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A direct correlation exists between waste disposal, disease spread and public health. This article systematically reviewed healthcare waste and its implication for public health. This review identified and described the associations and impact of waste disposal on public health.

This paper systematically reviewed the literature on waste disposal and its implications for public health by searching Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA), PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus and ScienceDirect databases. Of a total of 1,583 studies, 59 articles were selected and reviewed.

The review revealed the spread of infectious diseases and environmental degradation as the most typical implications of improper waste disposal to public health. The impact of waste includes infectious diseases such as cholera, Hepatitis B, respiratory problems, food and metal poisoning, skin infections, and bacteremia, and environmental degradation such as land, water, and air pollution, flooding, drainage obstruction, climate change, and harm to marine and wildlife.

Infectious diseases such as cholera, hepatitis B, respiratory problems, food and metal poisoning, skin infections, bacteremia and environmental degradation such as land, water, and air pollution, flooding, drainage obstruction, climate change, and harm to marine and wildlife are some of the public impacts of improper waste disposal.

Healthcare industry waste is a significant waste that can harm the environment and public health if not properly collected, stored, treated, managed and disposed of. There is a need for knowledge and skills applicable to proper healthcare waste disposal and management. Policies must be developed to implement appropriate waste management to prevent public health threats.

This study aims to improve the rules and regulations system of high-speed rail emergency disposal.

Based on the analysis of the demands, rules and regulations of China concerning on-site high-speed rail emergency disposal, basic principles for revising the regulations on railway technical management (RRTM) are proposed and suggestions and evaluation methods according to the main clauses are put forward.

Basic principles for revising the RRTM are proposed, namely “to meet the actual needs of on-site high-speed railway emergency disposal, standardize the emergency disposal process, improve the efficiency of emergency disposal and keep the consistency between provisions of emergency disposal”. Existing provisions related to emergency disposal efficiency, scenarios, safety and service quality are made up for the deficiencies. To make up for the deficiencies of the existing provisions related to emergency disposal efficiency, improvement of emergency disposal scenarios and guarantee of emergency disposal safety and quality, this paper puts forward suggestions on revising 15 emergency disposal provisions of the RRTM with regard to earthquake monitoring and warning, in-station foreign body invasion warning, air conditioning failure of EMU trains and forced parking of trains in sections. A fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is constructed to evaluate the proposed revision scheme and suggestions, which has been highly recognized by experts.

This study implements the goal of high-quality railway development.

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how decision-makers can enhance citizens’ sustainable disposal of e-waste through bin proximity and ad hoc communication. Specifically, the authors discuss a two-year research project that took place in Northern Italy, where the authors documented the number of products disposed of sustainably in four towns.

The project involved five main groups of stakeholders: i) four municipalities, ii) one social purpose organisation employing people with disabilities, (i.e. Andromeda), iii) one provider of bins (i.e. PubliCittà), iv) another social purpose organisation entity (i.e. Fondazione CRT) and v) the University of Portsmouth. After conducting three online pilot tests to confirm expectations of this study regarding how to enhance citizens’ sustainable disposal of e-waste, the authors have implemented the field pilot programme in a small municipality and successively in other three towns. Finally, the authors measured the impact of the programme on the actual recycling rate of citizens in the three target municipalities.

The authors found that the positioning of drop-off bins in such a way as to reduce the distance from as many households as possible, along with the use of communication that facilitates the understanding of information related to sustainable disposal schemes, can improve the sustainable behaviour of citizens. The sustainable disposal of exhausted batteries after the intervention improved by 135% on average in the three municipalities that adopted the disposal scheme (Saluggia, San Benigno Canavese and Santhiá). The disposal rate of toners and electronics increased by 204.0% and 318.75% (San Benigno Canavese) and 138.7% and 85.4% (Santhiá), respectively.

The authors believe it would be cautious to consider potential differences in terms of recycling cultures and facilities before implementing the programme in other countries.

The authors’ contribution shows decision-makers how to effectively design disposal schemes to enhance citizens' sustainable behaviour. The authors demonstrate how the thoughtful and responsible use of marketing levers can affect environmental sustainability and impact social development.

