8–12.7 million tons of land-based plastic waste that are ending up
in the ocean originated from 20 countries (China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam,
Sri Lanka, Thailand, Egypt, Malaysia, Nigeria, Bangladesh, South Africa, India,
Algeria, Turkey, Pakistan, Brazil, Burma, Morocco, North Korea, and the USA).
Marine-based sources refer to the pollutants arising from the fishing fleets that include
the discarded fishing gears, shipping activities, legal and illegal dumping by shipping
industries, and sometimes abandoned vessels. At the global level, United Nations
estimates that approximately 80% of the global marine plastic pollutants originate
from land-based sources, and the waste inputs from municipalities, industries, and
runoff significantly account for this. The remaining 20% comes from marine-based
sources, and of this 20%, it is estimated that 10% directly arises from fishing fleets
(UNEP 2019). However, some studies estimate a slightly higher contribution from
marine sources as 28% (Lebreton et al. 2018), but the land-based sources remain
dominating with the contribution of about 70–80%, while the relative contribution of
land-based sources will vary depending on geographical location and context.
Low- and middle-income countries have a significantly higher share to the ocean
plastic pollution, and according to estimates (Jambeck et al. 2015), the huge amount
of plastic leakage into the ocean stems from China and Southeast Asian countries
such as India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. G20
countries such as Brazil, Turkey, and South Africa play a significant role, too.
Further, some researchers have found out that the leakage of plastic into the ocean
is also season-specific and it is estimated that over 74% of the plastic leakage into the
ocean in Asia occurs between May and October (Lebreton et al. 2017).
Figure 3 illustrates the comparison between the global plastic waste generated
with inadequately managed and the plastic waste inputs from rivers into the ocean
Fig. 3 Comparison of global plastic waste generated, mismanaged plastic waste, and
river plastic inputs into oceans (million tons per year) (Ritchie and Roser 2018; Lebreton
et al. 2017)
aggregated by geographical locations. From the data, it is clear that Asia has
tremendously higher global shares of the amount of plastic waste generated,
mismanaged plastic waste, and river plastic inputs. Despite higher waste being
generated in Europe, Central and North America, and South America, the pro-
duced waste is properly handled leading to significantly lesser global shares of
mismanaged plastic and the plastic inputs from rivers to the ocean from these
regions. It is evident from the figure that the river plastic input from Asia
dominates with whooping 86% (1.21 million tons per year) of the global
total and followed by Africa at 7.8% (0.12 million tons per year) and South
America at 4.8% (0.07 million tons per year). Central and North America,
Europe, and the Australia-Pacific region together account for just over 1% of
the world total.
Marine Littering in India Cause and Effect
India’s booming economy and status as an emerging economy are driving

demand for more plastic products. Over the last 6 years, production capacity
has virtually doubled to current approximately 16 million tons per annum in 2020
(Plastic foundation, 2020). Using the same growth rate, the production of plastics
could double to about 32 million tons per annum by 2030. Aside from this,
single-use plastics constitute about 50% of all plastics produced in India. This
does not include plastics imports into India. From the production perspectives
alone, about eight million tons of all plastics produced in India in 2020 will end
up as waste after its first-time use if all the plastics produced are used locally.
Waste management is still a challenge in India even though progress has been
made over the last few years. The collection efficiency of municipal solid waste
(MSW) in India varies between urban cities and rural communities (Sharma and
Jain 2019). While urban cities have a higher collection efficiency of about 80%,
only 50% of the waste generated in small cities and communities are collected
leaving the rest as litter. More worrisome is the fact that only 23% of the entire
waste stream in India is treated. Thus, 77% of the waste stream ends up in open
dumpsites or as litter in India. In terms of composition, organic waste constitutes
more than 50% of the waste, while plastics account for about 9%. The low
fraction of plastics in the waste stream is primarily due to the fact that India has
a fairly low per capita use of plastic of about 11 kg per year compared to the USA
of 109 kg per year (Teri 2016). However, with a population of 1.35 billion, it
multiplies into more than 14.8 106 tons of plastic consumed every year. Despite
India’s rather low per capita plastic consumption, India produces about 9.4 106
tons per annum of plastic waste among which almost 40% of plastic waste
produced is neither collected nor recycled. This translates into nearly 3.8 x 106
tons per annum of mismanaged plastics waste which could end up as marine litter
(Government of India 2019).
Pathways to Marine Littering in India
Several major, medium, and small rivers in India which flow for thousands of
kilometers from their headwaters together with runoff carry huge loads of plastic
to their deltas in the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea and finally making their way to
the ocean. One of the core reasons for this huge amount of plastic entering the ocean
is due to the abundance of uncollected single-use and multilayered plastic in the
environment. The informal sector does not collect or recycle these as there is no
market value for these materials and the business models do not function due to their
bulkiness in volume for very less price.
On June 5, 2018, India hosted World Environment Day with the theme of “Beat
Plastic Pollution.” On this occasion, the government of India urged industries,
communities, and individuals to join hands to urgently reduce the production and
excessive use of single-use plastic which is significantly influencing the marine
ecosystem and threatening human health (UN Environment 2018). On this same
day, the government also announced its intention to eliminate single-use plastic by
2022. This announcement has encouraged state-specific bans on the production,
supply, storage, and use of some categories of single-use plastics that have already
been implemented in at least 25 of the country’s 29 states. In 2009, Himachal
Pradesh became the first Indian state to ban plastic and polythene shopping bags.
Under National Green Tribunal Act, 2010, the capital city Delhi adopted a strict ban
on single-use plastic that includes bags, cutlery, cups, and plates in 2017, and the
southern state Karnataka took a step forward by completely banning single-use
plastic items in 2016 (Nicholls 2016). Few states, viz., Gujarat and Goa, have also
introduced partial bans and restricting the use of plastic in the areas surrounding
historic, religious, and natural sites (Rastogi 2018). Most recently, in June 2018,
Mumbai, India’s commercial nerve capital, and the state capital of Maharashtra
became the country’s largest city to enforce a complete ban on 22 plastic items,
including plastic shopping bags and disposable polystyrene plates and cutlery
(Sampathkumar 2019). However, the ban in Mumbai exempts for retail and take-
away packaging, trash can liners, and additional relaxation was made to the ban on
Saturdays of every week, in response to pressure from businesses (The Hindu 2018).
There is an enormous apparition for such stringent bans placed on plastic
nationwide; nevertheless, there is serious doubt on such highly ambitious decisions
implemented almost nationally. In most of the states, the current prohibitions on
plastic have proven to be problematic in terms of enforcement and implementation.
So far the outcome is not satisfactory. For instance, in the northern state of Punjab,
there is a complete prohibition on the use of polythene bags; however, people
continue to use them (Parvaiz 2018). Nevertheless, there are huge gaps from the
policy enforcement from a country level to the state level and further to municipal
corporation levels. It is impossible to monitor the implemented strategies without
proper guidelines and monitoring tools leading to system failure. The activities of the
unskilled informal sector, in addition, are also resulting in the dumping of
the recovered and sorted plastics which doesn’t have monitorial value directly into
the water bodies.
Plastic Inputs from Indian River Catchments into the Global Marine
Research estimates that nearly 90% of the total river plastic debris entering the global
marine network is produced by the top ten polluted rivers mostly located in Asia. Out
of these ten rivers draining a significant amount of plastics into the sea globally, there
are three of these rivers flowing through India, which are Ganga, Brahmaputra, and
the Indus. However, the river Indus majorly running through Pakistan carries the
second-highest amount of mismanaged plastic derbies into the sea. Meghan, Brah-
maputra, and the Ganges having their major catchments areas in India are ranked
sixth among the world’s top ten plastic-inputting rivers (Schmidt et al. Export of
Plastic Debris by Rivers into the Sea 2017).
The river Ganges is a river of extreme complexity with a length of 2525 km and
flows through four different countries. The Ganges is the primary water source for
400 million people (Lebreton et al. 2017) in the proximity of the catchment and is
worshiped by about 1 billion Hindus. Likewise, the river Brahmaputra originates in
Tibet flowing through three countries, being the major source of water in east and
northeast India, and culminates in Bangladesh.
The significant increase in the population, urbanization, and industrialization in
these river basins without proper waste management system has considerably
contributed to the plastic load on to the river and concurrently to the sea. The rivers
Meghan, Brahmaputra, and Ganges have a total catchment area of 1.5 million km2.
About 0.62 billion people reside in this catchment area and produce about 3.017
million tons of mismanaged plastic waste (MMPW) every year (Schmidt et al.,
Supporting Information – Export of plastic debris by rivers into the sea 2018).
Similarly, the river Narmada and Tapi in the west and Godavari, Krishna, and Kaveri
in the south have a significant influence on river plastic input from India (see Fig. 4
and Table 1).
The marine plastic load and the concentration in the rivers are linked to the
characteristic of the river, urban land use, economic status, population density, and
the education of people in the respective regions. Additionally, marine plastic input
is directly influenced by the increase in tourism, shipping, and fishing activities. The
recent study determines that a considerable portion of these pollutants floating in the
open waters originates from the mismanaged plastic from the cities and the villages
alongside these river streams (Pendharkar 2018).
The transition of many Indian cities into megacities has the corresponding
infrastructural challenges that come with it. Due to lack of adequate space, natural
waterways are often converted to residential and commercial facilities. This results
in the possibility of flooding. Additionally, the need for improved sanitation
requires the proper transportation of sewage sludge to treatment facilities to be
treated. This has resulted in the construction of sewers to carry sewage sludge
generated in households and storm drains to carry runoff water to prevent the
Fig. 4 GIS image explaining the river plastic inputs from different river basin into the global
marine network
1388
Table 1 Overview of the Indian river basins features and the amount of plastic entering the marine system (Schmidt et al., Supporting Information - Export of
plastic debris by rivers into the sea 2018)
Rivers Ganges + Brahmaputra Narmada Tapi Godavari Krishna Kaveri Mahanadi
Catchment area km2 1,571,571 95,804 64,161 309,453 257,908 78,063 135,158
MMPW per capita [kg d-1] 0.013 0.009 0.009 0.009 0.009 0.009 0.0009
Population [millions] 620.59 19.65 19.42 68.52 81.07 31.34 31.20
MMPW generated [tons y-1] 3,017,170 62,888 62,153 219,231 259,363 100,270 99,821
Plastic load on sea [tons y-1] (Micro + macro) 72,845 85 83 753 1011 192 191
S. Narra et al.
incidence of flooding during heavy monsoon events. Two systems are usually
deployed; however, due to cost-effectiveness and convenience in handling, India’s
preference is to deploy separate systems to collect runoff water from rains and
sewage from households. While most sewers are covered in India in conformity
with standards for improved sanitation, storm drains are left open and are thus
susceptible to poor waste management. According to Mahapatra et al. (2011), poor
solid waste management is the major cause of choked storm drains in Bangalore
city. The study found out that over 90% of all storm drains visited had remnants of
household waste present in them. This was primarily due to the open nature of
these storm drains. The lack of proper waste management facilities in India means
that people dump household waste indiscriminately into storm drains. Further,
during heavy rains, uncollected and untreated MSW is carried away by the runoff
water into open drains. The storm drains carry the MSW into rivers and streams
which intend to carry it into the marine environment. The debate to either cover or
leave the storm drains is a raging one with several experts in India supporting open
drains against covered drains. Until the problem of solid waste is properly
contained, storm drains will act as important conduits for the transportation of
marine litter from communities into the rivers and subsequently into the marine
environment.
Actions to Mitigate Marine Littering in India
Several models in literature have attempted to find the optimum conditions to

effectively manage municipal solid waste. Cost-effective models where the focus
is on sustainable logistic/supply chain in the waste management sector taking into
consideration the collection, transportation, and promotion of recycling are one
of the most widely investigated models. Such models fail to look at treatment
options. Here, the objective function is to minimize the cost of operation taking
into consideration all the factors that matter in the collection and transportation
such as choice of route, operation times, and operation frequency. On the other
hand, the focus of environmental justice models is on ameliorating or mitigating
the environmental cost of waste management. Model is mostly based on the life
cycle cost analysis of the entire process; placing special emphasis on the envi-
ronmental cost of treatment options, choice of treatment, and disposal sites to
minimize their environmental effect is usually the main focus of such models.
Even though the models are good, one major drawback of such models is the lack
of good data to validate the model. Lastly, waste management models usually
focus on the hierarchical policy options of which landfilling/waste disposal
option on the top of the pyramid as the least option of choice for solid waste
management. Other options like reuse, recycle, and reduction of waste occupy the
lower layers of the pyramid in that order. More sophisticated models using linear
programming, artificial neural networks, and stochastic models have been
attempted in the past. While these models address critical aspects of the waste
management matrix, they fail to look at the impact of specific policy options on
reducing marine littering in India and the effect of such policy options on
socioeconomic implications such as employment generation, etc. The current
model is a simplified linear model that evaluates the impact of actions on marine
litter reduction in India. The model looks at the four main actions: extended
producer responsibility (EPR), beach cleaning, marine cleaning, and waste man-
agement in general. The combined effect of EPR, awareness creation, beach
cleaning, and ocean cleaning on plastic waste collected in India is described by
Eqs. 1 and 2.
X
P¼ ½EPR þ Awareness creation þ Beach cleaning þ Ocean cleaning
þ Po ð1Þ
where Po is the current daily collection rate and P is the daily amount of plastics
potentially saved from entering the marine environment. The current collection and
recycling rate of plastics according to the Indian government stands at 60% of all
plastic waste generated. This translates to about 15,600 tons/day of plastic waste
recycling.
X
n
P¼ ½xi Pr þ ½yi Pr þ ni Pr þ mi Pr ð1 xi Þ þ Po ð2Þ
i¼j
where
Pr is the daily plastic generation rate in India

xi is the fraction of plastic waste that can be collected through the EPR system
yi is the fraction of plastic waste disposed properly and not dumped
indiscriminately
mi is a fraction of plastics removed for treatment through beach cleaning, and
ni is the fraction of plastics removed from the ocean for treatment.
The fraction of plastic waste collected through the EPR system can be estimated
by Eq. 3
P
n
ðdaily formal plastic collection rate þ daily informal collection rate Þ
i¼0
xI ¼
Daily plastic generation rate
ð3Þ
where j ¼ the plastic component (PE, PET, PVC, LDPE, etc.)
P
n
½daily formal plastic collection rate þ daily informal plastic collection rate
i¼j
yi ¼
Daily plastic generation rate
ð4Þ
P
n
plastic waste collected daily through beach cleaning
i¼0
mi ¼ ð5Þ
fraction of plastic waste generated daily
P
n
plastic waste collected daily through marine cleaning
ni ¼ i¼0 ð6Þ
fraction of plastic waste generated daily
The quantity of plastics litter/waste with the potential of entering the marine
environment can be described by Eq. 7. Even though not all plastic waste or litter
may end up in the marine environment, Eq. 7 gives a good estimate of India’s
standpoint regarding marine litter pollutants and what needs to be done to reduce this
number.
Pm ¼ Pr P ð7Þ
where Pm is the daily rate of plastic with the potential of entering the marine
environment in India
Impact of EPR on Recycling
The EPR has been a widely hailed policy in Europe which has resulted in
increased plastic waste collection and recycling in countries like Germany.
India recognizing the potential of EPR to increase recycling has tried its imple-
mentation previously. As part of the 2016 comprehensive policy on plastic waste
management, extended producer responsibility was mentioned as one of the key
instruments for reducing the plastic waste generation. The EPR system is to be
modeled as a pollution prevention system with financial cost backed by environ-
mental standards. The EPR is to serve as the pivot around which large corpora-
tions develop and implement sustainable business lines by ensuring that the
impact of their products is predetermined. However, EPR should not only be
about large corporations, rather as an integral part of the waste management plan,
but it should also be holistic and capture all stakeholders especially the informal
sector.
Currently, India is known to recycle 60% (TERI 2018) of the over 26,000 tons/
day of plastic generated leaving behind about 10,400 tons per day. Out of the over
15,600 tons of plastic waste recycled, 70% is attributed to large plastic/formal plastic
recycling industries in India. This is evident from the 90% recycling rate for PETs.
The remaining 30% is either taken up by the informal sector (20%) or reused in
homes (10%) (Government of India 2019). This underscores the important role of
the informal sector playing in ensuring a circular economy in India. It is imperative
that the recycling system is not separated from the collection system. In all collection
options including formal and informal systems are adequately considered and
factored into the design of the entire program. However, the success of EPR
implementation in India is expecting that very little producers are collecting and
recycling the waste produced by their products. Primarily, the lack of a waste
segregation mechanism and inappropriate collection system is making it relatively
impossible for a producer to take back their product in an uncontaminated form.
In this concern, to challenge the use and throwaway society, India has to adapt and
imitate the success stories of the western world.
Several models of the EPR have been drawn up and under review with no specific
decision yet on which specific model has to be adopted. The most attractive one
seems to be the “Green Dot” system. As German manufacturers failed to achieve
their EPR objectives of collecting and recycling their products, Dual-System
Deutschland GmbH (DSD) was established to take care of the whole recycling
process. DSD created the Green Dot System in Germany in 1991. The main
objective of Green Dot was to develop coordination between the collection, sorting,
and recycling of used packaging waste in Germany. The crux here is that manufac-
turers and retailers have to pay Green Dot on the basis of packaging weight and the
number of units sold in Germany. This system has led to less packaging materials
usage resulting in less waste to be recycled. The net result of this system is a
significant decline of almost one million tons less garbage than normal every year
in Germany alone. Green Dot system has achieved greater success with a total of
95,000 licensees using the trademark in 20 countries of Europe (Grune punkt).
In India, it is however important that the policy under concern take into consid-
eration the strong role played by the informal sector. Aside from the informal sector
taking up a significant percentage of recycled plastic waste, they also serve as a very
important social buffer that can be heavily relied on when the conventional recycling
systems fail. Moreover, they also double as an effective medium to increase the
percentage of the waste that will fall outside the conventional waste collection
stream. A payback scheme will not only ensure the full participation of the informal
sector but also ensure that the plastic waste streams outside of the conventional
collection systems are taken care of. The effective plastic recycling infrastructure
can be built by intensive stakeholder engagement involving manufacturers, acade-
mia, civil societies, and the informal sector operatives to achieve a certain level of
harmony and the assurance of the needs and expectations of all stakeholders are
brought to bear. Furthermore, the engagement will deal with some of the associated
risks the informal sector is exposed to. It is expected that with the tacit involvement
of the informal sector and with the successful EPR practice, the recycle rate could
reach about 90% as opposed to the case where the informal sector is alienated or not
factored into the design of the extended producer responsibility program (see
Table 2).
Impact of EPR on Job Creation

The EPR is known to be a very good job creation vehicle in both the formal and
informal sectors. For instance, Germany was able to create about 290,000 sustain-
able jobs in the waste management and secondary packaging sectors after the
introduction of EPR (GIZ 2018). There is an opportunity for creating sustainable
jobs in India when the EPR is properly implemented. For instance, it is estimated that
Table 2 Anticipated recycling rate after successful implementation of EPR and strong participa-
tion of the informal sector (Government of India 2019)
The fraction of Actual plastic
Indices plastic waste in % waste, t/day
Waste generation 100% 26,000
Current recycle rate 60% 15,600
Uncollected waste stream 40% 10,400
Recycle rate increase with successful EPR practice 70% (projected) 18,200
Recycle rate increase with successful EPR practice 90% (projected) 23,400
and strong informal participation
about 1.5–4 million people are employed in the informal waste management sectors
in India (Bhattacharya 2017). Women constitute the majority, and in some cases like
in Pune City, women account for about 90% of the total number of informal sector
workers (WIEGO 2012). One of the key challenges of the informal waste sector is
the collection of dumping fees or avenues to sell the collected waste. The absence of
a framework to address this huge problem does not only create a problem of trust but
also a lack of interest by the informal sector to go the extra mile to collect recyclable
waste. With the introduction of the EPR and assured sustainable cash streamflow
from producers and importers, the informal sector is assured of fixed prices and
consistent payment of fees for the collected waste. Further, a public-private partner-
ship that recognizes and transforms the informal sector as integral agents in the waste
management economy will ensure full participation and the adoption of environ-
mentally friendly approaches to recycling in the informal sector. This is expected to
trigger a corresponding increase in the number of waste pickers in the informal
sector. It is projected that there could be a 25–50% increase in the number of waste
pickers across India. Additionally, the current number of recycling companies will
either be forced to increase their capacities which will create additional employment
or secondary packaging industries will spring up to take up some of the collected
waste due to the financial arrangement available under the EPR system. Plastic
recycling is known to generate about six times more jobs than the production of
plastics from virgin polymers. In that case, India’s 1.1 million people employed in
the plastic production industry could witness a surge to about six million people once
an effective EPR system is implemented (see Fig. 5).
Additionally, a significant amount of jobs can be created by extending the formal
waste management practice, with the efforts of awareness creation as well as with
beach and ocean cleaning. These initiatives will not only create jobs but also aid in the
overall waste management in India and thus reducing the plastic entering the marine
environment. For an instance, increasing the formal waste management efforts by 50%
can not only increase the number of people working in the formal sector by half but
can aid in the management of an extra 40,200 tons of MSW per day.
Impact of EPR on the Quantity of Waste Collected

An effective and successfully implemented EPR has the potential to significantly
increase the amount of waste collected and recycled. It has been evidenced in EPR
Fig. 5 Impact of successful implementation of EPR on job creation
pioneering countries like Germany, the Netherlands, and Denmark the amount of
recycled collected increased considerably after the introduction of EPR. The biggest
change in terms of the quantity of waste collected is expected to be coming from the
informal sector in India. Considering 2.5 million people working in waste collection
and with the plastic waste collection efficiency of 6.29 kg of plastic waste per day
(Chandramohan et al. 2010), about 15.700 tons/day of plastic waste can be collected
by the informal sector. This constitutes about 60% of the plastic waste generated in
India every day. As shown in Fig. 7, should the number of waste collectors increase
by 25% and 50% and work with the same level of efficiency as pertains now, there
will be a corresponding linear increase in the daily amount of waste collected to
about 19,600 and 23,500 tons, respectively. Given fact that about 60% of the plastic
waste generated in India is collected, this increase in the collection rate by the
informal sector is likely to have a significant impact on the waste management
situation. The amount of uncollected plastic waste is likely to see a reduction to
25% and 10%, respectively. Such a significant increase in the quantity of waste
collected is likely to trigger a significant increase in the entire waste recycling rate
when the informal sector is fully integrated (Fig. 6).
Impact of Beach Cleaning
Beaches form an essential component of the marine ecosystem. Aside from this,
beaches present a huge economic potential because of their recreational value. As a
result, marine litter does not only affect the flora and fauna of the ecosystem but also
presents a huge economic loss to the country due to the loss of potential recreational
value. Beach cleaning, therefore, serves a dual purpose: retaining the economic
Fig. 6 Impact on uncollected waste by increasing the current percentage of the informal waste
collector by 25 and 50%
potential of the beach and ensuring the removal of litter from the beaches to preserve
the marine ecosystem. Thus, beach cleaning is one of the popular actions used to
mitigate marine littering. In 2018 according to the Ocean Conservatory 2019, a
single day’s campaign to clean the beaches around the world resulted in nearly 12
million tons of plastic being removed from beaches. In India, it is estimated that
plastic debris density on Mumbai beach could reach about 7.49 g/m2 (Wang et al.
2017). In 2017, a volunteer beach cleanup project carried out in Versova, Mumbai,
India, is still considered as the “world’s largest beach cleanup project” by the United
Nations. Led by a young lawyer and environmentalist Afroz Shah, the team was
successful in transforming the filthy beach to a fabulous beach by collecting stag-
gering 5300 tonnes of trash and plastic from 2.5 km stretch beach within a period of
21 months (Arora 2017). This cleanup got a greater appreciation from the UN and
environmentalist worldwide, and there is further need for astonishing initiatives like
this in the rest of India and the world. Weekly efforts to remove trash from the beach
in Mumbai have resulted in about 12,000 tons of plastic litter being removed over a
period of 119 weeks (Martinko 2020). This works out to an average of about 100
tons of trash which is mostly plastics removed each week. This constitutes about 1%
of the current mismanaged plastics in India. Beach cleanup is a community-based
approach that involves volunteers, with the motivation to reduce and recovers large
amounts of accumulation on the seashore and to prevent plastics from entering into
the ocean or seas. The Ocean Conservancy reported that over 60% of plastic wastes
found on a shore originated from recreational activities (Ocean Conservancy 2011).
Removing plastic wastes from beaches (via beach cleanup) is a measure aimed to
tidy up the marine environment and has been found highly effective in reducing the
threat of microplastic.
So far most of the efforts at beach cleaning have been driven purely by the spirit
of volunteerism. People who feel the need to join the campaign do so willingly
without any financial reward. The government has not taken any keen interest in
rolling out a sustainable beach cleaning exercise. It is therefore difficult to estimate
the job creation potential of this mitigation action also given the fact that experts
disagree on the most appropriate cleaning mechanism to employ. While some
experts favor mechanized cleaning due to its limited damage to microfauna and
flora on the beaches, others prefer manual cleaning due to its job creation potential as
well as the efficiency of cleaning. At the moment researchers do not see any
immediate policy move by the local government or federal government of India to
formalize beach cleaning. This could also be due to the lack of rigid supervisory and
monitoring that must be in place before such a move is made. In light of the above,
beach cleaning is expected to play a marginal role in any effort to reduce marine litter
from entering the marine environment.
Ocean Cleaning
Even though the exact amount of plastic waste in the ocean is unknown, few studies
have attempted to quantify this by estimating more than 100 million tons of debris
items in 12 regional seas, while another study reported that there are about 51 trillion
particles floating on the surface of the ocean (Löhr et al. 2017). Due to the effect of
drift in ocean current, the litter entering the ocean at any point moves across
geographical borders with ease thus compounding the problem of marine litter. As
a result, even though some advanced countries have launched individual efforts to
clean the oceans, the problem is more global in nature and thus requires a global
effort. India is yet to launch any major effort at cleaning its oceans. So far efforts
have been mainly marginal and at best experimental with no real effort in place either
at the local or the federal government level to clean the oceans.
Awareness Creation
Several researchers have highlighted the need for countries to implement sustainable
waste management policies to combat marine littering. Once the waste management
net is able to capture the waste, at least the incidence of littering, leaks into the
environment, and improper management of the waste is avoided. However, at the
pinnacle of integrated waste management or circular economy is the awareness
creation. What are the level of awareness creation regarding integrated solid waste
management, the effect of indiscriminate dumping of waste among locals, and those
living along the watersheds of major rivers? In urban and peri-urban communities.
The lack of awareness of integrated solid waste management is a reflection of how
people handle waste in general. For instance, only 28% of the waste generated in
India is collected with the remaining ending up in open landfills and dumpsite
(Sharma and Jain 2019). Raising awareness in public is a powerful, accelerating
tool to promote voluntary measures and self-regulation in public, and this strategy
has the potential to reinforce legal and economic instruments by creating an aware-
ness on the needs and benefits of such measure and gaining the support of the public
(Sherrington et al. 2014). There is a need for the public to see the link between their
plastic consumption patterns and the associated consequences in terms of the
environment. It is vital to set up educational outreach and public awareness programs
from various governmental and nongovernmental (NGOs) agencies to educate and
promote change in people’s perception and perspective, in order to frontier the
indiscriminate disposal of plastic wastes into the environment. Particularly in devel-
oping countries like India, which does not have effective waste management systems
because of the lack of infrastructure to cope with the increasing level of plastic
pollution, this particular approach can be very useful. Workshops, projects, and
campaigns on marine litter pollution and its management, conservation, and protec-
tion must be organized for the public and students and in larger numbers. Education
and awareness campaigns targeting communities, schools, and industries have been
proven successful in changing both children’s and adult’s behavior (Ogunola et al.
2018).
Model Demonstrating the Current and Projected Impact of

Several Waste Management Pathways
The projections are made by considering India’s population in the year 2018 (The
World Bank 2019) and the per capita waste generation of 0.4 kg/day (Bhat et al.
2018). Our predictive model suggested that India is producing about 536 thousand t/
day of MSW and with a 50% increase in the current efforts of various waste
management pathways (see Fig. 7), there is a possibility to manage additionally
around 25% of the overall waste generated. Currently, it is known that between 2.5
million people are working in the informal waste management sectors in India.
Considering each person collecting 13.6 kg (Chandramohan et al. 2010) of recycla-
ble waste/day can lead to the collection of 34 thousand t/day of recyclable waste
collection. With the effective formal-informal partnership, assured of fixed prices,
and consistent payment of fees for the collected waste, it is possible to make the
informal sector as integral agent in the waste management economy. Furthermore,
this also fosters full participation and an increase in the number of informal workers
in India. The anticipation of increasing people working in the informal sector by
25% will increase the waste processing to 42 thousand t/day only by the informal
sector. This leads to a waste processing percentage to 7.8% only by informal waste
workers. Similarly increasing the efforts of informal waste management by 50% can
increase the total waste processed to 51 thousand tons/day, which is about 9.5% of
total MSW processed compared to the current efforts of the informal sector at 6.4%
(only recyclable waste considered).
The formal waste management sector currently contributes to the management of
about 15% of the total generated MSW. Increasing these efforts by 50% can increase
the MSW processing to 120 thousand tons/day, which is about 22.5% of the total
Fig. 7 Model depicting the current and projected impacts of several waste management pathways
on increasing the waste management rate. (All numbers are in tons/day of waste processed)
MSW generated. Further, increasing the efforts to 100% can lead to the management
of 160 thousand tons of MSW/day, i.e., 30% of generated MSW processed compared
to the current efforts of the formal sector at 15% (waste being landfilled is not
included).
In addition to appropriate legislation and strong technical support, public aware-
ness and participation are the critical components in successful waste management.
The public needs to have a proper understanding of their waste and the management
pathways, without which the success rate of even the best waste management plans
can become questionable. Considering about 2.5% of the managed waste is currently
fostered by awareness creation, and doubling the current awareness efforts will help
to manage about 26.8 thousand t/day MSW. The greatest sources of marine litter are
land-based activities, and regulating land-based sources will directly contribute to
the waste entering the marine environment. As shown in projections, increasing the
efforts of several waste management pathways will not only decrease the amount of
unprocessed waste but also significantly decrease the amount of waste entering the
marine environment. However, depending on the area, sea-based sources also
contribute directly and considerably to marine pollution. The effective cleaning
efforts of marine and beaches can directly reduce the marine littering and aid in
faster restoration. As per the above model, it is expected that the beaches and marine
cleaning can contribute to 2% of overall waste processing, i.e., cleaning and pro-
cessing of around 10 thousand tons of marine and beach litter/day.
Importance of Collaborating International and Regional Marine

Debris Network in Mitigating Marine Littering
Global Efforts to Support Marine Litter Actions
The global efforts aiming for the action to reduce and prevent marine pollution and
to mitigate the corresponding impacts have significantly increased in the recent
past. These efforts include the International Convention for the Prevention of
Marine Pollution from Ships (MARPOL), Global Partnership on Marine Litter
(GPML), London Convention, Honolulu Strategies (UNEP & NOAA), G20 ini-
tiatives, and SDG’s targets and plans on marine litter mitigation. MARPOL is one
of the most prestigious international marine environmental conventions. It was
established by the International Maritime Organization in an effort to reduce
pollution of the oceans and seas, waste dumping, oil, and air pollution. The main
objective of this convention is to preserve the marine ecosystem in an attempt to
completely eradicate pollution by oil and other harmful substances and to mini-
mize accidental spillage of such harmful substances. GPML is international multi-
stakeholder coordination that connects policymakers, the scientific community,
civil society, and private sectors to discuss the problems and possible solutions
related to the marine littering. The Convention on the Prevention of Marine
Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter is commonly called as “London
Convention” or “LC ‘72.” London Convention is an agreement to control pollution
of the sea by dumping and to encourage regional agreements supplementary to the
Convention.
The Honolulu Strategy is a comprehensive planning framework and global effort
to reduce the ecological, economic, and human health impacts of global marine
pollution. The framework of the Honolulu Strategy is intended to be used for the
development or refining tool for the sector-specific marine debris programs and
projects (UNEP & NOAA). The Honolulu Strategy has three fundamental goals to
reduce marine pollution, and each goal has an accompanying set of strategies.
1st Goal: to reduce the impact and amount of land-based litter and solid waste
entering the marine ecosystem
Table 3 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to marine litter (United Nations 2019))
SDGs SDG targets related to marine litter
SDG 6: Clean water and sanitation Target 6.3: focuses on untreated wastewater
Ensure availability and sustainable By 2030, the target is to globally increase the water
management of water and sanitation for quality by eliminating dumping, reducing pollution,
all and halving the portion of untreated wastewater and
considerably recycling and reusing
SDG 11: Sustainable cities and Target 11.6: focus on municipal and other waste
communities management
To make cities and human settlements By 2030, the target is to combat the adverse per
safe, resilient, and sustainable capita environmental impacts of the cities. Special
attention has to be given municipal and other waste
management
SDG 12: Responsible consumption and Target 12.4: focus on environmentally sound
production management of chemicals and all wastes
To ensure sustainable consumption and throughout their life cycle
production patterns By 2020, in accordance with international
frameworks, the aim is to achieve environmentally
sound waste management and significantly reduce
their release to air, water, and soil
Target 12.5: focus on waste generation reduction
through prevention, reduction, recycling, and reuse
by 2030
SDG 14: Life below water Target 14.2: focus on sustainable management
Sustainable use conservation of seas, By 2020, sustainable management and protection of
ocean, and marine resources marine ecosystems by strengthening their resilience
and actions to restore the ocean
14.c Targets to enhance the conservation and
sustainable use of ocean, sea, marine, and their
resources by implementing the international law
reflected in UNCLOS (the United Nations
Convention on the Law of the Sea)
2nd Goal: to reduce the impact and amount of all sorts of sea-based sources entering
the marine ecosystem
3rd Goal: aims in reducing the impacts of already accumulated marine litters
Furthermore, four of the existing SDGs have targets specifically to combat marine
plastic pollution (see Table 3). These objectives specifically deal with the sustainable
waste management in the cities, life cycle management of the waste, and wastewater
treatment and simultaneously focusing on 3R and sustainable management of the
ocean.
G20 Action
At the G20 ministerial meeting 2019, the protection of the marine environment and
tackling marine plastic litter were high on the agenda, and it was acknowledged that
particularly plastic pollution in the marine environment is posing a global threat. The
communique made by the G20 summit 2019 calls for the action to address marine
plastic pollution including microplastic and another type of marine litter and to
address the adverse effects ecosystem, human health, livelihood, and economy by
adopting the framework deed on marine plastic pollution (G20 Summit 2019). The
current “G20 Implementation Framework for Actions on Marine Plastic Litter” was
built and adopted from the Action Plan on Marine Litter that was adopted at the G20
Summit in 2017, in Germany, and aims to facilitate further action while taking
national policies, approach, and the situation in consideration. The current action
framework is predicted to complement the works of the UN Environment Program
(UNEP) on single-use plastic and marine litter.
For the successful implementation of the action plan, G20 has planned to
promote a comprehensive life cycle methodology to “urgently and effectively”
preclude the discharge of plastic litter into the ocean. The planned methodology of
G20 focuses particularly on the land-based source and promotes the environmen-
tally sustainable waste management solution, prevention and reduction of plastic
waste generation, and cleanup of marine plastic. Further, the summit will also
promote sustainable production and consumption, including circular economy,
resource efficiency, and sustainable materials management (G20 2019). Neverthe-
less, the action plan also promotes the development of innovative solutions to
enhance the national capacities, in cooperation with existing international initia-
tives. The G20 Environment Ministers further recognize the importance of Sus-
tainable Development Goal (SDG) 12 to ensure the sustainable consumption and
production patterns; by this the summit highlights the significance of improving
resource efficiency to marine litter and foster the life cycle approach to reducing
the discharge of waste into the ocean.
Within the consortium of G20, the Government of Japan has agreed to support the
portal site for efficient information sharing and updating. Shared information focuses
on relevant policies, plans, and measures that are taken or intended to be taken
voluntarily, in agreement with G20’s action plans on marine litter (G20 Summit
2019). The G20 members also decide to participate in deeds of marine debris
networks beyond the G20 consortium to maximize synergies. G20 members will
emphasize the importance of regional cooperation with pertinent local bodies and
invite respective international organizations to develop the tailor-made policy
options/tools to support practices effectively.
Network Comparison and Connection Between Regional, National,

and Global Marine Debris Network
Strategy to achieve societal change is the formation of marine debris networks which
is by providing platforms that not only work at a national or regional scale but also
discuss, share ideas, and communicates on a global scale. The influence of marine
debris network’s activities is not only limited to certain areas, but they contribute to a
variety of fields, inter-alliance education, improvement of stakeholder collaboration,
monitoring, capacity building, operationalization, specifications, and road maps to
implement voluntary and mandatory actions and measures, which contribute to

scientific data for research.
The role of both national and regional networks in comparison to the global
marine networks is different; however, it is interdependent. The national debris
network within the country should facilitate a platform for entire stakeholders in
the specific region to collaborate and work to find effective tailor-made solutions. By
connecting policies and developing recommendations from higher-level organiza-
tions, national or regional networks are in a position to bridge top-down frameworks.
Furthermore, national and regional networks can provide mechanisms through
which countries and organizations can work together in order to achieve a synchro-
nized implementation of actions to deal with sustainability challenges. Global
marine networks are not in connection with all the stakeholders on the ground
instead of only working with researchers, political decision-makers, and perhaps
industry. Therefore, the evaluation shows that national and regional networks cannot
be substituted by global networks and national and regional networks can connect to
stakeholders within their country, which is in the far reach of global networks (see
Fig. 8).
Nevertheless, a global fund might help national and regional marine debris
networks to overcome their obstacles. One of the most recurrent reasons for the
International agency
Need for recognition‚ Education on new strategies,

infrastructure, human campaign, news and data
and finances
Collaboration
Top down National marine waste Regional marine waste Bottom up

approach conservation network conservation network approach
Experience
exchange
Ask for data information, Share data information,

recommendations and recommendations and
network information connect
Stakeholders, producers and retailers
Fig. 8 Network connection between regional, national, and global marine debris network, inspired
from (Kandziora et al. 2019)
failure of national and regional networks is the anticipation that collaboration can
be done without setting up a coordinating body. In this case, each stakeholder
group is organizing its programs according to their priorities. This leads to the
obvious replication in both resources and effort. The participation of all stake-
holders is the only solution to address this issue (Kandziora et al. 2019).
Conclusion
Continuous discharge and accumulation of waste in the ocean have severe impacts
on the marine ecosystem, human, and economy. The increased rate of production,
indiscriminate disposal practices of plastic waste by people and industries, and the
inability of plastic to get degrade in the environment have intensified the problem
associated with plastic pollution compared to other issues, viz., climate change and
ocean acidification. Increasing population and particularly the development of
megacities are making SWM in India a major problem and directly influencing
the marine littering. In India, the current waste management relies on the informal
sector, inadequate waste infrastructure, and waste landfilling. Challenges in man-
aging waste in India are mostly related to waste legislation, technology selection,
and the lack of appropriately trained people in the waste management sector. There
is a crucial necessity to foster effective formal-informal participation and collab-
oration, encouraging the informal sector with assured and consistent payment of
fees for the collected waste, appropriate legislation, strong technical support, as
well as public awareness and participation. Nevertheless, efforts with beach and
marine cleaning can directly aid in reducing marine littering. Given the facts in this
chapter, there is urgent action required to reduce the leakage of plastic to the ocean;
however, the hard fact is that there is no simple solution to deal with this situation.
It is evident that the traditional linear pathway of production, use, and disposal
model for plastics is not sustainable and the future stand of the marine environment
is devastating. In this concern, there is an emergency need for the development and
implementation of more close-looped circular production models. In general, the
action plans must involve close cooperation and involvement in international,
national, and regional marine networks. The local government, municipalities,
and the private sector have to be encouraged to the adoption of more sustainable
and closed-looped practices.
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Utilization of Tyre Wastes in Cementitious
Composites 53
Adeyemi Adesina
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1408
Tyre Wastes in Cementitious Composites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1410
Composition of Tyre Wastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1410
Processing of Tyre Wastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1411
Types of Tyre Wastes Used in Cementitious Composites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1412
Properties of Cementitious Composites Incorporating Tyre Wastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1413
Physical Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1413
Thermal Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1415
Acoustic Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1418
Mechanical Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1419
Durability Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1421
Interfacial Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1425
Benefits of Using Tyre Wastes in Cementitious Composites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1425
Major Challenges with the Use of Tyre Wastes in Cementitious Composites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1427
Prospects for the Use of Tyre Wastes in Cementitious Composites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1427
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1428
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1429
Abstract
Urbanization coupled with increasing population has resulted in a consequential
generation of a high amount of waste tyres. Due to the high amount of tyre wastes
being generated, they end up in landfills or dispose of openly in the environment
where they pose huge health, safety, and aesthetic threat. However, with the
evolution in the field of cementitious composites, it has been shown that tyre
wastes can be recycled as aggregates and fibres in cementitious composites. This
chapter explores the use of tyre wastes with a focus on the use of rubber obtained
from the recycling of tyre wastes as aggregates/fillers in cementitious composites.
A. Adesina (*)
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON, Canada

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_63
1408 A. Adesina
The influence of the tyre wastes on the physical, mechanical, and durability
properties are discussed alongside the challenges associated with the use of tyre
wastes in cementitious composites. A brief introduction to the prospects of
utilizing tyre wastes in cementitious composites was also discussed. Findings
presented in this chapter showed that tyre wastes can be utilized in cementitious
composites as a sustainable, efficient, and economical avenue to manage tyre
wastes. The use of tyre wastes in cementitious composites was found to enhance
the acoustic, thermal, and toughness performance. However, there is a detrimental
effect of tyre wastes on mechanical performance. Nonetheless, cementitious
composites incorporating tyre wastes suitable for both structural and structural
applications can be produced with proper selection and optimization of the
composition of the composites.
Keywords
Cementitious composites · Wastes · Tyre wastes · Sustainability · Composites
Introduction
Solid wastes generated from various sources pose a huge menace to the environment
in addition to the health and safety threat to humans and other living things in the
ecosystem. One of the major solid wastes that are generated in large quantities
worldwide and its generation is expected to increase significantly in the coming
years is tyre wastes from vehicles. The industrial evolution coupled with continuous
advancement in technology and urbanization has resulted in the production of an
increasing number of vehicles and its corresponding use. However, with the benefits
and critical role of vehicles in society also comes a generation of a significant amount
of tyres as wastes at the end of their service life. These tyre wastes are referred to as
end-of-life tyres (ELTs). It has been estimated that over 1 billion tyres are generated
as wastes annually as they have come to the end of their service life (WBCSD 2011).
An estimate of the amount of tyre wastes generated annually by different regions is
presented in Fig. 1. The conventional methods used to manage these wastes are
either by landfilling, burning, or stockpiling. The current amount of tyre wastes
stockpiled/landfilled in the United States and Europe has been estimated to be about
1 and 3 billion, respectively (Mohammed et al. 2012). These conventional methods
of managing tyre wastes could result in the leaching of dangerous chemicals into the
surrounding environment.
Due to the tyre wastes being nonbiodegradable, the continual deposition of these
wastes in the environment is not feasible and have huge concern globally. The
improper disposal of these tyre wastes in the environment creates health, safety,
and fire hazards. For example, the stockpiling of tyre wastes would create a breeding
ground for mosquitoes and rodents. In addition, the stockpiling of tyre wastes is a
high fire hazard that could result in devastating fires when subjected to any form of
ignition. When burning is used as a method for managing the tyre wastes, the residue
53 Utilization of Tyre Wastes in Cementitious Composites 1409
Fig. 1 Estimate of annual tyre waste generation
obtained can contaminate the surrounding soil and water. The disposal of tyre wastes
in landfills is also not favourable to the environment as they occupy a large volume
of space and results in possible contamination of the surrounding soil and
groundwater.
With a higher amount of wastes anticipated to be generated in the coming years, it
is imminent to devise innovative and environmentally friendly ways in which these
tyre wastes can be managed effectively and efficiently. Several ways have evolved
over the years to manage tyre wastes. Such methods include burying in landfills to
using as fuel in energy generation. However, these conventional methods are either
detrimental to the environment as mentioned earlier or not economical. For example,
there are now limitations of disposal of tyre wastes in landfills due to excessive
consumption of land spaces that can be used for other applications. Regions such as
Europe have also banned the disposal of tyres wastes in landfills (ETRMA 2015).
On the other hand, the sourcing of natural aggregates for the production of
cementitious composites is invasive on the aesthetic and sustainability of the envi-
ronment due to the increasing demand for aggregates (Marceau et al. 2007; Adesina
2018). Also, the transportation and processing of these natural aggregates alongside
their corresponding transportation emit greenhouse gases into the environment
(Langer and Arbogast 2002; Meyer 2009). Various social costs are also associated
with the increasing extraction activities associated with the sourcing of aggregates
used in cementitious composites (Winfield and Taylor 2005). With extensive
sourcing of these natural aggregates and the increasing demand for cementitious
composites, a scarcity of aggregates is imminent. Hence, utilizing alternative
materials especially waste materials would help to eliminate the negative impact of
1410 A. Adesina
the sourcing of these natural aggregates on the environment and supplement the
reserves of natural aggregates used in cementitious composites (Zega and Di Maio
2011; Adesina 2020).
One of the economical and sustainable viable ways to manage tyre wastes is by
incorporating them as components in cementitious composites. The use of tyre
wastes in cementitious composites is deemed sustainable as it eliminates the
need to mine more natural resources and transport over long distances. Also,
the incorporation of these tyre wastes in cementitious composites would eliminate
the sustainability threat associated with the improper management of the tyre wastes.
This chapter presents an overview of the use of tyre wastes in cementitious
composites. The tyre wastes focused on in this chapter are crumb rubber which
is obtained from recycling tyre wastes. In this chapter, a brief overview of the
properties of tyre wastes used in cementitious composites and the corresponding
influence on the properties of the composites are discussed. A brief discussion on the
challenges associated with the use of tyre wastes in cementitious composites was
discussed alongside prospects associated with its use. It is anticipated that this
chapter would be an insightful resource for students, instructors, engineers, scien-
tists, and other stakeholders in the construction and waste management industries.
Tyre Wastes in Cementitious Composites
Composition of Tyre Wastes
Tyre wastes are composed of the original material used for the initial production of
tyres except with changes in the performance of the materials due to usage during its
service life. A typical cross section of a tyre is presented in Fig. 2, and Table 1
presents a typical composition of tyres and the parts they are used for. It can be seen
from Table 1 that rubber (i.e., both natural and synthetic) makes up a larger part of
tyres. Hence, finding ways to recycle the rubber from these tyres would aid in
managing a larger volume of tyre wastes. It is worth mentioning that the composition
of tyres varies on applications and geographical locations.
Fig. 2 Cross-sectional view

of a tyre. (Reproduced with
permission from Hita et al.
2016)
Table 1 Composition of tyres

Material Composition (%) Tyre part
Natural rubber 14–30 Sidewall, thread, piles, bead heel
Synthetic rubber 14–27 Liner, sidewall, thread
Carbon black 20–28 Sidewall
Steel 13–25 Bead heel
Fabric, fillers, accelerators, etc. 10–17 Plies, sidewall, liner
Capacity machine
8000 kg/h
Granule
Steel bead heel
extraction and Capacity machine
ELT 2000 kg/h
shredder phase
Capacity machine
2000 kg/h Rubber
Granulating
powder
phase
Water Energy
consumption consumption Pulverization
200kg/h 220kW/h and separation
Energy
consumption 215kW/h
Steel wires
Energy
consumption 180kW/h
Not clean
Textile Fibers
Fig. 3 Conventional recycling process of tyre wastes. (Reproduced with permission from Gigli
et al. 2019)
Processing of Tyre Wastes
Tyre wastes obtained after the end of their service life from the use by various types
of vehicles can be processed into smaller sizes by either mechanical grinding of the
tyre wastes at ambient conditions or size reduction carried out after freezing the tyre
wastes below the glass transition phase. Of the two methods, the cryogenic method is
preferred as it does not alter the properties of the tyres nor produce irregular shapes.
However, the cryogenic method is deemed more expensive compared to the mechan-
ical grinding at ambient conditions. Tyre wastes are processed for reuse by separat-
ing the component in the tyres into rubber, textile and metal, etc. One of the major
components of tyre wastes that can be utilized in cementitious composites is rubber
which made up more than 50% of tyres (Yang et al. 2018). The rubber can be
processed and utilized as the aggregate or filler component in cementitious compos-
ites. After the initial processing of tyre wastes, the rubber component of tyre wastes
to be used in cementitious composites can be obtained by various methods such as
shredding, separation, and pulverization as depicted in Fig. 3 (Gigli et al. 2019).
As mentioned earlier, the focus of this chapter is recycled rubber which is
obtained from the recycling of tyre wastes. It is worth mentioning that tyre wastes
1412 A. Adesina
can be utilized for other applications other than in cementitious composites such as
in the production of new tyres, coatings and pigments (Kakroodi et al. 2012).
However, these other uses require high capital and only utilize a low volume of
tyre wastes compared to the overall volume of tyre wastes generated. On the other
hand, cementitious composites are the most used building materials in the world, and
it is typically made up of more than 50% aggregates/fillers. Hence, the utilization of
tyre wastes as aggregates/fillers in cementitious composites would open a pathway to
efficiently manage a large amount of tyre wastes.
Types of Tyre Wastes Used in Cementitious Composites
In order to be able to incorporate tyre wastes into cementitious composites, it needs

to undergo processing to reduce the size of the tyre wastes. Tyre wastes used in
cementitious composites as aggregate/fillers are composed of the recycled rubber
obtained from the recycling of the tyre wastes. Based on the size of the recycled tyre
wastes, it can be classified into two major types referred to as crumb rubber
and shredded rubber. These classifications are also related to their corresponding
use in cementitious composites. Crumb rubber are tyre wastes which are about
0.075–4.75 mm in size and are used as the replacement of fine aggregate in
cementitious composites. Generally, rubber from tyre wastes less than 0.30 mm
are referred to as ground waste but can still be classified as crumb rubber and also
used as the replacement of fine aggregates or filler in cementitious composites.
Rubber from tyre wastes with size greater than 4.75 is referred to as shredded rubber
or tyre chips and are used as the replacement of coarse aggregate in cementitious
composites. Table 2 presents some physical properties of the crumb and shredded
rubber. Various sizes of crumb rubber are shown in Fig. 4.
As tyres are blackish, they still retain their colour at the end of their service life.
Hence, tyre wastes (i.e., rubber) is black. It is worth mentioning that the lower the
size of the tyre wastes, the higher the cost associated with its processing (Pehlken
and Essadiqi 2005). Figure 5 presents the estimated cost and processing rate of
reducing tyre wastes into various sizes. It can be observed from Fig. 5 that the hourly
output decreases and cost increased with the fineness of tyre wastes. In addition to
the rubber obtained from recycling of tyre wastes, other materials are obtained that
can be incorporated into cementitious composites other tyre wastes such as steel
fibres are generated during the recycling of tyre wastes. Figure 6 presents a picture of
other components that are generated from the recycling of tyres and can be used as
Table 2 Physical properties of tyre wastes used in cementitious composites

Type Size (mm) Density (kg/m3) Source
Crumb rubber 0.60–2.36 536 Wang et al. (2017)
1.18–2.36 530 Youssf et al. (2016)
0.30–3.00 909–973 Su et al. (2015)
Shredded rubber 5–10 450 Raffoul et al. (2017)
Fig. 4 Rubber from recycling tyre wastes. (Reproduced with permission from Li et al. 2014)
components in cementitious composites. However, the focus of this chapter is only

on the tyre wastes used as aggregates/fillers in cementitious composites (i.e., rubber).
Properties of Cementitious Composites Incorporating Tyre

Wastes
Physical Properties
Workability
The incorporation of crumb rubber from tyre wastes into cementitious composites
has been reported to reduce workability (Chen et al. 2021). Figure 7 shows the
influence of tyre waste content on the workability of cementitious composites in
terms of the resulting slump. The reduction in the workability with the incorporation
of the tyre wastes can be associated with the rough surface of the crumb rubber
coupled with their corresponding irregular shapes compared to those of natural
aggregates. However, there exist other studies that showed that the incorporation
1414 A. Adesina
Fig. 5 Cost and processing rate of reducing the size of tyre wastes. (Adapted from Pehlken et al.
2005)
of tyre wastes increased the workability of cementitious composites due to the ability
of the tyres wastes not to absorb the mixing solution (Bharathi Murugan
and Natarajan 2015). Nevertheless, when higher workability is desired, chemical
admixtures such as superplasticizers or mineral admixtures such as fly ash can be
incorporated to improve the workability of the cementitious composite.
Density
As a result of the lower density of rubber, cementitious composites incorporating
the tyre wastes exhibit lower density compared to the conventional cementitious
composites. Hence, increasing the content of the tyre wastes would result in more
reduction in the density. The increase in the air content with the incorporation of tyre
wastes can also be associated with the reduction in the density of cementitious
composites incorporating tyre wastes. Aliabdo et al. (2015) reported a decrease in
density of cementitious composites in the range of 9–20% when tyre wastes were
used as the replacement of the fine aggregate in the range of 20–100%. This
observation is in agreement with various studies where the incorporation of tyre
wastes into cementitious composites has been found to yield lower density (Zhang
et al. 2015; Kashani et al. 2017). Figure 8 presents the influence of tyre waste
used as a replacement of sand up to 30% on the density of cementitious composites.
It can be observed that the incorporation of tyre wastes into the composites
yielded lower density with more reduction in density with a higher content of
the rubber wastes. Hence, cementitious composites incorporating tyre wastes can
be used in applications where lightweight cementitious composites are required.
Fig. 6 Other components of recycled tyre wastes (a, b, d) recycled tyre steel fibre and (c, d)
recycled tyre polymer. (Reproduced with permission from Chen et al. 2021)
The use of lightweight cementitious composites in place of the normal weight

cementitious composites is known to be beneficial in terms of reduction of the
dead load of structures and an overall reduction in the cost of construction.
Thermal Properties
The incorporation of lightweight materials into cementitious composites and the

corresponding reduction in the density has been known to result in higher thermal
insulation capacity (Wang and Meyer 2012; Adesina 2020). One of the benefits of
incorporating tyre wastes into cementitious composites is the improvement of
thermal properties in terms of the reduction in thermal conductivity and a
corresponding enhancement of the thermal insulation capacity (Fraile-Garcia et al.
2018). The influence of the content of tyre wastes on the thermal conductivity of
cementitious composites, when used as the replacement of sand, is presented in Fig.
9. The lower the thermal conductivity, the higher the thermal insulation capacity. The
enhancement of the thermal insulation capacity of cementitious composites when
tyre wastes are incorporated can be associated with the low thermal conductivity of
1416 A. Adesina
Fig. 7 Influence of tyre waste content on slump. (Adapted from Batayneh et al. 2008)
Fig. 8 Influence of tyre waste content and size on drying shrinkage. (Adapted from Sukontasukkul
2009)
Fig. 9 Influence of tyre waste content on thermal conductivity. (Adapted from Aliabdo et al. 2015)
Fig. 10 Concrete blocks made with tyre wastes. (Reproduced with permission from Fraile-Garcia
et al. 2018)
the rubber. The thermal conductivity of rubber from the tyre wastes is about 0.25 W/mK,
while that of the natural aggregates used in cementitious composites is 1.5 W/mK
(Abdel Kader et al. 2012). Hence, the replacement of the natural aggregate with
tyre wastes would result in a significant reduction in thermal conductivity of the
composite. Due to the enhancement of the thermal insulation capacity of cementi-
tious composites incorporating tyre wastes, such cementitious composites can be
used in the production of rubberized blocks as shown in Fig. 10 that can be used in
the construction of low energy buildings.
1418 A. Adesina
Fig. 11 Influence of tyre waste content on attenuation coefficient. (Adapted from Aliabdo et al.
2015)
Acoustic Properties
The incorporation of tyre wastes into cementitious composites has been found to
improve the acoustic performance in terms of sound insulation (Holmes et al.
2014). The improvement in the sound insulation with the incorporation of tyre
wastes can be associated with the reduction in the density of the composites which
would result in higher sound absorption capacity (Swift et al. 1999). Similar
observations have also been reported by Sukontasukkul (2009) and Aliabdo
et al. (2015) where the incorporation of tyre wastes has been found to improve
the acoustic insulation of cementitious composites. Figure 11 presents the enhance-
ment of the sound attenuation coefficient with increasing content of tyre wastes.
The higher the attenuation coefficient, the higher the sound insulation capacity of
the composite. The increase in the porosity of the cementitious composites with the
incorporation of tyre wastes could also be responsible for the sound insulation
enhancement (Albano et al. 2005).
Hence, tyre wastes can be utilized in cementitious composites in the con-
struction of structures that are subjected to high noise environments such as
around highways, airports, railways, etc. A schematic of how the use of cemen-
titious composites incorporating tyre wastes (i.e., crumb rubber) can be used to
enhance the sound acoustic performance of a high-rise building is presented in
Fig. 12.
Fig. 12 Possible application of cementitious composites incorporating tyre wastes for improving
acoustic performance. (Source: Wakefield Acoustics Ltd.)
Mechanical Properties
Compressive Strength and Modulus of Elasticity

The use of tyre wastes as aggregates in cementitious composites would result in a
lower compressive strength (Azevedo et al. 2012; Medina et al. 2017). However,
the severity of the tyre wastes on the compressive strength is dependent on the
content, size, and other physical properties of the tyre wastes used. The reduction
in the compressive strength of cementitious composites incorporating tyre wastes
is generally attributed to the low stiffness of the tyre wastes coupled with the poor
bond between the tyre wastes and the cementitious matrix. Figure 13 presents the
influence of tyre waste content on the compressive strength of concrete at various
ages.
The use of larger sizes of tyre wastes has also been reported to yield lower
compressive strength due to the formation of larger voids (Su et al. 2015). The
hydrophobic nature of tyre wastes in contrast to the hydrophilic nature of the
cementitious composites could also result in the lower strength observed when
these wastes are incorporated. The incompatibility difference of the hydrophobic
and hydrophilic nature of the components within the cementitious matrix
would result in a weak interfacial bond between these components resulting in
lower strength of the composite. Nonetheless, the compressive strength of
cementitious composites incorporating tyre wastes can be improved with the
incorporation of supplementary cementitious materials to densify the microstructure
1420 A. Adesina
Fig. 13 Influence of tyre waste on compressive strength. (Adapted from Jalal et al. 2019)
(Onuaguluchi and Panesar 2014). Similarly, structural grade cementitious compos-

ites incorporating tyre wastes (i.e., greater than 25 MPa at 28 days) can still be
produced by adjusting the binder composition. Hence, it is critical that when various
tyres wastes are incorporated into cementitious composites, innovative initiatives
should be put in place in order to improve the compressive strength. On the positive
side, the use of tyre wastes in cementitious composites has been found to change the
failure mode of the composites under compression from brittle to ductile failure (Sofi
2018).
Similar to the compressive strength, the incorporation of tyre wastes as aggre-
gates/fillers in cementitious materials results in a reduction in the modulus of
elasticity (MOE) (Ling 2011; Son et al. 2011). The lower MOE of cementitious
materials incorporating tyre wastes can be associated with its lower elastic modulus
compared to that of natural aggregates (Youssf et al. 2017). The influence of tyre
wastes content and age on the MOE of cementitious composites is presented in
Fig. 14. The study by Li et al. (2014) also showed that the MOE of cementitious
composites incorporating tyre wastes also reduced with decreasing sizes of the and
higher content of the crumb rubber used.
Tensile and Flexural Strength

Similar to the compressive strength, the incorporation of tyre wastes into cementi-
tious composites is also detrimental to the tensile and flexural strength (Güneyisi
et al. 2004; Youssf et al. 2016). The degradation of these properties with
the incorporation of tyre wastes can also be associated with the lower stiffness of
the tyre wastes which creates weak points within the matrix and would result in
Fig. 14 Influence of tyre waste on MOE. (Adapted from Jalal et al. 2019)
the failure of the surrounding cementitious matrix when loaded. Hence, increasing
the content of tyre wastes in cementitious composites would result in more reduction
in tensile and flexural strength as shown in Fig. 15. However, as mentioned earlier,
depending on the strength required for the application of the cementitious compos-
ites, the binder content can be modified to complement the loss in strength from the
incorporation of tyre wastes.
Despite the reduction in the tensile and flexural strength capacity of cementi-
tious composites with the incorporation of tyre wastes as aggregates/fillers as
shown in Table. . ., their incorporation is beneficial in terms of improving the
toughness and ductility (Gesoǧlu et al. 2014; Guo et al. 2014). The use of tyre
wastes as aggregates/fillers in cementitious composites has been found to change
the failure mode from brittle to ductile. With this enhancement in toughness and
ductility, cementitious composites incorporating tyre wastes as aggregate/filler
are suitable for the construction of structure where higher damping capacity is
required.
Durability Properties
Permeability
The permeability of cementitious composites is a good indication of its overall
durability as this presents the ease at which various determinantal materials can
penetrate the composite. Similarly, higher resistance to chloride-ion penetration
has been observed when tyre wastes are used as aggregate in cementitious
1422 A. Adesina
Fig. 15 Influence of tyre waste on MOE. (Adapted from Thomas et al. 2016a)
composites (Azevedo et al. 2012; Thomas et al. 2016a). This observation corre-
sponds to that of Wang et al. (2017) where the incorporation of tyre wastes was
found to result in lower chloride ion penetration due to the lower conductivity of
the rubber. However, reduction in permeability of cementitious composites when
tyre wastes are used has been mostly reported for crumb rubber and not tyre wastes
with higher particle sizes (i.e., shredded rubber) (Güneyisi et al. 2004; Gesoǧlu
et al. 2014). The reduction in the permeability of cementitious composites when
tyre wastes with smaller sizes (i.e., crumb rubber) are used can be associated with
the ability of the small particles to fill the macro voids and reduce the open porosity
within the cementitious matrix.
Several other studies have also reported that the incorporation of tyre wastes
into cementitious composites would yield higher permeability (Bisht and
Ramana 2017; Girskas and Nagrockienė 2017). The increase in permeability
with the incorporation of tyre wastes in those studies was attributed to the
introduction of air voids into the composites as a result of the tyre waste presence.
However, the poor interfacial bond between the tyre wastes and the cementitious
matrix could also create voids within the composites resulting in higher perme-
ability (Muñoz-Sánchez et al. 2017). In addition, non-uniform distribution of the
tyre wastes in the composites would result in agglomeration of the tyre wastes,
and a corresponding creation of weak zones within the composites would
increase permeability (Bisht and Ramana 2017). Hence, it is recommended to
incorporate mineral admixtures such as fly ash and silica fume in cementitious
composites made with tyre wastes in order to refine the microstructure of the
resulting composites.
Fig. 16 Influence of tyre waste content and size on drying shrinkage. (Adapted from
Sukontasukkul and Tiamlom 2012)
Drying Shrinkage
The use of tyre wastes in cementitious composites has been found to yield higher
drying shrinkage (Uygunoǧlu and Topçu 2010; Huang et al. 2013b). The increase in
the drying shrinkage of cementitious composites when tyre wastes are incorporated
can be associated with its lower stiffness and higher flexibility of the tyre wastes
which would provide lesser restraint within the matrix. The drying shrinkage of
cementitious composites has also been found to increase with a finer particle size as
presented in Fig. 16. Hence, it is recommended that shrinkage mitigation techniques
be put in place when tyre wastes are incorporated into cementitious composites. The
shrinkage resistance of cementitious composites incorporating tyre wastes can be
improved by incorporating mineral and/or chemical admixtures.
Resistance to Physical Attacks

In contrast to the effect of the incorporation of tyre wastes as aggregates/fillers on the
mechanical strengths of cementitious composites, their incorporation can be used to
improve the resistance of the composites to physical attacks such as impact and
abrasion (Gupta et al. 2014; Thomas and Gupta 2015). A study by Thomas et al.
(2016b) showed that the abrasion depth of concrete samples reduced with a higher
content of tyre wastes as presented in Fig. 17. This observation is in agreement with
other similar studies where tyres wastes were incorporated in various cementitious
composites (Kang et al. 2012). The enhancement of the abrasion resistance of
cementitious composites incorporating tyre wastes was ascribed to the reduction of
the abrasive powder on the surface of the samples due to the presence of tyre wastes.
1424 A. Adesina
Fig. 17 Influence of tyre waste on abrasion resistance. (Adapted from Thomas et al. 2016b)
Hence, cementitious composites incorporating tyre wastes would be suitable for

applications where structures are subjected to subsequent dynamic and impact loads.
Similarly, rubberized cementitious composites would also be suitable for the con-
struction and rehabilitation of structures such as dam spillways and tunnels due to
their higher resistance to abrasion.
Tyres wastes can also be incorporated into cementitious composites to improve its
resistance to freeze and thaw cycles (Gonen 2018). Cementitious composites sub-
jected to freeze and thaw cycles are prone to expansion and deterioration which
would result in a significant reduction in the service life of structures made with such
composite. However, the study by Zhu et al. (2012) showed that the freeze-thaw
resistance of cementitious composites incorporating tyre wastes increases with
increasing fineness of the waste. Hence, the performance of cementitious composites
made with tyre wastes and subjected to freeze-thaw cycles requires comprehensive
research in order to have more understanding of the performance of such composites.
Resistance to Chemical Attacks

