This study explored the application of compost onto a small loblolly pine tree forest in northeast Texas. Its purpose was to determine if the application of various amounts of compost would provide for accelerated rates of growth for the trees. Soil parameters were also monitored. A total of 270 trees were planted and studied in a northeast Texas forest ecosystem. Compost rates of 5, 25, and 50 tons per acre with either soil or compost backfill were utilized and compared to a control without compost. Nonparametric and parametric ANOVA and Chi-Square tests were utilized. The results indicated that greater application rates retained greater moisture and higher pH levels in the soil. Compost applications also yielded a greater survival rate as well as larger tree height and diameter when compared to the control. The 25 ton/acre application backfilled in native soil achieved the greatest average in height and diameter when compared to the averages for the control plot. Greater growth differences for the 25S application can be attributed to additional nutrients coupled with a stable pH consistent with native soil acidity.

The main goal of my thesis is to map the legal regulation of municipal waste management in the Czech Republic. The reason for the study of the legal regulation is to establish whether the regulation has sufficient instruments to treat the municipal waste in compliance of the waste management hierarchy that is grounded in the European Union's Waste Framework Directive. The thesis also deals with the different concept of the municipal waste in Czech and European legislation. It mentions the differences that would be carried out to the field of municipal waste by the planned legislation.

Legal regime of municipal waste management This work about legal regime of municipal waste management in the Czech Republic begins with a chapter about some aspects of the municipal waste, especially the quantity in which the CR and the EU produces municipal waste, ways in which municipal waste is disposed and percentage limits which should be achieved in municipal waste management. Next part is started with a short flashback into the history of legislation of waste (and municipal waste as well) in the Czech Republic in the last 20 years - follows independence of the Czech Republic. Conception of municipal waste did not get throught a big changes during that decades, so didn't the system of municipal waste management. In the recent years there have been serious discussions about the new "waste" law and after the new Goverment was elected they started again, also we will see if the new law will see the lights of the world. The work then gives an explanation of basic terms - waste and municipal waste - in the Czech law and also in the European law. Because of being the member of European Union, the Czech Republic has quite similar definitions of these terms - new laws were prepared to be conformable with European law. Also the waste hierarchy, important for the approach to waste management, is the...

It is quite complicated to evaluate the hazardous waste production and management because the terminology is inconsistent and the legislation differs across countries. This makes it very difficult to compare data among countries and even within the same one. Hence the same data may vary by several tens of percent if they are generated according to different directives. This work deals with evaluation of the production of hazardous waste belonging to the group 20 in Catalogue of wastes. The total production of the hazardous waste from municipalities and citizens (households) is evaluated over a period 2008 - 2011 and the production in the capital city of Prague is for a term of 2006 - 2012. All the types of hazardous waste of the group 20 in Catalogue of wastes cannot be treated individually, due to their high number, and therefore they were arranged into seven groups, which were further processed statistically. The dominant component in both test cases is paint, the total production contains also big amount of electrical waste, fluorescent lamps and batteries. An important part of this work is to compare the composition of household waste originating from three different types of installations - housing estates, mixed and rural. Contrary to my original expectations, the most hazardous waste comes...

