Non-Negligible Effects of UV Irradiation on Transformation and Environmental Risks of Microplastics in the Water Environment

Microplastics (MPs) are ubiquitous in environmental media, and their harmful effects on MPs on the ecosystem have attracted more and more attention. Once released into the environment, MPs can trigger oxidative degradation through ultraviolet (UV) to cause photoaging. Photoaging significantly affects the properties of MPs, which leads to changing their environmental behaviors and increasing environmental risks. In this review, the generation of MPs under UV irradiation and the influence of environmental factors on the photoaging of MPs were discussed. Photoaging of MPs is an important process affecting the migration, transformation and interaction of pollutants in water and soil. In order to fully predict the fate and environmental interaction of MPs, more researches are needed in the future to explore the photoaging behavior of different types of MPs under natural environmental conditions.

Assessment of Distribution of Potentially Toxic Elements in Different Environmental Media Impacted by a Former Chlor-Alkali Plant

Former industrially contaminated sites are a burden from the past that still pose environmental risks. During the second half of the 20th century, the Pavlodar region in North Kazakhstan had been a part of Soviet Union’s industrial system that operated a chlor-alkali plant (CAP). The former CAP discharged approximately 135 t Hg into nearby Lake Balkyldak with total losses to water, soil, and air estimated around 1000 t. Pollution by potentially toxic elements (PTEs) due to former and currently active industrial enterprises is an under-investigated concern in the Pavlodar region. The present study aims to provide a much-needed update on the situation around the CAP area by evaluating the contamination by Hg and other selected PTEs (As, Ba, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sb, Se, Zn) on the surrounding environment of the CAP and in the nearby urban zone. Soil, sediment, surface water, and groundwater samples have been collected in several sampling campaigns carried out in 2018 and 2019. Several samples had Hg concentrations exceeding maximum permissible concentrations (MPC), for soils and sediments (in mg/kg; range: 0.0006 to 24, average: 0.56) and for surface water and groundwater (in µg/L; range: 0.004 to 1340, average: 93). Critically high concentrations were mostly measured in the vicinity of Lake Balkyldak, where the majority of Hg had been discharged by the former CAP, indicating persisting Hg pollution in the studied zone. A comparison of the PTEs concentrations in soil and sediments showed less severe pollution but still some elevated values for As, Ba, Co, Cu, Mn, Ni, and Se. The inter-elemental relationship between Hg and assessed PTEs was weak, indicating the presence of sources independent from Hg emitting sources. Further research on Hg contamination on the exact territory of the former CAP is needed, and a detailed human health risk characterization to identify potential unacceptable risks is strongly recommended.

GREEN ACCOUNTING: PEMANFAATAN BANK SAMPAH UNTUK MENINGKATKAN PEREKONOMIAN MASYARAKAT DI BANK SAMPAH UNILAK RIAU

ABSTRAK Salah satu permasalahan besar yang dialami kota-kota besar di Indonesia adalah persampahan. Sampah dapat diartikan sebagai konsekuensi adanya aktivitas kehidupan manusia.Tidak dapat dipungkiri, sampah akan selalu ada selama aktivitas kehidupan masih terus berjalan. Setiap tahunnya, dapat dipastikan volume sampah akan selalu bertambah seiring dengan pola konsumerisme masyarakat yang semakin meningkat. Kementerian Lingkungan Hidup mencatat rata-rata penduduk Indonesia menghasilkan sekitar 2,5 liter sampah per hari atau 625 juta liter dari jumlah total penduduk. Abdimas ini bertujuan agar mengubah mindset Mitra tentang paradigma pengelolaan sampah yang bertumpu pada pendekatan akhir sudah saatnya ditinggalkan dan diganti dengan paradigma baru. Paradigma yang menganggap sampah sebagai sumber daya yang mempunyai nilai ekonomis dan dapat dimanfaatkan, misalnya, untuk energi, kompos, pupuk, dan bahan baku industri. Pengelolaan sampah dapat dilakukan dengan pendekatan yang komprehensif. Dimulai dari hulu, yaitu sejak suatu produk yang berpotensi menjadi sampah belum dihasilkan. Dilanjutkan sampai ke hilir, yaitu pada fase produk sudah digunakan, sehingga menjadi sampah, yang kemudian dikembalikan ke media lingkungan secara aman. Tujuannya agar dapat mengurangi sampah di TPS/TPA dan mendorong pemberdayaan ekonomi masyarakat, melalui pemanfaatan sampah dengan program 3R (Reduce, Reuse dan Recycle). Kata Kunci: Green Accounting, Bank Sampah, Perekonomian ABSTRACT One of the big problems faced by big cities in Indonesia is solid waste. Garbage can be interpreted as a consequence of the activities of human life. It is undeniable that garbage will always exist as long as life activities continue. Every year, it is certain that the volume of waste will always increase along with the increasing consumerism of society. The Ministry of Environment noted that the average Indonesian population produces around 2.5 liters of waste per day or 625 million liters of the total population. This Abdimas aims to change Mitra's mindset about the waste management paradigm that is based on the final approach, it is time to leave it and replace it with a new paradigm. The paradigm that considers waste as a resource that has economic value and can be used, for example, for energy, compost, fertilizer, and industrial raw materials. Waste management can be done with a comprehensive approach. Starting from upstream, that is, since a product that has the potential to become waste has not been produced. Continued downstream, where the product has been used, so that it becomes waste, which is then returned to the environmental media safely. The goal is to reduce waste in TPS/TPA and encourage community economic empowerment, through the use of waste with the 3R (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) program. Keywords: Green Accounting, Waste Bank, Economy