Despite the possible increase in permeability of cementitious composites with the
incorporation of tyre wastes, some studies have shown that the use of tyre wastes in
cementitious composites has also been found to enhance the resistance against
chemical attacks such as acid and sulphate attacks (Thomas et al. 2016a). However,
similar to the permeability of cementitious composites incorporating tyre wastes,
there exist other contradicting results on the influence of tyre wastes on the chemical
attack resistance. A study by Thomas et al. (2016a) reported that cementitious
composites incorporating tyre wastes up to 20% as replacement of the fine aggregate
Table 3 Methods to improve the interfacial bond between tyre wastes and cementitious matrix
Method Source
Silane coupling agent Li et al. (2016)
Coating with limestone powder Onuaguluchi (2015)
Soaking in sodium hydroxide solution Youssf et al. (2014)
Incorporation of silica fume Onuaguluchi and Panesar (2014)
Precoating with cement/mortar Najim and Hall (2013)
Ultraviolet radiation Ossola and Wojcik (2014)
Washing with water Raffoul et al. (2016)
Partial oxidation Chou et al. (2010)
Soaking in sulphate acid Muñoz-Sánchez et al. (2017)
Soaking in methanol Rivas-Vázquez et al. (2015)
Incorporation of fibres Alsaif et al. (2019)
Incorporation of nanomaterials Adamu et al. (2018)
exhibited lower resistance to acid attack compared to those made with only natural
aggregates.
Interfacial Properties
The barely rough surface of tyre wastes results in a lower interfacial bond when used
in cementitious composites (Ganjian et al. 2009). Hence, without proper treatment of
the tyre wastes, debonding of the tyre wastes from the cementitious matrix and a
corresponding lower mechanical strength would be exhibited. The presence of zinc
stearate which is used for the production of tyres and diffuses out to form a layer
when used in cementitious composites is also responsible for the lower interfacial
bond (Youssf et al. 2014). The interfacial bond between tyre wastes and cementitious
matrix can be improved in order to enhance the corresponding mechanical and
durability properties. Some of the methods that can be used to improve the properties
of tyre wastes and the corresponding interfacial bond are listed in Table 3. Other
innovative methods have also been developed by incorporating two methods in the
enhancement of the interfacial bond between the tyre wastes and the cementitious
matrix. Of such method is the two-stage surface treatment developed by Huang et al.
(2013a) and Dong et al. (2013) by utilizing both silane coupling agent and enhancing
the stiffness of tyre wastes as depicted in Fig. 18.
Benefits of Using Tyre Wastes in Cementitious Composites
Some of the major benefits of utilizing tyre wastes in cementitious composites are
briefly discussed:
1. Waste management: the primary advantage of the use of tyre wastes in cementi-
tious composites is the sustainable and effective pathway it offers to manage tyre
wastes. Compared to the conventional methods of managing tyre wastes; its use
1426 A. Adesina
Cement particle
Silane coupling agent
Rubber particles
(a) Before hydration
Hard cores of
hydration products
Silane coupling agent Rubber particles
(b) After hydration
Fig. 18 Two stage enhancement of tyre wastes surface. (Reproduced with permission from Huang
et al. 2013a)
in cementitious composites would enable higher quantities of the wastes to be

managed.
2. Supplement material supply: with increasing demand for materials such as
aggregate and fillers for the production of cementitious composites, tyre wastes
offer a sustainable alternative to supplement the natural sources of aggregates and
fillers used in concrete. Hence, the use of tyre wastes as aggregates in cementi-
tious composites would prevent the possible aggregate scarcity resulting from the
production of high quantities of cementitious composites.
3. Conservation of the environment: in addition to the effective management of tyre
wastes by incorporating in cementitious composites, the environment is further
conserved as the amount of natural materials mined in order to produce cemen-
titious composites are reduced. Hence, there would be no overexploitation of
natural resources. Also, the use of tyre wastes in cementitious composites would
create an avenue to utilize locally generated wastes, thereby reducing or elimi-
nating the carbon dioxide emissions associated with the processing and transpor-
tation of raw materials.
4. Improved performance of cementitious composites: though the incorporation of
tyre wastes is detrimental to the strength performance of cementitious composites,
other properties such as thermal and acoustic properties can be improved. Thus,
tyre wastes can be incorporated as a sustainable alternative to conventional mate-

rials to improve the thermal and acoustic properties of cementitious composites
5. Additional income: the increase in the use of tyre wastes in cementitious com-
posites would create a market around the recycling of tyre wastes which would
result in the generation of employment and income.
Major Challenges with the Use of Tyre Wastes in Cementitious

Composites
With several benefits with the incorporation of tyre wastes in cementitious compos-
ites also comes various challenges. Some of the major challenges associated with the
use of tyre wastes in cementitious composites are discussed:
1. Lower strength: the major issue associated with the use of tyre wastes in cemen-
titious composites is the resulting lower strength. The lower strength is mostly as
a result of the lower stiffness of the tyre wastes, the poor bond between the wastes
and cementitious matrix, and the possible introduction of voids into the cemen-
titious matrix.
2. Lack of standard: the unavailability of design guidelines to incorporate tyres
wastes such as that for natural aggregates does not exist, hence limiting the use of
cementitious composites incorporating tyre wastes for large-scale and commer-
cial applications.
3. Possible fire hazard: tyre wastes used in cementitious composites are mostly
composed of rubber which poses a susceptibility to fire occurrence. Due to the
lack of understanding of the performance of cementitious composites incorporat-
ing tyre wastes, there is limited application of rubberized cementitious compos-
ites in the construction of structures subjected to elevated temperatures.
4. Durability and long-term performance: the majority of the studies on the use of
tyre wastes in cementitious composites have concluded that there is a
corresponding reduction in the mechanical properties when tyre wastes are
used. However, there is no consensus on the role of tyre wastes on the durability
of cementitious composites especially in terms of porosity and permeability.
Similarly, there is no long-term evidence of the resilient performance of cemen-
titious composites incorporating tyre wastes. Hence, stakeholders in the construc-
tion industry are reluctant in incorporating these wastes in cementitious
composites despite its economic and sustainability benefits.
Prospects for the Use of Tyre Wastes in Cementitious Composites
The continuous advancement in technology and material science is anticipated to

result in a significant evolution of the use of tyre wastes in cementitious composites
in the coming years. Some of the research and development that are expected in the
application of tyre wastes in cementitious composites are briefly discussed:
1428 A. Adesina
1. Development of treatment methods: some studies have shown that the detrimental
effect of the incorporation of tyre wastes on the strength properties of cementi-
tious composites can be reduced or eliminated by pre-treating the tyre wastes.
Hence, it is anticipated that more innovative treatment methods both mechani-
cally and chemically would be developed soon in order to improve the perfor-
mance of cementitious composites incorporating tyre wastes.
2. Development of high-performance rubberized cementitious composites: the
availability and development of various high strength binders are expected to
yield in the development of rubberized cementitious composites that would
exhibit higher performance. Such high-performance rubberized cementitious
composites would exhibit higher mechanical strengths, toughness, ductility, and
high resistance to both chemical and physical attacks.
3. Development of guidelines and standards: with the increasing use of various
waste materials such as tyre wastes in cementitious composites, it is anticipated
that guidelines/codes would be developed for the design of cementitious com-
posites incorporating tyre wastes. Such guidelines would provide specifications
on the properties of tyre wastes to be used and the corresponding maximum
content for various structural and non-structural applications.
4. Development of low-energy buildings: the prospect to significantly improve the
thermal properties of cementitious composites has opened a way to incorporate
tyre wastes into various cementitious composites used in building construction.
Cementitious composites incorporating tyre wastes can be utilized in the con-
struction of various building envelopes such as walls, floors, etc. The improve-
ment of the thermal properties of cementitious composites used in the
construction of buildings would result in lower energy usage and demand making
such buildings energy efficient.
Conclusion
This chapter presents an overview of the utilization of tyre wastes as components in

cementitious composites. Tyre wastes explored in this chapter are based on the
obtained rubber from the recycling of tyres. Based on the discussion made in this
overview, the following conclusions can be drawn:
1. Incorporating tyre wastes into cementitious composites is an effective, econom-

ical, and sustainable way to manage the high volume of tyre wastes which is
causing huge environmental menace all over the world.
2. The influence of tyre wastes on the performance of cementitious composites is
dependent on the size and content of tyre wastes used.
3. The incorporation of tyre wastes into cementitious composites can be used to
enhance the thermal and acoustic properties. Hence, cementitious composites
incorporating tyre wastes can be used in the construction of low-energy buildings
and structures around high-noise areas.
4. Though the incorporation of tyre wastes as aggregates/fillers is detrimental to the

mechanical strength of cementitious composites, it can be used to improve other
properties such as toughness, ductility, and thermal and acoustic insulation.
5. The lower mechanical strength exhibited by cementitious composites incorporat-
ing tyre wastes is a result of the lower stiffness of the tyre wastes and poor
interfacial bond between the wastes and the cementitious matrix. Hence, utilizing
various effective methods to improve the interfacial bond between the tyre wastes
and the cementitious matrix can be used to reduce/eliminate this detrimental
effect.
6. There is no consensus on the role of tyre wastes on the durability performance of
cementitious composites. Studies have shown that the incorporation of tyre
wastes enhanced the durability performance of cementitious composites while
studies also exist that show that incorporation of tyre wastes into cementitious
composites is detrimental to its durability. Hence, it is recommended that this area
needs a more dedicated and comprehensive study in order to fully understand the
role of tyre wastes on the durability performance of cementitious composites.
7. The most effective way to improve the performance of cementitious composites
incorporating tyre wastes is by developing innovative ways to improve the
interfacial bonding between the surface of the tyre wastes and the cementitious
matrix.
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Circular Economy in the Concrete Industry
54
Adeyemi Adesina
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1434
Circular Economy in the Concrete Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1435
Circular Economy Initiatives in the Concrete Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1437
Circular Economy Challenges in the Concrete Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1441
Future of Circular Economy in the Concrete Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1442
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1444
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1445
Abstract
The concrete industry is one of the critical industries that sustain the development
of our infrastructure and everyday activities. The industry also plays a significant
role in every economy due to its high contribution to revenue and employment.
With the increasing awareness of the circular economy and sustainability in all
sectors, the concrete industry is also at the forefront of contributing to the circular
economy and improving its overall sustainability. This chapter explores the
circular economy in the concrete industry and the future of the circular economy
in the industry. Current challenges facing the circular economy in the concrete
industry and possible solutions were also discussed. Discussions in this chapter
indicated that the implementation of a circular economy has the potential to yield
significant positive performance as it is possible to incorporate various wastes
materials into the concrete. Also, the use of building management systems can be
utilized to improve the efficiency of the circular economy in the concrete industry.
However, the circular economy must be implemented right from the start when
concrete materials are being sourced rather than when concrete has already been
used for construction.
A. Adesina (*)
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON, Canada

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_64
1434 A. Adesina
Keywords
Circular economy · Sustainability · Concrete industry · Concrete · Construction
Introduction
The construction industry is a major component of various economies all over the
world regardless if it is underdeveloped, developing, or developed and also has a
significant influence on the sustainability and socioeconomic areas of the environ-
ment (Meyer 2009; Ortiz et al. 2009; Gartner et al. 2013). Concrete being the most
used building material also evolved into an industry on its own which is referred to
as the “concrete industry.” Due to the high production and utilization of concrete, the
concrete industry plays a significant role in the economic, environmental, and social
aspects of our daily activities as they are used in the construction of various
infrastructures. However, the role of the concrete industry is both positive and
negative. The positive role of the concrete industry is as a result of the provision
of infrastructures for various purposes, employment provision, and contribution to
the gross domestic product of economies. However, the concrete industry is also
responsible for excessive consumption of natural resources, high greenhouse gas
emissions, and high generation of solid wastes (Meyer 2009; Purnell 2013;
Iacovidou et al. 2017). For example, the production of cement which is the primary
binder in concrete contributes about 7% to the world human-induced carbon emis-
sions (Nisbet et al. 2000; Marceau et al. 2007; Andrew 2018). Also, the production
of concrete is one of the major processes responsible for the consumption of
freshwater (Asadollahfardi et al. 2016). As rapid urbanization progresses all over
the world coupled with the increasing global population, it is expected that the
demand and use of concrete for various construction applications would increase.
Though sustainability in the concrete industry has evolved significantly in the last
decade, it is still predominantly dependent on the linear economy which is based on
the production of materials for utilization and then disposal. On the other hand,
circular economy which is aimed at retaining the produced materials in a cycle can
be implemented in the concrete industry to improve the sustainability of the industry.
In contrast to only “sustainability,” circular economy in the concrete industry offers a
bridge between sustainability and business development. Hence, consideration of the
circular economy in the concrete industry would yield more economical sustainabil-
ity development and can be deemed as an effective methodology to achieve the
economical and sustainability goals of the industry.
Generally, circular economy is based on conserving materials instead of dispos-
ing them (Wijkman et al. 2016). Hence, the reuse of materials would ensure that raw
materials and energy are conserved while mitigating excessive waste generation.
Also, the reuse of materials would result in a corresponding increase in the lifecycle
of the materials. In addition, it has been estimated that the implementation of a
circular economy in any industry would result in about a 4% increase in employment
opportunities and about a 70% reduction in greenhouse gases emission (Wijkman
54 Circular Economy in the Concrete Industry 1435
et al. 2016). With the concrete industry responsible for a large generation of wastes
coupled with high consumption of raw materials, implementing a circular economy
is an effective way to eliminate these pertinent issues created by the construction
industry.
This chapter aims to provide an overview of the circular economy in the concrete
industry. The challenges facing the implementation of the circular economy in the
construction industry and the future of the circular economy in the concrete industry
are also discussed. It is anticipated that the information provided in this chapter
would encourage more practical implementation of the circular economy in the
concrete industry rather than just theoretical knowledge. This chapter would also
provide stakeholders in the concrete industry information on various challenges
associated with the implementation of the circular economy, thereby generating
more awareness and sourcing of practical solutions to these challenges.
Circular Economy in the Concrete Industry
Though it is referred to as the “concrete industry,” this industry encompasses various

cement-based and similar materials ranging from mortar, grout, alkali-activated
material, etc. The concrete industry is a critical backbone of every economy as it
adds to the gross domestic product and creates employment options while making
our daily life comfortable. However, as mentioned earlier, the concrete industry is a
major consumer of natural resources ranging from freshwater to various minerals. In
addition, the industry is responsible for high energy usage and generation of a high
volume of construction and demolition wastes (Clark et al. 2006). Thus, the pro-
duction of a high volume of concrete over decades coupled with its continuous
production in large quantities has resulted in the depletion of numerous non-
renewable resources coupled with various detrimental impacts on the environment.
Also, the production of concrete is relatively expensive due to the sourcing, produc-
tion, and transportation of materials (Turner and Collins 2013; Chiaia et al. 2014).
Hence, it is critical for the concrete industry to incorporate initiatives such as the
circular economy to ensure more economic and sustainable development within the
concrete industry.
The circular economy entails conserving resources by utilizing materials as much
as possible at the end of their service life in order to conserve the need for new raw
materials and energy demand while conserving the added value of materials (The
Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2012; Gigli et al. 2019). Hence, the circular economy
in the concrete industry would be based on the ability of the industry to retain
materials for use rather than disposing them as wastes while conserving energy
usage. A schematic representation of a circular economy is presented in Fig. 1. The
circular economy has gained high implementation in other industries such as textile
and automotive industries, but its implementation in the concrete industry is still
lagging. One of the reasons the implementation of circular economy in the concrete
industry is still lagging is a result of its disruptive nature which would require several
years of awareness and implementing various initiatives. The ability of an industry to
1436 A. Adesina
Raw materials Des

ign
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Pro
ma
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Residual wa
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cturing
on
Circular economy
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on
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, re u
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Fig. 1 Schematic representation of circular economy (European Commission 2014)
implement a circular economy effectively has been associated with the ability of the
industry to encourage and manage innovation in various forms (Ven 1986; Boons
and Lüdeke-Freund 2013; Ritzén and Sandström 2017). However, the ability to
incorporate various waste materials into concrete materials increases the potential of
the implementation of a circular economy in the concrete industry to be highly
successful.
In order to fully implement a circular economy in the concrete industry, it is
critical to ensure that all stakeholders in the industry are on board. Hence, personnel
and organization involved right from the sourcing of the raw materials to the
management of structures made with a concrete need to identify how circular
economy can be implemented within their bubbles.
Proper implementation of circular economy in the concrete industry should be
able to solve environmental, materials, and economic challenges associated with the
production and use of concrete materials as depicted in Fig. 2. The reuse of wastes
generated by the concrete industry and other industries in new concrete would create
an effective avenue to supplement the reserves of raw materials such as aggregates
(Venkateswara Rao and Rama Rao 2015; Huseien and Shah 2020a, b). Also, the use
of various industrial waste products to partially or totally replace the portland cement
which is the primary binder in concrete would result in a significant reduction in the
embodied carbon and energy of concrete materials (Abdel-Mohti et al. 2016). The
reuse of these waste materials would eliminate the need for energy for mining raw
Fig. 2 Circular economy in

the concrete industry
materials and reduce the detrimental environmental impact associated with the
processing and transportation of raw materials used for the production of concrete.
The low retrieval of raw materials from natural deposits for the production of
concrete would also reduce the deformation induced on the environment as a result
of excessive mining processes. Extensive researches over the years have shown that
concrete itself can be recycled and used as various components in the production of
new concrete (Choi and Yun 2013; Penacho et al. 2014; Pedro et al. 2015). Studies
have also shown that waste such as greywater generated during the production of
fresh concrete can also be treated and recycled as a mixing solution for new concrete
mixtures (Sandrolini and Franzoni 2001; Ghrair et al. 2018).
The high consumption of raw materials and a corresponding generation of a high
volume of wastes by the concrete industry have made the implementation of a
circular economy in the industry imminent. Some of the major initiatives that can
be taken by the concrete industry to implement a circular economy are briefly
discussed:
Circular Economy Initiatives in the Concrete Industry
Figure 3 shows the various aspects of the construction industry in which a circular
economy can be implemented. Some of the initiatives that are ongoing in the
concrete industry towards the circular economy are briefly discussed:
1. Enhance raw materials acquisition processes: this can also include the use of
alternative/sustainable sources of energy such as biofuels to replace conventional
fossil fuels when sourcing raw materials.
2. Utilization of locally available raw materials: the need to achieve a specific
performance of concrete has resulted in certain materials transported over long
distances. An example is in Switzerland where the majority of the aggregates
1438
Fig. 3 Initiatives to implement circular economy (Hossain et al. 2020)

A. Adesina
available are deemed reactive, and their use in concrete would result in a
detrimental alkali-silica reaction (ASR). However, recent studies have been able
to develop innovative ways to mitigate this detrimental reaction in concrete when
such reactive aggregates are used by incorporating industrial wastes such as slag
and fly ash to replace cement (Thomas et al. 2011; Du and Tan 2013). Hence,
finding ways to utilize locally available materials would help to eliminate the
detrimental environmental impact of transportation of these raw materials and
would also reduce the overall cost and time of concrete construction.
3. Reduction in the quantity of raw materials used: the use of various optimization
and concrete design tools in the concrete industry has aided in optimizing the
composition of concrete resulting in a corresponding reduction in the amount
required for the production of concrete.
4. Recycling of waste materials: the recycling of materials in concrete materials is
one of the foremost actions the concrete industry has taken to implement a
circular economy. Various wastes ranging from industrial to agricultural wastes
can be recycled and used in the production of new concrete (Jin et al. 2000; Bheel
and Adesina 2020; Ikponmwosa et al. 2020a; Akinyemi and Adesina 2020). The
use of these waste materials in new concrete would result in a reduction in the cost
and carbon footprint of concrete (Adesina 2020a, b; Bheel et al. 2020; Das et al.
2020; Ikponmwosa et al. 2020b). Table 1 presents several types of wastes from
various sources that can be utilized as a component in new concrete. It is worth
mentioning that waste materials used as a binder component in concrete require
processing to very fine particles and must possess certain chemical properties in
order to use it as a possible replacement of portland cement. The need to reduce
Table 1 Wastes that can be utilized as components in concrete

Source Waste Binder Aggregates/filler
Construction Concrete X X
Bricks X
Asphalt X
Wood X X
Industrial Fly ash X X
Slag X X
Silica fume X
Agriculture Rice husk ash X X
Millet straw ash X
Palm oil fuel ash X
Palm kernel shells X
Mining Mine tailings X X
Quarry dust X X
Manufacturing Plastic X
Ceramics X X
Rubber X
Glass X X
1440 A. Adesina
Fig. 4 Implementation of circular economy by reuse of construction and demolition wastes (CDW)
(Huang et al. 2018)
the particle sizes of such wastes is to improve the reactivity of the material by
increasing its surface area. A schematic of how wastes generated in the concrete
industry can be reused in order to achieve a circular economy is presented in
Fig. 4.
5. Building management systems: the use of building management systems such as

building information modeling (BIM) has encouraged and eased the implemen-
tation of circular economy in the construction industry as it offers a technological
tool to manage the materials, cost, and type of construction. The use of systems
such as life cycle assessment (LCA) also creates an effective way to quantify the
environmental and economic assessment of concrete materials and structures.
The use of such systems in the concrete industry enables circular economy as it
results in a reduction in the amount of new materials used and wastes disposed
into the environment (Liu et al. 2015; Chong et al. 2017; Akanbi et al. 2018).
6. Development of high-performance concrete: the development of various high-
performance concrete such as engineered cementitious composites and ultrahigh-
performance concrete have opened a pathway to have structures that are resilient
and durable (Sun et al. 2001; Huang et al. 2013). The high performance of these
types of concrete contributes to the implementation of the circular economy
because they possess higher service life, thereby eliminating the subsequent
need to utilize additional materials and energy for the maintenance or construc-
tion of new structures.
7. Structural health monitoring: the use of various structural health monitoring
techniques to evaluate the serviceability of various concrete infrastructure has
resulted in identifying the condition of concrete structures and determining the
Table 2 Concrete technology

Method Advantage
3D printing Reduction in time and cost of construction
Self-compacting concrete Reduction in energy used for construction
Preplaced concrete Reduction in energy and materials used for construction
Precast/prefabricated structures Reduction in materials and cost of construction
appropriate time when repair/rehabilitation needs to be carried out. The repair/

rehabilitation of concrete structures at the right time would eliminate the need for
new construction as a result of excessive deterioration which would require
sourcing for new materials. Also, structural health monitoring of concrete struc-
tures would ensure that the service life of structures is conserved.
8. Development of alternative concrete technology: circular economy in the con-
crete industry can also be achieved with the development of innovative concrete
technologies that are cheaper, sustainable, and exhibit higher performance and
service life. The development of such concrete technology would eliminate the
constant need to replace and/or maintain structures built with such technology,
thereby enhancing the service life of the structures and eliminating possible waste
generation that could have ensued from their replacement/rehabilitation. Innova-
tive construction methods, such as 3D printing (Buswell et al. 2018; Ngo et al.
2018), self-compacting concrete (Bignozzi and Sandrolini 2006; Adesina 2020a),
preplaced concrete (Du et al. 2017; Yoon and Kim 2019), etc., can also be utilized
to enhance the efficiency of the concrete construction process and consequently
reduce the cost, carbon footprint, and time of construction. For example, the study
by Eberhardt et al. (2019) showed that the use of prefabricated concrete could
reduce the embodied carbon up to 55%. Another study also showed that pre-
fabricated concrete can be used in order to reduce wastes generated during
construction (Tam et al. 2005). Such alternative concrete should also reduce
waste generated from the construction process to the bare minimum. Some
examples of innovative construction methods that could be used to implement
the circular economy in the concrete industry are presented in Table 2.
Circular Economy Challenges in the Concrete Industry
Despite the benefits of implementing a circular economy in the concrete industry, the
progress of this implementation is plagued with various challenges. Some of the
challenges with circular economy implementation in the concrete industry are
further discussed:
1. Mistrust: the introduction of any new concept in any industry is expected to be

welcomed with some mistrusts initially due to limited understanding of the
concept. The implementation of the circular economy created a disruptive tran-
sition in the industry. Hence, many stakeholders are reluctant to welcome the
1442 A. Adesina
change due to the uncertainty and risks it comes with. To propel more imple-
mentation of circular economy in the concrete industry, there is a need for all
stakeholders in the industry to be able to accept new concepts and ready to
unlearn some of the conventional concepts used within the industry.
2. Economic viability: some wastes generated by the concrete industry might be
better off economically to be disposed rather than being reused in new construc-
tion due to the high cost associated with processing the wastes, thus preventing
the industry from utilizing some wastes in concrete. For example, it is easier and
cheaper for the automotive industry to disassemble a car and reuse the compo-
nent. However, it is very complicated and most times expensive to disassemble
concrete structures. Hence, utilizing precast/prefabricated concrete structures for
construction could ease the disassemble process and result in a possible reduction
in the cost and reusing concrete structures at the end of their service life.
3. Lack of market: in contrast to the conventional materials market in the concrete
industry, there is no comprehensive market that oversees providing the cost and
meeting the demand of various waste materials that could be used in concrete.
Also, this lack of market has resulted in a lack of quality control resulting in
varying properties of concrete even when the same type of wastes is used. The
lack of a market for possible wastes that can be utilized as components in concrete
also creates a possible threat of material scarcity or extinction.
4. Technology: though the use of technology in the concrete industry has evolved
over the years, the majority of these technologies are based on the processing and
utilization of raw materials. In order to implement a circular economy in the
concrete industry, there is a need to develop innovative technologies to aid in the
recycling of various raw materials for use in new concrete. The technology should
also have the capability to reduce and reuse wastes developed during the
recycling and construction processes.
5. Lack of integration: the concrete industry is a large industry that spans through
various sectors ranging from materials to technology to management. The current
lack of integration between sectors in the concrete industry has worsened with the
lack of knowledge on the concept of a circular economy.
6. Lack of regulations/guidelines: with several promising opportunities of utilizing
wastes materials in concrete, there is limited availability of regulations/guidelines
that support the use of wastes in the design and use of concrete. The unavailability
of such guideless/regulations has resulted in unwillingness by the engineers and
contractors to utilize these wastes in concrete.
Future of Circular Economy in the Concrete Industry
The increasing sustainability awareness in the concrete industry is expected to gear

significant implementation of the circular economy in the concrete industry in the
coming years. The structure of the concrete industry also makes the proper imple-
mentation of the circular economy more viable if implemented correctly. Some of the
major prospects associated with the implementation of a circular economy in the

concrete industry are:
1. Government involvement: the creation of various policies that makes areas of

circular economy mandatory coupled with the provision of incentives for taking
actions to promote circular economy would encourage more implementation of
circular economy in the concrete industry. The policies could range from
recommending maximum carbon footprint of structures to making the use of
waste materials in concrete structures mandatory. Also, the government could
provide incentives such as lower tax and administration fees for concrete struc-
tures that incorporated multiple circular economy initiatives.
2. Identifying challenges and barrier: as the implementation of circular economy in
the concrete industry gain momentum, it is essential that dedication should be
placed on identifying various challenges and barriers that have ensued from the
implementation and find innovative solutions to solve these challenges. Hence,
there is a need for the research community to get involved with the practical
implementation of the circular economy in the concrete industry.
3. Development of economical recycling technology: the cost associated with the
processing of waste materials before reuse is one of the major factors responsible
for the hesitation by contractors and clients to utilize these waste materials. The
increasing interest and implementation of the circular economy in the concrete
industry are anticipated to result in the development of various innovative,
sustainable, and economical ways in which wastes can be recycled especially in
terms of reducing to smaller sizes.
4. Effective integration between sectors: integration between the science, technol-
ogy, and business areas in the concrete industry would result in the implementa-
tion of circular economy in the concrete more economically feasible than being an
expensive pleasure.
5. Development of sustainable supply chain management: creating a sustainable
supply chain management within the concrete industry would create an integra-
tion between sustainable material supply and sustainable utilization resulting in a
lower negative impact of the industry on the environment.
6. Comprehensive database of wastes: the coming years is expected to see the
development of a database that gives information about various types and quan-
tities of wastes generated by various industries and the corresponding properties
of the wastes. The availability of such databases would propel more research and
development in the concrete industry to devise various ways in which such wastes
can be reused/recycled in new concrete construction. Such databases would also
provide information on the wastes generated by the concrete industry and would
attract the attention of other industries that might find a suitable application of the
wastes. These databases would also incorporate geographical features in which
industries can reuse locally generated wastes for new products, thereby eliminat-
ing the negative environmental impact associated with transportation and explo-
ration of fresh raw materials. In addition, these databases would also provide the
rate of material recovery within the industry in order to effectively utilize them.
1444 A. Adesina
Fig. 5 Complex value optimization for resource recovery (Iacovidou et al. 2017)
An example of such a framework that can be implemented in the concrete

industry was developed by Iacovidou et al. (2017) as presented in Fig. 5.
Conclusion
An effective and efficient way to improve the sustainability of the concrete industry
is the adoption of a circular economy. The implementation of the circular economy
in the construction industry would result in the conservation of the sustainability of
the environment and the continuous provision of sustainable infrastructures for
various applications. This chapter presents an overview of the circular economy in
the concrete industry alongside the current challenges and prospects. The discussion
presented in this chapter showed that there is a high potential for the implementation
of a circular economy in the concrete industry to be successful due to the viability of
incorporating various waste materials into concrete materials. The reuse/recycle of
various wastes in concrete materials would result in a significant reduction in the
cost, energy, and carbon footprint associated with the concrete industry. The use of
innovative technologies that aid in reducing the cost, energy, emissions, and wastes
associated with the concrete construction processes would also help in achieving a
circular economy in the construction industry. The implementation of a circular
economy would also result in significant improvement in the efficiency of construc-
tion activities of the concrete industry and the construction industry at large.
However, for proper implementation of the circular economy in the concrete

industry, there is a need for the concrete industry to move beyond just utilizing waste
materials in concrete and minimizing waste during construction. Significant benefits
of a circular economy in the concrete industry would be more evident when the
demand for materials is consequently reduced and technological systems such as
building information modeling are implemented. It is also critical that the circular
economy is implemented right from the early stage of concrete manufacturing rather
than when concrete structures have already been completed. The implementation of
a circular economy in the concrete industry is also expected to result in a significant
improvement in the efficiency of construction activities of the concrete industry and
the construction industry at large.
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Experimental Investigation of
Physiochemical Properties of Cement 55
Mortar Incorporating Clay Brick Waste
Powder: Recyclable Sustainable Material
Hemraj R. Kumavat and Rohan V. Kumavat
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1450
Literature Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1451
Pozzolanic Index of CBW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1452
Mechanical Properties of Mortars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1453
Durability Properties of Mortars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1453
Experimental Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1453
Materials and Mix Proportions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1453
Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1454
Result and Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1454
Particle Size Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1454
Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1456
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1457
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1459
Abstract
Clay brick waste (CBW) is continuing to rise as a result of rapid urbanization and
increased construction practices. Traditional working practices for the treatment
of such waste, particularly in developing countries, are open to landfills and dump
sites that are considered unsustainable. Recently, concerns about the need for a
safe and clean environment have limited knowledge of the need to recycle clay
brick (solid) waste powder as pozzolanic material in a replacement with cement
and sand for monitoring environmental pollution (CO2 gas emissions) due to
cement production. Waste from building sites and brick manufacturing facilities
is increasingly being recovered and used as a pozzolanic alternative in cement
mortar production. As a result, mortar produced from CBW materials is used to
H. R. Kumavat (*)
Civil Engineering Department, R C Patel Institute of Technology, Shirpur, India
R. V. Kumavat
Civil Engineering Department, Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute, Mumbai, India
© Crown 2022 1449

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_65
1450 H. R. Kumavat and R. V. Kumavat
reduce the use of natural resources and the environmental effect. Cement was
replaced by CBW with 0–20%. As a result, the use of CBW in cement mortar
production provides an effective approach for efficient waste management and
environmental regulation of CO2 emissions from cement manufacturing indus-
tries. This chapter focused on the possibilities of recycled CBW in developing
countries, where CBW crushed into powder and mixed provides comparable
outcomes as controlled mortar with a strength replacement of up to 20%. Rec-
ommendations are expected to increase the usage of CBW powder as a cemen-
titious ingredient in the production of concrete.
Keywords
Cement content reduction · Clay brick waste · Sustainable mortar · Recycled
waste
Introduction
Globally, clay brick structures are commonly used. Many structures were destroyed
during their design time owing to deterioration, poor construction, or faulty mate-
rials. In addition, several buildings were destroyed by regular earthquakes and huge
quantities of waste were generated. Old structures were to be dismantled due to
urban planning and rebuilding demands (Rao et al. 2007; Xiao et al. 2011).
In addition, population changes have led to a significant growth in construction
activity and the consumption of energy resources. Importing aggregates will not be
affordable in areas that lack high-quality stones or sand. Natural healthy aggregates
are limited in several urban areas, rock and gravel supplies are increasingly depleted,
and extraction is becoming more challenging. As either an essential concrete raw
resources, throughout its processing, cement will generate more than enough dust
and carbon dioxide (Shakir et al. 2014).
A high proportion of nonrenewable energy sources have been utilized by mortar
production, causing significant environmental degradation. Civil infrastructure pro-
jects have absorbed 60% of the raw resources derived from the earth’s crust at global
scale (Zabalza Bribián et al. 2011).
The key way of managing CBW is by landfills or remediation sites, and the use of
these sites is a costly solution. Recycling one ton of CBW costs about $21/ton,
whereas dumping of the same material costs about $136/ton. Since the demolition
sites and disposal areas are located far away from each other, transportation costs are
rising. The dumping of CBW consumes land space, leading to a low grain yield as
landfills and reclamation areas are small. Waste storage and disposal, particularly in
certain areas that lack waste disposal, has become a major environmental concern.
The quantity of waste to be sent to landfills will be greatly decreased by processing
waste materials (Lennon 2005).
The sustainability involves environmental and energy conservation, and the
preservation of nonrenewable environmental assets. The proposed introduction of
55 Experimental Investigation of Physiochemical Properties of Cement Mortar. . . 1451
CBW as the modern construction material was researched due to the reduced landfill
sites and expensive natural aggregates. In today’s life, waste recovery and recycling
is an energy-saving process. The use of CBW as sand reduces the need for waste
storage (Debieb and Kenai 2008).
The recycling of CBW in mortar is summarized in detail to serve as a reference
for future waste CBW analysis. Research work has been carried out on the
potential reuse of CBW in mortar production in order to minimize the use of cement
and sand.
Literature Review
China produces about 15.5 million tons of CBW per year as shown in Fig. 1. As per
2011 European Union Survey, nearly 1 billion tons of CBW, containing more than
enough bricks, were created per year in the European Union (Manfredi et al. 2011).
Furthermore, CBW from dismantled walls contributed for around 54% of Spain’s
building and construction waste. The manufacture of 1 ton of cement with the latest
Cement Consumpti on (i n mi lli on tons)
300
200
100
0
Thailand
Japan
Iran
Algeria
Indonesia
China
India
South Korea
Saudi Arebia
Bangladesh
Pakistan
Russia
Mexico
Vietnam
Brazil
United states
Philippines
Turky
Germany
Egypt
Countries
Fig. 1 Cement consumption in different countries in million tons

technology requires 1.7 ton raw material, 7000 MJ electricity, 0.75 ton CO2, and
12 kg Sio2 (Chao 2008). In China, 2.5 billion tons of cement were made in 2014,
representing 60% of the world’s cement output (Jewell and Kimball 2015).
CBW has a maximum resource benefit and is reused by several nations for most
purposes in building operations (Directive 2008).
Turanli demonstrated that an efficient way to prevent the alkali-silica reaction is
the incorporation of crushed clay bricks to partly substitute cement (Turanli et al.
2003). However, it is revealed that the combination of crushed clay bricks as cement
replacement significantly decreased the strength of the mortar, particularly when the
amount of crushed clay bricks is considerably large (Ge et al. 2015a).
Cachim discovered that replacing 15% of aggregate with CBW did not dramat-
ically reduce concrete strength (Cachim 2009). Some authors analyzed the strength,
resilience, and crystal structure of recycled polyethylene terephthalate mortar made
with CBW as sand (Ge et al. 2015b). Uddin et al. studied the impact of the maximum
size of coarse aggregate on the compressive strength of concrete using CBW as
coarse aggregate (Uddin et al. 2017).
Pozzolanic Index of CBW
Mainly quartz and feldspar are the components required for the pozzolanic activity.
Generally, burned clay may not exhibit pozzolanic activity. Clay contains a high
proportion of quartz and feldspar, which are crystalline minerals and do not produce
active substances; therefore, clay cannot be considered a pozzolana. However, if clay
is exposed to a temperature of 600–1000 C, the crystal structure of the silicate will
often change into an amorphous compound reacting with lime at room temperature
(Letelier et al. 2018; Ortega et al. 2018; Mehta and Monteiro 2017).
The assessment of pozzolanic activity is typically based on a strength activity
index specified by ASTM C618, which limits the sum of silicon, ferric, and
aluminum oxides to be at least 70% for pozzolans. These components will promote
the formation of C-S-H (calcium silicate hydrates) or C-A-H (calcium aluminate
hydrates) and thus affected the performance of mortar and concrete (Aliabdo et al.
2014).
Pozzolanic activity refers to the ability of substances to react with calcium
hydroxide to form hydration products at ordinary temperatures. The pH value
of saturated calcium hydroxide solution is 12.45 at 25 C. High concentrations of
OH ions can break bonds in silica, silicates, and aluminosilicates to generate
simple ions.
The resulting silicate and aluminate ions accompany Ca2+ ions to form C-S-H
(calcium silicate hydrates) or C-A-H (calcium aluminate hydrates). As the dissolu-
tion rate of silicate is more rapid than that of aluminate and the formation of calcium
aluminate requires a higher concentration of calcium ions, first, CSH gels would
appear on the particles of pozzolans, and then hexagonal sheets of calcium alumi-
nates precipitate on the surface of the CSH gels (Shi and Day 2000; Cabrera and
Rojas 2001; Navratilova and Rovnanıkova 2016).
Mechanical Properties of Mortars
1. CBW is thought to be a useful additive because it decreases the impact of

shrinkage, which is possibly caused by increased pore refinement due to
CBW’s pozzolanic activity (Ortega et al. 2018; Navratilova and Rovnanıkova
2016).
2. During this time, the crystal structure became more refined, and the rate of finer
pores raised. CBW improves the structure of mortar by reducing the size and
number of pores, resulting in a thicker and stronger hardened paste. CBW’s
pozzolanic response and the rehydration of anhydrate cement particles in the
associated mortar increased substrate stiffness and improved pore structure
(Aliabdo et al. 2014; Gonçalves et al. 2009).
3. The microstructural complexity of CBW mortar is higher. The percentage of
macropores reduced and the percentage of mesopores improved as cement was
partially replaced by CBW. Since the particle size distributions of CBW and
Portland cement are identical, the packing density did not alter substantially when
cement was replaced with CBW.
4. The mechanical properties of mortar were increased by using CBW as a cement
substitute. The greater relative differences in strengths of mortars containing these
CBW may be due to their pozzolanic action.
Durability Properties of Mortars
1. Around 15% found to be an effective substitute for ensuring greater sulfate

resistance (Binici et al. 2012; Mobili et al. 2018).
2. It greatly decreased chloride-ion penetration, which is a common cause of
corrosion of steel in cementitious materials; the process that illustrates this
occurrence is that CBW facilitates the production of subsequent hydration prod-
ucts that can minimize permeability and enhance densification of the materials
(Ortega et al. 2018; Gonçalves et al. 2009).
3. The regulated mortar lost the most weight due to dehydration of C-S-H and
ettringite contents as well as calcium hydroxide, while the pozzolanic reactivity
of the mortar with CBW absorbed even more of these substances, resulting in
lower weight loss and possibly higher fire resistance.
Experimental Program
Materials and Mix Proportions
As a sustainable ingredient, CBW can be used to partially replace cement and sand in
mortar. Since the mechanical properties of CBW are equivalent to those of cement
and sand, we could use it as one of the construction materials to meet the industry’s
current needs and ensure long-term structure. CBW is obtained from various brick
production sites in the Jalgaon and Dhule districts, as well as sampling of brick waste
with different proportions of fly ash and clay used in brick making.
Methodology
The compressive and flexural strength of mortar with a grade of 1:4 was evaluated
through a series of tests. An analysis of various blended mortars formed by replacing
sand with a CBW at 0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, and 40% of the time is presented in this
chapter. When comparing the replacement mortar’s experimental results to the
controlled mortar’s results, it is clear that the replacement mortar performed better
as shown in Fig. 2.
The mortar cubes are cured in water for 3, 7, and 28 days after casting. The axial
compressive load was applied to the mortar specimen on the computerized universal
testing unit, and the deformation was reported by a sensor in the computer-dependent
data acquisition system. The test specimens were subjected to an axial load until they
failed.
Result and Discussion
Particle Size Analysis
The particle size distribution of cement and CBW was shown in Fig. 3. Figure 3
shows that cement is very fine than CBW, because some coarser particles which stay
after CBW have been crushed which is reflected in Table 1. The distribution of
Fig. 2 Flowchart of mortar mix proportions

Fig. 3 Particle-size distribution of cement and CBW
Table 1 particle size Size parameters Cement CBW

parameters of cement
X10 (μm) 4.88 12.14
and CBW
X16 (μm) 7.43 21.93
X50 (μm) 24.50 78.57
X84 (μm) 53.98 194.43
X90 (μm) 64.37 234.24
X99 (μm) 115.15 365.67
SMD (μm) 11.82 25.32
SV (m2/cm3) 0.51 0.24
VMD (μm) 30.71 103.57
SM (cm2/g) 1873.50 874.40
cement particle size starts from 200 microns, but clay brick particle size from
400 microns depends on that particle density as well.
The chemical composition of cement and CBW is given in Table 2. Flow
values of fresh mortar with % replacement of CBW of flow table test is shown in
Fig. 4. The bulk densities of fresh mortar with % replacement of CBW are shown
in Fig. 5.
Table 2 Chemical Content oxides Cement CBW

composition of cement and
SiO2 20.56 50.6
CBW
Al2O3 5.39 19.4
Fe2O3 3.29 11.4
K2O 0.62 2.23
MgO 2.02 1.72
Na2O 0.23 0.87
CaO 63.54 5.93
SO3 2.39 3.66
LOI 1.7 1.1
260
240
220
200
Flow Value
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
BW-0 BW-5 BW-10 BW-15 BW-20 BW-25 BW-30 BW-35 BW-40
% Replacement
Fig. 4 Flow value of mortar on flow table with % replacement of CBW
Findings
The compressive and flexural strength of mortars increased with hardening age, and
the value for (10% brick powder) specimen’s mortar was slightly higher than
controlled mortar at 28 days as shown in Fig. 6.
The inclusion of CBW had almost no influence on compressive strength and
elastic modulus until a proportion of 20% cement replacement was reached in an
23.0
22.8
Bulk Density of Mortar
22.6
22.4
22.2
22.0
% Replacement
Fig. 5 Bulk densities of mortar with % replacement of CBW
experimental investigation. However, under a high w/c ratio, the strength and elastic
modulus of mortar will decrease with the increase in CBW. According to the result,
CBW is one of the best construction materials (pozzolanic) used in the construction
sector. The mechanical and durability properties of cement mortar containing CBW
are equivalent to up to a 20% cement replacement. In addition, it reduces the load of
CO2 in the atmosphere due to manufacturing of cement at higher temperatures, and
also reduces the land storage of CBW on the earth surface. Hence, it is an ecofriendly
and sustainable material for production of cement and sand in the future. Because the
structural performance of CBW plays a significant role in the construction industry,
the use of CBW expect in mortar may be strengthened.
Conclusion
After studying the results dataset (laboratory and literature) on % replacement of

CBW, we made a possible conclusion on sustainability (ecofriendly waste material)
used in cement mortar with the experimental investigation:
(i) The particle size distributions of cement and CBW of some parameters are
same values.
1.6
1.4 Flexural Strength

Compressive Strength
1.2
Relative Strength
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
% Replacement
Fig. 6 Relative strength versus % replacement of CBW (flexural and compressive strength)
(ii) We may deduce that CBW has pozzolanic activity since the chemical com-
positions of cement and CBW are similar.
(iii) Flow value of fresh mortar increases with increase in % replacement; in
another case, the bulk densities of fresh mortar decrease with increase in %
replacement.
(iv) The compressive and flexural strength of mortars increased with hardening
age, and the value for (20% brick powder) specimen’s mortar was slightly
higher than controlled mortar at 28 days.
(v) According to a study, the addition of CBW had almost no effect on the
compressive strength and elastic modulus until the percentage of 20% cement
replacement.
(vi) The strength and elastic modulus of mortar will decrease with the increase in
CBW with high w/c ratio.
(vii) Eventually, it is concluded that the partial replacement of cement with CBW
plays a significant role in producing ecofriendly and sustainable materials for
the production of mortar attributed to the aforementioned benefits: (a) a greater
reduction in cement content and a lower carbon emissions; (b) compressive
strength increased by 20%, with a partial reduction of the cement content in
cement mortar.
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A Sustainability Approach to Geopolymer
Brick Manufacture Using Mine Wastes 56
M. Beulah, J. Pratap Kumar, Mothi Krishna Mohan,
Gayathri Gopalakrishnan, and M. R. Sudhir
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1462
Siginificance of work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1463
Experimental Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1463
Experiment and Test Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1465
Results and Discussions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1466
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1474
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1476
Abstract
India has tons of by-products of industries like fly ash, ground granulated blast
furnace slag (GGBS), and mine tailings from different ores. By incorporating
these wastes in bricks, the carbon footprint can be minimized. This research
pivots around the use of iron ore tailings (IOT) and slag sand as a substitute for
clay or shale in the manufacture of stabilized geopolymer blocks. Iron ore tailings
and slag sand were used for substitution in the range of 20–40% and 15–40% with
increments of 5%. Fly ash, ground granulated blast furnace slag, and sodium
silicates (Na2SiO3) were used with a constant value of 15%. The bricks were cast
and cured at ambient temperature. The study includes testing of mechanical
properties of geopolymer bricks as per IS recommendations. To study the
M. Beulah (*) · J. P. Kumar · M. R. Sudhir

Department of Civil Engineering, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bangalore, India
e-mail: m.beulah@christuniversity.in; pratapkumar.j@christuniversity.in;
colonel.sudhir@christuniversity.in
M. K. Mohan
Department of Science and Humanities, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bangalore, India
e-mail: mothikrishna.mohan@christuniversity.in
G. Gopalakrishnan
Department of Civil Engineering, ACS College of Engineering, Bangalore, India

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_76
1462 M. Beulah et al.
macroanalysis, SEM and XRD analyses were also carried out on raw materials
and developed composites. The outcomes of this investigation show that the
inclusion of 25% of IOT and 30% of slag sand is acceptable as brick material.
Keywords
Iron ore tailing (IOT) · Ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) · Fly ash
(FA) · Sodium silicate (Na2SiO3)
Introduction
Human civilizations have been traditionally using earth as a construction material for
centuries. Many structures globally have been constructed with this material (Rael
2009). A number of these buildings are in good condition barring some environ-
mental deterioration. However, this global trend of using earth as a construction
material has led to the depletion of this natural resource. This led to the research on
exploration of alternate construction materials and the establishment of fly ash and
GGBS as reasonable construction materials (Bansode 2012). A sustainable future for
the human race must include the effective reuse and recycling of industrial waste,
and in these human efforts, mine wastes have a proven application in brick manu-
facture (Nagaraj and Shreyasvi 2016; Malatse and Ndlovu 2015; Weishi et al. 2018;
Yu Stolboushkin et al. 2017). Studies have proven the viability of replacing fine
aggregate up to 40% by iron ore tailings in the construction of rigid pavements
(Panditharadhya et al. 2017; Gayanaa and Chandar 2018). A sustainable and greener
development can be achieved by using iron ore tailings as a replacement of fine
aggregates in brick manufacturing (Shubhananda Rao et al. 2019). Research has
indicated the feasibility of using IOT as a fine aggregate in concrete (Kuranchie et al.
2015). Method of geo-polymerization involving IOT-based mortar by replacing fine
aggregate (FA) has attained compressive strengths in the range of 3.47–8.27 MPa
(Sharath et al. 2018). IOT has exhibited potential to be used as a partial replacement
of FA in the manufacture of ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) having
improved strength and frost resistance (Kuranchie et al. 2015; Zhu et al. 2015;
Kuranchie 2015). These researchers have demonstrated that 50% replacement of
fine aggregates by IOT in M55 grade concrete in the manufacture of prestressed
concrete sleepers has achieved maximum compressive strength (Manjula et al.
2015). Studies also show the viability of using IOT with lime for stabilization of
black cotton soil when BC soil is planned to be employed as subbase material (Etim
et al. 2017). A study also reveals that IOT has applications both as an aggregate and
as a pigment in the production of sustainable cement tiles (Fontes et al. 2018). IOT
has possible applications in highway projects wherein it has an acknowledged use as
subbase course or base course material leading to reduction in the cost of the
highway projects (Sun et al. 2011). Another conceivable utility of IOT has been
that it has partially replaced clay in the production of bricks (Shreekant et al. 2016;
Likhith et al. 2017). The literature has reports of geo-polymerization methodology in
56 A Sustainability Approach to Geopolymer Brick Manufacture Using Mine Wastes 1463
the production of IOT bricks achieving compressive strength of up to 50 MPa

(Kuranchiea et al. 2014).
Siginificance of work
The growth of the building material industry is interlinked with the growth of a
nation’s economy and indirectly with the growth of national infrastructure. Mining
sector is one of the important sectors that contribute to the national economy
(Evdokimov et al. 2016). Mining operations are important to the improvement and
preservation of our daily living, providing resources used to create electricity, roads,
and communities. Sustainability, productivity, and reliability are necessities for
success in the mining and construction fields. The major drawback of industrial
mining is the damage mining operations cause to the environment. These mine
wastes have been found to possess a great potential to be used as alternative building
materials (United Nations Centre for Human Settlements 2001). The concept of
sustainability has a balancing act to perform between the environmental risks that the
mining industry creates and the resource requirements of communities for meeting
social, economic, physical, political, cultural, and environmental objectives (Rogers
1998; Rao 2000; Egger 2006; Cohen 1995).
Sustainable development is an overarching global paradigm (United Nations
Centre for Human Settlements 2001). In order to have low energy consumption
and low greenhouse emissions, sustainable cities of future should adopt the concept
of zero waste concepts (Allen and Clouth 2012). Sustainable building materials play
a vital role in green building design and construction (Ding 2014).
Various researchers have established the suitability of mining by-products as
useful construction materials (Duan et al. 2016; Fontes et al. 2016; Anderson et al.
2016; Lottermoser 2011).
The key scientific objective of this study is to establish a methodical approach for
cost-effective use of industrial wastes as building materials in large-scale production.
Experimental Program
(a) Significance of the research. The key feature of this research examination is to
contemplate the achievability of utilizing industrial wastes for geopolymer block
manufacture. From the past related studies, it was evident that there is limited
information on use of the various industrial wastes in preparation of sustainable
composite blocks. The current investigation assesses the technicalities of these
blocks with an intention to consolidate reuse of the industrial wastes as a value
edition in the construction industry. This usage also has environmental spin-offs.
(b) Materials. The materials used for this study include iron ore tailings (IOT), slag
sand, fly ash, ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS), and sodium silicate
(Na2SiO3). Geopolymer is synthesized by using fly ash, GGBS, and sodium
silicate (Na2SiO3):
(i) Iron ore tailings. Iron ore tailings (IOT) are the industrial solid wastes
created in the beneficiation procedure of iron ore. Among all varieties of
solid wastes of mining, maximum creation in volume and least volume in
consumption are both iron ore tailings. In the present study, iron ore tailings
from BMM ISPAT from Ballari, Karnataka, have been utilized. The phys-
ical properties of the IOT are determined as per the specified standards of
IS: 2720 (parts 3 and 7).
(ii) Ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS). Ground granulated blast
furnace slag (GGBS) is fallout of steel industry and is made use of in the
design and development of high-quality cement.
(iii) Fly ash. Fly ash is a spin-off of the thermal power plant and can be used as
a partial replacement of cement in concrete or can be blended with Portland
cement.
(iv) Slag sand. Slag sand is a green construction substance produced as an
industrial spin-off of the steel industry which has application as a potential
substitute for the traditional materials and from the river beds in the
building constructions.
(v) Sodium silicate. Sodium silicate (Na2SiO3), popularly called as fluid glass
or water glass, has wide mechanical and business applications. Depending
on the intended use, sodium silicate is prepared in the thick fluid or solid
form. Made out of oxygen-silicon polymer molecular matrix pores, sodium
silicate is an adaptable inorganic substance. Production of sodium silicate is
from the diverse proportions of soda ash and sand at higher temperatures.
(c) Study of properties. The physical properties and the chemical composition of
the raw materials were studied (Tables 1 and 2). The comprehension of the
physical properties and the chemical composition helped to formulate the mix
proportions of the different grades of geopolymer bricks. Also, the number of
mixes or grades of geopolymer bricks to be manufactured was arrived at.
Table 1 Physical Materials

properties of materials
Properties Slag sand Iron ore tailings
Specific gravity 2.56 3.2
Water absorption 12.31% 13%
Fineness modulus 3.6 2.12
Table 2 Chemical composition of materials

SiO2 Al2O3 Fe2O3 CaO MgO
Material (%) (%) (%) TiO2 (%) (%) Na2O K2O LOI
IOT 9.02 9.56 66.50 1% 1.96 2.12 0.93% 0.25% 8.59%
FA 66.87 4.41 23.34 – 1.17 0.31 – – –
GGBS 34.16 17.54 1.99 1% 37.10 7.17 0.57% 0.31% 0.10%
Slag 30.73 16.32 0.56 – 38.47 6.41 – – –
sand
Fig. 1 Activities of mine life cycle
Figure 1 reveals that the average particle size of IOT is 22.84μm with 50% particle
size of 17.88μm and with a surface area of 0.59 m2 per gm.
Experiment and Test Methods
(a) Details of mixes and their constituents. Table 3 features the mix proportions
and the information of their constituent materials. In the investigation under-
taken, IISc developed MARDINI block-producing equipment that has been
made use of. The standard brick size manufactured is 230 110 100 mm.
(b) Test specifications. The curing of the molded brick samples is carried out at
prevalent temperature. The bricks were then put through IS- and ASTM-
specified tests, and the details are in Table 4.
Table 3 Mix calculations of geopolymer bricks

Brick IOT Slag sand Fly ash GGBS Alkaline solution
designation (%) (%) (%) (%) (%)
GB-1 20 35 15 15 15
GB-2 25 30 15 15 15
GB-3 30 25 15 15 15
GB-4 35 20 15 15 15
GB-5 40 15 15 15 15
Table 4 Details of the test Test method Standards

specifications
Compressive strength IS: 1077:1992
Water absorption IS: 3495 (part 2):1992
Apparent porosity ASTM C20
Apparent specific gravity ASTM C20
Bulk density ASTM C20
Sustainable building objectives and strategies
Objectives
Resource conservation Cost efficiency Design for Human adaptation
Strategies
1. Energy conservation 1. Initial cost (Purchase cost) 1. Protecting Human health

2. Material conservation 2. Cost in use and comfort
3. Water conservation 2. Protecting physical
3. Recovery cost
4. Land conservation resources
Fig. 2 Sustainability in building construction
To study material characterization, textural behavior, and mineralogical composi-

tion, SEM and XRD analyses were conducted on the raw materials.
Results and Discussions
(a) SEM and XRD analysis of raw materials. Figure 2 is the SEM micrograph of
IOT which displays the irregular particles of IOT with high degree of agglom-
eration. Figure 3 is the SEM micrograph of GGBS which highlights the non-
uniform distribution of irregular particles. Figure 4 is the SEM micrograph of fly
Fig. 3 Particle size distribution of iron ore tailings
Fig. 4 SEM micrograph of IOT
ash, suggestive of silt-sized particles which are generally spherical, typically

ranging in size between 10 and 100μm. Figure 5 is the SEM micrograph of slag
sand, reflective of its higher particle density. Figure 6 is the XRD arrangement of
IOT, and it shows minerals such as quartz (Q), kaolinite (K), calcite (C), and
hematite (H). Figure 7, the XRD theme of GGBS, signifies the amorphous nature
of the material. Figure 8, the XRD design of fly Ash, has exhibited a mix of
mullite, quartz, hematite, and CaO. Figure 9, the XRD structuring of slag sand,
has revealed the combination mayenite (M), gehlenite (G), larnite (L), C3A,
periclase (P), and shannonite (S).
Fig. 5 SEM micrograph of GGBS
Fig. 6 SEM micrograph of fly ash
(b) Test results. Table 5 depicts the apparent porosity, apparent specific gravity,
bulk density, water absorption, and compressive strength of the IOT bricks. The
porosity varies from 36.43% to 39.01%. Apparent specific gravity has not varied
much for the five compositions. The bulk density has ranged from 14.02 to
20.98 g/cm3. The compressive strength has varied from 3.88 to 24.37 MPa for
GB-5 to GB-1. The water absorption of all mixes is lower than 20% and hence is
Fig. 7 SEM micrograph of slag sand
700 H
600
Q - Quartz
500 K - Kaolinite
C - Calcite
Intensity (a.u)
400 H
H - Hematite
300
Q K
200 H
K
C Q
Q H
100
Q
0
-100
0 20 40 60 80 100
2q (°)
Fig. 8 XRD pattern of IOT

300
250
200
Intensity (a.u)
150
100
50
0 20 40 60 80 100
2q (°)
Fig. 9 XRD pattern of GGBS
Table 5 Apparent porosity, apparent specific gravity, bulk density, water absorption, and com-
pressive strength
Apparent Bulk Water
Apparent specific density absorption Compressive
Composition porosity (%) gravity (g/cm3) (%) strength (MPa)
GB-1 38.65 2.89 14.02 9.68 17.54
GB-2 36.43 2.90 16.01 5.35 24.37
GB-3 37.02 3.05 19.76 10.22 4.38
GB-4 38.87 3.04 20.01 7.044 4.84
GB-5 39.01 3.08 20.98 4.55 3.88
in agreement with the recommendations of IS code. Efflorescence, hardness, and

dimensionality of all the mixes were in accordance with the specifications of
IS: 3495 part 3 and IS: 2185 part 1. Figures 10, 11, 12, and 13 depict the specific
gravity cum bulk density, porosity, water absorption, and compressive strength
of bricks of the various mixes, respectively (Figs. 14 and 15).
(c) SEM and XRD analyses of mixes. SEM is a nondestructive technique used to
study the morphology of the material surface. It is possible to differentiate grains
and particles in a system by this technique. Figure 16 shows the SEM
Fig. 10 XRD pattern of

fly ash
Q
M- Mullite Q - Quartz
H- Hematite C - CaO
Q
Q
M
MMH M
Q Q C Q
FLA
Fig. 11 XRD pattern of slag sand
micrographs of GB-1. The micrograph unambiguously supported the heteroge-

neous nature of the material surface. The surface exhibited the irregular distri-
bution of shapeless independent particles with high degree of aggregation. Image
also revealed the porous nature of the system, but these pores were not uniformly
distributed. Aggregation may have occurred during temperature treatment due to
surface kinetics. Porous nature may also be due to the processing conditions, and
this may result in high surface area of the material. SEM image of GB-5 also
showed the random distribution of shapeless particles with some degree of
aggregation. Unlike GB-1, GB-5 material is nonporous in nature, and this may
3.1 25
3.05
20
Apparent Specific Gravity
Bulk Density (g/cm³)

3
2.95 15
2.9 10
2.85
5
2.8
2.75 0
GB1 GB2 GB3 GB4 GB5
Composition
Apparent specific gravity Bulk Density (g/cm³)
Fig. 12 Specific gravity-bulk density of mixes
39.5
39
Apparent Porosity(%)
38.5
38
37.5
37
36.5
36
35.5
35
GB1 GB2 GB3 GB4 GB5
Composition
Fig. 13 Apparent porosity of bricks for mixes
lead to less surface area compared to GB-1. Compared to GB-1, GB-5 surface
was found to be densely packed due to higher concentrations (Figs. 17, 18,
and 19).
XRD is a nondestructive and highly effective technique to study the structure and
crystallinity of the materials. XRD pattern of GB-1 confirmed the crystalline nature
of the system. The system is a combination of many compounds, and most of them
are crystalline in nature. Sharp and intense peaks with small full width at half
maximum (FWHM) supported the view point. Silica and alumina were found to
be the major compounds with minor quantities of hematite and calcium oxide also
12
Water Absorption(%) 10
0
GB1 GB2 GB3 GB4 GB5
Composition
Fig. 14 Water absorption of bricks for various design mixes
30
Compressive Strength (Mpa)
25
20
15
10
0
GB1 GB2 GB3 GB4 GB5
Composition
Fig. 15 Compressive strength of bricks for various design mixes
present. Crystallite size of the system may be high due to the small FWHM. This is
well supported by SEM image, which revealed the existence of highly aggregated
structures or larger crystallites and the marginal presence of individual crystallites.
The peaks at 2θ values around 26.7 , 37 , and 62 confirmed the existence of quartz
in the system. The peaks at 24.3 and 21.2 were attributed to hematite and calcium
oxide, respectively. The peaks at 33.3 and 40.4 supported the existence of mullite.
XRD pattern of GB-5 also showed the crystalline nature of the system. Here also,
silica and alumina were the major compounds. Compared to GB-1, GB-5 pattern
exhibited well-resolved peaks with fairly high intensity. Higher concentration might
have led to the proper exposure of crystal planes for good diffraction. Quartz and
mullite were found to be the major compounds with fewer quantities of hematite and
calcium oxide. The obtained results were well in agreement with XRF results. The
peaks corresponding to some compounds were not observed due to its amorphous
nature or perhaps may be due to less concentration.
Fig. 16 SEM micrograph of composition GB-1
Conclusion
The experimental study presents the results of testing of bricks, manufactured using
iron ore tailings, fly ash, and GGBS as major materials. The test results reveal that
IOT, fly ash, and GGBS are suitable materials for manufacture of bricks with fly ash
and GGBS exhibiting good binding qualities. Bricks prepared with lower concen-
trations of IOT have displayed higher compressive strength, with the brick with 25%
IOT attaining the highest compressive strength. The changing presence of the IOT
composition has not impacted the bulk density of the brick. Also, the porosity for the
five compositions has not shown a considerable effect on the compressive strength.
Existence of Al2O3 in IOT and CaO in GGBS resulted in reactions with SiO2
forming a casual nexus of Si-Al and Si-Ca. This linkage has influenced the high
compressive strength for the mixes GB-1 and GB-2, and the bricks of these two
compositions can be considered as high-quality bricks. This comprehensive study is
a substantiation of many researchers’ conclusion of the fact that mine wastes are
value additions to the construction materials and mine wastes have definite applica-
tions in sustainable green technology.
Fig. 17 SEM micrograph of composition GB-5
Fig. 18 Scanning microscopy analysis of composition GB-1

Fig. 19 Scanning microscopy analysis of composition GB-5
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Integrated Electronic Waste Management:
Issues and Strategies 57
V. Rathinakumar, G. Ashwin Sriram, and G. I. Gunarani
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1480
E-Waste: A Global Issue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1481
Life Cycle of E-Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1482
E-Waste Management in India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1483
Existing Legislation for E-Waste in India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1484
E-Waste Management Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1485
Impacts of Informal Recycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1485
E-Waste Disposal Methods in India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1486
E-Waste Management Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1487
Waste Management Strategies in Developing Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1488
Waste Management Strategies in Developed Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1490
Regulations and Policies for E-Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1492
Producer’s Responsibility in E-Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1493
Reprocessing of E-Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1494
Training and Awareness Programs on Electronic Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1494
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1494
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1495
Abstract
Consider a pile of unorganized e-waste; it will never have any aesthetic benefit to
our minds or our environment. While observing such a heap we should accept our
role in this debacle which has arisen due to digital revolution. This catastrophe
was created due to the fact that humans are consuming increasing amounts of
electrical and electronic equipment and electronic devices are fast becoming the
important aspect of a person’s social life. Even developed countries are facing so
many failures for an effective e-waste management because of its abnormal
generation. For a developing highly populated country like India, the existing
V. Rathinakumar (*) · G. A. Sriram · G. I. Gunarani

School of Civil Engineering, SASTRA Deemed University, Thanjavur, India
e-mail: rathinakumar@civil.sastra.edu; gunarani@civil.sastra.edu

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_67
1480 V. Rathinakumar et al.
electronic waste management activities were not found to be sufficient. Improper

management creates a range of disadvantages, such as complexity due to partic-
ipation of more stakeholders, lack of quality decisions, lack of support from top
management for immediate decisions regarding treatment and disposal, unsafe
conditions of informal recycling, insufficient regulations, weak knowledge, and
companies’ inability to resolve serious disputes. Unorganized e-waste disposal
leads to great concerns over both human health and the environment. This chapter
focuses on problems of mismanagement in both developing and developed
countries, as well as a few solutions that are essential for comprehensive man-
agement. It also records the unlimited liability of all the stakeholders included in
the e-waste chain like manufacturers/assemblers, importers, recyclers, regulatory
bodies, and customers for constructive e-waste management.
Keywords
E-waste · Recycling · Cathode ray tube (CRT) · Waste management ·
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)
Introduction
The computer industry is the world’s largest and most innovative industry. Tons of
electronic devices are transported by sea every year, but they become a complex
leftover material consisting of numerous harmful non-degradable plastics, toxic
chemicals, acids, and heavy metals during their use period. Many are poured into
recyclers, burned, or exported. For around 75% of e-waste, on the other hand, it is
unclear how to put them to good use, for example refurbishing, remanufacturing, and
reusing their repair parts. Others sit as junk in homes, businesses, and industries,
occupying valuable space. Hazardous constituents such as mercury lamps, circuit
boards, and leaded glass have traditionally been shipped to China, Africa, and India
by most e-recyclers (Basel Action uploaded in 2013). The dismantling method
requires a great deal of labor; there are tons of e-waste dismantled and scrapped in
countries like China and certain places in India. Dismantling includes not only
detaching, but also tearing, burning, and shredding. Dust and smoke particles, as
well as other infectious elements, cause severe inflammation and injury, resulting in
a variety of skin and respiratory diseases. Circuits are burned to look for precious
metals like silver, cadmium, and gold, but the wire coating is made of PCB and PVC,
which can produce noxious smoke, and carbon elements from toners can cause lung
and skin cancer (Kevin et al. 2008).
Electronic waste or e-waste is created when electrical and electronic equipment
becomes unfit or has passed the expiry date for its originally intended usage.
Examples of e-waste (when unsafe for use) include mainframes, computers, servers,
displays, compact disks (CDs), air conditioners, calculators, scanners, fax machines,
copiers, mobile phones, battery packs, TVs, transceivers, medical equipment, iPods,
57 Integrated Electronic Waste Management: Issues and Strategies 1481
refrigerators, washing machines, and printers. Because of the rapid advances in

technology and the development of modern electronic equipment, these electronic
devices are easily replaced by new ones. This has contributed to an unprecedented
rise in the development of e-waste. People prefer to turn to newer versions and this
has therefore reduced the life of electronic goods.
Printed circuit boards (PCB1), plastics, cathode ray tubes (CRTs), metals, wires,
and so on are usually e-waste. Valuable metals such as copper, silver, gold, and
platinum, if they are scientifically extracted, may be retrieved from e-waste (Hedman
et al. 2005; Wikstrom and Marklund 2001). The presence of harmful substances such
as liquid crystals, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), mercury, lithium, nickel, arse-
nic, selenium, brominated flame retardants, barium, cadmium, chromium, cobalt,
copper, and lead makes the crude dismantling and processing of e-waste using
primitive methods very dangerous . E-waste poses a major risk to people, livestock,
and the climate. Also in minute amounts, the presence of heavy metals and extremely
toxic substances such as mercury, lead, cadmium, and beryllium poses a major
danger to the environment.
The secret to better e-waste management is consumers. Approaches such as
Extended Producer Accountability; Environmental Design; Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
(3Rs), and a circular economy-facilitating market-linking technology network seek
to enable customers to better dispose of their e-waste, with higher rates of reuse and
recycling, and to follow healthy consumer behaviors. E-waste management is given
high importance in developed countries, while e-waste management is compounded
in developing countries by fully implementing or replicating e-waste management and
other related issues, including the lack of investment and technological expertise in
human resources. Furthermore, there is a shortage of resources and a lack of adequate
regulations directly addressing e-waste. The functions and duties of stakeholders and
organizations involved in e-waste management, etc., are also inadequately defined.
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) published the
revised e-waste (Management) Rules in 2016.
E-Waste: A Global Issue
The United Nations (UN) presented a report at the World Economic Forum on
January 24, 2019, that points out that the waste stream due to e-waste reached a
mammoth volume of around 48.5 MT in 2018, and this figure is expected to double
if nothing changes. The report states that only 20% of global e-waste is recycled. It
also reaffirmed that due to poor extraction techniques, the total recovery rate of
cobalt from e-waste is only 30%. The UN report also indicates that with suitable
recycle management, an individual entrepreneur in recycling e-waste can contribute
more cobalt to his country, and this amount can be even higher than the quantity
produced by exploiting natural resources through mining activities. During the
smelting process from the original ore, recycled metals were found to be 2–10
times more energy-efficient than metals. To improve the circular economy, good
methodologies must be developed to reduce the amount of e-waste produced and to

recycle those goods so that they can be reintroduced into the supply chain of new
derivatives. It was decided to use about 50,000 tons of e-waste for the proposed 2020
Tokyo Olympics after considering all of the harmful effects of e-waste. All the
medals to be awarded at the event will be made of old smart phones, laptops, and
other gadgets. In order to complete this environmental task, the organizers of the
Olympic committee started to collect around 47,000 tons of e-waste in November
2018 itself. Japanese municipal authorities framed an effective work plan by engag-
ing around 90% of their labor force for this work. But unfortunately due to the
present COVID-19 pandemic situation, the hard work of the Japanese authorities has
not yet been recognized.
Life Cycle of E-Waste
Figure 1 illustrates the various process involved in e-waste management. The major
participants in the e-waste supply chain are consumers, business traders, logistic
exporters, vendors for scrap dealing, groups of people engage in the dismantling
process, smelters, and companies engaged in recycling.
The exponential growth of e-waste has both merits and demerits, as it is well
established that e-waste management is an emerging issue. As a merit it opens
numerous business opportunities because of the significance associated with
e-waste components. Overall it exposes the environment to both toxic and valuable
materials. Around 60% of e-waste comprises gold, aluminum, iron, and copper,
while pollutants comprise 2.70% (Widmer et al. 2005). It has been proved that
during the recycling process, chances are very high of recovering valuable materials.
Despite these benefits, however, e-waste management involves many complexities
due to the participation of various groups of people and the technologies associated
with the recycling process.
Input for manufacturing process
Production of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE)
Sales of EEE
Consumption of EEE
Waste Generation
Treatment of waste
Disposal
Fig. 1 Life cycle process of e-waste

