Articles in Press

The coronavirus (COVID-19) is a threat to public health and caused several social, environmental, and economic problems. During the lockdown in different countries, waste generation has been significantly increased due to the high consumption of packaged food and increase the order of food via online and takeaway. This paper aims to investigate the impact of COVID 19 lockdown on food consumption and the subsequent change in waste generation in Oman. A quantitative research methodology was applied for this study using an online survey during the COVID 19 lockdown. The survey collected information on demographic data, awareness and attitudes toward food purchase behaviour, household food expenditure, and waste generation. The results show that 57.6% of the respondents believed that their food purchasing during the lockdown was increased as compared to before the lockdown. The main reason for increasing the food purchasing was the change in consumers behaviour and cooking more in households during the lockdown. This increase led to the increase in waste generation. One of the main reasons for the increased waste generation during the lockdown was the fact that people have spent more time at home. It was found that food waste and plastic packages were the highest increase (72% and 55%, respectively). These two types of waste are followed by cans and glass bottles with an increase of 68%. Other types of waste such as medical waste, electrical and electronic waste, and paper waste have shown no significant change in waste generation during the lockdown. Overall, this study provides useful information to further promote household food waste prevention behaviour, outlasting the COVID-19 crisis. The results from this study can be used by waste management and municipal utilities on consumption behaviour during emergency situations.

In this study the efficiency of crystal violet dye removal from aqueous solutions using lilac tree leaf powder as adsorbent material was tested. After adsorbent surface analysis by SEM and FTIR technics, the influence of six controllable factor on dye adsorption process was assesses using a L27 Taguchi experimental design. The optimum adsorption conditions and the controllable factors significance were established by evaluation of signal-to-noise ratio (S/N). ANOVA analysis revealed the percentage contribution of each factor in crystal violet removal. Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second order kinetic model characterized the process and the maximum adsorption capacity was higher than other similar adsorbents previously used in literature. The thermodynamic parameters reveal a favorable, spontaneous and endothermic adsorption based on physisorption mechanism.

Carbon footprint (CF) is a measure of greenhouse gas emissions generated from daily human-induced activities as carbon dioxide equivalent. This study is an attempt to represent a consumption-based CF study from the scope of transportation, electricity, and waste generation for University of the Punjab (PU), Lahore under the WRI/WBCSD greenhouse gas protocol corporate standards. Data acquired through fieldwork, questionnaire surveys, direct sampling, and existing records for the year 2019-20 suggested that electricity is the greatest contributor of CO2 emissions at 59%, followed by transportation at 36%, and waste generation at approximately 5%. The total CF(CO2_eq) generated from different sources is about 18360.62MT for one year. The recent COVID-19 lockdown has offered inimitable prospect to compare the carbon footprint of one of the largest higher education institutes of Pakistan before and during this pandemic. The data can serve for tracking, assessing, and setting goals for greenhouse gas emission reduction programs in future.

The concentrations and comparisons of total and available metals Cd, Cr, Ni, Pb and the metalloid As were examined in two adjacent acid forest soils in Greece under oak and beech together with the dependency of their availability. It was found that the soil in the beech plot had higher concentrations of total elements with the exception of the litter layer (L) where most metals did not differ. It is probable that the parent material of the beech soil contained some metamorphic mafic material. The surface soils for both stands were moderately enriched with Pb, Cd and As, whereas for Cr and Ni the enrichment was minimal. The concentrations of available elements (extracted with DTPA) were higher in the beech soil. The availability of most metals was affected by the pH, the organic C, the ratio of C/N and the total concentration of the metals. Through a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) analysis, it was found that 63-75% of the concentrations variance of the available metals was explained. The percentages of available metals with regard to their total concentrations in soils were higher in the beech plot in the FH layer but in the mineral layers, they did not differ apart from Pb. The concentrations of the metals in the leaves of both species in three consecutive years did not differ with the exception of Cd, the concentration of which was higher in the beech leaves.