Waste-to-Energy: Recent Developments

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Abd El-Fatah Abomohra
Qingyuan Wang
Jin Huang Editors

Waste-to-
Energy
Recent Developments and Future
Perspectives towards Circular Economy
Waste-to-Energy
Abd El-Fatah Abomohra · Qingyuan Wang ·
Jin Huang
Editors

Waste-to-Energy
Recent Developments and Future Perspectives
towards Circular Economy
Editors
Abd El-Fatah Abomohra Qingyuan Wang
School of Architecture and Civil School of Architecture and Civil
Engineering Engineering
Chengdu University Chengdu University
Chengdu, Sichuan, China Chengdu, Sichuan, China

Jin Huang
School of Architecture and Civil
Engineering
Chengdu University
Chengdu, Sichuan, China

ISBN 978-3-030-91569-8 ISBN 978-3-030-91570-4 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91570-4

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2022
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether
the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse
of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and
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For all the children around the world, to
whom we are trying to ensure a clean and
healthy future
Preface

The continuous increase in global population and concurrent fast industrializa-

tion led to massive generation of municipal wastes, with raised challenges of safe
disposal. The proper management of municipal wastes through recycling is an essen-
tial approach for global sustainable development. So far, many countries established
regulatory guidelines for different waste management routes and pollution control
measures. However, most of the applied routes are waste dumping, composting or
direct discharge in water bodies without adequate pretreatment, which seriously
threaten the environment and human health. Despite the applicability of incineration
for waste disposal, the low thermal value and high organic load of the waste streams
are the main obstacles. However, proper waste segregation and separation provide
an efficient option for waste conversion into energy. Thus, waste-to-energy is nowa-
days a widely used statement for efficient waste management, which is getting much
attention. Therefore, recent advances in waste-to-energy and the necessity to achieve
a circular economy are a timely topic that deserves in-depth discussion.
There are many established methods for waste conversion into different forms of
energy and valuable by-products. After proper segregation for separation of unde-
sired wastes such as metal and concrete, all other wastes can be thermochemically
converted into crude bio-oil, biochar and/or syngas. This pathway is favourable for
some hazardous wastes, such as those from hospitals, as an alternative to inciner-
ation, which provides simultaneous sterilization while producing energy. Biolog-
ical conversion using anaerobic digestion or fermentation can be applied for organic
wastes to produce biogas, bio-ethanol, biohydrogen, and/or biobutanol. After conver-
sion, the produced slurry can be converted by thermochemical methods to crude bio-
oil or used as a soil fertilizer. Moreover, lipid-rich wastes such as fat, oil, and grease
(FOG) can be used efficiently for biodiesel production due to the high theoretical
energy yield. After biodiesel production, the glycerol by-product can be recycled for
many other industrial purposes. Despite the recent development in biofuel produc-
tion, the rapid progress in this research field necessitates integration of different
conversion routes in order to introduce all the latest novel technologies of contin-
uous R&D. Such integration requires concise summary of the recent cutting-edge
research and industrial applications in this field.

vii
viii Preface

This book aims to cover the recent updates in the waste-to-energy field, starting
from waste generation to large-scale application and industrialization. The book
summarizes and evaluates the recent R&D results which provide remarkable compe-
tences in terms of design, performance, efficiency and implementation of different
systems used for energy recovery from wastes, revamping the existing technolo-
gies and feedback along with techno-economic analysis for case studies in different
countries. The cutting-edge research topics of this book were achieved through
contributions from professionals and experts engaged in research, education and
industry of the corresponding topics. This book can be considered as a primary
reservoir for a reader with any scientific background exploring waste manage-
ment, biomass conversion or bioenergy from any angle, including undergraduate
students, teachers, researchers and consulting professionals in renewable energy,
biotechnology, environmental engineering and biomass conversion.

Chengdu, China Abd El-Fatah Abomohra

Qingyuan Wang
Jin Huang
Contents

1 An Overview of Municipal Wastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Eslam G. Al-Sakkari, Mahmoud M. Habashy,
Mai O. Abdelmigeed, and Mohammed G. Mohammed
2 Different Waste Management Methods, Applications,
and Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Bahram Barati, Fatemeh Fazeli Zafar, and Shuang Wang
3 Recent Advances in Circular Bioeconomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Muhammad Adil, Amar Nasir, Arbab Sikandar,
and Noor Muhammad Khan
4 Biofuels: An Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Abdelrahman S. Zaky, Kamaljit Moirangthem, and Radziah Wahid
5 Thermochemical Conversion of Wastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Sabariswaran Kandasamy, Mathiyazhagan Narayanan,
Narayanamoorthy Bhuvanendran, and Zhixia He
6 Anaerobic Digestion of Waste for Biogas Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
YanZhao Zhang, Jiafu Lin, Tao Song, and Haifeng Su
7 Waste Fermentation for Energy Recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Jiafu Lin, YanZhao Zhang, Tao Song, and Haifeng Su
8 Esterification/Transesterification of Lipidic Wastes
for Biodiesel Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Mohammadhosein Rahimi, Mina Tajmirriahi,
Fateme Saadatinavaz, and Su Shiung Lam
9 Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) for Waste Recycling and Energy
Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
Qian Zhao, Taotao Gao, Xiaoqin Li, and Dan Xiao

ix
x Contents

10 Energy Recovery from Fat, Oil and Grease (FOG) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Mahdy Elsayed, Ahmed Tawfik, and Abd El-Fatah Abomohra
11 Energy Recovery from Nuisance Algae Blooms and Residues . . . . . . 329
Gilvana Scoculi de Lira, José V. C. Vargas, André B. Mariano,
and Ihana A. Severo
12 Organic Rankine Cycles (ORCs) for Waste Heat Utilization . . . . . . . 347
Yong-qiang Feng and Tzu-Chen Hung
13 CO2 -Mediated Energy Conversion and Recycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
Sivakumar Esakkimuthu, Shuang Wang,
and Abd El-Fatah Abomohra
14 Plastic Recycling for Energy Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
Shah Faisal, Muhammad Naveed, Sayyed Kifayatullah,
and Mian Muhammad
15 Microbial-Mediated Lignocellulose Conversion to Biodiesel . . . . . . . 449
Mahdy Elsayed, Hamed M. El-Mashad,
and Mohamed Mahmoud-Aly
16 Insect-Mediated Waste Conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479
Abdelaziz M. Shaboon, Xuewei Qi, and Mohamed A. A. Omar
17 Phycoremediation: Role of Microalgae in Waste Management
and Energy Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511
Paulo Alexandre S. da Silva, José V. C. Vargas,
André B. Mariano, and Ihana A. Severo
18 Waste to Energy Plant in Spain: A Case Study Using
Technoeconomic Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539
Rubí Medina-Mijangos, Sergi Contelles-Rodríguez,
Hilda Guerrero-García-Rojas, and Luis Seguí-Amórtegui
19 Case Study in Arid and Semi-arid Regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 577
Yassir Makkawi, Fatemeh Hassan Pour, and Omar Moussa
20 Integrated Approaches and Future Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613
Abdelrahman S. Zaky, Santosh Kumar, and Andrew J. Welfle
About the Editors

Prof. Abd El-Fatah Abomohra is a Professor of

Environmental Engineering at Chengdu University,
Chengdu, China since 2019. He received his Ph.D. in
2012 through a cooperation program between Tanta
University (Egypt) and Hamburg University (Germany)
funded by Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst
(DAAD). He has work experience of 20 years at different
universities as research assistant, lecturer, associate
professor, and professor. He authored seven books and
of more than 100 contributions published in SCI index
journals. He was one of the World’s Top 2% of Scien-
tists List published by Stanford University in 2020 and
2021. His research group is primarily working on bioen-
ergy production from different biomass feedstocks and
wastes.

Prof. Qingyuan Wang is a full Professor at Sichuan

University since 2001, and currently he is the president
of Chengdu University. He received his Ph.D. in 1998
from Ecole Centrale Paris, France, followed by post-
doctoral experience from 1999 to 2003 in Faculty of
Engineering of Purdue University, and JSPS fellow at
Kagoshima University, Japan. He served as a visiting
Professor at University of Paris-Sud, TU-Clausthal,
University of New Hampshire and Honorary Professor
of University of Liverpool and RMIT. He is also a
fellow of International Association of Advanced Mate-
rials (IAAM). Prof. Wang has published over 200 papers
in SCI index journals, and is one of the Most Cited
Chinese Researchers (Elsevier 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017,
2018, 2019, 2020). He was one of the World’s Top 2%

xi
xii About the Editors

of Scientists List published by Stanford University in

2020 and 2021. His research team is focusing on Green
Materials, Material Science and Solid Mechanics, Very
High Cycle Fatigue (VHCF), Mechanical Behavior of
Structural Materials and Structures, Composite Repairs
of damaged Structures.

Prof. Jin Huang is a Professor of Environmental Engi-

neering at Chengdu University, Chengdu, China since
2010. She received her Ph.D. in 2008 from Sichuan
University, Chengdu, China. She has a work expe-
rience of 19 years at Chengdu University as Asso-
ciate Professor, and Professor. In addition, she has a
work experience in industry sector for 7 years as engi-
neer to enhance the municipal waste recycling and
wastewater treatment towards green net-zero utiliza-
tion. She authored 13 papers related to municipal waste
management published in international journals.
Chapter 1
An Overview of Municipal Wastes

Eslam G. Al-Sakkari, Mahmoud M. Habashy, Mai O. Abdelmigeed,

and Mohammed G. Mohammed

Abstract Recently, waste management became a tremendous global concern due

to the high rate of waste materials production. This rate leads to wastes accumula-
tion in the environment without proper management or valorization. Consequently,
more problems appeared to the surface, such as global warming and other dangerous
phenomena on the whole ecosystem. For instance, in 2018, the total municipal solid
waste production was 292.4 million tons, only 38.2 wt.% of which were managed
mainly through mechanical recycling and composting. The remaining amounts were
incinerated for energy recovery (11.8 wt.%) and landfilled (50 wt.%, which accounts
for 146 million tons). The massive amounts of landfilled wastes consume large land
areas; therefore, more waste valorization techniques should be applied to achieve a
zero waste point in the circular economy system. This chapter defines and classi-
fies solid wastes according to their sources and compositions. It also discusses the
types of recyclable, hazardous, and hard-to-control wastes besides briefly discussing
the efforts to manage them. Additionally, waste production statistics of different
countries are presented to give a real figure about waste amounts and emphasize
the urgent need for their management. Finally, the circular economy practices and
business models that consider the socioeconomic impact on the whole economy are
discussed.

Keywords Municipal wastes · Hazardous wastes · Recyclable wastes · Waste

management · Circular economy

E. G. Al-Sakkari (B) · M. O. Abdelmigeed · M. G. Mohammed

Faculty of Engineering, Chemical Engineering Department, Cairo University, Giza 12613, Egypt
e-mail: eslam.ibrahim@polymtl.ca
M. G. Mohammed
e-mail: mgmohammed@eng.cu.edu.eg
M. M. Habashy
Department of Environmental Engineering and Water Technology, UNESCO-IHE Institute for
Water Education, Delft, The Netherlands
e-mail: mab007@uni-ihe.org

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 1

A. E.-F. Abomohra et al. (eds.), Waste-to-Energy,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91570-4_1
2 E. G. Al-Sakkari et al.

1.1 Introduction

The significant increase in wastes products in the last two decades has become a
global challenge and concern that requires urgent and serious actions. For instance,
in 2018, around 38 percent by weight of global solid waste was managed mainly
through mechanical recycling and composting. Smaller amounts of the waste were
incinerated for energy recovery and landfilled. Therefore, a thorough investigation of
the amounts and characteristics of wastes is needed to have reliable and feasible waste
management strategies. Unfortunately, the systematic surveying of the quantities and
types of wastes produced, future trends of wastes generation, characteristics, and
seasonal variations are poorly understood. However, general trends and common
elements are observable (UN-ESCAP 2006).
Wastes differ according to many factors such as their sources, nature, the medium
they affect, their ability to accumulate, their ability to transform, and the region
they affect. The classification of wastes according to their sources is commonly
applied since it helps to understand the nature of the wastes and dictates the most
proper waste management methods. Table 1.1 provides an example of wastes clas-
sification by showing the different sources of solid wastes and the types of wastes
produced from each source (UN-ESCAP 2006). This chapter reviews the different
sources of wastes and the types of wastes produced from each source. Then, it gives
a brief overview of the standard management methods such as biological methods,
including composting. After that, it presents some statistics on waste production
and methods of waste management used worldwide. By the end of this chapter, the
circular economy practices and business models based on this type of economy are
summarized, introducing some real-world case studies.

