Towards low carbon society in Iskandar Malaysia: Implementation and feasibility of community organic waste composting

Environmental impacts and optimization simulation of aerobic anaerobic combination treatment technology for food waste with life cycle assessment

After the implementation of waste sorting policy in Shanghai, the amount of food waste (FW) separation and treatment demand has increased significantly. It is necessary to establish the life cycle assessment (LCA) to assess the environmental impacts of various treatment technologies comprehensively, thus provide support for sorting, recycling, treatment and disposal strategies of FW. In this study, a local FW treatment plant in Shanghai, using typically aerobic anaerobic combination treatment technology was selected to analyze the environmental impacts with LCA. The process mainly included pretreatment, power, aerobic composting, anaerobic digestion, and further process systems. LCA results showed that the environmental impacts mainly came from the power and aerobic composting systems on the fine particulate matter formation and eutrophication, and freshwater ecotoxicity and terrestrial acidification, respectively. Considering the carbon footprint, the aerobic composting system contributed 3.61E + 02 kg CO₂ eq and represented the largest source of carbon emission. The soil conditioner yielded both environmental benefits on eutrophication and terrestrial ecotoxicity, and ecological benefits of 75.33 million CNY per year being the major revenue for the treatment plant. It also suggested that the biogas generation capacity of anaerobic digestion could be increased to achieve electricity self-sufficiency, thus save about 7.12 million CNY per year in electricity costs, and avoid corresponding environmental impacts caused by coal-fired. In summary, the aerobic anaerobic combination treatment could be further optimized and applied in FW treatment to reduce the environmental impacts, and enhance resource recovery and secondary pollution control.

A Review on the Challenges and Choices for Food Waste Valorization: Environmental and Economic Impacts

Valorization of food waste (FW) is instrumental for reducing the environmental and economic burden of FW and transitioning to a circular economy. The FW valorization process has widely been studied to produce various end-use products and summarize them; however, their economic, environmental, and social aspects are limited. This study synthesizes some of the valorization methods used for FW management and produces value-added products for various applications, and also discusses the technological advances and their environmental, economic, and social aspects. Globally, 1.3 billion tonnes of edible food is lost or wasted each year, during which about 3.3 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas is emitted. The environmental (-347 to 2969 kg CO₂ equiv/tonne FW) and economic (-100 to $138/tonne FW) impacts of FW depend on the multiple parameters of food chains and waste management systems. Although enormous efforts are underway to reduce FW as well as valorize unavoidable FW to reduce environmental and economic loss, it seems the transdisciplinary approach/initiative would be essential to minimize FW as well as abate the environmental impacts of FW. A joint effort from stakeholders is the key to reducing FW and the efficient and effective valorization of FW to improve its sustainability. However, any initiative in reducing food waste should consider a broader sustainability check to avoid risks to investment and the environment.

Responses of synanthropic vegetation to composting facility

Composting facilities are habitats where biological materials are bio-oxidized. Biological waste represents a source of plant species diaspores and may promote changes in the species composition of the surrounding. The studied composting facility is situated in the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands, Czech Republic. Four sites, the composting pile and three habitats nearby were chosen of different use and disturbance conditions. Phytosociological plots were recorded in each of the habitat and the results were processed using multivariate analyses of ecological data. The information about plant species indication values was also analysed: (i) the relationship between soil disturbance and plant species occurrence, (ii) seed dormancy, (iii) seed bank, and (iv) vector of seed dispersion. During the research, 119 plant taxa were found in total. Conditions of the composting process (frequent disturbances, excessive available nutrients, enough water, and supply of new diaspores) represent a challenge for plant species. The presence of plant diaspores in the biowaste is a reason why the fundamental principle of appropriate composting process has to be adhered to. Another important task is to give attention to the methods determining the share of living diaspores in the final compost, which is still missing in practice. Compost might become a vehicle for spreading weeds. The capacity of vegetation to survive and multiply on the premises of composting facilities increases the importance of vegetation monitoring and control of the adjacent areas. The usual occurrence of rural brownfields near composting facilities increases the risk of diaspores being transmitted into biowaste or compost, thus increasing the share of undesirable viable diaspores. Composting facilities generate specific synanthropic conditions for the vegetation. Therefore, the composting facility projects should take into consideration the surrounding areas and vegetation management. It is recommended that the project should include semi-natural vegetation, which can create efficient barriers to the spreading of undesirable ruderal plant species. The novelty of this study is the confirmation that composting facilities and compost become a new factor affecting vegetation, which has been disregarded so far. The link between composting facilities and vegetation has to be included in the legislation related to parameters of compost quality. Moreover, the issue of weeds, their reproductive organs and their spread should be considered in the guidelines for the design, location, construction, and operation of composting facilities.

