Waste Management as Economic Industry Towards Circular Economy

This book highlights the latest advances in waste management, resource recovery and resource circulation in various countries, with a special emphasis on India. It leads the way towards a sustainable circular economy developing local economy and enhances the sustainability of the energy sector as a whole by holistically addressing waste management.

Waste management is a major problem around the globe; effective waste disposal is one of the most plaguing issues faced by municipalities. Yet waste can also serve as a major source of energy rather than a disposable material. The book discusses various upstream and downstream aspects of waste management systems, e.g. conversion processes and collection methods, that are needed in order to make waste management systems into an effective industry and move closer to a circular economy. It also provides information on management tools for analysis and decision support. All chapters included here are based on high-quality research papers presented at the conference IconSWM 2018.

Dr. Sadhan Kumar Ghosh is the Dean, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Professor & Former Head of the Mechanical Engineering Department and Founder Coordinator of the Centre for QMS at Jadavpur University, India. A prominent figure in the fields of waste management, circular economy, SME sustainability, green manufacturing, green factories and TQM, he served as the Director, CBWE, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India, and L&T Ltd. Professor Ghosh is also the Founder and Chairman of the IconSWM and President of the International Society of Waste Management, Air and Water, as well as the Chairman of the Indian Congress on Quality, Environment, Energy and Safety Management Systems (ICQESMS).

He was awarded a Distinguished Visiting Fellowship by the Royal Academy of Engineering, UK, to work on “Energy Recovery from Municipal Solid Waste” in 2012. He received the Boston Pledge and NABC 2006 Award for the most eco-friendly innovation “Conversion of plastics & jute waste to wealth” in the ESP/50K Business Plan Competition at Houston, Texas, USA. He holds patents on waste plastic processing technology and high-speed jute ribboning technology preventing water wastage and occupational hazards. He is member of ISO Working Groups concerning waste management (ISO/TC 297). His projects have been funded by European Union Horizon 2020 (2018–2022) on waste water, Royal Academy of Engineering (2018–2020 & 2012) on Circular economy in SMEs, Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation (SRNSF) of Georgia (2019–2021) on resource circulation from landfill, GCRF 2019/2020 Pump Priming – Aston Project UK on impact of wellbeing & mental health on productivity & sustainability in Industries, UNCRD/DESA as Expert (2016–2018) on SWM, Asian Productivity Organisation (APO) (2016–2019) on green manufacturing, British Council & DST (2012–2014), Royal Society (2015), Erasmus Plus (2016–2017), ISWMAW (2018–2021), Indian Statistical Institute (2019–2021), Institute of Global Environmental Strategies (IGES, Japan) (2019), South Asian Cooperation Environmental Programme (SACEP, Sri Lanka)(2018–2020) for preparing SWM roadmap for South Asian countries, Jute Technology Mission (2008–2011), Central Pollution Control Board (1999–2002), Government of India on plastic waste management and a few others.