Study on the Characteristics of Antibiotic Resistance Genes in Different Biological Treatment Systems

Due to the irrational use of antibiotics, antibiotic resistance genes are widely present in the environmental media of our lives. Antibiotics have potential environmental and public health risks, and they bring harm to the environment in which we live. Sewage treatment plants are antibiotic resistance genes’ repository and important process for removing antibiotic resistance genes. The different processes they use in sewage treatment plants, the effect of removing antibiotic resistance genes is also different. In order to discuss the impact of different processes on the removal of antibiotic resistance genes, we selected three wastewater treatment plant samples with different treatment processes for testing, and used the fluorescence quantitative analysis technology of 16SrRNA gene to study the abundance, distribution and diversity of antibiotic resistance genes in different treatment processes. The results showed that the AAO process, the oxidation ditch process, and the CASS process all have high removal effect on antibiotic resistance genes, they all can reduce the diversity and abundance of antibiotic resistance genes, and the oxidation ditch process is the best process of the three treatment processes.

Abundance and Dynamic Distribution of Antibiotic Resistance Genes in the Environment Surrounding a Veterinary Antibiotic Manufacturing Site

Background: Antibiotics releasing from the manufacturing sites to the surrounding environment has been identified as a risk factor for the development of antibiotic resistance of bacterial pathogens. However, the knowledge of the abundance and distribution of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) influenced by antibiotic pollution is still limited. Methods: In this work, the contamination by resistance genes of the environmental media including an urban river and soil along the river located near the sewage outlet of a veterinary antibiotic manufacturing site in Shijiazhuang, China, was assessed. The abundance and dynamic distribution of ARGs in different sampling points and during different seasons were analyzed using fluorescent quantitative PCR method (qPCR). Results: A total of 11 resistance genes, one integron and one transposon were detected in water and soils around the pharmaceutical factory, and among which, the sulfonamide resistance genes sul1 and β-lactam resistance genes blaSHV were the most abundant genes. The relative abundance of ARGs in both river water and soil samples collected at the downstream of the sewage outlet was higher than that of samples collected at the upstream, non-polluted areas (p < 0.05). The mobile genetic elements (MGEs) integron in river was significantly correlated (p < 0.05) with the relative abundance of ARGs. Conclusions: The results indicate that the discharge of waste from antibiotic manufacturing site may pose a risk of horizontal transfer of ARGs.

The policy of the Surakarta City Parks and Hygiene Service in environmental management

Based on Law Number 18 of 2008 concerning Waste Management, Tempat Pembuangan Sampah Akhir (TPA) is a Final Processing Site. The goal is to process and return waste to environmental media in a way that is safe for humans and the environment. The problems seen in the Putri Cempo TPA are the worrying land conditions, environmental pollution conditions, and poor management that the Government must pay attention to, because these have an impact on the surrounding community. This also caused a lot of complaints from the local community. The purpose of this study was to analyze the role of the Department of Parks and Hygiene in Waste Management in Surakarta City. In this study, researchers used descriptive qualitative research methods with 15 informants. The results showed that the management of the Putri Cempo TPA was not adequate, as seen from the many obstacles that occurred in Putri Cempo, such as several damaged vehicles and waste transportation equipment, the waste management operational system that determines the volume of waste disposed of in the TPA, and waste operational activities depending on the environment. operational pattern, namely the method of sweeping, collection, transportation, and final disposal.

Rules on Decarbonization and Humans Rights Law

In the 21st-century pandemic world faces, the challenge of global climate change in the form of temperature increase resulting in global warming, extremely crucial for small Iceland states. States from the South Pacific region are the biggest emitters of GHG. Rules of International Environmental Law are being called upon to address the protection and preservation of each environmental media including atmospheric air as substantial media for livelihood on the planet earth. Covid 19 disease strikes human’s breathing system and it is possible, that somehow this is reasoned from changes in the climate system. Thus, the rights of humans proclaimed and established on an international scale under ECHR and 1966 Covenants on separate rights of Humans are correlated with rules of environmental law, likewise, sedentary rocks on the sea bed are connected with the deep seabed, for the sustainability of their lifecycle. If the rights to life, to private and family life are protected and respected for the enjoyment by human beings, the Rules of International Environmental law on climate change mitigation are respected and implemented simultaneously because UNFCC, Paris Agreement, and Kyoto Protocol aim to protect the global atmosphere from GHG emissions ultimately to keep life on the earth, which includes Human’s opportunity to live in a healthy environment under rights to life, private life, and family living standards. The present article tries, briefly to describe how rules of IEL on Climate Change (Hard Laws) and Human Rights Norms interrelate with each other.