The goal of Characterization, Field Measurement, and Laboratory Testing of Municipal Solid Waste is to fold the current understanding of the properties of municipal solid waste, and the challenges it presents, into adequate guidance for researchers and practitioners who work directly with issues related to waste behavior. This volume is organized into three parts. Part One is a review of the state of the art in some of the most critical properties of municipal solid waste. Part Two attempts to reach some consensus or provide some minimum requirements or recommended procedures for waste characterization. Part Three includes five opinion papers submitted by the invited panelists from the United Kingdom, Brazil, Canada, Japan, and the United States. This new book broadens the current understanding of waste mechanics and improves waste disposal practices both domestically and internationally. It will be valuable to researchers and practicing engineers in the field of waste mechanics. Geotechnical Special Publication No. 209 was developed from papers and discussions presented at the International Symposium on Waste Mechanics, which took place in New Orleans March 11 13, 2008. The symposium was sponsored by the Geo-Institute of ASCE.

Incineration has been used widely for waste disposal, including household, hazardous, and medical wasteâ€"but there is increasing public concern over the benefits of combusting the waste versus the health risk from pollutants emitted during combustion. Waste Incineration and Public Health informs the emerging debate with the most up-to-date information available on incineration, pollution, and human healthâ€"along with expert conclusions and recommendations for further research and improvement of such areas as risk communication. The committee provides details on: Processes involved in incineration and how contaminants are released. Environmental dynamics of contaminants and routes of human exposure. Tools and approaches for assessing possible human health effects. Scientific concerns pertinent to future regulatory actions. The book also examines some of the social, psychological, and economic factors that affect the communities where incineration takes place and addresses the problem of uncertainty and variation in predicting the health effects of incineration processes.