Conclusions The objective of work was to describe in this forecasting target a future development of municipal waste management system in the CR by 2015 (2020), find out the most important factors and describe possible risks of the development thereof. Moreover, the partial objective was to specify instruments for the elimination of possible risks and propose measures for the implementation of relevant instruments. The future development of municipal waste industry in the CR is predetermined by the development of the Czech economics and environmental legislation. When considering cohesion of economics of the CR and EU countries the prognosis subject is connected with the condition of European economy in a near future, and with the process and results of laying down the European directives relevant to waste management. A result of the forecasting work is the ascertainment that serious problems are to be awaited by 2015 with reference to the predicted development of quantitative and qualitative characteristics of household (municipal) waste, requirements of legal regulations in the area of recycling and recovery of packaging waste, regulation and reduction of landfilling of waste, and restriction of energetic recovery of municipal waste declared by the Government. One of the most decisive measures for the...

Mindfulness meditation (MM) has been used as an intervention tool for mental health diagnosis in the field of social work for some time and there are numerous empirical literature and research about the benefits of MM in practice. Despite the evidence and the use of MM in the field, there is very limited incorporation or MM programs and courses in the Master of Social Work (MSW) education and curricula. This study aimed to explore MSW students’ perspectives on mindfulness meditation and whether they would find it beneficial in their curricula. The study collected qualitative data through interviews MSW graduates at a Southern California University. The data collected was analyzed through ATLAS software. The findings of the study give way for future research to help note the interest of MM within MSW students and how it can help benefit MSW students personally and professionally by providing education and practice in the MSW education field. Participants expressed desire to learn more about MM, as they did not feel equipped to confidently practice it in the field. Including MM practice and education could help fortify the field of social work by creating better MSW professionals due to its benefits.

Literature reviews indicated that batteries, ferrous, non-ferrous materials, and electronic products are major contributors of trace metals in municipal solid waste (MSW). In order to assess the impact of various contaminants on the trace metal content of compost, contaminants including alkaline batteries, galvanized nails, Zn-plated screws, copper wires and electronic cables were exposed to a thermophilic composting process for three weeks. The increase in trace metal content in the compost product was measured, after the composting process. The results showed that the main contributors of trace metals are copper wires and galvanized nails. They contributed 51.9% of the CCME A limit for copper and 29.5% of the CCME A limit for zinc, respectively. To ensure the compost quality reaches the CCME category A criteria, contaminants made from bare copper or coated with zinc should be removed from the composting feedstock as much as possible. / Environmental Engineering

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Main objective of the work was to design and construct a model biodrying reactor and to try out two aeration regimes. Additional objective was to asses usability of the process for Czech waste. Model reactor was successfully designed, constructed and put into operation. Two different aeration regimes were examined: regime controlled by oxygen concentration and regime controlled by temperature in upper layer of the reactor. Better results in light of net calorific value and moisture elimination had regimes controlled by temperature in upper layer of the reactor. In light of energy budget regime controlled by oxygen concentration n. 2 performed better. Results strongly depend on composition of waste (organic fraction content) and ambient air moisture. On the basis of these results new interesting questions arise. Czech waste is energetically usable for processing by biodrying. From economic point of view insufficiency of market for produced fuel is a main problem.

The pulp- and paper production is a very energy intensive industry sector. Both Sweden and the U.S. are major pulpandpaper producers. This report examines the energy and the CO2-emission connected with the pulp- and paperindustry for the two countries from a lifecycle perspective.New technologies make it possible to increase the electricity production in the integrated pulp- andpaper mill through black liquor gasification and a combined cycle (BLGCC). That way, the mill canproduce excess electricity, which can be sold and replace electricity produced in power plants. In thisprocess the by-products that are formed at the pulp-making process is used as fuel to produce electricity.In pulp- and paper mills today the technology for generating energy from the by-product in aTomlinson boiler is not as efficient as it could be compared to the BLGCC technology. Scenarios havebeen designed to investigate the results from using the BLGCC technique using a life cycle analysis.Two scenarios are being represented by a 1994 mill in the U.S. and a 1994 mill in Sweden.The scenariosare based on the average energy intensity of pulp- and paper mills as operating in 1994 in the U.S.and Sweden respectively. The two other scenarios are constituted by a »reference mill« in the U.S. andSweden using state-of-the-art technology. We investigate the impact of varying recycling rates and totalenergy use and CO2-emissions from the production of printing and writing paper. To economize withthe wood and that way save trees, we can use the trees that are replaced by recycling in a biomassgasification combined cycle (BIGCC) to produce electricity in a power station. This produces extra electricitywith a lower CO2 intensity than electricity generated by, for example, coal-fired power plants.The lifecycle analysis in this thesis also includes the use of waste treatment in the paper lifecycle. Both Sweden and theU.S. are countries that recycle paper. Still there is a lot of paper waste, this paper is a part of the countries municipalsolid waste (MSW). A lot of the MSW is landfilled, but parts of it are incinerated to extract electricity. The thesis hasdesigned special scenarios for the use of MSW in the lifecycle analysis.This report is studying and comparing two different countries and two different efficiencies on theBLGCC in four different scenarios. This gives a wide survey and points to essential parameters to specificallyreflect on, when making assumptions in a lifecycle analysis. The report shows that there arethree key parameters that have to be carefully considered when making a lifecycle analysis of wood inan energy and CO2-emission perspective in the pulp- and paper mill in the U.S. and in Sweden. First,there is the energy efficiency in the pulp- and paper mill, then the efficiency of the BLGCC and last theCO2 intensity of the electricity displaced by BIGCC or BLGCC generatedelectricity. It also show that with the current technology that we havetoday, it is possible to produce CO2 free paper with a waste paper amountup to 30%. The thesis discusses the system boundaries and the assumptions.Further and more detailed research, including amongst others thesystem boundaries and forestry, is recommended for more specificanswers.

