Nowadays, Environmental concern towards plastic waste rises because of its low degradability and creating problems like chunking sewer lines, drainages, waterways, filling landfills, health problems, etc. The best approach is recycling and reuses plastic waste. Increase in the production of plastic day by day but, very little was recycled. On the other hand, huge demand for concrete in the construction industry. Utilization of recycled plastic waste in the production of sustainable concrete by partial replacement of fine aggregate. This study has been investigated the utilization of two types of recycled plastic waste Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) and Polypropylene (PP) as fine aggregate in concrete. M30 grade of concrete has been used by partial replacement of fine aggregate (River Sand) with recycled plastic waste in the percentage of 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25. The workability and compressive strength results are checked to find the acceptable percentage of incorporation of PET and PP in concrete. From the results, it is observed that the workability is decreased as the percentage of recycled plastic waste is increased. The Optimum Percentage of replacement of PET is 10%. PP has shown a marginal reduction in compressive strength for 5% replacement.

Context: Awareness of safe waste management practices among the health care community is crucial. Objective: To assess the knowledge and attitude of nurses and paramedical staff towards biomedical waste management. Materials and methods: A total of 819 respondents were interviewed in ratio of: nurses (514); operating theatre (OT) technicians (63); laboratory technicians (76); and housekeeping staff (166). The tool used was a semi-structured questionnaire with questions on awareness and attitude towards biomedical waste management. Statistical analysis: SPSS version 11.5 was used, Chi-square test was carried out, and p<0.05 was considered significant. Results: The respondents’ awareness on waste management being conducted in the hospital was 100%. This response was similar in terms of awareness of facilities present in hospital for segregation and removal of waste, but only 88% of housekeeping staff knew about it, compared with 100% in the other three groups. When asked whether safe management of health care waste is an extra burden on their usual work, 76% of the laboratory staff responded positively, followed by 71% of OT staff, 67% of housekeeping staff and 47% of nurses. The responses were found to be statistically significant (p<0.05). Conclusions: Nursing professionals had an edge over the other staff regarding awareness of waste management, which can be attributed to their accountability and commitment in ward management. The OT technicians, laboratory and housekeeping staff had comparatively less understanding of the subject, but had a more positive attitude.

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