Abstract. Trinitrotoluene (TNT), a commonly used explosive for military and industrial applications, can cause serious environmental pollution. 28-day laboratory pot experiment was carried out applying bioaugmentation using laboratory selected bacterial strains as inoculum, biostimulation with molasses and cabbage leaf extract, and phytoremediation using rye and blue fenugreek to study the effect of these treatments on TNT removal and changes in soil microbial community responsible for contaminant degradation. Chemical analyses revealed significant decreases in TNT concentrations, including reduction of some of the TNT to its amino derivates during the 28-day tests. The combination of bioaugmentation-biostimulation approach coupled with rye cultivation had the most profound effect on TNT degradation. Although plants enhanced the total microbial community abundance, blue fenugreek cultivation did not significantly affect the TNT degradation rate. The results from molecular analyses suggested the survival and elevation of the introduced bacterial strains throughout the experiment. Keywords: TNT, bioaugmentation, biostimulation, phytoremediation, microbial community.
Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) is one of the major environmental challenges in developing countries. Many efforts to reduce and recover the wastes have been made, but still land disposal of solid wastes is the most popular one. Finding an environmentally sound landfill site is a challenging task. This paper addresses a mini review on various aspects of MSWM (suitable landfill site selection, route optimization and public acceptance) using the Geographical Information System (GIS) coupled with other tools. The salient features of each of the integrated tools with GIS are discussed in this paper. It is also addressed how GIS can help in optimizing routes for collection of solid wastes from transfer stations to disposal sites to reduce the overall cost of solid waste management. A detailed approach on performing a public acceptance study of a proposed landfill site is presented in this study. The study will help municipal authorities to identify the most effective method of MSWM.
Collection of municipal solid waste is one of the most important elements of municipal waste management and requires maximum fund allocated for waste management. The cost of collection and transportation can be reduced in comparison with the present scenario if the solid waste collection bins are located at suitable places so that the collection routes become minimum. This study presents a suitable solid waste collection bin allocation method at appropriate places with uniform distance and easily accessible location so that the collection vehicle routes become minimum for the city Dhanbad, India. The network analyst tool set available in ArcGIS was used to find the optimised route for solid waste collection considering all the required parameters for solid waste collection efficiently. These parameters include the positions of solid waste collection bins, the road network, the population density, waste collection schedules, truck capacities and their characteristics. The present study also demonstrates the significant cost reductions that can be obtained compared with the current practices in the study area. The vehicle routing problem solver tool of ArcGIS was used to identify the cost-effective scenario for waste collection, to estimate its running costs and to simulate its application considering both travel time and travel distance simultaneously.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.