Hosam El-Din Saleh is a Professor of Radioactive Waste Management in the Radioisotope Department, Nuclear Research Center, Atomic Energy Authority, Egypt. The development and application of approaches and technologies that provide economical and safe management is an essential issue in the treatment and disposal of hazardous waste.
Introduction
Facilities that generate hazardous waste can be divided into categories based on the monthly amount of hazardous waste sent. To be nominated as an LQG, a facility must dispose of more than 1,000 kg of hazardous waste per month.
Infectious waste
Small volume generators generate between 100 and 1000 kg per month, while the third category, namely CESQG plants, provided less than 100 kg of hazardous waste each month [5, 6]. The nomination of the most famous categorization and the classification of hazardous waste are those based on the source that generates this waste, which can be distinguished from industrial waste originating from various industrial plants.
Anatomical waste
Healthcare waste (HCW) can be defined as the total waste generated from a healthcare facility and would consist of non-hazardous or general waste and hazardous HCW. The hazardous healthcare wastes (HHCWs) are considered as the most crucial part of waste generated by the healthcare facilities due to their hazardous impact on man and his ecosystems.
Radioactive waste
Moreover, it includes the identical types of waste arising from small and scattered sources; the non-hazardous HCW is designated as waste that poses no specific biological, chemical, radioactive or physical threats to humans or the environment. It is worth mentioning that pharmaceutical waste is not simple category of waste, but many and variable; moreover, the chemicals that make up pharmaceutical dosage forms are complex and variable.
Hazardous pharmaceutical waste
Sharps
Highly infectious waste
Genotoxic/cytotoxic waste
This group of wastes is assumed to contain pathogens (or their toxins) in a concentration that can be sources of disease for a host. Whether it may be contaminated or not, anatomical waste is in most cases designated as potentially infectious waste.
Hazardous chemical waste
Waste with a high content of heavy metals
Hazardous waste management hierarchy
In this trend, materials that can be shipped to a reverse distributor must still be managed as a product until the reverse distributor decides to discard the item. This hierarchy usually starts with the separation of the hazardous waste and ends with its final disposal.
Recommendation
The WHO should promote tools based on the well-known five topics: management, training, regulatory and financial issues as well as technologies [18]. But it is very difficult to infer the health of the whole organism, including humans, only from the results of in vitro cell tests.
Toxicity assessment with Artemia spp. and its advantages
Chronic toxicity tests are mainly related to long-term exposure to relatively low concentrations (at the μg/L level), ranging from a few weeks to the entire life cycle of Artemia spp. From an environmental point of view, Artemia spp. nauplii have been used to assess the toxicity of various hazardous metal substances such as As, Cr, Sn, etc. 19–22]; organic compounds including pharmaceuticals, agricultural chemicals, etc.
Application status of the toxicity assessment with Artemia spp
Acute mortality test
Reproduction of brine shrimp Artemia (individuals, populations and species) subjected to critical life conditions imposed by saline lakes. The Brine Shrimp Mortality study is one of the bioassays to determine the safe exposure limit of natural agents extracted from plants before they are used as crop pesticides and other botanical protection [16].
Acute cyst hatching test
The algae-induced red tide is quite disastrous and can threaten inshore fisheries. The toxic Chattonella marina that produces reactive oxygen species (ROS) [52] and hemolytic toxins [53] is a type of red tide-related algae and has led to massive fish kills and a significant amount of economic loss in many places around the world. The "Brine Shrimp Lethality" study in this regard may help to reveal the toxic properties of the Chattonella marina, provide some valuable evidence for red tide prevention and further benefit the offshore fishing industry .
Acute behavioral test (swimming speed)
Another example related to the Artemia acute toxicity test [50, 51] is for the purpose of preventing and reducing red tides.
Prospects for development of toxicity assessment with Artemia spp
In particular, swimming speed as a sublethal behavioral endpoint can be detected by using a video camera tracking system developed by Faimali et al. Pan [70] investigated the swimming speed and movement angle change of Artemia exposed to diesel oil. In contrast, the swimming speed of brine shrimp when exposed to diesel oil decreased by 40%, from 2.37 mm/s at start time to 1.42 mm/s after an average of 12 hours of exposure, and in a similar trend, the angle of movement of brine shrimp decreased. Artemia decreased from 30 to 21°.
Conclusions
For example, hazardous radioactive waste is produced at every stage of the nuclear fuel cycle (uranium) with no nuclear waste facility. Most of the nuclear waste produced in nuclear power plants (half-lives and effects of environmentally hazardous radioactive isotopes are listed in Table 1). Before phytoremediation of the radioactive waste in question, the appropriate natural plant must be chosen wisely.
Classification of radioactive wastes
Phytoremediation of radioactive waste is a valuable technique for treating large-scale, but low-level radionuclide waste. In the present chapter, significant features prompting the selection of natural plant to remediate radioactive waste. Low Level Waste (LLW): This covers limited amounts of long-lived radionuclides with a very wide variety of radioactive waste.
