Journal articles on the topic 'Medical wastes Refuse and refuse disposal'

Abstract Introduction: Bio-Set® (Biodome, Issoire France) is a new needleless device developed for the reconstitution of a factor VIII concentrate, Kogenate® FS (Bayer HealthCare, Elkhart IN). Objectives: Quantitate time required to prepare FVIII concentrate for infusion and estimate the cost of medical waste produced using 3 reconstitution methods. Methods: 161 subjects (35 patients; 67 caregivers; and 59 nurses) were recruited from the US and Canada following an IRB-approved protocol. Reconstitution methods were Bio-Set®, the conventional 2 vial transfer needle reconstitution method, and 2 vial Baxject method (Baxter Healthcare, Westlake Village CA). Video and interviewer demonstrations were conducted, then participants practiced each reconstitution method once before performing a timed round. Diluent volume for the conventional reconstitution method and Baxject were controlled at 5 mL. After each timed round, participants separated reconstitution refuse into either medical waste or regular trash. The weights of component pieces were added and a cost for disposal of the medical waste was determined. Results: Participants completed preparation of the infusion with Bio-Set® in the shortest amount of time compared to the conventional method and Baxject (both p<0.0001). Results were similar across the 3 participant groups. The average weight of medical waste was lowest for Bio-Set® and highest for Baxject. The resulting disposal cost was significantly lower for Bio-Set® (p<0.0001). Conclusions: The results of the time study showed a reduction of 33% in infusion preparation time with the Bio-Set® when compared to the conventional method and 29% when compared to the Baxject. The cost of disposal of medical waste should be reduced with the use of the Bio-Set®.

Municipal-solid waste (MSW) in towns and cities of Nigeria are either allowed to rot or burnt which causes the release of greenhouse gases in the process. The heap of uncollected refuse in Kano municipal causes serious health hazards and menacing public disorder. This research investigated the Kano municipal refuse for compost making, instead of using waste disposal technique such as landfilling. Refuse samples from Dorayi/Zage and Rimin Kira refuse dumping sites Kano Municipal, Kano State Nigeria were collected. The refuse samples were sorted and all the non-biodegradables materials were removed. A compost was made from Sample N in 20 days while 9 days was required to produce a compost from sample P. Kjeldahl Nitrogen determination method and simple procedure for total carbon determination method were used to determine the percentages of nitrogen and carbon in the samples. The results have shown that, the percentages of nitrogen in the samples were found to be 1.64% for sample N and 1.71% for sample P. The percentages of carbon in the samples are 6.8% for sample N and 6.3% for sample P. The C/N ratio for sample N was 4.15:1 and that of sample P was 3.69:1.Kano municipal refuse contains a lot of organic wastes which are very difficult to incinerate. Therefore, Composting method is the best option for the disposal of the refuse rather than directly dumped in the streets.

The study assessed hair barbing salon Waste Management Practices in Bama. A set of questionnaire was administered to barbing salon proprietors to obtain their current barbing salon waste management styles, viz a viz the types of waste generated and methods of waste disposal. Data obtained were analyzed descriptively and reveals hair as the dominant waste generated in barbing salon operations. The hair wastes are swept and packed using coconut brooms and plastic hand shovel and stored in paper cartons. They are hence disposed on weekly or monthly basis or whenever cartons are filled up at refuse disposal points along streets within the neigbourhood, outskirt of the town, a large trench left behind by Cubits Civil Engineering Construction Company and the Yedseram river valley or at best burnt or buried. The adoption of these disposal techniques is more or less the same technique used in the disposal of all forms of refuse in the study area where wastes are disposed with impunity. In the same vein, there is a significant level of awareness of the impact of salon waste management practices on the environment/society by perpetrators. The study recommended steps for better barbing salon waste management to include salon waste reuse and recycling by researching into how barbing salon wastes can be a resource.

Landfills in rural, resource-based communities are receiving unknown quantities of potentially hazardous materials, including household hazardous wastes (HHHW) and industrial, commercial, and institutional (ICI) wastes in self-hauled and collection vehicle loads. Rural generation and disposal rates are expected to be higher than in urban areas.The research program was conducted in a resource-based community consisting of a town of about 5500 residents and the surrounding rural area with an equal number of residents in Alberta. The research objective was to determine the weight fraction of hazardous materials in the refuse through physical sampling of the waste stream at the community landfill. Over a 1-year period (1991), large collection vehicle loads and self-hauled private and ICI loads from the town and the rural area were sampled during 1 week in each season using a two-staged systematic random sampling design to measure the average weight fraction and variation by season and by type of load. The results show the annual average weight fraction of hazardous materials to be 6.7% with a 95% confidence interval of 4.0% to 9.4%. Seasonal differences are apparent, but are not significant. Self-hauled ICI and rural wastes tend to contain higher percentages of potentially hazardous materials, but the variation is also higher so the values are not significantly different from those from the town. The detected materials consist mainly of oily wastes (debris, oil containers, and vehicle oil filters), other automotive products, and paints. As a result, the hazardous material content of rural community refuse appears to be substantially higher than the 0.3% to 1.0% reported for HHHW in urban refuse streams. While the rural composition suggests that vehicle and home maintenance contribute some of the difference, this study also shows that ICI wastes and self-hauled loads contribute noticeable quantities of potentially hazardous materials. The results suggest that it is essential for rural communities to consider waste management alternatives for potentially hazardous materials because rural waste streams contain significantly higher percentages and because rural landfills are often not designed to as high a standard as large urban facilities. Key words: household hazardous waste, ICI waste, waste stream analysis, rural landfills, refuse waste stream.

Non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMOCs) are important precursors of the photochemical reactions which produce ozone and secondary organic aerosols. An accurate emission inventory is essential for air-quality simulations and policy making. The NMOC emission from landfill is an important sector in the anthropogenic source. When estimating anthropogenic NMOC inventory the emission factor for refuse disposal originates from the European study or the estimation for this sector is discarded due to no other referenced data. This research is reviewed the NMOC yields from refuse landfill and the emission factor is from 0.0775 to 3.7625 kg/t. Besides, this paper was particularly concerned with correction of the emission factor by estimating the effects of waste characteristics and the various technologies for landfill. Compared NMOC yields under anaerobic and aerobic conditions for each kind of wastes, only the difference for food waste was obvious.

The disposal and reuse of waste combustion residues has become a critical topic recently in view of the method of treating household wastes in a city, which has gradually changed to be incineration (major) and landfill (minor) in densely populated Taiwan, plus the difficulty of various wastes disposed by the Refuse Incineration Plant at Yilan County. To propose concrete recommendations as references for the local competent authorities’ policy for reuse of bottom ash, we researched and analyzed compositions of wastes and ingredients as well as leaching toxicity of bottom ash (accounting for 70% of waste combustion residues) which had been collected from the Li-Ze Incineration plant at Yilan, and transported bottom ash to a cement plant also at Yilan as an alternative material for Portland cement. The results in this study indicated quite a few products, with ingredients of bottom ash from an incineration plant, can be taken as principal compositions used in production of cement, and the capacity of bottom ash treated by the cement plant can be further expanded according to the quality of produced cement and bottom ash properly processed.

