In 2018, over 30,000 L of fluorine-free firefighting foam was used to extinguish an industrial warehouse fire of uncharacterized chemical and industrial waste. Contaminated firewater and runoff were discharged to an adjacent freshwater creek in Melbourne, Australia. In this study, we applied nontarget analysis using liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-QToF-MS) to 15 surface water samples to investigate the presence of legacy, novel and emerging per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). We identified six novel and emerging fluorotelomer-based fluorosurfactants in the Australian environment for the first time, including: fluorotelomer sulfonamido betaines (FTABs or FTSA-PrB), fluorotelomer thioether amido sulfonic acids (FTSASs), and fluorotelomer sulfonyl amido sulfonic acids (FTSAS-So). Legacy PFAS including C₆–C₈ perfluoroalkyl sulfonic acids, C₄–C₁₀ perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids, and perfluoro-4-ethylcyclohexanesulfonate were also detected in surface water. Of note, we report the first environmental detection of ethyl 2-ethenyl-2-fluoro-1-(trifluoromethyl) cyclopropane-1-carboxylate. Analysis of several Class B certified fluorine-free foam formulations allowed for use in Australia revealed that there was no detectable PFAS. Patterns in the homologue profiles of fluorotelomers detected in surface water are consistent with environments impacted by fluorinated aqueous film-forming foams. These results provide strong evidence that firewater runoff of stockpiled fluorinated firefighting foam was the dominant source of detectable PFAS to the surrounding environment.

Effective immobilization of industrial waste into biochar development could be one of the most promising technologies for solid waste management to achieve circular economy. In this study, post-industrial cotton textile waste (PICTW), a cellulose rich industrial waste, was subjected to slow pyrolysis to develop a surface engineered biochar through phosphoric acid impregnation. Biochar produced at 500 °C designated as PICTWB500 showed a maximum methylene blue number (240 mg g⁻¹) with remarkable specific surface area of 1498 m² g⁻¹. FESEM, FTIR, XRD and Raman spectra analysis were performed to investigate the surface texture and functionalities developed in the biochar. Adsorption efficiency of the biochar was assessed using drimarene red, blue, violet, and black dyes as model dye pollutants in batch mode at different biochar dose, pH and contact time. The maximum monolayer adsorption capacity was obtained in the range 285–325 mg g⁻¹ for different dyes, determined from Langmuir adsorption model. The kinetic behaviour was more favourable with the pseudo second-order model. The recycling ability of PICTWB500 was proven to be effective up to 6th cycle without compromising its adsorption efficiency significantly. This study demonstrated an excellent adsorption capability of the biochar in dye laden real textile effluent and recycling of spent biochar as a precursor of bio compost. Hence, this study established a dual win strategy for waste utilization in textile industry using a closed loop approach with substantial techno-economic feasibility that may have potential applications.

In this paper, the distribution, degree of pollution and sources of Cu, Pb, Zn, Cd, Cr, As, Co, Ni and Hg in the surface sediment of Sanmen Bay were studied. The average concentrations of the identified potentially toxic elements (PTEs) were in the following order: Zn > Ni > Cr > Cu > Pb > Co > As>Cd > Hg. Almost all PTEs had a significant positive correlation with TOC, clay and Al; Cr had no significant correlations. Apart from Hg, the contamination levels of 8 PTEs were at those considered to be low-to-no pollution. Comparatively, the contamination level of Hg was much higher than the background value, which indicated moderate pollution. The source of this pollution may have included industrialization, urbanization and/or transport of industrial waste materials. Both geoaccumulation index (Igₑₒ) and potential ecological risk (RI) values suggested that Hg was the major contributor to the ecological risk posed by the selected PTEs.

Various experiments on the isolation of phenolic components from olive mill wastewaters (OMW) have been conducted and several methods have been used separately or in combination. Adsorption is characterized by its low cost and high efficiency. Nonetheless, the high initial cost of common commercial sorbents renders their substitution and the demand for a regeneration procedure essential. The purpose of this study was the investigation of the effectiveness of a coffee industry waste, spent coffee ground (SCG), for the adsorption of OMW bioactive components, after the extraction of its phenolics using emerging methods. The novelty of the present research is based on the holistic exploitation of SCG for the waste management of another food industry by-product, both of which are being produced in high quantities, consisting a potential hazard for the environment. The effects of different factors, such as the solution’s pH (2.0–10.0), temperature (20–60 °C), initial sorbate concentration (50–500 mg/L), and sorbent mass concentration (0.01–0.05 g/mL), on adsorption efficiency, were investigated performing batch experiments. The results were correlated to the effects of the investigated factors on the adsorption of gallic acid, which is one of the most abundant phenolic species in OMW. Adsorption yield reached a maximum of 45.44% after 20 min, at 30 °C and pH of 8.0, with an initial concentration of 162.5 mg/L and sorbent ratio of 0.02 g/mL. Different effects were found during gallic acid adsorption, where the efficiency was higher (70.69%).