Table 1.1 Types and sources of solid wastes (UN-ESCAP, 2006)

Waste source Solid wastes examples
Residential Food wastes, paper, cardboard, plastics, wood, glass, metals, and
household hazardous wastes such as batteries and electric light
pulps
Industrial Packaging wastes including plastics, hazardous wastes, e.g., solid
chemicals, and workers’ food wastes
Commercial Paper, cardboard, plastics, wood, food wastes, glass, metals, and
hazardous wastes
Institutional Paper, cardboard, plastics, wood, food wastes, glass, metals, and
hazardous wastes
Construction and demolition Wood, metals, concrete, rocks, dirt, and dust
1 An Overview of Municipal Wastes 3

1.2 Classification and Types of Wastes

In order to obtain reliable and feasible waste management strategies, the amount and
characteristics of the wastes should be investigated. The characterization and quantifi-
cation of wastes are considered as the cornerstone for intervention and management in
some developed countries. However, the systematic surveying of the quantities and
types of wastes produced, future trends of wastes generation, characteristics, and
seasonal variations are poorly understood. Even though there is insufficient consis-
tent or comprehensive information at the country level, general trends and common
elements are observable (Bui et al. 2020).
Generally, much higher amounts of waste per capita are produced by developed
countries than developing ones (Bundhoo 2018). For example, modest economic
activity and small populations have guaranteed that relatively small amounts of
wastes are produced like in the south pacific subregion’s small islands. However,
managing small waste amounts could be a challenge in some situations, such as in
Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, and Kiribati where the small land areas reduce the disposal
options.
Solid wastes are mainly produced from agricultural and residential households,
construction, commercial, institutional, and industrial sources. Table 1.1 provides a
breakdown of different solid wastes sources and their types.
The solid wastes sources are divided into four main classes: agricultural waste,
municipal solid waste, industrial waste, and hazardous waste (Abdel-Shafy and
Mansour 2018); each waste type is discussed in detail separately throughout this
chapter.

1.2.1 Agricultural Wastes

Agricultural wastes refer to any type of waste that is generated from different agri-
cultural activities. Examples of agricultural wastes are animal manure, post-harvest
waste such as rice husks, rotten or bad fruits, and vegetables, corn stover and husks,
and wheat straw (Nagendran 2011). There are two main types of residues (field
residues and process residues) produced from agriculture activities. Stems, seed pods,
stalks, and leaves represent the field residues that are left in the field after the crop
harvesting process. On the other hand, roots, peel, stubble, pulp, shell, stalk, straw,
stem, leaves, seeds, bagasse, husks, molasses, etc., represent the process residues
that are present even after the crop is processed into valuable alternate products.
Agricultural residues can be differentiated based on their availability and character-
istics, different from other solid fuels like charcoal, wood, and char briquette (Sadh
et al. 2018). Several industries use these process residues as raw materials to produce
other products such as fertilizers, soil improvement additives, animal fodder, paper,
synthetic wood, and others. Nevertheless, a big portion of the generated field residues
is underutilized, which in some cases results in the accumulation of residues in the
4 E. G. Al-Sakkari et al.

fields, preventing the farmers from utilizing the land. In such cases, farmers seek
cheap, easy, and fast methods to eliminate the residues, such as burning the residues
and generating large amounts of smoke and greenhouse gases in the air (Marey
et al. 2010). Research has been going on to develop new applications of agricultural
waste such as using them as a precursor for activated carbon synthesis (Köseoğlu and
Akmil-Başar 2015; Teo et al. 2016; Yahya et al. 2015), cement additive (Sathiparan
and De Zoysa 2018), and source for biofuels production (Li et al. 2011; Stephen and
Periyasamy 2018).
The rapid population growth leads to extensive expansion in agricultural produc-
tion that naturally exhibited a noticeable increase in agro-wastes, livestock wastes,
and by-products of agro-industrial activities. For example, in the Asian and Pacific
region, China produces the largest amounts of agro-waste or crop residues of 842
million tons/year, followed by India, which produces 560 million tons/year. China
produces 587 million tons of agro-wastes per year, and more than 80% of these
residues are from rice, corn, and wheat (Chen et al. 2019).

1.2.2 Municipal Solid Waste

The term “municipal wastes” refers to household wastes or any other wastes that
are similar in nature and composition. Municipal wastes are commonly recognized
as “garbage” or “trash”. In other words, municipal solid waste (MSW) is produced
from different facilities, including households, schools, hospitals, hotels, offices, and
shops, where its main components are food waste, metal, rags, paper, glass, and plastic
(Environmental Statistics and Accounts 2016). It also includes market cleansing
waste, the content of litter containers, street sweepings, grass clippings, leaves, yard
waste, and bigger wastes such as mattresses, old furniture, and white goods. The
municipal solid waste is either collected by traditional door-to-door collection (mixed
household waste) or collected separately for recovery operations (through the door-
to-door collection and/or through voluntary deposits) (Yadav and Karmakar 2020).
These wastes can be gathered by municipalities or on their behalf. In addition, they
can be collected directly by the private sector including business or private non-profit
institutions instead of municipalities for energy or material recovery. It is worth noting
that, by definition, MSW does not include municipal sewage network and treatment
wastes or those produced from municipal construction and demolition activities.
Generation rates for MSW vary from season to season and from city to city
and strongly correlate with levels of activity and economic development. The
highest production rates of MSW (kg/capita/day) are found in high-income coun-
tries (Makarichi et al. 2018). Based on the economic development, the composition
of MSW can change drastically across the same region. Differences in the reporting
and characterization of waste types also change based on the responsible authori-
ties and their definition of municipal waste, including industrial waste, demolition,
and construction waste (Alzamora and Barros 2020). The source of energy used and
climate conditions influence the MSW. For instance, cities with cold winter that rely
1 An Overview of Municipal Wastes 5

on coal as their heating source tend to produce a larger quantity of ash in the waste
this season. Other differences are raised due to the basic infrastructure. For example,
the amount of dirt and dust from street sweeping is large in the unpaved or poorly
paved streets. Other differences are raised related to the numbers of shrubs and trees,
which increase the number of organic wastes. In the high-income cities, bulky and
large wastes like furniture abandoned motorcars and packaging are found, unlike in
low-income cities (Iyamu et al. 2020).

1.2.3 Industrial Waste

Industrial wastes involve a broad range of materials with different environmental

toxicity. Typically, this range would involve packaging materials, paper, waste from
food processing, solvents, oils, paints, resins, sludge, metals, glass, stones, ceramics,
plastics, leather, rubber, wood, straw, cloth, abrasives, etc. The exact production
rates are not precisely known owing to the lack of regularly systematic and updated
tracking of industrial wastes. The vast differences in the raw materials, industrial
process, final product, and environmental consideration between different industries
make it very difficult to define common properties that characterize industrial wastes
in general; however, they can be categorized according to their nature. Table 1.2
classifies the most common industrial wastes according to their nature and gives
examples of each category.
Food processing industries like fruit industries, confectionery, meat, chips, and
juice are one of the industrial sectors that produce large amounts of organic waste
every year. The demand for food products increases continuously due to the increase
in population; that is why a lot of beverage and food industries have expanded remark-
ably all over the world to fulfill the food demand. As a result, larger amounts of wastes
are generated annually. There is a trend to use fruit industrial wastes as raw mate-
rials to produce other valuable products since they are rich in lignin, hemicellulose,
cellulose, nitrogen, carbon, ash, and moisture, which can be biochemically digested
to produce bio-ethanol, biogas, and other products.
The production of industrial wastes varies even among developing countries,
not only between countries at different stages of development. For example, the
production ratio of MSW to industrial wastes is one to three in China; however, this
ratio is significantly lower in other countries with similar income per capita. On the
other hand, in the high-income developed country, the ratio reaches one to eight. This
quantity of industrial waste will be expected to be doubled in the next 20 years at
the current growth rates. This incremental growth is considered a serious challenge
since many countries suffer from the insufficient capacities of the existing industrial
waste collection, processing, and disposal systems (Zhang et al. 2019).
Due to the increasing risks of industrial wastes on communities and the envi-
ronment, governments enact laws to force owners of industrial activities to perform
environmental impact assessment studies to get the project approved or renew their
license. In this study, all the materials used, products, amounts, and compositions
6 E. G. Al-Sakkari et al.

Table 1.2 Classification of industrial wastes

Category of wastes Examples
Cinder Incineration residues, including ashes
Oil, grease, and fats Waste mineral, animal or plant-based oil, including grease
(lubricant), waste animal fats, and oily wastes from soybean
oil production
Acid Waste organic and inorganic acids, including acidic wastes
generated from phosphate rock-related industries or waste
acids generated from the commercial acids production lines
Alkali Alkali solids and liquids, such as waste soap solution
Plastics Waste styrene foam, waste synthesized fibers, and
synthesized polymers (solid, liquid), including synthesized
rubber
Metal Waste iron, waste aluminum, and other waste metals
generated in polishing and cutting
Slag Sand, sandblast waste, low-quality coal, and blast furnace
wastes
Rubble Concrete pieces, brick pieces, etc., generated in the
construction, reconstruction, or removal of structure
Dust and soot Dust and soot generated from different chemical and
industrial plants
Paper Paper waste discharged from construction activities, pulp,
and paper manufacturing as well printing facilities
Wastes of animal or plant origin Animal and plant wastes are used as raw materials in food,
pharmaceuticals, and spices production. They include fish or
animals bones, brewing, and fermentation wastes

of wastes produced must be reported and revised by the responsible authorities to

decide by approving or refusing the project (Glasson and Therivel 2019). This will
potentially reduce the generated industrial waste amounts and provide a database of
generated wastes from current and future industries.

1.2.4 Hazardous Waste

The production of hazardous wastes is increasing continuously due to the devel-

opments in various sectors, including agricultural activities, industrial plants, and
healthcare institutions. This development results in the consumption of large amounts
of toxic chemicals. For example, nowadays, there are about 110,000 different toxic
chemicals available in the market. However, each year, about one thousand new
chemicals appear for being utilized for different purposes. Wastes of chemicals,
electric light bulbs, batteries, automotive parts, and leftover medicines are classified
as hazardous wastes (Letcher and Slack 2019).
1 An Overview of Municipal Wastes 7

There are several issues related to the availability of data about the global gener-
ation of hazardous wastes worldwide as the reliability of hazardous waste produc-
tion limits it. It is doubtful due to several reasons, including human error during
performing the essential assessment, the possible unwillingness of industrial plants
to provide process information (including waste arising data), the poor awareness of
the dangerous effects of these wastes, absence of a clear, and unified definition of
hazardous wastes from a country to another.
Most hazardous wastes are introduced to the environment as by-products of
different processes in various sectors, including agricultural and industrial processes.
Hospitals, nuclear facilities, and healthcare institutions have their distinct share of
producing this dangerous type of wastes. The highest generation rates of hazardous
materials come from petrochemicals, chemicals, and petroleum plants. In addi-
tion, energy production plants, pulp, and paper facilities, metals manufacturing and
machining facilities, and wood treatment plants are heavy producers of this type of
waste. Leather production lines are also a famous source of hazardous wastes, e.g.,
chromium ions in wastewater effluents, with a high production rate (Prakash and
Gowtham 2019). The pesticides production and utilization sectors have a significant
share in hazardous wastes production as well.
There is a strong relation between hazardous waste type and production rates and
the production region where the industrial activities’ variety and degree of modern-
ization influence the production (Abdel-Shafy and Mansour 2018). For instance, the
major hazardous wastes in the Asian and Pacific Region are waste solvents due to
extensive use of solvents, chlorine wastes, pesticides, e.g., organophosphates, and
even the wastes bearing considerable amounts of solvents, chlorine, and pesticides.

1.3 Municipal Waste Management Systems

The practiced municipal waste management systems worldwide are many and
diverse. Among the adopted solutions are source reduction, recycling, composting,
incineration, dumping, and landfilling. Furthermore, some of these systems require
large investments that are more suitable for high-income per capita regions and
more effective and safer for people and the environment. However, some practices,
like waste burning and dumping on the domestic level, have a catastrophic impact
on the environment. The environmentally appropriate management solutions are
summarized in Fig. 1.1 where they will be discussed in more detail in Chap. 2.
Choosing a particular solution depends on social, economic, environmental, and
technical factors that vary from one place to another. Table 1.3 summarizes the
advantages and disadvantages of the discussed methods. The most desirable solution
should have the potential to fully treat different waste categories with valuable raw
material and maximum energy recovery. Composting and open burning of waste
methods are not commonly used methods as they both lack energy recovery. However,
waste management systems with energy recovery, i.e., anaerobic digestion, pyrolysis,
and gasification, combined with combustion of evolved products, are considered
8 E. G. Al-Sakkari et al.

