Human scalp hair (HSH) waste has often dumped without undergoing any proper treatment or even being reused. Past studies related to this waste in Malaysia is still not as wide as in others countries. However, in some rural areas, this waste is still used by farmers as pest controller to protect plantation from wild hog attacks. Unfortunately, the past practices does not expose their effectiveness as repellent. This study briefly discuss on the human-wild hog conflict, current practices used to control the invasive activity and to share the result of using HSH as repellent to help farmer of small orchid in Muar, Johor. In this pilot study, HSH were washed using the non-ionic detergent-acetone method as prior treatment to remove all impurities that might stick on them. In order to increase the probability of visitation, fermented corn bait has been used to lure the wild hog into the target area. Four (4) samples (A) 5kg whole corn; (B) 5kg whole corn mixed with 20g HSH; (C) 5kg whole corn mixed with 40g HSH; and (D) 5kg whole corn mixed with 60g HSH have been set on the private orchid and observed. The 5-day test indicates the potential of HSH as temporary wild hog repellent.

Endless industrial development and growing society occasionally create an enormous volume of wastewater, which leads to some issues on wastewater treatment. Existing conventional screening processes have various limitations and drawbacks. Therefore, this study investigated the use of a combination of non-corrosive stainless steel wool and a permanent magnet to increase magnetic gradient, hence reducing suspended matter in sewage through turbidity test. An approach for optimizing the reduction of suspended matter through turbidity analysis was conducted using central composite design (CCD) under response surface methodology (RSM). Three critical independent variables, such as magnet strength, circulation time, and steel wool, and turbidity removal as the response, were further studied to analyze their interaction effects. As a result, an optimal value of turbidity removal was found at 90.3% under the specified optimum conditions of magnet strength of 245 mT, 116 g of non-corrosive stainless steel wool, and 16 h of circulation time. Statistical analysis had shown that the magnet strength, circulation time, and steel wool significantly affected the turbidity removal performance. Furthermore, design of experiment was significantly verified by a small range of error between predicted and actual data. Consequently, a higher gradient of magnetic separation was proven to effectively remove suspended matter using inexpensive non-corrosive stainless steel wool without using magnetic adsorbent. Thus, the suggested approach was found to be cost-effective and environmentally friendly for sewage treatment.

Growing of mankind, society, science and technology in our world is reaching to higher level of human civilization. Therefore, a sustainable treatment procedures are required in order to prevent the consequences of growing civilized situation to the environment. Magnetism has been used as physical treatment for particles or contaminants removal from wastewater. In this experiment, comparison between locations of steel wool has been carried out in order to determine the highest suspended solid removal. Variables has been set such as magnetic strength was 1.4Tesla, flow rate was 1mL/s, 80 gram of steel wool and experiment took 24 hours of circulation time and data recorded for 24 hours. Data were recorded involving control, non-inverted magnet and inverted magnet structure. Non-inverted magnets consists of magnets on same poles while inverted magnet on different poles. As a result, steel wool located inside of pipe was exhibited the highest removal (88.2%) compared to outside of the pipe (83.3%) and both occurred in inverted magnet structure. Therefore, it was indicated that longer exposure time to magnet resulted in greater improvement in removing pollutant. The results obtained and suggests that steel wool located inside of tube with inverted magnet position can be successfully treat wastewater effectively.

The weaknesses in the human hair waste management system has brought many environmental problems that are rarely taken into account. In most of rural areas, this waste is still being used by farmers to protect their plantation from wild hog attacks. However, this traditional practice is seem unpopular and has little exposure. Study in the past related to this waste in Malaysia is still far behind compared to other countries. Moreover, the past practices of this waste as repellent did not highlight the prior procedure and their effectiveness as pest controller to control invasive activity of wild hog. This study aims to briefly discuss on the conflict of human and wild hog, past mitigation practices, potential usage of hair waste as temporary repellent and to share the result of 5 days pilot study through field trial conducted in small orchard in Muar. In this study, fermented corn bait has been applied at the study area to increase the activities and probability of visitation of wild hog. Four (4) samples were placed in the private orchard namely (A) 5kg whole kernel corn; (B) 5kg whole kernel corn mixed with 20g of hair; (C) 5kg whole kernel corn mixed with 40g hair; and (D) 5kg whole kernel corn mixed with 60g hair. The result during feeding test is observed and analysed. Through this pilot study, it indicates the potential of hair waste application as a temporary wild hog repellent.