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In response to resource scarcity and environmental challenges, sustainable practices, particularly in recycling and reusing waste materials, have become crucial. This paper reviews the utilization of porous glass, particularly made from recycled waste glass, for manufacturing and environmental applications. Porous glass features a broad size range of tiny pores, offering advantages in recycling due to its inertness, sorption capabilities, and versatility. It can be produced through phase separation, sol–gel, hydrothermal methods, and the use of foaming agents, offering a large surface area and high sorption efficiency. The adsorption capacity, flexibility in enhancing material properties, and reusability of porous glass allow it to be applied in diverse environmental roles, such as contaminant removal from water and wastewater. The controlled release of phosphate from phosphate-porous glass adsorbent enables its use in fertilizing plants while minimizing excess phosphate release into the water bodies. Its unique physicochemical properties also make it suitable for use in construction sectors. Our findings highlight the porous glass's potential to significantly contribute to glass recycling, reduce landfill airspace, and support sustainable material usage. The study underscores the role of porous glass in advancing waste glass recycling and promoting sustainable environmental practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Management of solid medical waste (SMW) is receiving greater attention due to potential health and environmental risks arising from inappropriate disposal and treatment of the waste. Generation of medical wastes and their management practices as well as risk from generation to storage in 12 healthcare facilities (HCFs) in Bujumbura, Burundi, were assessed. Current classification system of SMW in the national guidelines was not appropriate for safe collection and disposal. Pathological wastes, pharmaceutical wastes and discarded medical plastics, and absorbent cotton and placenta were main types of SMW, accounting for 84.4% from the HCFs. No HCFs followed the national guidelines completely, and most medical wastes have not been properly managed from the source separation stage. The generation rate per bed and the amounts of medical wastes per health care worker were 3.6 and 5.9 times higher in public HCFs than those in private HCFs, respectively, while the management practices of public HCFs were worse than those of private HCFs. Storage of medical wastes was the least managed step in the HCFs. All SMWs, HCFs, and people involved in SMW management were at very high risk or high risk. This study showed that Burundi's overall SMW management should be urgently improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solid refuse fuel (SRF) produced from waste materials is a promising fuel that can be utilized for energy recovery in industries. This study considered both characterization and weighting modeling as life cycle assessment (LCA) results. This study aimed to analyze the flows of materials and energy and to evaluate the environmental impact of SRF plants using LCA and compared them with an incineration plant. Based on the results of material and energy flow analysis, SRF products had various energy potentials depending on the treatment method of municipal solid waste (MSW) and replaced the current fossil fuels by SRF combustion. Global impacts were mainly influenced by energy consumption, especially drying methods in the production of SRF, and affected the results of the weighting analysis. The SRF plant with a bio-drying option was evaluated as the best effective practice in the weighting analysis. The LCA results in this study indicated 0.021-9.88 points according to drying methods for SRF production and 1.38 points for incineration. In the sensitivity analysis, the environmental impact of SRF production was found to be significantly affected by the drying methods for MSW and the utilization of fossil energy. Thus, improvement of the drying options could significantly reduce the environmental impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the evaluation of potential environmental impacts of food waste management practices by material flow analysis (MFA) and life cycle assessment (LCA) during different life cycle stages toward the environmentally sustainable options for Daejeon Metropolitan City (DMC) in Korea. The MFA and LCA studies were conducted to examine different recycling facilities of food waste. The results of the LCA study indicate that, among the different recycling methodologies currently in practice in DMC, Scenario 4 (wet and dry feed site) conduced to higher global warming potential (GWP) and higher acidification potential (AP), whereas Scenarios 2 (wet feed site 1) and 3 (wet feed site 2) resulted in the lowest impact. This is mainly due to the emission caused during the treatment stage. For eutrophication potential (EP), Scenario 1 (composting site) contributed to higher environmental impacts due to the emission of ammonia generated during the treatment process, while in case of photochemical ozone creation potential (POCP), the collection stage for all recycling facilities led to higher impacts to the environment due to the combustion of fossil fuels. This study indicates that the proper disposal of the final residues, such as solid sludge and screened materials, could aid in reducing environmental burdens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Korea, generation of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), or electronic waste (e-waste), has rapidly increased in recent years. The management of WEEE has become a major issue of concern for solid waste communities due to the volumes of waste being generated and the potential environmental impacts associated with the toxic chemicals found in most electronic devices. Special attention must be paid when dealing with WEEE because of toxic materials that it contains (e.g., heavy metals, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, phthalates, and polyvinyl chloride). If managed improperly, the disposal of WEEE can adversely affect the environment and human health. Environmental regulatory agencies; electronic equipment manufacturers, retailers, and recyclers; environmental nongovernmental organizations; and many others are much interested in updated statistics with regard to how much WEEE is generated, stored, recycled, and disposed of. In Korea, an extended producer responsibility policy was introduced in 2003 not only to reduce the amount of electronic products requiring disposal, but also to promote resource recovery from WEEE; the policy currently applies to a total of ten electrical and electronic product categories. This article presents an overview of the current recycling practices and management of electrical and electronic waste in Korea. Specifically, the generation rates, recycling systems and processes, and recent regulations of WEEE are discussed. We estimated that 1 263 000 refrigerators, 701 000 washing machines, 1 181 000 televisions, and 109 000 airconditioning units were retired and handled by the WEEE management system in 2006. More than 40% of the products were collected and recycled by producers. Four major producers' recycling centers and other WEEE recycling facilities are currently in operation, and these process a large faction of WEEE for the recovery of valuable materials. Much attention should still be paid to pollution prevention and resource conservation with respect to WEEE. Several suggestions are made in order to deal with electronic waste management problems effectively and to prevent potential impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]