Fig. 1.1 Current technologies for the municipal waste management system

the most favorable solutions. Produced biogas and syngas can cover the energy
requirements for these technologies, which makes the investment very attractive
economically.

1.4 Statistics of Wastes Production and Management

Population growth, economic development, urbanization, and the type of activities in

a certain country or region directly impact the type and amounts of waste produced.
They also directly impact the waste management capabilities and hence the waste
management methods used in this country or region. There is a growing interest in
studying the common factors affecting waste production and management; however,
it is very challenging since the data about waste production and management are not
available in all the countries. Therefore, most of the published studies are performed
by international organizations (such as The World Bank) that have the authority to
collect data from governments. The reliability of the gathered data in many cases is
questionable for many reasons, such as missing dates and methodologies, incomplete
definitions, undefined words, and missing and inconsistent units. The process of data
collection, checking, and analysis is very time consuming. Therefore, published data
from reliable sources are limited. It is worth mentioning that these studies aim to
highlight the trends of waste production and management in countries, cities, and
regions that have common economic and sociological status and not for the sake of
ranking.
This chapter presents the important data and statistics on quantities and types
of waste produced in different regions worldwide and the methods of management
in each region. It highlights the common factors in the regions and countries with
similar waste production and management data.
1 An Overview of Municipal Wastes 9

Table 1.3 Comparison of the current technologies for the municipal waste management systems
Technology Advantages
Landfilling Ease of operation and
management
Low fixed and operating costs
High disposal capacity
Composting Ease of operation
Resource utilization at a high
rate
Anaerobic digestion Low operational cost
Energy and raw material
recovery
Acceptable condition of
hygiene
Combustion Easy operation
Heat recovery
Waste volume reduction
Pyrolysis and gasification Production of high-energy
density fuels
High calorific value
Energy and raw material
recovery
Sterilization Easy operation
Shorter retention time
Treatment of biological,
medical, and hazardous waste
Refuse-derived fuel (RDF) High calorific value
No need for waste sorting
Waste collection frequency
reduction
Energy and raw material
recovery
Disadvantages
Secondary pollution and a huge
footprint
Neither energy nor raw material
is recovered
Hard maintenance of
operational parameters
Longer retention time
Large footprint
No energy and raw material
recovery
Generation of unpleasant
smells and presence of insects
Elevated costs, i.e., fixed and
maintenance
Longer retention time
Pretreatment and
post-treatment of waste
Continuous monitor of
operational parameters
High capital and operational
costs
Low calorific value
No raw material recovery
Generation of harmful gases
Complex waste separation
systems
Waste transportation
High capital and operational
costs
High capital and maintenance
costs
No energy recovery
Emissions of toxic substances
Further research is needed to
calculate the CO2 footprint

1.4.1 Waste Production

The World Bank performed an extensive study on waste production and management
in 367 countries and grouped the world countries according to their geographical
locations (Ekström 2014; Kaza et al. 2018). Table 1.4 summarizes the total amounts
and the classification of the solid wastes produced in each region in 2016. The
10 E. G. Al-Sakkari et al.

Table 1.4 Total quantities and classification of waste produced in different regions worldwide in
2016 (Kaza et al. 2018)
Waste East Europe South North Latin Sub-Saharan Middle
type/population Asia and Asia America America Africa east and
and central and north
Pacific Asia Caribbean Africa
Food and green 53% 36% 57% 28% 52% 43% 58%
Metal 3% 3% 3% 9% 3% 5% 3%
Paper and 15% 19% 10% 28% 13% 10% 13%
cardboard
Wood 2% 2% 1% 6% 1% 1% 1%
Glass 3% 8% 4% 5% 4% 3% 3%
Plastics 12% 12% 8% 12% 12% 9% 12%
Rubber and 1% 1% 2% 9% 0% 0% 2%
leather
other 12% 21% 15% 4% 15% 30% 8%
Population 2.29 0.91 1.76 0.37 0.64 1.04 0.44
(million person)
Total waste 468 392 334 298 231 174 129
production in
2016 (million
tons)

available data show that more than 2 billion ton of solid waste were generated in
2016. It is expected that this number becomes 3.40 billion tons by 2050 due to the
growing population and urbanization.
The data show that East Asia and the Pacific region produced the maximum annual
production amount of waste at 468 million tons with an average of 0.56 kg per capita
per day. Europe and Central Asia come in second place by producing 392 million
tons, corresponding to 1.18 kg per capita per day. The waste is mainly composed of
organics and solid recyclables such as paper and plastics. The least waste-producing
region is the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, with 129 million tons
which corresponds to 6% of the global waste production (Kaza et al. 2018).
The amount of waste produced in a region is a function of many factors; the most
obvious factors are population, degree of urbanization (migration of people from
rural to urban regions), and economic development. With the exceptions of Europe
and Central Asia and North America, it can be observed from the data in Table 1.4
that large amounts of wastes are produced in highly populated regions. As a general
trend, the countries with a high degree of urbanization and high gross national income
(GNI) per capita produce large amounts of waste compared to countries with low
degree of urbanization and low GNI. This is apparent in Europe and Central Asia
and North America, where the average degree of urbanization and the average GNI
per capita are higher than other countries, and the waste produced is high relative
to the population in these regions. The abovementioned study demonstrated the
1 An Overview of Municipal Wastes 11

relation between the wastes produced in 2016 in 237 cities with different degree of
urbanization and confirmed the relation between them. The waste generated in highly
urbanized cities can be double or triple the waste generated in cities with low degree
of urbanization and similar population; this has been confirmed by other studies done
on cities in different regions(Yiougo et al. 2013; Chen 2018).
From another perspective, Wilson et al. deduced a relation between the waste
generation and the GNI per capita after collecting the data of waste generation in
twenty cities in different countries with various income levels (Wilson et al. 2012).
The study clearly showed that the waste generation per capita increases with the
city’s income level (GNI per capita) (Wilson et al. 2012). In particular, high-income
countries account for 16% of the world’s population; however, they generate 34%,
or 683 million tons, of the world’s waste. On the other hand, low-income countries
account for 9% of the world’s population but generate only about 5% of global waste
or 93 million tons.
Many studies performed on different cities have confirmed the relationship
between the GNI and waste production (Hoornweg and Thomas 1999; Lacoste and
Calmin 2010; Gardiner and Hajek 2017; Khajuria et al. 2010). The composition of
waste differs according to the income level as it reflects the consumption pattern.
For instance, waste from low-income and middle-income countries consists mainly
of organic materials such as food and green waste and low recyclable waste percent
with an average of 16%. High-income countries produce comparative amounts of
organic wastes; however, the large amounts of recyclable wastes such as packaging
materials and cardboard reduce the percent of the organic waste to around 32%. The
quantity of recyclable wastes increases as the income level rises, with the amount of
paper waste most significantly increasing (Kaza et al. 2018).
Waste generation is expected to grow with economic development and population
growth. The greatest increase is expected in low-income countries. For instance, it is
expected that the waste levels will double in Sub-Saharan Africa and triple in South
Asia regions in the next thirty years. The wastes generated in countries with higher
income levels are expected to increase at a lower rate. The expectations for future
waste generation are worrying and alarming since the increasing amounts of wastes
will put more load on the environment, require fast actions to reduce the amounts of
wastes, and encourage the different methods of waste management.

1.4.2 Waste Management

The waste management industry (municipal, industrial, and hazardous wastes) is

rapidly growing with market size of 2080 billion dollars in 2019 and is expected to
reach 2339.8 billion dollars in 2027. The waste management industry includes waste
collection, waste treatment, and disposal (Pawar and Sawant 2020).
The budgets allocated and accordingly the extent of waste management are highly
dependent on the income level. For instance, Wilson et al. summarized the solid
waste management budget per capita, both in total and as a percentage of GNI per
12 E. G. Al-Sakkari et al.

capita in twenty cities in 2010 (Wilson et al. 2012). They showed that the annual
allocated budget per capita rises from USD 1.4 for the low-income cities to USD
75 for high-income cities. In the first glance, the high waste management budget
reflects a large economic load on high-income communities; however, the trend is
reversed when the data are expressed as a percentage of income per capita. The
average for low-income countries is 0.32%, while it is only 0.17% for high-income
countries. The middle-income countries have the highest percentage of an average
of 0.65%. The ratios are low in high-income and low-income countries due to the
high GNI for high-income countries and the low allocated budgets in the case of
low-income countries. This clearly shows that the most challenging cases are in the
low- and middle-income countries where the current expenditures on solid waste
management are low compared to developed high-income countries, in addition to
the extremely limited chances of expansion and increase in waste management as a
result of the inability of citizens to economically afford that (Wilson et al. 2012).
Waste collection is considered the first stage in waste management and indicates
the degree of efforts done in waste management. It is a service provided by the
governments or by private parties and is accomplished by many methods such as the
door-to-door collection where truck or waste collection vehicles pick up the wastes
from homes and markets. In other cases, waste is disposed of in a central collection
point and is picked up from this point to management or disposal sites. Income level
has a great impact on waste collection rates. It was found that countries with similar
income levels have similar waste collection rates. The extended study performed by
Kaza et al. for the World Bank showed that waste collection percentage in high-
income cities is close to 100%. While this value decreases at lower-income cities, for
instance, it has 82%, 51%, and 39% in upper-middle-income, low-middle-income,
and low-income cities, respectively (Kaza et al. 2018). It was also found that waste
collection rates in urban areas are higher than in rural areas. The rates in some urban
areas are more than twice the rates in rural areas in the same cities. Communities
usually get rid of uncollected waste by open dumping and burning, which negatively
impacts the environment and human health (Yoada et al. 2014). The uncollected
wastes are estimated to be around 33% of the global waste in 2016 (Kaza et al.
2018).
Collected wastes are treated using the methods mentioned earlier in this chapter.
Globally, almost 40% of waste is disposed of in landfills, about 19% are recovered
through recycling and composting, 11% are treated by modern incineration, and
around 37% of the global wastes are disposed of in landfills.
The World Bank survey also summarized the waste management methods used
in different regions and the ratios of waste managed by each method. The income
level highly influences waste disposal and treatment methods. For instance, in low-
income, where landfill is not available, burning, open dumping in waterways, open
lands, and roads is the common method of getting rid of wastes and is applied for
around 70% of the wastes; however, only 2% of the waste in high-income countries is
burned or dumped. The dumped waste in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia regions
represents more than 66% of the total dumped waste worldwide (Kaza et al. 2018).
1 An Overview of Municipal Wastes 13

Proper waste disposal and treatment such as controlled landfilling and recycling
are widely applied in high and upper-middle-income countries. However, the depen-
dence on landfilling is higher in upper-middle-income countries, representing the
highest percentage with an average of 54%. High-income countries are less depen-
dent on landfilling (39% of waste), due to the expansion in economically profitable
methods such as recycling and compositing (25% of wastes) and incineration (22%
of wastes).
Paper and paperboard constitute around 67% of the total recycled wastes in 2018,
metals comprised about 13%, while glass, plastic, and wood made up around 5%.
The most recycled wastes are corrugated boxes, mixed non-durable paper products,
newspapers/mechanical papers, lead–acid batteries, major appliances, wood pack-
aging, glass containers, and tires (United States Environmental Protection Agency
(US-EPA) 2020). The efforts exerted in the field of waste management are still
not sufficient to counter the current and the expected increase in waste production
mentioned in the previous section due to many challenges such as the steady increase
in waste generation due to the increase in population and consumption, limited finan-
cial resources and great financial demand, limited access to technical knowledge,
limited technical expertise and awareness of best practices, lack of planning and
evaluation, limited or lack of government coordination, difficult working condi-
tions, and limited available land compared to large areas needed for some methods
such as landfilling (United States Environmental Protection Agency (US-EPA) 2020;
Guerrero et al. 2013; McAllister 2015; Taherzadeh and Rajendran 2014).

