Critical review on the Solid-wastes issue: Generation, Composition, Disposal and their recycling potential for various applications

Abstract In sixty-five years, merely nine percent of plastic waste was recycled and reused, twelve percent was incinerated, and the remaining seventy-nine percent has built up in landfills or ended up elsewhere in the environment. Statistically, the remaining seventy-nine percent of plastic wastes can be recycled in more than five-hundred years. Building and construction material is expensive due to the demand of the growing population with a low supply of the materials. To address this, the usage of solid-wastes for the manufacture of bricks and other building materials is an ideal-optimal approach towards tackling the challenges of handling waste-products as well as optimizing the production-cost of construction materials. Subsequently, plastic bottles, plastic containers, and plastic bags are flexible and possesses several characteristics includes good versatility, hardness, lightness, and resistance to chemicals and water and impact which can be heated and reshape to form a building material. Thus, this review briefly focusses on the possibility of utilizing non-hazardous wastes such as plastic wastes, glass bottles, and other solid-industrial wastes in making effective and quality and sand brick as substitute for expensive building material. This study is also aimed at educating the engineering public and professionals on the importance and necessity of waste management, reuse and recycling and also awareness on the benefits of conserving our environment through the reuse and utilization of waste within it. The review helps to identify the different types of wastes with potential of utilization towards construction and several key research factors and criteria which can provide focus and direction towards the choice of wastes-type to be used and ensuring that they have utilization potentials in the various value-addition applications. The piling of such wastes poses an environmental problem often on account of chemicals which the ecosystem has never been used to. These affect its proper functioning and in turn at the global level, are likely to affect even the stability of biosphere. The pool of information on Solid Wastes generation, disposal and management is increasing each year. A comprehensive review of available literature regarding Solid Wastes generation, disposal and management has been presented in this article.