Environmental and Economic Life-Cycle Assessments of Household Food Waste Management Systems: A Comparative Review of Methodology and Research Progress

Household food waste (HFW) is the main component of municipal solid waste (MSW). Appropriate HFW management strategies could reduce the environmental burdens and economic costs to society. Life-cycle thinking is an effective decision-making tool for MSW management. This paper compares the three main environmental and economic assessment methodologies, i.e., societal life-cycle costing (societal LCC), environmental cost-effectiveness (ECE) analysis, and multicriteria analysis (MCA) in terms of the definitions, method frameworks, and their advantages/disadvantages. Most reviewed studies applied the environmental life-cycle costing (ELCC) method, a simplified ECE, which does not involve interactive quantitative comparisons between environmental and economic benefits. Further attention should be paid to the coordination between life-cycle assessment (LCA) and life-cycle costing (LCC), the monetization coefficient in external cost calculation of societal LCC, and the standardization and evaluation approaches of ECE. HFW prevention is rarely considered in the reviewed literature but was demonstrated as the best route over treatment or utilization. Anaerobic digestion is environmentally preferable to composting and landfilling; it is comparable to biodiesel production, feeding conversation, and incineration. From the perspective of economic costs (including societal LCC), the ranking of treatment technologies varied a lot from one study to another, attributable to the diverse evaluation methods and different data sources. To improve the environmental and economic assessment approaches to HFW management, an inventory database (e.g., food waste properties, technical treatment parameters, material flow, and fund flow data) suitable for HFW should be constructed. When establishing the system boundaries, the processes of source sorting, collection and transportation, and by-product handling should be coherent with the investigated treatment technology.

A Comparative Study on the Aerobic Biodegradation of the Biopolymer Blends of Poly(butylene succinate), Poly(butylene adipate terephthalate) and Poly(lactic acid)

The aim of the present work is to evaluate the rate and mechanisms of the aerobic biodegradation of biopolymer blends under controlled composting conditions using the CO₂ evolution respirometric method. The biopolymer blends of poly (butylene adipate terephthalate) (PBAT) blended with poly (lactic acid) (PLA), and PBAT blended with poly (butylene succinate) (PBS) by melt extrusion, were tested to evaluate the amount of carbon mineralized under home and industrial composting conditions. The changes in the structural, chemical, thermal and morphological characteristics of the biopolymer blends before and after biodegradation were investigated by FT-IR, DSC, TGA, XRD and SEM. Both blends showed higher degradation rates under industrial composting conditions, when compared to home composting conditions. This was confirmed by FT-IR analysis showing an increase in the intensity of hydroxyl and carbonyl absorption bands. SEM revealed that there was microbial colony formation and disintegration on the surfaces of the biopolymer blends. The obtained results suggest that industrial composting conditions are the most suitable for an enhanced biodegradation of the biopolymer blends viz PBAT–PBS and PBAT–PLA.

Occurrence, transformation, bioaccumulation, risk and analysis of pharmaceutical and personal care products from wastewater: a review

Almost all aspects of society from food security to disease control and prevention have benefited from pharmaceutical and personal care products, yet these products are a major source of contamination that ends up in wastewater and ecosystems. This issue has been sharply accentuated during the coronavirus disease pandemic 2019 (COVID-19) due to the higher use of disinfectants and other products. Here we review pharmaceutical and personal care products with focus on their occurrence in the environment, detection, risk, and removal.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10311-022-01498-7.

