Waste Management & Research

Our medical research library holds 5 studies published in Waste Management & Research (2016–2022). Each entry links to the study's record on PubMed and, where there is one, to the publisher's page and a free full text. 4 have an abstract, the authors' own summary as PubMed records it: open "Abstract" to read it. For 1 study PubMed has no abstract for, we give the abstract printed in the article or, where there is none, a summary we wrote from it, each labeled as such.

About the journal

• Publisher: Sage Publications
• Published: 1983 to the present, England
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0734-242X (print), 1096-3669 (electronic)
• Its record in the NLM Catalog

2020s

• Assessment of asbestos and asbestos waste quantity in the built environment of transition country. B. Zoraja, D. Ubavin, N. Stanisavljevic, et al. 2022;40(8):1285-1296. PubMed · Publisher

  Abstract

  Managing asbestos streams in developing and transition countries is particularly challenging. Deficiencies are often present for adequate procedures for the management of asbestos waste; solid quality data or databases on the quantities of asbestos production and usage are missing and asbestos inventories or the registry of asbestos-related diseases following European Union (EU) or other regulations are not in place. This paper aims to develop a model for determining and assessing the quantity of asbestos in the built environment of a transition country. Quantities of asbestos products and life expectancy of those products were assessed to develop a model that forecasts flows and stocks of asbestos products and wastes. The overall objective is to evaluate the model and show the manifestation of asbestos in the waste stream in a case study on a country with a transition economy, such as Serbia. Results show that total quantities of asbestos fibre consumption are approximately 0.5 million tonnes; the largest amount of waste generation is expected in the 2020s. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare for the forthcoming quantities of waste by improving legal procedures, implementation of existing regulations, and provision of economic resources. An important link for the adequate management of asbestos waste is to raise public awareness of the dangers and importance of proper and timely disposal of asbestos products.

2010s

• Hydrothermal process development for the treatment of crocidolite asbestos waste. C.T. Nzogo Metoule, S. Delaby, J.H. Ferrasse, et al. 2019;37(9):914-924. PubMed · Publisher

  Abstract

  The asbestos-containing waste management is a public health topic for countries which have used this mineral. Treatment of chrysotile (white asbestos), a phyllosilicate from serpentine, crocidolite (blue asbestos, first results on this kind of asbestos), one of the five asbestos varieties of amphibole family and asbestos-containing waste conversion process is proposed by using hydrothermal treatment in supercritical water. All samples were treated in an Inconel Batch Reactor. The treatment durations range is from 1 to 6 hours, temperatures range is from 400°C to 750°C, mass concentration range is from 0.02 to 170 mg. mL-1 and pressures are higher than 23 MPa. Ultrapure water is used for sample preparation. This ultrapure water is used to monitor mineral leaching on the aqueous phase and to avoid particle cross-contamination. Transmission electron microscopy analyses were carried out to check the presence or not of asbestos phase. According to these analyses, the best conditions of conversion were 1 hour and 0.02 mg. mL-1 for chrysotile, 3 hours and 0.02 mg. mL-1 for crocidolite and 1 hour and 20 mg. mL-1 for asbestos-containing waste, at T = 750°C. Supercritical water conditions were maintained during the whole treatment. The X-ray diffraction showed that the main phases present after treatments were riebeckite and magnetite (crocidolite), forsterite and enstatite (chrysotile), and calcite, spurrite and gehlenite (asbestos-containing waste). Finally, a scanning electron microscopy analysis was performed to monitor morphological fibre change. The elongated structure, partially fragmented, was found in all samples.