E-Waste Management in India
According to a report published by Global E–Waste Monitor in 2017, India produces

about two million tons (MT) of e-waste annually and ranks fifth globally. Countries
like the USA, China, Japan, and Germany were identified as the predecessors for
India in e-waste generation. The study also confirms that India will be a major source
of e-waste in the not-too-distant future. It also predicted that in 2023 around
18 million tons of e-waste will be generated. The large increase (in total global
e-waste generation) was mainly attributed to India.
As shown in Fig. 2, the growth of e-waste generation in India was found to be
abnormal over years. whereas around 95% of India’s e-waste is recycled in the
informal sector and in a unprocessed manner.
Treatment of e-waste under the informal sectors was found to be a serious threat
in this regard, and therefore integration between the informal and formal sectors
should be established. Government should show maximum interest in scrap collec-
tors in the form of incentives and adequate knowledge about disposal systems should
be provided to all manufacturers. It should be mandatory that the manufacturer take
care of disposal systems even after sales. A long-term approach for monitoring the
progress of the electronic system should be developed; once the design phase is over,
the manufacturer should take care of the product from the customer, and the
components should be properly disposed of (Fig. 3).
Electronic Waste Management in India identified computer equipment waste as
very high, accounting for almost 70% of e-waste, while proportioning the waste
generated from various other sectors. This includes obsolete computer monitors,
motherboards, cathode ray tubes (CRT), Printed Circuit Board (PCB), cell phones
and chargers, compact disks, and headphones, and white goods such as Liquid
Crystal Displays (LCD)/, Plasma TVs, refrigerators, and air conditioners.
Fig. 2 E-waste treatment in

India E waste management
in India
95 % treatment under
5% treatment under
Informal Sector formal sector
Computer - 70%
Phone - 12%
Electronics - 8%
Medical Equipment - 7%
House hold equipment - 3%
Fig. 3 Pie chart representing the distribution of e-waste in India
Long-standing PCs, batteries, and other apparatuses are discarded by consumers

far faster than they were previously. The amount of waste is rising at an average of
21% annually, according to a report in May 2017 (Baldé et.al. 2017). This study
predicts that electronic waste from long-standing PCs in India will rise by 500% by
2020; from discarded cell phones, it will be around 18 times greater; from televisions
it will be 1.5–2 times greater; from rejected fridges, it will be twice as much as their
respective 2007 levels.
Existing Legislation for E-Waste in India
The recently proposed (2016) E-waste (Management) Guidelines switched the

current (2011) E-waste (Management and Handling) Guidelines on October
1, 2016. The Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) definition required electrical
and electronic equipment producers to record and define objectives for the recovery
of produced e-waste and to confirm that it is channeled to approved recyclers. In
March 2018, the revised E-waste (Management) Rules decreased the target to 10%
for 2016–2017 (compared to 20%) and 20% for 2017–2081. In the end of the
seventh year this goal will steadily increase to 70%.
The penalties for noncompliance and punishment were the same as in the
Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, sections 15 and 16. The sections state that
the punishment for noncompliance is a period of imprisonment that may extend to
5 years or a fine that may extend to Rs 1 lakh. As of October 12, 2018, EPR
authorization was issued to 726 manufacturers by the Central Pollution Control
Board (CPCB). An authorization is effective for a term of 5 years from the date of
production shall define the goals for the assortment for the definite period of time.
The CPCB website, however, lists the objective achieved or any penalty levied for
noncompliance. In addition, there is no independent process in abode to crisscross or
validate the statements prepared in endorsements is used for the random testing
provision offered by the regulations. With slack execution, many of the stable rules
failed.
The issue of e-waste has been addressed at various levels, but not on a large
enough scale to have a significant impact, especially in the unorganized sector.
Electronic waste is not harmful in nature if it is stored rather than dismantled, and
thus inadequate care is the issue. India is also ill-equipped to handle electronic waste
reprocessing due to a low supply of professional labor. Just about a quarter of India’s
electronic waste is reprocessed. The user of an electrical or electronic system is not
aware of the end of the product’s value chain. No information on the e-collection
center for the product sold is given along with the product packaging. The liability of
customers, along with the commodity, is not defined. There is no deposit refund
scheme (DRS) available in India that supports the reprocessing of a commodity.
E-Waste Management Issues
Because of the usage of harmful resources in the production of electronic goods,

electronic waste can cause extensive environmental destruction (Mehra 2004). In
such waste, poisonous materials such as hexavalent chromium, lead, and mercury
are present in one arrangement or another, consisting mainly of printed board
assemblies, cathode ray tubes (CRTs), mercury switches, capacitors, batteries,
relays, photocopy machine cartridges, liquid crystal displays (LCDs), electrolytes,
and selenium drums.
E-waste landfilling can result in the percolating of lead hooked on the ground-
water. Crushing and burning of CRT releases poisonous fumes which mix with the
air (Ramachandra and Saira 2004). These goods contain many forms of rechargeable
batteries, many of which contain hazardous materials that when charred in inciner-
ators or disposed of in landfills can contaminate the environment. The cadmium
presence in one cell phone battery is sufficient to contaminate 600 m3 of water (Trick
2002). The amount of cadmium at landfill sites is high, and the unavoidable average
and long-standing cadmium permeating the adjacent soil causes substantial toxic
pollution (Envocare 2001). Since plastics are highly flammable, there are brominated
flame retardants in the printed cabling board and coverings of electronic devices, a
quantity of which is obviously hazardous for the environment.
Impacts of Informal Recycling
India’s accumulated electronic and electrical waste is manually discarded and

organized into segments such as plastics, cathode ray tubes (CRTs), wires, printed
wiring boards, metals, condensers, and other valuable resources such as batteries.
For unorganized recyclers this work endangers their health and the environment due
to a lack of knowledge. The useful fractions are processed in various conditioning
and refining processes into directly returnable constituents and secondary raw
materials. For the extraction of various materials, no advanced machinery or per-
sonal protective equipment is provided. All the work is done with bare hands and
only with the aid of screwdrivers and hammers. Women and children are often
employed in this hazardous work. Waste constituents which do not have any resale
or reuse value are disposed of in open dumps and are openly burnt (Devi et al. 2004).
Pollution and slag comprising toxic heavy metals are created through contamination
accompanying such backyard casting using rudimentary practices.
CRT breaking operations result in accidents due to shredding, burns, etc. from
acids and cuts used to remove heavy metals. Strong acids are used to extract precious
metals like gold. People working without masks and in poorly ventilated and sealed
environments results in exposure to toxic and insidious chemicals. Polychlorinated
biphenyls (PCBs) in mature condensers and transformers, as well as brominated
flame retardants, can discharge highly poisonous dioxins and furans when scorched
to remove copper from the wires on printed CBs, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) cables
and plastic casings, and insulation. Analysis of the ecological and social conse-
quences of electronic waste shows an assortment of advantages and disadvantages
on a wider scale (Alastair 2004).
E-waste recycling supporters contend that this industry would result in more jobs,
new admittance to fresh resources and electronics, and better frameworks. These will
further fuel the economic development of the region in question. The truth, however, is
that the new prosperity and reimbursements are circulated unevenly and often the
influence of electronics on social growth is negative. Most of the “recycling” of
e-waste includes small businesses that are multiple, widespread, and difficult to
manage. Because of widespread unemployment, the inner relocation of poor laborers,
and the absence of dispute or governmental deployment by affected inhabitants who
trust that electronic waste is the only feasible income source or entry into current paths
of growth, they take advantage of low labor costs. As they border on the
unpremeditated budget and are thus not included in authorized information, they are
largely imperceptible to state scrutiny. Some of the most important issues related to
e-waste management are cited by Rajesh and Karishma (2016) as follows:
• Volume of e-waste generated

• Prevalence of child labor
• Ineffective legislation
• Deficiency of infrastructure
• Health threats
• Deficiency of enticement schemes
• Pitiable responsiveness and sensitization
• Electronic left-over significances
• Disinclination of expert’s intricate
• Safety allegations
• High cost of tracking e-waste
• High charge of locale up the reprocessing capability
• Deficiency of research
E-Waste Disposal Methods in India
Figure 4 shows the various methods of disposing e-waste in India. Product reuse was
found to be the easiest way to make use of the material. As far as the Indian market is
concerned, this pattern was followed by retailers to exchange their old items for new
materials. In addition, this business will be completed with an amazing discount in
Methods of Disposing
E - Waste
Product
Landfills Incineration Recycling
Reuse
Fig. 4 Methods of e-waste disposal in India
order to improve the volume of income. Now an emerging trend is transfers of

refurbished electronic goods for reuse after several alternations through online
marketing. Another conventional method of disposing e-waste is through landfilling.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA 2011), more than 3.2
million tons of e-waste ended up in landfills in the United States in 2007 (Smith
T. Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition Report, 2007). The presence of toxic components
in electronic waste leads to metal leaching, and soil and water pollution. Approxi-
mately 70% of heavy metals found in landfills (including mercury and cadmium)
come from (Futures Foundation electronic discards, 2001) IT equipment, such as
machines, cell phones, and CRTs. In the case of PCs, motherboards are burned in an
open pit after manual separation of components to remove the thin layer of laminated
copper foil on the circuit board, which is distilled by the froth floating process after
charring. In small enclosures with chimneys for the extraction of embedded metallic
bits, faulty IC chips and condensers that have no resale value are burned (Agarwal
1998). Recycling is another significant strategy for reducing waste from disposal.
Electronic products are recycled when discarded, and the metal extracted from waste
is reused in the manufacture of various new items, thereby reducing consequent
financial costs.
E-Waste Management Strategies
The easiest way to deal with e-waste is to decrease its quantity. Designers of such
products should guarantee that reuse, renovation, and/or upgradeability of the
product are carried out. The use of fewer harmful, simply recoverable, and biode-
gradable products that can be reused for restoration, remanufacture, disassembly, and
recycle should be emphasized. The next phase of possible e-waste reduction solu-
tions is recycling and material reuse (Ramachandra and Saira 2004). The magnitude
of e-waste is minimized by the recycling of metals, plastics, glass, and other
materials. The potential for these options is to save resources and retain the atmo-
sphere free of hazardous waste that would otherwise have been unconfined. It is an
optimal time for manufacturers, customers, regulators, state governments, policy
makers, and local authorities to take the problem seriously and resolve the various
perilous components in a unified manner. In order to encourage such practices, it
takes only an hour to obtain a national regulatory and an e-waste-policy system.
Those who understand the problems are better able to develop an e-waste strategy.
Hence it is better for manufacturing plants to jointly begin the policy development,
albeit with consumer participation. It is also important to confirm the sustainability
of e-waste organization systems by enhancing the quality of assortment and
reprocessing systems and by ensuring surplus funding.
Waste Management Strategies in Developing Countries
In the solid waste supervision segment, the management of waste electrical and
electronic apparatuses is a key concern with universal ties among well-developed,
impermanent, and emerging nations. In developed and developing countries where
the population consumes significant quantities of electric and electronic equipment
(EEE) (electrical and computer apparatuses), which will soon be converted into
electronic waste, consumer culture and technology addiction dictate everyday life.
This segment is a fast-growing source of waste that, due to the noxious effects on
public well-being and surroundings, requires special care and management. On the
other hand, electronic waste includes useful resources that can be extracted and
reprocessed (metals, plastics) through different procedures that mitigate the use of
natural possessions (precious metals, copper).
The electronic waste management system’s new task is to change the prototype
from a cause of harmful emissions to a feasible reserve in terms of ecological growth.
The definition of waste grading emphasizes waste management and 3R (reduce,
reclaim, reprocess) strategy and gives less exposure to landfills. Under the Waste
System Directive (Directive 2008/98/EC on waste), the “end of waste” requirements
define when such waste ceases to be discarded and obtains product eminence. EU
policy encourages a circular economy in which waste is considered to be a resource
and sets the path for a reprocessing society. With appropriate legislation, electronic
waste is a distinctive waste source.
Owing to the absence of infrastructure, high labor charges, and complex ecolog-
ical legislation, established nations prefer not to reprocess electronic waste and this
waste is disposed of in landfills or diverted to emerging nations (Robinson 2009).
The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous
Wastes and their Disposal forbids the export to developing countries of noxious and
dangerous waste, and the Nationwide Waste Laws of established nations limit the
disposal of waste in demand to facilitate the export of toxic and hazardous waste.
In the case of developing countries, take-back schemes, distinctive group facts for
electronic waste sources, ad hoc electronic waste collection movements, reprocessing
insides, manufacturing technologies will redirect electronic waste dumping from
landfills in established and provisional nations, and electronic waste collection by
the informal sector The EU supports Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) that
transfers the concern of confined consultants to EEE manufacturers and shippers for
the supervision of electronic waste and the achievement of processing, reprocessing,
and recovery targets. There are various outcomes across Europe for the application of
this policy (Cahill et al. 2010). However, substantial volumes of electronic waste are
lawfully or criminally transported to developing economies and low-income countries
from high-income countries, posing significant threats to health and the environment.
Nationwide guidelines authorizing, banning, or disregarding electric and electronic
waste trade/import activities differ from nation to nation, with the exception of the EU,
which has additional identical regulation in this area.
Several nations have expelled consequences of electronic waste (Cambodia,
Nigeria, Pakistan, Malaysia, China), while others have not approved the concern
(Cote D’Ivoire, Kenya, Benin, Liberia, Uganda, Senegal, India, South Africa)
besides certain have approved special approvals for such imports (Ghana)
(Thailand, Philippines) in compliance with Jinhui et al. (2013). Transboundary
transport of superseded EEE and electronic waste is a composite problem on a
provincial and universal level, and illegal activities are difficult to track.
The developing countries have chosen electronic waste terminuses, and large
quantities of electronic waste containing toxic constituents can be found discarded
on vulnerable land and in watercourses (Heart and Agamuthu 2012). Electronic
waste drifts, however, have added complex arrangements than the infamous Uni-
versal North to Universal South path, wherever intra-regional skill (e.g., Mexico,
China-Bangladesh, Canada-U.S.) might show an additional important part at exis-
tent because of the Basel Resolution (Lepawsky 2015). Furthermore, in electronic
trade between countries, there is no strong discrepancy between electronic waste
flows and second-hand EEE drifts.
Many electronic waste exports are disguised as used goods, or supposedly
harmless waste transported into developing countries is actually discarded or
reprocessed in a harmful manner (Rucevska et al. 2015). Other central issues are
the portion of electronic waste sources (domestically vs. imported) through official
and informal reprocessing sites, information on provincial and resident electronic
waste collection arrangements, and the role of the informal sector in this field.
Persistent organic contaminants (POPs) specified in the Stockholm Resolution,
such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs),
and polychlorinated dibenzodioxins and furans (PCDD/Fs), or other toxic substances
such as polychlorinated and polybrominated dioxins and furans (PXDD/Fs), are
heavily polluted in the disassembling areas of electronic waste from Asian and African
nations. Electronic waste contains poisonous constituents such as brominated flame
retardants (BFRs), asbestos waste, batteries and asbestos-containing constituents, and
superseded EEEs (e.g., coolers), and can comprise ozone-depleting gases such as
hydrochlorofluorocarbons or chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).
It is necessary to eliminate certain toxic components prior to handling or removal

under the EU Directive. Large players in the electronic waste industry, such as the
EU, the USA, India, China, South Korea, Australia, and Japan, must further develop
and implement relevant regulations addressing electronic waste management issues.
Lack of regulation, weak governance, smuggling practices, corruption, absence of a
structured framework for waste supervision, and pitiable principles of living subject
emerging nations to primitive reprocessing activities, electronic waste dumping, and
pollution burning. The extent of this ecological contamination in dust, air, sediment,
plants, and soil, especially in the major electronic waste reprocessing sites such as
Guiyu, Longtang, and Taizhou, is revealed in an inclusive analysis converging on
heavy metals, with serious public health implications (Song and Li 2014). India is
facing similar problems owing to low-tech electronic waste reprocessing methods
provided by the informal sector (Sepúlveda et al. 2010).
In the dismantling areas of developed countries, reprocessing corporations and
the informal sector are exploiting the low employment strength, carrying out their
efforts under poor circumstances, manually, often without any safety precautions. As
the primary source of revenue, such practices are often carried out by individuals at
the domiciliary level.
Electronic waste landfill locations are “hot spots” typically situated in the vicinity
of domestic or farming lands, causing heavy environmental pollution. Such sites
discharge into rivers, wetlands, and groundwater, and soil waste leachates and radio-
active liquids contaminate livestock, crops, and eventually their consumers. Open
electronic waste smelting sites are serious sources of air pollution from dioxins, heavy
metals, particulate matter, furans, surrounding PAHs, and ashes from hydrocarbons.
In developing countries, the informal sector plays a key role in discarding and
reprocessing of waste. The main challenge is to enhance the decent protection,
wellbeing, and ecological ethics of dismantling operations, to grow the recognized
segment that employs marginalized and vulnerable people, backed by appropriate
guidelines. An amalgamation of the preeminent physical pre-processing accomplish-
ments conducted locally in emerging nations with high-tech end-processing activi-
ties in urbanized nations (Wang et al. 2012) can be seen as an integrated solution at a
global level. In changeover countries where assorted municipal waste (including
electronic waste) is disposed of in landfills with considerable damage in terms of
retrieval and reprocessing, and to increase strict Waste Electrical and Electronic
Equipment (WEEE) management and waste disseminates, separate collection of
electronic waste must be increased.
Waste Management Strategies in Developed Countries
Management of WEEE is carried out through various methods worldwide. The EU

Directive is the most holistic national regulation framework, since it disturbs the
entire life series from the strategy stage of the EEE to supervision of its termination.
The latest apprise has set new priorities for reprocessing as well as for take-back
assortment initiatives such as “one-to-zero” insertion. Suppliers have to take back a
secondhand product without purchasing a novel one-option for minor WEEE

collection. A judicial organization similar to that of the EU (Menikpura et al.
2014) has been developed by Japan; these two schemes are similar in several areas
(Yoshida and Yoshida 2010). In the USA, where there is a deficiency of common
centralized regulation on electronic waste supervision, a diverse judicial tactic is
applied: each state has defined its individual scheme with precise goals and admin-
istration (Kahhat et al. 2008; Kollikkathara et al. 2009).
One effort toward a combined method was introduced in 2011 with the National
Strategy on Electronics Stewardship (EPA 2011), which aims to point out centralized
activities to develop the design of electronic goods and enrich supervision of used or
discarded electronics (Elia and Gnoni 2015). Even though a mutual judicial standard
could not be made universal, WEEE administration schemes have common practical
features as well as differences based on the specific legislative approach. The EPR
principle (OECD 2001) is one common basic concept: EU regulation is based on this
methodology, as communal and separate take-back systems are used by manufac-
turers to manage all stages of the invention life series, including the post-consumer
phase (Ogushi and Kandlikar 2007; Toyasaki et al. 2011; Zoeteman et al. 2010). In
Japan, too, the EPR norm is well recognized; producers and traders must organize an
EEE take-back scheme. The proposed adoption in the USA primarily emphasizes the
design stage: a range of inducements and unique initiatives are being introduced to
help producers in the design of greener electronic goods, with the goal of preventing
and minimizing waste flows. The most successful policy for mitigating environmen-
tal and social impacts resulting from waste is typically prevention: the two solutions
most often implemented for WEEE are eco-design policies and product lifetime
increases (Thompson and Oh 2006).
The Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT), specifying
enactment standards for the design of greener electronic goods, is an example
belonging to the first group. It is also recycled as an obtaining tool generated to
help public and private sector institutional buyers assess, evaluate, and choose
desktop computers, notebooks, and displays on the basis of their environmental
characteristics (De Felice et al. 2014). The implementation of the concept of the EPR
also affects the model of budget apportionment for funding the take-back assortment
mechanism, as well as the processes of reprocessing and removal (Magalini and
Huisman 2007; Webster and Mitra 2007). Home consumers in Japan pay a charge to
shelter a share of the costs of reprocessing and transport; this choice may also be
extended under the EU Directive. A potential choice is reuse by evaluating the
second intervention group, i.e., accumulative the life period of an EEE: constructive
as well as adverse effects of EEE reuse (Truttmann and Rechberger 2006). Tasaki
et al. (2006) analyzed the universal competence of two choices, i.e., invention reuse
against tenancy, in Japan.
Kahhat et al. suggested a creative organizational model to promote EEE reuse
markets in the USA. Modifications fright with the waste drifts contained in the WEEE
regulation: the EU Directive is the most detailed WEEE regulation, in that it covers
electronic items (e.g., PCs, monitors, TVs), but also domiciliary utilizations, e.g.,
brown and white goods. Japan, which also includes large and minor domiciliary
utilizations in its national electronic waste legislation, has adopted a similar legislative
strategy. In comparison, only electronic goods are included in the US and Canadian
electronic waste programs. The use of harmful constituents in EEE goods is also
limited in compliance with the Restriction on Hazardous Substances, which encour-
ages alternative, eco-friendly resources in the manufacture and design of EEE goods.
The implementation of the Basel Convention (UNEP 1992) on the Control of
Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal (such as elec-
tronic waste and second-hand electronics) is another point of distinction between
national systems: it disturbs the interconnections among single national schemes and
the worldwide trans-shipment of waste (Kirby and Lora-Wainwright 2015; Yang
et al. 2008). Stricter rules on the worldwide trans-shipment of these waste drifts are
enforced by the implementation of this Resolution. There are “interconnected”
national structures where the Basel Resolution is dynamic, since this Resolution
sets firm guidelines for worldwide trans-shipment of discarded waste. In WEEE
management, this is a dangerous dispute as it involves ecological, commercial, but
also societal influences.
Regulations and Policies for E-Waste
All disputes stretching from development and trade to final discarding, as well as
awareness transfer for the reprocessing of electronic waste, are discussed in the
policy. Clear regulatory instruments should be in place, adequate for regulating
together authorized and prohibited e-waste transfers and ingresses and confirming
their ecologically sustainable management. In order to confirm that electronic waste
from developing nations does not enter the realm of clearance, the loopholes must
also be tackled in the prevalent legal framework. Such aspects need to be regulated
by the Port and Customs authorities. E-waste disposal in urban landfills should be
prohibited by laws, and e-waste proprietors and producers should be encouraged to
recycle the waste properly.
It is important to establish a public-private involvement platform for
policymaking and problem solving in electronic waste supervision. In order to
keep in step with the spatial and temporal changes in e-waste arrangement and
material, this could be an employed clutch in adjusting the agencies, NGOs,
manufacturing groups, authorities, etc. This Working Group will be a feedback
channel for the government to review the current laws, strategies, and initiatives
for e-waste supervision on a regular basis. For the declaration of hazardous material
content, mandatory marking of all television sets, computer monitors, and additional
domestic/industrial electronic equipment may be enforced with a view to recogniz-
ing ecological threats and confirming proper material supervision and discarding of
e-waste. Legislation to change the situation, while important, is only effective if
properly enforced. While there have been certain developments in this regard with
the help of organizations like GTZ, due to the absence of funding and undeveloped
legal structures, implementation of regulations is often slow. To ensure compliance,
fines for nonfulfillment and deadlines for assortment or reprocessing are also used.
Producer’s Responsibility in E-Waste Management
Extended Producer Liability (EPR) is an ecological rule strategy in which the

concern of a manufacturer for a commodity is prolonged to the post-user phase
of the life series of the product, including its final disposal. In theory, concern for
the life cycle ecological effects of the whole product scheme is shared by all
actors along the product chain. The greater the effect of the commodity method
on the environment, the greater the concern should be for mitigating such
impacts. The clients, vendors, and product producers are these actors. Customers
can stimulus the environmental effect of goods in a variety of ways: through
buying decisions, product care and ecologically responsible activity, and careful
removal (e.g., separate removal of reprocessing equipment). By supplying pro-
ducers with environmentally friendly products and parts, suppliers can have a
major impact.
Through their influence on material selection, industrialized processes, product
design, produce system support, and product delivery, producers can decrease the
life-series ecological impressions of their goods (Eleventh International Waste
Management and Landfill Symposium Sergio and Tohru 2005). The strategy of the
system desires to be such that there are payments and balances, particularly to avoid
permitted provisions.
The product designer’s objectives may include decreasing toxicity, reducing
energy practice, reorganization of the weight and materials of the product, and
finding informal recycle opportunities. Producers have to progress the strategy
through:
(a) Replacement of toxic elements such as certain brominated flame retardants,

arsenic, cadmium, lead, and chromium hexavalent
(b) Processes to make it easier to recognize and reuse constituents and resources,
predominantly plastics
(c) Steps to allow recycled plastics to be used in new products
Via a “buy-back strategy” through which used electronic goods are returned and a
deduction may be offered on new items bought by the buyer, manufacturers could
give their customers incentives for product return. All sellers of electronic devices
shall, at the end of their lifespan, offer take-back and organization services for their
goods (Agarwal 1998). For these to be either reprocessed or reused, whether in a
separate reprocessing division at the production unit or in a mutual plant, the
electronic products should referred to be dismantled cautiously. Collection networks
need to be implemented so that e-waste is picked up from the exact locations to
ensure that it enters the recycling unit directly. Collection can be carried out via
storage centers. Each manufacturer of electronic equipment must work in collabo-
ration with assortment centers to confirm that a realistic and reasonable financing
scheme is implemented. Assortment centers can only transport waste to discarders
and reprocesses approved to treat, process, refurbish, and recycle waste in accor-
dance with ecologically sound supervision strategies.
Reprocessing of E-Waste
Massive amounts of abandoned equipment produce operational parts that could be

recovered and combined to construct a working unit with other used equipment.
Removing, examining, and checking parts and then reassembling them into full
working machines is labor intensive. For the ecologically sustainable supervision of
e-waste, an institutional framework, including e-waste assortment, conveyance,
handling, packing, retrieval, and discarding, needs to be developed at national
and/or regional level. These amenities should be licensed by the governing consul-
tants and adequate incentives should be given if necessary.
The formation of electronic waste assortment, conversation, and reprocessing
centers should be promoted in corporation with states, NGOs, and producers.
E-waste reprocessing that is environmentally sound requires advanced skill and
practices that are not only very costly but also require specific assistances and
organizational preparation. Appropriate reprocessing of complex resources requires
the proficiency to identify or assess the existence of dangerous or potentially harmful
components, as well as suitable components, and then the ability to apply the
competences and processes of the organization to recycle all of these streams
properly. Suitable fugitive air contamination control devices and point source reduc-
tion devices are required. Strategies on the environmentally sustainable recycling of
e-waste need to be created (Widmer et al. 2005). When they are confident of the
returns, the private sector can step in to invest in e-waste ventures.
Training and Awareness Programs on Electronic Waste Management
The prospect of e-waste supervision can be determined not only based on the success
of the confined government or the reprocessing service provider, but also on citizens’
perceptions and the crucial role of producers and bulk customers in shaping and
developing community engagement. In order to sensitize users, joint campaigns are
needed and customers should pay for the reprocessing of electronic products. Via a
labeling requirement for products, customers must be aware of their position in the
system. Consumers are trained to purchase only required goods that use some of the
new innovations to be recognized by eco-labeling. In order to foster best manage-
ment practices, awareness-raising campaigns, and events on environmentally sound
management (ESM) issues, health and security features of e-waste should be intro-
duced for various target groups. Procedural guidance should be established as soon
as possible for the ESM of e-waste.
Conclusion
A suitable life cycle approach to electronic waste and a greater number of recycling
activities should be encouraged by adding principles of circular economy, where
more “waste” is converted into “resource”. There should be more influencing
variables for effective e-waste management such as removal or reduction of CO2

emissions and CFCs especially in cooling appliances, energy recovery methods, and
material recovery systems, and waste to wealth conversion should be identified in all
sectors. These identified success variables should be applied and monitored by
suitable regulatory agents. The incursion of electronic waste, predominantly
discarded PCs, solid waste controlling, which is previously an enormous chore in
India, is flattering more difficult. A thorough evaluation of the existing and future
situation, with quantification, features, current removal practices, ecological
impacts, etc., is urgently required. Organized infrastructure, including e-waste
assortment, transport, handling, packing, retrieval, and removal, needs to be recog-
nized at country and/or provincial level for the ecologically sustainable administra-
tion of electronic waste. In collaboration with confined industrialists and producers,
the formation of electronic waste assortment, conversation, and reprocessing centers
should be encouraged. It is important to develop model amenities using ecologically
rigorous technology and methods for reprocessing and retrieval. Criteria for the
retrieval and removal of e-waste should be created. Strategy-level initiatives should
comprise the implementation of e-waste legislation, e-waste import and export
control, and facilitation of infrastructure development. A successful take-back pro-
gram can help minimize waste by providing manufacturers with incentives to
promote goods that are less expensive, comprise less harmful materials, and are
easy to take down, reprocess, and salvage. To enable customers to reuse electronic
devices for assortment and reprocess/recycling, it should fix goals for assortment and
reprocess/recycling, execute reporting standards, and provide compliance contriv-
ances and refund or deposit programs. Focus on the strategy of novel electronic
devices should be placed on end-of-life management.
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e-Waste Management: A Transition
Towards a Circular Economy 58
Sheetal Barapatre and Mansi Rastogi
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1500
Global e-Waste Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1502
WEEE Management in Developed and Developing Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1504
Case Scenario: India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1506
Strategic Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1508
Hazardous Materials Found in e-Waste and Their Impact on Health and Environment . . . . . . 1510
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) to Develop a Circular Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1513
Challenges Associated with e-Waste Recycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1515
WEEE Characterization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1516
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1518
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1519
Abstract
Electronic waste is accounted as a rapidly expanding class of hazardous solid
waste across the world. The inappropriate handling of techniques for electronic
waste management and a higher potency to cause environmental pollution as well
as human health hazards result in a global predicament. Curtailing the existing
electronic waste management issue is possible through “sustainable consumption
and production” that entails countries to necessitate vital transformation for their
societies to produce and consume goods. This is accomplished by collaborative
participation of governments, international organizations, commercial enter-
prises, and individuals to revolutionize flawed consumption and production
patterns. This chapter will present e-waste scenarios and provide information
about the hazardous materials found in them followed by their impact on health
and environment. Waste electrical and electronic equipment management in
developed and developing countries (precisely, India) will be explored along
with befitting avenues concerned with recyclable components utilizing extended
S. Barapatre (*) · M. Rastogi

Department of Environmental Sciences, Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, India

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_68
1500 S. Barapatre and M. Rastogi
producer responsibility resulting in the development of a circular economy. The

current position of e-waste industry will be appraised to inspect the challenges
associated with e-waste recycling including unlawful e-waste trade-in from
developed countries and casual discarding causing grave environmental harm.
Keywords
Electronic waste · Sustainable consumption · Circular economy · Recycling ·
Extended producer responsibility
Introduction
Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) or e-waste as the fastest-growing

waste stream globally is expected to increase twofold by 2045 (Parajuly et al. 2019).
It is turning now into a global problem due to the incessant demand for electronic
products which has entailed serious obligation to both industrialized and developing
economies of the world. We know that electrical and electronic equipment claim an
indispensable part in our lives, with rapid growth at a rate three times faster than
other solid wastes. e-products have lately evolved to complicated and ubiquitous
usage in our everyday lives, but e-waste comprises of valuable resources and toxic
materials that require careful handling. However, the collection and waste manage-
ment systems have not yet caught up – lacking to ensure proper handling and
management of e-waste and entailing various potent risks such as resource losses
as well as negative impacts on environment and human health.
There are many definitions of e-waste put forth that may seem controversial at
times. According to a report by UNEP, “E-waste is a broad term that includes a range
of electrical and electronic equipments which can be rendered as end of life elec-
tronic devices and do not incur value to their owners.” Such waste is also termed as
WEEE or waste electrical and electronic equipment. While the European Directive
2002/96/EC defines e-waste as “Any waste electrical and electronic equipment,
along with all its components, subassemblies and consumables which form part of
the product at the time of discarding.” According to OECD, “E-waste is any
household appliance that consumes electricity and has reached the end of its life
cycle.” The electronic waste is divided into six distinct categories as mentioned in
the Table 1 (Balde et al. 2015).
WEEE is non-homogenous and multifarious with regard to its constituents being
quite diverse across different categories and encompasses substances that can be
labeled as hazardous and nonhazardous waste. Many precious metals like copper,
aluminum, silver, and iron are also found in electrical and electronic appliances
which can be recovered by recycling e-waste. Therefore, recycling of waste electri-
cal and electronic equipment (WEEE) is a subject of great interest with respect to
waste treatment and recovery of valuable materials. Inventing a lucrative and
eco-friendly recycling approach entails identification and quantification of precious
materials and perilous substances to realize the tangible characteristics of this waste
58 e-Waste Management: A Transition Towards a Circular Economy 1501
Table 1 Different categories of e-waste

S. No. Waste category Equipment included
1. Temperature exchange Refrigerators, freezers, air conditioner, heat pump
equipment
2. Screens and monitors Televisions, monitors, laptops, netbooks, tablets
3. Lamps Fluorescent lamps, LED lamps, high-intensity discharge
lamps
4. Large equipment Washing machines, clothes dryers, electric stoves, large
printing machines, copying machines, photovoltaic panels
5. Small equipment Vacuum cleaners, toasters, microwaves, ventilation
equipment, scales, calculators, radio, electric shavers,
kettles, camera, toys, electronic tools, medical devices,
small monitoring and control equipment
6. Small IT and Mobile phones, GPS, pocket calculators, routers, personal
telecommunication computers, printers, telephones
equipment
Source: Balde et al. (2015)
and improved recuperation of minerals so as to conserve natural resources and

develop a sustainable solution for e-waste management (Zeng et al. 2017).
Most of the companies that manufacture electrical and electronic devices upgrade
their products quite recurrently. Also, these products are designed in a way that gives
them a short lifetime. The principal component of almost all electric and electronic
equipment is the printed circuit boards (PCBs). PCBs in a regular personal computer
contain around 20% copper and 250 g/t Au that is much more prominent than that of
copper or gold ore (Yazici and Deveci 2013). To recover these metals from electrical
and electronic wastes, various remedies are available based on physical, pyrometal-
lurgical, bio-metallurgical, and hydrometallurgical processes (Awasthi 2017).
Despite a relatively well-instituted waste management infrastructure along with
sufficient collective efforts, unsatisfactory results have been generally found. This
could be resonated to the lack of evidence for design support, policies developed,
and know-how research wherein the recovery products are concerned. To resolve the
abovementioned issues, the concept of circular economy is viewed as a progressive
approach to address the e-waste problem. Although, an EPR-based e-waste man-
agement system was visioned as an appropriate plan, with circular economy pushing
the producers to incentivize and reorganize their business models and design tech-
nology to reduce the operative costs, the implementation seeks no expected incen-
tives as the individual operators and the resource recovery have been limited to
meager collection and subsequent material recycling processes. Furthermore, the
reuse potential of the lost material during the whole product process is almost
nonexistent.
Circular economy is a concept which eventually slows down the EEE consump-
tion rate while circulating the waste material within the system for the longest
possible time and minimizing and eliminating their re-generation via smarter product
designing and business modeling (Parajuly 2017). It involves the 7 R’s system that
includes reduce, reuse, refuse, recycle, recovery, rethinking, and redesigning that
Fig. 1 General concept of a

circular economy in e-waste
management
accentuates the social, economic, and environmental aspects (in the case of India,
Indian E-waste management rule, 2016). However, we cannot ignore the various
obstacles that might slow down the process such as poor technology, inadequate
collection system, need for finances, and lack of training to the informal sector. The
circular economy works towards cleaner and renewable technologies, groundbreak-
ing models, and developmental policies to “design out” waste by optimizing the
products and cycling materials, maintaining them at their maximum utility and value
(Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2019). This optimization can be observed through the
derived products (better-designed) and futuristic waste management models that
lend the product an extended lifetime, and a possibility for reuse with resourceful
material recovery. The general concept of a circular economy in e-waste manage-
ment is illustrated in Fig. 1.
The social and behavioral elements linked with e-product consumption and their
adaptation towards enabling common people to facilitate this circular system are still
being explored. Apart from the technicalities and recycling rates involved during
e-waste circular economic process, the sustainable production of these products
should be given due importance. The concept of circular economy is deemed to be
essential for e-product generation and management; however, a collective effort of
multiple sectors (businesses, governments, and consumers) needs to be mandated.
This means the technological cum economic aspect as well as consumer behavior
both are very vital to be defined for long-term sustenance of circular economy.
Hence, it calls for identification of better opportunities for developmental interven-
tions to improve e-waste management and achieve a satisfying circular economy.
Global e-Waste Scenario
According to the global E-waste Monitor 2020, the worldwide e-waste production is
increasing at a rate of 3 to 4% per year. In 2016, the total amount of e-waste produced
throughout the world was around 44.7 million tons, and it is expected to reach 52.2
million tons by 2021 (Balde et al. 2017). About 53.6 million metric tons (Mt) of
electronic waste were recorded to be generated worldwide in 2019 with only 17.4 per
cent being collected and recycled. Majorly 53.6 million metric tons (Mt) of the
e-waste discarded products comprising of battery or plug (computers and mobile
phones) contribute to the load. It is predicted that battery or plug containing
discarded products will reach about 74 Mt by 2030 (http://www.globalewaste.org).
Thus, e-waste seems to emerge as the world’s fastest-growing waste stream driven
mainly by high consumption rates and shorter life span. Asia reportedly generated
the largest volume of e-waste (2019) – around 24.9 Mt followed by the United States
(13.1 Mt), Europe (12 Mt), Africa (2.9 Mt), and Oceania (0.7 Mt). Asia being the
greatest producer of WEEE has a collection rate of 4.2 kg/inh where only 6% is
properly collected and recycled.
In India, the recyclable e-waste quantifies to only 5% of the total waste, owing to
the lack of suitable infrastructure and weak policies and institutional framework.
This leads to shortage in natural resources and amplified environmental degradation
that adversely affect the people involved in recycling industry. Herein, 65 cities in
India contribute to about 60% of India’s total e-waste, highest being generated by
three states – Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh (Kumar and Dixit
2018). In addition, e-waste being a health and environmental hazard due to presence
of toxic additives and hazardous substances such as mercury (damages the human
brain) and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) needs to be handled properly in an environ-
mentally sound manner. To target effectual waste management, an improvised
collection and recycling system has to be designed that would increase the waste
recovery and treatment pace. Various countries have come together to adopt a
national e-waste policy that works towards legislation or regulation of e-waste
recycling. However, still in many regions, the regulatory advances and
implementations are slow with poor collection and management strategy. In the
case of developing nations, an enhanced living standard is visible due to better
economic growth that eventually helps in decreasing the poverty rate. However,
when these economies devise strategies to encounter e-waste management chal-
lenges as an important environmental-health issue, generating ample opportunities
for the inhabitants through product recovery is not farsighted.
WEEE is mainly produced by the OECD (Organization for Economic Coopera-
tion and Development) countries showing a distinct amplification in WEEE gener-
ation by developing countries than the developed countries. It is estimated that
developing and developed countries will discard an average of 550 million metric
tons of WEEE by the year 2030. Developed countries get rid of their e-waste by
simply exporting their waste to developing countries. This e-waste is generally
exported to China, India, and Africa which causes serious threats to their ecosystem.
This trans-boundary flow of e-waste has also increased as no duty is levied to the
importers and unauthorized recyclers which use all sorts of inappropriate technolo-
gies to dispose this e-waste. The Basel Convention on the Control of Trans-boundary
Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their disposal was adopted as a response to
a public objection to toxic waste deposits imported in Africa and other parts of the
developing countries. It was implemented with an objective to protect human health
and the environment from the adverse impacts of hazardous wastes. Yet, there has
been an illegal transport of WEEE in forms other than waste which failed to fulfill
the purpose of the Basel Convention. The European nations took another initiative
by shaping the WEEE directive and the Restriction of Hazardous Substances
Directive (RoHS Directive, 2002/95/EC).
WEEE Management in Developed and Developing Countries
Considering the global framework, aiming an effective e-waste management system,

the main acceptable factors include collection of waste, handling, processing through
recycling or recovery, and disposal (E-waste management rule, 2016). On the
contrary, in the case of developing countries, the major issues identified to cause
major threats towards improper handling of enormous volume of this e-waste are
informal recycling and a feeble/absent e-waste legislation. In addition, in low- and
middle-income countries, informal sectors also play a significant role that cannot be
overlooked. Figure 2 illustrates the current practices in e-waste management system.
A faster consumption of EEE has been observed in the developing countries in
comparison to developed countries in spite of a slower rate of technological
advancement, thereby generating more e-waste, quantified to be double than the
developed countries (Garlapati 2016). For instance, the discarded components of
dead computers by 2030 are estimated to be 400–700 million by developing and
200–300 million by the developed countries (Sthiannopkao and Wong 2013). The
lesser developed technology and improper rules and regulations in the developing
countries make the challenge severalfold higher for e-waste management than the
developed countries. Various researchers argue that critical factors in e-waste man-
agement are more deliberated to developed nations, while developing countries have
a lot to struggle with respect to policy development and structural framework.
Fig. 2 Current practices for e-waste management system

While comparing the legislative policies of developed and developing countries, the
former is always one step ahead owing to stricter implementation of these legislations.
Nevertheless, following the same path, many developing countries have taken up the
initiative to formulate and implement specific policies for e-waste management. The
developed countries have formulated national registry system encompassing proper
collection and strong logistics system (Sthiannopkao and Wong 2013). For instance, the
Packaging Waste Program and EPR program are mandated to put financial obligations
on the manufacturers to collect and reduce packaging waste in Germany (Ongondo
et al. 2011). The latter was adopted and extended to countries like Sweden, Switzerland,
Norway, and Taiwan. Another EU legislation (Directive 2002/95/EC, the RoHS Direc-
tive) was enacted in 2003 endorsing their collection, recycling, and restricting the usage
of hazardous substances in e-wastes (Directive 2002/96/EC). Countries like China and
India (lacking a national registry) have clearly implemented the EPR legislation system
to monitor the produced EEE and put forth a subsequent manufacturer take-back
system. Furthermore, another major factor contributing to the existing menace in the
developing countries is the big gray markets that make available second-hand EEE,
thus making the situation more vulnerable. Despite low labor costs in these countries
(China, India, and Pakistan), the gigantic quantities of e-waste (both import and
domestic) and the supremacy of the informal parties were figured out as a major
bottleneck to manage e-waste (Abbas 2010).
Global policies are already in place to recycle e-waste which is largely dependent on
consumer behavior and the local market. On the contrary, few studies conducted by
researchers confirm that most of the e-waste is generated by the countries showing
notable economic development. Canada has a well-developed recycling and processing
industry controlled by industry standards. In Europe, all 27 countries have their own set
of regulations intended to maximize WEEE recycling. In the United States, there is no
national policy for WEEE recycling, but at least half of the states in the United States
have their own range of laws for recycling of e-waste. In Latin America, Colombia,
Mexico, Costa Rica, Peru, and Brazil have e-waste policies, while Africa lacks lawful
arrangements for e-waste recycling with around 85% of surplus electronic imports
being reclaimed rather than being discarded. Egypt is one of the highest e-waste-
producing African countries that however lack proper e-waste management system.
The National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme in Australia included a
permutation of government directives and industry engagement for assembly and
recycling of e-waste, whereas in Asia only South Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, and
India hold e-waste policies. Maximum recycling is carried out by Taiwan with around
82% of e-waste being recycled followed by Japan and South Korea recycling around
75% of their e-waste. Though China possesses formal commandment for WEEE
management, it is still working on extending its recycling capacity. It is not only the
prime destination for e-waste dumping but also the largest producer and consumer of
electronics in the world (Chi et al. 2011). E-waste management protocols in many other
countries across the world are still in the developing stage. Table 2 describes the
legislative framework for WEEE management in different countries.
Balde et al. (2015) describes the modus operandi followed by countries world-
wide with context to proper collection, preprocessing, and recycling of e-waste. His
Table 2 Legislative framework for WEEE management in various countries (Pathak et al. 2017)
Country/region Legislation/regulation
South Korea Act on control of Trans-boundary movement of hazardous waste
and their disposal, 1994
Belgium Directive 2002/96/EC on WEEE, 2002
Finland Government Decree on WEEE, 2004
France, Germany and the Under EU Directives in 2005
Netherland
Japan Law for the control of export, import, and others of specified
hazardous and other wastes
Vietnam Law on environmental protection, 2005
China Catalogue of restricted imports of solid wastes, 2008
Norway The revised EU directives, 2006
The United Kingdom Under EU directives in 2007
Thailand Criterion for import of used EEE (UEEE), 2007
Singapore Import and export of e-wastes and used electronic equipment, 2008
Pakistan Import policy order, 2009
The United States HR 2284: Responsible electronics recycling act, 2011
Hong Kong Advice on movement of UEEE, 2011
Nigeria Guide for importers of UEEE into Nigeria, 2011
study concludes that developed economies are more innovative than developing
economies in this regard; however, there still lies a vast scope of improvement for
both. Still due to various reasons, developed countries export their e-waste to the
developing countries for dumping. These reasons include heavy labor price and stern
environmental guidelines for hazardous waste disposal in developed countries.
Despite the fact that developing countries are short of appropriate techniques,
amenities, and means for efficient e-waste recycling, they still import e-waste from
developed countries for provisional benefits. Such recyclers depend on rudimentary
methods for extraction of precious substances from e-waste. However, some coun-
tries like Tunisia have now started working towards formulating a better approach
for e-waste management and recycling. A significant quantity of e-waste is exported
outside European countries, and most of it is transported to Asia and Africa in the
false name of being sent for reuse and renovation where even dysfunctional items are
unlawfully labeled as “used goods” which causes considerable harm to the environ-
ment and local citizens.
Case Scenario: India
On a global scale, India ranks fifth in e-waste generation producing 2 million tons
with a total annual growth of 30% (ASSOCHEM India report 2019). However, the
OECD countries contribute about 50% to 60% of this total e-waste volume that
makes its accurate quantification a very difficult task. In the case of India, e-waste
was expected to increase to 5.2 million ton by 2020 (Gao et al. 2019; Masud et al.
2019) making e-waste management quite challenging. It is found that a speedy
economic growth and enhanced purchasing capacity of the developed urban society
(middle-income) results in the exponential rise of e-waste generation. The absence of
suitable environmental and regulatory framework, lesser knowledge of operational
awareness for asset recovery from old products and inefficient planning and design-
ing for integrated supply chain are mainly responsible (Masud et al. 2019). There-
fore, implementation and designing of e-waste management practices need to
account for the environment and economic perspectives as well. Modern e-waste
management system integrates processes like e-waste collection, design of green
products, multiple-agency collaboration, disposal/recycling, and community partic-
ipation. The need of the hour is to formulate an integrated waste management system
aimed at sustainable development and environment protection.
Pathak et al. (2017) adopted a mathematical modeling to predict this and quan-
tified computers and mobile phones as the two major electronic items that were
sellable in the Indian market. It has been understood that computers will immensely
contribute to the e-waste volume with an increase until 2022, gradually slowing to
reach a saturation point by 2030. Contrary to this, a saturation point could not be
observed for the e-waste generating from mobile phones in the near future. To
overcome these obstacles regarding e-waste generation and its stated adversity
towards sustainability in India, a legislative framework was drawn with chronolog-
ical developments. In 2010, the Environment (Protection) Act 1986 was amended to
incorporate the e-waste management and handling rules (schedule-I) which elucidate
the role of manufacturers (manufacturing/sale/purchase/processing of EEE), collec-
tion centers, recyclers, re-furbishers, traders, dismantlers, auctioneers, and bulk
consumers. However after many changes and revisions (incorporating the extended
producer responsibility concept) including various disapprovals and recommenda-
tions, the rule was finally put forward in 2011.
According to Indian legislation, extended producer responsibility (EPR) is a
competent e-waste handling system that forms collection centers, employs the
distributor take-back system (DTBS), and engages authorized and approved
dismantlers or recyclers either individually or by a producer responsibility organi-
zation (PRO). The notification further specifies the use of hazardous substances
being limited to electrical and electronic appliances. However, this was held insuf-
ficient to resolve the existing e-waste management issues, and requirement of further
modifications/improvements in the e-waste management rules to incorporate strate-
gies for effective EPR management in an eco-friendly manner was recommended.
The legislature was reformulated as E-waste Management Rule 2016 that took
almost three decades to be developed into a specific e-waste legislation, incorporat-
ing the manufacturer and re-furbisher responsibility (Pathak et al. 2017).
This advent in the form of e-waste legislation helped increase the awareness for
waste management where several collection centers, systematic recycling compa-
nies, and local societal bodies (Recyclekaro.com, E-waste Recycling India and
E-Parisaraa) have emerged. Albeit contributing small, a reduction in the e-waste
volume and increase in recovery of valuable and critical materials are observed.
Thus, a slow but positive starting point is seen, as 90% of e-waste is still handled by
the informal sector with benefits of recycling being practiced by these recyclers in an
organized and scientific manner (ASSOCHEM India report 2019).
Strategic Approaches
With an incessant emphasis on recycling issue, the strategic approach of circular

economy (CE) is deemed suitable for stress reduction in the environment and to
balance economy (Akram et al. 2019). The concept of CE has been framed and
selected keeping in mind the uncontrollable increase in the electronic products and
the recycling margins of these end-of-life (EoL) products (illustrated in Fig. 3).
Specifically, in context to a developing country like India, emerging as a new potent
economic system, recycling of EoL products will thereby aid in sustainable devel-
opment (Slaveykova et al. 2019; Krishnamurthy et al. 2019). This includes constant
efforts and making initiatives that control issues such as waste management, essen-
tially pollution, e-waste management strategies, environmental sustainability, and
protection. Among them, “environmental management system” (EMS) is considered
as the most significant and vital driving tool to influence rest of the existing enablers.
It emphasizes on deriving eco-friendly products, develops stricter legislations, builds
green image, and supports the producers in proper implementation of CE practices.
This enables the stakeholders and policy makers in reducing the environmental
burden and developing an effectual e-waste management system focusing on iden-
tified key enablers (EMS and environmental partners).
DEMATEL Method
DEMATEL method is applied to study the potency of cause and effect enablers on
waste, setting up objectives that include finalizing and listing the set of enablers to
execute e-waste management. DEMATEL is considered as an essential method to
identify the interrelationships and to study the quantification of mutual effects
Fig. 3 Pictorial representation of a new e-waste management system

among enablers (Kamble et al. 2019). Basically, dominant enablers (direct effect on
other enablers) are the decisive factors in implementation and practicing the e-waste
management framework. It investigates and establishes a cause and effect relation-
ship between the e-waste management enablers to deduce the causal group factor
and to analyze the listed enablers. To elaborate, the factorial relationship is weighed
on a scale of 0 to 4, where 0 indicates no influence on “y,” while 4 indicates that “x”
variable does influence “y.” This method reveals the interdependency of variables on
x axis and y axis illustrated with the help of generic diagram called diagraph. Further,
steps for scrutinizing enabler interrelationship and exploring the cause and effect
relationship are described. With a global rise in e-waste generation and related
environmental issues, transition from a linear economy to CE modeling is needed
to be attained by global research, communication strategies, and efficient practices
(Slaveykova et al. 2019).
CE being an umbrella concept minimizes the process of waste generation
(Pauliuk 2018) that involves developing closed-loop ecosystem for an efficient
consumption and proper utilization of resources. It mainly aims to model a waste-
free environment by practicing the R’s, reducing, reusing, and recycling of waste
(Slaveykova et al. 2019). The CE model, however, in nascent phase (Rosa et al.
2019), focuses mainly on efficient management of the resources by utilizing reverse
logistics, redesigning, innovation, and collaboration of ecosystems. The substitution
of the linear waste management model by CE will aid in developing a sustainable
ecosystem for future generations. The increased generation of electrical and elec-
tronic products calls for an efficient management of e-waste with advanced technol-
ogy, upgraded with better policies.
In addition, lower collection and recycling rates result in the loss of resources that
may be rederived through these e-products. Currently, e-waste management is not
limited only to recycling, in fact adequate initiatives are to be identified for reshaping
and redesigning the manufacturing processes of products, creating a desire to create
a closed-loop CE system (Pauliuk 2018). Additionally, an edge in recuperating
environmental as well as economic aspects of the electronic industry can be achieved
by developing integrated concept of sustainable practices with e-waste management
system, e.g., eco-design, cleaner technologies, and green packaging (Akram et al.
2019; Zhang et al. 2019). An influence of other sustainable factors including social,
environmental, economic, technology, and policy formulation on e-waste manage-
ment is also known to play a critical role in the CE. But deficient infrastructure and
the lack of information system required for establishing an efficient CE hold the
developing countries back in this regard.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

WEEE management being a complex issue has prompted that we need a suitable tool
to evaluate its environmental impact, thus assisting in decision-making. Several tools
have been established and utilized for WEEE management, life cycle assessment
(LCA) being a vital one. LCA assesses the environmental impacts while comparing
the performance of involved waste management techniques. LCA is an international
standardized practice grounded on ISO (International Organization for
Standardization) 14,040 series. This includes four phases: (i) define goal and scope,
(ii) life cycle inventory development, (iii) life cycle impact assessment, and (iv) life
cycle interpretation. It helps to deduce the environmental impact of electronic
products and identify the process that are associated with them (Aziz et al. 2019).
It further evaluates the “cradle-to-grave” effect of extracted raw materials, utilization
of products, and final disposal on the environment.
Perhaps LCA has sometimes been applied to identify the product’s life cycle for
specific cases as well by monitoring the production and waste management process
(Kaab et al. 2019). About 200 LCA studies have already been cited globally for
waste management essentially LCA findings in WEEE management but with sig-
nificant differences among their background and research scope. Over the past
decades, many specific LCA models have been developed for waste management,
EASEWASTE model being a primary method (Gentil et al. 2010). The content
analysis discovered mainly three research areas where LCA can be applied in WEEE
management: (i) WEEE product, (ii) WEEE component, and (iii) WEEE residue/
mixture. Thus considering the critical role played by LCA in waste management, it is
recommended as a standard method for WEEE management for developing
countries.
Hazardous Materials Found in e-Waste and Their Impact

on Health and Environment
With an escalated pace of urban growth, e-waste tops the list of issues existing in
the modernized world, constantly adding toxic and hazardous elements (lead,
mercury, calcium, polybrominated biphenyls, and chromium) to our environment
(Zeng et al. 2018). The major trepidation associated with e-waste revolves around
the fact that it contains an array of hazardous substances which threaten public and
environmental well-being. Inappropriate handling of such wastes causes detrimen-
tal effects due to leakage of perilous substances. On one hand, it is stated as a main
source of essential minerals such as iron, copper, etc., and on the other hand, it is
the root cause of various environmental hazards (Borthakur and Govind 2018a, b;
Zhang et al. 2019).
E-waste is a compound consisting of many metals (heavy and hazardous) such as
Cu, Co, Fe, Ni, Cd, Pb, Cr, Au, Ag, Pd, plastics (polymers and additives), and
ceramics undergoing conformational changes within their manufacturing time
(Robinson 2009). The technical and management gaps such as the lack of required
services, legislations, and methodologies towards e-waste management (for
developing nations) raise severe concerns that ultimately result in mishandling and
malpractices like open burning and dumping of waste. This causes pollution at
different levels of environment and creates problems for public health and flora
fauna ecosystem. E-waste also contaminates and causes air, soil, and water pollution
which is quite evident from recycling or landfilling of these hazardous and toxic
e-waste (Borthakur 2017). The major contributors are the hazardous organic
compounds like PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), PBDEs (polybrominated

diphenyl ethers), and PCDD/Fs (polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofu-
rans) found to increase air and water contamination and affecting human health by
disrupting food chain (Tue et al. 2016).
Informal recycling is a major malpractice that makes the prevailing situation
worse for the developing countries like India, Ghana, Nigeria, China, Thailand,
Indonesia, Vietnam, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. The usual practices – illegal and
unsupervised melting of circuit boards, open burning of wire piles, and metal bearing
acidic solution discards – have been visible (Borthakur and Singh 2017). Disman-
tling is another inappropriate practice for disposal of e-waste which when carried out
in poor conditions leads to terrible pollution and damage to public health. The
generated waste is disposed by open burning and dumping which are rendered as
the worst alternatives practiced by countries devoid of proper legislation and fun-
damental waste management services.
Such practices generally involve physically dismantling the e-waste by using
basic tools like hammers, chisels, and screw drivers. Metals like gold are usually
extracted by stripping of the metals in open-pit acid baths. Copper is recovered by
burning electric cables in open pits, while plastics are shredded and liquefied at high
temperatures without protective ventilation that releases toxins like dioxins and
furans. Such rudimentary techniques threaten environmental protection and health
of workers. Such illegal dumping is also witnessed in developed countries which can
be attributed to improper implementation of environmental laws and WEEE man-
agement regulations by the authorities.
All electronics include printed circuit boards which contain lead, brominated
flame retardants, and antimony oxide which are highly toxic. Printed circuit boards
(PCBs) are heated to remove their components. Hazardous materials like lead,
mercury, and hexavalent chromium are present in such wastes which contain
cathode-ray tubes (CRTs), capacitors, mercury switches, batteries, printed circuit
boards, liquid crystal displays (LCDs), cartridges, and electrolytes. Lead and cad-
mium are found in computer batteries and circuit boards; cathode-ray tubes also
consist of cadmium and lead oxide while mercury is found in switches and flat screen
monitors; polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are present in transformers and capac-
itors. These harmful substances cause various illnesses like disorders related to
growth, reproduction, thyroid, lung function, and abnormalities in cell functioning.
These are most commonly seen in people directly exposed to these pollutants and
also pregnant women, infants, and children.
Over 1000 toxic materials are found to be associated with e-waste, the most
common ones being nickel (Ni), barium (Ba), beryllium (Be), cadmium (Cd), cobalt
(Co), chromium (Cr), lead (Pb), lithium (Li), lanthanum (La), mercury (Hg), man-
ganese (Mn), molybdenum (Mo), hexavalent chromium (Cr (VI)), and persistent
organic pollutants (POPs) such as brominated flame retardants (BFRs). Nickel
(Ni) and arsenic (As) are carcinogens and cause respiratory and skin problems.
Antimony (Sb) is known to cause lung and heart damages, hair loss, and fertility
issues. Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) cause liver damage, thyroid, and
anemia. Cadmium and mercury are known carcinogens and damage lungs. Tetra-
bromobisphenol A (TBBPA) is a carcinogen and causes mutations and impairs the
endocrine system. Polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) are known to impact the kid-
neys and liver and cause thyroid disorder. Barium (Ba) causes muscular feebleness
and gastrointestinal unrest leading to paralysis. Beryllium (Be) causes respiratory
illness, pneumonia, and lung cancer. Retardation and disruption in development of
the nervous system are one of the major concerns related to e-waste exposure due to
the fact that children residing in e-waste recycling areas are generally subjected to
extreme levels of hazardous substances during their lifetime (Dietrich et al. 2010).
These children usually bear petite body weight as compared to adults. But the
volume of toxicants inhaled by them is far more than their body weight (American
Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) 2003). These hazardous substances also have adverse
impacts on organ systems. The dangerous impacts associated with e-waste on human
health are summarized in Table 3.
Table 3 Harmful impacts of hazardous waste associated with e-waste (Abdel Bashir et al. 2018)
Pollutant Occurrence Impact
Lead (Pb) Batteries, solders, printed Headache, ulcers, damage to the skin,
circuit boards, cables, brain, and nervous system
cathode-ray tubes
Cadmium (Cd) Rechargeable batteries, Carcinogenic and shows damage to the
semiconductors, printer kidneys, respiratory system, bones;
cartridge neurodevelopmental issues in the fetus
Mercury (Hg) Lightning devices and Affects the brain, kidney, and nervous
thermostats, batteries system
Chromium (Cr) Floppy disks, data tapes Carcinogenic and impacts
neurodevelopmental growth leading to
multiple organ failure
Arsenic (As) Light-emitting diodes Causes cardiovascular, liver, renal, and
(as gallium arsenide) gastrointestinal problems. Results in
bladder cancer
Nickel (Ni) Printed circuit boards, Carcinogenic; causes lung cancer and skin
batteries, cathode-ray tubes allergy
Lithium (Li) Printed circuit boards, Impacts gastrointestinal and neurological
batteries, cathode-ray tubes system
Zinc (Zn) CRT screens Cytotoxicity and trauma
Selenium (Se) Old photocopy machines Impacts gastrointestinal and neurological
systems; causes fatigue, irritation, hair loss
Barium (Ba) Sparkplugs, CRT, and Muscular weakness, brain swelling, and
fluorescent lamps damage to the heart, liver, and spleen
PCBs Condensers, transformers, Liver damage and cancer
heat transfer fluids
PVC Monitors, keyboards, and Respiratory problems
cables
CFCs Cooling units and insulation Impact ozone layer causing skin cancer
foam
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) to Develop a Circular

