Search

The COVID-19 pandemic has not only caused a global health crisis, but it has also had significant environmental and human consequences. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this study focused on emerging challenges in managing healthy personal protective materials (HPPM) in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, using silty sand (SM) soil as an example since it covers large areas in KSA and in the whole world. The main objective of this paper is to find a novel way to minimize pandemic-related waste by using HPPM as waste materials in road construction. For the first time, a series of experiments was conducted on a mixture of different percentages of shredded HPPM (0, 0.5, 1 and 2%) added to the silty sand (SM) soil for road applications, including soil classification according to the USCS, modified compaction, UCS, UPV, and CBR. In addition, a numerical simulation was performed using geotechnical-based software Plaxis 3D to study the performance of the soil-HPPM mix as a subbase layer in the paving structure under heavy traffic loading. The modified compaction test results show that there is an increase in the optimum moisture content with increasing the HPPM contents from 0.5% to 1% and 2%. However, a reduction in the maximum dry density is observed. The values of dry density and water content at 0%, 0.5%, 1% and 2% pf HPPM are 2.045, 1.98, 1.86 and 1.8 g/cm3 and 7.65% 8%, 8.5% and 9.5%, respectively. The soaked CBR values at 0, 0.5, 1 and 2% HPPM are 23, 30, 8, 2% with the maximum value attained with the addition of 0.5% HPPM. The results of UCS were with the same percentages of HPPM 430, 450, 430 and 415 kPa, respectively, with the maximum value attained with 0.5% HPPM addition as well. In contrast, the values of UVP at 0%, 0.5%, 1% and 2% are 978.5, 680.3, 489.4 and 323.6 m/s, respectively, confirming the trends obtained by modified compaction test results. The simulation results confirm this conclusion that the soil-HPPM mix show a superior performance when used as a subbase layer and reduced vertical displacement by a percentage of 11% compared to the normal subbase material. By eliminating HPPM especially facemasks from the landfill lifecycle, incorporating them into high quality construction material production has the potential to deliver significant environmental benefits. [Display omitted] 1 Influence of polypropylene (HPPM) fibres on the performance of sandy soil is clearly studied. 2 The optimum fibres content is obtained as 0.5% volume fraction. 3 Positive improvement is also noticed in unconfined compressive strength and compaction after adding HPPM fibres. 4 Fibres play a major role in crack bridging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, municipal authorities especially in the developing nations are battling to select the best health care waste (HCW) disposal technique for the effective treatment of the medical wastes during and post COVID-19 era. As evaluation of various disposal alternatives of HCW and selection of the best technique requires considering various tangible and intangible criteria, this can be framed as multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem. In this paper, we propose an assessment framework for the selection of the best HCW disposal technique based on socio-technical and triple bottom line perspectives. We have identified 10 criteria on which the best HCW disposal techniques to be selected based on extant literature review. Next, we use Fuzzy VIKOR method to evaluate 9 HCW disposal alternatives. The effectiveness of the proposed framework has been demonstrated with a real-life case study in Indian context. To check the robustness of the proposed methodology, we have compared the results obtained with Fuzzy TOPSIS (Technique of Order Preference Similarity to the Ideal Solution). The results help the municipal authorities to establish a methodical approach to choose the best HCW disposal techniques. Our findings indicate that incineration is the best waste disposal technique among the available alternatives. Even if the dataset indicates 'incineration' is the best method, we must not forget about the environmental concerns arising from this method. In COVID time, incineration may be the best method as indicated by the data analysis, but "COVID" should not be an excuse for causing "Environmental Pollution". • Health care waste disposal technique selection is a serious concern during COVID-19. • We propose Fuzzy VIKOR based method for selecting the best disposal technique. • This work has been grounded on Triple Bottom Line and Socio-Technical perspectives. • The proposed framework has been validated with a real-life case study. • The effectiveness of the proposed method has been compared with Fuzzy TOPSIS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]