Garbage: Liability or Asset? | MD Sahadat Hossain | TEDxUTA

As the world moves toward a more urbanized future, the amount of municipal solid waste (MSW), one of the most important by-products of an urban lifestyle, will more than double over the next twenty years in lower income countries. Poorly managed waste has an enormous impact on health, local and global environment, and economy; improperly managed waste usually results in down-stream costs higher than what it would have cost to manage the waste properly in the first place. Rotting untreated waste helps the spread of malaria, dengue fever, cholera, typhoid, respiratory and skin diseases, while dioxins may insidiously cause cancer wherever they are deposited. However, with sustainable waste management system, this problem can be transformed into profitable business, and along the way can create healthy livable urban cities.
Dr. Sahadat Hossain is a Professor of Civil Engineering Department and Director of Solid Waste Institute for Sustainability (SWIS) at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA). Dr. Hossain has completed his B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, India, Master of Engineering in Geotechnical Engineering from Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Bangkok, Thailand, and Ph.D. from North Carolina State University (NCSU) at Raleigh, NC, USA. Dr. Hossain’s research and scholarship are well recognized nationally and internationally. He is an expert in the design of sustainable waste containment and bioreactor landfill
technology. At present, Dr. Hossain is working on research, development and implementation of innovative solutions for sustainable waste management and to provide support for waste management in USA and developing countries.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at ted.com/tedx