1.5 Impact of Applying Circular Economy Principles

1.5.1 Relation Between Circular Economy and Waste

to Energy WTE

In the circular economy, unlike the linear economy, wastes are being processed by
different methods such as recycling, reusing, and converting to energy to reduce
the quantities and negative environmental impacts of wastes (Neczaj and Grosser
2018). Figure 1.2 briefly shows the difference between these two types of linear and
circular economies. It is worth noting that the advances in the circular economy will
be presented and discussed in more detail in Chap. 3.
As it can be depicted from Fig. 1.2, all the materials or products are disposed of
after finishing their lifetime in a linear economy. However, part or even all of the
waste in the circular economy can be recycled to produce raw materials or lower-
quality products. The application of circular economy practices has positive envi-
ronmental, economic, and social impacts. Regarding the environmental impacts, it
reduces the negative environmental impacts by eliminating part of the emissions and
water footprints resulting from extraction and upgrading of raw materials (Maina
et al. 2017; Rada et al. 2018). Waste to energy (WTE) is considered one of the most
14 E. G. Al-Sakkari et al.

Fig. 1.2 Linear (a) versus circular (b) economies

important figures of circular economy practices (Asian Development Bank 2020).

Additionally, the landfilled or disposed of materials will be diminished. From the
economic perspective, a circular economy has a positive impact by decreasing the
costs of extraction and disposal at the end of life of different products. Socially, a
circular economy leads to job vacancies for unemployed people in poor areas or in
the areas assigned to perform the waste conversion (Aguilar-Hernandez et al. 2021).
Besides, applying these concepts has other obvious social effects such as changing
the lifestyle, demography, and public health (“Socio-economic Impact Assessment
of Waste-to-Energy” 2020).
Despite the diverse advantages of a circular economy, some challenges must be
addressed first. One example is social acceptance and the attitude of communities
toward circular economy practices, including WTE. Social acceptance is a dynamic
term that changes with time and is also a function of the society and culture and
believes of people (Baxter et al. 2016). Awareness and engagement campaigns are
necessary to change the communities’ ideas and accept circular economy practices.
This can be performed through different channels, including social media platforms,
to reach different communities and people with various backgrounds.

1.5.2 Different Circular Economy Business Models

Before presenting the detailed impacts of the circular economy and WTE on the whole
economy and society, it is important to briefly review different circular economy
business models. Generally, there are five business models for the circular economy
to be applied in real-life practices (“Circular Business Models” 2021; Gerholdt 2015).
A summary of these models is presented below.
1 An Overview of Municipal Wastes 15

1.5.2.1 Circular Supplies Model

This model involves the introduction of new renewable materials to the manufac-
turing matrix instead of not sustainable resources. This model is preferred when the
other traditional or conventional raw materials are scarce, limited, or not continu-
ously available. For instance, Royal DSM company accounts for the lignocellulosic
agricultural wastes as a renewable source for bio-ethanol production (“Putting our
Energy into Renewables” 2021). This sustainable biofuel can reduce emissions to
reach a carbon neutral state besides creating job vacancies as an important positive
social impact. Moreover, it should have an economic impact by adding revenues and
return from processing no-cost waste materials.

1.5.2.2 Resource Recovery Model

In this model, any waste or side product at any stage of manufacturing, utilization, and
end of life can be reused as a resource or energy production. Walt Disney World Resort
applies this model by collecting food waste, converting it into biogas, and fertilizing
in a designated plant under the supervision of Harvest Power company (Coughlin
2012; “Disney Citizenship 2014 Performance Summary” 2014). This model has
similar positive economic and social impacts to those of the previous model.

1.5.2.3 Product Life Extension Model

This model aims to reuse waste products or improve the quality of the fresh ones to
live more instead of being wasted. This is not a figure of WTE; however, it targets
the reduction of the energy required for extraction and other downstream processes.
The landfilled materials will also be reduced, reducing the negative impacts on the
environment and the surrounding communities. Caterpillar company is well known
for applying this model during the last 40 years as a part of its sustainability plan
through Reman Project (“2020 Annual Report” 2020).

1.5.2.4 Other Models

“Sharing platforms” and “product as a service” models are two famous bridging
circular economy models where the process expenses can be minimized. This is
achieved by sharing the production facilities/equipment or using certain products
for short times without owning them, i.e., leasing the product. These two models
do not involve WTE practices; yet, energy, resources, and production costs will be
decreased upon applying them. Hence, the environmental and socioeconomic state
will be improved.
16 E. G. Al-Sakkari et al.

1.5.3 Examples of Positive and Negative Impacts

As an example of job creation, in 2013, it was reported that the number of workers
in US WTE plants was 7000 working in 86 facilities (“Waste to Energy—Social
Impacts” 2013). In Maine state in USA, the WTE plants offered 597 full and part-
time jobs inside and outside the plants (“The Science Behind Your Landfill” 2013).
The annual mass of processed wastes is 830 million tons that were used to generate
475,000 MWh of electricity. The total labor income of these projects was estimated to
be approximately 34 million USD. Fortunately, as evidence of the increased interest
in WTE plants, about 420 facilities in Europe compared to 87 units in the USA in
2010. The numbers are rapidly growing (Reigosa 2010). The increase in the number
of facilities and depending on the WTE and recycling practices will positively impact
increasing the employment rate, which has a direct positive influence on the socioe-
conomic state of different areas and their population (“Waste-to-Energy Research
and Technology Council” 2013). Other positive social impacts include the improve-
ment of public infrastructure and schools. Besides, the communities will benefit from
the improvement of environmental conditions due to the reduction of waste disposal
and emissions (“Waste-to-Energy Ash Reuse” 2013). It should be noticed that the
maximum possible percentage of waste conversion to energy is related to the type of
the collected wastes, which varies according to the season and region of production.
Although WTE and circular economy, in general, have promising impacts socially
and economically, they also possess some drawbacks or, in other words, challenges
that should be taken into consideration and solved (Michael 2013). In contrast to
what was reported previously, some studies stated that some units are not feasible,
and the returns do not cover the expenses of installation and processing (Tan et al.
2015). Besides, in other reports, these facilities were reported to have a counter
environmental impact. For instance, the design of some combustion and incineration
plants produces large amounts of flue gases and emissions that are hazardous and not
environmentally friendly such as dioxins (“Negative Impacts of Incineration-based
Waste-to-Energy Technology” 2021; Vehlow 2013). If this problem is not solved,
the social interest or acceptance of building incineration-based WTE facilities will
decrease dramatically.

1.6 Conclusions

This chapter is an introductory one to a vital and hot topic that currently captures
global attention: waste management and conversion to valuable figures such as
energy. It presented an overview of the classification of different wastes produced
from various sources. In addition, the currently utilized waste management tech-
niques were discussed briefly and their advantages and drawbacks. It also showed
the essential statistics of the annual global production of wastes. In this regard, the
relations between the production and composition of the wastes and the income levels
1 An Overview of Municipal Wastes 17

of different regions were well defined. Due to the high production rates, it is highly
recommended to pay more attention to future research studies on waste management
and conversion. In these studies, researchers should prioritize inventing new feasible
and more efficient methods to overcome the drawbacks of the existing ones. By the
end of the chapter, circular economy principles and their relation with waste manage-
ment techniques, particularly waste to energy ones, were briefly stated. Additionally,
the famous circular economy models were mentioned, including examples of their
application in the real world. The conversion from a linear economy to a circular one
should be a high priority for the researchers, stakeholders, and decision makers due
to its promising environmental, social, and economic merits.

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Chapter 2
Different Waste Management Methods,
Applications, and Limitations

Bahram Barati, Fatemeh Fazeli Zafar, and Shuang Wang

Abstract Approximately, half a ton of waste is produced per person annually; thus,
waste management is essential to avoid environmental issues. The waste management
system encompasses the entire set of activities related to treating, handling, recycling,
or disposing of waste materials. This chapter aims to represent the history of waste
management, as well as the current commonly used methods for waste management,
together with their pros and cons. The commonly applied methods, including sanitary
landfill, composting, safe disposal of biomedical wastes, recycling of industrial CO2
emissions, incineration of hazardous wastes, sludge recycling in the cement industry,
direct combustion of sludge, wastewater treatment, and construction waste recycling,
are discussed. In this chapter, the problems associated with landfills, such as lack
of efficient systems for gas utilization from the landfill and lack of proper leachate
management and recycling CO2 from industrial flue gas and wastewater treatment
methods, are more highlighted. Also, the need for law enforcement to control the
negative environmental impacts properly is highlighted.

Keywords Conventional waste management · Landfill · Recycling · Incineration ·

Combustion

2.1 Municipal Solid Wastes

The load of municipal solid waste (MSW) produced worldwide from urban regions is
overgrowing due to the rapid urbanization and growing human population (America
2010). MSW includes a substantial fraction of paper, food waste, plastic, textile,
and wood. The current global MSW production is around 2.01 BT annually, and the
magnitude is expected to increase to around 3.40 BT by 2050 (Zhang et al. 2021). The
top 10 MSW producing countries, together with the share of the main waste category,
are presented in Fig. 2.1. China, India, and the USA are the leading producers of
MSW by generating 15.55, 11.95, and 11.65% of the total MSW worldwide.

B. Barati · F. F. Zafar · S. Wang (B)

School of Energy and Power Engineering, Jiangsu University, Jiangsu 212013, China
e-mail: alexjuven@ujs.edu.cn

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 21

A. E.-F. Abomohra et al. (eds.), Waste-to-Energy,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91570-4_2
22 B. Barati et al.

Fig. 2.1 Overview of MSW production worldwide. a Top 10 MSW producing countries; b
percentage of the main MSW materials. Source statistica.com

Various methods have been employed to manage the produced MSW, including
landfills, incineration and combustion, reduce, reuse, and recycle. To decide which
method to apply depends on the characteristics of waste, available budget and tech-
nology availability. The conventional routes of MSW management are summarized
in Fig. 2.2.
2 Different Waste Management Methods, Applications, and Limitations 23

Fig. 2.2 Conventional methods of solid waste management

2.2 Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle

Plastic and construction waste are the main class of waste that can be managed by
recycling, reducing, and reusing strategies. The plastics manufacturers have devel-
oped noticeably due to numerous polymer production methods from petrochemical
sources. They comprise considerable advantages such as durability, low weight, and
lower cost in relation to many other types of materials. Nowadays, plastics are nearly
entirely made from petrochemicals. Roughly 50% of plastics are consumed for one-
time uses, such as agricultural films and packaging, and around 20–25% are used for
durable infrastructure, including cable coatings, pipes and structural materials, and
the leftovers for long-lasting consumer uses, such as in vehicles, furniture, electronic
goods, and others. Packaging is the leading waste plastic; however, it is evident that
other sources, including waste electrical and electronic equipment, are becoming
important bases of future waste plastics (van Heek et al. 2017).
Debris and materials such as steel, concrete, wood, and mixed materials produced
in the process of demolition, excavation, road construction, and the construction or
reconstruction of buildings are called “construction waste” (Shen and Tam 2002).
Because the composition and types of construction waste are very diverse, the exact
amount of this waste produced during the construction process cannot be predicted.
24 B. Barati et al.

However, this waste typically includes materials such as concrete, brick, soil and
stone, gypsum, wood and pipe parts, and electrical components (Gavilan and Bernold
1994). Based on the available data, it can be estimated that in 2014, about 333 million
tons of construction waste was produced in Europe except for soil (Menegaki and
Damigos 2018). In this estimate, countries such as Germany with 85 million tons of
construction waste, France with 65 million tons, and the UK with 58 million tons
were the three countries with the highest production of construction wastes. Waste
produced in these countries also included materials such as ferric and non-ferric
metals, wood, plastic and glass, asbestos-containing minerals, and polycarbonate
biphenyl wastes (Menegaki and Damigos 2018). As the first producer of construc-
tion waste in the world rankings in 2014, China produced about 1130 million tons
of construction waste. At the same time, in our country, only 534 million tons of
construction wastes have been produced through activities such as road construc-
tion, bridge construction, dam construction and construction-related activities, of
which 28.9 million tons are related to construction activities. 505.1 million tons
are related to demolition and include the production of materials such as concrete,
steel, wood, brick, asphalt parts, metal parts, and gypsum (Menegaki and Damigos
2018). Among the five levels of waste management, the 3Rs strategy, which relies
on reducing waste generation through the three processes of reuse, reduction, and
recycling, is recognized as the most important principles in construction wastes
management (Huang et al. 2018). It can also be said that the implementation of
these three processes (reduction, reuse, and recycling) has been useful in research
objectives in the field of construction wastes heritage. Therefore, in this chapter, we
mainly focus on construction materials that can be reused for constructions.