Economy
European nations have put in considerable hard work to minimize e-waste and its
impacts. To achieve this, manufacturers are roped in, and their responsibilities are
maximized under “extended producer responsibility (EPR) system.” The OECD
defines EPR as “an environmental approach in which producers share an extended
responsibility for a product at the post-consumer stage of a product’s life cycle”
(OECD 2001). EPR aims to offer incentives to producers for integrating environ-
mental concerns during product design. It basically works towards the transfer of
e-waste management jobs to manufacturers rather than the municipalities. Manufac-
turers are directed to take care of recycling, reuse, and final disposal of waste
components. It is largely achieved by a provision to incorporate treatment and
disposal costs in product selling price. Such efforts also enable producers to present
best products in the global market.
The EPR system is customized to provide an all-inclusive policy package where
policy involves various tools like advance recycling fees (ARF), waste collection
charges, landfill ban, subsidies, etc. The primary notion associated with EPR for
electronic concerns the fact that collection and handling e-waste involves a net cost
which needs to be adjusted; otherwise, it leads to irresponsible and careless handling
of such hazardous waste. Therefore, EPR attempts to indulge original equipment
manufacturers (OEMs) by imposing collection targets for accumulation and recu-
peration of e-waste so as to prevent it from ending up in landfills. To meet these
specific targets, manufacturers are linked with compliance organizations in exchange
for a payment (EPR fees). But India’s social structure harboring a vast population
ranging from lower-to-middle pay packets has inflated the gray market for UEEE, at
times even after the product’s end of life.
In Europe, the EPR principle has been applied to WEEE since 2003 in conse-
quence of the first WEEE Directive (2002/96/EC) and its revision (the WEEE Recast
Directive 2012/19/EU) that came later in 2012. While in December 2015, the
European Commission embarked upon the EU strategy for circular economy
which testifies that EPR protocols shape an important part of the efficient waste
management system and certain incentives should be provided for producers to take
care of recycling and reuse options while designing their products. Therefore, the
idea of circular economy finds its origin from the theory of eco-industrial develop-
ment. The concept of circular economy is based on the “win-win” viewpoint where
economic prospects and environmental safeguard can be achieved simultaneously.
But the most challenging aspect of circular economy lies in sweeping away the linear
economic model that involves “take, make, and dispose” philosophy (McDowall
et al. 2017).
E-waste is delineated as an imperative resource of the circular economy agenda.
Circular economy is designed to moderate the use of new materials and also the
waste output by closing resource flow loop in a sustainable way. Circular economy
not only provides answers to a number of problems like shortage of resources,
generation of waste, and environmental contamination, but it also offers economic
prospects due to waste recycling and recovery of precious material. CE advocates

reuse and recycling of e-waste and represents it as a promising sector of prospective
interest. If e-waste management is carried out taking into consideration all efficiency
standards and protocols, it can very well provide the basis for development of a
circular economy. This system needs to incorporate environmental, health, eco-
nomic, and technological paradigms.
But it seems that a solo guiding principle is not sufficient to accomplish the
manifold environmental objectives like landfill diversion and moderating the toxic-
ity of products. Implementing a Pigovian tax on market activities that threaten social
order and well-being of society is known to be quite effective in reducing landfills
and enhancing the use of recycled material in manufacturing process although illegal
dumping is a threat to this strategy (Calcott and Walls 2000). The deposit-refund
system can resolve this issue where the tax levied on the product is reimbursed when
the product is returned for recycling purposes. But such a system incurs implemen-
tation cost and is quite tedious and therefore paves way for command-and-control
strategy followed by the government where the government orders reduction in
pollution level by imposing collection targets under an EPR-based take-back regu-
lation and monitors whether the target is met or not (Palmer and Walls 1999).
Recently, e-waste reverse logistics (RL) has gained momentum and involves
designing, employing, and regulating the competent and lucrative flow of raw
materials, inventory of goods in process, finished goods, and other information in
a reverse flow, i.e., starting from the point of consumption to the point of origin, with
a goal to recover value and achieve suitable disposal. Rapid development in tech-
nology and market competition lead to short product lifecycle and product obsoles-
cence and therefore calls for incorporation of RL into management practices.
Escalation in e-waste, progression in environmental legislation, and increase in
consumer pressure for social corporate responsibility have necessitated the imple-
mentation of reverse logistics. Though there are developments of various RL models
in developed countries, developing countries are still in its initial stage. In develop-
ing economies like India and China, dearth of suitable legislations and economic
incentives, little public awareness, presence of unbranded products in the market,
and informal waste pickers responsible for maximum e-waste collection and treat-
ment without any concern for health, safety, and environmental protection need to be
taken care of while designing the RL model (Wang et al. 2012).
There are certain gaps that limit the proper implementation of reverse logistics.
For instance, producers generally ignore investments in RL due to costs involved in
setting up essential infrastructure for collection, recycling, and reuse of e-waste. Due
to difficulty in managing and connecting with wholesalers, retailers, and consumers
and collecting and recycling organizations, corporate show insensitivity towards
RL. Inappropriate legislation can render the whole process of RL ineffective. As in
case of the European Directive, a share responsibility model is required to employ a
system of collection and treatment of WEEE wherein the model defines that pro-
ducers are responsible for WEEE treatment but collection is not demarcated. So even
if the retailers accept the returned WEEE, many times they do not agree to pay the
transportation cost to producers or municipal collection sites. While in some
countries, the lack of economic incentives have been identified as barriers in

achieving the set target (Schluep et al. 2009). To overcome these barriers, developed
as well as developing countries are still working on designing better and effective RL
management models.
Challenges Associated with e-Waste Recycling
All countries of the world are categorized as either developed or developing, and
there are two different classification criteria for that, but the countries classified are
different. Basel Convention classifies the countries as Annex VII (developed coun-
tries) and non-Annex VII (developing) countries. It is one of the most significant
international trade covenants aimed to restrict cross-border movement of hazardous
waste (Basel Convention, 2016). On the other hand, WTO also classifies the
countries as developed and developing ones, but does not provide any definition
for this classification. While the Basel Convention groups consists of OECD, the
European Union (EU) and Liechtenstein under developed countries (Basel Conven-
tion, 2017) delineate developing countries as other territories. The WTO places the
EU, North America (excluding Mexico), the European Free Trade Association
(Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland), Japan, New Zealand, and
Australia under developed countries while Africa, Mexico, South and Central
America, Caribbean, Europe (barring the EU and EFTA), the Middle East, and
Asia (apart from Australia, Japan, and New Zealand) under developing countries
(World Trade Organization, 2015). Such varied classification of countries makes
international trade of e-waste an indefinite challenge.
Most of the developed economies play the role of e-waste exporters while
developing countries import these wastes. According to the Basel convention,
most of the hazardous e-waste is exchanged between developed countries, and
very little trade is carried out with developing economies. While contrary to this,
WTO claims that most of the developed countries send their e-waste to developing
countries. India, China, and Africa serve as central receiving points for global WEEE
dumping. India suffers through this problem due to growth of the UEEE market with
an upsurge in lower-middle class economy, rising upper-middle class economy as a
result of fast industrialization, and intensification of the unlawful recycling sector.
China is one of the largest importers of e-waste across the world. However, China
entirely barred the import of e-waste in 2000, and it testifies no import of waste
printed boards (WPBs) after 2000. But certain countries have still given an account
of WPBs being exported to China during the same time.
Due to technological, infrastructural, and financial constraints, developing econ-
omies are still battling to embrace the recommended recycling and disposal tech-
niques. The best-of-2-worlds (Bo2W) theory can be deemed suitable to provide a
pragmatic solution to this problem (Nnorom and Osibanjo 2008). Collection and
screening centers should be made depending upon the population. Sustainable
solutions like eco-friendly production designs, EPR, product stewardship, recycling,
and remaking practices should be adopted (Azevedo et al. 2017). The increasing
global demand for WEEE production and its varied composition has increased the
risk of exposure to hazardous substances released due to inappropriate handling of
e-waste. This calls for adoption of sustainable management techniques. Extended
producer responsibility (EPR) is one such strategy implemented to mitigate the
adverse impacts of WEEE on health and environment. But there still lies a scope
for improvement as this method still lags behind from the perspective of developing
it into a circular economy. To achieve this, the challenges must be identified and
worked upon.
WEEE Characterization
In order to frame effective management strategies, WEEE composition should be

properly studied as there is constant evolution of electronic devices owing to
technological advancement. There is a dearth of information related to material
concentration in specific equipment. Limited information is available about the
components. Also, there is lack of applicable standard methods to evaluate the
elemental concentration in WEEE. This calls for application of diverse protocols
which impact the results during analytical determination. To overcome this issue, an
official database should be created encompassing details of WEEE components and
standard analytical protocols so as to ease out the characterization and comparison of
outcome. To close the loop and create a circular economy, we need stern policies and
appropriate infrastructure. This can be customized according to different regions.
Countries like the United States, Canada, India, and European states have explicit
legislations and follow EPR theory in practice but need to improvise their collection
rates. One way to achieve this is by incorporating a competitive collection system
between public and private sectors (Corsini et al. 2017). Countries not having
specific legislations and handling capacities witness even worse scenarios due to
increasing WEEE production. Such regions face the challenge of recognizing effec-
tual policies that must be formulated considering the region-specific conditions in
each country.
Dearth of proper legislations causes emergence of informal WEEE management
sectors that generally involve illegal e-waste trading of imported as well as domestic
WEEE. This problem can be overcome by banning of WEEE imports and expanding
formal collection rate. Improved recycling methods need to be tapped as they form
the basis of circular economy. The recycling industry needs innovation and impro-
visation as the current recycling processes harbor pretreatment and mechanical
separation and refining processes to obtain the intended materials. Not all the
facilities possess the technical knowledge for an efficient refining technique. The
recycling industry is underdeveloped as it is incapable of generating large profits.
The intricate composition of WEEE renders the anticipated recycling techniques
inefficient and therefore calls for alternative recycling methods. The perspective of
circular economy revolves around the idea of maximizing resource extraction from
WEEE, thereby reducing the burden on environment. Though many hazardous
substances have already been replaced, heavy metals and organic pollutants still
exist (Balde et al. 2015). The use of hazardous substances in electronics should be
restricted as far as possible to enhance the efficiency of recycling processes.
Alternatively, the use of bio-based electronic components is also proposed as an
option to eliminate the hazards associated with WEEE recycling (Guna et al. 2016).
Furthermore, while designing electronic goods, the ease of disintegrating them
during recycling and recovery should be kept in mind. It will not only smoothen
the process of pretreatment but will also ensure the reuse of these end-of-life
appliances as proposed by the circular economy approach. Apart from being envi-
ronmentally compatible, the recycling processes should also incur profits. It should
be able to harness materials that can replace natural resources effectively and reduce
the burden on environment. Bio-metallurgical techniques must be incorporated in
place of pyro-metallurgy and hydrometallurgy for refining (Işıldar et al. 2017).
Though biosorption and bioleaching are proven techniques, due to low loading
capacity and extended reaction time, these techniques lose interest.
Harmful substances present in WEEE gradually discharge into the environment
and contaminate it causing health effects in human and animals. These effects raise
a grave concern especially when they are associated with informal waste recycling
process. Workers involved in such rudimentary and unmonitored practices are
susceptible to various occupational hazards. Population inhabiting the surrounding
vicinity is also exposed to hazardous concentrations of pollutants which contam-
inate air, water, and land. Cesaro et al. (2018) anticipated an approach to identify
the potential relative impacts of various types of WEEE with respect to their
content in metals, chosen as target contaminants. The approach was based on
prioritization criteria for WEEE management, and computation of the risks linked
to the potential contamination circumstances represents one of the main challenges
associated with this approach. A detailed inventory of classification of organic and
inorganic pollutants produced during informal treatment of WEEE and hazards
associated with them can be prepared to assess the risks associated to human
health. This will be helpful in formulation of effective guidelines and recycling
practices. It is quite challenging to deal with this issue, especially WEEE classi-
fication with respect to material composition. Due to technological advancements,
various innovative materials are used to manufacture EEE; therefore, it becomes
challenging to assess the possible impacts of such varied materials on health and
environment over time.
Procedures followed by developed economies cannot be directly applied in under
developed or developing economies owing to difference in socioeconomic condi-
tions in given areas. An integration of formal and informal system supported by legal
procedures can prove to be a feasible and constructive alternative. It can be achieved
by division of work where the informal sector can handle collection and manual
dismantling of valuable WEEE components, while the formal sector should be
responsible for metal refining and the residue disposal. This will moderate the
amount of WEEE generated on site and also restrict it from entering in informal
sector. But the feasibility of this approach depends upon implementation of strict
policies pertaining to illegal import of WEEE. The role and responsibility of
developed countries are quite crucial with this regard.
Due to escalation in the quantity of e-waste being imported (legally and illegally)
and ineffective as well as inappropriate e-waste legislations in developing nations,
the end-of-life management of products has proved quite challenging for such
countries. Also, the general public is quite ignorant with respect to the toxicity levels
of the hazardous e-waste. They are exposed to dreadful and poisonous conditions
during recycling of e-waste as the government does not provide safety measures in
the recycling facilities. They are forced to opt for working in unhealthy conditions
over unemployment. There is a dearth of significant technical expertise, infrastruc-
ture, management, engineered landfill sites, equipment, and facilities for e-waste
recycling. Also, with shortage of regimented collection and preprocessing systems
and very few certified wastes, collecting and disposal companies are present which
only deal with a trivial percentage of the total volume of available e-waste. Another
problem associated with it is illicit dumping and incineration of this dangerous
e-waste with other types of solid wastes posing serious threat to human and
environment.
Conclusion
The management of e-waste is a global concern and a greater challenge for sustain-
able existence of developing countries receiving quite a considerable amount of this
waste. This needs development of an apt legislative framework and policies that
work specifically for developed countries trying to manage this problem effectively.
A number of policies have been legislated in the past decades, and all of these were
based on the circular economy archetype. To boost recovery performance, WEEE
legislations should be backed up by investments in training campaigns and capacity
building. Novel innovations in the current processing techniques are required to
restore metals from the complex e-waste stream. Accurate database and mapping of
e-waste collection and treatment centers must be done. To improve global e-waste
management, developed countries should be more devoted towards technology
development and expansion of new recycling facilities, while developing countries
should focus on adopting stern legislation and enhancing WEEE collection so as to
enlarge their recycling potential. States producing little e-waste can pool in to
establish common treatment/recycling facilities. E-waste recycling can cater huge
prospects for urban mining to recover precious metals which are found in consider-
ably higher concentration in e-waste as compared to their natural ores. Circular
economy and sustainability are already grabbing the interest of our researchers,
managers, and policy makers and now calls for a moral obligation from the general
public. It is of utmost importance that the linear model be transformed into a circular
model by closing the loop. An ideal version of a circular economy will be the one
which is based on utilization of resources retrieved from WEEEs that can meet the
sustainable development goals (SDGs). Also, a significant improvement in the
e-waste management system with regard to circular economy can be attained in
near future with equal contribution of formal and informal sectors for practicing
integrative recycling.
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Management of E-Waste: Technological
Challenges and Opportunities 59
Deepak Sakhuja, Hemant Ghai, Ravi Kant Bhatia, and
Arvind Kumar Bhatt
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1526
What Is e-Waste? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1527
Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1527
Categories of e-Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1528
Material Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1530
Key Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1531
Legislations for e-Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1534
Current Practices of e-Waste Management and Its Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1536
Landfill Disposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1537
Thermal Treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1538
Physical/Mechanical Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1541
Chemical/Metallurgical Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1544
Biometallurgy Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1547
Advanced e-Waste Management Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1548
Treatment of e-Waste Contaminated Surrounding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1549
Sustainable Opportunities in e-Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1550
Development of Circular Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1551
Urban Mining of e-Waste Has Emerged as Business Opportunity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1551
Opportunities in e-Waste Management for Government . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1552
Opportunities in e-Waste Management for Consumer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1553
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1553
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1553
Abstract
Electronic waste commonly called e-waste has become a major problem due to its
public health and environmental issues. The amount of e-waste generated now-
adays is skyrocketing, and it has become one of the major portions of municipal
waste throughout the world. All the e-waste contains some form of recyclable
material like gold, silver, and copper, which, if brought back to the production
D. Sakhuja · H. Ghai · R. K. Bhatia · A. K. Bhatt (*)

Department of Biotechnology, Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla, India

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_69
1524 D. Sakhuja et al.
cycle by recycling, will generate income for both individuals and enterprises.
However, due to technological challenges, these materials cannot be retrieved. In
many developing countries, e-waste is collected by the informal sector, and they
use processes such as acid bath, incineration, wet chemical processing, or landfills
to dispose of the e-waste, which result in direct exposure and can wreak havoc on
the humankind and environment. So, this gives an opportunity to the government
to collaborate the informal sector with formal sector since the latter is equipped
with advanced technology to handle e-waste. Consequently, by using the well-
established collection network of the informal sector, it will save the cost of
collection, which can be invested to upgrade and improve e-waste management.
Start-ups working in e-waste management should be encouraged by providing
financial support. So along with enhancing current technology and laws, new
hands-on innovative ideas are always welcome to solve this menace. This chapter
provides an insight on the technological challenges faced while disposing of
e-waste and how this field provide ample opportunity to researchers and entre-
preneurs to make the process of disposing of e-waste more efficient and
profitable.
Keywords
e-waste · WEEE · Electrical equipment · Municipal solid waste · e-waste
management
Abbreviations
Ag Silver
Al Aluminum
As Arsenic
Ba Barium
Be Beryllium
BFR Brominated flame retardants
Bi Bismuth
Br2 Bromine gas
Cd Cadmium
Ce Cerium
CFC Chlorofluorocarbon
CFCs Chlorofluorocarbons
CN Cyanide
Co Cobalt
Cr (VI) Chromium VI
CRT Cathode-ray tube
Cu Copper
DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid
Dy Dysprosium
EEE Electrical and electronic equipment
EPR Extended producer responsibility
59 Management of E-Waste: Technological Challenges and Opportunities 1525
EU WEEE European Union Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment

EU European Union
Fe Iron
Fe2+ Ferrous ion
GDP Gross domestic product
GPS Global positioning systems
HBr Hydrogen bromide
HCl Hydrochloric acid
HF Hydrogen fluoride
Hg Mercury
In Indium
IR Infrared spectroscopy
IT Information technology
Kg Kilogram
La Lanthanum
LCD Liquid crystal display
LED Light-emitting diode
Li Lithium
mm Millimeter
MPPI Mobile Phone Partnership Initiative
Mt Metric tons
N Nitrogen
Nano-Pb Lead nanoparticles
NEPSI National Electronics Product Stewardship Initiative
NGO Nongovernment organization
Ni Nickel
nm Nanometer
NTCRS National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme
OECD Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development
PACE Partnership for Action on Computing Equipment
PAHs Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
Pb Lead
PBDD/Fs Polybrominated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans
PBDE Polybrominated diphenyl ethers
PCB Printed circuit board
PCBs Polychlorinated biphenyls
PCDD/Fs Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins furans
PCDD/Fs Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins/polychlorinated dibenzofurans
PRO Producer responsibility organization
RoHS Restriction of hazardous substances
S0 Sulfur
Sb Antimony
Se Selenium
Sr Strontium
StEP Solving the e-waste problem
UV Ultraviolet
WEEE Waste electrical and electronic equipment
Zn Zinc
ZnO Zinc oxide nanoparticles
Introduction
During the past few decades, there are several innovations and advancements that
have happened in science and technology which have made our life easier and
simpler. The continuous urbanization and modernization have led to the formation
of huge heaps of waste at the outskirts of the cities which pose some serious threats
to the environment. Now these heaps of waste are more dangerous than ever because
these also contain e-waste. e-waste include all obsolete, broken surplus electronic
devices which are discarded by the owner with the intent of not using it again such
as, televisions, desktops, laptops, mobile phones, mouse, keyboards, AC, refrigera-
tors, printers, and every other industrial or household items, which run by electricity
or batteries (Awasthi et al. 2018). The need of a consumer to replace the old devices
with new devices have made the e-waste one of the fastest-growing waste stream,
which if not disposed of or recycled properly can pose serious threats to the
environment and humankind.
The problem of e-waste is faced around the globe. Data has been suggested that
developed countries (high-income countries) contribute more to the generation of
e-waste than developing countries (middle- or lower-income countries). But still
developing countries are facing more consequences of e-waste than developed
countries because developed countries generally export their e-waste to these devel-
oping countries as second-hand products or for recycling because they have less
labor cost and minimum legalizations. These exports are mostly illegal and not
documented. Hence, developing countries not only have to manage their own
e-waste but also must deal with the exports from the developed countries. According
to the Global E-waste Monitor 2020, the world has generated 53.6 million metric
tons (Mt) of e-waste in 2019, which was only 9.2 Mt in 2014 (Forti et al. 2020). It is
also projected that it will grow to 74.7 Mt by 2030, almost doubling in 16 years
(Forti et al. 2020). Such escalation in e-waste is a result of high demand, short
lifespan, and few repair options of electronic items. The report also shows that only
17.4% of the total e-waste generated is officially collected and recycled. That means,
82.6% of e-waste is still managed by the informal sector or get mixed with other
waste streams (Forti et al. 2020). Most of the developing countries do not have a
formal e-waste management system. Hence, e-waste is generally managed by the
informal sector which often handled waste in inferior conditions, causing harmful
effects on the ecosystem and humankind.
The reason e-waste is considered as one of the toxic waste streams is that it
contains hazardous metallic contaminants which cannot be decomposed or rotten
away by itself. It generally falls into the category of hazardous wastes or sometimes
radioactive wastes, and hence, there is a dire need of a proper collection and
management system because improper management may have both direct or indirect
impact on the ecosystem and human health. Cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury,
chlorofluorocarbon, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polybrominated
diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins furans (PCDD/Fs),
and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are some of the hazardous chemicals found
in e-waste (Santhosh et al. 2018). These hazardous substances can enter biological
systems through water, soil, and air and can affect the health of living beings. Since
the use of electronic and electrical devices will continue to increase which ultimately
results in the increase in e-waste, its proper management is the need of the hour.
e-waste has a high potential for value recovery, and that is why it is also known as a
feasible urban mine (Kiddee et al. 2020). It consists of some valuable materials like
iron, aluminum, copper, and plastics as well as precious metals like silver, gold,
palladium, and platinum (Needhidasan et al. 2014). But the technologies presently
used for the management and recycling of e-waste are primitive, informal, and
inferior which results in the emission of various organic pollutants and toxins into
the surrounding which impacts not only the ecosystem but also individuals involved
in the management of e-waste.
Therefore, stakeholders and researchers responsible for managing e-waste are
finding new technologies, innovations, and implementing different legalizations and
policies so that threat of e-waste and its recycling can be minimized. This chapter
overviews the challenges in the present technologies and new innovations and
opportunities developed to recover economically important items from the e-waste
stream.
What Is e-Waste?
Definition
Various legal and policy documents have been introduced and implemented by the
different countries around the world which have defined e-waste according to their
convenience. However, all definitions have some inconsistency and shortcomings
in understanding (Kuehr 2019) (Table 1). For instance, some countries discrimi-
nate the e-waste based on origin, i.e., households and business electronic items,
and impose different regulations on both the producers. On the other hand, some
countries only include mobile phones, IT equipment, and televisions in e-waste
while the rest of the e-waste is treated as municipal solid waste. But as we all know
that, all e-wastes contain hazardous substances, hence requiring special
management.
Among all, an international organization, StEP (Solving the E-waste Problem),
has provided a pragmatic approach in defining e-waste. However, to understand and
support any definition of e-waste, it is important to first define electrical and
electronic equipment (EEE). According to StEP, “EEE is any household or business
item with circuitry or electrical components with power or battery supply” (StEP
Initiative 2014). Now the term e-waste which is also known as electronic waste
Table 1 Various definitions of e-waste

Organization Definition Reference
European Union WEEE refers to “all components, sub-assemblies, and (EU 2003)
Waste Electronic and consumables, which are part of the product at the time
Electrical Equipment of discarding.” In the Directive 75/442/EEC, Article 1
(EU WEEE) Directive (a), waste is primarily defined as “any substance or
object that the holder disposes of or is required to
dispose of pursuant to the provisions of the national law
in force”
Basel Action Network e-waste means “discarded appliances using electricity, (Mmereki
which include a wide range of e-products from large et al.
household devices such as refrigerators, air 2016)
conditioners, cell phones, personal stereos, and
consumer electronics to computers which have been
discarded by their users”
Organisation of e-waste can be classified as “any appliance using an (OECD
Economic electric power supply that has reached its end of life” 2001)
Co-operation and
Development (OECD)
Solving the E-waste “e-waste refers to the reverse supply chain that collects (StEP
Problem (StEP) products no longer desired by a given consumer and 2019)
refurbishes for other consumers, recycles, or otherwise
processes wastes”
or waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), according to StEP defined as

“E-waste is a term used to cover items of all types of electrical and electronic
equipment (EEE) and its parts that have been discarded by the owner as waste
without the intention of re-use” (Kuehr 2019). It is significant to note that this
definition includes all types of EEE irrespective of their origin, and there is no
scope for differentiation, preference, or regional variance in this global definition
(StEP Initiative 2014). Moreover, it is appreciated that every country accepts this
definition and makes their policy around it.
Categories of e-Waste
EEE includes a large variety of products which are divided into six general catego-
ries (Fig. 1) that correspond closely to their management or treatment options (Kuehr
2019):
(i) Temperature Exchange Equipment: These equipment are more commonly

referred as cooling and freezing equipment such as freezers, refrigerators, heat
pumps, air conditioners, etc.
(ii) Screen and Monitors: Monitors, televisions, tablets, laptops, notebooks, etc.
are included in this category.
(iii) Lamps: Fluorescent lamps, LED lamps, high-intensity discharge lamps, etc.
are some of the examples of this category.
Temperature Exchange
Screen and Monitors Lamps
Equipment
DIFFERENT CATEGORIES OF E-WASTE
Small IT and Telecommunication

Large Equipment Small Equipment
Equipment
Fig. 1 Different categories of e-waste
(iv) Large Equipment: Typical equipment includes copying equipment, washing

machines, dish-washing machines, clothes dryers, large printing machines,
electric stoves, large medical devices (non-infective), photovoltaic panels, etc.
(v) Small Equipment: Equipment includes microwaves, small monitoring and
control instruments, vacuum cleaners, ventilation equipment, electric kettles,
toasters, scales, calculators, electric shavers, radio sets, electrical and electronic
toys, video cameras, small electrical and electronic tools, small medical devices
(noninfective), etc.
(vi) Small IT and Telecommunication Equipment: Typical equipment includes
global positioning systems (GPS), mobile phones, routers, pocket calculators,
personal computers, telephones, printers, etc.
Each category has different materials used, which can cause various conse-
quences on the ecosystem and humankind if they are not managed and treated
sustainably. The abovementioned categories can further classify according to con-
venience. According to the Global E-waste Monitor 2020, in 2019 the global
quantity of e-waste (53.6 Mt) is mainly contributed by small equipment (17.4 Mt),
large equipment (13.1 Mt), and temperature exchange equipment (10.8 Mt) while
screen and monitors (6.7 Mt), small IT and telecommunications equipment (4.7 Mt),
and lamps (0.9 Mt) represent the smaller share (Forti et al. 2020). Figure 2 shows the
comparison of quantity produce by each category in 2016 and 2019 (Baldé et al.
2017; Forti et al. 2020). Except for screen and monitor category, every category has
20
18 16.8 17.4
E-waste Generation in Mt
16
14 13.1
12 10.8
10 9.1
7.6
8 6.6 6.7
6 4.7
3.9
4
2 0.7 0.9
0
Small Equipment Large Equipment Temperature Screen and Monitors Small IT and Lamps
Exchange Telecommunications
Equipment Equipment
Categories of E-waste
2016 2019
Fig. 2 Comparison of e-waste generation in different categories
shown a sharp increasing trend. This increasing trend is mainly fueled by the
growing usage of electronic products in developing countries where buying these
items represent a status symbol. However, there is only a slight increase in the screen
and monitors category than others which have seen a sharp increase because heavy
monitors and screens are now have been replaced by the lighter flat panel display,
resulting in a slight increase of total weight even the number of pieces continue to
grow in screen and monitors category.
Material Composition
The materials present in e-waste can be valuable as well as toxic in nature. It is

reported that up to 69 elements from the periodic table and more than 1000 different
materials can be found in e-waste such as critical raw materials (e.g., germanium,
cobalt, bismuth indium, and antimony), precious metals (e.g., copper, iridium,
platinum, gold, silver, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, and osmium), noncritical
metals (e.g., aluminum and iron) along with glass, rubber, wood, plastic, plywood,
concrete, printed circuit board (PCB), ceramics, and other items (Forti et al. 2020;
Needhidasan et al. 2014) (Fig. 3). Besides this e-waste also contain hazardous heavy
metals (e.g., lead, selenium, mercury, chromium, cadmium, arsenic, etc.) and
chemicals (e.g., CFC/chlorofluorocarbon or various flame retardants) (Baldé et al.
2017). The chemical composition of e-waste is very complex and generally depends
upon the following factors such as the type of electronic devices, date of manufactur-
ing, model, availability of reuse market, economic conditions, infrastructure of
management technologies, and age of the device (Mmereki et al. 2016). For instance,
electronic scrap from IT and telecommunications offices contains more quantity of
precious metals than electronic waste from local households (Chancerel et al. 2009),
due to the presence of both valuable and hazardous materials which has attracted the
attention of the stakeholders to develop the separate treatment and management for
Fig. 3 Material composition

of e-waste
Iron and Steel
16%
Plastics
13%
50%
Non-Ferrous Metals
(Precious Metals &
Critical Raw Materials)
21% Other (Hazardous
elements, flame
retardants, etc.)
e-waste (Vats and Singh 2014a). Table 2 showing the health hazards of the different
materials of e-waste.
Key Statistics
The main problem that arises in managing e-waste is that it is increasing exponen-
tially (Mmereki et al. 2016). The quantity of e-waste produced by different conti-
nents or countries varies because of the different definition of e-waste and
consumption patterns of the consumer in that area (Parajuly et al. 2019). With a
higher level of disposable income, increase in purchasing power, GDP and popula-
tion, shorter life spans, and less repair options of electronic items and growing
urbanization and industrialization have fueled the consumption of electronic and
electrical equipment (EEE) which ultimately lead to the increase in the generation of
e-waste (Forti et al. 2020; Kumar et al. 2017; Mmereki et al. 2016). According to the
Global E-waste Monitor, 2020, the world has generated a record of 53.6 Mt
(an average of 7.3 kg per capita) of e-waste (Forti et al. 2020). e-waste generation
per capita means that the amount of e-waste generated by an individual in kgs (Tiseo
2020). Among all continents (Fig. 4), Asia has generated the highest quantity of
e-waste in 2019, i.e., 24.9 Mt, while the Americas (north and south), Europe, Africa,
and Oceania has generated 13.1 Mt, 12 Mt, 2.9 Mt, and 0.7 Mt of e-waste,
respectively (Forti et al. 2020). However, Europe ranked first in terms of e-waste
generation per capita with 16.2 kg per capita whereas Oceania was second with
16.1 kg per capita, followed by the Americas, Asia, and Africa which generated
13.3, 5.6, and 2.5 kg per capita of e-waste, respectively (Forti et al. 2020). The above
data confirms that the problem of e-waste is a concern for all the countries, but it is
the major problem in the regions where economic development is the greatest. For
instance, the larger population in Asia has made them the highest e-waste generators,
but it has relatively low e-waste generation per individual due to its lower GDP and
less purchasing power of people. But with the increase in GDP of the developing
Table 2 Health effects of different material found in e-waste

Material e-waste components Effect Reference
Aluminum (Al) Cathode-ray tubes, Metabolism, (Kiddee et al.
printed wiring board, neurotoxicity, skeletal 2020)
hard drives, central underdevelopment, and
processing unit, fatal toxicity
computer chips,
connectors, and mobile
phones
Antimony (Sb) Plastic computer Carcinogen, stomach (Pathak et al.
housing, CRT glass, pain, causing vomiting, 2019)
and a solder alloy diarrhea, and stomach
ulcer
Arsenic (As) Present in light emitters Cause lung cancer, skin (Kaya 2016)
as gallium arsenide disease, and impair
nerve signaling system
Barium Lubricant in an electron Muscle weaknesses, (Arya and
tube, fluorescent lamp, damage to the liver, Kumar 2020)
front panel of CRT heart, or spleen
Beryllium Motherboard, boxes of Lung cancer, berylliosis, (Vats and
power supply skin diseases like warts Singh 2014a)
Bismuth (Bi) Printed wiring boards Nephropathy, gingivitis, (Kiddee et al.
encephalopathy, 2020)
osteoarthropathy, colitis,
and stomatitis
Brominated flame Plastic housing of Disrupts endocrine (Chowdhury
retardants circuit boards and system function and Patel
electronic equipment 2017)
Cadmium (Cd) Chip resistors and Long-term exposure (Needhidasan
semiconductors, CRT causes bone diseases, et al. 2014)
housing, battery accumulates in the liver
and kidney, causes
neural damage
Cerium (Ce) Fuel additive, optical Toxic effect on aquatic- (Kiddee et al.
polish, and catalyst terrestrial organisms, 2020)
skin lesions
Chlorofluorocarbons Insulation foam and Effect ozone layer (Pathak et al.
(CFCs) cooling units 2019)
Chromium VI Protect from corrosion, Lung cancer, DNA (Chowdhury
(Cr (VI)) decorative hardener damage, asthmatic and Patel
bronchitis 2017;
Needhidasan
et al. 2014)
Cobalt (Co) Printed wiring board, Effect on human (Kiddee et al.
cathode-ray tubes, osteoblast and osteoclast 2020)
housing, hard drive, and proliferation and
mobile phones function
(continued)
Table 2 (continued)
Copper (Cu) Cathode-ray tubes, Liver damage (Vats and
printed wiring board, Singh 2014b)
central processing unit,
computer chips, heat
sinks, mobile phones,
and cables
Cyanide (CN) Printed circuit boards Cyanide poisoning (Gollakota
(>2.5 ppm) may cause et al. 2020)
coma and death
Dysprosium (Dy) Lasers and magnets Headache, paraesthesia, (Kiddee et al.
and nausea 2020)
Indium (In) Printed wiring board Effect lungs (Kiddee et al.
2020)
Iron (Fe) Cathode-ray tubes, Liver damage (Kiddee et al.
printed wiring board, 2020)
mobile phones
Lanthanum (La) Catalyst, lenses, Pneumoconiosis (Kiddee et al.
batteries, and cathode- 2020)
ray tubes
Lead (Pb) CRT, acid battery Damage to the (Needhidasan
reproductive systems, et al. 2014)
central and peripheral
nervous systems and
kidney, acid rain
formation
Lithium (Li) Mobile, telephone, Diarrhea, vomiting, (Vats and
batteries drowsiness, muscular Singh 2014b)
weakness
Mercury (Hg) Circuit boards, relays, Chronic damage to brain (Needhidasan
and switches and liver, respiratory and et al. 2014)
skin disorders,
bioaccumulation in
fishes
Nickel (Ni) Batteries, CRT, PCB, Causes bronchitis, (Gunarathne
semiconductor allergic reaction, and et al. 2020)
lung cancers and reduces
lung function
Plastics Cabling and computer Generates dioxins and (Needhidasan
housing/moldings furans which cause et al. 2014)
developmental and
reproductive problems,
damage the immune
system, interfere with
regulatory hormones
Selenium (Se) Fax machine, Selenosis (Vats and
photoelectric cells Singh 2014a)
(continued)
Table 2 (continued)
Silver (Ag) Switches, batteries Excessive amount can (Gunarathne
ceramic capacitors cause blue pigments on et al. 2020)
the body, damages brain,
kidney, lung, liver
Strontium (Sr) Batteries, CRTs Somatic as well the (Gollakota
genetic changes, cause et al. 2020)
cancer in the bone, nose,
lungs, and skin
Zinc (Zn) Luminous substances, Nausea, cramps, (Gollakota
batteries vomiting, pain, and et al. 2020)
diarrhea
30
24.9
25
20
16.2 16.1
15 13.1 13.3
12
10
5.6
5 2.9 2.5
0.7
0
Americas Europe Asia Africa Oceania
Total e-waste generated (million metric tons(Mt))

Amount of e-waste generated per capita (kg per capita)
Fig. 4 Global e-waste generation
countries, it is expected that the total e-waste generation for countries like China,
India, and Brazil will soon surpass the developed countries (Kumar et al. 2017).
Legislations for e-Waste
Several legislations, regulations, and policies are enforced by governments around

the world to develop the sustainable and efficient way of collection, transportation,
and recycling of e-waste. Though these legislations vary from country to country. As
of October 2019, 78 countries out of 193 countries have either a separate legislation,
regulation, or policy for the management of e-waste (Forti et al. 2020). For instance,
the EU established the Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment in
2002 to manage end-of-life electronics in the European Union (Zeng et al. 2017). EU
has also adopted another directive, i.e., Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS)
Directive, which restricts the use of hazardous substances in electronic equipment
(Kumar et al. 2017). From time to time, the EU has updated these directives
according to their need. The United States does not have national legislation on
the management of e-waste. However, 25 states of the United States and the District
of Columbia have enacted some form of legislation which have prohibited the
consumer to dispose of e-waste in landfills (Forti et al. 2020; Li et al. 2015). In
Southern Asia, India is the only country with e-waste legislations (Forti et al. 2020).
In India, the E-Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011 were enacted under
Environmental Protection Act, 1986 which get effective from 1st May 2012 (Sharma
and Hussain 2018). This rule not only mandates authorized dismantlers and recyclers
to collect e-waste but also enables environmentally friendly recovery and/or reuse of
constituents from e-waste (Forti et al. 2020; Sharma and Hussain 2018). The idea of
extended producer responsibility (EPR) was also introduced for the first time which
made manufacturers liable for safe management of electronic goods. A refurbisher,
manufacturer, dealer, and producer responsibility organization (PRO) were brought
under the domain of the E-waste (Management) Rules, 2016 (Awasthi et al. 2018).
These rules were further amended in 2018 to further formalize the e-waste recycling
sector (Sharma and Hussain 2018). However, the formal recycling sector still in a
nascent phase in India and most of the e-waste is still handled by the informal sector
(Forti et al. 2020). China has national legislation for 14 types of e-waste while
countries like South Korea and Japan have advanced e-waste legislations (Kumar
et al. 2017). Japan was also one of the first countries to establish an EPR-based
system for e-waste (Forti et al. 2020). The National Television and Computer
Recycling Scheme (NTCRS) was implemented in Australia under the Australian
Government’s Product Stewardship Act, 2011. It provides Australian householders
and small businesses access to industry-funded collection and recycling facilities for
televisions and computers (Gough 2016). However, most of the countries in conti-
nent Africa lack a specific legislation for the management of e-waste (Forti et al.
2020).
It is seen that in most countries, these policies are non-legally binding, and even
where these policies are legally binding, enforcement of these policies is still a
challenge. Due to such a casual approach and lack of legislations for e-waste in more
than half of the countries of the world has resulted in that, in 2019, the large quantity
of e-waste generated (82.6%) was collected informally and most probably managed
in inferior conditions (Forti et al. 2020). Generally, this e-waste is not documented in
a systematic manner, so it means that it is either managed outside the official
collection system or exported to developing countries. Transboundary movement
of e-waste has also become a major concern for the importer country because they
must manage their own e-waste along with this imported e-waste. And since it is
managed by the informal sector, it poses a significant risk to both environment and
health. For instance, even if Africa produces a small quantity of e-waste per annum,
it is significant because its e-waste is due to illegal imports from developed countries
while only a small fraction of it is due to its local population (Baldé et al. 2017). So,
to prevent the transboundary movement of e-waste, Basel Convention was formed

under the United Nations Environment Programme, which is a multilateral treaty
aimed to suppress, control, and monitor the flow of hazardous waste and their
disposals (Baldé et al. 2017). This convention is signed by 187 countries till now
(Forti et al. 2020). Along with that to address the e-waste problem and environmental
pollution, several international organizations like Solving the E-waste Problem
(StEP), Mobile Phone Partnership Initiative (MPPI), National Electronics Product
Stewardship Initiative (NEPSI), Partnership for Action on Computing Equipment
(PACE), and WEEE Forum were also launched (Widmer et al. 2005). There are still
many challenges and shortcomings in managing the e-waste, and recyclers, manu-
facturers, national regulators, and the general public need to work together to deal
with the increasing volume of e-waste (Singh et al. 2016).
Current Practices of e-Waste Management and Its Challenges
EEE are the backbone of the modern economy and considered as a symbol of
modern lifestyle. All these modernization, urbanization, and industrialization made
e-waste one of the fastest-growing waste streams. So, for sustainable growth and
development, environment-friendly management of e-waste is required. Repairing
or reusing electronic items can be one of the good and sustainable measures for the
management of e-waste because it not only lowers the EEE manufacturing volume
but also reduces the generation of e-wastes. However, changes in the product
designs, ever-upgrading technologies, and desire to buy the new devices to show
status symbol have reduced the reusing or repairing of the obsolete and broken
electronic items. Since the generation of e-waste is inevitable in present time, several
management techniques are used by developed and developing countries to handle
it. The recycling of e-waste has been proven as an efficient option because it not only
allows metal recovery but also saves energy as compared to extract metal from ore
(Evangelopoulos et al. 2019). It is estimated that the value of raw materials present in
generated e-waste in 2019 is worth nearly $57 billion (Forti et al. 2020). At the same
time, it was also estimated that aluminum recovery from e-waste fraction can save up
to 95% of energy as compared to aluminum extraction from bauxite. Similarly,
copper, iron or steel, and zinc recycling from e-waste can save up to 85%, 74%, and
60% of energy, respectively. Other components like plastics can also be recycled and
save up to 80% of energy (Cui 2005). The precious metal (like gold) extraction also
used up a significant amount of energy because of lower concentration in ore and
difficulty to extract; hence, recovering gold from e-waste is easier and less energy-
consuming, as 17 tons of gold can be recovered from 1 ton of e-waste of personal
computers (Rankin 2011). Despite all these advantages and opportunities to recover
raw materials from e-waste, e-waste management still face numerous challenges.
The biggest challenge within the e-waste management system is that the lack of
technologies to treat and dispose it without threatening the environment and human-
kind (Arya and Kumar 2020). The methods of collection and technologies involved
in e-waste management generally vary from country to country. For instance, the EU
has a vast network of formal sectors for the collection of e-waste along with superior
technologies for managing it, but in countries like China and India, the informal
sector still dominates the collection system of e-waste which generally uses inferior
technologies for e-waste management. Despite many efforts and researches, many
countries are still struggling in establishing environment-friendly e-waste manage-
ment system as there are still gaps in current practices, such as poor awareness, lack
of implementation of rules, unavailability of infrastructure, reluctance in the corpo-
rate sector, lack of supply chain concepts, lack in administrative enactment, and
insufficient distribution of finance. Another challenge faced by developing countries
while managing the e-waste is that they must manage the imported e-waste from
developed countries along with the e-waste generated by their own population. In
2019, it was found that only 9.3 Mt of e-waste out of a total of 53.6 Mt was formally
documented and recycled. The fate of the rest of the e-waste (44.3 Mt) is still
uncertain. It is either get mixed with other waste streams or illegally exported to
the middle- and low-income countries where it can reuse as second-hand products or
often handled under inferior conditions putting the environment and humans at risk.
A lot of techniques are applied to handle and recycle e-waste, but each technique
has its own efficiency and shortcomings. The use of one or a combination of
technology generally depends upon the cost of the whole process, the sector
involved in the treatment of e-waste, and materials present in e-waste. The recycling
of e-waste around the world includes two common steps, i.e., preprocessing and end
processing. However, technologies and methods used in both the steps usually
depend on the type of sector involved in recycling e-waste like recycling facility
in the formal sector is highly equipped and environment-friendly while the informal
recycling unit lacks structure, advance equipment, and environment-friendly
methods. In the upcoming sections, there is a brief discussion about these techniques
which are either used by one of the sectors or by both the formal and informal sectors
to treat and dispose of e-waste along with the technological challenges faced while
recycling the e-waste.
Landfill Disposal
Landfill disposal is one of the most used strategies which is utilized by both the
formal and informal sectors to handle e-waste and remains of the e-waste left after
recycling (Ghimire and Ariya 2020). It is preferred because of its simplicity and ease
of operation (Ning et al. 2017). In addition, most of the e-waste get mixed with
municipal solid waste streams and ends up in landfill sites without getting treatment
(Forti et al. 2020). This happens due to the lack of awareness among consumers
and negligence shown by the waste collectors. In the landfill disposal method,
waste is either dumped openly or buried in voids or pits which are created by
mining (Ghimire and Ariya 2020). E-waste and remains of e-waste which are
recycled with primitive technologies contain lots of hazardous substances which if
not removed can lead to contamination of landfill site and groundwater (Baldé et al.
2017). Many reports have shown that e-waste release polyhalogenated organics and
toxic metals in landfills which leads to the formation of leachate (Kiddee et al. 2020).
Leachate formations make the land unsuitable for use, anytime soon in future
(Ghimire and Ariya 2020). The concentration of hazardous substances in leachate
depends upon waste characteristics and stage at which it was disposed of in the
landfill (Kiddee et al. 2020). Several researchers have identified the different
leaching components generated from e-waste. An investigation of leachates and
groundwater from the landfill sites of Australia which are regularly receiving e-waste
has shown the presence of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) and a higher
concentration of lead, mercury, arsenic, aluminum, iron, and nickel (Kiddee et al.
2014). Lindberg et al. have also reported total gaseous mercury (7190 ng/m3),
monomethyl mercury (6 ng/m3), and the most toxic dimethyl mercury (30 ng/m3)
in the landfill gas in Florida, United States (Lindberg et al. 2001). Among all the
pollutants present in e-waste, heavy metals are regarded as the most dangerous
pollutant (Ghimire and Ariya 2020). It is found that nearly 70% of heavy metals in
landfill sites come from e-waste (Ning et al. 2017). Most of the heavy metals do not
disintegrate and remain in the landfill sites for a longer time (Kasassi et al. 2008).
Hence, after biogeochemical cycles, heavy metals accumulate within organisms
through the food chain which can harm human health and even cause the death of
the affected individuals (Ghimire and Ariya 2020). It also reported that the landfill
leachate and gas are not limited to the landfill site but also transported to surrounding
sites through rainfall, groundwater, and soil (Ning et al. 2017). For instance, Wong
et al. (2007) found that a certain number of metals like cadmium, lead, copper,
nickel, and zinc are still detected even in the downstream of landfill site in China
(Wong et al. 2007). Moreover, several studies have suggested that landfills which
receive e-waste contain a higher level of toxic substances like lead, mercury,
metalloids, PBDE, etc. than the landfills without the e-waste (Ghimire and Ariya
2020). In summary, landfill disposal is considered as an improper and unsuitable
method for the disposal of e-waste due to environmental and health concerns.
Therefore, stricter policies are needed on simple landfills of e-waste in many
countries along with some awareness programs so that e-waste does not end in
normal bins and get mixed with municipal solid waste.
Thermal Treatment
Thermal treatment is done either to obtain noncombustible fraction from e-waste

such as metals (Ghimire and Ariya 2020; Ning et al. 2017) and to remove nonme-
tallic fraction which comprises around 70 wt% in e-waste (Komilis et al. 2012) or to
dispose of the remains of recycled e-waste. Even though the thermal treatment of
e-waste is faster, it is tedious, costly, and not environment-friendly (due to emissions
of acid gas like HCl, HF, SOx, NOx, and volatile organic compounds and formation
of solid residue) (Evangelopoulos et al. 2019). But still, it is one of the most
preferred methods in the informal sector to handle e-waste. Thermal treatment of
e-waste is generally done in four ways, i.e., open burning, incineration, gasification,
and pyrolysis.
Open Burning of e-Waste

It is one of the rudimentary approaches opt by the informal sector to obtain metals
from e-waste and remove polymeric fractions (Moltó et al. 2009). It is often
performed in open pits. It is also known as uncontrollable combustion. Open burning
is generally used for solder recovery from printed circuit boards, component sepa-
ration, and melting plastic components (Cesaro et al. 2019). This open burning of
e-waste has several direct and indirect impacts on the environment such as it releases
a number of harmful substances into the atmosphere like dioxins and furans and the
deposition of the contaminants on soil, sediments, and water (Alcántara-Concepción
et al. 2016). In addition, it either directly impacts the human health during the
recycling process or indirectly through the intake of contaminated water or via
contaminated food chains. It is also reported that workers involved in the open
burning of e-waste and residents living near the processing units suffer from
breathing problems due to the presence of hazardous contaminants in the air
(Imran et al. 2017).
Incineration
Incineration of e-waste is also not considered as a sustainable option for management
and kept as the last means of recycling and regarded as a last resort (Evangelopoulos
et al. 2019). However, many countries around the world use combustion to treat
e-waste due to the simplicity of the process (Ning et al. 2017). For instance, WEEE is
directly burned in the blast furnace which produces a product containing 70–85 wt.%
black copper. This black copper is fed into the converter, and copper anode is
recovered along with other elements, such as Zn, Ni, and Fe, on purification with
H2SO4 electrolyte (Zhang and Xu 2016). Incineration of e-waste leads to direct
release of fly ash, heavy metals, polybrominated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofu-
rans (PBDD/Fs), and polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins/polychlorinated dibenzofu-
rans (PCDD/Fs) into the atmosphere in the absence of posttreatment technologies
along with nickel, cadmium, copper, zinc, and lead which will be vaporized
according to their melting points (Ning et al. 2017). PCDD/Fs are formed due to
the oxidizing surrounding, presence of halogens, incomplete oxidation, and presence
of catalyst like copper in fly ash. Hence, the combustion of e-waste leads to air
pollution. However, these dioxins and furans can be destroyed at high temperatures
(>1300 C) into HBr or Br2 which are much less toxic, but this high temperature
favors the formation of NOx (Evangelopoulos et al. 2019). Along with all this
gaseous emissions, combustion of e-waste also leads to the formation of solid-
phase residues which contribute a serious problem due to their heavy metal content.
Normally, vitrification process is used to treat this solid residue at a temperature of
1500–1600 C (Ning et al. 2017). All the by-product formation due to combustion
e-waste shows that the incineration process is not environment-friendly. Also,
construction of a combustion plant is costly, since it also required posttreatment

technologies too.
Gasification
Gasification is defined as the partial oxidation of carbonaceous material at an
elevated temperature to produce syngas and other light hydrocarbons
(Evangelopoulos et al. 2019). It is a way to convert organic compounds of the
e-waste into a less voluminous substance, i.e., gaseous products like syngas.
Hence, gasification is expected to be considered as more sustainable, feasible, and
effective waste management method. However, gasification is not cited in literature
as a developed method for metal recovery from e-waste (Gurgul et al. 2017). The
syngas produced after gasification can be converted into value-added products like
biofuels by syngas fermentation or Fischer-Tropsch methods while the remaining
solid residue can be used for recovery of metals or nonmetals or as building material
additives. The composition of metals or nonmetals in solid residue formed depends
upon the type of e-waste fraction subjected to gasification. However, the requirement
for low metal content and low halogen content in the feedstock makes the gasifica-
tion of e-waste for material recovery inappropriate as higher concentration can cause
corrosion (Evangelopoulos et al. 2019). Moreover, high capital investment, high
energy input, and release of harmful gases make this method of recovery insignif-
icant. But recently, some laboratory experiments were conducted where gasification
of printed circuit boards in molten carbonates by steam is performed and the results
obtained were very promising (Zhang and Yu 2016). Hence, steam gasification at
lower temperatures (<900 C) coupled with gas treatment with calcium oxide could
serve as an efficient method for both material and energy recovery.
Pyrolysis
In the pyrolysis process, the organic volatile matter of the waste (plastics, rubbers,
etc.) is heated to moderate temperatures (300–500 C) without oxygen which
decomposed it to gases, solid residue, and liquids (Ragaert et al. 2017). Products
formed by pyrolysis can be used to produce fuels or other value-added products. On
the other hand, the inorganic components present in e-waste such as metals, fillers,
glasses, etc. remain almost unaltered during the process and present in either solid
residue or oil formed during pyrolysis; hence, the valuable components may be
recovered and reused later (Kaya 2016). The pyrolysis process is appropriate for
wastes, which contain many different plastics mixed with other materials, as in the
case of WEEEs streams. Various metals, e.g., Au, Cu, Fe, Al, Pt, Ag, Pd, etc., could
be recovered from solid residue formed after pyrolysis and can be subject for further
processing (such as metallurgical approaches) (Gurgul et al. 2017). However, the
content of these metals may depend on the type of waste. Pyrolysis gas produced
during the process can be used as fuel gas for the processing unit. Many researchers
have studied the pyrolysis of plastic in electronic equipment such as printed circuit
board or epoxy resins (Evangelopoulos et al. 2019). However, plastic in e-waste is
somewhat different as it contains bromine compounds and flame retardants which on
pyrolysis produce phenols, substituted phenols, and brominated compounds (such as
mono- and dibrominated phenols, bisphenol A, and mono-, di-, tri, and tetra-
brominated bisphenol A) in liquid (Evangelopoulos 2014). And the maximum
output of the pyrolysis process is only possible when the liquid product is marketable
and used for fuel production which is only possible when there is no, or little, organic
halogen present in it (Guo et al. 2009). Also, these brominated compounds are
potentially hazardous substances; hence, the dehalogenation step is also employed
either before, during, or after the pyrolysis process, but the whole process becomes
more extensive and costly due to dehalogenation. Dehalogenation before pyrolysis
shows promising results for chlorinated plastics of e-waste, but it increases the total
recycling cost (Evangelopoulos et al. 2019). A joint approach of pyrolysis with
simultaneous separation of glass and metal components using molten salts is also
under development. The formation of dioxins and furans can be prevented by adding
calcium oxide during the pyrolysis of the waste PCBs. The pyrolysis process have
shown advantages over various physical recycling methods as it converts halogens
to monomers and heavy metals get separated in residue, but commercial usage of
pyrolytic oil is still expensive in comparison to petrochemical oils, and further
research is needed to reduce the overall cost (Kaya 2016). Moreover, this technique
also has some shortcomings which need to be addressed before it can be employed in
e-waste management at a large scale like pollution, uncertainty, costly setup, post-
management requirements, and formation of dioxin precursors in pyrolysis oil.
In summary, the thermal treatment of e-waste through open burning or control
incineration should be completely avoided due to their toxic emissions which cause
environmental and health concerns. Also, the construction of a thermal treatment
plant is highly costly. All these side effects which were revealed by researchers have
discouraged countries to use existing thermal treatment plants or planning for future
thermal treatment plants (Ning et al. 2017).
Physical/Mechanical Processes
Physical process is usually the first step employed in recycling e-waste. It includes
dismantling, shredding, and mechanical separation. These processes separate and
liberate various metals and nonmetals from e-waste. The physical treatment essen-
tially includes the following steps: sorting and disassembly/dismantling (Step 1),
size reduction (Step 2), and separation (Step 3) (Evangelopoulos et al. 2019).
Generally, physical/mechanical process includes manual selective disassembly and
shredding followed by magnetic and electrostatic Eddy current separations.
Dismantling and Sorting

The main aim of this step is to separate nonhazardous and hazardous components of
e-waste. Hazardous materials (like CRT, some circuit components, batteries, and
Hg-containing lamps and switches) should be removed and separated before further
processing and metal recycling. These hazardous components like CRT glass and
LCD screens which contain Hg are sent to special recovery facilities or incinerated in
authorized hazardous waste treatment units having flue gas cleaning system whereas
batteries and conductors are sent to other units for recovery of Cd, Ni, Hg, and
Pb. Nonhazardous materials include plastics, metals, and woods which are sent for
sorting, reuse, and recycle to other units (Evangelopoulos et al. 2019).
Dismantling and sorting can be done either by mechanical methods or manually
(Vats and Singh 2014a). The informal sector and developing countries generally
prefer manual dismantling as it is less costly and provides employment opportunities
to poor people while formal sectors and developed countries use semiautomated or
automated methods for dismantling and sorting. Informal manual dismantling
includes heating the solder by chisels, hammers, and cutting torches above melting
point in order to resell the reusable components and other recovered components to
acid strippers for further processing. But due to health concerns of components
present in e-waste, many countries are now discouraging and banning the manual
dismantling and sorting (Kaya 2016). Hence nowadays, it can be done by semiau-
tomatic or automatic approach. In semiautomatic dismantling, the ECs on the PCBs
are removed by first heating them above melting point of solder by infrared heaters
and then applying external forces (impact, shearing, and vibration) to remove it. This
semiautomatic dismantling machine generally includes an exhausted gas controlling
unit, solder removal unit, and bare board collection unit. Another method for
automatic sorting and dismantling is based on infrared (IR) spectroscopy in which
lamps with a selected range of IR wavelength (600–2500 nm) are used. The different
components in e-waste reflect the light differently according to their chemical
structure. Then the sorting and dismantling can be performed by a jet of pressurized
air, sending the selected material to a different conveyor from the rest e-waste
fraction. However, automatic disassemblers are expensive and ideally suited for
high-metal content waste (Evangelopoulos et al. 2019).
Size Reduction
After the removal of the hazardous components from e-waste, different operations
such as crushing, shredding, and grinding can be applied to liberate nonmetals and
metals from cladding materials such as fiberglass, resin, and plastics (Gollakota et al.
2020). By shredding the wastes is converted to fine particles generally below 5 or
10 mm which helps in the maximum separation of metals and nonmetals from
WEEE. It helps in achieving size homogeneity of the e-waste mixture which is
essential for all the solid waste sorting processes because the total volume decreases
and the efficiency of sorting increases (Cui and Forssberg 2003). Different types of
hammer crushers, disk milling, ball milling, rotary crushers, disk crushers, cutters,
and shredders, equipped with a bottom sieve, are used for size reduction and
liberation of metals (Kumar et al. 2017). However, harmful gases and dust are
produced during the crushing process, and hence an efficient dust collection system
must be employed.
Separation
The next step after dismantling and size reduction of e-waste is the separation and
recovery of metals and nonmetals based on the variances in the physical character-
istics of the materials, such as shape, electric conductivity, density, size, weight, and
magnetic characteristics (Gollakota et al. 2020). First, to separate nonmetallic

fraction such as polymers, plastics, and flame-retarding materials from metallic
fraction, sieving is done. It can separate shredded e-waste according to the size
fractions. The size of sieve apertures can be varied according to the desired partic-
ulate size for separation. Further, this step not only prepares a uniformly sized feed
for various further mechanical or chemical processes but also upgrades metal
contents (Gollakota et al. 2020). Magnetic separation is usually performed to
separate magnetic metallic particles such as steel, ferrous, and rare earth metals
from nonmagnetic particles such as plastics, glass, aluminum, etc. (Evangelopoulos
et al. 2019). Generally, magnetic drums with low intensity are used for this purpose,
attract ferrous particles on its surface, and deposit nonferrous fraction and other
components in different components (Gollakota et al. 2020). Recently, high-intensity
magnetic drums have been developed by using rare earth alloy permanent magnets
which enhance its strength (Kaya 2016). Separation can also be done based on the
electric conductivity of components present in e-waste. This type of separation
usually depends on the difference in polarity and the amount of charge acquired
by particles. It involves three types: (i) corona electrostatic separation;
(ii) triboelectric separation, and (iii) eddy current separation (Ning et al. 2017).
Among three, eddy current separation is the most commonly used method in
which powerful magnetic field is applied to the mixed particles which deflect the
ferrous particles to a higher degree and repel the nonferrous metals such as Al and Cu
(Kumar et al. 2017). Eddy current separators can also be used to recover Al. Corona
charging can separate the materials that have a large difference in conductivities
while triboelectricity is useful for charging and separating mixed particles that have
similar conductivities (Kaya 2016). Materials can also be separated based on their
specific gravity. This method is known as gravity separation or density separation. It
is not only depending upon their density but also on their size. Along with gravity
other forces are also involved in this method which are exerted by the separation
medium such as force exerted by viscous liquid. Metals can be separated from
plastics or ceramics by using heavy liquids. Some common gravity separators used
in e-waste recycling are water or airflow tables, heavy media separation, and sifting
(Evangelopoulos et al. 2019; Kaya 2016; Kumar et al. 2017). Density separation
techniques which are well-known in mineral processing units have also find their
way into e-waste recycling. It includes a bath with specific density liquid, which
separates the low-density recyclable plastics from the flame retardant-containing
high-density plastics. Density separators (air cyclones, air tables, and centrifugal
separators) are also used to recover base metals such as gold, copper, and silver from
nonmetallic fractions. Similarly, the sink-float separation technique is like the
density separation, but it is exclusively for the PCBs (Kaya 2016; Kumar et al.
2017; Vats and Singh 2014a). The use of the froth floatation method in e-waste
recycling has also been reported, but due to poor recovery, it is not preferred much. It
is mainly used to separate the nonferrous portions, such as polymers, and plastic
components, etc. especially from PCBs. Different sensors such as infrared sensors
and optical sensors are also being developed which are used to separate different
plastics and glass, respectively (Kaya 2016; Ning et al. 2017).
Challenges in Physical/Mechanical Treatment of e-Waste

Despite the advantages like simple, convenient, and somewhat environmentally
friendly, physical, or mechanical processes, it is not much preferred due to high
initial capital investment in equipment and energy cost. Significant dust generation,
loss of metal during grinding and shredding, leaching out of hazardous substances
from physical processing units, and challenges in separating metallic and nonmetal-
lic fraction from e-waste are some major drawbacks of this method. Moreover, the
heterogeneity and high complexity of e-waste make it difficult to obtain high
recycling rates for some materials by physical processes, and further processing
like chemical or metallurgical processes is required. Usually, physical or mechanical
processes are used as a pretreatment or preprocessing method in the formal sector
before extracting metals, nonmetals, or precious metals from e-waste with high
recovery rates. However, informal recycler disposes of the remains of e-waste just
after physical processing either by throwing in normal bins or by incineration
without realizing its potential which required further processing (Vats and Singh
2014a).
Chemical/Metallurgical Processes
Pyrometallurgical Process
Pyrometallurgy is one of the conventional methods which is in use for a long time. It
is the combination of incineration, smelting in a plasma arc furnace or blast furnace,
dressing, sintering, melting, and reactions in a gas phase at a high-temperature
furnace as shown in Fig. 5 (Gollakota et al. 2020). It is mostly used to recover
gold, copper, palladium, and silver whereas aluminum and iron usually get oxidized
and reported to the slag. Pyrometallurgy of metals from e-waste is practiced at
Noranda Smelting Processing in Quebec, Canada. First, recycling is done by smelter,
Collection of
Dismantling electrode Grinding Pyrolysis
material
Selective
precipitation
Acid Leaching Reduction
and
concentration
Distillation Incineration
End Products and Washing
Fig. 5 Pyrometallurgical procedure for the recovery of the metals from e-waste
of about 100,000 tons of used electronics per year comprising 14 percent of total
throughput. In a molten metal bath (1250 C), which is combined with a mixture of
liquid metal, the products that enter the reactor are engulfed and stirred by a mixture
of air supercharged (up to 39% oxygen). There is a decrease in energy due to
combustion of plastics and flammable materials in the feeding. Impurities such as
lead, iron, and zinc are converted into oxides and differentiated into a silica-based
slag. The slag is cooled and treated for the purpose of recovering more metals before
disposal. The molten copper is removed, called matte, containing precious metals
and transmitted to converters. The liquid blister copper is electrorefined in anode
furnaces and collected with 99.1% purity. The remaining metals such as tellurium,
gold, palladium, nickel, platinum, silver, and selenium settle are recovered through
electrorefining of the anodes (Khaliq et al. 2014).
Despite full commercialization available, there are certain limitations to the
pyrometallurgical approach such as plastics cannot be recycled if only this manage-
ment technique is employed; it is not possible to extract iron and aluminum as they
end up as oxides in the slag form; during smelting of feed, hazardous emissions are
generated (such as dioxins due to halogenated flame retardants, halogen generation,
furans, and volatile metals) that cause environmental or public health problems; high
energy needs; and issues of safety and protection; before reaching the metal bath,
immediate burning of fine dust from organic materials (e.g., nonmetallic fractions of
e-waste) may occur; purity level is low even though recovery rate is more; precious
metals stick in the pyrometallurgical process for a lot longer, and only at the end of
the method, they are collected (Khaliq et al. 2014).
Hydrometallurgical Process
The blast furnace smelting in combination with secondary copper or lead smelters
was the prevalent and common route of processing electronic scrap in the 1970s and
early to mid-1980s. However, the trend has turned toward hydrometallurgical
processes since about the mid-1980s (Cui and Zhang 2008). The harvesting of
copper, precious metals (gold, silver, etc.), zinc, and lead from e-waste using
hydrometallurgical routes was observed by different researchers. For leaching metals
from e-waste, hydrometallurgical processes use alkaline or acidic solvents. Due to its
greater consistency, predictability, controllability, low price, minimized environmen-
tal impacts, and higher metal recovery performance, it is superior to pyrometallur-
gical techniques. It includes several phases, such as mechanical refining, leaching,
separation-purification, and metal recovery (Fig. 6) (Ghimire and Ariya 2020). The
mechanical process includes e-waste to be processed into granular form. Solvents
such as caustic leaches or acids are used in leaching to obtain a soluble part of the
soluble portion of the waste. Cyanide, halide, thiourea, and thiosulfate are a few
commonly used leaching agents. Acids are being considered the most effective of all
because they can leach out both base and precious metals (Cui and Zhang 2008).
Nitric acid for base metals, thiourea or cyanide for gold and silver, sulfuric acid or
aqua regia for iron, and hydrochloric acid or sodium chlorate for palladium are other
specified leaching agents and metals. Details of the different mechanisms of leaching
are explained by Cui and Zhang (2008). The solution instead proceeds the separation
Collection of
Dismantling electrode Washing Drying
material
Collection of
Liquid-Liquid Milling to fine
metal-loaded Filtration
Extraction particles
organic phase
Organic
End Products
material
Fig. 6 Hydrometallurgical procedure for the recovery of the metals from e-waste
and purification method, and electrorefining, chemical reduction, or a crystallization

process will ultimately extract precious metals from the leachate. In hydrometallur-
gical extraction, the primary steps consist of acid or caustic series of leaches of solid
content. The solutions are then subjected to separation and purification processes
such as impurity deposition, isolation of solvents, adsorption, and ion-exchange to
isolate and concentrate the metals of interest (Gollakota et al. 2020). Additionally,
the approaches are treated by the method of electrorefining, chemical reduction, or
metal recovery crystallization. They analyzed and addressed hydro- and pyrometal-
lurgical processes. The method of removing a soluble constituent is leaching by
means of a solvent from a solid and is the main phase in a method for hydrometal-
lurgy. The most famous agents for leaching cyanide, halide, thiourea, and thiosulfate
is used in the recycling of precious metals (Kumar et al. 2017). For more than a
century, cyanide as a gold lixiviant has been used in the mining industry. However,
the non-cyanide lixiviants usually thiourea and thiosulfate are known to be the most
rational replacements (Cui and Zhang 2008).
Compared to pyrometallurgical processes, hydrometallurgical processes have
been stated to have additional advantages because they are more accurate, predict-
able, and easier to manage (Evangelopoulos et al. 2019). It still has some drawbacks,
considering the superiority of hydrometallurgy over the pyrometallurgical phase. A
significant volume of liquid in hydrometallurgical processes waste and sludge are
produced, and it must be carefully disposed of. A slow leaching kinetic is another
downside of the process. Cyanide is a toxic leaching agent and so can be treated
according to strict quality requirements. This can cause river or seawater pollution,
particularly in the vicinity of gold mines that poses health hazards to residents. Due
to potent toxic acids and oxidizing environments, halide leaching is also hard to
introduce. Specialized stainless steel and rubber devices are needed for the leaching
of gold using e-waste halide operators. In gold production, the use of thiourea
leachants is restricted due to its high cost and utilization (Khaliq et al. 2014).
Electrooxidation will decrease the amount of acid consumption and, without loss,
recuperate precious metals (Kaya 2016). In nutshell, hydrometallurgy process has
high cost and environmentally hazards for the extraction of metals from e-waste so
its least preffered in present scineario.
Biometallurgy Process
Apart from hydrometallurgy and pyrometallurgy, bioleaching is another method

used for metal recovery from e-waste. However, both hydrometallurgy and pyro-
metallurgy processes produce environmental pollutants, such as dioxins, furans, and
highly acidic wastewater (Gu et al. 2017). Hence, to recover metals from e-waste in
an economical and environmentally friendly way, biometallurgy can be used. Metal
recovery by biotechnology has arisen a lot in the last generation. It includes two
types i.e., bioleaching and biosorption.
Biosorption
The process of biosorption is a passive physicochemical interaction between charged
micro-organism surface groups and solution ions, in which both living and dead
organisms (biosorbents) can be used (Cui and Zhang 2008). Biosorbents are formu-
lated from biomass containing high metal uptake from algae, fungi, or bacteria. The
process of biosorption should either be metabolism-independent, or it can be related
to cell metabolism, incorporating physical or chemical sorption to the cell wall. The
fact that biosorbents can attach and accumulate metallic species even if there is no
cell metabolism is one of the major characteristics of this process (dead microbes).
The biosorption technique can be used to separate both base and precious metals
(Schiewer and Volesky 1997). Some advantages of a biosorption process are sus-
tainable and environment-friendly, reduced operating costs, reduced the quantity of
chemical and/or biological sludge, and high detoxification efficiency (Ghimire and
Ariya 2020). This is a modern concept of recycling and its practicability for a wide
scale. Currently, implementations are undergoing deep analysis.
Bioleaching
Some selected microorganisms are used which convert solid metals into ions in an
aqueous solution by using a leaching agent produced through catalysis of microbes.
This whole process is called bioleaching (Zhao and Wang 2019). Bioleaching has
been successfully used in metallic metal recovery. In this process, we take the
advantage of the microbes’ ability to oxidize Fe2+, S0, pyrite, or other reduced-
sulfur substances into leaching agents like Fe3+ and H2SO4. H2SO4 can help in the
acidification of metals from the e-waste while solid metal from e-waste can be
oxidized to a soluble form by donating an electron to Fe3+. Although bioleaching
is a well-established process for extracting metals from ore, recovering metals from
e-waste is much more challenging. There are many differences between ore and
e-waste in terms of their characteristics (physical and chemical) and in addition;
e-waste also contains toxic substances such as brominated flame retardants (Wang
et al. 2016). Hence, these toxic substances can cause harm and retard the growth of
microorganisms. Therefore, bioleaching of e-waste requires a series of pretreat-
ments, including sorting, shredding, crushing, and sieving which ultimately increase
the cost of the whole process (Zhao and Wang 2019). Acidophiles are microorgan-
isms which can survive in extremely acidic conditions (pH less than or equal to 3)
and can be used for the purpose of bioleaching. They can maintain their intracellular
pH to neutral by pH adjustment strategies such as proton pumping and cytoplasmic
buffering (Baker-Austin and Dopson 2007). They are generally grown
mixotrophically, and not all are obligate sulfur-oxidizing autotrophs or obligate
iron-oxidizing autotrophs, but some microbes can use both iron and sulfur sources
(Zhao and Wang 2019). Based on temperature, they can be further divided into
psychrotolerant, mesophilic, thermophilic, and extremely thermophilic microbes.
Bioleaching of e-waste through extreme acidophiles can be done by three pathways
based, i.e., iron-mediated pathway (Fe-mediated way), the reduced sulfur-mediated
pathway (S-mediated way), and mixed of S- and Fe-mediated way (mixed way)
(Wang et al. 2016). All pathways have different bioleaching microorganisms with
various electron donors. For instance, copper present in a printed circuit board is in
the elemental form and can follow all bioleaching pathways but Fe-mediated
pathway for bioleaching way is preferred due to its thermodynamic feasibility
(Zhao and Wang 2019). Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans, At. ferrooxidans, and
Acidiphilium acidophilum are some of the extreme acidophiles which have been
used to recover copper, indium, aluminum, nickel from printed circuit boards, liquid
crystal display, e-waste, and dust shredding from e-waste (Zhao and Wang 2019).
Apart from acidophiles, cyanogenic bacterial strains (such as Pseudomonas
aeruginosa, Chromobacterium violaceum, and Pseudomonas fluorescens) and fun-
gal strains (like Aspergillus niger) are also used for bioleaching purposes (Kiddee
et al. 2020).
Factors like microbial species, pH, temperature, and content of e-waste influence
the efficiency of bioleaching. Optimum pH and temperature vary from species to
species, and for efficient bioleaching, optimum conditions should be provided. It is
also found that a high dosage of e-waste in powder form can have a negative effect
on microbial growth (Zhao and Wang 2019). However, the toxic effect of e-waste
can be reduced by removing nonmetallic fraction. Despite its eco-friendly nature, the
technology of bioleaching faces challenges like time-consuming, generation of
acidic wastewater, and whether the microbes can be reused or recycled once
employed in bioleaching (Zhao and Wang 2019). In summary bioleaching still
needs further research so that it can be transferred from lab scale to pilot scale and
then commercialize (Table 3).
Advanced e-Waste Management Technologies
Most of the abovementioned management technologies are not only costly but also
pose a serious threat to the environment by contaminating air water and soil post
employing; hence, in recent years various advanced and novel recycling
Table 3 Merits and demerits of different metallurgical techniques