AbstractFor selecting the most efficient treatment method of hospital waste, the composition analysis is generally considered to be the fundamental information. Currently, there are few studies regarding the characteristics of hospital waste. This study evaluated the physical and elemental composition of the hospital waste at the National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH). The results should help us design an incinerator for the treatment of infectious waste, plastic syringes, pathological waste, and kitchen waste. During the study period, the estimated daily waste generation rate at NTUH was 4,600 kg/day, which consisted of 4,100 kg/day noninfectious refuse, 340 kg/day infectious waste, 70 kg/day kitchen waste, 50 kg/day pathological waste, and 40 kg/day plastic syringes. The NTUH waste consisted of 99.02% combustible wastes and 0.97% noncombustible wastes by mass. The combustibie wastes constituted paper (16.17%), textiles (9.77%), cardboard, wood, and leaves (1.12%), food waste (21.5 1%), and plastics (50.45%). The noncombustible waste included 0.40% metal and 0.57% glass. Furthermore, the analysis indicated that the wastes contained 38% moisture, 4% ashes, and 58% solid with an average heat value of 3,400 kcal/kg. From the elemental analysis, the dominant elements were found to be carbon (34%) and oxygen (15%).

This epidemiological investigation examines the impact of several environmental sanitation conditions and hygiene practices on diarrhea occurrence among children under five years of age living in an urban area. The case-control design was employed; 997 cases and 999 controls were included in the investigation. Cases were defined as children with diarrhea and controls were randomly selected among children under five years of age. After logistic regression adjustment, the following variables were found to be significantly associated with diarrhea: washing and purifying fruit and vegetables; presence of wastewater in the street; refuse storage, collection and disposal; domestic water reservoir conditions; feces disposal from swaddles; presence of vectors in the house and flooding in the lot. The estimates of the relative risks reached values up to 2.87. The present study revealed the feasibility of developing and implementing an adequate model to establish intervention priorities in the field of environmental sanitation.

The growing dominance of urban environment with heavy metals through natural and anthropogenic depositions and the potentially adverse health implications following environmental contaminations have focused attention on the disposal of municipal and industrial wastes. This study employed analytical procedures to investigate the concentrations of chromium, iron, copper, zinc, manganese and aluminium at the municipal waste dump site of the study areas. Soil samples were randomly collected from different waste dumpsite across Nasarawa, Kogi, and Niger states and an undisturbed soil 100m away from the dumpsites was chosen as the control. From the result obtained, it was observed that the metals in all dumpsite types followed the order: Mn>Fe>Zn>Cu>Cr>Al. Mn had the highest mean concentration which was recorded in Bida, Borgu and Minna in Niger State while Al was the least detected in all the dumpsites with the lowest mean concentrations (5.7±0.96) recorded in Borgu. Mean concentration of all the metals at the dumpsites was higher than at the control which means there is an anthropogenic contribution from the environment. The concentrations of the heavy metals were generally lower than their respective guideline values for the protection of human and environmental health. However, with prolong practice of dumping refuse at these sites; concentrations of the heavy metals may increase above the recommended limits. Therefore, we recommend that further research be carried out on the heavy metals concentration of the waste materials to identify those that are potential sources of soil contamination to suggest appropriate treatment and disposal methods.

This paper examines solid waste transportation in Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State. Adequate transportation of solid waste is one of the major challenges of waste managers in Nigeria because of inherent factors ranging from dearth of transport infrastructure to poor attitude of residents. Data were collected through the aid of questionnaires, personal observations, visitations to some villages and towns as well as dumpsites. The questionnaires were divided into two parts: household respondents and solid waste management staff. The data obtained were analyzed using Descriptive Statistics, Factor Analysis and Item Analysis. From the analysis of the data obtained from household and waste management respondents the mean and standard deviation reflect high degree of correlation and concurrence. From the principal component analysis of both the household respondents and waste management staff, there are two principal factors respectively that should be given higher consideration in solid waste management in Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area. These factors include waste collection and disposal method, frequency of collection and reliability of waste vehicles. Based on these findings, the study concluded that attitudinal change on the part of the household, government intervention on road maintenances, and adequate maintenance of PSP vehicles will go a long way in reducing the heaps of refuse and indiscriminate dumping of solid wastes in the entire vicinity of Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area in Ogun State, Nigeria.

Around 5000 tons of food waste is produced every day in Iraq which accounts for about (50%) of the waste that we get rid of them. Waste sent to landfill for disposal may break down and produce methane gas that causes greenhouse effect, as well as cause odor, epidemics, and disease because of the disintegration. The research aims to produce organic fertilizer through the recycling of domestic refuse. It has been working through this research to collect the domestic refuse food which represent the nitrogen source, as well as the remains of cleaning and trimming of various trees and the remains of lawn mowers, and use of sawdust white wood which represent the carbon source. Have been working on dried and arranged in layers of perforated plastic containers for ventilation, it was moisturized with two different types of water and monitored fertilizer maturity for four months. Previously the fresh water was used for the purpose for moisturizing the mixture (chlorination water supply) later the domestic wastewater have been used. The comparison was made between the results of tests performed; the test has come up with the result that the use of "domestic wastewater" which it is rich in living organisms is the best and fastest in the process of manufacturing organic fertilizer than the use of "water supply", to contain the latter on the amount of chlorine of weakens the growth of microorganisms. And the use of dried plant waste, in the mixture as source of carbon was successful, and it gave the best organic fertilizer production results because these wastes are easy to decompose compare with sawdust wood. The felicitous fertilizer is it rich with nutrient such as nitrogen 2.3 %, phosphorus 13%, and potassium 20%, etc. There are some important factors affecting the process of production of fertilizer, including air ventilation, temperature, moisture content in the mixture. Carbon to nitrogen is a major factor, where each 20-30 part of the carbon should be taken into account for the decomposition of 1 part of the nitrogen to produce the compost properly, the high proportion of carbon about 30%, causes low-temperature mixture, and it leads to slow compost composition, and less than 20% leads to excess nitrogen, which lost in the air in the form of ammonia, and the higher pH value, could be toxic to some microorganisms.

Under the newly implemented waste management policy in European Union countries, sanitary landfilling constitutes the fourth and the least preferred of the alternative management options for the disposal of solid urban wastes. Landfills generate emissions over long periods, often longer than a lifetime. The longest lasting emission is leachate: leachate production and management is now recognized as one of the greatest problems associated with the environmentally sound operation of sanitary landfills. These liquid wastes can cause considerable pollution problems by contacting the surrounding soil, ground or surface waters and, are therefore considered major pollution hazards unless precautionary measures are implemented. Landfill leachate characterization is a critical factor in establishing a corresponding effective management strategy or treatment process. This paper summarizes leachate quality indicators, and investigates the temporal variation of leachate quality from municipal solid waste. The toxicity of leachates from the municipal solid waste landfill "Vinca" in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, was characterized using toxicity characteristics leaching procedures (TCLP). The "Vinca" landfill was established in 1978 as one of several municipal landfills. Since the 1990-ies the "Vinca" landfill has been the only operating landfill servicing the Belgrade Metropolitan area, the biggest city in Serbia, with 1,576,124 inhabitants in the larger-city area, and 1,273,651 inhabitants in the inner-city area. The total average amount of solid wastes deposited in the landfill is estimated to be 1100 tons/day. The landfill site is not lined and the tributary flows through the centre of the site-in some places directly under the mass of refuse. No consideration has been given to the protection of ground waters, surface runoff or drainage. Local authorities plan to expand the landfill by 0.4 km2 to a total of 1.3 km Chemical analysis was performed on the samples and the temporal variation of several parameters was monitored including pH, COD, chlorides, sulfates, nitrates, ammonia nitrogen, hardness, and heavy metals. The COD and pH were related to the biological activity within the landfill and the results indicated differences between the samples due to waste age. The concentrations of heavy metals, sulfates, nitrates, chlorides and ammonia nitrogen in the leachate were low, indicating their initially low amount in landfilled waste or their flushing with moisture contributing to a reduction in their concentrations.

