This title includes a number of Open Access chapters.
Intended for a wide audience ranging from engineers and academics to decision-makers in both the public and private sectors, Biological Treatment of Solid Waste: Enhancing Sustainability reviews several technologies that help communities manage solid waste sustainably, while at the same time generating energy, revenue, and other resources.
The book is divided into three topics:
- Microbial technologies for solid waste treatment
- Composting
- Biodrying
Included within these larger topics are case studies and investigations into particular aspects of each, with attention paid to food waste, animal waste, municipal waste, and certain forms of industrial waste. The editor is an environmental engineer with an international reputation, and she has included her own research studies as well as that of her colleagues, many of which have been presented at international waste management conferences. She concludes that our world can no longer afford to consider waste as something that can be discarded with no regard for future use. Instead, if addressed correctly through policy and practice, solid waste can become a valuable resource.
About the Author: Elena Cristina Rada, PhD, earned her master's degree in environmental engineering from the Politehnica University of Bucharest, Romania; she received a PhD in environmental engineering and a second PhD in power engineering from the University of Trento, Italy, and the Politehnica University of Bucharest. Her post-doc work was in sanitary engineering from the University of Trento, Italy. She has been a professor in the Municipal Solid Waste master's program at Politehnica University of Bucharest, and has served on the organizing committees of Energy Valorization of Sewage Sludge, an international conference held in Rovereto, Italy, and Venice 2010, an International Waste Working Group international conference. She also teaches seminars in the bachelor, master, and doctorate modules in the University of Trento and Padua and Politehnica University of Bucharest and has managed university funds at national and international levels. Dr. Rada is a reviewer of international journals, a speaker at many international conferences, and the author or co-author of about 100 research papers. Her research interests are bio mechanical municipal solid waste treatments, biological techniques for biomass characterization, environmental and energy balances regarding municipal solid waste, indoor and outdoor pollution (prevention and remediation) and health, and innovative remediation techniques for contaminated sites and streams.