2.2.1 Reduce

Reduce is one of the strategies used for waste management. It is ideal for reducing
the destructive and adverse effects of waste on the environment; therefore, it is a
priority (Huang et al. 2018). It is important to reduce waste generation, identify and
learn how to reuse materials, and recycle non-reusable materials. By this strategy,
several important benefits can be achieved, such as reduced emissions of CO2 , less
purchase of materials that lead to lower costs, reduced cost of transporting waste to
the disposal site due to reduced volume of waste generated and revenue generation
from the collection. Collecting some materials is a straightforward and economical
solution to protect the environment (Ding et al. 2016). Lack of stakeholder awareness
of this management strategy and the unwillingness of housing industry activists to
cooperate with this strategy are important obstacles to implementing the waste reduc-
tion process. Therefore, in order to encourage industry authorities to pool resources
to achieve this goal and obtain its benefits, a waste reduction strategy should be
included in their management strategy (Esa et al. 2017).
2 Different Waste Management Methods, Applications, and Limitations 25

2.2.2 Reuse

Reuse is another important strategy in waste management. It can be applied to

waste from different sectors associated with wood, plastic, metals, and construc-
tion materials. Since most construction materials waste can be reused after demo-
lition, reducing and reusing waste effectively protects the environment and reduces
costs. Reducing will help in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, protect the environ-
ment, and prevent adverse global climate change (Marzouk and Azab 2014). Usually,
different building materials can be used in various ways, such as selling or storing,
for reuse in subsequent construction projects after the completion of construction
projects, demolition, or reconstruction of buildings. It is important to note that some
of these materials, such as adhesives, latex, or solvents, are toxic and classified as
hazardous waste, so they will usually not be reusable (Marzouk and Azab 2014).
Another point to consider when reusing waste from a demolition or reconstruction
project is the age of the destroyed building (Akinade et al. 2015). This is because,
in the past, some buildings were usually made of materials such as asbestos, which
are no longer allowed to be used today due to their toxic and carcinogenic effects.
Another vital point to consider in the reuse of construction waste is the employment
of workers who are skilled in demolishing the building and collecting the resulting
waste. Consideration of incentives and planning to encourage construction industry
managers to participate in the reuse of construction waste and create a market for
the purchase and sale of these materials can also be an effective step (Marzouk and
Azab 2014).

2.2.3 Recycle

Recycling means the destruction of materials and their transformation into new usable
materials. However, this process faces some obstacles such as inefficient manage-
ment, the existence of unsuitable technologies for recycling, and the lack of a suitable
market for the supply of recycled materials (Marzouk and Azab 2014). The recycling
process of construction materials can be done on the same site or in another loca-
tion, depending on the capacity and facilities of the construction projects. Various
construction materials such as concrete, various metals, asphalt, wood parts, mate-
rials used to construct roofs, and plaster can be recycled at construction sites. The
major benefits of recycling construction materials are the reduction of CO2 , which, if
not recycled, will be released in large quantities during the disposal of waste and the
production and manufacture of new materials (Huang et al. 2018). Also, emissions
of other pollutant greenhouse gases can be decreased due to the reduced need to
produce new raw materials and building materials. There is no need for new sites for
construction waste disposal, which reduces the harmful effects of the environment
and reduces costs and energy savings (Pham and Hargreaves 2003). In addition to
26 B. Barati et al.

the benefits mentioned above, recycling has been very effective in various areas such
as job creation and opportunity creation in economic activities.
As opposed to most convenience goods and packaging, long-lasting plastics are
thrown away after one-time use, while they tend to comprise three or further years
of lifespan. The plastics used in household appliances, computers, automobiles,
fabrics, and carpets belong to this classification. However, the recovery of these
plastics is a very complex task, as they are combined with some other plastics or
non-plastic materials. Their isolation, purification, and recovery involve a number
of phases, and commonly, the sizes of such compounds accessible for recovery
are inadequate. Methods to recycle the plastics wastes include the production of
building blocks and monomers in great purity, which enable the remanufacturing
of the new or original plastics. Glycolysis, pyrolysis, and ammonolysis are novel
recycling methods that could offer existing mechanical recycling techniques (Subra-
manian 2000). Plastic recycling is completed in four steps: primary (mechanical
reprocessing to a martial with comparable characteristics), which is also referred to
as closed-loop recycling; secondary (mechanical reprocessing to materials needing
lower characteristics), known as downgrading, tertiary (chemical elements recovery)
and quaternary (energy recovery). Tertiary recycling is described as either feedstock
or chemical recycling and is employed when the polymer is depredated to its chem-
ical elements. (Hopewell et al. 2009). Biodegradable plastics can be composted, an
example of tertiary recycling, and are also defined as biological or organic recy-
cling. On the other hand, building materials are widely used in the construction of
soundproof walls, cityscapes, roads, sports fields, and foundations, and there is a
large market of supply and demand for this group of recycled products (Fatemi and
Imaninasab 2016). However, in order to develop the recycling industry and achieve
the desired results in this area, the participation and cooperation of governments are
also necessary (Kabirifar et al. 2020).

2.3 Landfill

Landfilling is the controlled disposal of non-biodegradable and biodegradable wastes

during a selected terrestrial cemetery, which is found far away from a municipality’s
residential regions. Landfilling has been a standard and most profitable waste disposal
method practiced in several countries. The amount of active and sealed landfills
inside the European Union is flanked by 150,000 and 500,000, which is the ware-
house for vast volumes of urban solid waste produced in the EU (Jones et al. 2013).
Primarily in Europe, 150,000 landfills encompass 30–50 × 109 m2 of MSW (Wagner
and Raymond 2015). More than 33 MT of MSW is incinerated in the USA, and
around 136 MT of MSW is landfilled per annum (USEPA 2019). Nevertheless, in
the USA, landfilling of MSW reduced from 89% in 1980 to 53% in 2014 because
of the developments in incineration, composting, energy recovery, and recycling
technologies.
2 Different Waste Management Methods, Applications, and Limitations 27

2.3.1 Landfill Leachate and Gases

Municipal waste leachate or landfill leachate is a derivative from landfills, anaer-

obic digesters, solid waste treatment plants, or compost piles (Neczaj et al. 2005).
It comprises concerning environmental alarms for treatment because of the high
concentration of organic matters such as dissolved solids, toxic chemicals, and
carboxylic acids, heavy metals, inorganic salts, minerals, ammonia, and xenobiotic
organic molecules (Wiszniowski et al. 2006). Also, the non-biodegradable or refrac-
tory compounds like humic substances, such as humic acids and fulvic, encompass
the organic segment of landfill leachate (Kumar et al. 2011). These environmental
contaminants exist at a high rate within the leachate, mainly from care products, phar-
maceuticals, households, and industrial chemicals. Landfill leachate displays chronic
and acute toxicity, and it is hazardous as it can transmit into groundwater, causing
biomagnification (Mishra et al. 2019). The diffusion of the leachate to the soil may
be a typical challenge in landfills globally. When the semi-controlled and open dump
landfills are located in low-lying coastal zones, the leachate might seep and pollute
the water. Also, heavy thawing and downpours of permafrost in polar regions can mix
leachate with surface water or leakage into groundwater. This leachate penetration
into the soil and groundwater is more evident in third-world and developing countries,
where the landfills are deprived of the leachate collection systems and/or baseliners
and treatment plants (Han et al. 2014). Landfill leachate is mostly stopped from
discharging and percolating into the groundwater by using a proper leachate collec-
tion setup at the landfills’ bottom bed. After collection, it requires specific treatment
prior to being considered safe for discarding into nature. A couple of such leachate
remediation paths consists of anaerobic biological treatment (anaerobic lagoons and
anaerobic bioreactors), aerobic biological treatment (activated sludge and aerated
lagoons), physicochemical treatment (chemical precipitation, air stripping, oxida-
tion, pH, and reduction), coagulation (via lime, ferric chloride, and alum), also as
adsorption (natural process resins and activated charcoal adsorption) (Raghab et al.
2013). The treatment of leachate of MSW mostly according to biological oxygen
demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), absorbable organic halides, and
ammonium. COD is the ratio of oxygen used throughout reactions in a solution
while BOD is the ratio of oxygen used by microbes during the aerobic degradation
of organic matter at a certain temperature (Han et al. 2014). It was evaluated that the
environmental effects of a landfill without any proper leachate collection system in
China (Han et al. 2014). It was shown that the groundwater in 30 m depth adjacent
to the landfill was not proper for drinking owing to the concentration of the exceed-
ingly high pollutants derived from leachate. There is no doubt that landfill leachate
contains high levels of pollutants, which may pose significant health risks to humans
as well as aquatic and terrestrial animals in the neighborhood of landfill sites. The
metalloids, heavy metals, and even minerals beyond their limits can cause diseases
like arsenicosis, Minamata, baby syndrome, pneumoconiosis, pulmonary fibrosis,
Wilson disease, encephalopathy, hepatic cirrhosis, alopecia, cancer, and argyria.
28 B. Barati et al.

Landfills also generate gases due to chemical, thermal, and biological reactions.
Because of the temperature rise in landfills, the development of gases can take
place from volatile compounds existing in MSW, like naphthalene and alcohol.
Also, several chemical reactions among diverse wastes may occur after being
mixed through disposal, leading to gas releases. Moreover, microbial decompo-
sition, hydrolysis, and fermentation can take place. The activity of methanogenic
bacteria is comparatively greater in the landfill bed due to oxygen supporting anaer-
obic decomposition. Landfill gas forms through a spread of anaerobic oxidation,
fermentation, acidogenesis, methanogenesis, and acetogenesis. Some bacteria like
hydrogenotrophic methanogens, proton-reducing acetogens, hydrolytic fermentative
bacteria, and acetoclastic methanogens bacteria participate throughout anaerobic
digestion of wastes and produce gases (Demirel and Scherer 2008). The preliminary
hydrolysis of organic substances in MSW generates amino acids, sugars, and fatty
acids via anaerobic oxidizers and fermentative microbes. These organic monomers
are subsequently converted to acetate, propionate, butyrate, and lactate by acidogenic
bacteria. Acid fermentation is increased by high organic matter and moisture ratio
during the first phases of a landfill’s lifespan, which generates volatile fatty acids
(VFAs) like acetic, butyric, lactic acids, and propionic (Kumar et al. 2011). As the
landfill ages, methanogenic and acetotrophic phases take place. The acetate-oxidizing
bacteria can transform acetate to H2 and CO2 via oxidative homoacetogenesis or alter
H2 and CO2 to acetate via a reverse reaction, such as reductive homoacetogenesis
(Demirel and Scherer 2008). In addition, acetate-oxidizing bacteria, via acetogen-
esis, transform acetate to CO2 and CH4 , which are the most constituents of landfill
gas.
Moreover, the rival species of acetotrophic methanogens similarly transform CO2
and H2 to CH4 . Thus, making landfills a key contributor to global warming. It should
be noted that CH4 is 25 times more potent to global warming compared to CO2 and
includes a lifetime of 12 years within the atmosphere (Nanda et al. 2016). Besides, in
the USA landfills are known as the third-largest supplier of CH4 afterward fossil fuels
and livestock farming (USEPA 2019). Furthermore, the high CH4 concentration poses
potential risks of unintended fires and blasts (Narayana 2009). The non-methane
organic components in landfill gases comprise hazardous air contaminants, odorous
compounds, and volatile organic carbons, which could include around 39% of entire
gas releases from the landfills (Davoli et al. 2010). Furthermore, there is a fear about
the bad odors formed by landfill gases, which is concerned rather as a problem than
a health risk. However, landfill operators and residents nearby are assumed to be
susceptible to possible negative health impacts from long-term contact with gases
(Davoli et al. 2010; Narayana 2009).

2.3.2 Landfill Classification

Landfills are categorized into three types: sanitary landfills, semi-controlled, and
open dump (Narayana 2009). An open dump might be a part of the land, where the
2 Different Waste Management Methods, Applications, and Limitations 29

MSW wastes are dumped and exposed to the air. They are frequently established
in developing countries, where the MSW are discarded into low-lying air exposed
areas. As they are managed poorly, they become a separate section for scavengers,
e.g., vultures, eagles, falcons, crows, mosquitoes, flies, rodents, pests, worms, and
pathogenic microbes. Nevertheless, these operational problems are absent in anaer-
obic digestion due to oxygen-deficient environments. Residents in the neighborhood
criticize about continuous bad odor from the open dump landfills. Therefore, in
several developed countries, governments prevent open dumping. Although 79% of
MSW is landfilled in Canada, the Ministry of Environment and global climate change
imposed severe regulations and restrictions on illegal dumping and waste disposal.
Operated landfills and semi-controlled landfills are placed in selected dumpsites
where MSW is sorted, shredded, and compressed prior to disposal.
The disposed thrashes crumpled and leveled with crawlers or bulldozers and
enclosed with a coating of topsoil every day to avoid the reproduction of animals,
scavenging birds, pests, and microbes. Although the semi-controlled landfills are
comparatively less smelly because of the topsoil shield, they are not planned to cope
with the leachate discharge and gas emission (Narayana 2009). Conversely, sani-
tary landfills are progressive types of semi-controlled landfills. In addition to solid
waste sorting, segregation, size reduction, densification, and covering by topsoil, they
consist of facilities to collect landfill gas and liquid leachate and are also located
remote from the residential zones. These kinds of landfills are primarily used in
developed nations with amenities for treatment and leachate interception.