This paper has an actual impact on society by changing citizens’ behaviour, reducing harm to the environment and human well-being and supporting the inclusion of disadvantaged people in sustainability-oriented programmes.

The structured and equitable engagement of scholars with multiple stakeholders can lead to the co-creation of societal value and knowledge and improve the well-being of multiple stakeholders. The collaboration between academics and practitioners enables the definition of effective strategies by observing the actual behaviour of individuals (i.e. citizens) and offers a direct and measurable impact on society. The involvement of social purpose organisations reinforces the shared primary aim of achieving measurable social and environmental impact.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether sexual homicide offenders (SHO) who dispose of the victim’s body naked present with particular crime scene characteristics.

This study aims to answer this question through the use of a sequential logistic regression to test the individual effects of each set of crime scene variables against the manner of disposal using a sample of 662 solved cases of extrafamilial sexual homicide from an international database.

Results demonstrated that the modus operandi behaviors of sexual penetration, asphyxiation, dismemberment and overkill were significantly associated with the body being disposed of naked. In addition, removing or destroying evidence from the scene was also significantly associated with a naked victim. In contrast, the body was more likely to be dumped clothed if the contact scene was deserted and the victim was a stranger. These results suggest that SHOs who dispose of the body naked are more in line with the sadistic sexual murderer, while clothed victims are often disposed of by angry offenders.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine the particular manner of disposing the victim’s body naked in cases of sexual homicide.

Increasing public consciousness and demand for sustainable environment make selection of a safe location for effective disposal of healthcare waste (HCW) a challenging issue. This problem becomes more complicated due to involvement of multiple decision makers having varying knowledge and interest, conflicting quantitative and qualitative evaluation criteria, and presence of several alternative locations.

To efficiently resolve the problem, the past researchers have already coupled different multi-criteria decision-making tools with uncertainty models and criteria weight measurement techniques, which are time-consuming and highly computationally complex. Based on involvement of a group of experts expressing their opinions with respect to relative importance of criteria and performance of alternative locations against each criterion, this paper proposes application of ordinal priority approach (OPA) integrated with grey numbers to solve an HCW disposal location selection problem.

The grey OPA can simultaneously estimate weights of the experts, criteria and locations relieving the decision makers from complicated computational steps. The potentiality of grey OPA in solving an HCW disposal location selection problem is demonstrated here using an illustrative example consisting of three experts, six criteria and four alternative locations.

The derived results show that it can be employed to deal with real-time HCW disposal location selection problems in uncertain environment providing acceptable and robust decisions. It relieves the experts from pair-wise comparisons of criteria, normalization of data, identification of ideal and anti-ideal solutions, aggregation of information and so on, while arriving at the most consistent decision with minimum computational effort.

This study aims to test how waste disposal behaviors can be changed such as higher recycling diversion and lower contamination rates using signage and messaging techniques at public outdoor waste receptacles on a university campus.

The experiment took place at five public outdoor receptacle stations, each with a landfill and recycling receptacle, which were located in highly trafficked areas on the University of Florida campus. The study consisted of three phases, each lasting for three weeks. During phase one, no signage and messaging were introduced; during phase two, negative and concrete messaging was placed on signs that stood above the two receptacles; and during phase three, positive and abstract messaging was placed above the receptacles. Waste audits were conducted by separating and weighing the waste.

With signage and messaging implementation, the recycling diversion rates increased and contamination in the recycling receptacles decreased. However, there was not a consistent decrease in contamination in the landfill receptacles. The study also showed that the negative and concrete messaging was more effective at both increasing diversion rates and decreasing contamination rates at the recycling receptacles.

Waste managers on university campuses need to address the purpose and type of messaging being used at waste receptacles to maximize behavior and/or education outcomes.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study represents the first time waste disposal behaviors have been analyzed and experimented on at public outdoor receptacles on a university campus.