Orange cultivation is a huge industry which increasing for each year. By the year 2010 theorange production of the world is expected to reach 66.4 million tons per year. Most of theoranges are used for orange juice production. Consequently, a large amount of organic wastes,including seeds, segment membranes and peel, counting up to half of the weight of usedoranges, are generated As alternatives to land filling and incineration, source separation andcomposting together with biogas production are being considered as suitable methods fortreating this fraction of wastes, because it holds a high amount of organic materials in form ofvaluable carbohydrate polymers. However, the presence of peel oil, limonene, known to haveantimicrobial effects, has showed to be a strong inhibitor for the biogas producingmicroorganisms. Therefore the orange peel waste (OP) was mixed with the organic fraction ofmunicipal solid waste (MSW) in this study to keep the concentration of this inhibitorycompound at low level.Based on the results from previous batch experiments, this study was performed in order toconfirm and develop the possible use of orange peel waste in biogas production. Since thebatch experiments showed that the methane production was not affected, when a mixture of70% MSW and 30% OP (calculated on the basis of volatile solids (VS) content added) wasused as substrate, a continuous anaerobic digestion experiment was performed using the samemixture of MSW and OP as a substrate in this study. Furthermore, a reactor utilizing onlyMSW was used as a control. Both reactors were operated during 35 days at thermophilicconditions (55ºC), with an organic loading rate of 3gVS/L/day and a hydraulic retention timeof 21 days. The methane production was around 0,5 Nm3/kgVS/day in both reactors duringthe first period of operation. However, the production of methane started to decrease after 20days followed by a sharp decrease during the last 5 days in the orange peel-containing reactor.Furthermore, a steadily increase (from 4,85g/L to 6,51g/L) in the total content of volatile fattyacids (VFA) could be observed here, while the total content of VFA in the control reactorremained at low levels (0,84g/L). A second experimental set up using a decreased amount ofOP (20% OP and 80% MSW) in the substrate mixture and operating at the same conditions sthe previous experiment was also performed and showed similar trends in the results. Thefailure of the process can be explained by inhibition in the system, which led to theaccumulation of VFA’s resulting in a decreased and finally no methane production. Thisinhibition might be caused by the accumulation of the inhibitory compound, limonene,presented in the orange peel waste. Therefore some treatment of the OP is necessary prior todigestion to avoid this inhibition. Batch digestion of treated vs untreated OP showed that themethane production of treated OP could be increased to 0,628 Nm3/kgVS compared to that of0,408 Nm3/kgVS from the untreated sample. Further investigations utilizing this treated OPfraction in continuous biogas process are necessary in the future.

This diploma thehis is focused on the financing of public services in municipalities in the Czech Republic related to demographic changes, which take place in the Czech Republic. As is generally known, population in the Czech Republic ages. But the aging is only one of the factors influencing the demographics. The goal is to assess the impact of demographic changes on municipal expenditures associated mainly with municipal waste management, but also to the overall municipal relationship to the environment. The thesis is divided into two parts, theoretical and practical. The theoretical part deals with the public municipal services and demographics in the Czech Republic in time and also deals with the system of financing these services, whether the municipality's own resources, e. g. the property taxes, or other funds from the state budget or from the EU funds. The second, practical part, is formed as a case study including specific data from specific municipality. It contains detailed information about municipality's waste management and about population growth in Karvina city during the specific time period.

To assess anthropogenic impacts of point-source and diffuse discharges on fish populations of the Waikato River, compare responses to different discharges and identify potential sentinel fish species, we sampled wild populations of brown bullhead catfish (Ameiurus nebulosus, (LeSueur, 1819)), shortfin eel (Anguilla australis Richardson, 1848), and common bully (Gobiomorphus cotidianus McDowall, 1975) in the Waikato River. Sites upstream and downstream of: geothermal; bleached kraft mill effluent (BKME); sewage and thermal point-source discharges were sampled. At each site, the population parameters, relative abundance, age structure and individual indices such as: condition factor; and organ (gonad, liver, and spleen) somatic weight ratios; and number and size of follicles per female were assessed. Indicators of fish residence and in some cases exposure to contaminants in discharges were analyzed. Bile chemistry of brown bullhead and shortfin eel was assayed, liver and muscle metal levels were analyzed for brown bullhead and shortfin eel respectively, and stable isotopes of C and N in common bully were measured. Bile, metal and isotopic signatures gave strong evidence that fish had been resident at sites for some time before sampling. Signatures of bile and metal contaminants showed contamination was localised to discharge areas. Gradients in stable isotopes in common bully showed evidence of changes in water sources and anthropogenic effects along the river. Biochemical variables, hepatic ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase (EROD) and plasma steroids indicated exposure and response of brown bullhead and shortfin eel to pulp and paper contaminants at the BKME site. Physiological (blood) variables showed fish largely responded in a predictable way to elevated water temperatures at discharge sites at time of sampling, however total haemoglobin of brown bullhead and common bully blood failed to increase at the BKME site despite elevated temperatures and low dissolved oxygen. Growth rates, condition factor, age structure, and gonadosomatic index (GSI) suggest that discharges with significant heat or nutrients benefit brown bullhead despite physiological impairment at the BKME site. Shortfin eel individuals also benefited from heated water discharges. No consistent impacts on common bully health were obvious at individual discharge sites, or cumulatively along the river due to the gradual deterioration in water quality downstream. Common bully individuals also benefited from heat in discharges but lack of juveniles at sites where numerous juvenile brown bullhead were found, suggest that unlike brown bullhead populations, common bully populations were not responding with significant recruitment. Although I found little evidence of toxic effects of discharges on shortfin eel, caution is required in assessing the potential of contaminants to impact eel populations due to the life history of shortfin eel, and exploited nature of populations. For example, reproductive damage suffered by adult eels may not immediately manifest itself in the effected population due to temporal delays in gonadal maturation, and recruitment, and single panmictic populations supplementing recruitment of impacted populations. Distinct changes in population parameters at each of the paired sites and changes in individual variables showed that fish responded to discharges. The range of responses in species suggests different sensitivity to contaminants and amount of benefit which each species receives from heat in discharges. In these terms shortfin eel would be the most resistant, then brown bullhead and lastly common bully. Interpretation of population-level impacts at the geothermal and BKME discharge sites is made difficult due to benefits of additional heat. There is also the possibility that detection of sub-lethal or chronic effects on sensitive juvenile life-stages may be being hidden by compensatory density population responses. Responses and life history of common bully made them the preferred indicator species of the three species sampled, and supported overseas examples using small-bodied fish species as sentinels.