2.3.3 Modern Landfills

The engineered modern landfill is known as a bioreactor landfill that changes the stan-
dard of landfilling from storing to treatment. In comparison with typical landfills,
bioreactor landfills comprise several benefits, including improved quality of leachate,
(ii) storing and partial on-site treatment of leachate, higher yields rate of landfill gases,
effective gas rescue for on-site burning, early waste stabilization, improved break-
down of biodegradable materials in MSW resulting in the quicker settlement, (vii)
cost-effective (viii) lower wastes toxicity due to anaerobic and aerobic digestions,
lesser environmental effects due to lower of greenhouse gas release and groundwater
pollution and higher possibility for waste-to-energy transformation (Kumar et al.
2011; Reinhart et al. 2002). Also, bioreactor landfills seem to be comparatively effi-
cient for the elimination of hazardous organic pollutants. This can be attained by
conditions optimization for biodegradation, stripping volatiles by elevated gas yield,
and pollutant immobilization through humification (Reinhart et al. 2002). Biore-
actor landfills contain leachate recirculater in a number of configurations, temper-
ature controllers, microbial growth nutrients suppliers, pH buffer and are equipped
to recover gases for storing and on-site burning. Leachate recirculation enables the
transformation of biodegradable constituents of MSW into intermediary gases and
30 B. Barati et al.

products, such as CH4 and CO2, via improved hydrolysis, fermentation, acetogenesis,
acidogenesis, methanogenesis, and anaerobic oxidation (Kumar et al. 2011).
Bioreactor landfills are categorized into aerobic, semi-aerobic, and anaerobic land-
fills. In anaerobic bioreactors, the anaerobic condition is provided for the activity
of anaerobic and facultative bacteria, mainly acidogenic, methanogenic, and aceto-
genic bacteria. Anaerobic bacteria alter biodegradable wastes to VFAs and ulti-
mately to landfill gases, such as CO2 and CH4 . Carbon, phosphorus, and nitrogen
present naturally within the disposed of wastes can considerably affect the growth
of microbes throughout the anaerobic biodegradation. Perforated wells or transport
systems usually recirculate leachate to enhance the moisture ratio. Leachate produced
from bioreactor landfills also has an elevated level of ammonia and VFAs, demanding
additional treatments at extra costs.
Aerobic bioreactor landfills increase the speed of waste breakdown via making
oxygen-enriched environments for aerobic microbes. In these landfills, aerobic
microbes obtain energy through the oxidation of organic materials to generate water
and CO2 . Aerobic digestion is more rapid than anaerobic degradation since aerobic
microbes reproduce at a higher speed owing to aerobic respiration, which is more
competent in energy production compared to anaerobic respiration. In aerobic biore-
actor landfills, ventilation is done via air injection to the soil layers and waste
mass. The air injection into landfills hinders the development of anaerobic microbes
and pulls down methanogenesis and consequently CH4 formation (Ritzkowski and
Stegmann 2012). The most benefits of the aerobic bioreactor are lesser waste stabi-
lization times, quicker biodegradation, and humidity elimination through the air
stream. Also, the leachate from aerobic bioreactor has decreased the requirement for
biological oxygen, chemical oxygen, organic carbon, and lesser ammonia production.
Nonetheless, the gas produced from such landfills as aerobic degradation produces
mainly CO2 and only a very low amount of CH4 , which is not sufficient for burning.
Due to low CH4 and ammonia production, gas and leachate are comparatively less
odorous, which might be a substantial social gain. On the other hand, sufficient and
uniform aeration adds to the overall process cost. The arrangement of perforated
injection wells for leachate and air separates the semi-aerobic and aerobic bioreactor
landfills. Semi-aerobic bioreactor landfills offer moderately oxygen-deficient envi-
ronments to favor both anaerobic and aerobic microbes. In aerobic bioreactors, the
air is injected into the aerial section of the landfill. Also in several structures, air can
naturally flow through the leachate-saving pipes (Yang et al. 2012). In such systems,
the additional cost of air addition is less (Huang et al. 2008).
On the other hand, methane in the gas and consequently the air addition will
be possibly hazardous. One of the main drawbacks is swelling and separation of
plastic surface liners as the closed system is making an anaerobic condition. This
challenge also can be tackled by constantly collecting the created gases (Reinhart et al.
2002). Carry on the leachate infiltration/collection piping is an additional technical
problem. During dry periods, the leachate formed via the bioreactor landfill may not
be adequate to add moisture to the wastes, and thus demanding extra water resources.
2 Different Waste Management Methods, Applications, and Limitations 31

2.4 Incineration and Pyrolysis

Primary, simple deployment of wastes into the landfills was a typical technique of
disposal. Then incineration was presented to decrease the waste size and provide
more space in the landfills. In the 1970s, fears about the ecological impacts of incin-
eration enhanced the cleaning systems, and lastly, a few years back, energy recovery
(Waste-to-Energy, WtE) and other valued constituents of the waste came into atten-
tion. Three forms of combustion platforms for the conversion of MSW are available,
including grate-firing (GF), rotary furnace, and fluidized bed (FB). The developments
related to energy recovery and the environment improved the typical GF platform,
comprising the transfer of heat and cleaning segments. Later, FB boilers, presented
for coal burning and biomass, also were used for MSW. Recently, FB is commer-
cially available for operating with MSW (Makarichi et al. 2018). FB is used in
China by around 30%, Canada, and the USA by about 20%; however, the share in
Europe is around 5% (Bösenhofer et al. 2015). FB has the standing of being a new
and environmentally favorable combustion platform, while GF is considered to be
incompetent and old-fashioned (Makarichi et al. 2018). In combustion furnaces, due
to the heat of the fuel, volatile molecules are blister massively and create noticeable
flame (Hunsinger et al. 2002). Air functions for the finishing combustion by mixing
the gases, enhancing the mixing among oxygen and gases. The emitted gas proceeds
to the secondary combustion sector, causing the second mechanism (Waldner et al.
2013). In a new GF platform, many actions modify and control the efficiency of
the grate. For example, they might comprise a laser scanner to notify the control
system regarding the sort of waste arriving and the pressure variance among the fuel
substrate to ensure its height and compaction (Strobel et al. 2018).
The incineration of MSW with possible energy recovery and managing MSW
incineration (MSWI) ashes are drawing worldwide attention. Numerous countries
have followed the advantages of MSWI ash by applying strategic management regu-
lations and programs. For instance, some European nations use MSWI bottom ash
(BA) as viable construction constituents to extend its environmental and economic
benefits (Bösenhofer et al. 2015). The USA generates more MSW than any other
countries, while its recycling rate is meager (Woodward 2004). As the quantity of
waste production continues to upsurge, incineration technologies have been exploited
to manage MSW, reducing the volume and load of waste by around 90% and 60%,
respectively (Sakai and Hiraoka 2000). MSWI plays a crucial role in dealing with this
escalating size of wastes and recovering energy, supplementing traditional supplies
(Cucchiella et al. 2017). The MSWI is commonly separated into three key parts:
energy recovery, incineration, and air pollution control (Singh et al. 2011). MSWI
can demonstrate a significant role in balancing fuel usage and improving renewable
energy ratio while contributing to waste treatment (Idzorek 1991). So far, about 1179
MSWI plants globally exist with a capacity of more than 700,000 MT/d (Lu et al.
2017). Most of the plants are situated within the USA, the EU, and East Asia (Lu
et al. 2017; Scarlat et al. 2015).
32 B. Barati et al.

Since the middle of the nineteenth century, it had become obvious that the
increased waste sizes can be addressed through incinerating waste and utilizing
various elements existing in the waste (Makarichi et al. 2018). The main purpose
of initial incinerators was only to manage waste with no target to use the produced
heat. There was a rising concern that landfills would rapidly refill, and the lands to
build extra would quickly end due to the fast expansion of cities and populations
(Lu et al. 2017). Recovery of energy from the heat of incinerators began at the end
of the nineteenth century in Europe. While in the USA, it began in the early twen-
tieth century due to rising oil values. Initial WtE plants were simple water-wall and
modular incinerators, which did not have a flue gas treatment module. Also, methane
recovery over co-digestion of sewage sludge and wastes and was later introduced.
The MSWI plants had mechanical difficulties, which made typical plant pack-up and
undue rundown hours (Makarichi et al. 2018). The initial purpose was to utilize the
ferrous and non-ferrous elements, particularly glass, paper fiber, iron, and aluminum.
Heat recovery for electric power was initiated around the middle twentieth century,
with the main plant being constructed in Paris, France (Mourad 2016).
New incorporate various levels of MSW preprocessing, which did not exist in
primary incinerators. For many years, preprocessing methods have been established
to exclude unsafe and bulky materials as non-combustibles, making MSW more
combustible and improving emission control (Sun et al. 2016). Screening by using
trommel screens, magnetic separators, and air classifiers to scale back the MSW
heterogeneity prior to incineration (Fitzgerald 2013). Fluidized bed incinerators are
able to manage mainly waste that has gone through size decrease and shredding
aside from primary separation (Pisupati and Tchapda 2015). Moving grate incin-
erators have shown to be greater to either fluidized bed or rotary kiln incinerators
mainly due to their capability to deal huge size of MSW deprived of prior shredding
or sorting but requires the elimination of massive materials and explosive or unsafe
materials, which damages the MSWI apparatus (Wissing et al. 2017). Although
the fluidized bed and rotary kiln incinerators have equally been utilized since the
mid-twentieth century, only moving grates are mainly established for large-scale
performance (Fitzgerald 2013). A comparison made in 2012 showed that within
Germany, the EU, and the USA, the amount of MSWI plants using moving grate
is 94%, 88%, and 76%, individually, whereas the rest are rotary kiln or fluidized
bed incinerators (Lu et al. 2017). The main shortcoming of moving grates is the
high investment requirement (Pisupati and Tchapda 2015). Although fluidized bed
incinerators require lower capital investment and operational costs, their strict neces-
sities regarding feedstock homogeneity and their high susceptibility to variations in
the calorific value of waste making their process challenging (Fitzgerald 2013). For
many years, air emission control systems that manage the flue gas MSWI faced vari-
ations in particulate filling and dissimilarities in gas flow rates as the feed materials
are not homogeneous. Consequently, new APC systems include control for combus-
tion and post-combustion to limit trace and conventional contaminants and increase
the flue gas standard (Shi et al. 2018).
A modern platform of MSWI is presented in Fig. 2.3. In this design, the fly ash
(FA) and bottom ash (BA) are collected, and the gas emissions are controlled using
2 Different Waste Management Methods, Applications, and Limitations 33

Fig. 2.3 Schematic diagram of the MSWI system and the formation of MSWI FA and MSWI BA.
Source Zhang et al. (2021) with permission number 5158581326703

activated carbon and lime. MSWI BA is the residual material with a higher weight,
which resulted from incineration, while MSWI FA, due to lower weight, can move
into the air. The MSWI FA production typically accounts for around 3–15% of the
amount of MSW subjected to furnaces differences. MSWI FA comprises exceedingly
irregular structure and form, containing a considerable quantity of particles rods and
irregular, and is combined with a minor quantity of filamentous crystals (Mao et al.
2020).
Globally, the tendency in the generation of MSW proposes that waste load that
needs MSWI will still increase as this is mostly an effective method of decreasing
residual waste that requires landfilling, with the extra advantage of making renewable
energy. As land for constructing additional landfills becomes limited in most cities,
more need for MSWI is assumed. Thus, the quantity of MSWI plants is possibly
going to rise in the coming years to meet the rising request for waste transformation
to energy. The majority of MSWI platforms are MB systems that blister the MSW
subsequent to the separation of metals for recycling. Refuse derived fuel (RDF)
plants enable the preprocessing of MSW to discard non-combustibles and to shred
the MSW to equal size fuel pellets. Also, FBC systems incinerate RDF in a fluidized
bed at high temperatures for non-combustible granule-like sand within a furnace.
According to the literature issued over the last 20 years, the key concern linked to
MSWI is the pollution produced by furan dioxin (C4 H4 O2 ), (C4 H4 O), and heavy
metals attained from MSW (Tasneem 2014). By means of APCs, toxic flue gases can
be treated as they usually are equipped with dry/semidry and wet scrubber setups
(Tasneem 2014). The application of the ash in road subgrade/subbase and backfill
materials offers good performance (Oppelt 1987).
34 B. Barati et al.