• Estimation of the amount of asbestos-cement roofing in Poland. E. Wilk, M. Krówczyńska, P. Pabjanek, et al. 2017;35(5):491-499. PubMed · Publisher

  Abstract

  The unique set of physical and chemical properties has led to many industrial applications of asbestos worldwide; one of them was roof covering. Asbestos is harmful to human health, and therefore its use was legally forbidden. Since in Poland there is no adequate data on the amount of asbestos-cement roofing, the objective of this study was to estimate its quantity on the basis of physical inventory taking with the use of aerial imagery, and the application of selected statistical features. Data pre-processing and analysis was executed in R Statistical Environment v. 3.1.0. Best random forest models were computed; model explaining 72.9% of the variance was subsequently used to prepare the prediction map of the amount of asbestos-cement roofing in Poland. Variables defining the number of farms, number and age of buildings, and regional differences were crucial for the analysis. The total amount of asbestos roofing in Poland was estimated at 738,068,000 m2 (8.2m t). It is crucial for the landfill development programme, financial resources distribution, and application of monitoring policies.

• An Australian stocks and flows model for asbestos. S. Donovan, J. Pickin. 2016;34(10):1081-1088. PubMed · Publisher

  Abstract

  All available data on asbestos consumption in Australia were collated in order to determine the most common asbestos-containing materials remaining in the built environment. The proportion of asbestos contained within each material and the types of products these materials are most commonly found in was also determined. The lifetime of these asbestos containing products was estimated in order to develop a model that projects stocks and flows of asbestos products in Australia through to the year 2100. The model is based on a Weibull distribution and was built in an excel spreadsheet to make it user-friendly and accessible. The nature of the products under consideration means both their asbestos content and lifetime parameters are highly variable, and so for each of these a high and low estimate is presented along with the estimate used in the model. The user is able to vary the parameters in the model as better data become available.

  © The Author(s) 2016.

• Construction and demolition waste management: China's lessons. H. Duan, J. Li. 2016;34(5):397-8. Editorial PubMed · Publisher

  Summary

  In this editorial, the authors discussed the management of construction and demolition (C&D) waste in China. Their starting point was the collapse of an unstable deposit of C&D and other wastes in Shenzhen on 20 December 2015, which buried nearly three dozen buildings and left at least 75 people missing.

  They cited a government report stating that China generated roughly 1 billion tonnes of C&D waste in 2013, about five times the municipal solid waste generated that year, and that only about 5% was reused or recycled. In Shenzhen, 35 million tonnes were generated in 2014. Of this, 16% went to recycling plants and 84% to landfill, but the six licensed landfills could accept approximately 10 million tonnes. The authors said this implied that over half was disposed of in unlicensed sites or by dumping, and they described existing regulations as not rigid and unenforceable.

  They identified three hazards in C&D waste: heavy metals, especially zinc; brominated flame retardants (PBDEs and HBCD); and asbestos. They stated that many old buildings in China reaching the end of their life contain asbestos, that asbestos was still used in rural or less-developed regions, and that China lacked a sound management system for C&D waste containing asbestos.

  They called for study of C&D waste flows, a classification system to separate non-inert materials including asbestos, assessment of the impacts of dumping, safer handling, and more research on recycling.

  PubMed has no abstract for this study, and the article doesn't print one. We wrote this summary from the full article with the help of AI. It is not the authors' wording.

  In plain English

  This was a two-page editorial, not a research study. It reported no new data and did not measure asbestos exposure or disease. The authors wrote about construction and demolition (C&D) waste in China. Citing a China Daily report, they opened with the 20 December 2015 landslide of piled waste in Shenzhen, which buried nearly three dozen buildings and left at least 75 people missing. Citing a government report, they wrote that China produced roughly 1 billion tonnes of C&D waste in 2013 and that about 5% was reused or recycled. On asbestos, the authors stated that many old buildings in China nearing the end of their life contain asbestos. They wrote that, unlike many developed countries, China still used asbestos in rural or less-developed regions and lacked a sound system for managing C&D waste containing asbestos. They also described heavy metals and brominated flame retardants as probable contaminants of this waste, noting that little research had characterised the flame retardants in C&D waste. The authors concluded that a system is needed to separate hazardous materials, including asbestos, from C&D waste.

  We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

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