Malek R. Inventory and composting of yard waste in Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

Composting of yard waste is one of the waste management approaches in the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) in Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. The yard waste inventory was developed in the headquarters' area and a pilot-scale study was performed on the potential compost product. The total amount of yard waste generated from June 2017 to December 2017 was 16.75 tonnes with an average generation of 0.60 tonnes per week on the dry weight (d.w.) basis. The collected yard waste consisted of three major characteristics, namely dry leaves, fresh green leaves, and grass cuttings, and a waste estimation technique was applied to determine the composition of these three elements. The acquired information was used to formulate the initial compost mixture. The wastes were then mixed with an appropriate amount of livestock manure and other wastes to obtain the optimum initial C/N ratio, which was then found in the analysis to range between 25:1 and 42:1. Meanwhile, the C/N ratios obtained from the matured compost product were from 10:1 and 15:1. Moreover, most of the compost yield ranged between 50% and 70% (w w-1 d.w. basis), while the percentage of the seed germination in the compost was over 95%. The viability of the project was indicated from the economic analysis, with benefit to cost ratio (BCR) values of more than 1. The results also suggested that the large scale composting of yard waste in MARDI was feasible and its applicability is continuous. This technique also fulfilled the objective of producing quality compost, which was suitable for agricultural use.

Environmental and economic feasibility of an integrated community composting plant and organic farm in Malaysia

Waste prevention and management become a significant issue worldwide to achieve sustainable development. Similar to many developing countries, Malaysia has faced severe problems in waste management due to its rapid economic growth and urbanisation. The municipal solid waste (MSW) production rate in Malaysia had increased significantly in a recent year, ranging from 0.8 to 1.25 kg/person∙d. The wastes generated contain a high amount of organic portion with high moisture content. Improper MSW management practice or delayed in waste collection and transportation can lead to severe health issues. This paper presents a case study in Johor Bahru, Malaysia (FOLO Farm), in which a composting prototype is used as the waste management technology to recycle the food and vegetable wastes. The greenhouse gases (GHG) mitigation and economic feasibility of the integrated composting and organic farming in this study are reported. This study showed a reduction of 27% of GHG by diverting the food and vegetable wastes from open dumping to the composting plant. Higher reduction rate (∼44%) can be achieved with better planning of waste collection route and applying the mitigation strategies during the composting process. By adapting the membership concept, this project not only ensures the economic feasibility of running a composting plant but also secures a channel for the growth of vegetable distribution. This study provides an insight into the feasibility and desirability to implement a pilot-scale composting for organic waste management to achieve the low carbon and self-sustain community.

Intergovernmental relations for environmental governance: Cases of solid waste management and climate change in two Malaysian States

Institutions for environmental governance evolve differently across sectors. They also vary in the same sector when governments at two levels (national and subnational) have different political alignments. As the policy environment becomes more complex, with global problems like climate change, and politics more dividing, better coordination among various levels of government is a tough governance challenge. Scholars and practitioners need to realize how best to build institutions to bridge the various levels of government in different political environments and environmental sectors. This research analyzes the influence of intergovernmental relations in two environmental sectors in two localities with contrasting political alignments between two levels of government. It draws lessons from solid waste management and climate policy in two Malaysian states (Johor and Penang). In an evolving State and new policy arenas, when formal institutions for intergovernmental relations may not be effectively in place, politics play an even larger role through the discretionary power of federal and subnational authorities. An open political process can help with the engagement of different political groups and civil society to bring legitimacy, resources and efficiency to environmental management, if it is done with robust intergovernmental institutions; otherwise, intergovernmental relations can also become a tool for zero-sum games, cronyism and patrimonialism, which can undermine policies, and result in inefficiencies and ineffectiveness in environmental management.