2.4.1 Hazardous Wastes

Hazardous wastes are other important wastes that need special treatments. The
example of these waste are solvents, acids, alkalinize, photochemical, pesticides,
fluorescent tubes, mercury-containing wastes, detergents containing dangerous
substances, cytotoxic and cytostatic medicine, mixed batteries and accumulators
containing batteries, etc. (Slack et al. 2009). The aforementioned wastes are treated
by various methods such as incineration, landfilling, and respective ultimate treat-
ment activities depending on the composition of the wastes. For example, waste with
the calorific value ≥ 2500 kcal/kg is disposed of by incineration. While waste with
a low calorific value (≤ 2500 kcal/kg) and comprising heavy metals is disposed into
secured landfills (Singh and Budarayavalasa 2021), the incineration of hazardous
waste is usually performed in the rotary kiln, and the wastes are incinerated at
temperatures between 1000 and 1200 °C. The inclinator ashes are treated to recycle
its iron, and the residual is utilized in construction materials or treated in landfills
(Block et al. 2015). Solidification and stabilization of hazardous waste have been
known as frequently practiced for several decades. This technology has been demon-
strated to be an efficient tool for the immobilization of the pollutants inside a solid
matrix and constructing value-added resources as construction materials (Singh and
Budarayavalasa 2021). Also, the residue according to the ratio of calcium oxide,
iron oxide, aluminum oxide, and silica is used to prepare SiO2 –Fe2 O3 –Al2 O3 –
CaO glass–ceramic samples that immobilized Zn, Cr, and Cu effectively over the
melting–sintering procedure (Chen et al. 2021).
Medical waste (typically made from healthcare centers, clinics and hospitals)
biomedical waste (made during medical diagnosis, treatment, or immunization of
disease, and biological research activities on animals). Pandemic situations, partic-
ularly the current one, the COVID-19 pandemic, upsurge extensive consumption
of plastics and make environmental problems (Sharma et al. 2020). Medical waste
that is released from healthcare centers or hospitals carries more or less infected
materials and is consequently known as hazardous waste (HW). These HW or MW
needs special care and consideration for the safe disposal and might lead to rein-
fection. Biomedical waste is typically made from medical facilities and research
institutes, particularly places where the vaccine or drug trial stages are commenced
to detect and treat the diseases (WHO 2018). Commonly, standard disinfection
methods are applied to treat medical waste such as incineration, chemical, phys-
ical, and approaches. Incineration can be the promising or efficient method that can
be applied, and it would be an adequate investment to disinfect pharmaceutical and
pathological wastes. Chemical disinfection together with other methods like steam
disinfection or microwave, in which the macromolecular composites are broken down
to simpler molecules in form of carbonaceous materials, synthetic gases, and liquid
or solid fuels. Incineration is predominantly adopted for large-scale platforms with a
huge volume of wastes while steam disinfection and chemical treatments are mostly
adopted for minor investments and places such as healthcare centers or hospitals for
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
It was by reading the memoir on the peregrinations
and metamorphoses of the Sitaris that M. Perrier 2
made the acquaintance of Fabre’s work, of which he
was to become one of the most competent judges
and fervent and eloquent admirers. He referred to
this essay last year in his speech at the Sérignan
jubilee: [299]

It was in 1868. I had only just left the Higher Normal College,
and was a very youthful assistant naturalist at the Museum. I
can still see myself on the box-seat of an omnibus, crossing
the Place de la Concorde, with an open book on my knees; I
was reading the history of the Sitaris humeralis; I was
marvelling at its complicated metamorphoses and its ruses for
making its way into the nest of the solitary Bee. 3

These early essays were followed by many others,

also published in the Annales des sciences
naturelles, and were always received with the same
favour by all the notable scientists of the time.

While he was soaring toward the heights, and

making his way into unexplored regions, under the
astounded gaze of the most eminent authorities, who
saw themselves suddenly equalled and even
surpassed, his scientific genius loved also to look
downwards, to approach the beginners, to return, as
it were, to the starting-point, in order to hold out his
hand to them, and to trace out for them, through all
the stages of science, the path that he had opened
up for himself in the face of unheard-of difficulties.

He laboured to give them what he himself had felt the

lack of almost as much as the [300]help of masters: the
assistance of luminous, living books, capable of
teaching without fatigue and without tedium. His
class books are, in fact, models of their kind. In them
you will find no vague phraseology, but the simplest,
most precise, yet most natural language; no idle
excess of erudition, but the most perfect lucidity of
text as of diagram; no dryness, nothing
commonplace, but everywhere something
picturesque, original, and full of life, giving charm and
relief to all that is learned; and above all the constant
care never to isolate oneself from life, to keep in
touch with reality, by leading the youthful mind from
the spectacles which are most familiar to it to the
conceptions of science and from these to such of
their applications as are most usual and most
familiar.

To sum up, a rare talent for simply and clearly

expounding the most difficult theories in such a way
as to render them accessible to the youngest minds;
a wonderful power of capturing the attention from all
sides, of breaking down the water-tight partition
which too often exists between the mind and the
heart, between science and life, between theory and
practice: such are the essential characteristics which
earned Fabre the title of “the incomparable
populariser.” [301]

About 1866 and 1867, at the Normal College of Rodez, one of

our professors used to read to us and teach us to admire
certain little books by our as yet but little known compatriot,
J. H. Fabre, who was born at Saint-Léons, so he told us, and
had graduated from the Normal College of Avignon.

Such is the information recently given us by M.

François Fabié, as “a detail that might perhaps give
us pleasure, and which proves, in any case, that not
all the inhabitants of the Rouergue, as was
mistakenly said of late, were ignorant of the name,
origin, and talent of J. H. Fabre.” 4 [302]

We are, indeed, glad to think that if he was unduly

overlooked at a later time, he was at least known and
admired at an early period in Aveyron, and that as
early as 1866 his class books were especially
recommended to the attention of our young
schoolmasters at the Normal College of Rodez. They
could have had none better conceived or compiled.
Would to heaven our public schoolmasters had
always been as happily inspired or as well advised in
the choice of their textbooks! Would to heaven that,
instead of the dismal and misleading suggestions of
materialism and impiety, there were still a place in
the manuals of science, put in the hands of our
children, for reflections as sane and as lofty as these.
“By their practical side the sciences verge upon
agriculture, medicine, and industry; but they have
before all a moral advantage which is not shared in
the same degree by any other branch of human
knowledge: in that by giving us a knowledge of the
created universe they uplift the soul and nourish the
mind with noble and salutary thoughts.” 5 [303]

The study of the heavenly bodies in particular has

this inestimable result: “The things that we are told by
stellar astronomy overwhelm the understanding and
leave no room in our minds except for an impulse of
religious wonder at the author of these marvels, the
God whose unlimited power has peopled the
abysses of space with immeasurable heaps of
suns.” 6 But the divine work “perhaps appears more
marvellous still in the infinity of littleness than in the
infinity of magnitude: Magnus in magnis, it has been
said of God, maximus in minimis.” 7 This fine saying is
verified and more or less explicitly confirmed in a
thousand passages of the Souvenirs.

Fabre’s works of popularisation are very numerous:

they include no less than seventy to eighty volumes;
they embrace all the elements of the sciences
learned and taught by the author: arithmetic, algebra,
geometry, trigonometry, mechanics, physics,
chemistry, etc.; but their principal aim was to teach
the natural sciences, which furnish the material of
more than fifty volumes intended for the primary or
secondary degree of education. [304]

In his favourite domain of the natural sciences, as in

that of the other sciences, the practical tendency of
his teaching was by preference directed toward
agricultural applications, as is shown by the very
titles of many of his books: Eléments usuels des
sciences physiques et naturelles, avec applications à
l’hygiène et a l’agriculture—Le Livre des Champs—
Les Auxiliaires—Les Ravageurs—Arithmétique
agricole—Chimie agricole: indeed it was with the last
volume that he inaugurated his series of initiatory
textbooks. For the use of young girls and future
housewives, he published books on Le Ménage,
Hygiène and Economie domestique.

And all these little books are presented in a

picturesque and attractive form. The very titles have
nothing austere about them: Entretien de l’oncle Paul
avec ses neveux sur les choses d’agriculture—
Chimie de l’oncle Paul. There is also The Livre de
Maître Paul, the Histoire des Bêtes, the Leçons des
choses, the Livre d’Histoires and the Livre des
Champs. Under different titles the other volumes
evoke, like these, a sort of family atmosphere; they
display the same concrete style of narrative and the
same lifelike charm of dialogue. [305]

Evidently Fabre was not one of these whose “life was

strangled,” and his initiative stifled by the springes of
University methods and the programmes beloved of
the bureaucrats. On every side there was little but
disdain for animals and plants; and it was these
above all that he strove to popularise. When they are
studied, it is only to dissect them or reduce them to
abstract formulæ; but he considers them rather as
they are in themselves and in their relations with
human life. And while others speak of them as dead
objects or as indifferent objects, to indifferent
readers, Fabre speaks of them with sympathy and
feeling, with the tenderness and geniality of an uncle
speaking to his nephews, and he excels in
communicating to his hearers the sacred fire which
inspires him—the passionate love which he feels for
all natural things.

It was Fabre’s fine independence that made him a

pioneer. Certain of his manuals may no longer be
sufficiently up to date, but his methods and his
tendencies are precisely those that best respond to
the needs and aspirations of the present time. For a
wave of serious public opinion is revealing itself in
favour of a renewal of our public education. [306]

A time will come, let us hope, when the schools will

be less artificial and removed from real life, and will
no longer systematically ignore religion, the family,
the country and the vocation of the pupils. When that
time comes, the schoolmasters will turn again to the
classic Fabre handbooks, or at all events to books
modelled upon his, in order to teach the little peasant
boys to love their fields, their beasts, their agricultural
and pastoral labours; to teach them also sometimes
to lift their heads from the furrows in order to look up
at the returning stars.

Begun in 1862 by the publication of a book on

agricultural chemistry, Fabre’s work of popularisation
was continued until the appearance in 1879 of his
first volume of the Souvenirs. It forms as it were a
preface to the great entomological masterpiece.
Thanks to the deserved success of the series, rather
than to his wretched emoluments as professor, he
achieved the security and independence necessary
to the accomplishment of his mission. His class-
books were the ransom that set him free. They
enabled him to leave the town and escape into the
fields. They even enabled him to realise his dream of
a solitary corner of the earth [307]and a life of leisure
wholly dedicated to the patient and disinterested
study of his beloved insects.

From another point of view this long and patient effort

of scientific popularisation and intense literary
production was not without its results as regard his
later work. It enabled him to obtain a mastery of his
medium, to exercise his faculty of expression and his
mind, to vary and mature his observations, and finally
to realise that tour de force of writing, for specialists,
books that he who runs may read, and of performing
the miracle of arousing the enthusiasm of men of
letters for books that compel the admiration of
scientists, and attracting the attention of the
scientists to books that delight the man of letters.

The brilliance, colour, and vitality which enhance

without ever diminishing the high scientific value of
his Souvenirs are due, no doubt, to his native
qualities, to the limpid and harmonious Gallic genius
of which he affords so admirable a type; he owes
them also, as we have said, to all those tiny lives, so
vibrant with diligence, and so picturesque, whose
lights and shades and naïve emotions seem to have
found their way into his own heart, into his style; but
he owes them still [308]more to his young friends, the
primary school-children, to the pains which he took,
the ingenuity which he expended in bringing within
the grasp of the child’s mind, in impressing upon his
imagination and sensibility as well as his
understanding, the creatures and the doings of the
living world.

As we have recorded, it was only in 1879 that Fabre

inaugurated his great and immortal collection of
Souvenirs entomologiques.

From this same year dates the acquisition, so greatly

desired, of the open-air laboratory and his installation
in the cherished solitude of Sérignan, where he was
able to give free play to his entomological tastes, and
to continue to add to the Souvenirs.