The objective of this study was to remove mercury vapor from municipal waste incinerator (MWI) by the adsorption of powder activated carbon (PAC) prepared from the pyrolysis of waste tire. The study focused on the measurement of mercury concentration in flue gas emitted from municipal waste incinerator, the preparation of PAC from the pyrolysis of the waste tire and impregnated with sulfur, and the adsorption capacity of mercury by the self-made PAC. The measurement of heavy metals in flue gas emitted from four typical MWIs was conducted in this study. Experimental results obtained from the measurement of mercury from flue gas indicated that the removal efficiency of mercury ranged from 83.71%~96.22%for the tested MWIs. This study revealed that the injection of PAC in flue gas would enhance the removal efficiency of mercury. Besides, oxided mercury (Hg2+) can be removed much more easily than elemental mercury (Hg0). Experimental results obtained from the pyrolysis of waste tires indicated that the pyrolysis temperature of waste tire was approximately 400~500¢J, and the percentage of carbon residue is 35~37%. With higher temperature and water feed rate and longer activation time, the specific surface area and total pore volume of PAC increased while the average pore radius decreased. The highest specific surface area of PAC obtained in this study was 996 m2/g. In addition, experimental results obtained from sulfur impregnation process indicated that the specific surface area of PAC decreased dramatically as sulfur was added to PAC. Experiment results obtained from the adsorption capacity of HgCl2 on PAC by column test indicated that PAC with higher specific surface area could adsorb more HgCl2 at room temperature (25¢J). The adsorption capacity of sulfur impregnated PAC decreased at 25¢J was due to the decrease of specific surface area of PAC. However, results from the comparison of two PAC with similar specific surface area indicated that the PAC with higher sulfur content had higher adsorption capacity. It suggested that the addition of sulfur to PAC could enhance the adsorption of HgCl2 at 25¢J. Experimental results obtained from column tests at 150¢J showed that the adsorption capacity of PAC increased as sulfur content of PAC increased. These results suggested that the adsorption mechanism of HgCl2 by PAC was mainly physical adsorption at lower temperature and it was chemisorption at higher temperature. Besides, the self-made PAC demonstrated the similar adsorption capacity of HgCl2 with commercial PAC used in MWIs.