Objective knowledge about quantity, composition and physicochemical characteristics of municipal solid waste (MSW) in the Czech Republic will form the basis for decision- making when considering processing facilities or regional waste management systems. As the country continues to streamline its legislation to the European Union's solid waste mandates, the results of these studies were employed by the Czech Ministry of Environment to optimise the national waste management strategy. This doctoral thesis focuses on the composition of MSW, primarily the mixed MSW from three types of households in the Czech Republic (urban, mixed and rural) differentiated by their heating methods and possibility of waste disposal. The respective experimental work and data-collection took place in years 2008 and 2009. Methodology used in the analyses is based on the sieve analysis of mixed MSW within predetermined grain size fraction and on the final manual sorting of the waste by material categories. The physicochemical characteristics were measured according to the standard analysis methods. The composition of mixed MSW in urban and mixed households are similar. Some of the biggest differences were found in the quantities of certain subsample categories, especially fine fraction (matter smaller than 8 mm), between...

This study represents an analysis of comprehensive temperature and moisture content data collected from the anaerobic portion of a bioreactor landfill at the New River Regional Landfill, Florida, USA. The main focus of the study was the analysis of effects of the liquid injection on the temperature inside the landfill. When the leachate or groundwater at lower temperature than the landfilled waste is injected into the landfill, it has an initial cooling effect on the waste until the biological activity, enhanced by the additional moisture, releases heat. This cooling effect was tested in the study to determine whether it could be used to track moisture arrival as an alternative to moisture sensors. First of all, this hypothesis of cooling effect was tested at the injection wells by correlating temperature drops at the injection wells with known injection events. Then the temperature drop events were identified at monitoring locations where temperature and moisture sensors were co-located. The identification step at the monitoring wells was more difficult than in the case of the injection wells because the cooling effect at the injection well is more pronounced than at the monitoring sites, located 7.62 m away from the point of injection. From the analysis it was found out that, overall, the temperature drop at monitoring locations brought about by the injected liquid is a good criterion for tracking the moisture arrival, however only at the first arrival of moisture. Of all of the cases studied, temperature was able to indicate the moisture arrival for 85% of the times at the first injection as opposed to 36% overall. The difference was attributed to the stimulation of biological activity and subsequent heating of the injected liquid as it moves through the waste. Another focus of the research was the estimation of the waste quantity (volume) wetted from the injection. It was assumed that complete mixing takes places between injected liquid and the moisture already present in the waste and that the temperature of the injected liquid is the ambient temperature. According to the results, there was a significant gap between the expected and the actual wetted volume. The waste volume actually wetted was ≤ 1% to 9% of the total waste volume expected to be wetted. Also studied was the effect of ambient temperature on the waste temperature. It was observed that the ambient temperature has no effect on the global temperature inside a bioreactor landfill even at a shallow depth of 4.6 m. While analyzing the trend of waste temperature inside the landfill, liquid injection was found to lead to an increase in temperature.

Each year a large number of wooden pallets are manufactured, recycled, and disposed of during the transportation of goods throughout the United States. The production of these pallets consumes a significant amount of wood and a large number of pallets also end up in landfills at the end of their useful life cycle. However, these pallets can be recovered through repair, broken apart into components, ground into mulch, fuel, animal bedding, or used by landfills for day to day operations. The purpose of this research was to investigate the total number of pallets and crates reaching landfills in the United States as well as to gain a better understanding of the overall waste stream. This was done by surveying all licensed Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) and Construction and Demolition (CandD) landfills in the continental United States. A questionnaire was sent to these landfills, and this entire study was intended to build upon previous Virginia Tech landfill surveys conducted in 1995 and 1998 with some changes made after careful review. Overall, it was found the average MSW facility in the United States received 185,077 tons of waste and the average CandD facility received 74,911 tons. This results in a total national estimate of 253 million tons of MSW and 76.9 million tons of CandD waste. Approximately 18.3 million pallets were landfilled and an additional 13.8 million were recovered, repurposed, or reused at MSW facilities. At CandD facilities, approximately 19.2 million pallets were landfilled while 38.3 million were recovered. / Master of Science