The version presented here may differ from the published version or from the version of the record. Please see the repository URL above for details on accessing the published version and note that access may require a subscription.
Major-religious festivals hosted in the city of Kerbala, Iraq, annually generate large quantities of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) which negatively impacts the environment and human health when poorly managed. The hospitality sector, specifically hotels, is one of the major sources of MSW generated during these festivals. Because it is essential to establish a proper waste management system for such festivals, accurate information regarding MSW generation is required. This study therefore investigated the rate of production of MSW from hotels in Kerbala during major festivals. A field questionnaire survey was conducted with 150 hotels during the Arba'een festival, one of the largest festivals in the world, attended by about 18 million participants, to identify how much MSW is produced and what features of hotels impact on this. Hotel managers responded to questions regarding features of the hotel such as size (Hs), expenditure (Hex), area (Ha) and number of staff (Hst). An on-site audit was also carried out with all participating hotels to estimate the mass of MSW generated from these hotels. The results indicate that MSW produced by hotels varies widely. In general, it was found that each hotel guest produces an estimated 0.89 kg of MSW per day. However, this figure varies according to the hotels' rating. Average rates of MSW production from one and four star hotels were 0.83 and 1.22 kg per guest per day, respectively. Statistically, it was found that the relationship between MSW production and hotel features can be modelled with an R of 0.799, where the influence of hotel feature on MSW production followed the order Hs > Hex > Hst.
This study aims to investigate the effect of cement replacement with high volume fraction of ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) and cement kiln dust (CKD) on mechanical, durability and microstructural properties of cement mortar from 1day to 550 days. Compressive strength and ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) were used to evaluate the mortars' performance.Besides, statistical analyses were conducted to predict mortars' mechanical and durability performance as well as investigate the influence of mortars' properties (mixture and curing time) on their performance. The results indicated that replacing the cement with up to 60% GGBFS and CKD showed a comparable behavior to the cement after 28 days of curing onward.The statistical analysis revealed that the developed models achieved high level of agreement between the predicted and observed results with a coefficient of determination (R 2 ) of more than 0.97. The findings in this study announced on the development of promising binder that can be used in different construction sectors with the benefits of reducing the CO2 emissions.
The development in the construction sector and population growth requires an increase in the consumption of construction materials, mainly concrete. Cement is the binder in concrete, so increasing cement production will increase the energy consumed, as well as in the emission of carbon dioxide. This harmful effect of the environment led to the search for alternative materials for cement, as the waste or by-products of other industries is a promising solution in this case. Among these common materials are ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) and cement kiln dust (CKD). This dataset describes the compressive strength and ultrasonic pulse velocity of mortar consisted of high content of GGBS and CKD combinations as a partial substitute for cement (up to 80%) at the ages of 1, 2, 3, 7, 14, 21, 28, 56, 90 and 550 days. This dataset can help the researchers to understand the behaviour of GGBS and CKD in high replacement levels for cement during early (1 day) and later ages (550 days). According to this understanding, the authors believe that the data available here can be used to produce more environmentally friendly mortar or concrete mixtures by significantly reducing the amount of cement used by replacing it with waste or by-products of other industries.
Every year, many religious events attended by 300 million pilgrims take place in many holy cities and sites around the world. However, research on municipal solid waste is limited despite the reputation of religious events to generate substantial amounts of waste. This research aims to address this gap and contribute to new knowledge on municipal solid waste management at religious events by investigating and evaluating the municipal solid waste management system applied at the Arba'een event in Kerbala, one of the largest religious events in Iraq. Field observations and in-depth interviews with nine senior managers from Kerbala's municipalities were conducted during the event in 2016, to develop an overall picture of the municipal solid waste management system applied during the event. The data were analysed using thematic analysis and fed to the 'Wasteaware' benchmark indicators framework to evaluate the performance of the event system. The results indicated that the system suffers from operational and governance weaknesses. Despite a focus on municipal solid waste collection and transportation, the collection coverage is only ~ 70%. There is no controlled landfill site in Kerbala. It is estimated that currently ~ 5% of the event municipal solid waste is recycled by informal recyclers: there is no formal recycling scheme. Kerbala does not perform well regarding governance. The inclusivity of providers and users of the municipal solid waste management services is minimal during the event, as the majority of stakeholders are not included in decision-making processes. Municipal solid waste management services are delivered free of charge, thus significantly influencing the financial sustainability of the system. This study recommends that MSW recycling should be encouraged through integrating the informal sector, improving public awareness and introducing a formal recycling scheme to make the event municipal solid waste management system effective and financially sustainable.
Multiple religious events attended by millions of pilgrims take place across the world every year. Large quantities of municipal solid waste are therefore produced which pose serious threats to the management systems of the host cities and negatively affect their attractiveness. Accurate and reliable information about municipal solid waste generation during such events is thus valuable in terms of management planning and resource recovery applications. The current investigation thus aims to estimate waste generation from the service processions, which are temporary tents set up by Iraqis to provide accommodation and services to pilgrims, during such events. To achieve this goal, a pilot questionnaire survey and an on-site municipal solid waste audit were conducted over 20 processions during Ashura, which is one of the largest religious events in the city, being attended by up to 3.5 million pilgrims. The outcomes of this investigation indicated that municipal solid waste generation from processions broadly varied from 22 to 944 kg per day, with an average of 284 kg per day. This variation can be attributed to the number of meals provided by each procession and similar expenditures. These results can thus be taken as a starting point for introducing a proper management system to be used in Kerbala during religious events.
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.