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Hazardous Waste

  • Smart labels for waste and resource management : An integrated assessment

    This article explores the potential of RFID (radio frequency identification device) for improving the current waste and resource management system in Switzerland. It presents the following three possible options for utilizing RFID tags to support waste management processes:

  • Mechanism of chromium toxicity in pathogenic sewage bacteria

    Toxic effects of chromium on pure culture of Salmonella paratyphi-B and Shigella flexneri isolated from sewage effluent were studied.

  • Digital dumps

    THE management of huge and growing quantities of electronic waste may emerge as one of the more important environmental problems of developing countries in the near future.

  • Untreated waste from yarn dyeing mills poses health hazard in Sirajganj

    Toxic water released from several yarn dyeing and processing mills in Belkuchi upazila of Sirajganj district is polluting the local environment, causing untold suffering to thousands of people and posing serious health hazard. Influential people set up the mills in an unplanned way without any treatment plant and drainage system, by managing some unscrupulous officials of the relevant sections, said local residents. Over 100 yarn dyeing and processing mills at different villages including Tamai, Shohagpur, Garamashi, Chala, Chandangati and Mukundagati have no treatment plant and they were set up without permission from the authorities concerned, locals said. Eleven of the mills owned by Aziz Sarker, Hiron Munshi, Labu Shaikh, Anwar Hossain, Badol Khan, Abdul Kader, Hiron Sarker, Babu Salam, Rejaul Karim, Khokon and Abdul Motin at Tamai village are posing most serious threats, they said. Toxic chemicals like sulphuric acid, acetic acid, hydrogen-per oxides, caustic soda, bleaching powder, silicate, glace and colours are used in these mills to treat the thread or cottons. After releasing from the mills, the untreated water is mixed with ponds and marshes in the area and creates serious health hazards. An acute crisis of pure and clean drinking water is prevailing in the area as toxic wastes from the mills are mixed with the under ground water, turning water from the tube-wells yellowish. Many people are being affected with skin diseases, diarrhoea, dysentery, eye infection and nausea due to use of the water. Mukti Khatun, 35, wife of Golam Kibria of Tamai village, said she has been suffering from skin diseases for the last few years. Her seven-year-old child has been affected with gastric disease by drinking the toxic water, she quoted doctors as saying. The toxic water has damaged fertility of hundreds of acres of croplands and fishes of ponds and marshes in the area. Many fruit bearing trees in the area have died while taking of the toxic wastes from drinking the water also caused the death of domestic animals and fowls including cows, goats, ducks, hens, villagers said. Many houses made of corrugated iron sheets in the area became rusty and got damaged within a short time due to the vapour and toxic waste of the mills. The atmosphere in and around of the mills has become seriously dirty and unhygienic, as the water remains stagnant in absence of proper drainage system. Azam Khan, Dulal Mollah, Mohsin Pramanik, Fazlur Rahman and Zamal Uddin of Tamai village said several times they went to Belkuchi upazila Sanitary Inspector Mohammad Ali Jinnah to discuss with him about the ways to get rid of the problem but he ignored them. They also submitted petitions to the deputy commissioner in Sirajganj, UNO in Belkuchi, director of Department of Environment (DoE) in Bogra, Rab and Army to take initiative for saving the environment, but to no effect. Even a case was lodged with Belkuchi Police Station in this connection against the mills owners. The complainants said Director of DoE Bogra office Mosharraf Hossain misbehaved with them and threatened to get them arrested by police, if they further demand proper action against the mills owners. Contacted over phone three times, Mosharraf Hossain declined to make any comment saying that there was network problem and he was busy. Aziz Sarker, owner of SI process mill, said, no one of authorities concerned ever asked him to stop the mill or set up a treatment plant since its establishment. Belkuchi Upazila Nirbahi Officer Khairul Alam Sheikh said he has written to the authorities concerned suggesting setting up of necessary treatment plants in the area.

  • Guidelines for environmentally sound management of e-waste

    The objective of these guidelines is to provide guidance for identification of various sources of waste electrical and electronic equipments (e-waste) and prescribed procedures for handling e-waste in an environmentally sound manner. These Guidelines are reference document for the management, handling and disposal of e-wastes.

  • Hazardous waste treatment site: Remediation begins

    A seven year remediation program for the hazardous waste treatment site situated at the Ramat Hovav Industrial Zone in Israel begins.

  • Guidelines for environmentally sound management of e-waste

    The electrical and electronic waste (e-waste) is one of the fastest growing waste streams in the world. The increasing

  • E-waste recycling best option for resource recovery and sustainable environment

    Bangalore figures prominently in the world map for its contribution in Information Technology (IT). This phenomental growth over the past decade, has given rise to the generation of lot of electronic waste. E-waste thus generated contains many recoverable metals and non metals along with hazardous wastes and their improper disposal may cause environmental problems.

  • Degradation of thiocyanate from aqueous waste by a mixed bacterial community

    Aqueous wastes containing thiocyanate (SCN) are frequently encountered from variety of industrial processes. If improperly managed, these wastes can cause reversible or irreversible impact on the soil and water environment. In the process of developing a microbial technology for the SCN removal from aqueous waste, heterotrophic bacterial consortium's capable of degrading the SCN compound were isolated by an enrichment culture technique from activated sludge and garden soil.

  • Toxic waste being dumped into river

    Discharge of untreated effluents from Khazana Sugar Mills has turned Shahalam River into a dead tributary causing water, land and air pollution in the surrounding areas of the provincial capital. Thousands of litres of hazardous waste are discharged into Shahalam, a tributary of River Kabul, daily during crushing season, which starts from December every year and continues till the end of March. Local people say that they cannot use the river water due to toxic waste. Khazana Sugar Mills which was privatised in mid-1990s situated near the river. Its crushing capacity is 4,000 tons per day, but presently it crushes over 2,000 tons of sugarcane daily due to lack of supply, says the management of the mills. The mills' manager administration Tali Mand said that over 200,000 tons of sugarcane had been crushed during current season. He said that the management had planed to build treatment plant before discharging the waste into the river, but the mills was going into losses which delayed the project. The mills' effluent is released into Shahalam River without treatment. Environmentalists said that hazardous substances discharged from the sugar mills absorbed oxygen from the water which caused water and air pollution. Residents of Khazana complain that discharge of untreated waste from the mills is not only polluting the river, but also causing severe air pollution. "We can hardly breathe because of the stink of effluents,' said Izatullah, a resident of Khazana. Industrial waste, he said, posed threat to aquatic life and every year killed thousands of fish in the river when the management washed the mills. Shahalam throws toxic waste of Khazana Sugar Mills into Kabul River. Provincial Environmental Protection Agency director general Dr Bashir Khan said that release of hazardous industrial waste into the river was a crime under the law and the agency would take legal action against the management of the mills. "The EPA inspectors will immediately visit the site and will serve notice on the mills' management,' he added. Under section 11(1) of the Environmental Protection Act, 1997 no person shall discharge or emit or allow the discharge or emission of any effluent or waste or air pollutant or noise in an amount, concentration or level which is in excess of the National Environmental Quality Standards.

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