Treatment methods
Intermediate-level waste (ILW): ILW (reactor components, chemical residues, spent metal fuel cladding) contains long-lived radionuclides alpha (α) emitters and isolation blocks. High-level waste (HLW): HLW covers high intensities of radiation that produce large amounts of heat by radioactive degeneration. The waste contains both short-lived and long-lived highly radioactive nucleotides (half-lives of many thousands of years), which include high concentrations of radioactivity and require refrigeration and special shielding, handling and storage.
Radioactive waste uptake phytoremediation mechanisms
Conventional remediation techniques such as chemical, thermal and physical treatment methods are too expensive and may end up causing more environmental pollution. The control of radioactive waste includes the reduction of radioactive residues, careful handling of waste packaging, safe storage and disposal, and protection of areas of source of radioactivity. Examples of ex-situ methods are: soil leaching, solidification, immobilization, vitrification, heap leaching, land disposal, sea disposal, incineration and/or destruction, etc.
Six main subgroups in phytoremediation
Thermal methods are technically difficult and adversely affect the valuable component of the soil by degrading it [21]. Ex-situ Methods: This method requires the removal of contaminated soil for on/off-site treatment and then returning the treated soil to the site. This chapter evaluates some of the research that has been done on phytoremediation of radioactive metals and aims to discuss the potential of phytoremediation, shed light on the general mechanisms of uptake by plants, give a brief overview of radioactive metals (especially: Uranium- 238 , Thorium-232, Radium-226) uptake by plants, and report the advantages and limitations of this method.
Factors affecting the uptake mechanisms
- Plant species
- Properties of medium
- The root zone
- Addition of chelating agents
Phytoextraction: Plants that break down pollutants from the soil (tailings) and concentrate the pollutants in the harvestable parts of plants; i.e. in all plant organs - leaves, stems and roots [24, 25]. The success of phytoremediation technique depends on the ability of the plant to accumulate [36]. TF can be used as an index of the growth of a target element in the plant and its transfer from the tailings to the plant.
Phytomanagement
Factors such as radionuclide concentration, pH, plant age, and ecotype can adjust uptake and the ratio between the content of the element present in the plant shoot and the content in the root [47]. In summary, the phytoremediation of target radionuclides from the following largely depends on the three parameters of radionuclide concentration in the plant, plant biomass and target radionuclide concentration in the investigations. In this formula, the shoot refers to the plant tissue above ground, including the seed, leaf, and stem.
Conclusion and future directions
Various factors such as the properties of the radioactive waste, the concentration of the target radionuclide in the radioactive waste, the biomass of the plant, the plant species and the composition of the plants in the radioactive waste disposal area, the concentration of the target radionuclide in the plant and should be thoroughly reviewed. PF concerns the concentration of the target element in the plant, the shoot biomass and the concentration of the target element in the tailings or tailings (roots) of the plant, was planned for the target element to determine the ability of the plant to remove radioactive waste. Phytoremediation of crude oil-contaminated soil by Axonopus compressus in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.
Secondary raw materials recovered in electronic waste recycling E-waste contains components that have historically been valuable in significant
Finally, all the components that cannot be sold or used as secondary raw materials are disposed of through incineration or landfill. The rare earth elements considered to have the highest potential resale value (and the highest risk of supply shortages) are neodymium (Nd), europium (Eu), dysprosium (Dy), terbium (Tb) and yttrium (Y) [12, 14 ]. State-of-the-art facilities in Japan and France capable of extracting rare earths have recently become operational [15, 16].
The role of extended producer responsibility in e-waste recycling Estimates of how much electronic waste is generated globally within a given
On the one hand, revisions in shredding and sorting machines have improved the consistency and quality of the materials that are collected in the pre-processing stage. Concerns about the safety and sustainability of the supply of rare earths have prompted the development of new mechanized technologies to recover these materials from a wide range of e-waste inputs. Whether they are located within the EU, the US or Japan, these new operational recycling facilities will require a large amount of e-waste inputs in order to be profitable.
Environmental and human health hazards of electronic waste recycling
Such mandates originated as part of the concept of extended producer responsibility (EPR), which states that manufacturers of products with hazardous ingredients must bear the logistical and financial burden of recycling or disposing of their products in a responsible manner for the environment [23] . One of the main concerns listed in the report is the potential for exposure to "metal dust" during the manual disassembly process [31]. Following the publication of the NIOSH report, additional studies of occupational field exposures at formal e-waste recycling facilities have been completed.
Conclusion
Interrogating the 'race to the bottom' in the global environmental governance of hazardous waste trade. The concept of the study highlighted strategic features in line with the socio-economic assessment of e-waste management. S/Nr Outline of key areas of interest for the questionnaire for "Socio-economic assessment of e-waste".
E-waste end users have a habit of storing and indiscriminately disposing of e-waste. Assessment of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Management Strategies in Southeast Nigeria [PhD thesis].