The idea of harmonizing economic growth with the laws of development of society and the environment is expressed in the concept of sustainable development. In the frame of sustainable development an exceptional importance is attached to studying material flows, therefore management of waste flows must not contradict the principles of sustainable development. In agreement with M. Jacobs, it is possible to affirm that waste management in the context of sustainable development means using materials in closed cycles. Investigating socio-economic efficiency of municipal waste management means studying the organizational waste management process and factors disclosing characteristic features of this process, making deep comparative socio-economic analysis of waste management options and studying waste managements acts both on national and local level in order to reveal the ways of increasing socio-economic efficiency in municipal waste management. This study is induced by the necessity of changing the traditional waste management of depositing it in landfills, by recycling using not only national and international funds, but by mobilizing resources of local waste management systems as well. It is natural, that the policy of waste management, in which neither the scale of economic damage nor future waste management expenditure were evaluated, was orientated towards disposal of waste in refuse dumps. This means transferring problems to future generations, and this cardinally... [to full text] / Dėsninga, jog atliekų tvarkymo politika, kurioje nebuvo įvertinas ekonominės žalos aplinkai ir visuomenei dydis bei būsimos atliekų tvarkymo sąnaudos, buvo orientuota į atliekų deponavimą sąvartynuose. Tokia praktika įvardijama kaip problemų (pavojaus) aplinkai perkėlimas ateities kartoms, o tai kardinaliai prieštarauja darnios plėtros koncepcijai. Todėl keliamas klausimas, kokios atliekų tvarkymo sistemos laikytinos efektyviomis socialiniu-ekonominiu požiūriu. Tyrimai, atlikti Europos Sąjungos šalyse, rodo, jog tai sistemos, kurių ištekliai nukreipti antrinėms žaliavoms tvarkyti ir nuolatinei šio tvarkymo plėtrai organizuoti. Diegiant regionines atliekų tvarkymo sistemas, antrinių žaliavų surinkimo, rūšiavimo ir parengimo perdirbti išlaidoms padengti numatyti du šaltiniai – bendrasis tarifas (ar vietinė rinkliava) ir „Gaminių ar pakuotės atliekų tvarkymo programos“ lėšos. Bendrojo tarifo didinimas atsižvelgiant į atskirų atliekų srautų tvarkymo išlaidas arba tarifo neišrūšiuotai ir rūšiuotai atliekų daliai diferencijavimas priskiriamas prie neatidėliotinų priemonių, tačiau pirmiausia būtina identifikuoti lokalinių komunalinių atliekų tvarkymo sistemų vidinius rezervus, kurių dėka galima padidinti socialinį-ekonominį atliekų tvarkymo rezultatyvumą, kartu praktiškai realizuojant darnios plėtros principus.

Tiriamasis darbas „Atliekų kiekio susidarymo skirtumai Lietuvos regionuose ir tai nulėmusios priežastys“ iškėlė uždavinius dėl komunalinių, gamybinių bei pavojingų atliekų susidarymo skirtinguose regionuose, taip pat nagrinėja priežastis lėmusias skirtingą atliekų susidarymą ir tvarkymą Lietuvos teritorijoje. Siekiant įgyvendinti minėtus uždavinius, buvo ieškoma socialinių, ekonominių ar kitokių priežasčių lėmusių atliekų susidarymo bei tvarkymo skirtumus regionuose. Nustatyta, kad komunalinių atliekų susidaryme bei antrinių žaliavų surinkime, didžiausią įtaką turi viešosios komunalinės paslaugos rodikliai. Esant dideliam minėtos paslaugos procentui, žymiai keičiasi ir surenkamų atliekų kiekiai. Remiantis Komunalinių atliekų susidarymo prognozavimo ir atliekų tvarkymo sistemų tvarumo vertinimo vadovu, komunalinių atliekų susidarymas turi būti prognozuojamas atsižvelgiant į bendrojo vidaus produkto dydžius regione, socialinius rodiklius: kūdikių mirtingą, vidutinę gyvenimo trukmę, gyventojų užimtumo dalį žemės ūkyje, žmonių amžių, namų ūkio dydį. Gamybinių bei pavojingų atliekų susidaryme lemiantys faktoriai yra bazinių įmonių išsidėstymas Regionuose. Didžiausius atliekų kiekinius rodiklius turi regionai, kuriuose dominuoja įmonės su panašia veklos sritimi ar ženkliai turinčios didesnes apimtis Lietuvos mastu. Kaip parodė tyrimas, verslumo rodikliai dažnai gali būti „indikatorius”, prognozuojant susidarančius atliekų kiekius. / Investigative work „ The differences of waste quantity formation in Lithuanian Regions and the reasons for those differences “ analyze problems with formation of municipal, industrial and hazardous waste in different regions and also searches for reasons, which determined different waste formation and management in Lithuania. To implement above mentioned tasks, we searched for social, economic and other reasons, which determined different waste formation and management in different regions. Was founded, that municipal waste formation and recycled materials collection mostly influenced by rates of public municipal service. With a high percentage of mentioned service, collected waste quantity is changing significantly. Following the guide of municipal waste formation prognosis and waste management systems stability rate, formation of municipal waste must be forecasted according to gross domestic product value in region and social rates: infant mortality, average lifetime, amount of people working in agriculture, people age, household size. Main factors, of industrial and hazardous waste formation, is lay out of basic companies in regions. Highest waste quantity rates is in regions, where dominating companies with similar preserve or companies, which has significantly bigger spread out in Lithuania. The research showed, that enterprise rates often can be „indicator“, which helps to forecast waste formation amounts. Analysis of literature sources showed, that there is not much... [to full text]