There is a lack of information about medical waste management in Iraq. This study aims to monitor and evaluate the current situation of medical waste management in Baghdad as it represents the capital and the biggest populated city in Iraq. About 32% of hospitals are located in Baghdad. Ten state-owned hospitals in Baghdad with the biggest bed capacity were investigated. The study used structured interviews with staff in charge of waste management in the sampled hospitals to collect data. The results showed that the generation rate of medical waste in the ten hospitals was 0.5 kg/(bed·day). The study also found that there were insufficient, ineffective, and improper isolation, collection, storing, processing, and safe disposal of medical wastes in the sampled public hospitals of Baghdad. The study recommended that the Iraqi Ministry of Health takes extensive and quick effective measures to better monitor and evaluate medical waste management and provide ongoing training to personnel responsible for waste management in the hospitals.

Rapid economic growth and production patterns have increased plastic consumption, plastic waste generation, and environmental pollution burden on both land and water habitats across the globe. The use of PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles in packaging has increased tremendously and accounts for a significant proportion of the plastic waste generated in Nigeria, along with its environment and economic cost. Achieving sustainable development goals of sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, ensure access to safe water and sanitation has necessitated the need for an efficient PET bottle waste management system. This study analyzed the PET bottle system in Nigeria and proposes an integrated PET bottle model/system for sustainable waste management, resource conservation, improved environmental sanitation, and economic development in Nigeria. Also, the need for the adoption of a holistic and indigenous approach in the formulation of the national policy on plastic waste management is emphasized, as it will encourage the citizens’ participation and financial investments in waste management.

Solid waste management needs, increasing pollution level by burning or dumping of waste, and the use of fossil fuels and depleting energy resources are a few of the problems of the decade that need to find answers. Disposal of lots of compound polymers-rich biomass waste is done worldwide by dumping on land or into water bodies or else by incineration or long-term storage in an available facility commonly. This kind of disposal instead becomes a reason to add the soil, water, and air pollution. A lot of multidisciplinary collaboration in different streams of science and technology has added to the efficiency of using such waste for use as an alternative energy form, like biogas and biohydrogen. The use of biogas plants for converting biological waste into methane using municipal solid waste (MSW) is known since a long time. Along with MSW, a lot of other agricultural waste and kitchen waste are also added every day to nature. But the complex components of such waste material like lignocellulosic wastes still don’t pass the test of qualifying as a resource for biogas and even more energy-efficient and cleaner biofuel, bio-hydrogen. It may be because of its complicated structure and a lot of parameters that affect its use for converting it into bio-hydrogen. This review is designed to analyze and compare these parameters for optimum lignocellulosic waste conversion, more specifically agriculture and food waste, into cleaner energy forms that would help to tackle the solid waste management and air pollution control more effectively.

The rock processing residue (RPR) waste is used for part of the ceramic products. The present work deals with the unused waste useful for making ceramic materials and save the area and the dump space. The residues are initially analyzed with the chemical and spectroscopic method. The residues are mixed with clay of proportions 0–50 wt% in steps of 10%. The prepared specimens are characterized with Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), X ray fluorescence (XRF) for chemical, mechanical, and physiochemical properties, such as density, compressive strength, weight loss on ignition and porous nature, which are measured through the selective instrument. The thermal stability of the product was tested by firing at 950 °C. This says the rock residues are useful for making ceramic and related materials with high concentrations.

The re-use of glycerol from biodiesel industry as an alternative lubricant for making high-performance briquettes is usual. However, the technical performance of this agro-industrial residue is not consistent. This study outlines, accordingly, the real risk of introducing glycerol into the co-briquetting of highly caloric by-products of energy-crops. The production of hybrid briquettes consisted of pressing mixtures of residues of sugarcane and sorghum with the liquid additive at 10, 20, and 30 wt.% in bench-scale hydraulic piston presser machine. Irrespective of the blend, briquettes containing the supplement at the highest level as part of their composition ended up being much more hygroscopic (20.10%) and less energetic (3.15 GJ m^?3). The explanation for the negative impact of glycerol on the thermomechanical behavior of briquettes would be overconcentration of additive capable of effectively defying compacting biomass. The degree of compaction during co-briquetting has likely gone down quickly with a maximizing level of glycerol. As long as the additive is not able to lubricate the feedstock suitably, improbability of biomass particles to successfully bond together to form themselves into mechanically stable and energetically effective briquettes is large. Besides lower density (273.80 kg m^?3) and higher relaxation (22.75%), briquettes with glycerol at 30 wt.% generally were aesthetically unpleasing. Practically, these products resisted no longer to handling, transportation, and storage. They lost their shape easily during emptying and shifting them, thus, releasing larger quantities of biomass to the environment. Preliminary evidence of high-viscosity glycerol capable of limiting safe and effective production of high-performance briquettes for heating and power exists.

Compaction characteristics of municipal solid waste (MSW) are the important parameters in the landfill design. Well compacted MSW increases the placement efficiency and thus reduces the space requirement for landfills. The composition of MSW, degradation, and compactive efforts are the key factors that control the compaction characteristics of MSW. This paper presents the laboratory investigation of compaction characteristics of fresh and aged MSW at a wide range of compactive efforts. Fresh MSW (S₁), Windrows sample (S₂) of an age of 2 months, 5-year-old MSW (S₃), 10-year-old MSW (S₄), and 15-year-old MSW (S₅) were collected from the working phase of the solid waste management site, Vilholi Nasik, (MH) India. Compaction was carried in 1000 mL capacity mold under four different energy levels, i.e., 552 (E₁), 1125 (E₂), 2682 (E₃), and 5364 (E₄) kJ/m³. The results showed that the maximum dry density (γ_dmax) was observed less in the S₁ sample at the standard compactive effort. As the age of the sample increase from fresh to 5 years, γ_dmax was more with lesser optimum moisture content (w_opt) because of the completion of the biodegradation process. No further change in compaction characteristics was observed once the biodegradation process was finished. The study shows that the particle size of MSW gets reduced as the age of the sample increased. This reduces the particle size of MSW is one of the contributing factors to increasing γ_dmax. When compactive energy is changed from E₁ to E₄ the γ_dmax increased and w_opt decreased for all the samples. A normalized w_opt and compaction energy correlation is proposed in this study. The correlation can get compaction characteristics of fresh and aged MSW at any compactive effort.