This document published by the Centre for Environment and Development (CED) includes the proceedings of the Kerala Environment Congress 2010  jointly organised by the Centre for Environment and Development (CED), Thiruvanathapuram, Kerala, sponsored by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) and The Life Insurance Corporation of India.

The focal theme of the congress was solid and liquid waste management. The conference focused on:

• The importance of scientific management of solid and liquid waste as a major component of ecologically sustainable economic development
• Waste management as an important aspect of human development and a determinant of health outcomes and control of vector borne seasonal diseases
• The irrelevance of traditional waste management practices in the context of the current global ecology and economy
• The need for reorientation of strategies and application of newer technologies and processes to deal with the problem of waste management
• Need for development of technologies related to treatment and disposal of wastes that conform to the highest norms of conservation of material, space, energy and economic sustainability
• The need to develop technologies and processes and refinement of those available in tune with the local circumstances including sociocultural and environmental conditions
• Waste minimisation as a priority and focus on awareness and capacity building of the society to deal with the current problem of wastes in urban areas, which include a range of complex as well as hazardous materials needing efficient waste management systems

The document includes papers based on twenty three presentations and includes:

Invited presentations

• Review of strategy, framework and technological options for municipal solid waste management by Damodaran V K, Geena Prasad, Joseph V T and Babu Ambat
• Sustainable small scale solid waste management for the future by Chanakya H N, Shwetmala and Srisha Malayil
• Electronic waste management- An Indian Outlook by Kurien Joseph
• Strategy and options for biomedical waste management by Vijaybhas E J
• Statutory requirements, best practices and status of hazardous waste management by Dileep Kumar M
• Management of slaughter houses and abattoirs by Abraham J
• Strategies and techniques for reuse of greywater from residential and service sector complexes by James E J, Radhakrishnan P V and Ajithkumar P S
• Wastewater management in urban areas: Centralised Vs decentralised systems by Ligy Philip
• Green House Gas (GHG) emissions from the waste sector and clean development mechanism (CDM), Implementation in India: An overview by Vinod T R and Syamala P N
• Municipal solid waste management: A framework on legal responsibility of local government by Suruth Kumar A
• Waste management: A time tested public health tool by Biju Soman

General presentations

• Artificial neural networks (ANN) approach for modeling of resorcinol adsorption from aqeous solution by wood charcoal by Ramhari Aghav V, Pradyut Kundu, Somnath Mukheerji
• Studies on chemical and water budgets of sugar factory wastewater during land application after percolation through a soil column having crop of black gram (Cicer arietinum L.) by Shubhada D Bavare and Goel P K
• Unmet needs of Solid waste management workers at Calicut Corporation area by Jayakrishnan T and Jeeja M C
• Hazards and Management of Mercury as a hospital waste: A case study from Kerala by Jeeja M C and Thejus T J
• Perceptions and practices of waste handling among the women solid waste workers - A study in Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, Kerala by Rani S S, Elezebeth Mathews and Babu Ambat
• Two-stage anaerobic digestion of municipal solid waste using acid phase fermenters coupled with cst reactors with natural / synthetic biofilm support systems by Rakesh P S, Sajithkumar K J and Ramasamy E V

Young scientist’s award presentations

• Methylene Blue removal from aqueous solution using zinc oxide nanoparticles by Anoop K, Praveena P R, George K C and Philip K C
• Remediation of heavy metals in wastewater contaminated soils using Vetiver plants by Dhanya G and Jaya D S
• Health hazards assessment among the solid waste workers of Thiruvananthapuram Corporation by Elezebeth Mathews and Rani S S
• Drinking water and fodder quality around Kanjikode industrial belt and its impact on cattle health by Nisha A R, Vineetha C B, Sreelekha K P, Dhanya V R and Chandrasekharan Nair A M
• Polyurethane foam as filter media in Up-flow anaerobic hybrid reactors by Sumi S and Lea Mathew
• Quality evaluation of surface and groundwater of Thrissur by Vineetha C B, Nisha A R, Dhanya V R,Sreelekha K P and Chandrasekharan Nair A M

A copy of the document can be downloaded from below: