Advances in Recycling & Waste Management

Healthcare institutions generate different types of infectious and/or hazardous medical waste that poses enormous risk to patients, healthcare providers, waste pickers, and the community at large, if their disposal is not comprehensively and scientifically managed. This study was focused on the assessment of waste management practice, the status of existing medical waste incinerator facility found in Addis Ababa city government and private hospitals. A cross sectional descriptive study was carried out with the aim of assessing the current facility status and practices. The study approach involved literature review, use of survey, an empirical investigation comprising physical visit, observation checklist, and group discussion. The results showed that poor hazardous waste handling practice indicating all hospital incinerator have 100% some sort of incinerator but in different grade level which were categorized in three groups such as 93% of them were local ordinary brick incinerator in various and poorly designed, constructed and operated manner, whereas 7% of them were modern imported incinerator still among these only 5% of them were functional but still operated below the standard whereas the rest were old and nonfunctional. This paper has highlighted the pitfalls of poor status of incinerator facility and management practices in hospital waste management.

A landfilled coal fly ash was blended with different constituents for achieving a balanced chemistry that suits production of hydraulic cement and concurrent capture of carbon dioxide. The blend of raw materials was processed via input of mechanical energy into hydraulic cements. The input of mechanical energy via milling was performed in three different environments: air, N2 and CO2. The resultant hydraulic cements were characterized through assessment of their specific surface area, microstructure (scanning electron microscopy), chemical bond environment (FTIR), heat of hydration, and pH, total dissolved solids and electric conductivity of their solutions. Mechanical processing of the blend of raw materials was found to transform them into hydraulic cement. The environment of mechanical processing was also found to be an important factor influencing the properties of the resultant cement. 

In this study 6 bacterial isolate, isolated Uranium Ore samples from Aborshid Egypt, were characterized for their response to 15 antibiotics and 10 heavy metals Beside Uranium. The results revealed a varying response of the Ore bacteria to the tested heavy metals. All isolates showed multiple metal resistance towards two to six heavy metals, with MIC ranging from 50 to 1000 ppm. The most potent of the strains in both groups were resistant to Pb, Ni, Cu and Zn. highly metal-resistant bacteria could be used with potential application for treatment of wastewaters, using Immobilized Bacterial cells isolated from Egypt uranium Ore, Uranium removal from uranium refining wastewater, the most potent isolate was identified the Egyptian strains belong to E. coli, based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing the nucleotide sequences reported here were deposited to the NCBI Nucleotide Sequence Database under accession numbers (MF496270) by the name of Mostafa gomaa fadl.

Uranium and other heavy toxic elements distribution in the drinking water samples of SW-Punjab, India, are presented. It is mandatory in all publications to clearly mention the instrumental details to ensure reliability of measurement results. The same fluorescence enhancing reagent should be used for calibration of the instrument and subsequent measurement of uranium in samples. Using the above procedure for pre-concentration and keeping in view of the characteristic concentration of these heavy metals using flame Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer, their determination at μgl-1 concentration levels is practically impossible. Interpretation and conclusions based on such unreliable results on uranium and other heavy metals will be highly misleading for their health risk, toxicological risk and chemical toxicity risk assessments

Amino magnetic titano-silicate was prepared by two different methods in the presence of dispersed fine magnetite particles the obtained composites named (AMTS and IMTS) were used as an adsorbent to remove U(VI) ions from aqueous solutions and rock samples by a batch method. Various conditions were evaluated, including solution pH, initial uranium concentration, adsorbent dosage, and contact time. The adsorption kinetics and equilibrium isotherms of U(VI) by the AMTS and IMTS composite were studied using the pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order kinetic models as well as Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. The kinetic data followed the pseudo-secondorder equation; the isotherm data were described by the Langmuir isotherm model and the maximum adsorption capacity (Qmax) was obtained at 142.2 and 133.33 mg/g for AMTS and IMTS, respectively