Assignment:
Give a brief summary of the review from your article critique assignment. Include an APA style reference for the article
this is what u need to summarize
Ecology
For this assignment, a peer-reviewed article from the professional journal will be presented and critically reviewed. The article was obtained from a renowned database "EBSCOhost" with the help of keywords which were solid waste and management. The article selected is, "Gaseous emissions from the management of solid waste: a systematic review" (Pardo, Moral, Aguilera, & Prado, 2015). The article will be critically reviewed in the paper, and all the aspects of the review will be highlighted and discussed.
The solid waste management is the sum of treatment and disposal of solid stuff that is useless and discarded. The outcomes of inappropriate elimination of the solid material waste create an unhealthy and unsanitary situation that may be very injurious to the life of the people (Hagerty, Pavoni, & Heer, 1973). The solid waste management is among the top issues experienced by several countries around the world. Treatment or recycling, insufficient collection, and uncontrolled discarding of the waste can result in rigorous hazards such as the environmental pollution and health risks.
The management of solid wastes is the chief source of the anthropogenic emissions causative to environmental, global-scale, and regional problems. The major waste flows are related to the industry, urban, and livestock production systems, and in few cases, they are managed in the form of solid, which assist transport and handling across the whole system of management. In the article, the concern of sustainable soil waste management practices involves reducing their environmental losses related to the ecosystems acidification (ammonia NH3) and the climate change (greenhouse gasses GHGs). Though several strategies of management of the solid waste management have been examined to enumerate carbon and nitrogen losses in association to the different operational and environmental conditions, however, the all over impact is still doubtful.
The article presented with three research questions in accordance with their aim. The first research question was, do the composting systems decrease the greenhouse gasses (GHG) emission in contrast with the management of conventional solid storage? The second question was, do they include increase in Nitrogen (N) losses and to which level? The last and third question was what are the options for migrating the GHG emission and environmental trade-offs throughout solid waste management? The article fairly highlighted the issues raised by these research questions. In the article, the researchers have examined the present scientific information using systematic review. They quantified the reaction of NH3 emissions, GHG emissions, and N losses to the strategies of management of various solid wastes.
The procedure that was followed by the article to conduct the research was a meta-analysis that includes fifty research articles published before the end of the year 2013 concerning about 304 observations. They collected the articles through reliable databases such as Google scholars.
Their result suggested that enhancing the structure of the pile (manure heap or water) through substitution or addition of some bulking agents considerably decrease methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) emission by 53 percent and also by 71 percent. The curved composting systems, dissimilar to forced aerated composted systems, presented potential for decreasing GHGs. Both the composting systems and Bulking agents included a certain level of pollution swapping as they considerably promoted the emission of NH3 up till 121 percent for the bulking agents, curved and forced aerated composting, correspondingly. The strategies based on the oxygen supply restriction like compaction or covering did not present considerable effects on the decrease in GHGs but significantly reduced the emission of NH3 by 61 percent and also 54 percent for compaction and covering. The NH is decreased to 69 percent by utilizing specific additives. The meta-analysis proposed that there is sufficient evidence to evidence to purify potential methodologies Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) from solid waste, particularly for the practice composting solid waste. However, the researchers of the article still felt a need to present more integrated and holistic approaches to form a system that would be much sustainable solid waste management systems.
The article also discussed the main factor which could alter the emission of gasses are the environmental factors. The researchers gave a brief description of gasses through a table that consisted of standard deviation, mean, and some observations of collective gaseous emissions for several factors with a potential influence on carbon and Nitrogen losses from the management of solid waste. The table made the emission of gasses easy to understand.
The strength of the study is that it has discussed different factors that could affect their study such as environmental or climatic conditions. They affect the solid waste management a lot like the hot, warm and cold temperature would have altered the results. Rain can also be a factor which could alter the findings, but the researchers considered this factor too. The article lacks the statistical observations that were observed with regards to the period and scale of the experiment.
The research can be questioned on the reliability of some of the articles included in this. The researchers should select the articles with a larger number of evidenced to ensure the reliability of the results. One of the limitations faced by the research was about the inadequate knowledge available on the issue of GHG emission particularly about the N2O and CH4 gasses loss at the commercial scale. The researchers should have taken help from the industries undergoing this issue. The research itself mentioned that their study needs further evidence to make it stronger. However, the evidence provided are strong enough to be accepted.
Deep and thorough knowledge concerned with the gasses needs to be briefly described. Further research considering the parameters of gaseous availability is mandatory. For more precise, solid waste management strategies more research is needed concerning all the interactions and implications. Research conducted concerning the greenhouse gas emission included a vast variety of data from the landfills (Jha, Sharma, Singh, Ramesh, & Purvaja, 2008). Similar proves could have strengthened the review more.
The review also raised a problem that the information regarding carbon and nitrogen gas emission is still inadequate. The researchers around the world need to focus on this topic and research from different aspects to evaluate its different factors. As focusing on this was also help other studies. It is a major factor in many systems around the world.
The study concluded that the strategies to decrease NH3, GHGs, and complete loss of nitrogen during the management of solid waste are important. It also suggests that enhancing the structure of the organic waste by incorporating bulk agents is considered as an efficient measure that is very helpful in decreasing emission of N2O and CH4 without increasing the losses of nitrogen through volatilization of NH3.
Utilizing specific additives is a very successful strategy to decrease the loss of gasses while solid waste management. However, their efficiency varies depending on operational situations, dosage, and substances. The data included in the research the evidence of emission of N2O from the solid storage system are equal as those from curved composting in the passive window, and it could be considered as an authentic measure. Although further research on this topic is required as this is very sensitive matter. All over this systematic review seems very reliable the only back draw is the lack of knowledge in few aspects. The data of the article could be more strong if the articles included in the research would be more detailed with more facts and evidence. The solid waste management is considered as the critical issues experienced by many countries around the world.
The systematic review examined their researched questions fairly and assessed all the required and main information required. The only thing that lacked in the review was more detail of the articles included. The study has chosen the articles with large data and evidence. Several strategies of management for solid management have been examined to enumerate carbon and nitrogen losses in association to different operational and environmental conditions, the all over impact are still doubtful.
The response of NH3 emissions, GHG emissions, and N losses to the strategies of management of various solid wastes has been discussed in the review. The meta-analysis proposed that there is sufficient evidence to evidence to purify potential methodologies Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) from solid waste, particularly for the practice composting solid waste.
References
Hagerty, D. J., Pavoni, J. L., & Heer, J. E. (1973). Solid waste management. Van Nostrand Reinhold.
Jha, A. K., Sharma, C., Singh, N., Ramesh, R., & Purvaja, R. (2008). Greenhouse gas emissions from municipal solid waste management in Indian mega-cities: A case study of Chennai landfill sites. Chemosphere, 71(4), 750-758.
Pardo, G., Moral, R., Aguilera, E., & Prado, A. (2015). Gaseous emissions from management of solid waste: a systematic review. Global change biology, 21(3), 1313-1327.