Summary Newborn blood-spot screening to detect potentially treatable disorders is widely practiced across the globe. However, there are great variations in practice, both in terms of disorders covered, screening technologies, disease definition, information provision, parental informed consent, and storage and disposal of residual specimens, partly reflecting the degree to which screening is the subject of explicit legislation (and thus public and media pressure) or is embedded in a general health care system and managed at an executive level. It is generally accepted that disorders to be screened for should comply with the ten Wilson and Jungner criteria, but the way that compliance is assessed ranges from broadly-based opinion surveys to detailed analysis of quantitative data. Consequently, even countries with comparable levels of economic development and health care show large differences in the number of disorders screened for. There are several areas on which there are no generally accepted guidelines: how should parents be informed about screening and to what extent should they be encouraged to regard screening as an option to choose to refuse? Is DNA mutation analysis acceptable as part of a screening protocol? How soon should the blood samples be destroyed once screening has been completed? As technology advances and the potential scope of screening expands at both the metabolite and genome level, challenging policy issues will have to be faced.

Solid waste management is a societal problem both in developed and developing countries and studies have shown that most developing nations are struggling to find a lasting solution to this bane. The study therefore, sought to assess the waste management practices in Ghana using Subin Metropolis as a case study and offer some solutions to the challenges faced by resident and city authorities in managing the problem. Subin Metropolis a suburb of Kumasi, is considered as one of the highly-dense suburbs in terms of its human population and social activities.In this study, a set of structured questionnaires was administered to households selected randomly. The total number of households selected was based on statistics of the 2010 population census of one hundred and seventy-four thousand and four (174,004) inhabitants. with an annual growth rate of 4.8%, was used in projecting the number of inhabitants in the suburb for 2020 being the year under consideration as 253192, was adopted using the Slovin’s equation resulting in a sample size of four hundred (400). Data collected were analysed using SPSS and the results presented.Findings of the research reveal that despite the provision of dustbin by Subin sub metro authority and waste management companies, 32.25% of the residents use inappropriate storage receptacles including plastic bags to store their refuse temporarily in the house.8.75% of residents dispose of their waste through waste companies using dump truck, 76% of the waste generated are evacuated through paid labourer for onward transportation to the few waste storage and collecting points within the metropolis. If the wastes at the storage point are not evacuated on time can lead to serious health implications.Lack of access roads is a major hindrance to effective waste management in the community due to poor spatial planning. Inadequate information and education on waste management and alternative strategies on managing waste is also another limiting factor that contributed to the poor sanitary condition in the Metropolis.This paper recommends using a multifaceted approach in solving the waste management menace through awareness creation, community engagement, information sharing as well as sustainable waste management systems such as waste reduction and recycling of waste. The paper also recommends that the city authority create more access roads in the community to improve upon waste services delivery.

Legal issues concerning the doctor-patient relationship are numerous, and belong to the wider field of professional liability in health care. This article will be dealt with the issues related to informed consent in patients temporarily unable to express consent, or patients who are in a state of temporary incapacity. If the patients are temporarily incapable, and therefore are not able to receive the information nor to express consent to treatment, the physicians’ duty to provide medical treatment and the patients’ self-determination should be considered: the patients can consent or refuse treatment only if able to understand the significance of their decision. If a patient is temporarily unable to give consent and the practitioner doesn’t have at his/her disposal a valid document reporting the patient’s wishes, it’s necessary to rely on the so called “amministratore di sostegno” (introduced in the Italian legal system by Law n. 6 of January 9th, 2004). But in the case of not deferrable treatment, as a lifesaving intervention, the rule is in dubio pro life meaning that a doctor is always legitimized by this situation of urgent need, regardless of the informed consent of the patient and/or third parties.

Quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) is frequently used to estimate health risks associated with wastewater irrigation and requires pathogen concentration estimates as inputs. However, human pathogens, such as viruses, are rarely quantified in water samples, and simple relationships between fecal indicator bacteria and pathogen concentrations are used instead. To provide data that can be used to refine QMRA models of wastewater-fed agriculture in Accra, stream, drain, and waste stabilization pond waters used for irrigation were sampled and analyzed for concentrations of fecal indicator microorganisms (human-specific Bacteroidales, Escherichia coli, enterococci, thermotolerant coliform, and somatic and F+ coliphages) and two human viruses (adenovirus and norovirus genogroup II). E. coli concentrations in all samples exceeded limits suggested by the World Health Organization, and human-specific Bacteroidales was found in all but one sample, suggesting human fecal contamination. Human viruses were detected in 16 out of 20 samples, were quantified in 12, and contained 2–3 orders of magnitude more norovirus than predicted by norovirus to E. coli concentration ratios assumed in recent publications employing indicator-based QMRA. As wastewater irrigation can be beneficial for farmers and municipalities, these results should not discourage water reuse in agriculture, but provide motivation and targets for wastewater treatment before use on farms.

This article scrutinizes the boiling of water in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, India. Boiling, as it is commonly practiced, improves water quality, but its full potential is not being realized. Thus, the objective is to refine the method in practice, promote acceptability, and foster the scalability of boiling and household water treatment (HWT) writ large. The study is based on bacteriological samples from 300 households and 80 public standposts, 14 focus group discussions (FGDs), and 74 household interviews. Collectively, the data fashion both an empirical and ethnographic understanding of boiling. The rate and efficacy of boiling, barriers to and caveats of its adoption, and recommendations for augmenting its practice are detailed. While boiling is scientifically proven to eliminate bacteria, data demonstrate that pragmatics inhibit their total destruction. Furthermore, data and the literature indicate that a range of cultural, economic, and ancillary health factors challenge the uptake of boiling. Fieldwork and resultant knowledge arrive at strategies for overcoming these impediments. The article concludes with recommendations for selecting, introducing, and scaling up HWT mechanisms. A place-based approach that can be sustained over the long-term is espoused, and prolonged exposure by the interveners coupled with meaningful participation of the target population is essential.

ABSTRACTThis work gives a detailed description of the important aspects of a long-term Low-Level Radioactive Waste (LLRW) degradation experiment, performed at Chalk River Laboratories (CRL). This experiment utilized actual LLRW. The wastes consist of unconditioned compacted refuse (paper, mop heads, paper towels, used clothing, etc), which represents the bulk of the waste volume intended for near-surface disposal at CRL. Waste material was collected and compacted to make a total of 11 bales for this experiment. Each bale was then placed and sealed in separate steel containers which were connected to sampling lines. After a dry monitoring period, water was added to promote leaching and decomposition of the wastes. The leachate sampled had a composition similar to landfill leachates. Some applications of this experiment, used to support the safety case of near-surface disposal, are briefly discussed in this paper, e.g., the production of colloidal material, the nature and role of dissolved organics of microbial origin, etc.

The open dump approach, a primitive version of municipal solid waste disposal remains thepredominant option in most of the Asian countries. Problems of shortage of cover, lack ofleachate collection and treatment, inadequate compaction of wastes, poor site design andragpickers working and setting the refuse on fire to recover valuable inorganic items arecommon at such dumps. It is essential that an appropriate status quo analysis is carried outand an achievable, acceptable and affordable strategy and action plan are developed forimplementation in a phased manner. This paper presents the steps that may be initiated tosteadily move from open dumps towards controlled dumps and later to sustainable landfillsbased on the lessons learned from the on going project on "Sustainable Solid Waste LandfillManagement in Asia" under the Asian Regional Research Programme on EnvironmentalTechnology funded by Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency andCoordinated by Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand.The first step in upgrading open dumps to sanitary landfills involves reducing nuisances suchas odors, dust, vermin, and birds. The principle of landfill mining may be used as the driver toconvert this challenging task into an opportunity. The possible outcome would includerecovery of space for future landfills, soil fraction for growing non edible crops as well aslandfill cover material and the plastics for making refuse derived fuel. A natural remediationtechnique such as phytoremediation using higher vascular plants, though slow, is also worthconsidering.

The present study deals with the physico-chemical analysis of water samplescollected monthly from three established sites in Lahug River for a period ofsix months. The main purpose of the study is to provide baseline data on itsphysico-chemical characteristics as well as assess its water quality. Statistical toolswere used to analyze and interpret the data. The pH, temperature, TDS, DO, nitrates and total P varied significantly (p<0.05) across location. The pH valuesvaried from 7.2 to 7.7 are suitable for the largest variety of aquatic organisms.Water temperature, total suspended solids (TSS), total dissolved solids (TDS) and levels of nitrates were within the permissible DENR guidelines for Class D surface waters. However, the levels of dissolved oxygen (DO), biochemicaloxygen demand (BOD) and total P did not comply with the DENR Class Dstandard for surface waters. Rapid oxygen depletion and high phosphorus contentas it traversed downstream indicated that the river is polluted. Major sourcesof pollution were found to be anthropogenic activities such as indiscriminatedumping of refuse, disposal of waste water from laundry and piggery, and waterflow from backyard gardening which uses pesticides or fertilizers. Proper disposalof wastes, establishment of waste water treatment measures, education and publicenvironmental awareness should be done at the community level to reduce thelevel of pollution in Lahug River.Keywords: Aquatic Ecology, water quality, rivers, physico-chemical parameter, descriptivedesign, Philippines

With the growing population, solid waste management (SWM) is becoming a significant environmental challenge and an emerging issue, especially in the eco-sensitive Indian Himalayan region (IHR). Though IHR does not host high local inhabitants, growing tourist footfall in the IHR increases solid wastes significantly. The lack of appropriate SWM facilities has posed a serious threat to the mountain-dwelling communities. SWM is challenging in the highlands due to the remoteness, topographical configuration, increasing urbanization, and harsh climate compared to plain areas. Difficulty in managing SWM has led to improper disposal methods, like open dumping and open burning of waste, that are adversely affecting the fragile IHR ecosystem. Open dumping of unsegregated waste pollutes the freshwater streams, and burning releases major pollutants often linked to the glacier melt. Processes like composting, vermicomposting, and anaerobic digestion to treat biodegradable wastes are inefficient due to the regions' extreme cold conditions. IHR specific SWM rules were revised in 2016 to deal with the rising problem of SWM, providing detailed criteria for setting up solid waste treatment facilities and promoting waste-to-energy (WtE). Despite governments' effort to revise SWM; measures like proper collection, segregation, treatment, and solid waste disposal needs more attention in the IHR. Door-to-door collection, segregation at source, covered transportation, proper treatment, and disposal are the primary steps to resource recovery across the IHR. Approaches such as waste recycling, composting, anaerobic digestion, refuse-derived fuel (RDF), and gas recovery from landfills are essential for waste alteration into valuable products initiatives like 'ban on single-use plastic' and 'polluters to pay' have a potential role in proper SWM in the IHR. Research and technology, capacity building, mass awareness programs, and initiatives like ‘ban on single-use plastic’ and ‘polluters to pay’ have a potential role in proper SWM in the IHR. This review highlights the current status of waste generation, the current SWM practices, and SWM challenges in the IHR. The review also discusses the possible resource recovery from waste in the IHR, corrective measures introduced by the government specific to IHR and, the way forward for improved SWM for achieving sustainable development of the IHR.

Ceramic wall tiles are used as building material in the field of construction. Manufacturing of ceramic tiles require different raw material like clay, potash, dolomite, feldspar, talc and different chemicals like sodium silicate, sodium tripoly, phosphate (STPP) in ceramic production. In the ceramic industry, about 15%-30% production goes as waste. These wastes poses a serious threat to the environment by polluting the habitant and agricultural lands. Therefore using of ceramic waste powder in concrete would benefit in many ways in saving energy & protecting the environment. The cost of deposition of ceramic waste in landfills will be saved. Raw materials and natural resources will be replaced. Which indirectly helps for reducing the greenhouse gas (co2).There is a large amount of carbon dioxide released in the cement production. In this research study the (OPC) cement has been replaced by ceramic waste powder accordingly in the range of 0%, 10%, 20%, 30% 40%, & 50% by weight for M-25 grade concrete. The wastes employed came from ceramic industry which is in Rusayl (Muscat, Oman) industrial area. Based on experimental investigations concerning the compressive strength of concrete, the following observations are made: (a) The Compressive Strength of M25 grade concrete increases when the replacement of cement with ceramic waste up to 30% by weight of cement and further replacement of cement with ceramic powder decreases the compressive strength. (b) Concrete on 30% replacement of cement with ceramic waste, compressive strength obtained is 26.77 N/mm2and vice-versa the cost of the concrete is reduced up to 13.27% in M25 grade and hence it becomes more economical without compromising concrete strength than the standard concrete. It becomes technically and economically feasible and viable. It is the possible alternative solution of safe disposal of ceramic waste. Reuse of this kind of waste has advantages economic and environmental, reduction in the number of natural spaces employed as refuse dumps. Indirectly, all the above contributes to a better quality of life for citizens and to introduce the concept of sustainability in the construction sector.

Each community’s title deed carries the indelible blood stains of our ancestors. (Watson, "Howard’s End" 2)IntroductionAccording to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term coalition comes from the Latin coalescere or ‘coalesce’, meaning “come or bring together to form one mass or whole”. Coalesce refers to the unity affirmed as something grows: co – “together”, alesce – “to grow up”. While coalition is commonly associated with formalised alliances and political strategy in the name of self-interest and common goals, this paper will draw as well on the broader etymological understanding of coalition as “growing together” in order to discuss the Australian government’s recent changes to land rights legislation, the 2007 Emergency Intervention into the Northern Territory, and its decision to use Indigenous land in the Northern Territory as a dumping ground for nuclear waste. What unites these distinct cases is the role of the Australian nation-state in asserting its sovereign right to decide, something Giorgio Agamben notes is the primary indicator of sovereign right and power (Agamben). As Fiona McAllan has argued in relation to the Northern Territory Intervention: “Various forces that had been coalescing and captivating the moral, imaginary centre were now contributing to a spectacular enactment of a sovereign rescue mission” (par. 18). Different visions of “growing together”, and different coalitional strategies, are played out in public debate and policy formation. This paper will argue that each of these cases represents an alliance between successive, oppositional governments - and the nourishment of neoliberal imperatives - over and against the interests of some of the Indigenous communities, especially with relation to land rights. A critical stance is taken in relation to the alterations to land rights laws over the past five years and with the Northern Territory Emergency Intervention, hereinafter referred to as the Intervention, firstly by the Howard Liberal Coalition Government and later continued, in what Anthony Lambert has usefully termed a “postcoalitional” fashion, by the Rudd Labor Government. By this, Lambert refers to the manner in which dominant relations of power continue despite the apparent collapse of old political coalitions and even in the face of seemingly progressive symbolic and material change. It is not the intention of this paper to locate Indigenous people in opposition to models of economic development aligned with neoliberalism. There are examples of productive relations between Indigenous communities and mining companies, in which Indigenous people retain control over decision-making and utilise Land Council’s to negotiate effectively. Major mining company Rio Tinto, for example, initiated an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Policy platform in the mid-1990s (Rio Tinto). Moreover, there are diverse perspectives within the Indigenous community regarding social and economic reform governed by neoliberal agendas as well as government initiatives such as the Intervention, motivated by a concern for the abuse of children, as outlined in The Little Children Are Sacred Report (Wild & Anderson; hereinafter Little Children). Indeed, there is no agreement on whether or not the Intervention had anything to do with land rights. On the one hand, Noel Pearson has strongly opposed this assertion: “I've got as much objections as anybody to the ideological prejudices of the Howard Government in relation to land, but this question is not about a 'land grab'. The Anderson Wild Report tells us about the scale of Aboriginal children's neglect and abuse" (ABC). Marcia Langton has agreed with this stating that “There's a cynical view afoot that the emergency intervention was a political ploy - a Trojan Horse - to sneak through land grabs and some gratuitous black head-kicking disguised as concern for children. These conspiracy theories abound, and they are mostly ridiculous” (Langton). Patrick Dodson on the other hand, has argued that yes, of course, the children remain the highest priority, but that this “is undermined by the Government's heavy-handed authoritarian intervention and its ideological and deceptive land reform agenda” (Dodson). WhitenessOne way to frame this issue is to look at it through the lens of critical race and whiteness theory. Is it possible that the interests of whiteness are at play in the coalitions of corporate/private enterprise and political interests in the Northern Territory, in the coupling of social conservatism and economic rationalism? Using this framework allows us to identify the partial interests at play and the implications of this for discussions in Australia around sovereignty and self-determination, as well as providing a discursive framework through which to understand how these coalitional interests represent a specific understanding of progress, growth and development. Whiteness theory takes an empirically informed stance in order to critique the operation of unequal power relations and discriminatory practices imbued in racialised structures. Whiteness and critical race theory take the twin interests of racial privileging and racial discrimination and discuss their historical and on-going relevance for law, philosophy, representation, media, politics and policy. Foregrounding contemporary analysis in whiteness studies is the central role of race in the development of the Australian nation, most evident in the dispossession and destruction of Indigenous lands, cultures and lives, which occurred initially prior to Federation, as well as following. Cheryl Harris’s landmark paper “Whiteness as Property” argues, in the context of the US, that “the origins of property rights ... are rooted in racial domination” and that the “interaction between conceptions of race and property ... played a critical role in establishing and maintaining racial and economic subordination” (Harris 1716).Reiterating the logic of racial inferiority and the assumption of a lack of rationality and civility, Indigenous people were named in the Australian Constitution as “flora and fauna” – which was not overturned until a national referendum in 1967. This, coupled with the logic of terra nullius represents the racist foundational logic of Australian statehood. As is well known, terra nullius declared that the land belonged to no-one, denying Indigenous people property rights over land. Whiteness, Moreton-Robinson contends, “is constitutive of the epistemology of the West; it is an invisible regime of power that secures hegemony through discourse and has material effects in everyday life” (Whiteness 75).In addition to analysing racial power structures, critical race theory has presented studies into the link between race, whiteness and neoliberalism. Roberts and Mahtami argue that it is not just that neoliberalism has racialised effects, rather that neoliberalism and its underlying philosophy is “fundamentally raced and produces racialized bodies” (248; also see Goldberg Threat). The effect of the free market on state sovereignty has been hotly debated too. Aihwa Ong contends that neoliberalism produces particular relationships between the state and non-state corporations, as well as determining the role of individuals within the body-politic. Ong specifies:Market-driven logic induces the co-ordination of political policies with the corporate interests, so that developmental discussions favour the fragmentation of the national space into various contiguous zones, and promote the differential regulation of the populations who can be connected to or disconnected from global circuits of capital. (Ong, Neoliberalism 77)So how is whiteness relevant to a discussion of land reform, and to the changes to land rights passed along with Intervention legislation in 2007? Irene Watson cites the former Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Mal Brough, who opposed the progressive individual with what he termed the “failed collective.” Watson asserts that in the debates around land leasing and the Intervention, “Aboriginal law and traditional roles and responsibilities for caring and belonging to country are transformed into the cause for community violence” (Sovereign Spaces 34). The effects of this, I will argue, are twofold and move beyond a moral or social agenda in the strictest sense of the terms: firstly to promote, and make more accessible, the possibility of private and government coalitions in relation to Indigenous lands, and secondly, to reinforce the sovereignty of the state, recognised in the capacity