To control eutrophication and recover phosphate from wastewater, a calcium carbide slag and red mud composite material (CR-LDH) was prepared using industrial waste as raw material for phosphorus adsorption. The morphology and structure of synthesized CR-LDH were characterized by FT-IR, SEM, EDS, and XRD measurements. Bath adsorption test results showed that the optimal dosages of adsorbent and pH for phosphate were 5 g·L⁻¹ and pH of 7, respectively. The experimental data could be well described by pseudo-second-order kinetic and Langmuir isotherm models, suggesting that the adsorption process of CR-LDH with respect to phosphate was a chemical and monolayer process. The theoretical maximum adsorption capacity obtained by Langmuir isotherm model was 16.06 mg·g⁻¹ at 25 °C. The intra-particle diffusion model fitting results indicated that the adsorption of phosphate by CR-LDH was controlled by both liquid membrane diffusion and intra-particle diffusion. Phosphate was bound to CR-LDH via synergistic effect of physical adsorption, ion exchange, anion intercalation, and chemical precipitation as evidenced from a combination of microscopic analysis and adsorption mechanism study. The actual phosphate-containing wastewater investigation showed that CR-LDH not only exhibited good removal effect on phosphate, but also could greatly reduce turbidity, COD, and ammonia nitrogen, which was suitable for disposal of practical wastewater. The COD, turbidity, and NH₄⁺-N could be reduced by 42.39%, 77.20%, and 20.71%, respectively. These results indicate that CR-LDH can be considered as potential adsorbent for the treatment of phosphate-containing wastewater, which will be helpful to achieve the goal of “treating waste with waste and turning waste into treasure”.

Due to the development of the metallurgical and energy industries and the operation of incinerators, more and more environmental pollution is occurring. Toxic elements accumulate in the biosphere and affect the state of the population of the regions of large-scale production or the disposal of industrial waste. The main goal of this study was to compare the toxic elements hair composition in people from different regions of the world. The concentrations of toxic and potentially toxic elements (Al, As, Be, Cd, Hg, Pb, Sn) in 198 people, first-year students of People’s Friendship University of Russia, who arrived from different regions of the world, were measured with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Students were divided into 6 groups: from South and East Asia, from Latin America, from Arab countries, Central Asia and Afghanistan, from South and Central Africa, from Iran and Azerbaijan, and from Russia, Ukraine, and Moldova. Medians of the concentrations of elements in the hair in the general group were 5.8 μg/g for Al, 30 ng/g for As, 0.6 ng/g for Be, 9.0 ng/g for Cd, 0.11 μg/g for Hg, 0.24 μg/g for Pb, and 0.11 μg/g for Sn. All these values fall within the normal range. Students from Russia, Moldova, and Ukraine showed a significantly higher Sn content (0.28 μg/g) in their hair than subjects from other regions except for Latin America, p<0,05. Except for As, cases of exceeding their recommended concentrations in the hair were identified. However, the proportion of subjects with deviations in each group was not high — not more than 7%. In all regions, a positive correlation was found between Cd, Pb, and Sn, p<0.05, r>0.5 for all. Cases of exceeding the maximum permissible concentrations of various toxic elements in the hair were detected in people from all regions of the Earth included in the study. And although the overall picture of the content of toxic elements in the hair of students from all regions in our study does not look critical, the results of previous studies, as well as information about the total deterioration of the environmental situation throughout the Earth, necessitate further large-scale environmental studies.

Within the scope of the present study, the marble cutting waste, which is an industrial waste of different sizes (< 75 µm and < 150 µm), was incorporated into the clay structure at various rates and a total of 36 series bricks were produced. The brick mixtures were prepared by the semi-dry molding method and the brick specimens were sintered for three temperatures (850 °C, 950 °C, and 1050 °C). The fired bricks containing marble cutting waste with a lower particle size (75 µm) have higher compressive strength. However, all samples produced can meet the relevant standard requirements in terms of compressive strength. Thermal conductivity decreased from 1.008 to 0.775 W/mK with the incorporation of marble cutting waste, a decrease of approximately 23.11%. The effects of grain size, firing temperature, and marble cutting waste concentration on the quadratic model were statistically determined by variance analysis (ANOVA). According to statistical findings, the order of importance of design factors for brick properties (except for compressive strength) is marble cutting waste > firing temperature > particle size. For compressive strength, the most dominant factor is amount of marble cutting waste, followed by particle size and firing temperature, respectively. Consequently, the results suggest that marble cutting waste does not need to be reduced to smaller particle sizes to improve the fired clay brick properties.