More than 30 legal recyclables were proclaimed by Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) in Taiwan of those producers and importers are liable for paying a Resource Recycling Fee (RRF). The Resource Recycling Management Fund determines both the tariff of RRF and the subsidy rate for recycling activities based on a predetermined pricing formula and collects the revenue to finance its collection and disposal. While contemplating on whether to proclaim waste mattress as a legal recyclable, EPA is facing several critical challenges, particularly the lack of data required for setting a tariff–subsidy mix. In this chapter we critically review the formula and propose an innovative pricing rule. Also, we develop a science-based approach to demonstrate how a tariff–subsidy mix could be determined under the circumstance of data deficiency. By doing so, we avoid not only the difficulty in solving the nonhomogeneous and nonautonomous first-order difference equation that governs the stock accumulation of waste mattress but also the distributed lag model of multiperiods linking quantity of mattress discarded and the quantity of new mattress sold. Such an approach could be applied to the durables for recycling pricing particularly when relevant data are limited.

The purpose of this research is to address the existing gap in the study of construction and demolition waste (C&DW) by focusing on its impact on human health throughout the entire life cycle. And this research provides a comprehensive assessment model that incorporates the release of gaseous pollutants and particulate matter during the whole life cycle of C&DW, thereby contributing to a more holistic understanding of its impact on human health.

The research was conducted in two stages. Firstly, the quantitative model framework of pollutants emitted by C&DW was established. Three types of pollutants were considered, namely nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and inhalable particulate matter (PM10). Second, disability-adjusted life year (DALY) and willingness to pay (WTP) assessments were used to provide a monetary quantified health impact for pollutants released by C&DW.

The results show that the WTP value of PM10 is the highest among all pollutants and 8.68E+07 dollars/a, while the WTP value in the disposal stage accounts for the largest proportion compared to the generation and transportation stage. These findings emphasize the importance of PM10 and C&DW treatment stage for pollutant treatment.

The results of this study are of great significance for the management department to optimize the construction management scheme to reduce the total amount of pollutants produced by C&DW and its harm to human health. Meanwhile, this study fills the gap in existing research on the impact assessment of C&DW on human health throughout the whole life cycle, and provides reference and basis for future research and policy formulation.

Our study examines how artificial intelligence (AI) can enhance decision-making processes to promote circular economy practices within the utility sector.

A unique case study of Alia Servizi Ambientali Spa, an Italian multi-utility company using AI for waste management, is analyzed using the Gioia method and semi-structured interviews.

Our study discovers the proactive role of the user in waste management processes, the importance of economic incentives to increase the usefulness of the technology and the role of AI in waste management transformation processes (e.g. glass waste).

The present study enhances the circular economy model (transformation, distribution and recovery), uncovering AI’s role in waste management. Finally, we inspire managers with algorithms used for data-driven decisions.

Currently, waste is regarded as a symptom of inefficiency. The generation of waste is a human activity, not a natural one. Currently, landfilling and incinerating wastes are common waste management techniques; but the use of these methods, in addition to wasting raw materials, causes damage to the environment, water, soil, and air. In the new concept of “Zero Waste” (ZW), waste is considered a valuable resource. A vital component of the methodology includes creating and managing items and procedures that limit the waste volume and toxicity and preserve and recover all resources rather than burning or burying them. With ZW, the end of one product becomes the beginning of another, unlike a linear system where waste is generated from product consumption. A scientific treatment technique, resource recovery, and reverse logistics may enable the waste from one product to become raw material for another, regardless of whether it is municipal, industrial, agricultural, biomedical, construction, or demolition. This chapter discusses the concept of zero landfills and zero waste and related initiatives and ideas; it also looks at potential obstacles to put the ZW concept into reality. Several methods are presented to investigate and evaluate efficient resource utilization for maximum recycling efficiency, economic improvement through resource minimization, and mandatory refuse collection. One of the most practical and used approaches is the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach, which is based on green engineering and the cradle-to-cradle principle; the LCA technique is used in most current research, allowing for a complete investigation of possible environmental repercussions. This approach considers the entire life cycle of a product, including the origin of raw materials, manufacturing, transportation, usage, and final disposal, or recycling. Using a life cycle perspective, all stakeholders (product designers, service providers, political and legislative agencies, and consumers) may make environmentally sound and long-term decisions.