to make decisions. It is here that the explicit reiteration of what Aileen Moreton-Robinson calls “white possession” is clearly evidenced (The Possessive Logic). Sovereign Interventions In the Northern Territory 50% of land is owned by Indigenous people under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976 (ALRA) (NT). This law gives Indigenous people control, mediated via land councils, over their lands. It is the contention of this paper that the rights enabled through this law have been eroded in recent times in the coalescing interests of government and private enterprise via, broadly, land rights reform measures. In August 2007 the government passed a number of laws that overturned aspects of the Racial Discrimination Act 197 5(RDA), including the Northern Territory National Emergency Response Bill 2007 and the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Amendment (Township Leasing) Bill 2007. Ostensibly these laws were a response to evidence of alarming levels of child abuse in remote Indigenous communities, which has been compiled in the special report Little Children, co-chaired by Rex Wild QC and Patricia Anderson. This report argued that urgent but culturally appropriate strategies were required in order to assist the local communities in tackling the issues. The recommendations of the report did not include military intervention, and instead prioritised the need to support and work in dialogue with local Indigenous people and organisations who were already attempting, with extremely limited resources, to challenge the problem. Specifically it stated that:The thrust of our recommendations, which are designed to advise the NT government on how it can help support communities to effectively prevent and tackle child sexual abuse, is for there to be consultation with, and ownership by the local communities, of these solutions. (Wild & Anderson 23) Instead, the Federal Coalition government, with support from the opposition Labor Party, initiated a large scale intervention, which included the deployment of the military, to install order and assist medical personnel to carry out compulsory health checks on minors. The intervention affected 73 communities with populations of over 200 Aboriginal men, women and children (Altman, Neo-Paternalism 8). The reality of high levels of domestic and sexual abuse in Indigenous communities requires urgent and diligent attention, but it is not the space of this paper to unpack the media spectacle or the politically determined response to these serious issues, or the considered and careful reports such as the one cited above. While the report specifies the need for local solutions and local control of the process and decision-making, the Federal Liberal Coalition government’s intervention, and the current Labor government’s faithfulness to these, has been centralised and external, imposed upon communities. Rebecca Stringer argues that the Trojan horse thesis indicates what is at stake in this Intervention, while also pinpointing its main weakness. That is, the counter-intuitive links its architects make between addressing child sexual abuse and re-litigating Indigenous land tenure and governance arrangements in a manner that undermines Aboriginal sovereignty and further opens Aboriginal lands to private interests among the mining, nuclear power, tourism, property development and labour brokerage industries. (par. 8)Alongside welfare quarantining for all Indigenous people, was a decision by parliament to overturn the “permit system”, a legal protocol provided by the ALRA and in place so as to enable Indigenous peoples the right to refuse and grant entry to strangers wanting to access their lands. To place this in a broader context of land rights reform, the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 2006, created the possibility of 99 year individual leases, at the expense of communal ownership. The legislation operates as a way of individualising the land arrangements in remote Indigenous communities by opening communal land up as private plots able to be bought by Aboriginal people or any other interested party. Indeed, according to Leon Terrill, land reform in Australia over the past 10 years reflects an attempt to return control of decision-making to government bureaucracy, even as governments have downplayed this aspect. Terrill argues that Township Leasing (enabled via the 2006 legislation), takes “wholesale decision-making about land use” away from Traditional Owners and instead places it in the hands of a government entity called the Executive Director of Township Leasing (3). With the passage of legislation around the Intervention, five year leases were created to enable the Commonwealth “administrative control” over the communities affected (Terrill 3). Finally, under the current changes it is unlikely that more than a small percentage of Aboriginal people will be able to access individual land leasing. Moreover, the argument has been presented that these reforms reflect a broader project aimed at replacing communal land ownership arrangements. This agenda has been justified at a rhetorical level via the demonization of communal land ownership arrangements. Helen Hughes and Jenness Warin, researchers at the rightwing think-tank, the Centre for Independent Studies (CIS), released a report entitled A New Deal for Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders in Remote Communities, in which they argue that there is a direct casual link between communal ownership and economic underdevelopment: “Communal ownership of land, royalties and other resources is the principle cause of the lack of economic development in remote areas” (in Norberry & Gardiner-Garden 8). In 2005, then Prime Minister, John Howard, publicly introduced the government’s ambition to alter the structure of Indigenous land arrangements, couching his agenda in the language of “equal opportunity”. I believe there’s a case for reviewing the whole issue of Aboriginal land title in the sense of looking more towards private recognition …, I’m talking about giving them the same opportunities as the rest of their fellow Australians. (Watson, "Howard’s End" 1)Scholars of critical race theory have argued that the language of equality, usually tied to liberalism (though not always) masks racial inequality and even results in “camouflaged racism” (Davis 61). David Theo Goldberg notes that, “the racial status-quo - racial exclusions and privileges favouring for the most part middle - and upper class whites - is maintained by formalising equality through states of legal and administrative science” (Racial State 222). While Howard and his coalition of supporters have associated communal title with disadvantage and called for the equality to be found in individual leases (Dodson), Altman has argued that there is no logical link between forms of communal land ownership and incidences of sexual abuse, and indeed, the government’s use of sexual abuse disingenuously disguises it’s imperative to alter the land ownership arrangements: “Given the proposed changes to the ALRA are in no way associated with child sexual abuse in Aboriginal communities […] there is therefore no pressing urgency to pass the amendments.” (Altman National Emergency, 3) In the case of the Intervention, land rights reforms have affected the continued dispossession of Indigenous people in the interests of “commercial development” (Altman Neo-Paternalism 8). In light of this it can be argued that what is occurring conforms to what Aileen Moreton-Robinson has highlighted as the “possessive logic of patriarchal white sovereignty” (Possessive Logic). White sovereignty, under the banner of benevolent paternalism overturns the authority it has conceded to local Indigenous communities. This is realised via township leases, five year leases, housing leases and other measures, stripping them of the right to refuse the government and private enterprise entry into their lands (effectively the right of control and decision-making), and opening them up to, as Stringer argues, a range of commercial and government interests. Future Concerns and Concluding NotesThe etymological root of coalition is coalesce, inferring the broad ambition to “grow together”. In the issues outlined above, growing together is dominated by neoliberal interests, or what Stringer has termed “assimilatory neoliberation”. The issue extends beyond a social and economic assimilationism project and into a political and legal “land grab”, because, as Ong notes, the neoliberal agenda aligns itself with the nation-state. This