The indigo blue dye is widely used in the textile industry, specifically in jeans dyeing, the effluents of which, rich in organic pollutants with recalcitrant characteristics, end up causing several environmental impacts, requiring efficient treatments. Several pieces of research have been conducted in search of effective treatment methods, among which is electrocoagulation. This treatment consists of an electrochemical process that generates its own coagulant by applying an electric current on metallic electrodes, bypassing the use of other chemical products. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential use of iron slag in the electrocoagulation of a synthetic effluent containing commercial indigo blue dye and the effluent from a textile factory. The quantified parameters were color, turbidity, pH, electrical conductivity, sludge generation, phenol removal, chemical oxygen demand (COD), and total organic carbon (TOC). The electrocoagulation treatment presented a good efficiency in removing the analyzed parameters, obtaining average removal in the synthetic effluent of 85% of color and 100% of phenol after 25 min of electrolysis. For the effluent from the textile factory, average reductions of 80% of color reaching 177.54 mg Pt CoL⁻¹, 91% of turbidity reaching 93.83 NTU (nephelometric turbidity unit), 100% of phenol, 55% of COD with a final concentration of 298.8 mg O₂ L⁻¹, and 73% of TOC with a final concentration of 56.21 mg L⁻¹, in 60 min of electrolysis. The reduced time for removal of color and phenolic compounds in synthetic effluent demonstrates the complexity of treating the real effluent since to obtain removals of the same order a 60-min period of electrolysis was necessary. The results obtained demonstrate the potential of using iron slag as an electrode in the electrocoagulation process in order to reuse industrial waste and reduce costs in the treatment and disposal of solid waste. Thus, the slag can be seen as an alternative material to be used in electrocoagulation processes for the treatment of effluents from the textile industry under the experimental conditions presented, its only limitation being the fact that it is a waste and therefore does not have a standardization in the amounts of iron present in the alternative electrodes.

Taking industrial waste gas control as an example, this study explores the impact of fiscal decentralization on the efficiency of local governments’ environmental governance under the pressure of competition, and analyzes the role of competition among local governments and support for R&D activities. The results demonstrate that fiscal decentralization can significantly promote the efficiency of local governance on control of waste gas, and this positive effect is mainly realized through the support from local government for R&D activities. As for the influence of inter-governmental competitions, only the competition in terms of governance efficiency delivers a significant U-shaped impact, and competition in expenditure scale and economy area weakly inhibits the positive influence of decentralization, meaning that the evaluation system centered on economic growth and the imitation strategy of local expenditure will not lead to a great decline in the efficiency of the use of environmental governance. Overall, this study suggests that further fiscal decentralization, emphases on government support for R&D activities, and enhanced environmental assessment in official evaluation are all the important directions for boosting the efficiency of governance.

This study presents an economical and efficient method to decolourise dye wastewater using industrial waste stainless steel slag (SSS). Titanium dioxide was immobilised on SSS by a precipitation–calcination method. Samples with different TiO₂ loadings (prepared using either titanium isopropoxide precursor or commercial TiO₂ nanoparticles) were used to decolourise an organic contaminant (methylene blue) under dark and UV conditions in aqueous solution, and their adsorption and photocatalytic performances were compared. Samples with 15 and 25 TiO₂ wt% prepared by the precursor method had normalised photocatalytic efficiencies per gram close to that of bare TiO₂; using an adsorption–photocatalysis process led to efficiencies 4.4 and 1.6 times higher than that of pure TiO₂. The improvement in catalytic performance (greater for samples with less than 50% TiO₂ content) may be due to better UV absorption ability (related to with the improvement of TiO₂ particle dispersion) and the close TiO₂ support interaction, which can eventually cause a photocatalysis-enhancing shift towards more negative oxidation potentials. The SSS also acted as an efficient adsorption trap for organic compounds. The pollutant was thus transferred to the TiO₂ surface and photodegraded more rapidly and efficiently. The outstanding synergetic adsorption–photocatalysis capacities of TiO₂ waste stainless steel slag composites for dye water treatment made the proposed conversion approach have great potential in practical applications.