Indian Journal of Waste Management

Industrial effluents can be classified into waste rich in organic matter and waste rich in inorganic matter. Heavy metals are naturally occurring elements that have a high atomic weight and a density at least 5 times greater than that of water. The use of heavy metal in multiple industries likedomestic, agricultural, medical and technological applications have led to their wide circulation in the Environment and this leads to various harmful effects on human health and ecosystem. The toxicity of heavy metals dependson numerous factors including the dose, route of exposure, and chemical species, as well as the age, gender, genetics, and nutritional status of exposed individuals. Because of the high degree of toxicity of heavy metals like arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, and mercury rank among the different metals that areof public health significance. These metallic elements are considered to be universal toxicants that are known to induce multiple organ damage, even at lower levels of exposure and also classified as human carcinogens (known or probable).

Keywords: Heavy metals, Industrial waste, pollution, Environment, Exposure.
 

The study was carried out in order to describe the waste minimisation programmes in place in the respective local municipalities in order to minimise the amount of waste entering landfill sites. The study area covered four provinces and for each province a single local municipality with a major mining town was selected. The study areas selected were; Klerksdorp in the North West Province; Carletonville in the Gauteng Province; Witbank in the Mpumalanga Province; and Welkom in the Free-State Province. On the basis of these results, the following findings are specified. The key findings of the study indicate that the selected study areas do not seem to have precise and clear programmes that are solely and specifically aimed at minimising waste. Instead the financial management and asset management strategies are initiated to overhaul the entire out-dated municipal systems. As a result one of the drawbacks is that the waste management systems indirectly benefit although these are not direct programmes aimed at the waste management systems. Observations suggest that suitably qualified persons should manage in-house programmes and other programmes as these have a major impact in educating people about waste minimisation. The organisational set up of local municipalities does not give adequate space and autonomy to the waste directorate. This has an adverse effect on the recruitment, retention and development of specialist skills.Waste management does not receive adequate budgetary support from local municipalities and, this constrains the ability of waste directorates to up-grade current systems and to improve their record of service delivery.Waste minimisation is a critical element of long-term government goals to protect the environment; yet, it does not receive much attention from senior management across local municipalities.

Keywords: Waste minimisation; Minimisation programmes; Landfill sites; Recycling initiatives
 

Climate change is supposed to adversely impact freshwater resources, and in many settings these impacts are already evident globally. In this paper, we examine the knowledge and attitudes of college students of Kashmir valley about the causes, effects, and priority given to climate change. The study compromised of 400 students selected at random from different Colleges of Kashmir valley using a well designed questionnaire based on the literature available on the topic and validated by experts. The data collected was analysed using standard statistical tools. The results obtained from our study reveals that the students under study have low climate change awareness and attitude. Further, it was observed that statistically there is no significant difference between the male and female students mean score on climate change awareness and attitude. Finally, recommendations of the study were discussed and suggestions for further studies were made. The results obtained in our study are in agreement with the previous study (Bilal et al. 2017).

Keywords: Climate Change; Awareness; Attitude; Student; Statistics; Kashmir Valley.