State and types
Recycling of recovered
technology metals Advantages Disadvantages References
Pyrometallurgy Almost all High recovery High cost of (Zhang
metals in pure rate, totally investment; and Xu
solid forms commercially consume a lot of 2016)
available energy; require
technique posttreatment
technologies; or
can damage the
environment
Hydrometallurgy Almost all Simple and easy High cost of some (Zhang
metals in a assessable; reagents; and Xu
reagent solution commercially wastewater 2016)
available pollution; hence,
technique effluent treatment
is required
Biometallurgy Only few metals Environmentally Time-consuming; (Zhang
like copper, friendly; low not much and Xu
gold, and silver investment commercially 2016)
are recovered in needed available; highly
a reagent selective technique
solution
technologies are identified and invented. Also, much research is currently in progress
to reduce the cost and environmental threat of the abovementioned technologies. For
instance, modified and new hydrometallurgical technique, i.e., mild extracting
technology is more targeted towards the metal recovery or pretreatment of e-waste
along with making relatively less pollution than traditional hydrometallurgical and
pyrometallurgical techniques (Ghosh et al. 2015). This technique used mild leaching
agents like chlorinate, ammonia-ammonium, or non-cyanide lixiviants (Zhang and
Xu 2016). Several pilot-/lab-scale researches have been done for this technique,
and results are very promising for scale-up. Recently organic acids like citric acids
and malic acids were also introduced (Jha et al. 2013). The supercritical fluid
technique (supercritical carbon dioxide) is another advanced green technique that
can be used for recovering purposes (Gollakota et al. 2020). The main challenge of
this technique is that it is still in an early phase, and more research is needed. In
summary there are several researches and new technologies are invented in recent
years, but all are still in a nascent phase, and further investment and encouragement
are needed so that they can reach pilot scale testing and then use commercially.
Treatment of e-Waste Contaminated Surrounding
As many countries are realizing the potential and hazards of e-waste, the recycling
practices are increasing day by day. Moreover, current traditional recycling practices
like landfilling, shredding, incineration, hydrometallurgy, pyrometallurgy, and even

some advanced practices like bioleaching can contaminate recycling sites’ soil, air,
and water by producing toxic gases, fly ash, fumes, leachates, fine particles, waste-
water, and solid residues (Zueva 2018). Hence, proper legislations and posttreatment
environment-friendly technologies are also required. In recent years,
phytoremediation has been identified as a promising tool to remediate e-waste
contaminants in terms of the environment protection and cost (Gunarathne et al.
2020). For the wastewater treatment generated from e-waste recycling unit, there is a
combination of physical (such as flocculation, floatation, filtration, sedimentation),
chemical (such as oxidation, precipitation, adsorption, neutralization), and biological
(aerobic, anaerobic, fermentation, biosorption, anoxic reaction) methods are
employed followed by disinfection so that chemical oxygen demand, biological
oxygen demand, heavy metal content, total suspended solids, total phosphorous,
and total nitrogen of effluent are in regulation limit and does not impact water
biodiversity and human health (Bhatia et al. 2020; Zueva 2018). Along with that,
many renewable energy products like biogas, syngas, biodiesel, bioethanol,
biohydrogen, and bioelectricity can be retrieved from it while treating it (Bhatia
et al. 2020).
Sustainable Opportunities in e-Waste Management
There is consensus among many governments, environment NGOs, and electronic

item producers that e-waste is a threat to the environment, biodiversity, and human
health. Many businesses, NGOs, educational institutes, local bodies, tribunals, and
governments are organizing campaigns and implementing strategies to combat this
ever-increasing waste. Concerned stakeholders are actively looking for ways to
bring e-waste to the recovery chain. The formal collection system of e-waste is
trying to set up so that more and more e-waste can be recycled in the formal sector.
By making this consensus stronger, a sustainable e-waste management system can
be developed (Cruz-Sotelo et al. 2017). Despite many health hazards of materials
present in e-waste, the efficient and environment-friendly management of e-waste
can provide several positive opportunities such as transboundary transfer of tech-
nology, generation of jobs, development of environment-friendly technologies, and
revenue generation by the recovery of valuable and precious metals from e-waste
which ultimately lead to upgrading in the quality of peoples’ lives (Pathak et al.
2019). e-waste can play important role in forming a green circular economy and
meeting sustainable development goals. It has been indicated that there is an urgent
requirement for a correct collection and recycling system for the recovery of
valuable and precious metals and to protect public and environmental health,
especially in developing countries where the content of e-waste is rapidly increasing
(Reuter et al. 2013). Recovering metal from e-waste has attracted recyclers because it
is a source of good income and has the potential to create more jobs. A formal system
with returned deposit is feasible. There are several formal WEEE commercialization
markets which provide opportunity and model to train and monitor the informal
sector. Capital gains are also possible, if each aspect of an already tested model is
implemented. The current formal recovery chain is already giving several social and
environmental benefits. A coordinated and sustainable WEEE management plan/
model takes both challenges and opportunities into account which is also mandatory
if we want to avoid environmental damage because it can impose major costs on our
system and future generations.
Development of Circular Economy
If proper and environmentally friendly technology is available, recycling of e-waste

can increase the quantity of metals available for society. Recovery of high-tech and
high-value metals (like aluminum, magnesium, copper, gold, platinum group metals,
silver, tungsten, etc.) from different sources like electronic appliances, LEDs, batte-
ries, catalysts, solar cells, end-of-life products, and secondary sources (residues,
magnets, etc.) have not only helped in recovering precious elements which can be
used to manufacture novel products, but it also conserves our natural resources
(Luhar and Luhar 2019). Most recently, the recovery of nanomaterials (ZnO NPs,
nano-Pb, purified C nanotubes, nano-zero valent Cu particles, etc.) from batteries
and electronic wastes has also been reported which have opened the new paradigm in
nanotechnology and environmental research (Dutta et al. 2018). These nano-
materials find application in various fields such as chemically inert additives,
antimicrobial additives, catalysts, pigments, liquid-crystal display (LCD) technol-
ogy, UV filters, biomedical applications, membranes, fuel catalysis, fuel cells,
thermal energy, nano-enabled solar cells, and water treatment (Dutta et al. 2018).
The application of e-waste in the construction industry is also identified (Luhar and
Luhar 2019) (Fig. 7).
Urban Mining of e-Waste Has Emerged as Business Opportunity
Recycling of e-waste has given several business opportunities which ultimately help
in the generation of jobs. The integration of the collection system by the informal
sector and advanced technologies by formal sector played a key role. This integra-
tion not only provides steady incoming for the workers and collectors but also
safeguard their health which was otherwise endangered due to the traditional
technologies. In addition, more and more e-waste get documented and recycled
through formal channel. These start-ups and businesses not only recycle or recover
material from e-waste but also refurbished and resell the products whenever possi-
ble. Many manufacturers also set the recycle unit with their production unit. Hence,
formal and sustainable e-waste management systems create lots of jobs which
ultimately boost the economy.
Fig. 7 Benefits of e-waste

recycling
• Decreases
the
potential
shortage of
some
elements.
• Limits
• Creates environme
ntal harm
economic
and health
value.
Benefits of concerns to
Recycling public
e-waste
• Help in • Reduces
forming
greenhouse
green and
gases
circular
emissions
economy
Opportunities in e-Waste Management for Government
The e-waste management system provides excellent opportunities for government

to implement strict rules and regulations related to e-waste so that biodiversity and
human health can remain safe. The government should provide subsidies to
recyclers so that they can set up environmentally friendly technologies. Moreover,
the government also has an opportunity to integrate the formal and informal sectors
for sustainable management of e-waste. At the same time, the government can
boost their economy by bringing e-waste into the recovery chain. The country’s
e-waste problem depends upon the policies of countries. For instance, underde-
veloped or poor countries either have a loopy policy for e-waste or no policy for
e-waste which pushes them into the e-waste black hole as they generate on their
own and also receive e-waste through illegal transboundary movement (Gollakota
et al. 2020). Hence, the vision of the government towards e-waste should be strict.
Also, the government should have proper technologies to handle hazardous waste.
In addition, the government should also introduce some directives which restrict
manufacturers to use hazardous material in their electronic item. Some countries
like the EU have also introduced the extended producer responsibility (EPR) in
which the producer is held responsible for the whole life cycle of the product.
Objectives of EPR are source reduction; waste prevention; environmentally
friendly product; and closing the loop. Last but not the least, the government
should introduce awareness programs at the district level so that consumers can
get aware of the ways of disposing of e-waste.
Opportunities in e-Waste Management for Consumer
By understanding the hazards of e-waste, a consumer can cut his dependency on

electronic gadgets. An informed consumer will not only use recyclable electronic
items, but he will use them till end of life and encourage others to do so. This will not
only helpful for one health but also good for the environment. Without consumer
support, the awareness programs organized by the government are useless. This also
forces all manufacturers to make recyclable products.
Conclusion
e-waste management is the necessity of the present time and must be conducted in a
standardized and environment-friendly manner. Recycling can be advantageous, but
when possible, e-waste should be refurbished and reused. However, when refurbish-
ment is not possible, it should be recycled with the help of well-trained workers and
organizations to minimize the environmental impacts. After a decade of research, the
e-waste management technologies have obviously taken some larger strides, but
despite the many advantages of recovering metals and nanoparticles from e-waste,
there are some technological challenges for which high-end research is still needed
to develop appropriate technologies. For the analysis of the e-waste management
system, more strict laws are needed to prevent transboundary movements. Also,
there should be a transfer of e-waste technologies from developed countries to
developing countries so that they can manage their e-waste in a standardized and
sustainable manner. The government should form a robust framework so that all the
informal recyclers can be converted to formal recyclers provided with subsidies and
investment opportunities along with updated technologies. Governments should
make take-back policies also known as extended producer responsibility which is
already present in various countries and enforce them strictly. Awareness programs
should be introduced at the local body level for both consumers and waste collectors
regarding the hazards of e-waste when disposed of improperly. A separate collection
chain can also be formed for e-waste collection and transportation to recycling units.
In nutshell, strict policies, investment, robust research, and awareness programs
along with strict implementations of government policies, rules, and regulations
are the need of the hour for the sustainable management of e-waste and development
of a green circular economy in which e-waste is going to play a very crucial role.
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Exploring E-waste Management:
Strategies and Implications 60
Nitika Goyal and Deepam Goyal
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1560
E-waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1561
Human Toxicity of Hazardous Substances in E-waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1562
Environmental Aspects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1563
E-waste Implications in Developing Nations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1564
E-waste Management Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1565
E-waste Treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1568
Global Initiatives and Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1568
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1569
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1570
Abstract
Expeditious development in the field of information and communication technol-
ogy (ICT) has made the machines more powerful and efficient, but at the same
time, there is a simultaneous decrease in the product life leading to an extensive
rise in the annual production of e-waste, i.e., electronic waste. Considering the
health hazards and environmental implications of e-waste, it has become a global
problem which needs serious attention. Old, outdated, and end-of-life electronic
devices, e.g. cell phones, televisions, laptops, refrigerators, computers, CD
players, etc. that get disposed of by the consumers are collectively known as
e-waste. Recycling e-waste is essential for handling environmental pollution and
health issues in human beings. At the same time, such e-waste contains many
valuable resources; thus, its recycling can also address the problem of mineral
N. Goyal
Department of Computer Science, Guru Nanak College, Budhlada, Punjab, India
D. Goyal (*)
Chitkara University Institute of Engineering and Technology, Chitkara University, Rajpura, Punjab,
India

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_70
1560 N. Goyal and D. Goyal
resources shortage in the electronics industry. So, it is a major challenge for

governments of different nations and international organizations to develop
environment-friendly strategies for efficient management of e-waste in order to
save mankind and the environment from its adverse effects. In order to manage
e-waste effectively, especially in developing nations, feasible landfill technology,
mandatory formal recycling, fixation of producer responsibility, and drafting of
e-waste specific legislations are the dire need of the hour in order to make this
world worth living for future generations. This chapter covers a detailed review of
environmental pollution and health hazards caused by e-waste, its recycling, and
other e-waste management strategies and required political and legal
interventions.
Keywords
e-waste · Extended producer responsibility · e-waste management · WEEE ·
Electronic waste
Introduction
Speedy development in the field of technology accompanied with equally

fast disposal of electronics has led to the exponential growth of e-waste every
year. One of the significant factors behind disastrous proportions of electrical and
electronics waste is rapid product obsolescence (Hilty 2005; Zeng et al. 2017).
Another reason for the rising demand and disposal of electronic equipment is
the growing importance of ICT. The complex nature of waste electrical and
electronic equipment (WEEE) is also a bone of contention in e-waste management
as it includes a wide range of products beginning from mechanical devices to
highly integrated systems (Pérez-Belis et al. 2015). Thus, the recovery and reuse
of WEEE become challenging due to issues of compatibility, varying sizes, and a
diverse range of product models (Wath et al. 2011).
Various environmental policies and legislations have come into force in the last
few years, which regulate the entire life cycle of the product right from its design,
production, and consumption till its retirement in order to effectively handle
the adverse effects of e-waste on the environment and human health. Extended
producer responsibility (EPR) is the fundamental principle underlying most of
these legislations and policies. An international environmental law, polluter-pays
principle, is the foundation of EPR which creates a balance between environmental
protection and trade and commerce by integrating international trade to sustainable
development principles (Leal Filho et al. 2019). This chapter focuses on an in-depth
review of the implications of e-waste on the environment and human health and
e-waste management strategies with a special focus on EPR and legal and political
interventions required to combat its ill effects.
60 Exploring E-waste Management: Strategies and Implications 1561
E-waste
All the electrical and electronic devices including consumable subcomponents and
subassemblies which have turned to be obsolete or deemed unwanted by the user are
collectively known as e-waste, electronic waste, end of life (EoL) electronics, or
WEEE (Bahubalendruni and Varupala 2020). However, the misassumption in this
fact is that even those components which can be reused by secondary markets have
been categorized into e-waste because they have been discarded by the first-hand
user. Thus, proper management and reuse of WEEE are the most crucial for efficient
e-waste management.
e-Waste has a very complex and diverse composition, consisting of thousands of
substances which vary from hazardous to valuable resources. Along with having a
massive amount of hazardous substances (BFR, heavy metals, cadmium, chromium,
lead, etc.) which contaminate food, water, and soil, e-waste also contains plenty of
valuable resources, e.g., plastic, metals, etc. which can help in the sustainability of
electronics industry by countering mineral shortage (Yang et al. 2017; Cucchiella et
al. 2015a). The recovery of rare-earth minerals is crucial for sustainable production
of electronic equipment for future generations. Thus, by formal recycling of e-waste,
we cannot only handle the potential environmental pollution and human health risk
but also convert it into positive economic, resources, and environmental benefits
(Cucchiella et al. 2015b). Different categories of e-waste material have been shown
in Table 1 (Garlapati 2016).
Table 1 Different categories of e-waste on the basis of European WEEE

Category Equipment
Electrical and electronic Drills, switches, saws, batteries, sewing machine, integrated
instruments circuits, wires, transistors, diodes, vacuum tubes, transformers,
relays, and resistors
Small household Vacuum cleaners, kettles, watches, television, CD and DVD
appliances players, grinders, video game consoles, chimneys
Large household Refrigerator, air conditioner, cooking appliances, microwave,
appliances freezer, washing machine, etc.
Monitoring and control Heating regulators, smoke detectors, microcontrollers, thermostats,
tools etc.
IT and telecommunication PCs, mobile phones, telephones, modems, printers, printers, etc.
equipment
Automatic dispensers Money, Hot drinks, hot and cold bottles, etc.
Toys, leisure, and sport Computer/video games, electric trains, etc.
equipment
Lighting equipment CFL, halogens, LED, high-intensity sodium lamp, etc.
Medical devices With the exception of all implanted and contaminated items
radiotherapy devices, dialysis, cardiology, nuclear medicine, etc.
User equipment TV, amplifiers, radio, video camera, etc.
Human Toxicity of Hazardous Substances in E-waste
The release of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and heavy metals by pyrometal-
lurgy or hydrometallurgy, mechanical-physical, and dismantling can cause serious
implications for human health and the environment. Recycling and deep recovery in
order to obtain valuable resources lead to POP and heavy metal emission at informal
recycling sites (Chen et al. 2016; Huang et al. 2016). During valuable material
recycling, these emitted substances become a part of new products and adversely
affect human health and the environment during the use of these products.
The constituents of e-waste can be categorized as hazardous and nonhazardous.
The nonhazardous components of e-waste mainly consist of ferrous and nonferrous
metals. However, other nonhazardous constituents like glass, wood, plastic,
ceramics, rubber, concrete, etc. are also present in e-waste. Broadly, iron and steel
(50%) are the major constituent of e-waste followed by plastic (21%) and other
metals (13%) such as aluminum, copper, gold, silver, etc. (Khan et al. 2019; Widmer
et al. 2005). Hazardous substances include mercury, lead, selenium, cadmium,
arsenic, flame retardants, and hexavalent chromium. A study on health consequences
of e-waste conducted by Grant et al. (2013) demonstrated that e-waste adversely
affects many aspects of human health like reproductive health, body cell growth and
changes, lung function, thyroid function, etc. The fertility of mammals and the
nervous system get highly affected by brominated flame retardants contained in
plastics present in e-waste. Lead-acid batteries, solder in PCBs, and CRTs (cathode-
ray tubes) contain a lead component which causes diarrhea and vomiting in human
beings. Sometimes its consequences take a disastrous form and cause coma or even
death of a living being. Flu-like symptoms can be seen due to acute toxicity on
exposure to cadmium. Table 2 lists the hazardous content present in different types of
e-waste material (DEFRA 2011).
Among the abovementioned components, the substances which can cause serious
consequences include plastics, PCBs (printed circuit boards), halogenated sub-
stances, BFRs (brominated flame retardants), polychlorinated biphenyls, and
heavy metals such as mercury, chromium, lead, cadmium, etc. BFRs release furans
and dioxins on reigniting along with some other substances like copper, asbestos,
nickel, and arsenic. During incineration, such substances aggravate the production of
dioxins by acting as a catalyst during the reaction. Two major impacts of e-waste
disposal on human health are (Deng 2019):
(a) Food chain issues: Byproducts released during primitive recycling become a part
of the food chain and get transferred into human beings. Contamination of
intakes by toxic substances during e-waste disposal also creates issues for
human health.
(b) Occupational exposure to hazardous material: Workers involved in primitive
recycling units have a high impact of toxic substances released during these
processes on their health.
Table 2 Possible hazardous contents in WEEE/e-waste components

Hazardous content Component
Asbestos, insulation ODS in foam, refractory ceramic Insulation
fiber
Lead, antimony, beryllium, BFR Circuit board
Mercury LCD/thermostat
Mercury, lead (if coated) Glass
Mercury, lead, antimony, phosphorous CRT
Mercury, lithium, cadmium, lead Batteries
Mercury, phosphorous, flame retardants Fluorescent lamp
Ozone depleting substances (HC, HCFC, HFC, CFC) Refrigeration and air conditioning
Brominated flame retardants (BFRs) BFR-containing plastic
Plasticizers, BFRs External electric cables
Phthalate plasticize, BFR Plastic/rubber
Phthalate plasticize, BFR, lead Electrical/wiring
Glycol, other unknown substances Electrolyte capacitors (over L/D
25 mm)
Environmental Aspects
Expeditious development in the field of ICT has made the machines more powerful
and efficient, but at the same time, there is a simultaneous decrease in product life
leading to a 10% increase in the generation of the volume of e-waste annually (Hicks
et al. 2005; Ravindra and Mor 2019). One of the most critical issues in e-waste
management is the export of outdated and less ecological friendly devices from
developed to developing nations. Thus, developing nations are struggling even more
to manage this e-waste in lieu of the shortage of financial resources. Such material
not only creates landfills of e-waste in these countries but also gives rise to ill effects
due to the association of a diverse range of toxic chemicals with it. So, it has led to
serious environmental implications and human toxicity due to the absence of
policies, legislations, and proper safeguards for the management of imported
e-waste. It has been demonstrated in various research works that hazardous sub-
stances such as polyhalogenated organics (PCBs, PBDEs), contained in e-waste,
pose a serious threat to the environment and human health (Robinson 2009; Zhou et
al. 2019).
Irreparable damage has also been caused to the environment by unsafe e-waste
handling methods like disposal to landfills and informal recycling. It has been
concluded that test leachates with heavy metal concentrations exceeding the envi-
ronmental limits are not produced by e-waste disposal at dumping sites in urban
areas. But an increase in leachate volume has been seen due to the disturbance of
various electrical components during e-waste compression after or before disposal in
landfills (Baidya et al. 2020). Thus, it is advised to perform cement solidification on
electronic waste in order to decrease aqueous solution flow and increase the pH in
disposed of material (Tariq and Yanful 2013).
The practice of burning before disposing at landfills increases the mobility of
heavy metals in electronic circuits encapsulated in plastic cover. That is why they are
admitted to the atmosphere while burning despite the fact that they would not be
bioavailable after washout. During recycling electronic waste gets disassembled and
destroyed in order to recover useful components. Approximately 45% of CRT
components and 95% of useful components from computers can be recovered
through recycling (Iniaghe and Adie 2015). When used in combination with
an appropriate technique, recycling poses a minimum environmental threat, i.e.,
Japan. Conversely, in the case of developing nations, the actual environmental
benefit-impact balance is not always positive due to malpractices (Guarnieri et al.
2020). If e-waste gets transported to far places for recycling, the environmental
benefits from recycling fade away as the energy consumed for transportation sets an
adverse impact on the environment (Kim et al. 2012). But it can be concluded that
recycling is a far better option than burning and landfilling in any case.
E-waste Implications in Developing Nations
The deadly consequences of e-waste were recognized only 20 years back, and it was
concluded that there is absence of effective legislation in the field of e-waste
management. It was also observed that ineffective legislation and an exponential
increase in e-waste have given rise to inappropriate management methods in both
developing and developed nations, thus causing ill effects on the environment
(Kazancoglu et al. 2020).
It has been predicted that more computers will be discarded by developing
countries than that of the developed ones in the coming decade. Thus, more
production of e-waste accompanied with imported e-waste is going to make devel-
oping nations dumping yards for discarded material. A huge quantity of e-waste is
being exported from European nations to other countries, including West African
nations, causing deadly health issues and environmental implications for their
natives.
A study of survey on e-waste-related issues in developing nations of different
regions, i.e., South Asian countries like India and Pakistan; Southeast Asian
nations like Indonesia, Cambodia, and Thailand; and African countries like Nigeria,
demonstrates that e-waste-related issues vary considerably between countries
despite the fact that all receive e-waste from developed nations (US Government
Accountability Office 2008). The reason behind this variation is different methods
for handling imported e-waste. For instance, most of the Asian nations use unsafe
methods to dismantle the e-waste whereas African countries utilize discarded elec-
tronic components by their reuse. Another reason behind varying implications of
e-waste is drafting of policies, legislations, and safeguards for e-waste imports.
For example, some Asian countries like India, China, etc. have focused on
social and legal interventions for efficient management and disposal of imported
e-waste. Thus, the introduction of management tools (LCA, MFA, and MCA) and
regulations (EPR) at the national and international level can help developing nations
in facing this challenging issue in a systematic manner (Saran and Yadav 2019).
It has been revealed in a study that in the coming 6–7 years, the production of
e-waste in developing nations will be double that of e-waste produced by developed
countries. The figure of production of e-waste is going to touch 400–700 million in
developing nations whereas developed countries are estimated to discard 200–300
million of WEEE by 2030 (Sthiannopkao and Wong 2013; Duan et al. 2015).
E-waste Management Strategies
Extensive research is being carried out at the national and international level to
mitigate the issue of e-waste management. MF, EPR, LCA, and MCA are some of
the various tools deployed for the management of e-waste (Kiddee et al. 2013). WEEE
directive is another effective step taken by developed nations to manage e-waste
effectively. It is expected to combat the ill effects of e-waste on the environment by
reducing the disposal of electronic waste. Innovative techniques are being developed
to recover valuable and rare minerals and to separate the substances which can be
recycled (EC Directive 2012). A summary of various approaches which have proved
to be beneficial for e-waste management has been given in this section.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA): LCA is an effective method applied to minimize
e-waste issues and to design electronic equipment which are more environment-
friendly. For the last three decades, extensive research work is being done to find out
LCA of an electronic equipment in terms of product development, environmental
impact, and eco-design. Keeping in mind the economic and environmental impact of
electronic equipment, there is a dire need to pay serious attention to the design of
such devices (Hong et al. 2015). Such a product is not only environment-friendly but
may also appeal to consumers and could turn out to be a better alternative.
LCA is an innovative tool for tracing out environmental impacts to create eco-
friendly designs of products like computers, washing machines, printers, toys, air
conditioners, and heating devices. LCA is one of the most widely used methods for
the management of e-waste. Extensive research has been carried out in Europe to
assess the ill effects of EoL treatment of e-waste on the environment (Villares et al.
2017; Hischier and Baudin 2010). For instance, a study of environmental impacts of
the Swiss recycling system and take-back was conducted by Hischier et al. After
comparing with incineration, it was concluded that take-back and e-waste recycling
has tremendous advantages in terms of environmental impacts. Hischeir’s research
was followed by Wager et al. (2011), and the results were compared. Finally, it was
concluded that recycling of plastic proved to be a better option than incineration as
the environmental impacts of e-waste were found to be very low than their pre-
determined threshold in 2009.
Material Flow Analysis (MFA): A huge amount of e-waste was being
exported from developed countries to developing nations like South Africa,
India, and China for recycle or reuse, and Basel Convention came into existence.
Table 3 Distinctive features of LCA, MFA, MCA, and EPR for e-waste management (Hischier
and Baudin 2010; Kiddee et al. 2013)
Tools Merits
LCA Calculates the impact of material consumed
Estimates the effect of examined process or product of environmental interest
Carries out the assessment of eco-design and product development
Better decision-making regarding disposal of e-waste
Assessment of economic and environmental impacts concerned with the disposal of
e-waste
MCA Applied in environment-related decision-making
MFA Examination of e-waste flow
Calculates the volume of e-waste
Applied in taking decisions regarding the environment
EPR Provides a solution for e-waste issues at the national platform
Makes producers liable on basis of polluter-pays principle
The use of MFA is in studying the route of e-waste right from the place where its use
is discontinued to disposal areas or recycling sites, etc. The route covers the source,
the intermediate, and the destination of e-waste. MFA, a decision support tool, is
used for e-waste management and environment handling (Islam and Huda 2019).
The application of this tool for e-waste management has been demonstrated in
Table 3. It consists of an analysis of e-waste flow and study of its social, environ-
mental, and economic impacts. Shinkuma and Huong (2009) applied MFA to assess
the e-waste flow in Asia and concluded that Southeast Asian residents use more
second-hand electronic equipment imported from Japan whereas most of the
recycling of e-waste is carried out in Guangdong Province, China. However, proper
recycling techniques were not used there.
It was concluded in a survey conducted by Yoshida et al. (2009) that the
percentage of desktops dispatched for recycling and disposal reduced to 37% in
the year 2004, whereas the percentage of exports and domestic reuse climbed to 26%
and 37%, respectively, in Japan. Streicher-Porte et al. (2007) concluded that the
recycler in India earned high profits by recycling imported desktops due to a higher
concentration of high-value metals like copper and aluminum in these equipment.
MFA was applied as a tool to study the inflow of precious metals like copper and
aluminum present in disposed of desktops imported for recycling in India. He found
that at the time of fast economic growth, a combination of MFA and economic
evaluation tools can prove to be beneficial, even if limited data is available.
Multi-criteria Analysis (MCA): MCA is considered an effective tool for strategic
decision-making and for handling complicated multidimensional problems which
require consideration of both quantitative and qualitative aspects (Xu et al. 2020).
Besides providing alternate e-waste management strategies, the MCA model has been
used in other environmental issues also. Hula et al. (2003) applied the MCA model for
determining the trade-off between financial gains and environmental impacts of EoL
processing in coffee makers. A six-step strategy devised for this purpose consists of
the following steps: EoL scenario and product model specifications, EoL evaluation
model development, multiobjective problem formulation solution for Pareto set, and
construction of EoL strategy graphs to check ill effects of e-waste on the environment.
Queiruga et al. (2008) utilized the MCA methodology to look for the most suitable
location for recycling plants in Spain. The MCA cannot be used as a stand-alone tool,
but when used in combination with other tools, it can prove to be a good methodology
for e-waste management (Wibowo and Deng 2015).
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR): The advent of the concept of EPR
introduced various new initiatives in environmental policy making (Van Rossem et
al. 2006). These initiatives consist of divergence from “command and control”
method towards a goal-oriented and non-perspective strategy, intensification of life
cycle thinking, and preference of preventive approaches over end-of-life tactics.
According to OECD (n.d.), EPR refers to an environment-oriented approach which
fixes producers’ liability to the post-consumption stage until the product is finally
disposed of (3). EPR needs to be introduced as an obligatory activity in the legal
framework related to the manufacturing of electrical and electronic devices globally.
As EPR fixes the producers’ responsibility till the post-consumer phase of the
product, the manufacturers should not only be engrossed in the production and
operation of the product but also be concerned with its end life (Atasu 2019). The
major objective of EPR is to create awareness among producers to minimize the
utilization of energy and resources at each stage of life cycle and check pollution by
introducing innovative changes in design and production techniques.
A considerable attention towards EPR can induce better awareness throughout the
organization, thereby leading to greater business opportunities, better corporate
credibility, and improved partnership and dialogue with other parties. The final
objective of EPR is to attain sustainable development by environment-friendly
product design and development technology. The major objectives of EPR consist
of the least use of natural resources in production, utilization of recycled components
in manufacturing, reuse of products, amalgamation of environmental cost into the
price of product, and reduction and prevention of waste (Langrova 2002).
The way of implementing EPR can vary from one organization to another, but the
common fact is that efficient economic, informative, and administrative machinery is
required in every program in order to implement the concept of EPR successfully.
The various EPR models contributed by Lindhqvist (2000); Langrova (2002);
Milojkovic and Litovski (2005); and Oh and Thompson (2006) are discussed here
(Langrova 2002; Lindhqvist 2000). Table 3 shows the distinctive features of all the
strategies discussed in this section:
• Responsibility: Responsibility means liability for any environmental hazard due

to the product in use. The domain of responsibility is decided by legal provisions
which may include various stages of product life cycle right from its birth till its
disposal. Thus, any environmental damage due to the use of the product is
considered to be the responsibility of its producer.
• Physical responsibility: The physical management of the products and their after-
effects is the responsibility of the producer. It may vary from making develop-
ment technology innovative to the collection and safe disposal of the remains of
the product by a “take-back strategy.”
• Economic responsibility: Economic responsibility means all the expenses on safe
disposal of the product, i.e., collection, recycling, etc., will be borne by the
manufacturer who has manufactured the product in question. Such expenses may
be paid directly by the manufacturer or indirectly in the form of a special cess.
• Informative responsibility: It is the responsibility of the manufacturer to provide
complete information about the product in question and its after-effects at every
stage of the cycle. The procedure of reducing the cost of post-consumer recycling
should also be provided by the producer.
• Ownership: The ownership of the product belongs to the producer during the
entire life cycle. Thus, the environmental damage caused by the product during
manufacturing and even in use is linked to the producer. Thus, the product is
assumed to be taken on lease by the consumer; however, the manufacturer
remains the owner of the product till its retirement. Switzerland is leading the
world from the forefront in the field of e-waste management by its effective
e-waste management system. Two producer responsibility organizations have
been set up for handling the e-waste stream.
Table 3 shows the distinctive features of all the strategies discussed in this section.
Although the abovementioned strategies are effective on their own, the more supe-
rior results can be obtained with the integration of one or more.
E-waste Treatment
An effective electronic waste management strategy should consist of three things

mainly: combating environmental impacts, minimizing health hazards, and the
covering valuable components (Johri et al. 2008). e-Waste treatment is done in
three levels mainly, and the output of each preceding level becomes the input to
the next level. Basically there is a flow of material from one level to another, i.e.,
from the first to the third level of treatment. Three levels of treatment have been
depicted in Fig. 1 (Wath et al. 2011).
Treatment at every level comprises unit operations while e-waste handling, and
the material continues to flow from one level to another. The residue is either
incinerated or disposed of in TSDF (treatment storage and disposal facility). The
quantity of residue leaving for incineration or TSDF depends upon the efficiency of
treatments at the first and second levels whereas the treatment at the third stage
entirely focuses on recovering components carrying economic value, i.e., plastic,
ferrous and nonferrous metals, etc.
Global Initiatives and Implications
Some of the initiatives have been taken at the international level to mitigate the ill
effects of e-waste. For example, the Stockholm Convention keeps a check on global
contamination from POPs and takes appropriate action to prevent and reduce it
whereas the Basel Convention restricts and controls the inter border movement of
hazardous wastes (Li et al. 2015). But significant delay and unwillingness in
Fig. 1 Three-tier treatment processes for recovery/recycling e-waste
ratification and implementation of these conventions by some nations have diluted

their effectiveness. One of the largest producers of e-waste in the world, the USA,
has denied to ratify some of these conventions. It is still a matter of debate whether it
should be legally permitted for developed nations to export used products to other
countries except for recycling or there should be a blanket ban on it.
Conclusion
With the rapid growth in industrialization, increasing population, and modern

lifestyle, there is a tremendous increase in the use of electronic goods. Though the
size of electronic products is shrinking day by day, still the quantity of e-waste is
increasing at an alarming rate. It was concluded by a study conducted on e-waste
recycling plants that the environment is persistently being contaminated by toxic
chemicals released from e-waste, i.e., POPs (persistent organic pollutants) and heavy
metals. As a result a large amount of toxic substances has gotten accumulated in the
environment and is causing an adverse effect on human health. There are many
schemes to handle the rapidly growing e-waste issue, and EPR is one of the best
available tools. The four pillars of a successful e-waste management strategy are
developing eco-friendly equipment, proper collection and safe recycling of e-waste,
sound disposal strategies, and recovery of useful material, making the producers and
users aware of the ill effects of e-waste pollution and restricting the transfer of used
electronic equipment from developed to developing nations. There is a wide scope

for further research to check the unsafe disposal of e-waste with a perfect combina-
tion of effective legislation, technological innovations, and community awareness
programs. Valuable component recovery by eco-friendly procedures seems to be the
best alternative for e-waste management.
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E-Waste Management: Rising Concern on
Existing Problems, Modern Perspectives, 61
and Innovative Solutions
Ravichandran Subramaniam, Kamarajan Rajagopalan,

Melinda Grace Rossan Mathews, Jackson Durairaj Selvan Christyraj,
and Johnson Retnaraj Samuel Selvan Christyraj
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1574
Urbanization Trend and Waste Generation: Current and Future Scenario
of E-waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1574
Composition of E-waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1576
Sources of E-waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1577
Types of E-waste and Its Hazard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1578
E-waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1580
Preview of E-waste: A Global Challenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1580
E-waste Treatment Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1583
Other Treatment Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1585
Environmentally Responsible E-waste Disposal Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1585
E-waste: Innovative Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1587
Regulations on E-waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1588
Innovative Approach on Management of E-waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1589
NaMo E-waste Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1590
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1591
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1591
Abstract
Electronic and electrical wastes (e-waste) are generated from used electrical and
electronic gadgets, after their lifetime or discarded for the reason of upgradation.
The rapid growth in population causes 20–50 million tons of e-waste generated
R. Subramaniam · K. Rajagopalan · M. G. R. Mathews

Regeneration and Stem Cell Biology Lab, Centre for Molecular and Nanomedical Sciences,
International Research Centre, Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology (Deemed to be
University), Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
J. D. Selvan Christyraj (*) · J. R. S. Selvan Christyraj (*)
Scientist ‘C’, Regeneration and Stem Cell Biology Lab, Centre for Molecular and Nanomedical
Sciences, International Research Centre, Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology (Deemed
to be University), Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
e-mail: jacksondurairaj@sathyabama.ac.in; johnnbt@sathyabama.ac.in

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_115
1574 R. Subramaniam et al.
worldwide. Components of electrical and electronic waste include circuit boards,

batteries, cathode-ray tubes, plastic casings, activated glass, and lead capacitors
which are also classified in the category of e-waste. E-waste is highly hazardous
to human health, and obviously it exhibits inherent mutagen to all living
populations. Importantly, the possible risk of fetus perturbations and child
neurodevelopmental problems affects the people living in informal e-waste
recycling sites. E-waste recycling consists of the following processes: collection
of e-waste from the source site, preprocessing, recovery of reusable materials, and
final disposal of nonrecyclable residues. The clarification of unexplored areas
(e-waste) of individual countries, amelioration of e-waste-tracking management
system, identification of key barriers, and integrated technologies which concern
socioeconomic factors are the effective cures for an e-waste management system.
Support of effective recycling management relies on administration, customers,
corporate, and public society organizations. Recycling e-waste is a significant
step to reduce the hazards, and energy conversion production, like metals from
e-waste using microorganisms (bioleaching), is discussed in this chapter. In
addition, the current perspectives of e-waste generation, environment and eco-
nomic status, existed and upgraded problems, advances in recent trends of
treatment technologies, techno-socioeconomic-innovative solutions, and the
importance of effective alternatives like green technologies are discussed in this
chapter.
Keywords
E-waste management · Composition of e-waste · Health risks · Treatment of
e-waste · Innovative solutions for e-waste
Introduction
Urbanization Trend and Waste Generation: Current and Future

Scenario of E-waste
Globally, more than 4 billion people are living in urban areas. According to the
estimation of the UN, 2007 is the first year which has a higher population in urban
areas than rural areas. UN World Urbanization Prospects have revealed that in the year
2050, more than two-thirds of the world population will live in urban areas. Urban-
ization is a direct or indirect accumulation of people coming from rural areas with a
possibility to generate a high quantity of waste. The ratio of migration is higher in
developing countries than in developed countries. The reasons for urbanization are
employment opportunities, medical facilities, easy access to basic needs, and techno-
logical development in common sectors. Due to this rapid urbanization, the necessity
of the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle) has become important (Terazono et al. 2006).
As the technological advancement moves further, the accumulation of electronic
and electrical waste (e-waste) has also evolved. Commercially by the profit-focused
61 E-Waste Management: Rising Concern on Existing Problems, Modern. . . 1575
Fig. 1 Schematic representation of the generation of e-waste
approach, all the electronic equipment produced has a purpose for a shorter duration,
so consumers are changing these products periodically and replacing their older
products with a newer and updated one (Kumar et al. 2017).
These electronic wastes are generated due to rapid urbanization and industriali-
zation. Commercial production of electronic goods and appliances is higher, so is the
consumption of these products. As the products are designed for a shorter life span,
after their productivity is fulfilled, they will be either discarded or repaired. Since
most of the consumers are attracted to the advanced version of their older product
and repairing cost is comparatively higher, they tend to eliminate the product, which
leads to the accumulation of e- wastes (Fig. 1).
The generic term e-waste or e-scrap refers to the product of all types of electrical
and electronic equipment (EEE) and its components that have been discarded as
waste by the consumer. It is otherwise known as waste electrical and electronic
equipment (WEEE). Currently, e-waste management has become not only an
integral part of environmental conservation but stated also for resource utilization.
The annual e-waste production of a product can be calculated through (Robinson
2009):
MN
E¼
L
E is the annual e-waste production in kilograms, M is the mass of the product in
kilograms, N is the number of products in service, and L is the average life span of
the product.
Composition of E-waste
Electronic wastes are more complex and diverse to identify. There are six categories
of e-waste (Herat and Agamuthu 2012; Widmer et al. 2005) (Fig. 2):
• Temperature exchange equipment – refrigerators, cooling units, air conditioners,

freezers, and heat pumps
• Screens – monitors, LCD displays, LED screens, televisions, CRT screens,
notebooks, tablets, and laptops
• Lamps – fluorescent lamps, LED lights, bulbs, gas discharge lamps, and
sodium lamps
• Large equipment – washing machines, dishwashers, electric stoves, cloth dryers,
lawnmowers, sewing machines, printing machines, and medical devices
• Small equipment – microwave ovens, vacuum cleaners, toasters, electric kettles,
electric cookers, coffee machines, iron boxes, radio sets, cameras, toys, and video
recorders
• Small IT equipment – mobile phones, personal computers (PC), telephones, fax
machines, and global positioning systems (GPS)
The equipment listed above is often classified into three types: white goods (home
appliances), brown goods (TV, camera), and grey goods (PC, printers). The building
blocks of this EEE have removable parts such as metal, plastic, glass, rubber, circuit
Fig. 2 Categories of e-waste. According to the BBC, about 37% of small equipment, 22% of large
equipment, 17% of temperature exchange equipment, 14% of screens, 9% of small IT equipment,
and 1% of lamps have been accounted for the global e-waste output by 2020
board, textile, thermostat, batteries, cables, fibers, and radioactive elements which all
fall under hazardous and nonhazardous groups (Pinto 2008). Materials in the e-waste
mostly comprise plastics, ferrous material (steel), nonferrous material (copper,
aluminum, and silver), rubber, glass, chemicals, gallium, nickel, arsenic, cadmium,
mercury, silica, and others including wood, rubber, ceramic, etc. (Mundada et al.
2004; Vats and Singh 2014).
Sources of E-waste
• Home – household e-waste mostly includes home appliances such as bulbs, fans
(ceiling fan, table fan, and exhaust fan), chimneys, microwave ovens, refrigera-
tors, air conditioners, water heaters, mixer grinders, induction stoves, televisions,
desktop computers, washing machines, and dishwashers.
• Hospital – most of the medical devices belong to the EEE category. Devices
such as Electrocardiogram (ECG), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
scanners, microscopes, and incubators account for most of the medical
e-scraps.
• Public and private sectors – these sectors include most of the e-waste production.
Wastes such as PC, air conditioner, fax machine, and printer (Mundada et al.
2004) (Fig. 3).
Fig. 3 Sources of e-waste in homes, hospitals, and public and private sectors (Kaya 2016)
Types of E-waste and Its Hazard
Electronic wastes are classified into ten different types according to the Environ-
mental Protection Act, 1986 (Pramila et al. 2012) based on their size and application.
These types include major appliances, small appliances, computers and telecommu-
nication appliances, consumer electronics, lighting devices, electric and electronic
tools, toys and devices for leisure, medical devices, monitoring devices, and vending
machines.
Type 1: Major Appliances

The term “major appliances” refers to large electronic equipment such as washing
machine, dishwasher, electric stove, cloth dryer, and lawnmower that are used at
home on a daily basis. These constitute white and brown goods. Most of the
appliances have electric circuit boards which consist of lead and flame retardants.
Owing to the presence of heavy metals, toxic chemicals, carcinogens, and radioac-
tive materials, these wastes are considered hazardous. If these wastes are not
properly managed, they can present a significant environmental impact and human
health risk (Pramila et al. 2012).
Type 2: Small Appliances

Food processors, microwave ovens, humidifiers, coffeemakers, mixers, iron boxes,
electric kettles, and juicers are considered small appliances. Electronic waste is made
up of a variety of components, including various sizes and shapes, some of which
contain hazardous components that must be removed and treated separately. Most of
the semiconductors used in the appliances are made up of arsenic compounds, which
are known to cause skin disorders, increased risk of diabetes, neurological disorders,
and myocardial infractions (Ratnaike 2003).
Type 3: Computer and Telecommunication Appliances

Technological advancements over the past century result in the generation of a huge
quantity of e-waste. In contrast, the disposal of e-waste has become a major problem
in the current era. Personal computers are an essential part of our lives, but they
contain a variety of harmful chemicals, including poisonous gases, chlorinated and
brominated substances, heavy metals (such as cadmium and mercury), acids, bio-
logically active ingredients, oils, and latex additives, among others (Yeow and Loo
2018). These compounds are often harmful not only to human beings but also to the
environment. As a result, it becomes important to dispose of these e-wastes with
intense care. Smartphones have developed into an effective multifunctional gadget
that functions as a wristwatch, calculator, music player, and minitheater in addition
to telecommunications (Rahmani et al. 2014). But the manufacturers use lithium-ion,
nickel-cadmium batteries which are very harmful to the environment and human
health.
Type 4: Consumer Electronics

Mobile devices, televisions, set-top boxes, monitors, appliances, and white goods
are considered as consumer electronics. Many materials are used in consumer
electronics, including ferrous and nonferrous metals, plastics, glass, wool, ceramics,
printed circuit boards, rubber, and other materials. Printed circuit boards (PCBs) are
commonly used in electrical devices as conductors. PCBs are made up of 60 elements
from the periodic table, covering both dangerous and useful metals. They have a
heterogeneous composition, with around 30% metallic and 70% nonmetallic ele-
ments, though the composition varies depending on the manufacturer and the class
(TV, set-top boxes, computer, etc.) (Sodha et al. 2019). Due to rapid technological
advances and the short lifetime of electronic devices, vast quantities of WEEE have
been produced. It is impossible to get rid of consumer electronics after they have
outlived their utility.
Type 5: Lighting Devices

Compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) and mercury-containing lamps are generally used
as lighting devices in various places. Important human organs such as the lungs,
liver, and nervous system are harmed by inhaling mercury vapor or tiny amounts of
mercury or its derivatives. Skin penetration or resorption by the gastrointestinal tract
may also cause health problems. As a key regulation in avoiding the complications
that might occur if a lamp breaks, mercury vapor lamps must be avoided according
to the manufacturer’s guidelines (Zeng et al. 2020).
Type 6: Electrical and Electronic Tools

Discarded electrical and electronic equipment, such as noncontact voltage detectors,
subscriber identification module (SIM) cards, batteries, multimeters, tape measures,
and refrigerators are classified as electrical and electronic waste or e-waste. As
technology has advanced, E-waste has become a severe environmental and health
issue in developed countries. Due to rapid advancement in technology, the need for
electrical and electronic equipment is increasing in day-to-day life. Transistors,
condensers, circuit boards, and power cables contain lead, copper, chromium, tin,
nickel, arsenic, phthalates, polychlorinated biphenyls, and zinc compounds which
pose a high threat to human health and well-being (Ishchenko et al. 2018).
Type 7: Toys and Leisure

Nowadays, innovative toys are developed with advanced technological features, to
attract kids. Toys such as puzzles, sports equipment, models, sound, and light toys
and talking toys are being reimagined with integrated electrical and electronic
components that were previously unavailable. However, the majority of small
waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) has been manufactured as “dis-
posable” items, with no consideration for upgradability or reuse. Plastics and
batteries present in toys have been shown to cause many adverse effects on both
the environment and humans.
Type 8: Medical Devices

Developing countries rapidly generate a lot of unnecessary waste, such as electron-
ics, plastics, and a range of biodegradable items for medical treatments. According to
reports, over half of the world’s population was still at risk of contamination and
public health risks related to insufficient healthcare waste management before the
COVID-19 pandemic (Klemeš et al. 2020). According to the World Health Organi-
zation (WHO), nearly 85% of all biomedical waste produced worldwide is classified
as nonhazardous, with just 10% classified as contagious, and the remaining 5%
classified as nonhazardous but containing hazardous chemicals (Abu-Qdais et al.
2020). Generally, improper medical waste treatment is a major source of the origin
and spread of infectious diseases. Most medical monitor device manufacturers are
not producing devices with recyclable ideas. Hence, medical devices became major
e-waste after their life span.
Type 9: Monitoring Devices

Monitoring devices such as blood pressure monitors, patient monitors, portable ECG
(echocardiogram), pulse oximeter, pulse watches, and thermometer are widely used
in healthcare centers especially more in emergency wards. An electrochemical
sensor in a monitoring system has a normal life cycle of 2–3 years. A more exotic
gas sensor, on the other hand, can only last 12–18 months. For optimal performance,
the gas detector should be serviced every 6 months. CRT monitors withhold a large
amount of leaded glass, which when discarded pollute the environment and end up in
lead contamination and toxicity.
Type 10: Vending Machines

Vending machine is an automatic system that serves a variety of items to consumers,
such as cookies, chocolates, drinks, pizzas, cupcakes, newspapers, and tickets. These
vending machines cause major e-waste sources in cities. Obviously, most of the
vending machine parts are nonrecyclable. This causes serious problems to the
environment and waste management system.
E-waste Management
Preview of E-waste: A Global Challenge
Consequences of E-waste on Human Health

According to the report, in the year 2013, more than 40 million megatons of e-waste
has been produced (McAllister 2013). In accordance with the ratio of “Global
E-Waste Monitor 2020,” it is revealed that around 54 (53.6) Mt of e-waste has
been produced worldwide in the year 2020. The worldwide scenario of e-waste
generation and recycling in the year 2019 have shown in (Figs. 4 and 5). Many
researchers have unveiled the antagonistic eco-toxicological influences and distinct
health effects of e-waste recently. The electrical and electronic materials made up of
Fig. 4 Worldwide scenario of e-waste generation in the year 2019. The report of Global E-waste
Monitor expressed the highest quantity of e-waste has been generated in Europe (5.1 Mt) and Asian
countries (2.9 Mt). The lowest quantity has been generated in Oceania and Africa (0.06 Mt and
0.03 Mt). Importantly, the developed country like United states of America has generated 1.2 Mt of
e-waste in the year 2019
Fig. 5 Worldwide scenario of e-waste recycling in 2019. The report of Global E-waste Monitor
expressed the highest quantity of e-waste has been recycled in Europe (42%) and Asian Countries
(11.7%). The lowest quantity has been recycled in Oceania and Africa (8.8% and 0.9%)
mercury, cadmium, barium, polybrominated flame retardants, and lithium are toxic
to human health, and direct or indirect exposure affects important human organs.
Ranganathan and many researchers have registered the influence of e-waste on
human health, notably e-waste affecting the reproductive system, developmental
system, nephron system, adaptive and cell-mediated immune responses of the
immune system, and nervous system, interfering with directing hormones, brain
(impedes brain growth in children), lungs (possibility of cancer), skin (ailments),
DNA, muscle, endocrine system, inflammation and oxidative stress system, etc.
Besides, e-waste also causes chronic beryllium disease, asthmatic bronchitis, and
accumulation of heavy metals in organs such as kidney and lungs and causes cancer
by targeting the DNA damage (Yang et al. 2019; Person et al. 2013; Il’yasova and
Schwartz 2005).
Effects of E-waste in Future

E-waste is one of the speediest rising waste in this ecosphere because of the demand
for electrical and electronic spare parts (it is rising 3–5% every year). Notably, only
15% of e-waste has been involved in recycling. According to a report of the UN, the
University-Hosted (StEP) Enterprise has revealed that the amount of e-waste pro-
duction could be doubled by the upcoming year 2050. Since 2000, e-waste has been
raised from 20 million to 50 million According to that StEP has revealed predictably
111 million tons of e-waste per year will be generated by 2050. Importantly, Ming
Hung Wong has revealed the serious concern and impacts of e-waste in the future.
Particularly children will be affected by the exposure of e-waste rather than adults. In
2012, figures depicted that India alone produces more than 8,00,000 tons of elec-
tronic scrap (computers: more than 500%). Estimated generation of e-waste have
shown in (Fig. 6). From 2017 to 2020, the mobile phone waste will increase
Fig. 6 Estimated generation

of e-waste during the financial
year of FY (2017–2018),
(2018–2019), and
(2019–2020). The report of
Central Pollution Control
Board (CPCB)) has revealed
the estimated generation of
e-waste during the financial
year 2017–2018 (7,08,445 t),
2018–2019 (7,71,215 t), and
2019–2020 (10,14,961.2 t).
The estimated generation has
increased 32% in 2019–2020
compared to 2018–2019 while
62,770 t of waste has
increased from 2017–2018 to
2018–2019 and in 2019–2020
has increased to 2,43,746.2
lakh tons of waste
17 times. Electrical and electronic workers, particularly child laborers and workers,
have higher chances of getting serious health issues due to the exposure to e-waste
chemicals such as mercury, beryllium, arsenic, lead, and cadmium. The ecosystem is
collapsed due to the production of e-waste, because when e-waste is burned up, the
toxic chemical mixes with atmospheric air and causes severe air pollution that affects
the atmosphere directly. In another phase, e-waste dumped under landfills directly
causes land pollutions and might mix with water sources and cause severe water
pollution.
E-waste Treatment Technologies
Worldwide, recovering resources from waste materials is an effective objective of

waste management systems. For many decades, many treatment technologies like
incineration have been implemented in all countries worldwide. Wang et al. have
expressed innovative approaches for the technological scheme of e-waste practice
and its outer societal line for implementation. The technical system has seven phases,
viz, source percentage, stock, businesses and management, end-of-life, reuse, treat-
ment preprocessing factory, and terminal disposition. Generally, the treatment pre-
processing have varied from developed and developing countries viz., informal
(dominant in developed countries) and formal preprocessors (dominant in develop-
ing countries). Basal metal recycling and plastic recyclers come under informal
leaching, and precious metals, pb-glass and battery recyclers, landfill, MSW incin-
eration, and handling come under formal preprocessors. Particularly, plastic recy-
clers come under both processes of repairers.
Treatment Stages of E-waste: Comparative Scenario

Generally, many treatment stages and scenarios are practiced for the management of
e-waste. Gmünder 2007, has practiced a comparative scenario and practiced
methods, viz., the weight of the waste computer is 1000 gm (MB 69.2 gm, speaker
2.2 gm, battery 0.5 gm, screws 1.3 gm, other PWBs 23.8 gm, CDD 95.8 gm, wires
14.6 gm, FDD 39.3 gm, plastics 57.7 gm, switch 0.8 gm, PS 138.1 gm, HDD
50.8 gm, connectors 7.4 gm, case 498.5 gm). The first stage of treatment is toxic
removal, which can be carried out by the scenarios of Bo2W: controlled landfill,
shredding, informal recycling, municipal incineration, and partial dismantling. The
secondary stage of treatment is preprocessing, manual dismantling, and shredding
which can be applicable to Bo2W: fractional dismantling, the rest of all scenarios are
not applicable. The end processing PWBs and batteries are the third stage of
treatment which can be applied in the toxic removal shredding, direct shredding,
fractional and complete dismantling, and unceremonious reprocessing; meticulous
landfill and civic incineration scenarios are not suitable for this stage of treatment.
The final stage of treatment is aluminum, copper, iron, and steel fractions and
plastics suitable for all except controlled landfill and municipal incineration (Wang
et al. 2012).
Environmentally Encyclopedic E-waste Treatment Technologies

The e-waste management expertise lies in the factual movement of electrical and
electronics. There are three levels of treatment technologies that have been practiced
in most of the treatment systems. The wastages will be disposed of properly after the
energy recovering process at the tertiary level of treatment.
First Level Treatment of E-waste

The first level of e-waste treatment has three stages such as decontamination (gases
and liquid discharge), dismantling (crack-up of substances by manual or mechanical
method), and segregation.
Collection, Decontamination, Dismantling, and Segregation

E-Waste Management Rules, 2016, has been notified by the Ministry of Environ-
ment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India. The collection of e-waste
mostly contains antiquated electrical parts such as radios, computers, laptops,
television sets, coolers, laundry machines, air conditioners, and fluorescent or
other mercury lanterns. E-waste is collected by e-waste collectors, and manual or
automated dismantlers take the responsibility of recycling electronic waste through a
mix of the manual and automated process. Dismantling is a process to achieve zero
impact on the environment and maximize the valuable products from the reuse of
e-waste. The e-waste resources are highly demanded by several enterprises,
yielders, customers, collecting stations, dispensers, e-retainers, refurbishers,
dismantlers, and recyclers have concerned in their production, marketing, instruc-
tions, acquisition, compilation, storehouse, and processing of values. Assemblage
and channelization of e-waste come under the producer (electrical equipment). All
state administrations have elected a set of dismantlers for e-waste management, for
example, Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) has allotted authorization
for 24 units, 22 dismantlers, 1 recycler, and 1 refurbisher.
Secondary Level Treatment

During secondary treatment, harmless (nonhazardous) e-waste materials such as
CRT, circuit board, plastic, and cables were separated. Certain sections have the
three-unit operations of e-waste processing such as hammering, shredding, special
handling like CRT approach containing parting glass and funnel, eddy current
separation, electromagnetic compensation, and density separation. The progression
flow of non-CRT treatment is about pre-comminuting (separation of plastics from
e-waste) that has been applied for rough liberation. Accordingly, the material has
been processed by the stages of current separation (magnetic and eddy) of ferrous
and nonferrous materials, the liberation of nonferrous metals, unproved separation
classification, dust extraction of the coarse metal fraction, electrostatic separation of
metal fraction, and pulverization of unliberated materials. During the process flow,
metals have been separated from the waste such as Cu, Al, Ag, Au, and other fragile
metals.
Third Level Treatment

Plastics and ferrous and nonferrous materials are recovered from e-waste and
converted into economic values. Metal recovery is the primary objective of the
operations. The process of recovering provides the following: plastic products
from sorted plastic using recycling; energy recovered from plastic assortment and
plastic combination with FR using an energy-retrieval process and burning; glass
cullet from CRT using mechanical breaking and recovering; lead from lead smelting
using secondary lead smelter; iron from ferrous metal scrap using secondary steel
and iron recycling; important metals such as aluminum and copper from nonferrous
metal scrap of e-waste using smelting process; and the costliest metals such as gold,
silver, platinum, and palladium recovered from precious metals using refining.
Recovery, reuse, and incineration process have been used for recovering energy.
Incineration has been used for energy recovery from many inputs such as capacitors,
CFC, oil, and plastic mixtures as well as with FR.
Other Treatment Methods
Many other treatment methods also have been used for the specific types of e-waste.
The treatment technologies have been varied from various countries such as China,
Europe, and Vietnam. Environmental legislation and implementation have been
represented by the European Union. China has invested a high cost in the recycling
process to develop an amazing infrastructure. Unregulated situations have been
controlled in various countries like Vietnam (Salhofer 2017).
Environmentally Responsible E-waste Disposal Methods
The process of refurbishment, recycling, or reusing is key to an eco-safety process as

well as the elimination of e-waste, because when e-waste materials are not properly
discarded, they cause severe effects on the environment (Udhayakumar 2017).
Melting circuit boards and cable sheath burning are some of the best methods to
treat e-waste as well as recover copper wires and open-pit acid. Also, electrolysis,
osmosis, electrolytic recovery, condensation, filtration, and centrifugation have been
used for reclaiming waste materials. Illinois Sustainable Technology Centre has
found a way to separate miscellaneous polymers. Importantly, this technique has
been used for the separation of mixed plastics in electronics.
Importance of Repair, Reuse, and Recycle

Increasing the production of eco-friendly products and implementation of those
innovative solutions to the market could be an amazing way to fix management
issues. Innovative solutions on e-waste handling will reduce the impact on the
environmental and economic status of the world. Importantly, e-waste management
experts have suggested three innovative solutions such as BMW’s Gas-To-Energy
Project, silicone circuit boards, and dissolvable batteries.
BMW’s Gas-To-Energy Project

The production of methane gas from electrical waste is an objective of BMW’s Gas-
To-Energy Project. The original project was implemented in 2003 and initiated with
the help of Ameresco and waste management. The palmetto landfill has been
processed then compressed by the specific setup for the production of methane
gas. The gas has been subjected to pass through the 9.5-mile pipeline to the BMW
plant. Finally, efficient electrical energy and heat water are produced from the
methane gas released from the plant. In 2009, four turbines have been added to the
BMW plant for the amelioration of production. As per the advancement, the
electrical output increased 14–30%. Interestingly, more than 90,000 t of CO2
emissions have been reduced by increasing the quantity of new landfill gas pro-
grams. Additionally, the production of electrical energy has been doubled due to the
addition of turbines in the plant that is directly proportional to the reduction of CO2.
Whereas the BMW plant system is noncost effective, it has reduced labor cost by
about 80% compared to lead acid-based batteries.
Silicon Circuit Boards

Generally, printed circuit boards (PCB) are commonly used for the construction of
all electrical circuits such as medical devices (monitors, infusion pumps, and internal
devices), LED, automated devices (residential lighting, storefront lighting, computer
displays, and medical lighting), consumer electronics, industrial equipment, etc. The
silicone circuit boards are similar to the PCB boards, but the material is made up of
silicon substrate rather than FR-4. The reliability, signaling, costs, and low power
consumptions are a benefit of the silicon circuit boards, and importantly, they did not
produce any hazardous materials during the process of recycling. As silicon batteries
are soluble, researchers decided to use silicon in circuit boards. As per their execu-
tion, they made 1 mm-thick circuit boards which take 3–6 months to dissolve in the
landfill process. Generally, circuit boards take at least 10 years to dissolve in the
landfill.
Boards and Dissolvable Batteries

Biocompatible/natural materials have been used for the production of dissolvable
batteries. Some researchers have used the skin pigment of melanin and foils of
magnesium or iron as electrodes and electrolytes. Prachi Patel has produced
dissolved batteries from silk films – the size of the batteries is about 170-μm
thickness, 0.87 V will be generated, and the density is 8.7μW/cm2. Dissolved
batteries were created from the issue of discarding the batteries, because they are
one of the hardest wastages in the category of e-waste; hence, researchers produced
water-soluble batteries, but initially they generated hybrid batteries like the conjunc-
tion of lithium into batteries which dissolve in water within 30 min. The production
of dissolvable batteries directly influences the production of e-waste; the generation
of e-waste is directly proportional to the production of dissolvable batteries.
E-waste: Innovative Solutions
Electronic wastages will be controlled from repair and reuse. Minimizing the
purchase of new electrical devices instead of repairing defective ones will help
reduce the e-waste generation ratio. Amelioration of electrical and electronics repair
and service centers will reduce the level of e-waste generation. Implementation of
knowledge on electrical and electronic materials handling, collection, treatment, and
recycling in all sectors and their dos and don’ts have to be known. King et al. have
described four alternative strategies for diminishing waste by extended producer
accountability (refurbishing, reconditioning, remanufacturing, or recycling), repro-
duction, and former research authentication, and these all are distinguished from
renovation and reconditioning (King et al. 2006). Increasing the number of house-
hold waste recycling centers and e-waste collection centers will reduce the impact of
e-waste on nature. Besides, choosing rechargeable batteries and the introduction of
recycling battery box stores will reduce battery waste effectively. Irin Sutha has
suggested loopholes in the e-waste management system such as lack of awareness
and inadequate policies related to e-waste issues; more attention to social and
environmental standpoint, understanding the importance of practical and cultural
realities on the ground, and effective supply chain constructions of e-waste are
needed. Those loopholes have to be rectified by producers and consumers like
common people (Irin Sutha 2020). Innovative solutions on e-waste handling will
reduce the impact on the environmental and economic status of countries like green
electronics. One of the best innovative solutions to minimize the generation of
e-waste is eco-friendly electronic gadgets (green electronics) (Yadav et al. 2020).
Eco-friendly Laptops
Increasing the usage of eco-friendly laptops is the best way to reduce e-waste
because they need less power and the toxic chemical emission ratio is low during
the process of recycling. Recently, some producers initiated the manufacturing of
eco-friendly laptops such as ASUS and Lenovo. Biofuel and organic light-emitting
diodes (OLEDs) have been used as the source for manufacturing, and their cells are
made up of natural gas, methanol, and other eco-friendly liquid fuels, to create
eco-friendly electronics initiated from material selection. The material selection
phases which do not harm the environmental status have been carefully chosen by
the producers of Apple, Asus, and Lenovo recently, and they are certified by the
Swedish Confederation of Professional Employees (TCO), for example, Apple
MacBook, Lenovo ThinkPad T480, Asus Vivo Book 15 X505BP (EPEAT certifica-
tion), and HP ENVY – 13-ah0044tx (EPEAT Silver certification), inclusive of
policy-making approaches.
Green Chargers and Solar Power Banks

Green chargers are used for controlling the overusage of electrical energy consump-
tion: If the device charge is low, green chargers are programmed to automatically
charge the device as well as stop the power supply once the device is fully charged.
Compared to other chargers, green chargers store more than 80% of energy. In
another phase, solar power banks generate power from sunlight. These materials
are used to reduce the generation of e-waste because their rate of expiry is much
lower than that of noneco-friendly materials as well as these are easily repairable.
Wooden Keyboards and Other Materials

