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Special Issue on International Conference on Solid Waste 2013

One of the biggest challenging tasks all over the world is the management of solid wastes. As a sustainable and eco-friendly waste management concept ‘wastes are no longer treated as wastes’ and wastes are being recycled as resources for valuable commodities. Such sustainable management approach essentially needs exploration and development of challenging and innovative recycling technologies to deal with the diversity and complexity of solid waste generated from the modern world. The International Conference on Solid Waste-2013 served as a platform for the interactions among academics, industries, governments and policy makers towards the development of innovation in technology for sustainable waste management. To publish the innovative findings presented in this conference to a broad range of readers, this special issue includes a selection of eighteen research papers prepared for Environmental Technology with the theme of ‘Advancements in Solid Waste Treatment and Recycling Technologies’. Landfilling is the most common way of solid waste disposal in developing counties. Landfills create a significant environmental issue due to leachate containing toxic organic pollutants and heavy metals, and greenhouse gas emission. Proper management and abatement of these pollutants is important which needs effective treatments and recycling strategies. Seven papers focus on recent progress in landfill leachate treatment and recycling, metal leaching, and landfill gas collection. Waste-to-resource is a strategy in the sustainable waste management. Sewage sludge is the major constituent of municipal solid wastes and is a valuable source of organics nutrients. Sewage sludge is finally disposed of in several ways that include landfill, land application as manure, and incineration to produce thermal energy. Biosolids and its residual ash from the incinerator can be recycled into a value-added products. There are six papers present the recent developments in the aspect of waste-to-resource. Thermal technologies possess the advantage of efficient volume reduction of wastes in addition to energy production; however, but the conventional technologies still face strong public opposition that forces the researchers to look for competent technological developments. Furthermore, the ashes produced through thermal technologies or the hazardous wastes such as sewage sludge can be recycled to produce value-added products such as ceramics with wide applications. Therefore, technologies to recycle such increasing wastes are also the need of the hour. Overall three papers present the technical advancements in thermal technologies. Construction and demolition wastes from urban constructions and manufacturing industries significantly generate solid wastes which have to be disposed of or recycled in order to mitigate their impact on the environment. Recycling and reuse of construction and demolition wastes can reduce environmental impact and also save the resources. Developing new methodologies for the reuse of these kind of solid waste is essential and two papers focusing on the overview, recycling and reuse of construction and demolition wastes are also included. This special issue presents several technologies from thermal to biological with the purpose to convert wastes into resources. We trust that the papers compiled in this issue brings significant knowledge to readers in the fields of solid waste management. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the authors for their contribution to this special issue and their patience throughout the review process; and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable time and constructive criticisms to improve the quality of the papers. The editorial team acknowledges and thank the Editor-in-Chief of Environmental Technology Prof. Simon Parsons and his dedicated team of Taylor & Francis for the excellent support and opportunity to publish this special issue.