coalitional arrangement of neoliberal and governmental interests reiterates “white possession” (Moreton-Robinson, The Possessive Logic). This is evidenced in the position of the current Labor government decision to uphold the nomination of Muckaty as a radioactive waste repository site in Australia (Stokes). In 2007, the Northern Land Council (NLC) nominated Muckaty Station to be the site for waste disposal. This decision cannot be read outside the context of Maralinga, in the South Australian desert, a site where experiments involving nuclear technology were conducted in the 1960s. As John Keane recounts, the Australian government permitted the British government to conduct tests, dispossessing the local Aboriginal group, the Tjarutja, and employing a single patrol officer “the job of monitoring the movements of the Aborigines and quarantining them in settlements” (Keane). Situated within this historical colonial context, in 2006, under a John Howard led Liberal Coalition, the government passed the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act (CRWMA), a law which effectively overrode the rulings of the Northern Territory government in relation decisions regarding nuclear waste disposal, as well as overriding the rights of traditional Aboriginal owners and the validity of sacred sites. The Australian Labor government has sought to alter the CRWMA in order to reinstate the importance of following due process in the nomination process of land. However, it left the proposed site of Muckaty as confirmed, and the new bill, titled National Radioactive Waste Management retains many of the same characteristics of the Howard government legislation. In 2010, 57 traditional owners from Muckaty and surrounding areas signed a petition stating their opposition to the disposal site (the case is currently in the Federal Court). At a time when nuclear power has come back onto the radar as a possible solution to the energy crisis and climate change, questions concerning the investments of government and its loyalties should be asked. As Malcolm Knox has written “the nuclear industry has become evangelical about the dangers of global warming” (Knox). While nuclear is a “cleaner” energy than coal, until better methods are designed for processing its waste, larger amounts of it will be produced, requiring lands that can hold it for the desired timeframes. For Australia, this demands attention to the politics and ethics of waste disposal. Such an issue is already being played out, before nuclear has even been signed off as a solution to climate change, with the need to find a disposal site to accommodate already existing uranium exported to Europe and destined to return as waste to Australia in 2014. The decision to go ahead with Muckaty against the wishes of the voices of local Indigenous people may open the way for the co-opting of a discourse of environmentalism by political and business groups to promote the development and expansion of nuclear power as an alternative to coal and oil for energy production; dumping waste on Indigenous lands becomes part of the solution to climate change. During the 2010 Australian election, Greens Leader Bob Brown played upon the word coalition to suggest that the Liberal National Party were in COALition with the mining industry over the proposed Mining Tax – the Liberal Coalition opposed any mining tax (Brown). Here Brown highlights the alliance of political agendas and business or corporate interests quite succinctly. Like Brown’s COALition, will government (of either major party) form a coalition with the nuclear power stakeholders?This paper has attempted to bring to light what Dodson has identified as “an alliance of established conservative forces...with more recent and strident ideological thinking associated with free market economics and notions of individual responsibility” and the implications of this alliance for land rights (Dodson). It is important to ask critical questions about the vision of “growing together” being promoted via the coalition of conservative, neoliberal, private and government interests.Acknowledgements Many thanks to the reviewers of this article for their useful suggestions. ReferencesAustralian Broadcasting Authority. “Noel Pearson Discusses the Issues Faced by Indigenous Communities.” Lateline 26 June 2007. 22 Nov. 2010 ‹http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2007/s1962844.htm>. Agamben, Giorgio. Homo Sacer. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1998. Altman, Jon. “The ‘National Emergency’ and Land Rights Reform: Separating Fact from Fiction.” A Briefing Paper for Oxfam Australia, 2007. 1 Aug. 2010 ‹http://www.oxfam.org.au/resources/filestore/originals/OAus-EmergencyLandRights-0807.pdf>. Altman, Jon. “The Howard Government’s Northern Territory Intervention: Are Neo-Paternalism and Indigenous Development Compatible?” Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research Topical Issue 16 (2007). 1 Aug. 2010 ‹http://caepr.anu.edu.au/system/files/Publications/topical/Altman_AIATSIS.pdf>. Brown, Bob. “Senator Bob Brown National Pre-Election Press Club Address.” 2010. 18 Aug. 2010 ‹http://greens.org.au/content/senator-bob-brown-pre-election-national-press-club-address>. Davis, Angela. The Angela Davis Reader. Ed. J. James, Oxford: Blackwell, 1998. Dodson, Patrick. “An Entire Culture Is at Stake.” Opinion. The Age, 14 July 2007: 4. Goldberg, David Theo. The Racial State. Massachusetts: Blackwell, 2002.———. The Threat of Race: Reflections on Neoliberalism. Massachusetts: Blackwell, 2008. Harris, Cheryl. “Whiteness as Property.” Harvard Law Review 106.8 (1993): 1709-1795. Keane, John. “Maralinga’s Afterlife.” Feature Article. The Age, 11 May 2003. 24 Nov. 2010 ‹http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/05/11/1052280486255.html>. Knox, Malcolm. “Nuclear Dawn.” The Monthly 56 (May 2010). Lambert, Anthony. “Rainbow Blindness: Same-Sex Partnerships in Post-Coalitional Australia.” M/C Journal 13.6 (2010). Langton, Marcia. “It’s Time to Stop Playing Politics with Vulnerable Lives.” Opinion. Sydney Morning Herald, 30 Nov. 2007: 2. McAllan, Fiona. “Customary Appropriations.” borderlands ejournal 6.3 (2007). 22 Nov. 2010 ‹http://www.borderlands.net.au/vol6no3_2007/mcallan_appropriations.htm>. Moreton-Robinson, Aileen. “The Possessive Logic of Patriarchal White Sovereignty: The High Court and the Yorta Yorta Decision.” borderlands e-journal 3.2 (2004). 1 Aug. 2007 ‹http://www.borderlands.net.au/vol3no2_2004/moreton_possessive.htm>. ———. “Whiteness, Epistemology and Indigenous Representation.” Whitening Race. Ed. Aileen Moreton-Robinson. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press, 75-89. Norberry, J., and J. Gardiner-Garden. Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Amendment Bill 2006. Australian Parliamentary Library Bills Digest 158 (19 June 2006). Ong, Aihwa. Neoliberalism as Exception: Mutations in Citizenship and Sovereignty. Durham: Duke University Press, 2006. 75-97.Oxford English Dictionary. 3rd. ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005. Rio Tinto. "Rio Tinto Aboriginal Policy and Programme Briefing Note." June 2007. 22 Nov. 2010 ‹http://www.aboriginalfund.riotinto.com/common/pdf/Aboriginal%20Policy%20and%20Programs%20-%20June%202007.pdf>. Roberts, David J., and Mielle Mahtami. “Neoliberalising Race, Racing Neoliberalism: Placing 'Race' in Neoliberal Discourses.” Antipode 42.2 (2010): 248-257. Stringer, Rebecca. “A Nightmare of the Neocolonial Kind: Politics of Suffering in Howard's Northern Territory Intervention.” borderlands ejournal 6.2 (2007). 22 Nov. 2010 ‹http://www.borderlands.net.au/vol6no2_2007/stringer_intervention.htm>.Stokes, Dianne. "Muckaty." n.d. 1 Aug. 2010 ‹http://www.timbonham.com/slideshows/Muckaty/>. Terrill, Leon. “Indigenous Land Reform: What Is the Real Aim of Land Reform?” Edited version of a presentation provided at the 2010 National Native Title Conference, 2010. Watson, Irene. “Sovereign Spaces, Caring for Country and the Homeless Position of Aboriginal Peoples.” South Atlantic Quarterly 108.1 (2009): 27-51. Watson, Nicole. “Howard’s End: The Real Agenda behind the Proposed Review of Indigenous Land Titles.” Australian Indigenous Law Reporter 9.4 (2005). ‹http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/AILR/2005/64.html>.Wild, R., and P. Anderson. Ampe Akelyernemane Meke Mekarie: The Little Children Are Sacred. Report of the Northern Territory Board of Inquiry into the Protection of Aboriginal Children from Sexual Abuse. Northern Territory: Northern Territory Government, 2007.