E-wastages are filled with computer keyboards. Wooden keyboards are reducing the
production of plastics and electronics waste. Replacing toxic electronic materials
with wooden materials is an effective way to overcome the production of e-waste.
Regulations on E-waste
A report from the Global E-waste Monitor (2020) shows around 53.6 million metric
tons of e-waste was produced in 2019, with an average of 7.3 kg per person. With
this growing trend of e-waste generation, many campaigns, policies, and projects in
eliminating and recycling these wastes have been started. Most of the developed
countries such as the USA, Canada, and Europe recycle older products, refurbish
them, and sell them as secondhand materials in the markets of developing countries
such as India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka (Rajput and Nigam 2021). Many countries
have adopted their own national e-waste policies in e-waste management like
the extended producer responsibility (EPR). Under EPR, collection, recycling of the
eliminated products, fees for their disposal with the purchase of the product, and the
environmental labeling of the electronic products are included. One among the popular
e-waste managements is the “take back approach,” in which, when the consumer buys
a product, they will be charged for their disposal too, and when its productivity is
finished, the commercial manufacturer has to collect it from the consumer, recycle it,
and may reuse it (Nnorom and Osibanjo 2008). Many initiatives in managing
e-waste have been funded by many private sectors, governments, and global orga-
nizations. Big manufacturers such as Dell, HP, IBM, and Nokia have initiated small
take-back approaches and recycling units for their products. Braun, Sony, and
Electrolux have enforced their producers to follow the local WEEE guidelines.
The Solving the E-waste Problem (SteP) is initiated by the United Nations to address
the insights of WEEE usage annually and their global impact. Even though many
actions have been taken for the mitigation of e-waste, as the generation is higher than
the recycling, they were at a slower pace.
Extended Producer Responsibility (WEEE): Redefining E-waste

Management
Extended producer responsibility is an action and policy approach in which manu-
facturers are responsible for the maintenance of the disposal of products they
produce after customers have determined that they are no longer usable. Economic,
environmental, and social gains can all be linked to extended producer responsibility
policies. Local governments are typically responsible for the expense of managing
and coordinating the collection of solid waste. Rising waste generation, stricter
technical requirements for landfill and incinerator operation, and challenges in
constructing new waste disposal facilities due to public opposition all contribute to
waste disposal costs. In most cases, the government, specifically municipalities, is
responsible financially and physically for waste disposal. Extended producer respon-
sibility is an effort to encourage manufacturers to design goods with lower environ-
mental impact products by reducing waste management costs to the manufacturer.
WEEE (waste from electrical and electronic devices, also known as e-waste) is the
fastest-growing waste group, with 50 million tons generated per year and an annual
growth rate of 3–5%. Most countries are currently responsible for waste collection
and spend millions of dollars gathering and eliminating e-waste. However, these
policies often fail when policymakers lack the financial resources to fully develop
and implement them. Placing blame for product disposal on manufacturers will
allow policymakers greater freedom in crafting legislation that promotes recycling
at a low cost to all sides, while also raising awareness of the concerns EPR aims to
address. One of the benefits of EPR is that as the strategy imposes pressure on
countries that produce e-waste, it becomes more and more efficient. The regulation
of e-waste forces utilities to either deal with the waste or introduce alternative ways
for manufacturers to create products. When more nations follow these policies, it
becomes more difficult for some to ignore the problems.
The Handy Kiosks: Empowering People to Manage E-waste

A kiosk is a compact, self-contained business booth that is commonly seen in urban
areas. It usually offers data and software in the areas of education, commerce,
culture, and waste management. Kiosk’s device is famous because of the many
benefits they offer. There are a lot of electronic manufacturers installing Kiosks in
major cities, so electronic device users can drop their devices in a kiosk and get cash
instantly. The rare metals and materials are recycled by electronic device manufac-
turers. Kiosk reduces landfill and e-waste contamination in the environment. Copper
and aluminum are low-cost metals. But their usage in electronic devices is a
considerable amount; hence, recycling devices helps to reduce e-waste and metal
extract energy from the earth. Kiosk’s device usage also reduces toxic materials in
landfills. Smartphones contain heavy metals such as lead, zinc, and cadmium. These
metals cause severe impacts on the soil and groundwater. Therefore, innovative ideas
like handy kiosks surely empower e-waste management.
Innovative Approach on Management of E-waste
Many innovative ideas are surfacing for the management of e-wastes. In 2019,
e-hollow blocks and e-solid bricks have been recommended to dump e-waste
properly without any hazards to the environment and human health, unlike landfills
and incineration. Raw e-wastes can be pounded into small pieces and filled into a
hollow block. After it is filled, the opening can be closed with a block of cement and
can be used for constructions. In e-solid bricks, e-wastes can be disassembled and the
small pieces mixed with the brick mix and used as construction material. Through
these procedures, the accumulation of e-waste in the environment can be decreased
in an efficient amount.
NaMo E-waste Processing
The NaMo E-waste processing center has assured a complete end-to-end solution to
e-waste disposal. NaMo provides three major categories of services for e-waste
management such as proservice (Producer Responsibility Organisation (PRO) Ser-
vice for Extended Producer Responsibility), reverse logistics, and data destruction.
The NaMo E-waste processing facility is one of the best recycling enterprises in
India (Ghatak 2021). The NaMo e-waste management has followed a simple process
for managing e-waste. The processing center works on eight parts such as scheduled
time for pickup, onsite data destruction, material collection, secured transport,
receipt of material, dismantling, refurbishment and repair, shredding, and segrega-
tion. Generally, an initial step of the NaMo E-waste processing center is to segregate
scrap (part of e-waste) into repairable and nonrepairable parts. From nonrepairable
matters, valuable materials like aluminum were recovered from refrigerator (sent for
dismantling) recycling. During the process of dismantling, metals are separated from
plastics, PCBs, wires, etc., Importantly, the tire-shredding separation method is used
for the segregation of toxic plastic from metals that could protect the environment and
human health from plastics. During this process, there is no emission in any form of
gas, water, or chemical. After the process of dismantling, the commodities, such as
aluminum, rubber, iron, glasses, copper, etc., are extracted and processed to the
approved foundries. The extracted sources are directly processed, furbished, and
Fig. 7 Finding of inventions from the extractions of e-waste. The graph depicts the total inventions
found from parts of e-waste. The maximum number of inventions have been found in PCB boards,
LEDs, computers, and laptops. The least number of inventions have been found in discrete diodes,
transistors, antennas, and transformers
molded into different forms, like processed aluminum sent to automobile industries. In
NaMo E-waste processing center, more than 10 metric tons were recycled per day and
5500 metric tons were recycled in a year from 2018 to 2019 (Fig. 7).
Conclusion
Electronic wastes are rising along with urbanization and technology development.
They are differentiated based on their size and utilization. Accumulation of these
wastes has posed a great threat to the environment as well as humanity. Dumping of
these wastes in the land has contaminated the soil and water bodies with heavy
metals, radioactive elements, and toxic chemicals. Amelioration of the recycling
process is one of the effective options to manage e-waste as well as to prevent their
effects on the ecosystem. Mitigation of e-wastes is not possible currently, but we can
ensure safety by reducing, recycling, and innovating more eco-friendly products.
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Consumer’s Awareness and Perception
Towards E-Waste Management 62
Richa Goel, Seema Sahai, and Gurinder Singh
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1594
Understanding Past Research Through Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1596
Concerns Addressed in This Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1597
Main Issues Focused . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1598
Process Adapted to Understand the Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1598
Discussion and Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1599
Conceptual Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1600
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1600
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1602
Abstract
Most of the e-waste lie on the dumping because of increased requirements and
new enhancements in technology. Electronic waste, or e-waste, consists of all
types of electronic devices thrown away after their short, useful period is
exhausted. Most of them contain radioactive metals, which, when spilled onto
the soil, contaminate the environment. e-waste disposal slowly pollutes the
atmosphere and poses a growing global crisis. The world’s electronic waste
volume will hit 52.2 million tons or 6.8 kg per human by 2021 and 63.7 million
tons by 2025. In this chapter, we will be discussing consumer awareness and
perception of the management of e-waste. The dangers and opportunities associ-
ated with e-waste management are known to be very quickly growing into an
environmental danger. The primary review of 534 NCR customers was done by a
means of a standardized questionnaire. Statistical tools were used to identify the
awareness-raising factors which enable consumers to ensure that e-waste is
properly disposed of and treated. The results show that there are five key factors
which lead to customer choice during e-waste disposal. The precursor to this
R. Goel (*) · S. Sahai · G. Singh

Amity International Business School, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
e-mail: rgoel@amity.edu; ssahai@amity.edu; gsingh@amity.edu

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_71
1594 R. Goel et al.
includes awareness of the toxic harmful impact on human health, environmental

awareness hazards, awareness of e-waste disposals, knowledge of the value, and
convenience of recycling by various players in the management of e-waste. This
study explores the different ways in which the consumers’ approach to e-waste
can be modified, thereby helping society handle e-waste better and concentrating
on effective and effective disposal of e-waste.
Keywords
e-waste · Environmental pollution · Recycling · Reusing · Cost-effective
framework
Introduction
By 2025, the worldwide e-waste treatment industry will hit 63.705 million tonnes.
Cross-border sales of mobile products have been brought on by the increased
disposable incomes in developed countries combined with the consumer’s propen-
sity toward technologically advanced gadgets. In comparison, the number of waste
produced has also risen tremendously over the years as electronic devices are
growing worldwide. The management of e-scrap has since been a significant concern
for the growth and development of ecosystems, as there are substantial health risks
involved with e-scrap waste and incineration. There are also hopes that the treatment
and disposal of this waste will be a prime need for many nations worldwide, and the
expansion of the e-waste sector over the next 9 years will also have positive
consequences.
Furthermore, electronic waste generation and disposal methods have been regu-
lated by a number of countries worldwide. For example, all producers of electronic
devices were approved by the European Union (EU) to take on responsibility for
processing end-of-life goods. Any of them include the Directive on Restriction of
Dangerous Substances (RoHS), the Basel Convention, and the WEEE Directive,
inter alia. Waste management policies and services therefore lead to the development
of jobs and the transmission of technologies and thereby contribute to reduced
poverty and changes in health. However, the demand increase is likely to result in
higher e-waste recycling costs. Furthermore, the purchase of high-end equipment for
productive recycling and the guidance for staff to carry out all measures remain the
key obstacles to the development of the e-waste management industry. However, the
influence of these problems over time is supposed to be decreased by the growing
understanding of the dangerous effects of e-waste on human health along with
stringent legislation surrounding e-waste generation and care in a number of coun-
tries. Manufacturing and logistics are the main factors of global economic develop-
ment, and ICT, along with the electrical and electronics sectors, plays an important
role here. Recent scientific and technical developments reflect that daily life without
an electronic or electrical system is not complete today.
62 Consumer’s Awareness and Perception Towards E-Waste Management 1595
India is one of the world’s biggest growth markets in consumer electronics, and
by 2025, from its present 12th position, will be the fifth most extensive consumer
electronics sector. While the quality of our lives has been increased by electrical and
electro equipment, the use of electronic waste has also resulted in the production of
waste that causes health and the atmosphere. In addition to industrial customers, the
use of electrical and computer equipment (EEE) has risen exponentially. The
consumer consumption and the shorter product life cycle due to rapid technological
development have contributed to the fast growth of electronic waste (e-waste). The
e-waste includes obsolete TV, laptops, motherboards, cell telephone systems,
hangers, cathode-ray tubes, and printed circuit boards. According to the data
released in 2014 by the Central Emission Control Board (CPCB), 75% of the electric
waste is TV, 20% laptops, 2% cell telephones, and 3% of others like toys and
recreational and sports equipment. In Singapore, the Senior Minister of State Amy
Khor revealed the compulsory scheme for electrical and electronic waste manage-
ment in 2021 on Tuesday (March 6). The system will include five main product
groups – information and communication technologies, such as cell phones and
computers; solar panels; batteries; lamps; and large household households. The
scheme is introduced in countries such as Sweden and South Korea where suppliers
and foreign goods are obligated to take back a proportion of the products they are
selling: the extended supplier obligation (EPR).
They must also coordinate the storage, transport, and careful management of
e-wastes along with the producer responsibility organizations (PROs) approved by
the National Environmental Agency (NEA) to approve e-waste recycling systems, in
order to ensure high safety and environmental quality in the processing and disas-
sembly. e-waste includes small concentrations of toxic metals including mercury and
cadmium. Electric and electronic waste is predominantly made of ferrous material
(38%), nonferrous material (28%), plastics (19%), glass (4%), and others (including
wood, rubber, ceramic, etc.) (11%) (Sushant et al. 2011). EPR schemes have created
new market prospects and employment in e-waste management and recycling sectors
in other countries, with the mandatory energy waste scheme being implemented both
to the environment and the industry. In France, for example, since the launch of EPR
in 2005, more than 3,000 e-waste recycling jobs have been created. Environmental
waste in today’s new and diverse digitized world is unlimited and generally flows
globally. Electronic waste contamination is a rising global concern, and its proper
management is a global problem. Some goods contain various kinds of toxic metals.
Mercury, cadmium, and cherry, among others, are examples. On the basis of a US
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), estimate, over 130 million units of all
kinds of electronic products are “retired” by American people every year. All these
metals can easily contaminate the atmosphere by dumping, more than 2 million
tonnes of e-dumping on the landfill every year.
Thrownaway e-waste, which is also called e-scrap, makes about 70% of the US
heavy metal disposal. All of these numbers can frighten you. Moreover, more than
80 percent of recyclable electronic products are shipping from the wealthy West to
low-resource countries, commonly referred to as poor countries, such as Asia and
1596 R. Goel et al.
Africa. The rich countries include the USA the EU and other advanced countries. In
e-waste management, consumer conscience and consumer behavior really play a
major role, while the regulatory framework defines accurately the role of each
stakeholder in e-waste. Failure to inform consumers and sell e-waste to hawkers is
a key barrier in e-waste management. This study suggests the diverse ways of
sensitizing consumers to the disposal of e-waste that will help society properly
deal with and focus on efficient and effective e-waste. e-waste is also being studied
for effectively managing e-waste.
Understanding Past Research Through Literature
Electronic waste management (or e-waste) is among the world’s fastest-growing

waste-reduction areas. Despite its potential adverse impact on the environment, new
technologies have quickly replaced millions of analogue devices and are being
disposed of at prescribed sites. During the last 20 years, the steady development of
new designs and intelligent functions and technologies led to the rapid obsolescence
of several electronic devices. The life of many electronic items was shortened
significantly by advances in electronics, attractive consumer design, marketing
problems, and compatibility problems (under 2 years for computers and cell phones)
(Peeranart et al. 2013; Macauley et al. 2003; Denga et al. 2006).
Recent advances in science and technology show that everyday life without an
electronic or electric device is today incomplete. India is one of the largest growing
consumer electronics markets in the world and by 2025, by its current 12th position,
will be the fifth largest consumer electronics market. Although the quality of our
lives has improved, the use of electrical and electronic equipment has also led to
electronic waste (e-waste), which is a cause of health and environmental problems.
e-waste has a direct relation to the economic growth of the country and total
consumer expenditure (Frost and Sullivan Report 2015). Some electronic devices
have materials that are toxic to environmental and human health risks relative to
traditional municipal waste (Woodell 2008). Children are more vulnerable to high-
risk activity (e.g., early-year hand-in-hand behaviors and high-risk behavior in
adolescence) and to changing metabolism (e.g., a large consumption of air and
water, food, and low rates of toxin eradication) due to their external routes of
exposure (e.g., lactating and placental exposure) (de Garbino 2004).
e-waste disposal workers’ children also have a housekeeper’s clothing and skin
pollution and clear high-level exposures if their homes are recycled (Kristen et al.
2013). It was discovered that the IT/ITeS sector contributes the largest amount of
e-waste generated. The replacement and desertion rate of electrical and electronic
equipment (EEE) in this area are relatively high with the launch of the latest and
updated versions of software every few months. Older hardware also does not
support the latest software, and as a result businesses have to opt for new hardware
which makes a major contribution to e-waste generation (Anwesha 2015). The value
of recycling, knowledge on the recycling, and recycling of e-waste need to be
included in the general consumers in order to make their involvement in e-waste
recycling more appealing (Guagnano et al. 1995; Domina and Koch 2002). Present
e-waste management activities in developing markets such as India are disturbed,
which can cause adverse health and ecological consequences. The concept is to
maintain precious metals, in view of the authors’ opinion, that could be a novel
approach to resource recovery if an efficient method for removal or recovery could
be proposed and developed (Viraja et al. 2012).
The possible detrimental impacts of the fast-growing use of computers, displays,
and televisions are not understood by most people. If they are deposited or inciner-
ated, the toxic chemicals they produce pose a health danger. The unsuitable storage
of computer devices adds to environmental pollution. With more e-waste placed in
places, chemical toxins are more likely to become exposed, contributing to the
increased risk of cancer and developmental and neurological disabilities (Khurrum
et al. 2011). Comfort is a significant influence on the consumer’s recycling actions. A
significant parameter of market recycling is how much recyclers collect e-waste
(Hornik et al. 2005). In addition to meta-analysis, it also states that the frequency of
recyclable processing is a good indicator of recycling. It is important that the user
should be aware of the access of government and various organizations to recycling
practices and facilities. Most experiments have shown that experience of recycling is
a good indicator of customer recycling behavior (Oskamp 1995). In compliance with
(Nnorom 2009), there are key challenges to e-waste recycling which are perceived to
be less susceptible to e-waste hazards and risks of not using proper techniques. This
research further shows that the ability of people to recycle e-waste is closely
connected to the environmental perception of e-waste problems.
Many research shows that education level and income have a favorable correla-
tion with residents’ recycling of e-waste (Tonglet et al. 2004). The study carried out
in Beijing (Zhaoua et al. 2011) confirms that customer desire and behavior in
electronic waste recycling are determined by the convenience of recycling facilities
and operation, recycling patterns, residential conditions, and economic benefits
(Jenkins et al. 2003). In his study, it has been pointed out that cost and convenience
have a major influence on consumer e-waste recycling. The research (Oskamp et al.
1991) has shown that there are important statistical associations between consumer
environmental problems and their recycled behavior. Past researchers suggest that
there is a strong link between income and customer recycling activity towards
e-waste management.
Concerns Addressed in This Chapter
The use of electric and electronic goods is growing rapidly in India. This has
contributed to higher rates of generation of e-waste, followed by high obsolescence
rates. The management of waste is an extremely difficult issue, in particular where
crude techniques for reclaiming usable components are introduced. e-waste generation
schemes in India are currently projected at 2.7 million tonnes per year. The manufac-
turer shall be liable under the E-waste Rules (Management and Handling) 2011 for
gathering e-waste from its products’ end of life according to the principle of extended
1598 R. Goel et al.
production duty and to guarantee that e-waste is channeled into a dismantler or

recycler registered. The three obstacles to ensuring that the new infrastructure is not
enough, that there is poor knowledge, and how this is applied is not clear.
This study is aimed at increasing customer understanding of waste management and

bridging the divide between consumers and e-waste management organizations by defining
awareness factors that lead to consumer preference for better disposal and management of
e-waste.
EWM is a vital and environmentally responsive topic for achieving the sustain-
able development goal. There have also been significant steps taken by the Indian
Government. The management of e-waste is not only a significant problem for India
but has now become a globally sensitive issue. It is linked directly to the well-being
of humanity.
Main Issues Focused
The objective of this study was to:
1. To study consumers’ awareness towards the e-waste management

2. To identify the awareness factors contributing to the consumer’s preference
towards the proper disposal and management of e-waste.
Process Adapted to Understand the Issues
This is an exploratory inquiry into the understanding and handling of e-waste by

users. The main and secondary data were gathered to perform this study. The primary
survey was conducted with standardized questionnaires and closed questions using
the Likert scale of five points ranging from “strong accord” to “strong disagree-
ment.” In order to carry out the discovery research and to recognize perception
factors influencing the customer preference for the proper disposal and management
of e-waste, a total of 534 NCR consumers were surveyed. For statistical analysis
using SPSS tools, the collected data were coded and entered. The application of
frequency distribution generated a demographic profile of the respondents.
There are five key factors which lead to customer choice during e-waste disposal.
The precursor to this includes awareness of the toxic harmful impact on human
health, environmental awareness hazards, awareness of e-waste disposals, knowl-
edge of the value, and convenience of recycling by various players in the manage-
ment of e-waste. This study explores the different ways in which the consumers’
approach to e-waste can be modified, thereby helping society handle e-waste better
and concentrating on effective and effective disposal of e-waste. Its significance lies
that it is the demand of an hour to establish a proper waste disposal and management
system which can, if not reduce, control this ever-growing problem.
Discussion and Analysis
As per the survey conducted, the respondents belong to varied demographic bands as
shown in Table 1.
Table 2 shows the segregation of respondents and their awareness as per Income
levels.
As per Table 2, 62% of the consumers are aware of e-waste management, and
47% of them are in the high-income group.
Further, the segregation of respondents based on education level has been shown
below.
As per Table 3, 58% of the consumers are aware of e-waste management, and
94.87% of them are postgraduate and professionals.
Table 1 Demographic Criteria Demographic profile Percentage

profile of the respondents
Gender Male 50.7
Female 49.3
Marital status Married 59.6
Unmarried 40.4
Age group 18–25 years 28.5
26–35 years 45.7
36–45 years 17.2
Above 45 years 8.6
Education Undergraduate 5
Graduate 18
Postgraduate 64
Professional 13
Income Below 1 L KH 15
1–5 LKH 23
5–10 LKH 39
Above 10 LKH 23
Table 2 Income levels S. No. Criteria Percentage

and e-waste awareness
1 Aware 62%
Below 1 LKH 5%
1–5 LKH 10%
5–10LKH 35%
Above 10LKH 12%
2 Not aware 38%
Below 1 LKH 12%
1–5 LKH 14%
5–10 LKH 10%
Above 10 LKH 2%
1600 R. Goel et al.
Table 3 Education levels S. No. Criteria Percentage

and e-waste awareness
1 Aware 58%
Undergraduate 30
Graduate 56
Postgraduate 135
Professional 88
2 Not aware 42%
Undergraduate 30
Graduate 64
Postgraduate 80
Professional 50
Table 4 Preference for S. No. Criteria Percentage

e-waste disposal
1 Preference for e-waste disposal 88%
2 Have no knowledge about how to dispose of 5%
e-waste
3 Not sure for proper disposal of e-waste 7%
As per Table 4, it is clear that a majority of the study comprising a total of 88%
have a preference for disposal of e-waste. Only 13% of the respondents are there who
are either not sure or have no awareness on how to dispose of e-waste.
An analysis was done to determine the influence of various factors of awareness
of e-waste. Table 5 shows the percentage of the number of respondents.
Conceptual Framework
The study (Fig. 1) shows a broad conceptual framework focusing on the factors
which are affecting the consumer preferences for e-waste disposal. It develops a
relational study which says that if the majority of the consumers are aware of the
harmful impacts on human health, then they prefer a proper disposal of e-waste.
Conclusion
The research revealed a lack of knowledge and comprehension of e-waste manage-

ment activities and their health and health implications. The increasing volume of
e-waste thus involves the creation of structures which can manage waste in such a
way that the negative social and environmental consequences are reduced while the
positive impacts are maximized. As per Table 5, the study reveals that more than
95% of the respondents are aware of the toxic harmful impact of e-waste on human
health and on the environment and are aware of the proper ways of its disposal. The
Table 5 Analysis of awareness of e-waste and the percentage of the number of respondents
Factor name Measures Percentage
C1, awareness of the toxic harmful C1a, skin-related problems 96%
impact on human health C1b, severe bronchitis
C1c, damage of the lungs/kidneys
C1d, heart issues
C2, environmental awareness hazards C2a, water pollution 94%%
C2b, air pollution
C2c, land pollution
C3, awareness of e-waste disposals C3a, refurbish 84%
C3b, reuse
C3c, recycle
C4, knowledge of the value and C4a, awareness campaigns on e- 67%
convenience of recycling by various waste
players in the management of e-waste C4b, government initiatives
C4c, e-waste collection agencies
C4d, NGO’s working
C5, awareness of convenience for C5a, information of recycling centers 62%
recycling C5b, frequent pick up by recyclers
Fig. 1 Factors affecting consumer choice for e-waste disposal
study also reveals that a very less percentage of the respondents (65% approx.) have
knowledge of the value and convenience of recycling by various players in the
management of e-waste. Potential fields of development can be established and
beneficial features of another system applied to enhance the current system by
1602 R. Goel et al.
comparing various processes and creating a sustainable knowledge and gathering

process. This research applies to both academia and experience. It refers to the
current literature from the scholarly point of view: consumer knowledge and choice
area for appropriate e-waste disposal and management. The role of different players,
including the traditional and formal industries and e-waste management technolo-
gies, can also be explored by future researchers. Electronic waste issues in India will
definitely become severe in the near future. Whenever a consumer substitutes for a
device or cell phone, the replacement product is allowed to leave, but it is maintained
inside the environment. Therefore, frequent changes must be made to increase the
reuse and recycle of items, by research and development. The informal sector
controls India without a doubt at present. With respect to e-waste disposal, however
the country soon began dreaming about sustainable e-waste management. A thor-
ough evaluation of the present and future scenarios, including quantification, attri-
butes, emerging disposal activities, and environmental implications, is desperately
required. The new study indicates that e-waste would be a big problem for environ-
mentalists and technologists, provided that its growth rate is significantly higher than
the rate of disposal, recycling, or reuse. Both facets of e-waste management and the
rules and policy for those working in the area of e-waste disposal are desperately
required. In specific, environmental and public health education should be suffi-
ciently clarified on this activity.
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Recycling and Management of Lithium
Battery as Electronic Waste 63
Mohammad Tanhaei, Zahra Beiramzadeh,
Saeideh Kholghi Eshkalak, and Reza Katal
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1606
Electronic Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1606
Lithium-Ion Batteries (LIBs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1608
Recycling of LIBs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1610
Recycling Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1611
Currently Utilized Recycling Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1614
Pretreatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1615
Battery Sorting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1615
Component Separation and Size Reduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1616
Removing Current Collector and Binder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1617
Graphite Separation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1619
Hydrometallurgical Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1619
Sulfate System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1620
Chloride System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1621
Nitrate System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1622
Pyrometallurgical Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1623
Biometallurgy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1624
Trends and Challenges for Recycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1625
M. Tanhaei
Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, Agency for Science, Technology and Research,
e-mail: stumdtanhaei@imre.a-star.edu.sg
Z. Beiramzadeh · R. Katal (*)
Research and Development Department, Green Li-Ion, Singapore, Singapore
e-mail: rezak@greenli-ion.com
S. Kholghi Eshkalak (*)
Department of Polymer Engineering and Color Technology, Amirkabir University of Technology,
Tehran, Iran
e-mail: s.kholghi@aut.ac.ir

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_73
1606 M. Tanhaei et al.
Economic Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1627

Challenges of Recycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1629
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1629
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1630
Abstract
Because of the rapid development of the economy, faster upgrading of electrical
and electronic equipment will outcome in the increased waste of electrical and
electronic products (WEEE). In the past decades, a considerable increase in the
volume of WEEE causes a serious issue about the fate and management of them.
To control the negative effects on the environment and public health, the estab-
lishment of suitable strategies for e-waste management or treatment seems so
necessary. Hence, this chapter aims to study and evaluate some appropriate
strategies which currently have been widely utilized in several countries for
e-waste management. Future perspectives on e-waste management are also
suggested. The key parameters for successful e-waste management are the estab-
lishment of effective reverse supply chains for e-waste and raising public aware-
ness of the adverse impacts of them. This chapter can provide valuable insights
for waste managers, recyclers, and governments in establishing an appropriate
strategy for e-waste management/treatment. In this book chapter, lithium-ion
battery (LIB) management and recycling are also studied and discussed; an
appropriate strategy for LIB has also been suggested.
Keywords
e-waste · Lithium battery · Recycling · Economic evaluation · Challenge
Introduction
Electronic Waste
Rapidly growing technology as inventing the brand-new design of high-tech

devices, on the dark side, translated into, a tsunami of similar appliances and
materials to be disposed of and landfilled. What is e-waste? E-waste is electronic
waste materials comprised of tiny pieces of larger materials to bulky electronic and
electrical wastes. Why does e-waste recently become an emerging concern and so
important to handle? With the advances of technology, globally, demands for new
modern devices get higher each and every day; therefore, the lifespan of old devices
supplanted by new ones shrinks leading to millions of tons of appliances left as
wastes which have detrimental impacts on the environment and humans.
Producing e-waste annually is approximately 40 million metric tons globally
comprising 5% of the overall solid wastes. A majority of these e-wastes, which are
less environmentally friendly and more ecologically destructive goods, are exported
to developing countries having financial restrictions to afford high-quality goods.
63 Recycling and Management of Lithium Battery as Electronic Waste 1607
The USA, China, and Japan are among the most e-waste generating countries, with
over hundreds of millions of wasted electronic goods (Kumar and Rawat 2018).
Currently, due to insecure law enforcement and lack of management policies,
developing countries are tackling even greater human and environmental issues
associated with these imported wastes (Chen et al. 2009). The ways these wastes
are handled, mostly landfilling and burning, aggravate this problem so far. Heavy
metals as As, Pb, Co, Cd, Hg, Cu, Fe, Mn, Mo, Ni, Ag, Cr, Li, and noxious organic
matters as polyvinyl chloride (PVC), persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such as
dioxin, brominated flame retardants (BFRs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
(PAHs), and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are the main constituents of these
wastes that are deleterious to human health to great extent, particularly by leaching
from landfills to environment and groundwater and circulating in the food chain
(Moletsane and Venter 2018). Moreover, workers, who are in direct contact with
e-waste and its recycling and disposal process, were tested for the toxic contaminants
in blood and hair, and the results demonstrated a high amount of heavy metals and
POPs (Qu et al. 2007). Impacts of these pollutants have been realized and substan-
tiated in the last decades, indicating that no proper and appropriate management laws
have been enforced worldwide. Recycling e-wastes in developing countries as
China, India, South Africa, and India extensively affects the environment. It has
been reported that toxic substances and heavy metal level in the air, water, and soil
around recycling areas are much higher than their standard (Asante et al. 2012).
Landfilling is the other dominant means of managing e-wastes which is proved and
corroborated to contaminate groundwaters. Old landfills which contain a mixture of
decomposable matter and e-wastes are more of a concern in this issue. Dissolved
organic matters and heavy metals percolate and diffuse through the soil to the
groundwaters. Heavy metal leaching is studied in a multitude of research which
revealed Pb as the most leachable matter from e-wastes (Schmidt 2002). Further-
more, along with heavy metals, toxic organic substances as polybrominated diphenyl
ethers (PBDEs), leaching was demonstrated in landfill studies of Japan, Canada, and
Australia. Incineration before landfilling was indicated to diminish some of these
organic components.
Among all electric and electronic wastes, lithium-ion battery (LIB) has lately
come to prominence in electronic devices because of its long life span, acceptable
discharge resistance, and high energy density (Meshram et al. 2020). Therefore, it is
the one with higher quantities due to recent demands for new technologies and the
requirement of everyday life. A rapid proliferating consumption rate is an alerting
signal for environmental danger. However, with appropriate management and
recycling path, the risk of environmental contamination will be alleviated. LIBs
are dominantly comprised of cathode (Li-metal oxide), anode (carbonaceous mate-
rial), electrolyte, polymeric separator (PVDF, PVC, etc.), metal, and plastic shells
(Gaines and Cuenca 2000). Hence, recovering LIBs for valuable materials such as
metals assists in maintaining principal resources and preserving them to have less
waste environment. Various physical, thermal, and chemical methods were reported
for recovery of spent LIBs, and the mechanical/physical methods are applied as
pretreatment and preparation steps of battery recovery for further chemical
extraction of metal value. Hydrometallurgy, pyrometallurgy, and acid leaching, the

most prevailing chemical methods in LIB recovery, as well as economic evaluation
of the battery recycling process were discussed elaborately in pursuing sections.
Lithium-Ion Batteries (LIBs)
Battery waste is now considered globally as a strategically beneficial waste stream. It

contains a considerable metallic value targeted for recovery for supporting the
dwindling global supply of critical substances and primary resources like cobalt,
lithium, and nickel. The incremented use of rechargeable and portable tools resulted
in annual growth in battery waste. Furthermore, the improper disposal and handling
of these wastes can cause severely detrimental effects on environmental and human
health and safety (King and Boxall 2019).
Lithium as a rare element is essential for different LIBs owing to its high
electrochemical potential (3.04 V against standard hydrogen electrode) and low
density (0.534 g/cm3) (Liu et al. 2019). Lithium’s concentration in spent LIBs
(5–7 wt.%) is greater compared to the natural resource (Liu et al. 2019). Sony
Corporation introduced LIBs in 1991, and then it attracted more interest in comparison
to any other existing batteries. LIBs are extensively utilized in portable electronic
tools. More significantly, the LIBs are utilized in powering the next generation of
electric vehicles (EVs) for environmentally friendly applications. It is predicted that
using lithium is continuously increased due to penetrating PHEVs (plug-in hybrid
electric vehicles), hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), as well as EVs into the vehicle
market (Fig. 1). In the meantime, end-of-life LIBs will be accumulated, and recycling
the spent LIBs is a main technological challenge in the near future. Inappropriate
disposal of LIBs causes hazards to human health and the environment since they
comprise a high percentage of toxic electrolytes and heavy metals. Lithium deposited
on the anode created during each succeeding recharge-discharge cycle can have an
intensive reaction with water leading to potential threats (Liu et al. 2019).
Currently, LIBs are efficient and reliable energy storage tools as a result of their
low self-discharge, long cycle life, and high energy density. Moreover, they are
extensively utilized in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), and electric vehicles (EVs),
portable and electronic tools, and energy storage. By incrementing the EV applica-
tion, the LIB market is estimated to increment from 5 million sales in 2015 to about
180 million sales in 2025. Nevertheless, a great quantity of spent LIBs was created in
recent years owing to their restricted lifetime. In 2017, the weight and quantity of
spent LIBs were about 200 million tons reaching 400 million tons by 2020. Owing to
the existence of various toxic elements like electrolytes and heavy metals, discarding
spent LIBs would substantially affect the environment. Furthermore, recycling will
assist in benefiting the environment and making significant economic advantages
(Ning et al. 2020).
LIB waste includes various valuable metals like nickel, cobalt, lithium, manga-
nese, and copper, regularly in concentrations much higher than in major mineral
reserves. Considering the current reduction in mineral resources and the rapid
Fig. 1 The development of EVs in the world. (a) Global EV stock; (b) global EV registrations
(“ZSW data on stock as well as on new registrations of battery-electric vehicles. https://www.zsw-
bw.de/en/media-center/data-service.html#c6700. (Accessed on 10 January 2018)”)
increase in LIB waste, this waste stream includes potentially dwindling mineral
resources to supplement in the future. It is now regarded as essential for urban
mining. Over 97% of LIBs is disposed of or stockpiled to landfill leading to the metal
values loss, in Australia, which could be recovered, and inflicted environmental
pollution. It is essential to collect, process, and recover the metals from such batteries
to capitalize on the potential of these secondary resources (Boxall et al. 2018).
Predominantly, LIB cell contains three various layers including cathode and
anode layers, electrolyte, polymer enclosed with metallic shells, and a separator
(PVC) (Fig. 2). Mainly, the cathode in LIBs is a metal oxide as LixMyOz like lithium
manganese oxide, lithium cobalt oxide, and several coatings over aluminum foil.
Among such is the recycling of spent batteries including LiCoO2 since the electrode
substance contains numerous positive aspects because of lithium and cobalt, which
can be the future alternative resources. The anode is the negative active substance
covered by an active material (graphite) over the copper foil. LiBF4 and LiPF6 were
the utilized electrolyte salts. Preferably, in most LIBs, lithium hexafluoride phos-
phate (LiPF6) is utilized as the lithium salts. Space is maintained, and contact is
avoided using a separator mostly between the cathode and anode layers. A separator
(a microporous film) comprises polymers like polyethylene or polypropylene (PP).
The separator acts to prevent short circuits between the electrodes; moreover, it is
Fig. 2 (a) Schematic drawing showing the shape and components of cylindrical LIBs; (b)
schematic representation and operating principles of Li-ion batteries during discharging (Grey
and Tarascon 2017; Tarascon and Armand 2001)
also utilized as a safety purpose by sealing the electrodes while overheating the cells.
Almost 85% of the utilized LIBs worldwide are within the size range of 5–25 g and
about 15% within the size range of 25–75 g (Meshram et al. 2020). By strong
demand and limited resources for high energy densities in EVs, developing next-
generation rechargeable batteries is motivated to substitute current LIBs. Concur-
rently, recycling spent LIBs is also required by retiring the present generation of EVs
(Fan et al. 2020).
Recycling of LIBs
Regarding the global LIB market of 120 GWh, and the mean specific energy (mean
capacity of the 5 main Li-ion types taking into account only 18,650 cells format) of
180 Wh/kg, the weight of the sold LIBs was approximated as 670,000 t in 2017
(Zhang 2011). Spent batteries will create large quantities of dangerous waste needing
to be treated and managed by achieving the end of life. Disposing of spent LIBs
through the standard MSW (municipal solid waste) management systems imposes
several safety risks since wasted LIBs could explode or fire due to the internal short-
circuiting causing the O2(g) evolution from decomposing cathodic materials, the fast
release of heat, and organic solvent ignition (Perea et al. 2018). Thus, LIB-caused
fire incidents regularly happen in waste management facilities and more than 65% of
the fires in waste equipment in 2017 in California (Winslow et al. 2018). The
Environmental Services Association recognized that 1/4 of the fire occurrences
were related to spent LIBs in the waste facilities in the UK (Larouche et al. 2020).
Additionally, LIB-caused fire incidents were occasionally reported in landfill oper-
ations (Winslow et al. 2018). The main safety risks are represented by such incidents
regarding the generation of heat, methane gas evolution, and the existence of
combustible substances. Gaines et al. summarized the transport regulations for LIBs
in their review work on LIBs recycling (Gaines et al. 2018).
Several environmental risks are represented by spent LIBs due to the fluorinated
elements, nanoparticles, leachable metals, and organic solvents in their composition
(Huang et al. 2018). First, an appropriate gas cleaning system is essential in all
recycling services for minimizing these risks and the emission of organic volatile
compounds and fluoride over battery crushing, smelting, and pretreatment (Zheng
et al. 2018). Nevertheless, the expenses of off-gas cleaning systems are high for
pyrometallurgical procedure plants (Gaines et al. 2018). Second, propagating nano-
particles in water and air sources require cautious exercises. The release of nano-
particles promotes the heat treatment and crushing of LIBs, which could provide
considerable ecotoxicological impacts (Olapiriyakul and Caudill 2008). Accord-
ingly, off-gas cleaning systems should be involved in pyrometallurgical procedure
plants. The hydrometallurgical processes’ waste effluent needs to be appropriately
treated (utilizing filtration and coagulation) to prevent the dispersion of toxic soluble
compounds and nanoparticles. Finally, there are concerns about the spent LIBs
disposal in landfills since the heavy and toxic metals in such LIBs like Co, Cu, Cr,
Mn, Li, Ni, Tl, and Pb (Winslow et al. 2018), could pollute groundwater sources.
The fast increment in producing LIBs causes pressures on the natural and
environmental resources, chiefly in Co and Li resources. Indeed, 25% and 35% of
the global Co and Li production are, respectively, utilized in LIB manufacturing
(Golmohammadzadeh et al. 2018). According to Gaines et al., by recycling LIBs, the
demand for raw materials is reduced; hence, rendering LIB manufacturing becomes
more sustainable (Gaines et al. 2018). Though, they found that the demands for
natural resources could not be met by the recycling industry due to the exponential
market progress and long lifetime of LIBs (Gaines et al. 2018). It is also believed that
the recycling effects on raw material demands will be restricted by the remaining
comparatively low collection and recovery rates. Life cycle assessment (LCA)
methods have been utilized in several studies confirming that the effects of the EV
industry on the environment and mineral resource depletion are higher compared to
vehicle manufacturing powered by fossil fuels (Yu et al. 2018a). Mainly, this
difference is ascribed to the battery-making procedures accounting for about 20%
of the overall energy utilized for the EV industry and about 40% for the CO2 released
by EVs over their whole life (Larouche et al. 2020). Moreover, producing cathodic
substances is the most impactful stage over LIBs manufacturing mainly for Co- and
Ni-based cathodes (Xie et al. 2018). Selecting an appropriate recycling method
regarding different cathode material can potentially contribute to mitigating LIBs’
destructive emissions.
Recycling Approaches
Recycling LIBs has been investigated and followed by commercializing LCO

(lithium cobalt oxide) batteries by Sony in 1991 (Julien et al. 2016). In 1995,
Recupyl initiated the first work on LIB recycling at a pilot level supported by the
French environmental agency. The installation was agreed in support of French

Authorities in 1998. With European Union support, Recupyl’s work continued
under the Valibat project collaborating with Taridan, the Atomic Energy Commis-
sion, and French Alternative Energies, Sedena and Rhodia. Meanwhile, Zhang et al.
published the first academic work on recycling in 1998 (Zhang et al. 1998), since
then the number of such publications constantly incremented. After 20 years and
more, scholars have been attracted to LIB recycling (Huang et al. 2018). Though,
there is limited interest toward spent LIBs mainly in extracting Ni, Mn, and Co.
Other substances, like FePO4 and Li, cannot be recovered utilizing the existing
standard pyrometallurgical approaches (Gaines et al. 2018).
However, some authors studied the processing of LFP (lithium-iron-phosphate)
as either a general or a distinct process encompassing all LIB chemistries. Gratz and
Zou’s selective leaching procedure could be utilized in treating mixtures of LCO,
NMC (nickel, manganese, cobalt oxide), LFP, and LMO (lithium manganese oxide).
Recupyl in 2005 concentrated on treating Mn-, Co-, and Ni-rich batteries; neverthe-
less, it could be also modified for managing spent LFP (Larouche et al. 2020).
We provided three methods to recycling LIB as demonstrated in Fig. 3. The first
procedure could be utilized in extracting valuable compounds or elements and their
valorizing into lower-value products or reintroducing them in a production line of
the raw materials. Such processes have low environmental benefits though they are
less sensitive to economic fluctuations and simple. It is the business model approved
by Retrieve Technologies, in which spent LIBs are crushed within an inert environ-
ment. Li is then recovered in the liquid phase and guided off-site for more treatments
afterward. The obtained solid paste enriched in transition metal is sold to exterior
refineries, like Glencore (Sudbury, ON, Canada) for recovering Ni and Co (Larouche
et al. 2020). Therefore, the end products are served as battery materials; thus, a high
level of downcycling is presented by the procedure. This low added-value method is
frequently used by pyrometallurgical treatments. For instance, Ni-Fe alloys are
produced by SNAM (Viviez, France) for the stainless-steel industry or a Co con-
centration for producing pigment from Li and Ni batteries (Larouche et al. 2020).
Fig. 3 The flow as well as the comparison between three methods for recycling spent Li-ion
batteries (LIBs) (Larouche et al. 2020)
The second method deals with regenerating precursors with higher quality for
synthesizing fresh active materials for LIBs through hydrometallurgy. Thus, the
battery manufacturing specifications are met by the obtained products while follow-
ing the circular economy’s principles. This methodology is followed by most
hydrometallurgical procedures provided in the literature. The quantities of reagents
and related energy consumption are still high though no quality loss should happen
over such a procedure. The operating cost and capital of such recycling processes are
increased by implementing complex purification lines to satisfy battery-grade spec-
ifications. Hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical processes are combined by
Umicore to attain high-quality Mn, Ni, and Co, salts planned for battery manufactur-
ing (Larouche et al. 2020). Unfortunately, Li is downgraded to a low-value cement
additive over the process run by Umicore.
Ultimately, by direct recreation of the active materials’ properties, the recycling
loop can be shortened. Although this method is the eco-friendliest technique, it is
also further sensitive to the LIBs’ state of health. Impurities and shortcomings over
cycling or made by the inappropriate storage and overdischarging of LIBs could
influence the restored active materials quality. Finally, the active materials might
have to be resynthesized and discarded after numerous cycles, since straight
recycling is not able to completely restore the preliminary features of pristine active
substances yet. Though more complicated pretreatment is needed to prevent cross-
contamination from elements of other sorts of LIBs, this method decreases the
needed quantities of reagents and energy and simplifies the core procedure, which
could lead to more affordable and smaller recycling plants (Larouche et al. 2020).
Figure 4 shows the different processes that have been widely used for spent LIB
recycling.
Fig. 4 Different processes for recycling of spent LIBs (Meshram et al. 2020)
Currently Utilized Recycling Procedures
Currently, various recycling plants are active all over the world (in the USA, Europe,
China, and Japan). A non-exhaustive list of presently operating LIB recyclers is
provided in Table 1. For several companies, like Glencore-Xstrata and SNAM,
treating LIBs is a development of their primary Ni-based battery (nickel-metal
hydride (NiMH) and Ni-Cd) recycling operations.
Pyrometallurgy is the most popular technique presently utilized in recycling
industries by many companies like Sumitomo and Dowa (Japan), Umicore (Bel-
gium), Batrec (Switzerland), Nickelhütte Aue Gmbh (Germany), and Accuracy
(Germany). Normally, the pyrometallurgical procedure is followed by hydrometal-
lurgical stages for extracting valuable metals from the matte, since pyrometallurgical
procedures are not able to yield the effective separation of different metals. However,
recycling plants using only hydrometallurgical procedures are still rare, of which
Recupyl (France) and Retrieve (Canada and USA) are the most important.
According to the global LIB recycling capacity and report of Mayyas et al. (2019)
in 2016 (94,000 t) as well as global LIB sales for 2016 (500,000 t) (in terms of
energy sales statistics from Pilot [54] and regarding an average energy density of
180 Wh/kg), only 19% of the 2016 manufacturing was covered by the installed
theoretical recycling capacities, supposing the dedication of all recycling to LIB
recycling. This ratio will be reduced by 9% by 2024, based on the recycling capacity
prediction (264,000 t) and estimated LIB sales (3,000,000 t) represented by Propul-
sion Quebec (Larouche et al. 2020).
Spent LIBs are received by recycling plants in two loads types:
• Small-sized LIBs’ bulk shipment such as small electronics, portable ones, and e-
bike modules
• Battery packs from crashed or used hybrid and electric tools or stationary
instruments
These feeds need to be differently controlled because of the differences in their

electric power, size, and format. More particularly, the LIBs in the first kind of loads
Table 1 A list of present recycling procedures and facilities (Larouche et al. 2020)
Company (location) Process type Recovered elements
Umicore (Belgium) Pyro-hydrometallurgy Co, Ni, and Mn
Sumitomo (Japan) Pyro-hydrometallurgy Cu and Ni
Recupyl (France) Hydrometallurgy Li, Co, Ni, Mn, Cu, and Al
Snam (France) Pyrometallurgy Cd, Ni, Co, and Fe
Glencore (Canada) Pyro-hydrometallurgy Ni and Co
AkkuSer Oy (Finland) Mechanical LIB active materials
Onto Technology (USA) Direct Recycling LIB active materials
Dowa (Japan) Pyrometallurgy Co, Ni, and Mn
Brunp (China) Pyro- and hydrometallurgy Li, Co, Ni, Mn, Cu, and Al
provide various sizes, chemistries, and types. These bulk mixtures need to be sorted
by size, chemistry, and format before the treatments. The second kind of loads are
large battery modules assemblies presenting Al or steel frames and involve thermal
insulation, plastic components, electronic printed circuits, individual cells, and
electric cables. Normally, such packs are manually pulled apart into modules cau-
tiously or even separate cells before recycling (Zheng et al. 2018). By this operation,
the workers could be exposed to considerable electrical hazards due to over 150 kW
and 450 V provided by such LIBs (Kim et al. 2014). Most of the authors found that
pretreating the spent LIBs is the main stage before recovering the cathode compo-
nents, mainly for direct and hydrometallurgical recycling procedures (Zhang et al.
2013).
The pretreatment is aimed at maximizing the recovery of valuable materials,
reducing the flow rate of materials experiencing the downstream procedure, ensuring
the safe disposal of dangerous elements, as well as ensuring the spent LIBs safe
handling. The second aspect is predominantly important since it assists to reduce the
safety dangers (high fire hazards) and thus reduce spent batteries’ transportation
costs representing 40–50% of the total recycling cost. The transportation costs could
be significantly reduced using two strategies. First, companies might take into
account designing various smaller local process plants shortening the traveling
distances. Moreover, they could utilize various remote (or mobile) small crushing
facilities for feeding the main processing plants for the black mass treatments.
Therefore, the only black mass should be transported neutralizing all safety prob-
lems. Pretreating procedures could be classified into three physical, thermal, and
chemical groups (Kim and Shin 2013). Moreover, the typical pretreating phases
could be recognized based on the following list separately or in combination:
• Battery pack dismantling

• Organizing by chemistry
• Discharging, shredding, and crushing
• Separation the materials
• Electrolyte recovery
• Binder separation
• Thermal treatment
• Rinsing
Pretreatment
Battery Sorting
Although there are numerous investigations on the LIB hydrometallurgical pro-

cessing on feed materials containing only LIBs, in various research groups, the
processes were developed to treat streams of mixed spent batteries. A mixture of
alkaline, Li primary, Li-ion, and Ni-based secondary batteries were considered in the
study of Kulchaya et al. as feed material; however, low recovery was achieved
(Tanong et al. 2016). The H2SO4 leaching process was investigated by Xi et al., and
a mixture of NiMH and NMC batteries was treated to create Ni-Co ferrite (Xi et al.
2015). Despite obtaining a high-value product, a closed-loop solution was not
provided by these processes allowing recycling spent active materials into novel
batteries. However, every cell could be manually sorted or through mechanical
sorters based on the batteries’ composition. This categorization is very vital to
prevent any cross-pollution of the downstream metallurgical procedures, mainly
for the spent batteries bulk delivery, in which alkaline batteries, LIBs, NiMH, and
Li primary cells are combined in different extents. For large battery packs, sorting is
easier since only single chemistry batteries are involved. Due to the unknown state of
health and state of charge of such accumulators, it is essential to perform safety
measures for protecting these task operators. While perfect separation is not
obtained, recent technologies and current practices revealed that it is practical to
competently sort a stream of combined spent batteries, which was presented in the
report of the European Portable Battery Association in 2000 (Larouche et al. 2020).
Manual residue scrubbing and pre-sorting operations are performed by Sortbat
(Tienen, Belgium) after automatic and mechanical sorting of batteries by chemistry
and size. The batteries’ magnetic resonance response orients the automatic sorting,
and seven kinds of batteries are separated such as LIBs. A purity of over 99.7%
could be achieved (Larouche et al. 2020). The automatic sorters have the nominal
capacity of about 5–24 cells/s (around 500 kg/h3 t/h) (Bernardes et al. 2004). As we
know, no automatic sorting system is commercially accessible that could sort
different kinds of LIBs based on their chemistry. Moreover, the next-generation
substances like Li2MSiO4 or LFP could further delay such sorters’ design. Further-
more, organizing spent LIBs could even be more challenging since various intrinsic
compositions could be included in LIBs of the same chemistry as a result of doping,
electrolytes, binders, and anode materials (Contestabile et al. 2001). A process was
developed by Huang et al. appropriate for treating a combination of low-value
cathodic substances known as LFP and LMO (Huang et al. 2016). Nevertheless,
these procedures were very sensitive to variations in feed composition while requir-
ing an appropriate feed management system such as blending and storage for
homogenizing the proportions of both kinds of batteries (Villen-Guzman et al.
2019). Furthermore, developing novel battery chemistries (various cathode or
anode materials) could affect significantly the process’s efficiency; therefore, the
main modifications or implementing pre-sorting would be required.
Component Separation and Size Reduction
To prepare spent batteries, two main paths can be determined before recycling: All
the cells, even battery packs, or modules are crushed, and then the cell casing is cut
opened providing access to the jelly roll. Compared to the second technique, the first
one is industrially easy to run and is presently utilized by Retrieve and Recupyl
Technology. A decent review of screening and crushing studies was performed by
Al-Thyabat et al. along with a size-by-size analysis (Al-Thyabat et al. 2013). X-ray
diffraction (XRD) measurements were used by Zhang et al. to conduct a size-by-size

analysis of dry and wet crushing products and deduced that the active material is
segregated well dry crushing (Zhang et al. 2013). This could be simply clarified
utilizing the form factor of the crushed battery elements. Although the more brittle
anodic and cathodic active substances were broken into smaller fractions over
crushing, the plastic compounds or more ductile metallic (Al and Cu foil and the
separator) preserve their flat shapes and have a tendency to endure the screen mesh.
Normally, a screen size of 0.6 mm seems to be beneficial for size segregation and can
be simply scaled-up for industrial uses.
Removing Current Collector and Binder
Numerous techniques were established for separating the active materials from the
current collector and binder. Some researchers prefer to decompose the binder to
permit the current collector detachment and active material liberation. It can be
chemically or thermally achieved utilizing solvents. The Al sheet would be rather
eliminated by other researchers through mechanical delamination or chemical dis-
solution causing the active materials to remain entrapped in the binder. Ultimately,
some researchers conduct discriminating leaching of the complete cathode and
eliminate the binder and Al at the end of the procedure (Yang et al. 2018). The
thermal treatment is aimed to enhance the leaching efficacy by decomposing or
eliminating the binder and carbon through reducing or oxidizing the active materials
to a more soluble type. Therefore, thermogravimetry-differential scanning calorim-
etry (TG-DSC) was used by Chen et al. to define the optimum temperature (550 C)
resulting in decomposing the binder over the LCO thermal treatment in the air (Chen
et al. 2018). The PVDF binder was initiated to decompose at around 300 C and its
decomposition sustained until 549 C when decomposing the carbon was begun as
seen in Fig. 5 (Chen et al. 2018). At 519 C, the high exothermic peaks paralleled
PVDF as well as the carbon decomposition. By vacuum pyrolysis or reducing
atmosphere, the valence of Ni, Co, and Mn was reduced; thus, it would increment
their solubility. It was deduced by Yang et al. that thermal treating in the inert
atmosphere within 550–650 C would increment the H2SO4 leaching efficacy
(Yang et al. 2016). The results of XRD revealed reducing Ni ions from NMC to
metallic Ni; however, the Mn3+ and Co3+ ions seemed to preserve their trivalent
mode. Likewise, Li et al. found the existence of NiO in NMC specimens undergoing
vacuum pyrolysis (Li et al. 2019). Nevertheless, comparing inert or reductive
thermal treating procedures with other pretreatments did not result in a considerable
improvement in leaching performance, with most procedures reaching more than
95% extraction of Co, Li, Mn, and Ni independent of the applied pretreating
circumstances.
For the LFP cathode, the existence of air would simply decompose the polymer
binder, burn the carbon conductive layer, and oxidize ferrous to ferric. Hence, Li
becomes more available for leaching with no oxidizing agent (Zheng et al. 2016).
The thermal decomposition of spent LFP cathodes was analyzed by Jie et al. in the
Fig. 5 The curves of TG-DSC (thermogravimetry-differential scanning calorimetry) for spent

laptop Li-ion batteries in the air. (Duplicated with permission from Springer Nature Ref. (Chen
et al. 2018))
existence of oxygen utilizing SEM (scanning electron microscopy) coupled with

EDS (energy-dispersive spectrometer) and TG-DSC and XRD. They indicated the
following oxidation reaction of iron phosphate occurring within a temperature range
of 476–487 C (Jie et al. 2019):
12LiFePO4 ðsÞ þ 3O2 ðgÞ ! 4Li3 Fe2 ðPO4 Þ3 ðsÞ þ 2Fe2 O3 ðsÞ ð1Þ
Zheng et al. proposed this reaction and defined the optimum roasting temperature
to be 600 C leading to oxidation of and C-Fe coating and comprehensive decom-
position of polymer binder while preventing aluminum foil degradation. From Al
current collector, the sintering product could be simply sorted and detached before
leaching (Zheng et al. 2016). The thermal treatment is conducted under an inert
atmosphere for the direct recycling technique, to prevent oxidizing the active
materials. Gaabour investigated the decomposition of poly(ethylene oxide) com-
bined with carbon nanotubes and PVDF under an N2 atmosphere. They found that
PVDF was exposed to carbonizing from 300 C to 500 C (Gaabour 2015).
Aluminum could also be dissolved in NaOH. Favorably, this method could entirely
eliminate Al containing the small micro fragments created over the cutting and
cathode shredding from the black mass samples. Normally, after 5 h, by a 10% (w/
v) NaOH solution, a dissolution of 98% is obtained (Nan et al. 2006). Ren et al.
investigated the effects of Al impurities on the created NMC cathodes’ capacity (Ren
et al. 2017) and found no considerable effects by the molar ratio of Al/(Ni + Co + Mn)
less than 3–100; however, capacity could reduce by 40% by exceeding this thresh-
old. A pre-leaching phase may be permitted to eliminate plated Cu contaminating Li-
ion cathode in addition to Al current collector dissolution. Therefore, adding 5 moles
of NH4OH to 1 mole NaOH made robust complexing circumstances facilitating the
dissolution of the two Cu contaminants as Al current collector and soluble copper
ammonium complex (Ren et al. 2017).
Graphite Separation
Graphite can be extracted from the mixture of shredded cathode and anode through
selective flotation. This usual method is part of the procedures provided by the
Warner Babcock Institute and Retrieve Technologies for Green Chemistry. Yu et al.
studied the flotation effectiveness using n-dodecane as a collector (Yu et al. 2018b)
and made an LCO concentration of 97.2%. On the other hand, He et al. suggested
decomposing the PVDF binder through a Fenton process before flotation of carbon
(He et al. 2017). The quantity of PVDF and carbon black efficiently reduced by 50%
in the LCO flotation concentration (He et al. 2017). While numerous inorganic and
organic solutions or liquids could be utilized for this procedure, finding nontoxic and
environmentally friendly solutions could be challenging.
Hydrometallurgical Method
For extracting and recovering valuable metals from inorganic compounds or min-
erals through the water as solvent, hydrometallurgical procedures are used (Fig. 6).
This technique has attracted a huge deal of interest for battery recycling research
since its low cost and includes little energy consumption while exhibiting good
environmental footprints. However, these advantages may be claimed based on
reagent schemes, flowsheet complexity, water consumption, and effluent toxicity.
Hydrometallurgical recycling procedures have been described by various review
papers (Yao et al. 2018). Such reviews mainly sheltered only recycling the transition
metal oxide LIBs and hardly stated the LFP batteries recycling excepting Wang
et al.’s review where the process related to LFP recycling was only explained (Wang
and Wu 2017). In another study, an update was offered on the hydrometallurgical
recycling procedures at various phases including the academic development phase,
industrially in operation, or patented. It also proposes an industrial application
critical view of developing the procedures. Finally, we included an in-depth evalu-
ation of LFP battery recycling. This part is classified into sub-sections based on the
leaching procedure and the used leaching agents. It contains leaching with H2SO4,
HNO3, organic acids, HCl, and other alkaline leaching agents or mineral acids. Most
procedures are selective for each battery chemistry; though, several processes exist
for combinations of Ni-, Co-, and Mn-based batteries. Moreover, only a few
procedures that could be utilized for all batteries types such as Ni, Co, PO43, and
Fig. 6 Hydrometallurgical processing of spent LIBs (Meshram et al. 2020)
Mn-based batteries. Designing the hydrometallurgical flowsheet and the used

reagent schemes are affected by many variables such as the nature and extent of
the pretreatment as the great important one, as explained formerly in the pretreatment
section.
The process’s complexity is also based on the production objective (downcycling
degree). Although the objective of some procedures is to recover the elements as
saleable mixtures, high-purity precursors are generated by others for the battery
industry or even resynthesizing active substances for making novel LIBs.
Sulfate System
The most commonly investigated hydrometallurgical process is leaching with

H2SO4, which is covered by numerous patents. The following general conclusions
could be summarized from the literature:
• The existence of a decreasing agent is vital to accelerate the leaching kinetics.