Henri Fabre was then fifty-five years of age, and

apparently broken by fatigue and suffering. This did
not prevent him from undertaking and accomplishing
a task in which we know not which to admire the
most: the acuteness of observation or the vigour of
thought, the enthusiasm of the investigator or the
animation of the writer. Here is a wonderful example
to all those whom advancing age and life have
already cruelly bruised; to all those who might be
[309]tempted to give up or to flinch under the burden of

grief or disappointment, instead of listening to the

voice of their talents, the appeal of their friends, the
summons of God Himself to generous and devoted
action, and to the great harvest of souls and ideas.

For forty years [says Fabre] I have struggled with unshakable

courage against the sordid miseries of life; and the corner of
earth I have dreamed of has come at last.

The wish is realised. It is a little late, O my pretty insects! I

greatly fear that the peach is offered to me when I am
beginning to have no teeth wherewith to eat it. Yes, it is a little
late; the wide horizons of the outset have shrunk into a low
and stifling canopy, more and more straitened day by day.
Regretting nothing in the past, save those whom I have lost;
regretting nothing, not even my first youth; hoping nothing
either, I have reached the point at which, worn out by the
experience of things, we ask ourselves if life be worth the
living. 8

In the touching, desolate accents of these lives we

may, no doubt, hear the echoes of a whole lifetime of
toil and trial; but above all they express the cruel grief
which had just wrung the kindly, tender heart of the
great scientist. He was still suffering from [310]the blow
dealt him by the death of his beloved son Jules at the
moment of writing these lines on the first page of the
second volume of the Souvenirs, piously dedicated to
the memory of the lost child.

Happily he found in his “insuperable faith in the

Beyond” 9 a the courage to overcome his grief and in
his “love of scientific truth” the possibility of taking up
his life again and resuming his work.

Amid the ruins that surround me, one strip of wall remains
standing, immovable upon its solid base; my passion for
scientific youth. Is that enough, O my busy insects, to enable
me to add yet a few seemly pages to your history? Will my
strength not cheat my good intentions? Why, indeed, did I
forsake you so long? Friends have reproached me for it. Ah,
tell them, tell those friends, who are yours as well as mine, tell
them that it was not forgetfulness on my part, not weariness,
nor neglect: I thought of you; I was convinced that the
Cerceris’ cave had more fair secrets to reveal to us, that the
chase of the Sphex held fresh surprises in store. But time
failed me; I was alone, deserted, struggling against
misfortune. Before philosophising, one had to live. Tell them
that; and they will pardon me. 10

[311]

From the very beginning of his great entomological

work Fabre sought to free himself from another
reproach, which wounded him to the quick, because
it struck at his fidelity to his chosen study, and, what
is more, to scientific truth:

Others again have reproached me with my style, which has

not the solemnity, nay, better, the dryness of the schools.
They fear lest a page that is read without fatigue should not
always be the expression of the truth. Were I to take their
word for it, we are profound only on condition of being
obscure. Come here, one and all of you—you, the sting-
 bearers, and you, the wing-cased armour-clads—take up my
defence and bear witness in my favour. Tell of the intimate
terms on which I live with you, of the patience with which I
observe you, of the care with which I record your actions.
Your evidence is unanimous: yes, my pages, though they
bristle not with hollow formulæ nor learned smatterings, are
the exact narrative of facts observed, neither more nor less;
and whoso cares to question you in his turn will obtain the
same replies.

And then, my dear insects, if you cannot convince those good

people, because you do not carry the weight of tedium, I, in
my turn, will say to them:

“You rip up the animal and I study it alive; you turn it into an
object of horror and pity, whereas I cause it to be loved; you
labour in a torture-chamber and dissecting-room, I make my
observations [312]under the blue sky, to the song of the
Cicadas; 11 you subject cell and protoplasm to chemical tests, I
study instinct in its loftiest manifestations; you pry into death, I
pry into life.”

Our author’s strong personality is revealed no less in

the bulk of his work than in this declaration of
principles which might serve as a prologue to the
latter.

“With the originality of genius he is from the first

totally opposed to the point of view of those
naturalists who are fascinated by morphology and
anatomy.” 12 He believes that the characteristics of life
are to be found in life itself, and that if we wish truly
to know the insect, nothing will help us so much as
seeing it at work. “Mere common sense, the reader
will say, yet it is by no means common”; and it
usually happens that writers “forget to take
performance into their reckoning when they are
describing life.” 13

To study living entomology, that is, to study the insect

living its life and in the [313]highest manifestations of
its life, in its instincts and its habits, in its aptitudes
and its passions, in a word, in its psychic faculties; to
replace the dominant standpoint of morphology and
physiology by the standpoint of biology and
psychology; such is the essential programme of the
writer of the Souvenirs.

And he adheres to it all the more strictly the more he

sees it neglected by those about him, judging it to be
of still greater importance for one who is seeking to
know the insect, more advantageous to practice and
speculation, more essential to the open-air life and
the most abstruse inquiries of the human mind. By
curiously interrogating the life of the insects one may
render inestimable services to agriculture, as Pasteur
did in his investigation of sericulture; one may also
“furnish general psychology with data of inestimable
value,” and this in particular was what he proposed to
do. M. Fabre’s restless mind is for ever haunted by
the most abstruse problems, which, indicated here
and there, enable us to understand the motives that
urge him on. With reference to these the insect is no
longer an end: it becomes a means. Above all, M.
Fabre wishes to define instinct; to establish the line
of demarcation [314]which divides it from intelligence,
and to demonstrate whether human reason is an
irreducible faculty or whether it is only a degree
higher on a scale whose base descends into the
depths of animality. More generally he propounds the
question of the identity or the difference between the
animal mind and the human. He also seeks to
examine the problem of evolution; finally, to discover
whether geometry rules over all things, and whether
it tells us of a Universal Geometer, or whether “the
strictly beautiful, the domain of reason, that is, order,
is the inevitable result of a blind mechanism.” 14

And to tell the whole story in a few words, the

essential object, the general impulse of this curious
and powerful mind, which refuses to divide science
from philosophy, is to consider the insect, how it
lives; to note its actions and its movements; to reach
its inner from its outer life; its inward impulse from its
external action; and then to climb upwards from the
insect to man and from man to God.

Fabre never attempts to solve the problems which he

propounds a priori. Before thinking as a philosopher
he observes as a scientist. His method is strictly
experimental. [315]“To observe the crude fact, to record
it, then to ask what conclusion may be based upon
this solid foundation, such is M. Fabre’s only rule;
and if we oppose him with arguments he demands
observations.” 15

“See first; you can argue afterwards.” “The precise

facts are alone worthy of science. They cast
premature theories into oblivion.”

He always makes direct for the facts as Nature

presents them. The books fail him or are not to his
liking. Most of them dissect the insect; he wants it
alive and acting. The best contain but the shadow of
life; he prefers life itself. If he happens to quote them,
it is usually to deplore their deficiencies or to correct
their errors, or perhaps to do homage to a precursor
or a rival, but not to borrow from them the history of
an insect.

This history he wishes to take from life, and he

refuses to write except according to Nature and the
data provided by the living subject. His narratives are
always the result of strictly conscientious and
objective inquiries: he records nothing that he has
not seen, and if he has sometimes heightened his
pictures by somewhat vivid hues, he has [316]only
given his style the relief and the colour of his subject.
The danger of such scientific records when they are
written by a man of letters and a poet like Fabre into
the bargain is that there is a danger of their being
written with more art than exactitude. And it is
apparently this that causes so many scientists to
distrust science that also claims to be literature.
Fabre was not always immune from this species of
discredit which the writer may so easily cast upon the
scientist. But this unjust accusation was long ago
withdrawn, and to-day all are agreed as to the
absolute truthfulness of his portraits and his records.
He has talent and imagination, it is true, but he has
applied his talent to the sincere investigation of the
facts, and his imagination only to achieve the more
complete and faithful expression of the reality. A
great thinker once uttered this profound saying:
“Things are perceived in their truth only when they
are perceived in their poetry.” This saying might
serve as a motto for the whole of Fabre’s
entomological work.

To collect the data which he requires for the

foundation of his philosophical structures, Fabre is
not content with observing the insect as it lives and
labours when left to [317]itself, writing down, so to
speak, at its dictation the data which it deigns to give
him as it would give them to any one who possessed
the same patience and the same gift for observation.
After these first overtures, he seeks more confidential
information; to obtain this he inverts the parts played
by observer and insect; from being passive he
becomes active; he provokes and interrogates, and
by different experiments, often of wonderful ingenuity,
he enables and even compels the insect to confide to
him what it would never have divulged in the normal
course of its life and occupations. Fabre is the first to
think of introducing this kind of artificial observation,
which he calls experiment, into the study of the
animal “soul.”

To practise it more readily, he needs the insect close

within his reach; more than that, he needs it under
his hand, at his discretion, so to say. Neither the
great museum of the fields nor the place of
observation where the insects “roam at will amid the
thyme and lavender” quite answers the requirements
of this part of his programme. So at various points of
the harmas all those appliances which we have
already described were set up, “rustic achievements,
clumsy combinations of trivial things.” In addition to
these appliances [318]in the open air, there are those
inside the house: some are installed in the study, so
that the experimenter “can see his insects working on
the very table upon which he is writing their
history”; 16 others are arranged in a separate room
known as the “animal laboratory.”

It is a great, silent, isolated room, brilliantly lighted by two

windows facing south, upon the garden, one of which at least
is always open that the insects may come and go at liberty.…
The middle of the room is entirely occupied by a great table of
walnut-wood, on which are arranged bottles, test-tubes, and
old sardine boxes, which Fabre employs in order to watch the
evolution of a thousand nameless or doubtful eggs, to
observe the labours of their larvæ, the creation and hatching
of cocoons, and the little miracles of metamorphosis, after a
germination more wonderful than that of the acorn which
makes the oak.

Covers of metallic gauze resting on earthenware saucers full

of sand, a few carboys and flower-pots or sweetmeat jars
closed with a square of glass; these serve for observation or
experimental cages in which the progress and the actions of
these tiny, living machines can be investigated. 17

Fabre reveals a consummate skill in this difficult and

delicate art of experimentation [319]and inducing the
insect to speak. The smallest incident, insignificant to
a mind less alert than his, suggests further questions
or gives rise to sudden intuitions and preconceived
ideas which are immediately subjected to the test of
experiment. But it is not enough to question the
insect; one must understand its replies; it is not
enough to collect or even to provoke data. One must
know how to interpret them.
 And here truly we come to the prodigy; for his sympathy for
animals gives M. Fabre a sort of special sense, which enables
him to grasp the meaning of its actions, as though there were
between it and himself some actual means of communication,
something in the nature of a language. 18

But there is something even more remarkable than

this penetration and certainty of analysis; it is the
prudence with which he goes forward step by step,
without leaving anything vague or doubtful; the
reserve with which he pronounces upon all that goes
beyond the obvious meaning of the facts; the
frankness and modesty with which he admits that he
hesitates or does not know. It often happens that this
scrupulous spirit leads [320]to doubt. “The more I
observe and experiment, the more I feel rising before
me, in the cloudy blackness of the possible, a vast
note of interrogation.” We might even find that on
certain occasions the fear of going astray has caused
him to limit to excess the range of his interpretation.
But this is done only to give greater weight to his
assertions, wherever they are expressed firmly and
with quiet assurance. In short, there is reason to
subscribe to the flattering judgment of his first
biographer, who sees in the Souvenirs not only the
most wonderful entomological repertory, but a true
“essay upon method,” which should be read by every
naturalist, and the most interesting, instructive,
familiar, and delightful course of training that has
ever been known. 19

The most interesting, instructive, and delightful

course of training: his books are this, not only in
virtue of the writer’s method and point of view, but in
virtue of his language. For the living scenes of the
Souvenirs, as well as the interpretations interspersed
between them, are expressed in words so simple and
so well chosen that [321]they are realised without effort
and in the most striking relief in the reader’s mind
and imagination.

Fabre hates to see science make use of pedantic

and pseudo-scholastic terminology. Apart from the
fact that it may repel the reader, all this idle
apparatus of obscurity serves only too often to mask
error or vagueness of thought.

By seasoning the matter with indigestible terms, useful for

dissimulating vagueness of thought, one might represent the
Cione as a superb example of the change brought about by
the centuries in the habits of an insect. It would be very
scientific, but would it be very clear? I doubt it. When my eyes
fall upon a page bristling with barbarous locutions,
supposedly scientific, I say to myself: “Take care! The author
does not properly understand what he is saying, or he would
have found, in the vocabulary which so many clever minds