Julia Kristeva’s famous essay Powers of Horror conceptualises the abject as that which “disturbs identity, system, order. What does not respect borders, positions, rules. The in-between, the ambiguous” (4). While the social forms of the abject are clearly implicated here, Kristeva illustrates it primarily in corporeal terms, suggesting that filth, excrement, those things injected and expelled by the body, and disturb the epidermic surfaces of it (Grosz 244) are visible signifiers of the abject. In this semiotic schema, the corpse is the ultimate site of the abject because it is here that all meaning to the unity of body and mind, to the control of the border between inside and outside collapses (Kristeva 3). The corpse “signals the precarious grasp the subject has over its identity and bodily boundarie” (Grosz qtd. in Wright 198); the corpse excites fear and fascination as it represents the future for all of us- the unbecoming of the self. Kristeva’s views remind us how central the in tact body is to identity, and how much we seek reassurance in that which reifies the corps proper, despite our knowledge of its mutability. The exhibition of plastinated corpses, entitled The Amazing Human Body currently touring Australia, underscores secular society’s ongoing desire to gaze at that which we will eventually become, but constantly disavow. Unlike corpses that are preserved as life-like in the rituals of the funeral parlour, exhibitions of plastinated cadavers artistically frieze-frame corpses that are like and not like the body as we are invited to know and value it. In simultaneously exposing the inside and outside of bodies, and in posturing that which is both alien and familiar, the “amazing” human bodies on show fix an abject moment – one that does not “respect borders, positions, rules” (Kristeva 4). Western civilization experiences extreme unease with the dead body which has resulted in all kinds of aesthetic interventions to negate its ‘reality’ as decaying matter. Post death, behind the scenes bio-scientific techniques preserve in the corpse a ‘life-likeness’; morticians cosmetically enhance the dead body on display so as not to disturb the living. In identifying the role of undertakers in the ritual disposal of the corpse, Glennys Howarth comments that when the “funeral director assumes custody of the corpse it is contaminated in the sense that it is a receptacle for disease and a symbol of mortality” (147). The task of the embalmer then is to revile this contamination, to “revitalize characteristics of the corpse” which will “enhance human-likeness, for example, facial colour and elasticity of skin.” Howarth’s descriptions identify the dead body as an abject site and the embalmer as artist whose task is to resurrect/reconstitute the corpse propre to “supply, not merely a representation, but the physical presence of the individual” as they were in life; a physical immortality as it were (Howarth 147). Central to the embalmer’s and mortician’s art is an interesting paradox- the signification of death without physical corruption of the body. Howarth’s analysis of the “humanization techniques” in sustaining the fiction of living, points not only to “theatrical strategies” involved, but to the necessary concealment of the artist (the embalmer, the undertaker) in the process. The object is to re-create the fullness, not reveal the abjectness, of being. This preparation of the body for burial enacts what Michael Mendelson identifies as the “domestication of Death” which is to “assuage the unease Death provokes by making is something less than Death, by depicting it as an accessible and manageable place within the landscape that stretches out before us…”(191). German anatomist, Gunther von Hagens in 1977 was the first to perfect a technique called plastination capable of preserving corpses for thousands of years. His travelling exhibition of plastinated corpses, Bodyworlds, has been shown in major international cities and has generated facsimiles such as The Amazing Human Body attracting thousands of visitors wherever they are staged. Ostensibly set up for morally instructive purposes, to “teach children about human physiology and help adults lead healthier lives” (brochure for The Amazing Human Body), these exhibitions incite a voyeuristic curiosity about the dead. The exhibited corpses are not cushioned in coffins, looking life-like; rather they often resemble the enamelled body models that have been manufactured for medical and anatomical purposes or the mummified remains, periodically unearthed, of people from an earlier age. The difference however is that we know that the plastinated bodies are in fact real bodies donated by ‘real’ people before their deaths (the sub-title of the exhibition reads –The Anatomical Display of Real Human Bodies). At one level von Hagens and others who have followed him, are, like undertakers, concealing the reality of the decaying body. Entering the exhibition one is assured that there is no odour and, unlike the autopsy table, there is no visible visceral messiness – no ‘blood and gore’. These bodies, like those in Howarth’s funeral parlour have been preserved (in this instance by the technique of plastination), and they too, like those composed for burial or cremation are artistically sculpted into shape. (Plastination as described in the book distributed for sale, entitled The Amazing Human Body, involves Fixation, where “specimens are fixed with 5% formalin”; Dissection, where “specimens are dissected as required”; Dehydration, where “body fluid and fat are replaced by increasing concentrations of ethanol at room temperature, and then treated in a cold acetone bath”; Delipidation, where “Fat is replaced in a bath of warm acetone”; Vacuum Impregnation, where “acetone is replaced by plastic under a vacuum” and finally, Gas Curing, where “each structure is positioned and then gas cured” (10).) Often these shapes mimic the actions of the living – for example men (and they are mostly male) running or skiing, riding bicycles or playing chess. The difference however is that the plastinated corpses invariably disclose their artifice; obviously stage managed and somewhat fake, they fail to preserve the life-likeness of the corpse propre, yet at the same time they are vaguely familiar and we know, as we discreetly test the air for odours, that they are/were ‘real’. (In his analysis of von Hagens’s Bodyworlds, Jose Van Dijck contends that “plastination is an illustrative symptom of postmodern culture” in that it reveals how “categories such as body vs model, organic vs synthetic/prosthetic, fake and real have become obsolete”. These binaries are increasingly interchangeable in the postmodern world of virtual reality (62).) In disturbing the boundaries between the real and the not-real, these plastinated cadavers engender the kind of ambiguity and in between-ness that Kristeva claims for the abject. The Bodyworlds website celebrates this ‘abject d’art’ in its promotional spiel in phrasing that is uncannily close to Kristeva’s descriptors. Spectators, the site claims, are “gripped with a deeply moving fascination for what has been fixed in this novel way on the border between death and decomposition” (http://www.bodyworlds.com/en/exhibitions/anatomy_everyone.html). Other forms of aesthetic delivery of the cadavers in these exhibitions also highlight the abject. Many displays of bodies and body parts evince gross disturbance to the epidermic surface of the body, a visible and violent tampering with its wholeness, to reveal what lies beneath. Bodies have been sliced up, dissected, cut in half; skin has been removed to display cross sections through limbs, or flayed off to reveal central nervous systems; trunks have been cut out in horizontal planes and set out in neat racks that resemble meat trays, heads and trunks have been sliced in vertical planes, pressed between sheets of plastic and hung from hooks resembling the animal body parts in cold storage at the back of butchers’ shops. Perhaps most compelling is the display of an entire body skin complete with preserved subcutaneous tissue, revealing on close inspection, nipples and navel hole and occasionally body hair. The skin is the most abject of sites; a reminder of the body’s permeable boundaries. (One of Gunther von Hagens’s plastinated cadavers is “Man with Skin on his Arms” featuring a body of a man holding up his entire skin, which van Dijck points out is an “imitation of a representation” of Vesalius’s copper engraving in Anatomia Humani Corporis (1685) of a man carrying aloft his own skin “as if he has just taken off his coat” (53).) On a final point, the combination of physical, spatial and linguistic signs that constitute The Amazing Human Body; The Anatomical Display of Real Human Bodies potently, even amusingly, signifies the flimsiness and of the border between life and death, dirt and decontamination. In Kristeva’s words – “refuse and corpses show me what I permanently thrust aside in order to live” (3). The annotations accompanying the exhibits are pitched in pseudo scientific/bio-medical language to allay dread and anxiety about death by fixing the abject within an assuaging and ‘legitimate’ discursive frame, while the coffee and cake stall outside the walls of the exhibition space, offers us the comforting condiments for corporeal continuity. References Grosz, Elizabeth. “Bodies – Cities.” In Sexuality and Space. Ed Beatrice Colomina. Princeton: Princeton Architectural Press, 1992. 241-253. Howarth, Glennys. Last Rites. NY: Baywood Publishing Company, 1996. Kristeva, Julia. Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. Trans. Leon S. Roudiez. New York: Columbia UP, 1982. Mendelson, Michael “The Body in the Next Room” Images of the Corpse from Renaissance to Cyberspace. Ed. E. Klaver. Wisconsin: Univeristy of Wisconsin/Popular Press, 2004. 186-205. Van Dijck, Jose. The Transparent Body: A Cultural Analysis of Medical Imaging. Seattle & London: U of Washington P. Wright, Elizabeth. Ed. Feminism and Psychoanalysis: A Critical Dictionary. Oxford: Blackwell, 1992. Zhang, Shu qin, ed. The Amazing Human Body: The Anatomical Display of Real Human Bodies. No publication details provided, 2006. Citation reference for this article MLA Style Muller, Vivienne. "Abject d’Art." M/C Journal 9.5 (2006). echo date('d M. Y'); ?> <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0610/04-muller.php>. APA Style Muller, V. (Nov. 2006) "Abject d’Art," M/C Journal, 9(5). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0610/04-muller.php>.