• H2O2 seems to be the most efficient after sulfites and glucose among all reducing
agents.
• Metallic Cu (anode current collector) revealed lower leaching efficacy after Co,
Li, Mn, and Ni.
• Chemical dissolution or roasting PVDF is not a requirement for effective

leaching.
H2SO4 leaching includes the reaction with Ni, Mn, and Co-based active sub-
stances as follows (Meshram et al. 2014):
2LiMO2 ðsÞ þ 3 H2 SO4 ! 2MSO4 ðaqÞ þ Li2 SO4 ðaqÞ þ 3H2 O þ 12O2 ðgÞ ð2Þ
where M represents Ni, Mn, or Co. The H2O2 reacting with the active materials is the
most common reducing agent [114]:
2LiMO2 ðsÞ þ 3 H2 SO4 þ H2 O2 ðaqÞ ! 2MSO4 ðaqÞ þ Li2 SO4 ðaqÞ þ 4H2 O
þ O 2 ð gÞ ð3Þ
On the contrary, the dissolution reaction between the H2SO4 and LFP active
material is stimulated by adding an oxidizing agent like H2O2. Then, the following
reaction happens:
2LiFePO4 ðsÞ þ H2 SO4 þ H2 O2 ðaqÞ ! 2FePO4 ðaqÞ þ Li2 SO4 ðaqÞ þ 2H2 O ð4Þ
Chloride System
The first system investigated by Zhang et al. was hydrochloric acid for treating spent
LIB recycling hydro-metallurgically (P. Zhang et al. 1998). Normally, in comparison
to H2SO4, spent cathodic material is spent by HCl leaching in an effective mode
(higher than 95%). Meshram et al. proposed a dissolution reaction including transi-
tion metal reduction (designated as M(II) or M(III) in the reactions) as the cathodic
reaction and O2(g) evolution as the anodic reaction (Meshram et al. 2014):
2LiMðIIIÞO2 ðsÞ þ 6HCl ðaqÞ ! 2MðIIÞCl2 ðaqÞ þ 2LiCl ðaqÞ þ 3H2 O

þ 12O2 ðgÞ ð5Þ
However, a modified reaction was proposed by other authors including the

evolution of chlorine gas as an anodic reaction (Zheng et al. 2018):
2LiMðIIIÞO2 ðsÞ þ 8HCl ðaqÞ ! 2MðIIÞCl2 ðaqÞ þ 2LiCl ðaqÞ þ 4H2 O

þ Cl2 ðgÞ ð6Þ
Thermodynamically, the first reaction is preferred for comparison of the standard

potential of O2(g) (1.23 V) against Cl2(g) 1.36 V). Nevertheless, oxidizing chloride
anions to chlorine can be promoted by the slower kinetics of oxygen progress.
Furthermore, cobalt is normally utilized as an oxygen reduction catalyst in fuel
cells. Thus, regarding the closeness of EMF (electromotive forces) for both
reactions, kinetic aspects, and effects of local concentration gradient, these reactions
occur most probably. There is no clear answer to this in the literature. The leaching
power of HCl is high enough for Ni-, Co-, and Mn-based batteries; thus, a reducing
agent is not essential. Based on reviewing the studies, H2O2 was utilized by only two
authors as a reducing agent (Shuva and Kurny 2013). Shuva et al. (Shuva and Kurny
2013) obtained the Co and Li recoveries (83% for both) even less than those in
other investigations with no reducing agent (for instance, almost 100% for Co and
Li) (Takacova et al. 2016). In the study of Takacova et al., it was found that HCl
leaching without H2O2 provides a two-step kinetic, first organized by the cobalt’s
chemical reaction (Ea of 40–48 kJ/mol) after the mixed control processes (Ea of
20–26 kJ/mol) (Takacova et al. 2016). The end activation energy value is similar to
that found by Shuva et al. for cobalt (Shuva and Kurny 2013).
Nitrate System
Castillo et al. recovered manganese and lithium from spent LIBs with nitric acid
without adding a reducing agent (Castillo 2002). Here, nickel, iron, and cobalt
were still in the solid residue; however, manganese hydroxide is triggered from the
leaching solution with NaOH. Adding a reducing agent incremented leaching
nickel and cobalt as revealed by Lee et al. and Guan et al. (Guan et al. 2017; Lee
and Rhee 2003). H2O2 is the most prevalent reducing agent similar to other
inorganic acids. Moreover, Guan et al. found the effectiveness of transition metals
galvanic reduction utilizing iron powder over mechanochemical leaching. Though,
this procedure has the problems of relatively slow kinetics and very low solid
concentrations (3 g solid/L) in comparison to the other procedures. Moreover, it
seems that nitric acid is not efficient for LFP dissolution without adding H2O2 as
presented by Yang et al. and Wu et al. (Li et al. 2017; Yang et al. 2018). Zeng et al.
proposed the nitric acid leaching reaction as follows (Zeng et al. 2014); however, it
may be examined for its accurateness taking into account the nitric acid’s oxidizing
character:
LiMðIIIÞO2 ðsÞ þ 3HNO3 ðaqÞ ! MðIIÞðNO3 Þ2 ðaqÞ þ LiNO3 ðaqÞ þ 32H2 O

þ 14O2 ðgÞ ð6Þ
Generally, useful element(s) are recovered from nitrate solution by precipitating

or coprecipitating procedures (Moura et al. 2017). The coprecipitation of pre-
cursors was proposed by Moura et al. for synthesizing CoFe2O4(s) with ferric
chloride, ammonium hydroxide, and ammonium acetate. Calcination was required
for the solid product at 450 C for obtaining Co-doped ferrite. Ultimately, this
product was provided as a catalyst to destroy the methylene blue as a major
pollutant in the textile industry effluents. A high-performance NMC active material
(239 mAh/g) was obtained by Yang et al. through precipitation; however, a low
stability was revealed under cycling (81.2% capacity retention followed by
100 cycles) (Yang et al. 2019).
Pyrometallurgical Method
In simple, pyrometallurgy is a process to enable the recovery of valuable metals by

heating beyond the melting point. Currently, pyrometallurgy is the most commonly
used technology in commercial recycling plants for the recovery of valuable metals
like Ni and Co from spent LIBs (Zheng et al. 2018).
The simple and general schematic of the process is shown in Fig. 7. Basically, the
process starts with discharging and dismantlement. Then, different temperatures
were applied in different stages in the high-temperature furnace to burn off the
existing acetylene black, organic electrolyte, and binder. This is called the pre-
treatment stage, and it is usually followed by the emission of hazardous gases
(Yao et al. 2018). Therefore, proper gas-cleaning systems are required to minimize
the large environmental risk in the pyrometallurgy process (Larouche et al. 2020).
The core level of the whole process is smelting and reduction. Higher temperature
(e.g., 1400 C) together with different kinds of slag formers is employed in this level.
The temperature is typically higher than the melting point of target metals to make
the alloy, while impurities and oxides move to a slag phase due to the difference in
the density. Additionally, metals with low boiling points (e.g., Hg, Zn, and Cd) are
evaporated to form gases; subsequently through the atmosphere control and con-
densation, they may be recovered as either a metal or oxidized and form dust (Liu
et al. 2019).
One of the main drawbacks of the current pyrometallurgical methods is materials
loss. In the smelting process, lithium as a critical resource and an active metal in the
spent LIBs, together with aluminum as another active metal with strong reducibility,
is prone to be oxidized and lost in the slag (Yao et al. 2018). Li recycling has been
reported to be less than 1% through the traditional pyrometallurgical methods, which
is obviously faces the risk of being profitless (Liu et al. 2019; Yao et al. 2018). One
of the best and cost-effective approach to overcome this issue is the combination of
pyrometallurgical processes with hydrometallurgical methods to recycle the valuable
metals, for instance, a selective pyrometallurgical treatment followed by hydromet-
allurgical step developed by Georgi-Maschler et al. (Liu et al. 2019) to recover
lithium as Li2CO3 from lithium-containing concentrates.
The companies like Umicore is also employing the “method combination”
approach to obtain Co-Ni-Cu-Fe alloy from smelting in the furnace first. And then,
using hydrometallurgical processes, Ni, Co, and Cu metals are recovered from the
alloy (Yang et al. 2019).
As it was discussed, pyrometallurgy techniques are currently the main and
dominant industrial processes to recover LIB spent. However, there are some
important issues associated with these processes which should be considered,
metal loss, high energy consumption corresponding to high equipment investment,
and last but not least environmental pollution due to the harmful gas release. Almost
all of these issues can be reduced by the integration of pyrometallurgy and hydro-
metallurgy methods. The integration approach is now being employed by some
industries like Umicore to overcome the main issues of pyrometallurgy-dominant
methods.
Fig. 7 General schematic representing the procedure of pyrometallurgical approach for recovery of
valuable metals from LIB spent
Biometallurgy
Regarding their higher efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and lower facility requirement,

biometallurgical processes are deemed to be one of the most propitious alternatives
to conventional hydrometallurgical processes (Zheng et al. 2018). In
biometallurgical processes, microbial activities engender inorganic and organic
acid production which contribute to metal leaching from spent LIBs (Zeng et al.
2014). Mishra et al. proposed the Fe- and sulfur (S)-oxidizing bacterium, Acidithio-
bacillus ferrooxidans, for the leaching of Co and Li from spent LIBs. It was
indicated that the leaching rate of Co was faster than that of Li; however, the
dissolution of both was still low under optimal circumstances (Mishra et al. 2008).
Xin et al. evaluated the bioleaching mechanisms of spent LIBs using a mixture
medium of sulfur-oxidizing and iron-oxidizing bacteria with different energy
sources (Xin et al. 2009). It was revealed that Li released owing to acid dissolution,
and this was independent of the type of energy source; however, Co leaching was
associated to the type of energy source. In the S system, acid dissolution served as
the leaching means for Co. In the FeS2 or FeS2 + S system, the combination of acid
dissolution and Fe2+-catalyzed reduction influenced the dissolution of Co. Xin et al.
[72] investigated the bioleaching of LiFePO4, LiMn2O4, and LiNixCoyMn1xyO2
for the first time with an S/L ratio of 10 g· L1 (Xin et al. 2016). The highest amount
of Li squeezed out was found in the sulfur-Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans system,
illustrating that the releasing H2SO4 from microorganisms defined the leaching
mechanism of Li. However, the leaching of Ni, Co, and Mn was determined by
Fe2+ reduction and acid dissolution. Given the pyrometallurgical processes and
hydrometallurgical processes, the downsides of biometallurgical processes include
lower kinetic and pulp density. Improving the metal dissolution rate in the
bioleaching process, Zeng et al. proffered a copper-catalyzed leaching process to
extract Co and Li from spent LIBs; Cu2+ has been used as the catalyst and Acidithio-
bacillus ferrooxidans as the bacteria. It was found that the leaching efficiency of Co
was 99% when the concentration of Cu2+ was 0.75 g·L1 and the leaching time was
6 days. However, with a concentration of Cu2 + ¼0, the leaching efficiency of Co
was only 43.1% for the time of 10 days (G. Zeng et al. 2013). Niu et al. explored the
pulp density effect on bioleaching and proved that when the pulp density increased
from 1% to 4%, the leaching efficiency dropped from 52% to 10% for Co and from
80% to 37% for Li (Niu et al. 2014). Although the peak leaching efficiency of Co and
Li could be acquired through controlling process variables such as increasing the
dose of mixed energy substrate or increasing the temperature, still a low metal
extraction rate was observed. Biometallurgical processes have the benefits of
lower cost, with a facile operation and light reaction circumstances; however, their
drawbacks are that the difficultly cultivated bacteria, the time-consuming leaching,
and the low leaching efficiency.
Trends and Challenges for Recycling
Though LIBs are endorsed by the governments in the world, green solutions for
global warming were questioned in technical and nontechnical media. Numerous
publications, LIBs with the resultant negative environmental impacts were depicted
in some questionable quality, as a global environmental problem and a vital pollution
source. Although the environmental footprint of LIB manufacturing is considerable,
numerous scientific investigations revealed the LIBs’ benefits (Baumann et al. 2017;
Vandepaer et al. 2019). Furthermore, recycling spent LIBs is an imperative and

inherent solution for reducing such environmental footprints. Over years, significant
efforts were made by the governments and lithium battery industry to run and
develop recycling operations. Now, the circular economy is the subject of several
events and works. Presently, two main international happenings were devoted to
these aspects utilized in the battery industry (Larouche et al. 2020). Nevertheless,
there are some challenges for LIB recycling limiting its fast development and
scalability.
First, collecting spent LIBs is expensive and needs the inclusion of all consump-
tion chain members such as producers, governments, sellers, consumers, and waste
managers. For example, regardless of well-established regulations and the recycling
industry, less than 20% of the spent LIBs were gathered in European Union, in 2016
as Eucobat (European Compliance Organizations for Batteries) stated. The recovery
was estimated at around 5% in North America (Larouche et al. 2020). Shipping the
spent LIBs, mainly large lithium-ion battery packs, is problematic in addition to the
collection. This critical feature is a topic, most discussed in workshops and confer-
ences, as seen over NAATBatt 2019 Battery Conference held in Buffalo. It was also
investigated by the United Nations Committee of Experts on the Transport of
Dangerous Goods, and numerous sessions are devoted in this regard.
Second, by the variety of LIB substances and the fast advancement of technolo-
gies, it becomes difficult to plan the material inflow variation. A deep evolution
occurred in the cathode composition over the years, from the early stages of LCO to
the novel like LFP, NMC, LMO, and NCA. Furthermore, some products with
cathode additives like yttrium exist on the market ultimately ending up in the
recycling procedure. Furthermore, modifying the anode materials is undergone,
changing from graphite to LTO, and silicon-based materials in the near future.
Furthermore, the electrolyte additive segment in lithium-ion batteries is a dynamic
sector. We denoted 312 patents on different additives over a 24-month period.
Finally, the present work deals with the new challenges of all-solid-state Li batteries
requiring early end-of-life fate of such novel tools for simplifying recycling. Taking
into account these upcoming problems, managing the mass balance, mitigating the
safety and health issues (propane sultone is an example adopted in some composi-
tion, which includes a safety problem for managing with accuracy (CAS number of
1120-71-4)), and waste management will be continuously a challenge for battery
recycling industries.
Ultimately, profit margins for recyclers will be restricted by robust competition
between the volatility of commodities market prices and the battery recyclers
weakening the industry’s viability. Such a feature must be stated by reinforcing the
responsibility of a producer to guarantee the inclusion of the waste producer in
the recycling cost in cases the recovered substances are not able to compensate the
processing cost such as manufacturers of LMO and LFP systems. In Europe, this
concept is already largely acknowledged, where the recycling costs for alkaline
batteries are shared by the importer and manufacturer. Generally, all battery
constructors and manufacturers of mobile phones, laptops, EVs, as well as the end-
users must act to promote a circular economy method by improving the closed-loop
processes resulting in the recreation of compounds with minimum environmental
impacts or battery-grade precursors. The processes integrating the chemical and
mechanical methods are the most appropriate for closing the loop for various sub-
stances (Larouche et al. 2020).
Economic Evaluation
There are a growing potential and great opportunity in Li-ion battery recycling
industry. According to the IEA (International Energy Agency) report (Energy
Technology Perspectives 2020), over 11 million tons of spent Li-ion batteries has
been expected to be discarded through to 2030. As it is shown in literature (Burton
2017), the great portion of LIB spent is producing by electric cars and energy storage
devices which are creating an excellent source for recyclers.
When the automotive batteries at the end of their lifetimes are collected, there is
also an opportunity to be adopted in second-use less energy-demanding applications,
e.g., residential buildings, uninterruptible power supply, sweepers, and driverless
transport vehicles. Although this method is key to circular economy policies from a
materials perspective, they are still at the pilot or limited scale, and more importantly
this leads to the obstruction of the recycling and recovery of valuable materials
(Bobba et al. 2019). However, the benefits of recycling lithium-ion batteries are
considerable, especially if the direct recycling approaches are considered, offering
the most potential for cost-effectiveness.
It is expected that the batteries play a far more substantial role than pumped hydro
storage technology by 2050. In accordance with a high rate of technology improve-
ment in lithium-ion batteries, there is a significant growing demand for that, which
could reach up to 4000 GWh by 2040, compared to only 78 GWh today (European
Commission 2019), and surprisingly demand of Li-ion batteries overcomes supply.
Limitation of Li-ion battery manufacturing in some regions like Europe makes a
problematical condition for some companies to provide minimum required batteries
for electric buses in 2020 (Pagliaro and Meneguzzo 2019).
It seems that today, there are few countries which can play a key role in lithium-
ion battery supply chain (Fig. 8). The graph shows that China almost dominates in
different processed materials (anode, cathode, and electrolyte) for electrical vehicle
batteries.
One of the strategic attitudes to securing raw materials for batteries is to recycle
them. For instance, the contribution from recycling electric vehicle batteries to
meeting the needs of cobalt within the EU could reach around 10% in 2030
(European Commission 2019). Europe is planning to develop a groundbreaking
new recycling process in the frame of BATTERY 2030+. The new model (Fig. 9) has
the fundamental advantage over the current recycling flow, through pyro and hydro
Fig. 8 The volume of Li-ion battery cells being sold (Burton 2017)
Fig. 9 Proposed future recycling process (University 2020)
processes (Fig. 10). The novel approach employs automation and AI as much as
possible in sorting, evaluation, and selective recycling processes. This includes the
powder recovery and powder reconditioning to battery-grade active, as well as
automated pack disassembly to the cell level (University 2020).
Fig. 10 Current recycling process (University 2020)
Challenges of Recycling
Technical constraints, economic barriers, logistic issues, and regulatory gaps are
currently the main and important reasons that impede Li-ion battery recycling from
well-establishment (Jacoby 2019). There are different and vast aspects in economic
barriers but one of principal ones is large fluctuations in the prices of raw battery
materials (e.g., cobalt). Cathodic layer of the LIBs, accounts for more than 90% of
the total value like Co (39%) and Li (16%) (Mossali et al. 2020). Any drop in the
prices of raw metals make a great difference in decision of the manufacturers to
choose mined materials over the recycled (Jacoby 2019). Flexibility of recycling
technology is another financial concern. Recycling processes should be developed to
recover LIBs regardless of their specific types and their compositions. Scientists are
continuously working to improve available technologies in batteries (e.g., Li-air)
which may gain a major foothold on the current market in coming future and forcing
LIB recyclers out of business (Jacoby 2019). Stability, standardization, and safe
handling of the LIB components (Mossali et al. 2020) can be consider as another
possible challenges for both technical and economical attitudes.
Conclusion
Producing e-waste annually is approximately 40 million metric tons globally com-

prising 5% of the overall solid wastes. Among all electric and electronic wastes,
lithium-ion battery (LIB) has lately come to prominence in electronic devices
because of its long-life span, acceptable discharge resistance, and high energy
density. Recovering LIBs for valuable materials such as metals assists in maintaining
principal resources and preserving them to have less-waste environment. Battery
waste is now considered globally as a strategically beneficial waste stream. It
contains a considerable metallic value targeted for supporting the dwindling global
supply of critical substances and primary resources like cobalt, lithium, and nickel.
Spent batteries will create large quantities of dangerous waste needing to be treated
and managed by achieving the end of life. Several environmental risks are
represented by spent LIBs due to the fluorinated elements, nanoparticles, leachable
metals, and organic solvents in their composition. Selecting an appropriate recycling
method can potentially contribute to mitigating LIB destructive emissions. Three
different procedures have been proposed to recycling LIBs. The first is extracting
valuable compounds or elements, the second method deals with regenerating pre-
cursors with higher quality, and the third one is the direct recreation of the active
materials properties. Hydrometallurgy and pyrometallurgy, two important and well-
known methods for recovering the valuable metals, are explained in details together
with their main disadvantageous. In the economic evaluation section, we looked at
the prospective opportunities, considering materials and countries, in the LIB
recycling based on the latest IEA and European Union reports. Finally, we men-
tioned some of the challenges in the recycling industry and research.
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Recycling of Rechargeable Batteries:
A Sustainable Tool for Urban Mining 64
Pankaj Pathak and Karan Chabhadiya
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1636
Background of Rechargeable Batteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1637
Environmental Impacts due to Battery Disposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1639
Recycling Technologies for Waste Batteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1642
Pyrometallurgical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1642
Hydrometallurgy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1644
Biohydrometallurgy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1645
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1647
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1649
Abstract
Renewable energy, by means of energy capture, storage, and transmission, is able
to fulfil the catastrophic energy demand worldwide but requires suitable storage
devises. Rechargeable batteries are prominent to do so. However, based on the
capability of energy storage, Ni-Cd, Pb-acid, and Li-ion batteries are the most
important and remained in wider use among others. Therefore, a large number of
batteries is being spent after completion of their life span, and this needed to be
handled in proper manner. The landfill disposal may cause severe environmental
problems like soil, ground, and water pollution with the hazardous and toxic
contents therein (like Cd, Ni, Co, KCl). Additionally, such kind of disposal is a
huge loss of resources as to the criticality and strategic importance of these metals
due to their crustal abundance and geopolitical scenario. Efficient recycling of
spent batteries can lead toward the sustainable solution of this problem via
conservation of primary ores by recovery of metals, waste minimization, and
recycling. Recycling of spent battery is in trend and has been a global topic for
P. Pathak (*)
Department of Environmental Science, SRM University – AP, Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh, India
K. Chabhadiya
Research and Development, Vardhman Environmental Consultancy Services, Rajkot, Gujarat, India

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_74
1636 P. Pathak and K. Chabhadiya
environmentalists and metallurgists. Several research works have been done that
clearly indicate the economic and environmental interests in this area. Therefore,
we attempt, in this chapter, to investigate and discuss the recycling processes for
the extraction, separation, and recovery of metals from not only a technological
perspective but also the related environmental issues.
Keywords
Recycling · Ni-Cd battery · Pb-acid battery · Li-ion battery · Circular economy
Introduction
Rechargeable batteries are becoming of utmost importance globally and suitable

candidate in various sectors particularly power sectors, electrical vehicles, cell
phones, laptops, and personal digital gadgets (Pathak et al. 2017). Fast recharge,
miniaturization, high energy density, and reduced cost have shown its significance in
global market and emphasize wide applications of batteries in electrical and elec-
tronic fields. Various types of rechargeable batteries such as lead-acid, zinc-carbon,
nickel-metal hydride (NiMH), lithium-ion, and lithium-ion polymer are available in
the global market and show its optimistic response with maximum recharging cycles
(Agrawal et al. 2012; Kim et al. 2018). The energy densities of batteries describe its
efficiency, that is, too long for thousands of charge cycles for its wide application in
transport and portable devices. However, the lithium-ion (Li-ion), nickel-cadmium
(Ni-Cd), and alkaline battery technologies lead in high-power-density battery appli-
cations (Sattar et al. 2019a; Leite et al. 2019). Therefore, future research shows
potential in enhancing power density of alkaline rechargeable batteries such as
cerium-zinc (CeZn) systems with larger cell potential (~2 V) (Hall and Bain 2008;
Xie et al. 2013). Keeping in view, Ma et al. (2018) have employed alkaline system
using Co3O4 in Zn/Co(III). It yielded 5000 recharging cycles with 92% retention
capacity, and the higher voltage was 2.2 V. It indicates that every year, efficiency of
batteries is enhancing due to upgradation in battery technologies. In this view,
numerous mathematical models have been applied and studied for efficient battery
production and ore extraction techniques.
The global market for batteries is projected to reach millions and its end of life
is from 1 year to 5 years (Palacin and deGuibert 2016; Zhang et al. 2018; Pathak
et al. 2019). However, after completing the end of life of battery, it flows in the waste
stream in the form of e-waste (Srivastava and Pathak 2020). Therefore, the
global estimation for cumulative production of batteries in the upcoming years is
worrisome due to accumulation of huge amount of waste (spent) batteries (Pathak
et al. 2017; Sattar et al. 2019b). The International Energy Agency has projected that
globally, ~40 million electric vehicles (EVs) would ply on road by year 2030 (Pathak
et al. and Chabhadiya 2021). The scope of EVs increases the demand of LIBs; it was
estimated to be $36.7 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach $129.3 billion by 2027
with an 18% annual growth (Allied Market Research 2019). It is estimated that
several tons of batteries specifically Li-ion batteries (LIBs) would complete its end
64 Recycling of Rechargeable Batteries: A Sustainable Tool for Urban Mining 1637
of life (EoL) by the year 2022 (https://evreporter.com/lithium-ion-battery-reuse-and-

recycling/). Owing to that, recycling of batteries becomes a big task for companies as
they receive tons of materials at its disposal, ~70,000 units per day, which is nearly
impossible for the people to segregate the materials in the battery, and the recovery
factor is merely dependent on the quality of battery (Gaines 2014; Chabhadiya et al.
2021). On the other hand, less accessibility of recycling centers, required machinery,
and skilled personnel reduces the battery recycling. Surprisingly, less than 5% of
batteries are recycled globally, and the rest are disposed onto landfills that causes
adverse impacts not only to the environment but also in the economy during time of
manufacturing as well as disposal (Pathak et al. 2017).
Moreover, batteries like lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries have significant
contribution to greenhouse gases for the materials required in battery manufacturing
and ore depletion; similarly, nickel-metal hydride batteries have a profound cumu-
lative energy demand, but calculating a life cycle of a battery requires more
parameters for the overall environmental impacts (Li et al. 2019; McManus 2012).
The battery contains metals where some are hazardous and toxic in nature, but
some metals present in spent batteries are critical and precious metals. Because of
its potential scope in the resource conservation and alleviation of energy
crisis, recycling of spent batteries has gained more attention. Recovery of these
metals can be prime assets for the sustainable development, and reclamation of these
metals comes under virtue of urban mining (Ilyas and Lee 2014; Srivastava and
Pathak 2020). Furthermore, Dewulf et al. (2010) have reported that the supply of
recycled metals from spent batteries results in saving up to 51% of virgin materials,
i.e., natural resource. It emphasizes the modification in technologies in recycling
process to scale the production without mining the virgin earth. Further, it has been
reported that the revenue for LiMn2O4 and LiCoO2, respectively, ranged from $890
to $8900 with incentives, when production material was costlier and collection of
spent LIBs was less than 10%. However, it is estimated that due to recycling,
production material would be cheaper and total supply of LiCoO2 falls below 21%
of the total supply stream (Wang et al. 2014). Further, genetic algorithm (GA) based
on closed-loop supply chain model was made to reduce the cost of manufacturing
battery by 32.4% where industrial data were integrated in forward and reverse supply
chain (Kannan et al. 2010).
In this context, this chapter focuses on recycling of rechargeable batteries where
three types of rechargeable batteries such as Ni-Cd, Pb-acid, and Li-ion spent
batteries are selected and discussed in detailed due to its major significance in
electrical and electronic devices. Advantages and disadvantages of these batteries
are shown in Fig. 1.
Background of Rechargeable Batteries
The research and development for battery was paced in 1800, when Alessandro
Volta created the first battery which produced the continuous current by stacking
alternating zinc, brine-soaked cloth, and silver (https://www.britannica.com/
Fig. 1 Advantages and disadvantages of different types of batteries
biography/Alessandro-Volta). Further, developments and application of batteries

were prolonged for lead-acid, Ni-Cd, zinc, and Li-ion battery (LIB).
In 1854, W.J. Sinsteden has for the first time reported that the lead plate can be
used to store the electrical charges; further, Gaston Planté has developed an
enhanced version of the Pb battery which was more expedient by using several
metals and other electrolytes (Planté 1887). Lead-acid batteries were properly
functioning for several stationary applications, but due to its weight and acidic
electrolyte, it was not ideal for portable applications. However, Pb-acid batteries
hold $35 billion growth annually primarily in automotive market (Heth 2019). In
1990, Stanford Ovshinsky and co-workers have enhanced the applications of Ni-Cd
batteries and were particular to include different earth metals and transition metals
which replaced cadmium with metal alloys, and further, he was referred as the
nickel-metal hydride battery inventor (Ovshinsky et al. 1996).
In 1981, J.B. Goodenough and co-workers developed a successful Li-ion battery
that utilized a lithium cobalt oxide (LiCoO2) which was the foundation of LIBs.
Now, it is commonly available today and a field for advance research (Mizushima
et al. 1981). In addition, the energy density task will be a perplexing assignment
because present LIBs (~150 Wh/kg) weigh 200 kg and run 250 km in a single
charge for a mid-sized electric car which is too high and development of two to
three is obligatory in the energy density division (Scrosati 2011). Henceforth,
attention is focused on batteries based on electrode combination that in theory
ensures a substantial hurdle in energy density which are primarily lithium-sulfur
(LiS) and lithium-oxide (LiO2) batteries having theoretical energy density of the
order 2,600 Wh/kg and 11,400 Wh/kg, respectively. However, nickel-metal hydride
(NiMH) and Li-ion batteries are amplified because of its high potential, energy
density, stability, and transportation, which make them portable to use from personal
Fig. 2 Timeline on battery research and development
devices to heavy vehicles (Whittingham 2012). The timeline on battery research and
development is shown in Fig. 2.
Environmental Impacts due to Battery Disposal
Waste (spent) battery is a significant component of e-waste that contains a complex

mixture of several heavy and hazardous metals (including Cu, Fe, Ni, Co, Pb, Cd, Cr,
Au, Ag, Pd) along with the plastics whose composition varies with its manufacturing
requirement and time (Robinson 2009). Several studies on the pollution caused by
e-waste including battery, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated
diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans
(PCDD/Fs) have found these to be increased in the air and water at recycling or
landfill sites, which demonstrates the hazardous and toxic nature of e-waste as shown
in the Fig. 3 (Pathak et al. 2017). The open burning of wire piles, melting of circuit
boards, and discarding of metal bearing acidic solutions are in usual practice and
cause air pollution (Srivastava et al. 2020). Subsequently, heavy and hazardous
metals go into water as well as soil and cause geo-environmental pollution, through
which it reaches to the food chain and shows impacts to the human health as shown
in Fig. 3 (Tue et al. 2016). The adverse effects on the environment and health due to
disposal and informal recycling of e-waste are shown in Table 1.
Besides, Notter et al. (2010) have stated that battery production is caused by
extraction and supply of copper and aluminum and other rare metals for battery
management system, whereas the informal sector mismanaged the recycling
process in the developing countries like Nigeria, India, Ghana, China, Thailand,
Vietnam, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Bangladesh and showed the major impact on the
environment. Moreover, a study conducted by Julander et al. (2014) demonstrated
that informal practices in the recycling sectors create airborne personal exposure
to the surroundings. The workers in nearby facility were getting personal exposure
10–30 times more than office workers, where exposure shows higher concentration
of chromium, cobalt, lead, indium, and mercury in blood and urine samples.
Fig. 3 Environmental and health impacts due to e-waste disposal (Adopted from Pathak et al.
2017)
Additionally, the toxic nature of the Ni-Cd battery with a cadmium cathode was a
disposal concern, and in 2009, the European Union prohibited their use in most of
the applications. The primary energy requirement for using recycled nickel and
cadmium is less than 75% and 46%, respectively, as compared to mining, extracting,
and refining the virgin material which saves tons of emission that blow into the
atmosphere (Petranikova et al. 2017; Rydh and Karlstrom 2002). The study done by
Gottesfeld and Pokhrel (2011) on lead-acid battery within 37 countries from battery
manufacturing plant and recycling plant, respectively, revealed that the concentra-
tion of lead in human blood is increasing. It was demonstrated that the average blood
lead level (BLL) in workers was 47 μg/dL and 64 μg/dL which was 4–7 times higher
than the WHO permissible limit (<10 μg/dL). Lead is a heavy and hazardous metal
and shows significant impacts on the environment and human being specially
children as it affects their brain development (Rapier 2020; Zhang et al. 2015).
However, it was reported that spent LIBs do not show much environmental impact
where lithium does not show threat to flora and fauna and does not bioaccumulate
(Aral and Vecchio-sadus 2008). Moreover, it was noticed that among these three
batteries, spent LIBs have not much impacts on the environment and human as
compared to Ni-Cd and lead-acid battery (Rapier 2020). Furthermore, Matheys et al.
(2009) have done life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) study on five types of electric
vehicle batteries using Eco-Indicator 99 method by SimaPro software. Based on the
Table 1 Environmental and health consequences due to e-waste recycling. (Adapted from
Srivastava and Pathak 2020)
Environmental
Pollutants Sources consequences Health impacts
Pb PC monitors, batteries, Degrade the soil fertility Can cause intellectual
PCBs, light bulbs, lamps impairment in children,
anemia, kidney damage
Cd Rechargeable computer Highly toxic and Affects the kidneys and
batteries, older bioaccumulation occurs bones, reproductive
CRTs, PCBs, Ni-Cd in the environment damage, and lung
batteries, infrared emphysema
detectors, semiconductor
chips, ink or toner
photocopying machines,
mobile phones
Be Power supply boxes, Adverse impact on the Affect the liver, kidneys,
computers, x-ray environment heart, nervous system,
machines, ceramic and lymphatic system,
components of electronics develop beryllium
sensitization
Hg Lighting devices for flat- Contamination of soil, Damage the central
screen displays, CRTs, air, and water, nervous system, anemia,
PCBs, thermostats, bioaccumulation occurs kidney damage
monitors, cold cathode
fluorescent lamps
Cr Production of metal Highly toxic, causes Carcinogens, affects the
housings (anticorrosion severe water pollution reproductive and
coatings), data tapes, endocrine functions
floppy disks
Ba CRTs (2%–9% Ba), Get accumulated in soil, Low blood potassium,
fluorescent lamps water, and plants cardiac arrhythmias,
respiratory failure,
dysfunction, paralysis
POPs Used in circuit boards, Bioaccumulation in the Neurotoxicity, long-
plastic casings of environment (very term exposure can lead
computers, lubricants and resistant to break down), to impairment
coolants in generators, air pollution Learning and memory
fluorescent lighting, functions interfere with
ceiling fans, electric thyroid and estrogen
motors, connectors, hormone systems
mobile phones
PVC For insulation on wires Incineration produces Cause pulmonary
and cables chlorinated dioxins and dysfunctions, lung
furans, which are highly damage
toxic even in very low
concentrations, persist
long in the environment
result, it was reported that Li-ion and sodium-nickel chloride batteries have lower
impact as compared to Pd-acid, Ni-Cd, and NiMH batteries.
Recycling Technologies for Waste Batteries
Several methods are used for recycling of spent battery to extract the critical and rare
metals, i.e., cobalt, lithium, nickel, manganese, lead, zinc, copper, and cadmium. In
this view, numerous studies including pyro-, hydro-, and bio-metallurgical routes
have been employed to recover metals in sustainable manner and contribute to the
circular economy.
Pyrometallurgical
Pyrometallurgy is a branch of metallurgy also known as thermal metallurgy where

heat is used for extraction and purification of metals followed by condensation. In
this technology, the major operations are roasting, smelting, and refining. The
roasting is performed to transform sulfide ores into oxides as SO2 gas in the presence
of air without fusion, whereas smelting is the process usually employed in the blast
furnaces to reduce iron from ores. This technology is used to recover metals from
waste battery by introducing higher temperature into it. Due to higher temperature,
several reactions would occur in the battery recycling, viz., decomposition of
compounds and reduction and evaporation of metals (Espinosa and Mansur 2012).
In this section, pyrometallurgy technology is discussed for the three types of battery:
Li-ion, Ni-Cd, and Pb-acid batteries. The overall process of pyrometallurgical
recycling is shown in the flowchart in Fig. 4. It is shown that battery recycling starts
with mechanical process that increases extraction process in pyro-, hydro-, and bio-
metallurgical process. Mechanical pre-treatments start with sorting which is usually
a manual job, crushing, milling, and sieving. It is shown in Fig. 4 that the mechanical
process such as gravity, magnetic, and pneumatic separations can separate scrap
plastics and iron containers from cathodic materials. However, battery dismantling is
not mandatory in the pyrometallurgy process (Sayilgan et al. 2009).
In case of Li-ion battery, electrochemical discharging requires to avoid short
circuiting of Li-contained materials (Chabhadiya et al. 2019). The process starts
with heating at the low temperature, i.e., 150–500 C, to remove electrolytes
and organic solvent, and further, it then goes to high temperature, i.e., 1400–
1700 C, to form alloy as Co alloy and slag as Li2O or Li2CO3 products. Likewise,
the carbothermal reduction of spent Li-ion battery can be modified using
additive slags and forms the Al2O3, CaO, MgO, and SiO2 (Assefi et al. 2020).
However, Dang et al. (2018) have shown that 97.45% lithium was evaporated during
pyrometallurgy process when slag and CaCl2 were roasted at 1000 C for 90 min,
and XRD results showed that the LiAl(SiO3)2 in the slag was turned into LiCl.
The spent Ni-Cd battery contains ~40% cathode and anode materials which are
made of Ni, Co, Cd, Fe, plastic and steel container, and Ni mesh plate to support for
Fig. 4 A flow chart of pyrometallurgical process for different types of battery (Assefi et al. 2020;
Zhang et al. 2016)
anodic powder (Agrawal et al. 2012). The harmful and carcinogenic nature of Cd
and precious nature of Co show its appeal toward its recycling. The carbothermal
reduction process is generally used to recover the Cd from Ni-Cd batteries where
anthracite can be employed as a carbonaceous material to extract 99.92% of Cd at
900 C and as a by-product of Ni-Co alloy produced (Assefi et al. 2020; Espinosa
and Tenório 2006). Furthermore, Hung et al. (2017) have given thermal treatment to
the Ni-Cd spent batteries at higher temperature of 1450 C for 30 min. In this
treatment, metals were separated through their boiling point and density, and the
remains of iron and nickel were refined and further used in steelmaking process.
Prior to the thermal treatment, spent rechargeable batteries were frozen in liquid
nitrogen for discharging, and the cathode materials and separator were heated at
600–800 C with CaO and SiO2 as absorbents and yielded 98% of cobalt oxide and
nickel (Tang et al. 2013).
Recycling Pb-acid batteries can be approached in two ways, viz., direct smelting
and indirect smelting in pyrometallurgical process which is mostly adopted around
the globe. The spent lead-acid battery contains ~60% lead sulfate, 28% lead dioxide,
9% lead oxide, and a small amount of metallic lead, whereas in the direct smelting,
the lead material can be directly treated in smelting furnace at temperature of more
than 1000 C for decomposing and melting lead compounds with or without
desulfurization (Ramus and Hawkins 1993). Moreover, desulfurization occurs at
lower temperatures followed by smelting. The spent material is treated with
a desulfurizing agent, viz., Na2CO3 or NaOH, in aqueous solutions at ambient
temperatures (Zhang et al. 2016). Furthermore, an economic and environmental

evaluation of lead recovery was studied by introducing vacuum chlorination process
which generated a revenue of $8.50 and reduced the cost of reagents without
generating any secondary pollution in the process which takes place at low temper-
ature of 550 C succeeded by a smelting operation at 1000 C (Liu et al. 2018). It is
found that during this process, several toxic and hazardous gases are released into the
environment; therefore, this is not an eco-friendly technique and consumes higher
energy.
Hydrometallurgy
The hydrometallurgy is a part of extractive metallurgy where aqueous solutions are

used to recover metals from ores and waste materials. This technology includes pre-
treatment followed by leaching, solvent extraction, ion exchange, and electrowin-
ning process for selective recovery of metals (Agrawal et al. 2012). Figure 5 displays
a general scheme including various processes used for the recovery of metals from
spent batteries.
The hydrometallurgical process of Li-ion batteries is very common where mineral
acids and organic acids are used to leach the metals from cathode materials of spent
battery after discharging and dismantling it. Some of the studies of metal recovery
with different mineral and organic acids are mentioned in the Table 2. Zhang et al.
(2020) have demonstrated that more than 99% of Ni, Co, and Li were extracted from
spent Li-ion battery. Moreover, more than 97% of Mn was leached H2SO4 under the
optimum conditions such as L/S 6 mg/L at 85 C for 1 h without adding reductant
into it. Additionally, Nan et al. (2005) have used Acorga M5640 and Cyanex 272
Fig. 5 A flowchart on hydrometallurgical recycling of waste battery

Table 2 Comparison of varying parameters and efficiency of metal recovery in hydrometallurgical

process
Experimental conditions Percent recovery References
Citrus fruit juice, variable pH range Li, ~100%; Mn, 99%; Ni, Pant and Dolker
from 1.5 to 14 98%; Co, 94% (2017)
H2SO4 and H2O2, T – 75 C, t – 60 min Li – 99.1%, Co – 70% Jha et al. (2013)
Sodium metabisulfite (Na2S2O5), Around 85% recovery of Li, Vieceli et al. (2018)
RPM – 400 min 1, t – 30 min Co, Mn, and Ni when L/S
was 5 L/kg
Ascorbic Acid (C6H8O6), T – 70 C, t – Li – 98.5%, Co – 94.8% Li et al. (2012)
120 min., S/L – 25 g/L
Citric acid (C6H8O7) and H2O2; T, Li – 91%, Co – 81% Golmohammadzadeh
60 C; t, 120 min; S/L, 30 g/L; citric et al. (2017)
acid conc., 2 M
Oxalic acid (C2H2O4); T, 80 C; t, LiCoO2 – 98% Sun and Qiu (2012)
120 min; S/L, 50 g/L; oxalate conc.,
1M
100 mM H2SO4 and biogenic ferric Li, 60%; Co, 53.2%; Mn, Boxall et al. (2018)
iron 81.8%; Cu, 74.4%
extractants in the solvent extraction method, and these yielded high purity of lithium,
cobalt, and copper with more than 95% recovery from Li-ion batteries. After
extracting the metals, solvents were recovered with sulfuric acid stripping. It was
also stated that low-temperature hydrometallurgy provides ~90% recovery efficiency
of Ni, Co, and Mn metals and a worth margin of $5013/ton of material recycling
(Gratz et al. 2014). Further, hydrometallurgical route is being acquired to leach the
metals from Ni-Cd and NiMH batteries and found the best combination for both
types of batteries, i.e., leaching with 2 M H2SO4 at 20 C for 2 h which yielded
~100% of metals (Pietrelli et al. 2005).
Moreover, lead-acid battery was leached with two reagents, viz., NaOH and
Na2CO3, to desulfurize the lead paste. It was observed that leaching with NaOH
was more efficient than Na2CO3 and resulted in 98.4% lead recovery followed by
99.8% and 99.9% barium and iron from spent battery (Yu et al. 2019). Moreover, the
study conducted by Xing et al. (2019) demonstrated the clean process of recycling
lead-acid battery paste using leaching and electrowinning process. The 99% of lead
was leached at 90 C, 400 g/L CaCl2 concentration, 5 g/L Fe2+ concentration, and
pH 1.0 with 2 h leaching time. Moreover, 99.6% of pure lead was obtained during
electrowinning process at 200 A/m2 current density that indicates electrowinning
process is more economical as compared to cementation process of hydrometallurgy.
Biohydrometallurgy
Biohydrometallurgy is defined as the biological solubilization of metals into their

aqueous soluble form under the microbial action (Bindschedler et al. 2017;
Desmarais et al. 2020). In this technology, biosorption and bioleaching processes
occur for selective recovery of metals from ores and waste materials including
batteries (Ilyas et al. 2021). This technology is also called a green technology
where microbes are generating biogenic lixiviant as per their metabolic pathways
that helps to recover metals from the waste materials. However, based on their
metabolic pathways, microbes are categorized as chemolithoautotrophs and
chemoorganotrophs (Srivastava et al. 2020). The acidophiles are chemolithoau-
totrophs where the atmospheric CO2 is used as a carbon source and inorganic
compounds primarily Fe2+ and S0 as an energy source to grow at lower pH <2.
On the other hand, chemoorganotrophs such as fungi and cyanogenic bacteria use
organic carbon as an energy source at wider pH range (acidic to slightly alkaline).
Also, the applicability of chemolithoautotrophs in bioleaching of batteries has been
widely studied. In this context, a pictorial representation of metabolic pathway of
biohydrometallurgical recycling of electrical and electronic wastes is presented in
Fig. 6 (Srivastava et al. 2020). In this figure, chemolithoautotroph microorganism
generates biogenic lixiviants to leach precious metals from e-waste.
With this concept, several researchers have used biotechnology in hydrometal-
lurgical process to recover valuable and critical metals from waste batteries.
Biohydrometallurgical way of metal extraction found 95% recovery of lithium and
Fig. 6 A pictorial representation of metabolic pathway of biohydrometallurgical process of waste

recycling (Adopted from Ilyas et al. 2021)
various other metals with different concentrations by Aspergillus niger. It is an

effective fungi in bioleaching process and showed high potential to recover valuable
metals from LIBs (Horeh et al. 2016).
Furthermore, Kim et al. (2016) have studied six species of Aspergillus to extract
metals from batteries where 90% removal of metals from Zn-Mn batteries was
extracted by A. niger KUC5254 and 95% removal from Ni-Cd battery by A. niger
KUC5254 and A. tubingensis KUC5037 species. Moreover, an acidophilic
Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans bacteria leached 65% and 11% of cobalt and lithium,
respectively, as the bacteria produce sulfuric acid indirectly and higher metal con-
centration that resulted in toxicity where cell growth decreased (Mishra et al. 2008).
Bioleaching process was also studied using Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans bacteria
and leaching with Fe2(SO4)3 solution which yielded 100% Cd from Ni-Cd batteries.
It was concluded that ferric ions played a major role in Cd leaching because it can
maintain low pH throughout the process (Velgosová et al. 2013). Moreover, Tian
et al. (2017) have presented a study on five typical recycling processes of lead
extraction from lead-acid batteries and concluded that not all innovative hydromet-
allurgical processes are sustainable and consideration of indirect and off-site emis-
sions should be evaluated for financial subsidies and policy developments and
Queneau-Schuhmann-Lurgi (QSL) process because it recycles every lead
concentrates.
Keeping in view, Table 3 is presented to determine the metal recovery from the
waste battery with different mode of extraction such as pyrometallurgy, hydromet-
allurgy, and biohydrometallurgy.
Conclusions
Disposal of batteries in sustainable manner is a big challenge for the sustainability of

developing countries, where no proper protocols are framed for primary and sec-
ondary batteries. The waste battery contains hazardous as well as precious metals,
and recovery of these metals from waste batteries not only minimizes the environ-
mental impacts but also boosts the economy. Sustainable management of waste
battery is an integral part of circular economy. In this chapter, recycling of three
types of secondary batteries, Li-ion, Ni-Cd, and Pb-acid, using pyro-, hydro- and
biohydrometallurgical technologies is discussed. Pyrometallurgy is easy and a
dominant process in the recycling sector, but it has serious environmental down-
sides, such as the emission of lead dust, Cd, and SO2 and high energy consumption.
However, hydrometallurgy generates huge amount of hazardous and toxic effluents
and necessitates separate treatment facility for the effluents. On the other hand,
biohydrometallurgy is an eco-friendly and cost-effective process but with slow
reaction kinetics. Therefore, there is need to upgrade these technologies to make
the process fast, cost-effective, and eco-friendly and lead toward the circular
economy.
1648
Table 3 Metal recovery from different modes of extraction technologies

Percent recovery
Routes of extraction References Li Co Mn Ni Pb Cu Al Fe Ba Cd Cr
Hydrometallurgy Gratz et al. (2014) – 96 96 99 – 3.6 – – – – –
Nan et al. (2005) 80 97 – – – 98 – – – – –
Yu et al. (2019) – – – – 98.4 – – 99.9 99.8 – –
Pietrelli et al. (2005) – 97.6 99.7 100 – – – – – 100 –
Pyrometallurgy Dang et al. (2018) 97.5 – – – – – – – – – –
Espinosa and Tenório (2006) – – – – – – – – – 99.9 –
Hung et al. (2017) – 99.9 74.6 99.9 – 93.6 – 99.8 – – 79
Tang et al. (2013) – 98 – 98 – – – – – – –
Biohydrometallurgy Horeh et al. (2016) 95 45 70 38 – 100 65 – – – –
Mishra et al. (2008) 11 65 – – – – – – – – –
Kim et al. (2016) – – – 88 – 98 – – – 90 95
Velgosová et al. (2013) – – – – – – – – – 100 –
P. Pathak and K. Chabhadiya
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Part IV
Hazardous Waste Management, Bio-waste
Management, Waste Water Management,
Solid Waste to Energy
Hazardous Waste Management,
Challenges, and Risks in Handling 65
Laboratory Waste in Universities
Annabelle Joy Siril, Siti Nurwajihah Abu Bakar, and

Mohd Omar Fatehah
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1656
Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1656
Current Issues and Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1657
Literature Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1657
Scheduled Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1657
Scheduled Waste Best Management Practices and Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1659
Institutional and Administrative Changes for Privatization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1662
Standard Operating Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1664
Materials and Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1669
Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1669
Sampling Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1670
Universiti Sains Malaysia’s Scheduled Waste Management System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1671
Data Collection and Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1676
Results and Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1677
Generation of Scheduled Waste in Study Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1677
Observational Analysis on Storage Facility Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1683
Evaluation of Risk and Hazard of Scheduled Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1685
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1712
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1713
Abstract
A study was conducted on the hazardous waste management, challenges, and
risks in handling laboratory waste in universities. Hazardous waste, also known
as scheduled waste in Malaysia, are commonly categorized into chemical and
biological wastes which may consist the following characteristics, i.e., toxicity,
flammability, corrosivity, explosivity, and infectious. These wastes appear to be
more diverse than other streams, and thus can be harder to measure than
A. J. Siril · S. N. Abu Bakar · M. O. Fatehah (*)

School of Civil Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Engineering Campus, Penang, Malaysia
e-mail: annabellendan@student.usm.my; snurwajihah@student.usm.my; cefatehah@usm.my

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_79
1656 A. J. Siril et al.
industrial waste. Indeed, scheduled wastes are a problem for any school with a
laboratory, regardless of size. Four of the six schools at the university identified
to be generating a significant amount of scheduled waste were chosen and the
data was gathered through screening, questionnaires, interviews with laboratory
personnel, and access to existing records throughout the year 2017–2019, like
packaging, labeling, storage, and disposal methods. This insight could be
beneficial to other universities or science and academic laboratories around
the world for efficiently managing the scheduled waste generated in their
laboratories.
Keywords
Scheduled waste management · Hazardous waste management · Hazardous
waste · Scheduled waste laboratory wastes · Hazard characteristics and waste
management
Introduction
Background
The protection of the environment is a global issue for humanity. Hazardous wastes
are highly dangerous as these have the potential to cause significant threats to
humankind and also to the environment. In Malaysia, hazardous waste is known
as scheduled waste. Colleges and universities encounter thorny issues in coping with
scheduled waste, as do many industries. Industry and universities both face rising
scheduled waste management costs and permanent responsibility for scheduled
waste legal costs. There are certain characteristics identified in these types of wastes
known to pose risks to human beings in terms of their health or even living
organisms, which will lead these wastes or a variation of waste classified as
scheduled waste.
Scheduled waste is commonly categorized into chemical waste, biological waste,
explosives, and radioactive waste. Nevertheless, unlike many industries, colleges
and universities produce a small quantity of scheduled waste, often but by no means
all of which is produced in laboratories; just about every new research project and
experiment contributes to some volume. Research staff and students who can
incorporate environmental awareness in their everyday life on campus can play a
significant role not only in mitigating environmental problems but also in achieving
financial benefits for their university. Therefore, universities need to be in sync with
their environment.
In order to achieve greater campus sustainability, we should begin to formulate
effective environmental management practices on university ground before we can
establish a proper waste management system. Without having an effective manage-
ment system in place, it would be difficult to even strive to develop a sustainable
environment. Most universities produce various types of scheduled waste. These
65 Hazardous Waste Management, Challenges, and Risks in Handling Laboratory. . . 1657
wastes should undergo special treatment. Any society will profit from studying how
to minimize the challenges created by insufficient disposal of solid waste if simple,
effective, and organized robust waste management systems are implemented into the
network (McAllister 2015).
This study analyses are conducted on existing scheduled waste management
activities at Universiti Sains Malaysia, Engineering Campus. Through a field
study, the management system on scheduled waste is evaluated with reference to
the Environmental Quality (Scheduled Wastes) Regulations 2005, under the Envi-
ronmental Quality Act 1974. The sum of scheduled waste generated is analyzed in
part of the scheduled waste management.
Current Issues and Management
Each academic institution should implement a properly scheduled waste manage-

ment scheme, regardless of size. Compared with those extracted from handling the
larger quantities produced by industries, the environmental benefits of proper man-
agement of small quantities of scheduled waste may not be important, but there are
substantial benefits to be realized through educating staff and students in properly
scheduled waste management techniques as they start working in laboratories. This
study explains how Universiti Sains Malaysia Engineering Campus is dealing with
their scheduled wastes and discusses what the future holds for organized scheduled
waste management of higher educational institutions.
Literature Review
Scheduled Waste
Wastes are defined as hazardous if they exhibit either an explosive, oxidizing,

flammable, toxic, and carcinogenic or any two combined (Mmereki et al. 2016).
Most hazardous wastes are results of items disposed of after use from e-products,
vehicles, and including wastes from biomedical practices. According to scientific
research, hazardous waste includes those such as synthetic solvents, waste oils, and
chemical waste. In Malaysia, scheduled waste is the term used to describe hazardous
waste. Scheduled wastes are wastes that fall within the five groups of waste listed in
the First Schedule of the Environmental Quality (Scheduled Wastes) Regulations
2005. Scheduled waste is regarded as one of the most difficult waste to manage. This
is due to the result of heavy metals and dioxin obtained during the treatment process.
The end products may not only be harmful to the environment but also for public
health.
Definition of Scheduled Waste

Research have shown that scheduled waste may be classified and defined as waste
with intrinsic chemical and physical properties such as corrosivity, toxicity,
flammability, ignitability, or infectious properties. However, this definition of

scheduled waste could be inadequate in other developing countries as it may be
unrecognizable and may have different meaning toward what could actually be
defined as scheduled waste. This can contribute to problems in identifying the
management and storage of scheduled waste. There are nations that find com-
mercial toxic waste and medical waste to be dangerous. However, other types of
hazardous waste, such as hazardous household waste (HHW), are often
neglected.
Within the authority of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the United
States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) specifies that a material is
deemed dangerous whether it exhibits one or more of the following characteristics:
corrosivity, reactivity, ignitability, and toxicity. Anything that may induce or sub-
stantially lead to a rise in mortality due to its existence, structure, or physical,
chemical, or infectious characteristics, or that presents a substantial danger to
human safety and the atmosphere when it is improperly treated, stored, transported,
or otherwise managed, is called a hazardous compound (Muralikrishna and
Manickam 2017).
Scheduled Waste Characteristics

As of today, the Department of Environment of Malaysia has listed 77 categories of
scheduled waste. These categories are listed in the First Schedule regulated under
Regulation (2) in Environmental Quality (Scheduled Wastes) Regulations 2005 of
the Environmental Quality Act 1974 in Malaysia. The use of listings to define
scheduled waste has certain advantages and drawbacks. One advantage is that
listings make it easy for industrial waste handlers to identify the scheduled waste.
It only takes knowledge of the origin of waste to determine whether the list that
excludes laboratory analysis is unnecessary. Through comparing each waste to the
details of the narrative listing, one can easily determine whether the waste is listed as
scheduled waste or otherwise. A lack of flexibility is a drawback of the proposed
waste listings.
Listings designate a waste as scheduled waste if it falls within a specific category.
The actual composition of the waste is not further considered if the waste is found to
match the description of the relevant listing. The scheduled listings of waste can
therefore unnecessarily control other waste that does not pose a significant threat to
safety. Industries can also substantially change their procedures so that, despite the
presence of dangerous constituents, the waste would no longer meet a listing
requirement.
There are four specific characteristics in that the USEPA is classified as hazardous
under the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). A hallmark of hazardous waste is a
substance that, when present in a waste, indicates that the waste poses a significant
threat to indicate classification as hazardous. EPA finds, for example, that ignitabil-
ity, or the potential for a waste to catch fire and burn quickly, is a harmful resource.
Table 1 presents the five characteristics of scheduled waste as defined by Malaysia’s
Department of Environment (DOE).
Table 1 Scheduled waste characteristic and its definition

Characteristic Definition
Ignitability Ignitable wastes are waste which can easily catch fire to hold the
combustion running. A nonliquid waste can only be hazardous due to its
ignitability and burn so intensely that it creates a harm, namely compressed
gas and oxidizer
Corrosivity Corrosive materials include those that are highly acidic or simple, as well as
those that may corrode metal
Toxicity Toxic wastes are harmful or fatal when ingested or absorbed. The toxicity
can be chronic or acute like carcinogenic, mutagenic, and teratogenicity
effects on human or other life forms
Reactivity Reactive wastes are unstable under normal conditions. They can create
explosions, toxic fumes, gases, and vapors when mixed with water or
heated in confinement
Infectious or A waste that consists wholly or partially of human or animal tissue, blood or
pathogenic other body fluids, excretions, and drugs are criteria that make a waste
infectious or pathogenic and pharmaceutical products like swabs or
dressings, syringes, needles, or other sharp instruments may prove to be
hazardous to any person coming in contact with it
Scheduled Waste Best Management Practices and Policies
Malaysia
The government of Malaysia has taken many steps, over the past five decades, to
develop and strengthen regulations related to scheduled wastes. The Department of
Environment in Malaysia has come up with the Environmental Quality Act (EQA)
1974 to administer its main purpose of protecting the environment via the printed
statement “to prevention, abatement, control and protection of the environment.” The
EQA was officially implemented in 1975 and has been amended thrice to conform to
international standards in the year 1976, 1985, and 1996. In the Sixth and Eighth
Malaysian Plan, the government introduced tax rebate to companies who comply with
the scheduled wastes regulations. At the same time, penalties were given to industries
that do not comply with the regulations. In the Sixth and Eighth Malaysian Plan, the
government has strengthened the regulations related to scheduled wastes in publicize
the tax rebate to companies who comply with the regulations and announced penalties
to industries which are noncompliant with the regulations (Hassan et al. 2019).
Malaysia has developed a comprehensive legal provision related to the manage-
ment of scheduled wastes. The regulation is based on the cradle-to-grave principle and
currently had been shifted to cradle-to-cradle principle. A facility which generates,
stores, transports, treats, or disposes scheduled wastes is dependent to the following
main regulations (Legal Research Board, EQA 1974; Jamin and Mahmood 2015):
(i) Environmental Quality (Scheduled Wastes) Regulations 2005 (Amendment)

2007
(ii) Provision in Section 34B, Environmental Quality Act 1974
(iii) Environmental Quality (Prescribed Conveyance) (Scheduled Wastes) Order

2005
(iv) Environmental Quality (Prescribed Premises) (Scheduled Wastes Treatment
and Disposal Facilities) (Amendment) Order 2006
(v) Environmental Quality (Prescribed Premises) (Scheduled Waste Treatment
and Disposal Facilities) (Amendment) Regulations 2006
(vi) Environmental Quality (Prescribed Activities) (Environmental Impact Assess-
ment) Order 2015
(vii) Customs (Prohibition of Exports) Order 1998 (Amendment) 2008
(viii) Customs (Prohibition of Imports) Order 1998 (Amendment) 2008
European
In some countries in Europe, waste management has been a concerning issue since
the last two decades such as in Portugal. There have been many shifts in politics to
reduce and regulate proper hazardous waste management. In accordance with the
National Institute of Waste (INR), the industrial waste production exceeded 13 mil-
lion tons of hazardous waste in the year 2001 (Couto et al. 2013). Out of this
13 million tons, 1.4% are identified as hazardous waste primarily generated in the
large cities. In 2002, open dump businesses were closed. This resulted on the first
reliable data on waste disposal the country has obtained.
Among the cities that led to the highest generation of hazardous industrial waste
are Lisboa, Porto, Setúbal, Leiria, Braga, and Aveiro. The main contributors to the
hazardous waste generation in Portugal comes from the extraction and transforma-
tion industry. Table 2 shows the amount of waste produced in Portugal solely from
industries.
In Portugal, it is found that hazardous industrial wastes (HIP) are due to the usage
of incineration and coincineration. The development of Integrated Centres of Recov-
ery Valuation and Elimination of Hazardous Industrial Waste (CIRVER) in 2008
suggested a solution to this issue by investing in high technologies to sort and
Table 2 Hazardous Hazardous industrial wastes % 103 ton

industrial waste in Portugal
Oil refinement 3.0 7.5
in the year 2002 (Couto
et al. 2013) Inorganic chemist 4.3 10.8
Organic 12.8 32.4
Ink, polish, and enamel 2.1 5.3
Inorganic material from thermal process 4.0 10.2
Inorganic material with metals 2.1 5.3
Treatment of metal and plastic surfaces 0.9 2.3
Used oils 48.0 121.6
Solvents 11.0 28.0
Nonspecified 6.0 15.3
Water treatment 5.3 13.5
Others 0.5 1.4
Total 256.6
manage waste according to their type. Portugal has a more effective system for
handling and managing hazardous waste. The modification in legislation framework
and improvement in their network infrastructures has led to new hazardous man-
agement methods.
Asian
Covering approximately 6216 square kilometres of land, Palestine is a country that
played a significant role in the Middle East’s ancient and modern history. Today,
Palestine comprises of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The West Bank is a region
that splits modern-day Israel and Jordan while the Gaza Strip is the area surrounding
modern-day Israel and Jordan. Palestine has a current population of about 4.5 million
people, with the bulk concentration in the West Bank.
To establish the basis for all policies, projects, and strategies aimed at developing
the West Bank and Gaza Strip solid waste market, the Palestinian Government has
established a strategic strategy entitled the “Palestinian Strategic Plan for Solid
Waste Management in the Palestinian Territories 2010–2014.” Establishing stan-
dards and processes to handle biomedical, hazardous, and special waste is the main
goal of this national plan. The goal is to implement effective procurement and
control systems for hazardous waste, as well as to compile and distribute a list of
types of hazardous waste found.
Article 11 of the Palestinian Environmental Law No. (7) 1999 states that the
Ministry of Environmental Protection (which was the Minister of Environmental
Conservation until becoming an EQA) shall, in conjunction with the relevant
authorities, create a list of toxic materials and waste (Al-Jabari 2014). Article
12 precludes the manufacture from handling, transporting, using, treating, or dis-
posing of any hazardous material or waste. Waste can take the form of either solid,
liquid, or gas, rather than in compliance with the directions and guidelines laid down
by the Ministry in consultation with the competent authorities. EQA formed and
coordinated a technical team to support the development of this report and the
processing of hazardous waste arising from it.
In addition to the national plan’s “Plan for Hazardous Waste Management,” EQA
conducted a study on hazardous waste in collaboration with the United Nations
Environment Program (UNEP). This suggested that, following many reports on the
hazardous waste management in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, addressing the issue
of hazardous waste appeared to be minimal. This emphasized that there was no
system to identify and classify hazardous waste. Due to the minimal statistics on the
amount of hazardous waste based on the study, the next step of the EQA was on
creating a nationwide hazardous waste inventory. An appropriate waste classification
system is a necessary requirement and a vital pillar of the development of a
hazardous waste management system for the country.
The principal waste generation in Palestine is generated by industries. Many
economic activities in Palestine include agricultural works and manufacturing, as
well as the production of building materials. Oils-, fuels-, and solvents-related
materials also contribute to the sources of waste in Palestine. The Palestinian
Government categorizes hazardous waste in the form of seven chapters, describing
Table 3 Waste classification in Palestine (Al-Jabari 2014)

Waste
chapter Waste category Subchapter Waste type (Origin)
One Industrial wastes One Pharmaceutical industry
Two Chemical manufacturing
Three Paint manufacturing
Four Manufacturing of ceramics and glass
Five Manufacturing of wood
Six Paper manufacturing (Recycling)
Seven Printing and photographic industry
Eight Manufacturing of textiles
Nine Leather industry
Ten Food industry
Eleven Plastic industry
Twelve Metal processing
Thirteen Stone industry
Two Construction wastes One Construction and demolition
Two Manufacturing and application of
construction
Three Agriculture waste One General agricultural wastes
Two Unused agricultural materials
Four Wastes from oils, fuels, Not divided
solvents, and related
materials
Five Municipal wastes One General municipal wastes
Two Commercial and other institutions
Six Wastes from handling and One Waste management facilities
treatment of waste and Two Water and wastewater treatment
wastewater
Seven Wastes from other sources One Packaging and related materials
Two Other maintenance services
Three Electrical and electronic equipment
seven categories of waste. Such chapters are listed in subchapters to reflect, for
example, the industrial subsectors as illustrated in Table 3. The comprehensive
definition of hazardous waste is then given on the basis of its source.
In 2014, the amounts of household hazardous waste (HHW) in Palestine were
measured at 0.97% the solid household waste, hitting 22.78 tons per day. Table 4
presents a list of HHW generated that year.
Institutional and Administrative Changes for Privatization
As far as the handling of clinical waste is concerned, the Occupational Safety and
Health Act 1994 and the Environmental Quality (Scheduled Wastes) Regulations
Table 4 Average daily quantity of household solid waste generated in Palestine in the year 2011
and 2014 and HHW in 2014 (Al-Tamimi et al. 2018)
HHW
Daily generation
Daily SW Daily SW HHW rate
Population Population generated generated generated (g/person/
Region (2011) (2014) 2011 (ton) 2014 (ton) 2014 (ton) day)
Palestine 4168860 4500368 2151.9 2348.8 22.78 5.0
territory
The West 2580168 2790331 1505.4 1628.0 15.79 5.7
Bank
Gaza 1588692 1760037 646.5 716.34 6.948 3.9
Strip
1989 under the Environmental Quality Act 1974 laid the groundwork for the
development of clinical waste management systems to conform with the provisions
of such acts. The aforementioned regulation has also formed the framework for
Kualiti Alam (KA) outsourcing of schedule waste management. Such legal instru-
ments provided the context and catalyst for the privatization process and elimi-
nated restrictions that allowed smooth privatization. So far as KA is concerned, the
Department of the Environment (DOE) serves as the regulatory body to insure that
KA’s operations conform with the Environmental Quality Act 1974 and its relevant
regulations, in particular the Environmental Quality (Scheduled Waste) Regulation
1989. So far as DOE is concerned, KA’s operations are regulated by the terms of
agreement of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and the permit to
operate the facility that it needs. The DOE has branches in all 13 states in Malaysia
and is carried out by employees of the state offices. As regards concessionaries for
clinical waste management, the Ministry of Healthy Malaysia (MOH) has formed a
monitoring unit to track and implement the standards of the concession agree-
ments. Since then, however, a private firm has been hired on behalf of the Ministry
to perform supervision and compliance at hospitals and institutions. The Ministry
is to be notified and will take the necessary measures against those who do not
comply against the concessionaries.
Monitoring and compliance are essential privatization factors for ensuring the
concessionaires satisfy the terms of the privatization agreement. As such, the
functional and logistical frameworks essential to conduct this allow enforcement
to be in force. The DOE was appointed to work on behalf of the government in
enforcing the concession arrangement in the case of the privatization of sched-
uled waste. This is the responsibility of the scheduled waste section of the DOE
control division, aided by the state offices, to carry out the regulation (and
licensing) of KA’s activities, as well as of all planned waste operators. The
administrative and supervisory bodies are as laid out in the Environmental
Quality Act 1974 and the Environmental Quality (Scheduled Wastes)
Regulations 1989.
Standard Operating Methods
Packaging and Labeling Scheduled Wastes in Malaysia

It is an inevitable fact that waste generators, those who generate scheduled waste,
hold the responsibility to make sure that all scheduled wastes generated should be
properly managed. This includes having the scheduled wastes properly stored,
having the scheduled waste gone through any treatment on-site if needed, and
disposing of them in reference to the legislation and regulations of Environmental
Quality Act (Scheduled Wastes) 2005. Packaging, labeling, and transporting of
scheduled wastes are important especially when the scheduled wastes are put
through any movement or transfer. According to Environmental Quality (Scheduled
Wastes) Regulations 2005, under Regulation 9, containers with certain criteria are
used to store scheduled wastes. The containers should be compatible with the
scheduled wastes and should be in a position to avoid spillage or leakage of the
scheduled waste into the area. Separate containers are used to store scheduled waste
if they are generated. These containers, in a storage facility, are kept separately at
secondary containment area.
The containers can be filled by any means available, such as pouring, pumping, or
tipping. Some of the drawbacks of containers are that they are easily damaged or
overturned, they get accumulated easily and may result in overstorage, and large
groups of grouped containers are hard to check for leaks and spills. Iron, aluminium,
iron, copper, zinc, gold, platinum, fibreglass-reinforced acrylic, polyvinyl chloride
(PVC), chlorinated rubbers, epoxy, polyesters, and silicon can be the lining content
for the tank or the containers. A dedicated area in the building should be set aside for
the disposal of various types of scheduled wastes. Containers are chosen according
to the characteristics of the scheduled wastes which are listed in Table 5. The
characteristics of the scheduled wastes are consistent with the type of material
used for the container in order to prevent any reaction that would deteriorate the
container.
Containers containing scheduled waste may be stored in a satellite accumulation
area and should be disposed within 180 days of its generation. Unless the scheduled
Table 5 Scheduled wastes No. Hazardous characteristics

hazardous characteristics
1 Corrosive substances
2 Explosive substances
3 Infectious substances
4 Inflammable liquids
5 Inflammable solids
6 Organic peroxides
7 Toxic substances
8 Oxidizing substances
9 Solid: spontaneously combustible
10 Solid: dangerous when wet
11 Mixture of miscellaneous dangerous substances
waste accumulated does not exceed a quantity of 20 metric tonnes, scheduled wastes
are sent to disposal within any quantity of deemed necessary. Storage is performed in
containers or bulk bins after production. Containers are used to store waste. Con-
tainers are very compact, ideal for any physical waste state, and versatile as to the
filling means. Based on whether a waste is consistent with the product content,
empty containers containing raw materials may be appropriate for holding the waste.
Generally, the scheduled wastes characteristics are identified by sampling and
analysis. Table 6 includes recommended packaging of the different type of con-
tainers according to the forms and attributes of the scheduled wastes.
Labeling of containers is an important factor in identification and warning
purposes. Containers containing scheduled wastes should be labeled clearly. This
labeling should be in accordance with the Third Schedule of the Environmental
Quality (Scheduled Wastes) Regulations 2005. The containers should also be labeled
with the scheduled wastes code that should be marked. There are 11 types of labeling
requirement for scheduled waste according to the Third Schedule of the Environ-
mental Quality (Scheduled Wastes) Regulations 2005. Figures 1 and 2 are examples
of labeling requirement from the Third Schedule of the Environmental Quality
(Scheduled Wastes) Regulations 2005.
The labeling of containers should include the characteristic label of the scheduled
waste. The label should be a square set at an angle of 45 with a dimension of at least
10 cm by 10 cm unless the size of the container deems for a label of smaller size.
Figure 3 shows examples of waste characteristic labels. The labels may be of either a
stick-on type, metal plates, stenciled on the container, or printed on the container.
There are two parts of the design of the label. A pictorial symbol is located at the
upper half of the label. Block capital text printings provide information of the date
the first drop of scheduled waste was poured into the container and the waste
generator’s name, address, and telephone number are listed at the bottom half of
the label. Once this information is recorded, alteration of the identification number
and the labels and markings are not allowed to be done by anyone. The labels are
ought to be able to withstand outdoor air use without significantly reducing their
efficacy. The background of the labels should be of a contrast color. In the event
where waste may have the potential to produce more than one hazard, these hazards
must be specified with exact information and be labeled correspondingly. Figure 4 is
an example of how the label on scheduled waste containers should look like.
Storage Designs for Managing Scheduled Wastes

An area to temporarily store scheduled wastes should be built in the waste genera-
tor’s premises. This storage area should be out of the production and processing area
of scheduled waste and employee field. Other than being situated away from any
sources of heat or fire, the storage area should be located at areas with low capacity
for flooding. The storage capacity should also be designed to provide an extra 25%
of the maximum scheduled waste generation. However, scheduled wastes are stored
for a maximum of 180 days as imposed by the Department of Environment (DOE).
The whole storage area should be treated as a restricted area. Thus, the entire area
should be completely fenced with clear and visible signs with the word
Table 6 Labeling with planned forms of product and the package characteristics (Guidelines for
Packaging, Labeling, and Storage of Scheduled Wastes in Malaysia 2005)
Type of containers Type of scheduled wastes Packaging requirement
Bunghole drum (steel/ Inorganic or organic liquid waste No hole, no bulge, and
plastic) Steel drums should not be used for free of dent and corrosion
corrosive wastes such as acids or alkalis
Plastic drums compatible with most
solvents
Open top drum with Solid waste No hole, no bulge, and

cover and clamp (steel/ Steel drums should not be used for free of dent and corrosion
plastic) acidic or alkaline waste
Example: sludge, e-waste,
pharmaceutical waste, laboratory
waste, contaminated gloves, etc.
Intermediate bulk Used for a broad range of waste streams No hole or crack
container such as oils, solvents, and acids
Jerrican/Carboy Inorganic or organic liquid waste such

as chemical wastes, solvents, etc.
(continued)
Table 6 (continued)
Type of containers Type of scheduled wastes Packaging requirement
Containers for clinical Clinical wastes/pathogenic wastes
waste
Flexible intermediate Dry solid waste with no free-flow liquid Preferably FIBCs made
bulk containers Example: dust, slag, ash, clinker, of high-density
(FIBCs)/Jumbo bags e-waste, dry sludge, contaminated rags/ polyethylene (HDPE)
garnet, etc. Bags not to be filled more
than 90% for secure
packaging
Corrugated box/Carton Dry solid waste with no free-flow liquid No tear of hole
box generated in small quantity
Example: e-waste, contaminated rags,
expired drugs, cosmetics, etc.
Fig. 1 Labeling requirement

for explosive substances
Fig. 2 Labeling requirement

for inflammable liquids
Fig. 3 Example of waste characteristic labels
“SCHEDULED WASTES” and “DANGER” put up. The design of the loading and
unloading area should also consider the possibilities for any spillage from occurring.
To keep any water from reaching the storage area, all surface water runoff should be
channeled to a proper drainage network. A ventilation system should be fitted into
the scheduled waste storage area as to keep away any moisture from reactive wastes.
In and around the storage area, smoking should be banned, and a nonsmoking
signage should be put up at the storage area. Fire-fighting equipment and other
emergency response devices in full compliance with the Fire and Rescue Department
of Malaysia’s specifications should be provided at the storage area. An inventory
report should be made available whenever waste is bought into or taken out from the
storage site. Information such as the date, type, and amount of waste should be
included in the inventory.
Organizing Containers Carrying Scheduled Wastes

