Waste is any unwanted material intentionally thrown away for disposal. The domestic waste is unwanted material generated by normal household activities including, but not limited to, food wastes, food packaging, glass bottles, plastics, clothing, newspapers and magazines; while the industrial waste is a type of waste produced by industrial factories, mills and mines. Another type of waste is called electronic waste or e-waste consisting of electronic products that were used for data processing, telecommunications, or entertainment in private households and businesses that are now considered obsolete, broken, or irreparable. Electronic waste includes computers, entertainment electronics, mobile phones and other items that have been discarded by their original users. With rapid urbanization and uncontrolled growth of population, solid waste generation and management has become a major social and environmental issue for every country. Though municipal bodies provide solid waste management services, but are given low priority due to lack of financial resources, institutional weaknesses, improper choice of technology and public apathy towards municipal solid waste. The current practices of uncontrolled dumping of waste on the outskirts of towns and cities have created serious environmental and public health issues. This volume presents a fine collection of articles on municipal solid waste collection, disposal and management, energy generation by different methods and lot more. The topics covered in this volume include: o Solid wastes o Municipal solid waste o Methodological contributions and some empirical evidence on municipal solid waste o Municipal solid waste management and disposal o Sources, uses, pathways, toxicity and remediation of mercury o E-scrap mining trajectories for development in Ghana o Battery waste management o Befoul and byproducts generation from oil palm biomass o Sewage sludge disposal/reuse and its environmental impact o Energy from municipal solid waste o Paralysis for thermal treatment of waste and contaminated soil o Efficiency, reliability and safety aspects of biogas production, purification and utilization o New findings on bodying kinetics of sewage sludge o Cost effective production of bioplastic (PHAs) from agricultural and industrial waste o Rare earth elements in coals and barren rocks in upper Silesian coal basin o Economic techniques for management of radioactive wastes o Solid waste management challenges in developing countries The present volume contains 17 articles from 34 researchers and/or academicians representing 12 nations, namely Chile, Egypt, Ghana, India, Italy, Malaysia, Nigeria, Poland, Romania, South Korea, Spain and United States of America giving an overview of the various research activities being carried out in different parts of the world in the field of Solid Waste Management.