As mentioned earlier, incompatible regularly scheduled waste should be stored in
separate containers in a separate secondary containment area. This secondary con-
tainment is a liquid-tight barrier, designed to prevent the release of hazardous
materials from a container. Containers holding scheduled waste should be kept
Fig. 4 An example of a label

for a scheduled waste
container
closed at all times, omitting any addition or removal of scheduled waste from the
container as required. Any container found to be in a faulty condition causes leakage;
the spillage should immediately be prevented from spreading. This can be done by
transferring the scheduled waste into a new or good condition container. Specific
bins should be given for discarded oil and lubricants, and designed to allow water
and sludge to settle and drain.
When arranging the different types of containers containing scheduled wastes, the
containers should be placed on a pallet (Table 7). When transportation of the
containers is needed, suitable equipment such as a forklift should be used. That is
why it is vital for containers to be stored with an adequate room between groups of
containers to allow for forklift and other vehicles and equipment for free movement.
Materials and Method
Methodology
Data were obtained in part through questionnaires, and in part through field inves-
tigation and literature review on the subject matter, which was done using numerous
books, guidelines, and articles. A field investigation was carried out by gathering
available data about the university’s scheduled waste generation and management in
laboratories. There are two stages in this study. In order to achieve these goals, the
necessary steps taken are summarized in a flow chart as shown in Fig. 5.
Table 7 The arrangement of containers on pallet

Item Container arrangement
One pallet
When stacking pallets, no more than two tiers
should be made without a crate storage Can hold maximum of four vertical drum and
When crate storage is present, the stacking should not laid horizontally
should not be more than three tiers Shall be sealed by sufficient plastic wrapping as
shown
When there is no plastic wrapping available, the

drums shall be tied with steel tape or band
The pallet should only hold one FIBC’s or

jumbo bag
Sampling Area
The Engineering Campus of Universiti Sains Malaysia, located in a small town of

Nibong Tebal, Penang (Fig. 6), is a university specializing in the field of engineering
studies. The university covers about 130 hectares of land (Fig. 7) which was once a
palm oil plantation. The university itself is located at a very special area at the
borders of three states: Penang, Perak, and Kedah. Presently the university is
supporting approximately 4000 graduates and around 350 academic employees.
The six engineering schools of the university include the School of Chemical
Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Mechanical
Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, and the School of Material and Mineral
Resources Engineering.
All students, regardless of the courses they are taking, are required to take a safety
briefing class in which the university’s Unit Keselamatan dan Kesihatan Pekerjaan
(UKKP), which is the People’s Health and Safety Department, explain the safe
practices in the laboratory, classifications of scheduled waste (it being flammable,
METHODOLOGY
E valuation Of Risk
Determination Of The and Hazards of
Assessment On The Scheduled
Type And Quantity Of Scheduled Waste
Waste Management
SW Generated
Selecting Sampling Area & Identifying Scheduled Waste Literature Research On

Management System Descriptive Meaning on each
Scheduled Waste Listed In
EQR (Scheduled Waste) 2005,
Data Collection of SW Determining Storage Facilities Schedule 1
Generation From Available And SW Disposal Containers
Documents Over the Past 3
Years Determining The Hazard
Characteristics and Risk the
Observational Assessment On The SW may pose
Data Analysis SW SW Storage In Accordance With
Classification Standard Guidelines
RESULTS & DISCUSSION
Fig. 5 Research flow chart
corrosive, etc.), location, and use of safety equipment and most importantly the
security and safety measures to avoid mistakes and accidents.
The laboratories in the university are not only designed to cater the curriculum
structure for the undergraduates and postgraduates of the university, but they are also
offered to the community and everybody who are interested to do testings at the
university’s laboratories. Resources are delivered nationwide and globally, and many
of the university’s customers are private businesses, vendors, entrepreneurs, inves-
tors and civil officials, and government agencies (Civil Eng. USM 2015). This shows
that the scheduled waste generated in the university’s laboratories mainly do come
from the use of students and staff, but the public involved is also included in
contributing to the generation of scheduled waste.
Universiti Sains Malaysia’s Scheduled Waste Management System
The scheduled wastes in USM were examined by observing assessments on storage

area, packaging, and labeling in terms of:
A. Storage Facilities
Scheduled waste is usually held until treatment and disposal. A storage facility is
designed to store the scheduled waste temporarily until it can be treated or disposed.
This is stated in the Environmental Quality (Scheduled Wastes) Regulations 2005.
Fig. 6 The geographical location of USM Engineering Campus. (Source: Google Earth)
Container storage should be properly built, installed, and maintained in compliance

with the guidelines provided to avoid spillage or release. The storage area will also
be placed away from heat or fire sources while also providing the requisite roofing
materials. The floor surface of the storage room and the loading and unloading room
will be sealed, free from cracks and gaps, with concrete or other suitable liner
material. In order to warn and maneuvre the entrance to dangerous areas, floor
marking tapes are needed. If impoundment of the surface is found, a heavy plastic
is used to cover the ground to avoid spillage of the hazardous waste. A ground
impoundment is an in-place system, mostly a natural or man-made depression in the
earth.
The entire storage room, though fully enclosed, should be deemed a restricted
room and does not come into touch with any other house. Under other words, the
storage center will be a stand-alone structure with four walls, a floor and a roof. Any
shortcomings in insufficient storage can lead to disasters during storage. Poorly
enclosed container or building can release toxic gasses. These gasses could cause an
explosion if it reacts with other substances. Incompatible waste is therefore
Fig. 7 Land coverage of USM Engineering Campus. (Source: OpenStreetMaps)
necessary to be placed away from one another. This is so to avoid unnecessary or

undesirable disaster. Every storage facility must be specifically identified with the
material contained in it in order to prevent mix-ups in location, care, and adminis-
tration and to eliminate errors in deciding exactly what leaked into the air or land if
an incident happened. All storage areas need to have proper ventilation and doors
with locks, and they should store corrosive chemicals in a separate storage container
in a designated acid cabinet. Figures 8, 9, 10, and 11 present storage areas in a few
schools around the USM Engineering Campus.
B. Storage Upon Generation
On the basis of the scheduled waste characteristics, an optimal container should

be selected for storage of scheduled waste after generation. Scheduled waste shall be
kept in durable containers that meet with the specifications of the scheduled waste to
be processed, preventing spillage or discharge into the ecosystem of the intended
Fig. 8 Storage facility of the School of Civil Engineering
waste. Incompatible scheduled wastes should be stored in separate containers and

contained in different secondary storage areas.
For standard use, scheduled waste is collected in either bunghole drums, open-
top drums that comes with a cover and a clamp, or intermediate bulk containers.
Corrugated boxes, jumbo sacks, and FIBCs may also be used. From an observa-
tional analysis, it is found that there are five main types of containers that are being
used to store scheduled waste within the university, namely bunghole drums, open-
top drum with cover and clamps, carboys, carton boxes, and jumbo bags. In order
to avoid container breakage or overspillage, the quantity of waste to be stored in
these containers is vital to allocate them to appropriate container size and strength.
The container to be used should be in good shape and clear of any damage such as
tears or hole. These containers must be closed at all times. The Third Schedule of
the Environmental Quality (Scheduled Wastes) Regulations 2005 states that con-
tainers holding scheduled wastes shall be distinctly labeled for identifying and
notification purposes and clearly labeled with the code of the specified scheduled
waste.
Fig. 9 Storage facility of the

School of Mechanical
Engineering. Enclosed storage
area with good ventilation
Fig. 10 Storage facility of

the School of Chemical
Engineering. Enclosed storage
area in a separate structure
Fig. 11 Storage facility of

the School of Material and
Mineral Engineering
Data Collection and Analysis
Analysis of Data over a Period of Three Years

The scheduled wastes are known to be accumulated by undergraduates, academic
staff, graduate students, and researchers when laboratory classes or tests are
conducted. The scheduled waste is poured in containers specified for scheduled
waste located at each laboratory. Every time a scheduled waste is poured into
containers, the laboratory technicians are expected to report the type and volume
of scheduled waste deposited. Scheduled waste is classified according to its chem-
ical, physical, and incompatibility characteristics. UKKP performs the activities
associated with the control, storage, packaging, labeling, and general management
of scheduled waste in the university. The data used in this study are taken from the
scheduled waste generated between the years 2017 and 2019.
Based in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia, KA owns and runs Malaysia’s first inte-
grated hazardous waste treatment facility, KA Waste Management Center (WMC).
The WMC has the authorization to treat 76 types of 77 scheduled waste specified
under the 2005 Regulations on Environmental Quality (Scheduled Wastes). Upon
disposal of scheduled waste, UKKP partners up with a KA to extract the scheduled
waste present in the laboratory. The container holding the scheduled waste, whether
it would be in carboys, jumbo bags, or open-top drums, etc., are usually placed on
pallets. They are then properly packaged and wrapped by laboratory technicians to
be disposed of. In this study, data were taken by selecting information based on the
type of scheduled waste and schools that generated scheduled wastes. Subsequently,
the data were entered in an Excel spreadsheet for interpretation.
Descriptive Literature Research on Evaluation of Scheduled Waste

To impart a legacy of environmental care, literature research has been done to
identify and classify scheduled waste. Many guidelines and regulations show what
scheduled waste is and how we should properly manage it, but these are only given
in a very brief and general term, and a person who does not know what a given
scheduled waste may fall under a specific characterization may not even know the
hazards and risks of the scheduled waste. Through this, the second and third
objectives of this case study are to be achieved.
Generation of Scheduled Waste in Study Area
The SW from laboratory tests is often collected by students, faculty staff, research
assistants, and researchers, and is subsequently placed in special containers located
in each laboratory (Fig. 12). Wastes are classified consistent with their chemical and
physical characteristics and their incompatibilities, consistent with Environmental
Quality (Scheduled Wastes) Regulations 2005 in Schedule 1 (Regulation 2). Toxic or
hazardous wastes should not be disposed of down the sink, drain, or into the
atmosphere. Acidic or alkaline wastes should be neutralized before it is disposed
down the sink or the drain or disposed into a pit. Chemicals immiscible with water
must not be discarded into sinks or drains. Flammable solvents must similarly not be
discarded. All waste solvents should be collected in the appropriate waste containers
and clearly labeled. The wastes containers should not be filled to the brim. These
wastes are collected in containers with capacities of 5, 20, and 50 L, counting on the
Fig. 12 Carboy 30 L
container
requirements of every laboratory. Figure 12 also depicts the containers located in

laboratories.
All students who begin the set of laboratory tests for every curriculum course
take an introductory class, during which their laboratory assistant explains the
methods of disposal of chemicals and wastes. In laboratory tests, a laboratory
assistant assists in the procedure to pour liquid and solid wastes into containers,
to avoid mistakes and accidents. If the container is almost full, it is transported to
the FCQ-ED, which maintains a temporary waste storage facility. All available
security and safety measures are utilized in this process (lab coat, goggles,
gloves, and a trolley to hold the containers). The waste containers are poured
into larger containers with an equivalent classification and a capacity of 200 L.
The waste should be stored no longer than 6 months according to Environmental
Quality (Scheduled Wastes) Regulation 2005. However, due to low financial
budget and generation of SW per semester, reports from UKKP show that SW
have been stored for more than 6 months and a maximum of 12 months. The
activities associated with control, labeling, and general management of SW in
USM are performed by the UKKP officers in which laboratory assistants from
each school serve as assistants.
From the years 2017–2019, it is clearly reported that there are only three SW that
are generated and disposed from the laboratories of the university. Figure 13 gives
the overall scheduled waste composition generated on Universiti Sains Malaysia,
Engineering campus.
There are only two types of SW reported to be generated within the schools of
PPKK, PPKBM, and PPKA. These SW are SW409 and SW422. SW409 is disposed
containers, bags, or equipment contaminated with chemicals, pesticides, mineral oil,
or scheduled wastes. SW422 is a mixture of scheduled and nonscheduled wastes.
Figure 14a shows the generated percentage of SW at PPKK over the period of year
2017–2019. For PPKK, the data from 2019 showed an increase in SW409 compared
with the values from 2018 and 2017 as shown in Fig. 14b. For SW422, the
Fig. 13 SW disposal in USM

from years 2017–2019 SW disposal in USM
33% 34%
33%
SW422 SW409 SW305

(a) TYPE OF SW DISPOSED AT PPKK (b) PERCENTAGE OF SW409 DISPOSED

AT PPKK
25%
50% 50% 50%
25%
SW422 SW409 2017 2018 2019
(c) PERCENTAGE OF SW422 DISPOSED

AT PPKK
20%
40%
40%
2017 2018 2019
Fig. 14 (a) Type of SW disposed at PPKK; (b) percentage of SW409 disposed at PPKK; and (c)
percentage of SW422 disposed at PPKK
percentage of the SW disposed is doubled in the year 2018 and is the same for the
year 2019 as indicated in Fig. 14c.
Figure 15a shows the generated percentage of SW at PPKBM over the period of
year 2017–2019. For PPKBM, the data for SW409 shows an equal percentage
disposed from the year 2017–2019 (Fig. 15b). In 2018, however, disposal of
SW422 doubled from the year before and remained the same in the year 2019 as
shown in Fig. 15c.
Figure 16 shows the generated percentage of SW at PPKA over the years 2017–
2019. For PPKA, SW209 was reported to only been generated and disposed in the
year 2018 (Fig. 17). For SW422, however, the percentage of the SW disposed tripled
from the year 2017–2018 (Fig. 18). This is known to have occurred due to the
increase of laboratory works from students, researchers, and tests run that year. In
2019, however, PPKA recorded no disposed SW. This is due to the incompatible
(a) TYPE OF SW DISPOSED AT PPKBM (b) PERCENTAGE OF SW409

DISPOSED AT PPKBM
33% 34%
50% 50%
33%
SW422 SW409 2017 2018 2019
(c)
PERCENTAGE OF SW422 DISPOSED AT
PPKBM
20%
40%
40%
2017 2018 2019
Fig. 15 (a) Type of SW disposed at PPKBM; (b) percentage of SW409 disposed at PPKBM; and
(c) percentage of SW422 disposed at PPKBM
total waste value to be disposed by UKKP. According to Environmental Quality

(Scheduled Wastes) Regulations 2005, a total of at least the quantity of scheduled
wastes accumulated on site shall not exceed 20 metric tonnes. Due to the small
amount of SW accumulated by PPKA in the year 2019, none of the SW collected that
year was being disposed of. This is also due to the financial shortage of the university
to dispose small amount of SW even when by right, storage of SW should not be
more than 180 days.
In PPKM, it is reported that SW305 have been the only SW that was disposed
from the year 2017–2019 (Fig. 17a). It is reported that SW305 was disposed only in
the year 2017 (Fig. 17b). There are no reports of any generation or disposal of SW in
both years of 2018 and 2019. This is mostly because PPKM generates small amounts
of SW from their laboratory. However, this is also due to the mixing of SW with
general wastes.
The previously mentioned result cannot be compared with other works because
they present neither a classification (reactivity, corrosivity, etc.) of HW generated in
the campus nor the exact quantities of HW generated in a period of time, as shown in
this work. It is important that organizations that use dangerous reagents and gener-
ation of SW should be evaluated through management of SW. Waste generator is
(a) TYPE OF SW DISPOSED AT PPKA (b) PERCENTAGE OF SW409 DISPOSED

FROM 2017 TO 2019 AT PPKA FROM 2017 TO 2019
50% 50%
100%
SW422 SW409 2018
(c) PERCENTAGE OF SW422 DISPOSED AT PPKA

FROM 2017 TO 2019
25%
75%
2017 2018
Fig. 16 (a) Type of SW disposed at PPKA; (b) percentage of SW409 disposed at PPKA; and (c)
percentage of SW422 disposed at PPKA
responsible to classify the waste generated as they have the detailed information on
how the waste is generated and the process involved. By identifying the source of the
waste and/or its specific hazardous characteristics, the waste generator can use the
information to classify the waste and the specific SW code by referring it to the list of
scheduled wastes in the First Schedule of the Regulations of the Environmental
Quality (Scheduled Wastes) Regulations 2005.
To support the implementation of a scheduled waste repository, where the
intention is to isolate waste from humans and the environment, there is a need to
create records of waste generation, processing, and transportation. Therefore, there is
a need for record keeping systems. Upon receiving secondary data from UKKP for
this case study, several records were kept as confidential records and thus made this
study a little difficult to evaluate the exact quantity of SW produced from each
school in the university.
(a) TYPE OF SW DISPOSED AT PPKM (b) PERCENTAGE OF SW305 DISPOSED

FROM 2017 TO 2019 AT PPKM FROM 2017 TO 2019
100% 100%
SW305 2017
Fig. 17 (a) Type of SW disposed at PPKM from 2017–2019; (b) Percentage of SW305 disposed at
PPKM from 2017–2019
Fig. 18 Storage of
nonchemical waste in the
chemical waste store
Observational Analysis on Storage Facility Management
A chemical waste generator should give an appropriate region to the transitory

stockpiling of scheduled waste. The capacity zone ought to be found near the
wellspring of wastage, ideally inside the premises of the waste generator to limit
handling and to encourage the facility management control. In the event that there is
no appropriate space inside the premises where the waste is created, the waste
generator should look to give a zone in the region, for instance on another floor of
a similar structure.
The schools PPKK, PPKBM, PPKA, and PPKM have storeroom firmly situated
to the wellspring of wastage, which is right outside the laboratories of the schools
where these wastes are generated. The storage area should be used for chemical
waste storage only. PPKK has two storage facility. It is found that the storage area is
used to store wastes other than chemical waste. A machine labeled “supercritical
fluid chromatography” was found in the storage area (Fig. 18). A similar case is
observed at storage facility 1 of PPKA. Although chemical wastes are arranged in an
orderly matter on an open rack, the storage is also seen to store other utilities such as
basins, empty pails, brooms, etc. (Fig. 19).
The storage area should be enclosed on at least three sides by a wall, partition, or
fence with a height of not less than two meters or the total height of containers in
stack, whichever is less. Suitable materials for the construction of such enclosures
include concrete, brick, and steel with protective coating or treatment. The enclo-
sures should be rigidly erected and fixed to the area. Where the storage area is not
Fig. 19 Storage of nonchemical waste in chemical waste store

Fig. 20 Storage complete

with padlocks
within a building, it should be provided with a roof or similar covering designed to

prevent rain and reduce heat from sunlight. These requirements are seen in storage
facility of PPKK, PPKBM, PPKA, and PPKM and be seen in few figures in the
previous section (Figs. 8, 9, 10, and 11).
Where the storage area is not located within the premises in which chemical waste
is produced, the storage area should be kept secured with an appropriate door/gate
and locked at all time. It is found that one of the two storage facility of PPKA,
storage facility of PPKM did not have any locks to the gate and could be easily
accessed by anyone. Figures 20 and 21 show the opened and unlocked gate of the
storage facility at these schools.
Containers which contain residues of chemical waste and have not been cleaned
should be handled in the same manner as filled containers. Every chemical waste
storage area, including any cupboard, cabinet, or bin, should display a hazard
warning panel, notice, or marking at or near the entrance or opening of the storage
area and such panel, notice, or marking should indicate “CHEMICAL WASTE”
clearly and boldly in red on a white background with a letter/character size of not less
than 60 mm high. The storage belonging to schools of PPKA and PPKK were the
only ones who had these signs.
As far as cleanliness and organizational of containers are concern, these storages
should be kept clean and free from obstruction. It is found however that the storage
area of PPKBM is observed to be the closest to have a clean, organized, and safe
from obstruction area as seen in Fig. 22. Storage facility of PPKK does not show
proper organization of containers and chemical waste within the storage facility
(Fig. 23). Figure 24 shows the dirty and unorganized waste that has been disposed at
storage facility PPKM. It was found in the previous section that PPKM did not
record any SW disposed in the years 2018 and 2019. The storage facility of PPKM
seems to be abandoned and not taken care for quite a while. This may seem as a
reasonable explanation to why there may not be any recorded SW from this school
Fig. 21 Chemical waste

storage requires for the drums
and bottles to be neatly
arranged
over the past 2 years. The storage facility of PPKA seems to be in an orderly matter
and clean.
Evaluation of Risk and Hazard of Scheduled Waste
In Malaysia, the Environmental Quality Act 1974 governs the control of wastes. The
2005 Environmental Quality (Scheduled Wastes) Regulations require that all wastes
be handled properly and, as far as possible, rendered harmless prior to disposal and
treated only at prescribed premises or treatment facilities on-site. There are currently
77 categories of scheduled waste, as well as other hazardous waste such as the waste
produced in the laboratories that may present hazards to human health or to the
environment that cause concern.
In federal regulatory jargon, “making a hazardous waste decision” is considered
the first step in classifying a waste. The definition of scheduled waste is based upon
Environmental Quality (Scheduled Wastes) Regulations 2005. If a waste falls within
the categories of waste specified in the First Schedule (Regulation 2), it is a
“scheduled waste.” There are 77 specified categories of waste in this schedule. It
can also be narrowed down to five groups of waste, namely:
Fig. 22 Organized SW containers on pallet are one of the requirements to be practiced in a

chemical waste storage
• SW1: Metal and metal-bearing wastes (10 categories)

• SW2: Wastes containing principally inorganic constituents which may contain
metal and organic materials (7 categories)
• SW3: Wastes containing principally organic constituents which may contain
metals and inorganic materials (27 categories)
Fig. 23 Examples of unorganized and unclean storage
Fig. 24 Examples of unorganized, partially filled, and broken waste containers at storage
• SW4: Wastes which may contain either inorganic or organic constituents

(32 categories)
• SW5: Other wastes (1 category)
However, this waste definition described in the First Schedule does not include a
detailed overview of each type of waste and its hazardous characteristics. This would
make it difficult to determine which category a waste falls into out of the 77. This
section will provide a comprehensive description of each waste category and its
hazardous characteristics, as long as the hazards and risks the schedule waste may
pose. The most devoured metal overall is aluminium, trailed by copper, zinc, lead,
and nickel. There are various producers and ventures creating auxiliary metal
materials that are viewed as unsafe squanders, for example, metal powders. Figure 25
illustrates this statement. Also, even with littler measures of metal materials being
created through present-day added substance fabricating forms, risky metal materials
despite everything represent an issue for worker well-being and security – and the
earth. Additionally, some valuable materials like gold are utilized for our PCs and
other electronic gadgets. The consumption of metals can be a major issue later on
since the total populace develops quickly and consequently the interest for products
made out of metal will increment. Discarding perilous metal materials, for example,
metal powders is seen as an ecological movement.
Table 8 gives the perilous characteristics, hazard, and risks of the ten categories of
scheduled waste in SW1. Table 9 gives the perilous characteristics, hazard, and risks
of the seven categories of scheduled waste in SW2. Table 10 gives the perilous
characteristics, hazard, and risks of the 27 categories of scheduled waste in SW3.
Table 11 gives the perilous characteristics, hazard, and risks of the 32 categories of
Closed landfills
(Love Canal US, late 1978)
Hazardous waste disposal
site contaminated
environment Mercury
(Chemical Plant, Japan 1953)
Affected shellfish and local people.
Hazardous waste landfill

(5 countries in Europe, 1998)
Higher risk of congenital anomaly in
babies whose mothers live close to
landfill sites.
Polychlorinated
biphenyls (PCBs)
(Taiwan and Japan, late 1960s to
Polybrominated mid 1970s) accidental
biphenyls (PBBs) (Babies living around industrial waste contamination in rice cooking oil.
(US, late 1960s to mid 1970s) dump sites were born without brain
contaminated cattle and chicken [Anenocephaly] (Mexico 1990s).
feed, and diary products.
Gas tragedy in Pesticide (India

Mercury 1984) 2800 people died, more than
Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroet (Fungicide, Iraq 1971) 20000 are suffering from respiratory and
(DDT) Affected local people by food web. eye damage, small people showed
(1962) Affected squid, Antarctic genetic damage.
penguins and people.
Fig. 25 Examples of hazardous substance affect to humans and the environment. (Adapted from
ILO 2014)
65
Table 8 Description, hazardous characteristics, and hazards of SW1

Waste
type Description Hazardous characteristic Risk/Hazard
SW101 Waste containing arsenic or its compound Arsenic in waste typically originates from Arsenic exposure can result in carcinogenic and
industrial products, such as wood preservatives,noncarcinogenic responses in humans. Arsenic
paints, dyes, and semiconductors. In addition, is classified as being toxic if swallowed or
arsenic may be released during the burning of inhaled. It may exert detrimental effects on skin,
fossil fuels and wastes. One of the most mucous membranes, and the nervous system.
dangerous sources of inorganic arsenic is the The effects may be delayed, and repeated or
incorrect disposal of electronic waste prolonged exposure of arsenic may cause
damage to skin and the peripheral blood vessels
SW102 Waste of lead acid batteries in whole or crushed Three important biochemical properties that Lead poisoning affects both children and adults,
form contribute to its toxic effects on humans: the risk to children is especially troubling since
(i) Electropositive metal with high affinity for their neurological systems are still developing
sulfhydryl groups and their bodies are less able to excrete lead
(ii) Lead impairs the intracellular messenger
system normally regulated by calcium and
thereby affects endocrine and neuronal function
(iii) Lead can affect the genetic transcription
of DNA by interaction with nucleic acid binding
proteins with potential consequences for gene
regulation
SW103 Waste of batteries containing cadmium and Cd is a nonessential and toxic element for Toxicity (oral and inhalation), mutagenicity,
nickel or mercury or lithium humans. It is similar to the essential trace carcinogenicity, reproduction toxicity, and water
element zinc. Cd can be introduced into hazard
biochemical reactions in organisms in place of
Hazardous Waste Management, Challenges, and Risks in Handling Laboratory. . .
Zn
(continued)
1689
1690
Table 8 (continued)
Waste
SW104 Dust, slag, dross, or ash containing arsenic, Aluminium as the third most abundant element (i) Nonbiodegradable wastes remain in the
mercury, lead, cadmium, chromium, nickel, in the earth that cannot be found as a free environment for many years and cause serious
copper, vanadium, beryllium, antimony, element in nature. Aluminium dross as a disposal, as well as environmental and public
tellurium, thallium, or selenium excluding slag hazardous solid waste in aluminium production health problems
from iron and steel factory industries has caused serious environmental and (ii) Dross is toxic, highly flammable, irritant,
public health challenges. The waste materials leachable, and harmful if swallowed or inhaled
can be classified into two broad categories: (iii) Dross and aluminium furnace wastes can
biodegradable wastes and nonbiodegradable leak and contaminate the groundwater causing
wastes or intensifying Alzheimer, skin irritation, and
pulmonary diseases
(iv) Inhalation of the dross particles dispersed in
the air can causes health problems such as
silicosis and bronchitis
SW105 Galvanic sludges Galvanic sludge is a filter press cake that It is very dangerous to human health and
generated at the end of the waste water treatment environment due to high heavy metal
process and belongs to the category of concentration. The slimes of galvanic
hazardous waste that can be only removed by production are the most toxic industrial waste
landfill disposal only after the application of a and sources of heavy metals to the environment.
treatment/neutralization method due to its The accumulation of toxic waste leads to the
complex chemical structure which mostly pollution of the biosphere due to leaching of
contains heavy metal hydroxide, hydrate oxides, heavy metals from the sludge and introducing
and metal salts used in finishing operations them to the soil, surface water, and groundwater.
(of chromium, nickel, zinc, cadmium, tin, lead, Galvanic sludge has a negative impact on the
copper, etc.) human body like a powerful stimulants and
activators of cancer and cardiovascular diseases
A. J. Siril et al.
65
SW106 Residues from recovery of acid pickling liquor Pickling acid liquor is a mixture of strong acids Acid pickling liquor is highly corrosive and its
used for descaling or cleaning the oxide on steel properties are dangerous for the environment
surface that forms during the cooling process which effects:
after hot rolling and in processes where iron or (i) Hydrolysis of ferrous salts into ferrous-
steel in various forms are treated to change ferric hydroxides, insoluble in water, which
shape, the oxygen in the atmosphere chemically results in ochre sediment
reacts with the hot surface of the metal. As time (ii) The reduction of oxygen dissolved in
passes, ferrous chloride and ferric chloride water produced by the above reaction decreases
concentrations in the bath increase and the acid the regenerative power of rivers
cannot further clean the surface of the product (iii) The proliferation of ferruginous bacteria
and ferrite deposits affects flora and fauna
(iv) High Fe concentrations in the solution
discards waters to be used for food supply,
household, or industrial purposes
SW107 Slags from copper processing for further Copper slag is produced during the smelting There is also limited scientific literature on the
processing or refining containing arsenic, lead, process and converting steps of pulmonary toxicity potential of copper slag. An
or cadmium pyrometallurgical production of copper. The intralobar instillation animal study reported that
elemental properties of bulk copper slag unused copper slags were persistent in the rat
identified the presence of carcinogens, suspect lung and produced granulomas. No previous
carcinogens, and other toxic elements. Niosh study on the exposure to human
stated that occupational exposures during
blasting operations of personal exposure to
arsenic (As), beryllium (Be), chromium (Cr),
lead (Pb), manganese (Mn), titanium (Ti), and
vanadium (V) were higher when blasting with
copper slag was compared to silica sand in both
laboratory and field settings
(continued)
1691
Table 8 (continued)
1692
Waste
SW108 Leaching residues from zinc processing in dust Steel scrap containing minor amounts of zinc in The improper storage of the waste can bring
and sludges form the form of protective coatings is widely used as serious threats to the natural environment, as
a feed component in pyrometallurgical process metals can leach out to surface and groundwater,
to obtain iron and steel. The steel recycling contaminating the environment. Moreover,
process generates significant amount of waste in following accumulation in organisms such as
the form of dust and sludge (about 20% of iron). plants and animals, they reach humans. Since
Since zinc occurs in the dust as ZnO and the metals do not decompose, they can
ZnFe2O4: If zinc in the dust is mainly present in bioaccumulate once they are absorbed
the form of ZnO, high leaching efficiency is to
be expected. If, in turn, zinc is in large part
bound in ZnFe2O4 – a phase of very high
stability – then zinc recovery may be low
SW109 Waste containing mercury or its compound Ngim and Ngim (2013) stated that mercury According to Yassa (2014), mercury is irritating
environmental behavior and toxicity can exist in to the skin and organic mercury compounds can
three oxidation states: 0 (Hg0), 1 (Hg2+ 2), and be fatal in terms of dermal contact, inhalation, or
2 (Hg2+) ingestion. High levels of mercury vapor can
(i) Most of the mercury encountered in cause pneumonitis and symptoms in the kidneys
environmental media is in the form of inorganic and central nervous system, even long after the
Hg(II) salts or organ mercury compounds, actual exposure (cause damage to organs
except in the atmosphere where more than 90% through prolonged or repeated exposure).
is elemental mercury; Hg(I) is rarely stable Mercury is suspected of being able to impair
under ordinary environmental conditions fertility and it may damage the unborn child.
(ii) Soil conditions (pH, temperature, and soil Incidents happened in Minamata Bay, Japan,
humid content) are typically favorable for the where the methyl mercury used in a chemical
formation of inorganic Hg(II) compounds such plant accidentally affected humans with
as HgCl2, Hg(OH)2, and inorganic Hg paralysis and sensory problems through its
(II) compounds complexed with mineral accumulation in the food chain (shellfish, the
colloids or with the soil’s organic matter (mainly major source of food in that area). Iraq has also
folic and humid acids).
A. J. Siril et al.
65
(iii) Groundwater, additional processes can similar case where fungicide affected local
occur due to the aqueous environment. peoples by food web (Moneyman 2006)
Components in electrical and electronic
equipment have potential hazardous chemical
elements in which the most common are lead,
cadmium, chromium, mercury, copper,
manganese, nickel, arsenic, zinc, iron, and
aluminium
SW110 Waste from electrical and electronic assemblies These equipments are a complicated assembly Guiyu town in China, before the government’s
containing components such as accumulators, of thousand material, many of which are highly recent crackdown, was one of the largest
mercury switches, glass from cathode-ray tubes toxic such as brominate substances, toxic gases, informal e-waste processing clusters in the
and other activated glass or polychlorinated toxic metals, biologically active material, acids, world, processing millions of tons of e-waste
biphenyl-capacitors, or contaminated with plastics, and plastics additives. The following annually, most of which were from developed
cadmium, mercury, lead, nickel, chromium, examples of WEEE (polychlorinated biphenyls countries. Such as, the Guiyu town earned the
copper, lithium, silver, manganese, or – PCBs; polybrominated dibenzo-p-dioxins/ name of “electronic graveyard of the world”
polychlorinated biphenyl dibenzofurans PCBB/Fs) have a very high (Wang et al. 2020). Organic pollutants have
levels of heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, been detected in air, water, and sediments in
and mercury. Among these rudimentary these informal e-waste clusters (ibid.) (Xu et al.
methods, open burning is most environmentally 2012). Variegated health problems pertaining to
detrimental, followed by mechanical treatment informal e-waste recycling (e.g., blood lead
and leaching. It is because whenever e-waste has poisoning, cancer, and miscarriage) have been
been incinerated, the toxic fumes will produce reported by environmental and health specialists
pollution to the ambient air. From this melting or (ibid.)
unscientific burning of computer chips, the acids
and sludge obtained and when these disposed on
to the ground can cause soil acidification, which
leads to contamination of the water sources
1693
1694

Waste
SW201 Asbestos wastes in sludge, dust, Asbestos is widely used particularly as a building and Many studies have indicated inhalation of asbestos
or fiber forms insulation material because it has great tensile strength, fibers as the main cause of deadly diseases
poor heat conduction, and nonbiodegradable and including fibrosis and cancer
relative resistance to chemical weathering
SW202 Spent catalysts In power plant production process, the spent catalyst is The spent catalysts are often loaded with metals, oil,
generated by thermal power plants. The spent catalyst is or coke, which makes them hazardous and hampers
a waste vanadium-titanium catalyst for denitration. the utilization, limiting it to disposal on hazardous
After the life cycle of the catalyst for denitration, the waste sites. Metals can be leached by water after
denitration efficiency is greatly reduced, and the disposal and pollute the environment. Besides the
catalyst needs to be replaced, and the removed catalyst formation of leachates, the spent hydroprocessing
is a spent catalyst. The spent catalyst is hazardous catalysts, when in contact with water, can liberate
because of its self-heating behavior and toxic chemicals toxic gases
content. Metals such as Co, Ni, and V that are present in
spent hydroprocessing catalysts are included in the list
of potentially hazardous wastes
SW203 Immobilized scheduled wastes The petroleum sludge was hazardous sludge containing Sludge can become a problem if they are
including chemically fixed, high amount of hydrocarbons. The petroleum sludge improperly managed or disposed of. It can induce
encapsulated, solidified, or contains oil, water, and inorganic material. The major three impacts on the environment distinguishing the
stabilized sludges constituents of the sludge are SiO2, CaO, Al2O3, and gaseous, liquid, and solid phase.
Fe2O3. The result shows that the quality of brick sludge Impact on the soil composition by the input of
is better than the standard bricks due to color and less compounds enriched in the sludge (potentially toxic
fuel of firing elements and compounds, pathogens, and parasites)
Impact on the percolating water and
consequently on the ground water. Quality by the
immobilization of the compounds accumulated in
the soil
Impact on the neighboring environment by
eventual problems of odor nuisance
A. J. Siril et al.
65
SW204 Sludges containing one or There are various types of biological hazards including Pathogens take hold, multiply, and, in time, cause
several metals including pathogenic bacteria, funguses, viruses, protozoa, disease. Infectious diseases develop when
chromium, copper, nickel, zinc, parasitic worms, and blood-borne viruses potentially susceptible individuals are exposed to enough
lead, cadmium, aluminium, tin, found in sewage sludges virulent, infectious units, such as bacterial cells or
vanadium, and beryllium viral particles, through inhalation, ingestion, or
dermal contact
SW205 Waste gypsum arising from The extremely low concentration of mercury contained Pollutants from coal plants can cause significant
chemical industry or power in the gypsum is insoluble, thermally stable, and not health and environmental challenges. These include
plant expected to adversely affect its use for disposal in a human cancer risks, decreased IQ levels for
landfill. Gypsum may also form under more oxidizing children, and fish and wildlife deformities and
conditions negative reproductive effects
SW206 Spent inorganic acids Of these waste streams, waste pickle liquor from the The acidic and alkaline wastes generated during
pickling units and bleed streams from the electroplating pickling and cleaning operation in iron and steel
units are of major concern due to the presence of high industries are considered as hazardous in nature,
metals and acid contents which renders them highly which can corrode metal and concrete sewage pipes
corrosive and polluting in nature
1695
1696

Waste
SW301 Spent organic acids with pH less When a nonaqueous solution mixed with an equal Corrosives can burn and destroy body tissues on
or equal to 2 which are corrosiveweight of water has a pH of less than 2 or greater than contact. The stronger, or more concentrated, the
or hazardous 12.5 it is considered corrosive. Corrosive wastes are corrosive material is and the longer it touches the body,
acidic or alkaline (basic) wastes that can readily corrode the worse the injuries will be. Some corrosives are toxic
or dissolve materials they meet. Common acids include and can cause other health problems
hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, nitric acid, chromic
acid, acetic acid, and hydrofluoric acid
SW302 Flux waste containing mixture of Waste slag is a major source of environmental pollution When heated during soldering, deposition of rosin
organic acids, solvents, or within the metallurgical industry. In the steel industry, a fluxes give off fumes containing many chemical
compounds of ammonium flux for use in a dry process for the flux treatment of the compounds. These can cause irritation and health
chloride material to be coated with molten metal contains at least problems if inhaled. Skin contact usually happens when
one chloride selected from the group consisting of zinc people get flux on their hands while it is being applied
chloride, stannous chloride, an alkali metal chloride, to metal surfaces before soldering. The major hazards
and an alkaline earth metal chloride to avoid are overexposure by breathing, swallowing, or
inhaling the dust or fumes and gases, especially those
containing respirable crystalline silica and fluorides
SW303 Adhesive or glue waste Adhesives contain solvents and other toxic chemicals. Adhesives may be extremely flammable or explosive,
containing organic solvents In adhesives, the polymers and resins are dissolved in may be irritating to skin and lungs, or may be corrosive
excluding solid polymeric organic solvents. The hazard potential is determined by and cause burns to skin and eyes. Narcotic are possibly
materials the nature of the solvent (e.g., flammability and fatal when inhaled in high concentrations. Air
irritational potential). Due to the high volatility of the pollutant, methylene chloride common in some
solvents, exposure by inhalation of the vapors is the adhesives/glues is a suspected human carcinogen
biggest problem
SW304 Press cake from pretreatment of When liquid soaps (at room temperature) are desired, Lye is a hazardous chemical that can cause severe
glycerol soap lye the more soluble potassium soaps are made by chemical burns. It also create a lot of heat when added
substituting potassium hydroxide for the sodium to water. When mixed with certain metals lye can
hydroxide (lye). There is only one wastewater of produce hydrogen gas, which is explosive. The
A. J. Siril et al.
65
consequence: the sewer lyes from reclaiming of scrap. presence of lye on the skin can usually be detected as a
Spent lye, unlike sweet water (obtained during fat slick feeling on the skin
splitting in process making of soap), contains
considerable quantity of salt, organic impurities derived
from the fat, free fatty acids, traces of soap, and other
impurities present in the original oil
SW305 Spent lubricating oil Engine lubricating oil is a major product of petroleum Spent or waste engine oil is oil that has been used, and
which helps the engine move smoothly. Used oil as a result contaminated by chemical impurities which
contains wear metals such as iron, tin, and copper as contribute to chronic hazards including mutagenicity
well as lead from leaded petrol used by motorist. Many and carcinogenicity as well as environmental hazards
organic molecules arise from the breakdown of with global ramifications. Any release of used oil to the
additives and base oil. The molecule potentially the environment threatens ground soil and surface water
most harmful is the polyclycic aromatic hydrocarbon with contamination by endangering drinking water
(PAH) such as benz(a)pyrene and chrysene. When the supply and aquatic organisms. It reduces the oxygen
lubricants are drained from engines, gearboxes, supply to microorganisms that break the oil down. The
hydraulics systems, turbine, and air compressors, the high concentration of metal ions, lead, zinc, chromium,
oil contaminates with wear debris, and the lubricant and copper in used oil can be toxic to ecological
base oil deteriorates and degrades to acids. The systems and to human health if they are emitted from
additives have decomposed into other chemical and the exhaust stack of uncontrolled burners and furnaces
process fluids such as degreasers and solvents are
mixed into the used oil
SW306 Spent hydraulic oil Hydraulic fluids can enter the environment from spills If spilled on soil, some of the ingredients in the
and leaks in machines that use them and from leaky hydraulic fluids mixture may stay on the top, while
storage tanks. Understanding environmental levels of others may sink into the groundwater. Exposures to
hydraulic fluids is very difficult because the ingredients hydraulic fluids occur mainly in workers using
in hydraulic fluids are used in many products other than hydraulic equipment and in people who work on cars or
hydraulic fluids. For example, mineral oil is an tractors that use the fluids. Most people are exposed
ingredient in both motor oil and mineral oil hydraulic when fluids spill or leak on the skin, when the fluid is
fluids. In the environment, mineral oil from both changed, or when the fluid reservoirs are filled. Low
sources would appear to be the same levels of hydraulic fluids may occur in the air near
machines that use them
(continued)
1697
1698
Waste
SW307 Spent mineral oil-water emulsion Mineral oil-in-water emulsions (OWEs) are used in the Breathing mineral oil can irritate the lungs causing
metal-processing industry as cooling and lubricating coughing and/or shortness of breath. Mineral oil can
agents. Mineral oil is a colorless, odorless, oily liquid. irritate the skin causing a rash or burning feeling on
They are used in medications, cosmetics, soaps, and contact
pesticides, and as lubricants
SW308 Oil tanker sludges Sludges generated by petroleum industries accumulate It contains a high concentration of petroleum
in crude oil tanks, refinery products tanks, desalters, hydrocarbons (PHCs) and other recalcitrant
and elsewhere during oil production and processing. components. As being recognized as a hazardous waste
These sludges have to be treated and made harmless in many countries, the improper disposal or insufficient
before disposal. The oil sludge cannot be filtered treatment of oily sludge can pose serious threats to the
because the solids content is too high, and attempts at environment and human health. It includes biomass,
filtering will just clog the filtration systems. The oil oil-contaminated water (not wastewater), high/low pH
sludge cannot be pumped to a wastewater treatment water, and spent sulfide solutions
facility because of the high oil and solid content, and
the waste has too high COD/BOD
SW309 Oil-water mixtures such as ballast Ballast water is essential for safe and efficient modern When ballast water is loaded, many microscopic
water shipping operations. Both treated and untreated ballast organisms and sediments are introduced into the ships
water may be associated with potential hazards to ballast tanks. Many of these organisms are able to
human health. The spread of human pathogens or toxin- survive in these tanks. Ballast water affects the
producing algae may pose direct threats to biological environment when the ballast water is discharged and
safety and safety in the food chain. On the other hand, the organisms are released into new environments. In
the envisaged countermeasure of biocidal treatment some cases, there is a high probability that the organism
may lead to new risks with regard to chemical safety – will become a dominant species, potentially resulting
not only from the use of chemicals and the generation in:
of by-products on board the ships themselves, but also The extinction of native species
from the release of these substances into fishing waters Effects on local and regional biodiversity
or recreational areas Effects on coastal industries that use water extraction
Effects on public health
Impacts on local economies based on fisheries
A. J. Siril et al.
65
SW310 Sludge from mineral oil storage Sludge obtained from the crude oil storage tanks is a Organic materials affect many of the biological
tank semi-solid waste. It is a complex emulsion of numerous properties of the soil physical and chemical
petroleum hydrocarbons, water, and solid particles. composition. Some of the properties affected
Petroleum sludge is generated during crude oil bioorganic materials including soil structure, soil
transportation, storage, refining, and production. compressibility, and shear strength. In addition, it also
Sludge that contains oil and water are generated affects the ability to retain water, and contributions of
through a variety of activities and processes on board food, and biological activity, and the price of water and
ships, including sedimentation in tanks, tank air infiltration. It includes many poisonous species, like
dewatering processes, and leaks or cleaning cycles in xylene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, benzene,
backflush filters and separators for treating fuel oil and heavy metals, toluene, and ethyl benzene
lube oil
SW311 Waste oil or oily sludge Oily sludge composition is variable and includes oil, Oily sludge contains water, sand, oils, grease, organic
coarse solids, and water. Oily sludge is considered as a compounds, chemical elements, and metals. Those
hazardous solid waste, and its physical–chemical sludges can be generated in several steps of the
characterization is very complicated. Generally it petroleum production and refining, such as in oil/water
composites of oil-in-water, water-in-oil emulsion, and separation steps and in the bottom of tanks. The
suspended solids. Because of high viscosity, oily sludge accumulation of oily residues in petroleum industry
is difficult to be dehydrated. Therefore, oily sludge of poses a serious environmental problem. Oily sludge
high oil content is often treated by the process which accumulation reduces tank storage capacity and this,
are degreasing method and removing residua together with the possibility of corrosion, makes it
necessary to periodically remove these deposits
SW311 Waste oil or oily sludge Oily sludge composition is variable and includes oil, Oily sludge contains water, sand, oils, grease, organic
coarse solids, and water. Oily sludge is considered as a compounds, chemical elements, and metals. Those
hazardous solid waste, and its physical–chemical sludges can be generated in several steps of the
characterization is very complicated. Generally it petroleum production and refining, such as in oil/water
composites of oil-in-water, water-in-oil emulsion, and separation steps and in the bottom of tanks. The
suspended solids. Because of high viscosity, oily sludge accumulation of oily residues in petroleum industry
is difficult to be dehydrated. Therefore, oily sludge of poses a serious environmental problem. Oily sludge
high oil content is often treated by the process which accumulation reduces tank storage capacity and this,
are degreasing method and removing residua together with the possibility of corrosion, makes it
necessary to periodically remove these deposits
(continued)
1699
1700
Waste
SW312 Oily residue from automotive Typical vehicle maintenance activities include oil and If released to the environment, the impact of these
workshop, service station, oil, or filter changes. These wastes have the potential to be releases can be contamination of surface waters, ground
grease interceptor released to the environment if not handled properly, water, and soils, as well as toxic releases to the air. In
stored in secure areas with secondary containment, addition, tiny pieces of metal from engine wear and
and/or protected from exposure to weather. Moreover, tear, such as lead, zinc, and arsenic, make their way into
used motor oil contains numerous toxic substances, lubricants, further contributing to the polluting
including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are potential of used motor oil. Because used motor oil is
known to cause cancer heavy and sticky, and contains an extensive
concentrated cocktail of toxic compounds, it can build
up and persist in the environment for years
A. J. Siril et al.
65
Waste
SW401 Spent alkalis containing Spent alkalis containing heavy metals are widely generated These are significant contributor of elevated level of
heavy metals in electroplating involving iron and steel and metal work toxic heavy metals, which are of great concern to
industry. Heavy metals in spent alkalis such as arsenic, human health, due to their nonbiodegradable nature.
cadmium, cobalt, copper, manganese, lead, titanium, and They also contribute to the potential risk of heavy metal
nickel have a significant impact on the environment as well contamination in landfill leachates
as on human health
SW402 Spent alkalis with pH Drain cleaners and floor and wax strippers are examples of These wastes are corrosive and are toxic in nature.
more or equal to 11.5 liquids containing powerful alkaline compounds. This can Overexposure to some commonly used alkalis such as
which are corrosive or be typically be found also in pulping and bleaching aluminium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide, potassium
hazardous processes. These types of chemicals are almost hydroxide, ammonium hydroxide, and lithium
omnipresent and they hold many applications in both carbonate can cause toxicity. Among these alkalis,
biological systems and industrial settings. Among these ammonium hydroxide and lithium carbonate are often
alkalis, ammonium hydroxide and lithium carbonate are used to treat a wide variety of diseases and conditions
often used to treat a wide variety of diseases and conditions
SW403 Discarded drugs Among the type of drugs that are discarded are mostly Psychotropic drugs pose a threat to people at all stages
containing psychotropic antidepressants, stimulants, and pain killers. Disposal is of dementia, possibly with the exception of use of
substances or containing due to fear of drug’s side effects and drug deterioration antidepressant agents in mild to moderate dementia.
substances that are toxic, which may include keeping drugs past expiration date and Ten percent of people return their unused drugs to the
harmful, carcinogenic, improper preservation. Many unused drugs and the change hospital. Pharmacists need to provide patients with
mutagenic, or to herbal products is also a reason why drugs may be more information and teach them how to properly store
teratogenic discarded their prescribed medications
SW404 Pathogenic wastes, Pathogenic wastes are usually generated during medical In case of pharmaceutical residues, it has been observed
clinical wastes, or assistance to patients (diagnosis, treatment immunization, that only 18–32% of the pharmaceutical residues could
quarantined materials etc.) or due to research and/or commercial production of be degraded by secondary treatment. Medical wastes
biological elements. Hospitals emit pathogenic waste such as used syringes, swabs, and human tissues, if not
during treatment processes that can lead to situations where properly handled and disposed of, carry high risks of
a total ban on hospital effluent is needed. For instance, in infection and injury and may represent serious health
multiple cases the discharge leads to strain on nature and hazards to health personnel
quality of water
1701
(continued)
1702
Waste
SW405 Waste arising from the Pharmaceutical waste includes expired, unused, spilt, and Pharmaceutical effluents are bioactive and their
preparation and contaminated pharmaceutical products, drugs, vaccines, existence in the environment has been found harmful to
production of and sera that are no longer required and need to be disposed both aquatic life and humans. Pharmaceutical waste
pharmaceutical product of appropriately. The category also includes discarded discharge has an eminent quantity of chemical waste as
items used in the handling of pharmaceuticals, such as antibiotics, disinfectants, and other treatments wastes
expired or no longer needed items such as bottles or boxes
contaminated by or containing residues, gloves, masks,
connecting tubing, and drug vials
SW406 Clinker, slag, and ashes Three types of waste to which incineration is applied Given the quantity of chlorinated or metals-laden (e.g.,
from scheduled wastes extensively are municipal solid waste, hazardous waste, cadmium) plastics placed in waste incinerators, the
incinerator and medical waste. Scheduled organic waste, including potential exists for relatively high emissions of various
toxic, hazardous, clinical, and pathological waste in all pollutants including dioxins and furans. The emissions
forms, solids, sludge, and liquids are the products in of dioxins and furans give incremental lifetime risk. It is
incineration facilities likely to be a cancer-causing substance to humans.
People exposed to dioxins and furans have experienced
changes in hormone levels
SW407 Waste containing Dioxins and furans are the abbreviated or short name for a Short exposure of people to abnormal amounts of
dioxins or furans family of toxic substances that all share a similar chemical dioxins may bring about skin lesions, such as
structure. Most dioxins and furans are not man-made or chloracne, dark patches on the skin, and altered or
produced intentionally, but are created when other reduced liver capacity. Long-term exposure of dioxins
chemicals or products are made. They are also created in is connected to weakness of the human defense system,
the pulp and paper industry, from a process that bleaches immune system, the central nervous system, the
the wood pulp. In addition, they can be produced when endocrine framework, and conceptive capacities
products are burned
SW408 Contaminated soil, Mineral oil is any of various colorless, odorless, light Contaminated area can pose a significant risk to human
debris, or matter mixtures of higher alkanes from a mineral source, health and the environment, which can limit the use or
resulting from cleaning particularly a distillate of petroleum, as distinct from reuse of the site. Contaminants can be transported from
up of a spill of chemical, usually edible vegetable oils. Soil of contaminated area acts the different environments, propagating by pathways
such as air, soil itself, groundwater, and surface water.
A. J. Siril et al.
65
mineral oil, or scheduled as a source of mutagens to the surrounding at gradually Thus, pollutants can be distributed from the main
wastes increasing distances source of contaminants, in this case the industrial site
soils, to the surrounding soils, influenced by the
remobilization of particles and atmospheric deposition
SW409 Disposed containers, Used and empty plastic chemical containers which still has Cancer, endocrine disruption, and reproductive/
bags, or equipment a small amount of its contents’ residues are not removable. developmental toxicity are among the health effects
contaminated with This classification still applies if they were containers of associated with chronic exposure to pesticides.
chemicals, pesticides, different kinds of chemicals. The World Health Children are particularly vulnerable to these health
mineral oil, or scheduled Organization’s classification of pesticides by hazard is effects due to their less-developed metabolism and the
wastes based primarily on the acute oral and dermal toxicity to ongoing maturation of their organ systems
rats. This classification also takes into consideration the
toxicity of the technical compound as well as the
formulation, making allowance for the lesser hazards from
solids as compared with liquids
SW410 Rags, plastics, papers, or These are commonly found in almost all industrial and Their waste wash waters consist of heavy metals or
filters contaminated with services activities. They may consist of contaminants like trace metals like Hg, Cd, Cr6+, As, CN, Pb, Cr3+, Mn,
scheduled wastes lube oil, hydraulic oils, paint, thinner, solvents, varnish, Ni, and Sn, where their absence is a doubt by
coolants, sludge, pigments, etc. that are rendered as experience, and are rendered as industrial effluent. The
scheduled waste (SW) event of having industrial effluent is that it leads to
another environmental burden
SW411 Spent activated carbon Activated carbon is also known as activated charcoal (it is The main residual produced from an activated carbon
excluding carbon from also famous for its high degree of microporosity), derived system is the spent carbon which contains the
the treatment of potable from the charcoal by thermal or chemical activation. The hazardous contaminants. Spent activated carbon must
water and processes of activated carbon materials are widely used in air and gas either be disposed of at a landfill or regenerated and
the food industry and refining industry to remove impurities. Activated carbon reused in industries. Activated carbon fibers have
vitamin production used in environmental remediation, wastewater primarily been investigated for their adsorption
reclamation, industrial processing, and other applications properties toward various gases or harmful substances.
becomes spent or exhausted. The spent activated carbon If the carbon cannot be economically regenerated, it
can be removed from the vessel by the user must be treated and disposed of in an approved landfill
(continued)
1703
1704
Waste
SW412 Sludges containing Sludge is a semi-solid slurry that can be produced from a Cyanide is a fast-acting poison. Cyanide is very
cyanide range of industrial processes. Electroplating sludge cyanide poisonous and ingesting high levels of cyanide may
contains heavy metals such as nickel, copper, cadmium, cause breathing difficulties, convulsion, loss of
and chromium. Cyanide is a carbon-nitrogen chemical unit consciousness, brain and heart damage, or even coma
and can be produced naturally and artificially. Certain and death. If a cyanide- or sulfide-bearing waste is
bacteria, fungi, and algae can form cyanides exposed to pH conditions between 2 and 12.5, it can
generate enough toxic gases, vapors, or fumes to
present a danger to human health or the environment.
Generally, if a waste generates 250 ppm or more of
reactive cyanides or 500 ppm or more of reactive
sulfides, it is considered a reactive waste
SW413 Spent salt containing Inorganic cyanide salts are used in large quantities for the Cyanide is a fast-acting poison. Cyanide is very
cyanide extraction of precious metals from low-grade deposits of poisonous and ingesting high levels of cyanide may
ground-up ore-bearing rock, as cyanide binds to gold. In cause breathing difficulties, convulsion, loss of
carburizing processes, after the work piece is heat treated, it consciousness, brain and heart damage, or even coma
undergoes quenching for the purpose of hardening. The and death. If a cyanide- or sulfide-bearing waste is
quenching media becomes contaminated with cyanide, exposed to pH conditions between 2 and 12.5, it can
thus must be disposed as hazardous waste. The salt in generate enough toxic gases, vapors, or fumes to
liquid carburizing is considered hazardous when spent due present a danger to human health or the environment.
to the presence of cyanide Generally, if a waste generates 250 ppm or more of
SW414 Spent aqueous alkaline Cyanide salts adhering to parts contaminate the quenching Cyanide is a fast-acting poison. Cyanide is very
solution containing bath, rendering the bath a hazardous waste when spent. poisonous and ingesting high levels of cyanide may
cyanide Solvent cleaning, aqueous cleaning, and abrasive cleaning cause breathing difficulties, convulsion, loss of
wastes are generated for disposal or treatment. Residue consciousness, brain and heart damage, or even coma
(salt sludge) from oil bath is used for quenching cyanided, and death. If a cyanide- or sulfide-bearing waste is
liquid carburized, and nitride parts exposed to pH conditions between 2 and 12.5, it can
generate enough toxic gases, vapors, or fumes to
A. J. Siril et al.
65
present a danger to human health or the environment.

Generally, if a waste generates 250 ppm or more of
SW415 Spent quenching oils Spent quenching oil or wastewater generated usually in Cyanide is a fast-acting poison. Cyanide is very
containing cyanides cyanide head treating cycle (liquid carburizing or poisonous and ingesting high levels of cyanide may
cyaniding) becomes hazardous waste because cyanide salts cause breathing difficulties, convulsion, loss of
are transferred to the oil bath or water bath as a result of consciousness, brain and heart damage, or even coma
drag out. Drag out in the form of oil is removed from the and death. If a cyanide- or sulfide-bearing waste is
parts by hot water washing. Oil is one of the most exposed to pH conditions between 2 and 12.5, it can
commonly used quenchants in the heat-treating industry, generate enough toxic gases, vapors, or fumes to
therefore the quantity of waste oil that must be handled as a present a danger to human health or the environment.
hazardous waste is substantial Generally, if a waste generates 250 ppm or more of
SW416 Sludge of inks, paints, The characteristics of the paint sludge, which mainly The waste paint sludge is classified as hazardous waste
pigments, lacquer, dye, designate the management route, are mainly determined by as it emits large amounts of the toxic gas, i.e., the
or varnish the type of the paint used, application technique employed, phosgene gas, the hydrogen chloride gas, the carbon
and the chemicals applied such as flocculants, detackifiers, monoxide gas, the NOx, SOx, etc., especially in the
pH boosters, antifoam agents, and biocides as well as the process of incineration. This causes contamination to
dewatering techniques preferred. Major routes for the the environment. Water-based sludge has higher levels
disposal of the paint sludge are incineration as hazardous of barium, chlorine, dissolved organic carbon, total
waste or combustion at cement kilns. Paint sludge is a very dissolved solids and mineral oil compared to solvent-
complex material; it contains uncured polymer resins, based sludge, while the levels of sulfate, phenol index,
pigments, curing agents, flotation agents, and other minor BTEX, PCBs, and loss on ignition were higher for
formulation ingredients. In addition, paint sludge contains solvent-based sludge
water and a variety of organic solvents. The presence of
uncured paint resins, which cure and form a film upon
heating, make the sludge very sticky and difficult to handle
(continued)
1705
1706
Waste
SW417 Waste of inks, paints, Paint residue and abrasive or water blasting wastes from Some chemicals (organic and inorganic) used in paint
pigments, lacquer, dye, water towers, bridges, and other commercial, industrial, industries contain heavy metals with known risks.
or varnish municipal buildings, or structures are solid waste and may Vapors released from alkyd paint are toxic to humans if
be hazardous waste. Waste generated during paint removal inhaled over a long period of time in high enough
operations is a hazardous waste if it exceeds the maximum concentrations. These vapors have the potential to start
concentration levels using the toxicity characteristic a fire if exposed to a spark or flame and support a fire
leaching procedure (TCLP) for certain metals once started because they are flammable. Water
contaminated by paints and the solvents used to clean
painting tools can also contaminate drinking water
supplies and other areas of the environment
SW418 Discarded or Alkyd paints contain oil and solvents which are toxic and The oils and solvents in paints and speciality coatings
off-specification inks, flammable. Cleaning of painting equipment requires the are toxic. If released into the environment they have the
paints, pigments, use of solvents which have the same hazardous properties potential to contaminate drinking water supplies,
lacquer, dye, or varnish as alkyd paint. Latex paints are nonflammable and offer groundwater, and can be toxic to plants and aquatic
products containing ease of application. They generally do not have a animals. Usually, the manufacture of paints involves a
organic solvent disagreeable odor and can be used on both interior and wide variety of raw materials that contain heavy metals
exterior surfaces. Paint brushes and other tools are easily such as lead, cadmium, and chromium pigments, and
cleaned up with soap and water. Latex paint wastes are not fungicides such as mercuric oxide in the production
hazardous wastes and can be disposed into most sewage process, which can present medical hazards. Lead and
treatment systems or landfills mercury, for example, have a serious and irreversible
impact on the mental development of children
SW419 Spent diisocyanates and Methyl isocyanate is used to produce carbamate pesticides. MIC is extremely toxic to humans from acute (short-
residues of isocyanate Methyl isocyanate is used as a chemical intermediate for term) exposure. Exposure to MIC-contaminated air can
compounds excluding the production of carbamate insecticides and herbicides. It cause extreme irritation and difficulty in breathing.
solid polymeric material is a colorless liquid with a sharp pungent odor. The odor Temporary reversible blindness may occur depending
from foam threshold for methyl isocyanate is 2.1 parts per million on the length of exposure. MIC exposure can lead to the
manufacturing process (ppm). MIC is prepared industrially by reacting development of pulmonary edema, bronchospasm, or
methylamine with phosgene, oxidizing electrolyte imbalance. Adverse health effects of MIC
monomethylformamide at high temperatures (>550 C), or can continue for decades in populations exposed to
A. J. Siril et al.
65
heating metal MICs. MIC is also manufactured from MIC. MIC-exposed humans may exhibit lung, ocular,
N-methylformamide and air. Because of its high reactivity, and reproductive effects for years; stillbirths and
MIC is used as an intermediate in organic synthesis, most spontaneous abortions are also very common. EPA has
notably in the production of carbamate-based pesticides classified methyl isocyanate as a Group D, not
classifiable as to human carcinogenicity
SW420 Leachate from Leachate may also have a high concentration of metals and Traditionally, the hazard assessment of leachate is
scheduled waste landfill contain some hazardous organic chemicals. The removal of based on physicochemical characterization but the
organic material based on COD, BOD, and ammonium toxicity is not considered. Solid waste landfills may
from leachate is the usual prerequisite before discharging cause severe environmental impacts if leachate and gas
the leachates into natural waters. Leachate is characterized emissions are not controlled. Leachate generated in
by high values of COD, pH, ammonia nitrogen, and heavy municipal landfill contains large amounts of organic
metals, as well as strong color and bad odor. At the same and inorganic contaminants. Landfill leachate is a
time, the characteristics of the leachate also vary with highly toxic by-product of waste disposal in dumpsites.
regard to its composition and volume, and biodegradable This wastewater can contaminate soils and
matter present in the leachate against time groundwater not only in the proximity of the landfill but
also at some distance, causing environmental and
human health problems
SW421 A mixture of scheduled Hydraulic oils are used in systems of high pressure. A The potential hazard from oil mists is recognized, e.g.,
wastes pinhole leak in a hydraulic system can result in the oil in the European ATEX Directive (directives concerning
being forced through a small puncture or fracture in the explosive atmospheres). Unless these oils are used in
pipework or connections (creating a “nozzle”), atomizing systems under high pressure (e.g., hydraulic systems),
the oil with air and creating a flammable mist. Lubrication they tend to be omitted from consideration when
oil that is used in these lubrication systems must be kept at assessing hazardous zones as part of the explosive
an optimum temperature of approx. 35–55 C to allow atmospheres risk assessment process. However, high
efficient flow of oil around the system. In the process of pressure as well as other conditions can also make these
emptying these vessels, the surface of the oil can come into oils a fire/explosion risk. In a rolling mill environment
contact with a hot heating element, “boiling” the oil, and where these hydraulic systems run in close proximity to
causing a rapid overpressure of the vessel hot steel, or hot work welding or gas cutting, the
possibility for the flammable mist to ignite is high.
These have potential to ignite if it comes into contact

with a suitably energetic ignition source
(continued)
1707
1708
Waste
SW422 A mixture of scheduled A mixture of rags used in workshops would be All waste oils (except edible oil) are classified as
and nonscheduled contaminated with mineral oil is an example. In some hazardous. A small number of products, because of
wastes circumstance

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Chinnappan Baskar

Handbook of Solid Waste

With 568 Figures and 318 Tables

Shikha Baskar Rashmi Sharma

Amutha Chinnappan Rashmi Sehrawat

ISBN 978-981-16-4229-6 ISBN 978-981-16-4230-2 (eBook)

linear patterns of growth and is an innovative approach to achieve sustainable

This book also features the importance of integration of multi-disciplinary

January 2022 Dr. Chinnappan Baskar

Part I Solid Waste Management, Municipal Solid Waste

1 Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries: Towards

8 Assessment of Quality of Compost Derived from Municipal

9 Current Waste Management Status and Trends in Russian

10 A Transition Toward a Circular Economy: Insights from

11 Analysis of the Implantation of a System for the Sustainable

12 Thermal Utilization of Municipal Solid Waste in the Central

13 Developing “Zero Waste Model” for Solid Waste Management

14 Food Waste Management Practice in Malaysia and Its Potential

15 Life Cycle Assessment to Support Waste Management

16 Circular Economy Approach to Address the Industrial

17 From Waste to Wealth: Stepping Toward Sustainability

Part II Agricultural Solid Waste Management ................ 465

18 Recovery of Agricultural Waste Biomass: A Sustainability

29 Temple Floral Waste Management in India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 725

32 Sustainable and Economical Approaches in Utilizing

40 Bioremediation: Harnessing Natural Forces for Solid Waste

Part III Plastic Waste Management, Rubber Waste Management,

41 Utilization of Plastic Wastes and Its Technologies:

42 Integrated Strategy of Plastic Waste Management to Green

43 Recent Innovations in Chemical Recycling of Polyethylene

44 Stakeholders Perception of Used Plastics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1177

45 Biopolymer-Based Liners for Waste Containment Facilities:

46 Solid Waste Management in Textile Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1225

47 Turning Plastic Wastes into Textile Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1257

48 Sources and Fates of Textile Solid Wastes and Their

49 Reuse of Textile ETP Sludge into Value-Added Products for

50 Bio-management of Textile Industrial Wastewater Sludge

51 Integrated Biotechnological Interventions in Textile Efﬂuent

52 Effects of Marine Littering and Sustainable Measures to

53 Utilization of Tyre Wastes in Cementitious Composites . . . . . . . . . 1407

54 Circular Economy in the Concrete Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1433

55 Experimental Investigation of Physiochemical Properties of

56 A Sustainability Approach to Geopolymer Brick Manufacture

57 Integrated Electronic Waste Management: Issues and

58 e-Waste Management: A Transition Towards a Circular

59 Management of E-Waste: Technological Challenges and

60 Exploring E-waste Management: Strategies and Implications . . . . 1559

61 E-Waste Management: Rising Concern on Existing Problems,

62 Consumer’s Awareness and Perception Towards E-Waste

63 Recycling and Management of Lithium Battery as

64 Recycling of Rechargeable Batteries: A Sustainable Tool for

Part IV Hazardous Waste Management, Bio-waste Management,

65 Hazardous Waste Management, Challenges, and Risks

66 The Global Menace of Hazardous Waste: Challenges and

67 Inorganic and Organic Pollutants in Baltic Sea Region and

68 Opportunities for Circular Initiatives via Waste Recovery in the

69 Insight into Pharmaceutical Waste Management by Employing

70 Recycling Waste Biopolymers via Electrospinning for Water