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ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF Solid & Hazardous Waste Management: practice questions

ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF (PhD) — Environmental Sciences (subject 71) and Agricultural Meteorology (subject 60) · India · National Testing Agency for ICAR

Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papers
10worked here, free
20written to this exam in this subject
13syllabus units

What this subject covers

Municipal, hazardous, biomedical, plastic and electronic waste: generation, collection, processing, energy recovery and landfills. Crop residue and manure handling are taught in the Agricultural Engineering subject waste-management-environmental-engg and livestock-farm waste in the Veterinary subject environmental-hygiene; this subject is the general waste-management science they draw on.

In the exams: GATE ES Section 7 (whole section); ICAR AICE subject 71 Unit 5 (whole unit); UGC NET Unit 7

What ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF asks from it

ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF Environmental Sciences (Unit 5) and UGC NET (Unit 7)

Solid waste types and 5R, composting and vermicomposting, biogas, pyrolysis, gasification, incineration, landfill, e-waste, biomedical waste and Indian rules.

Where the 20 questions fall

How our questions for ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF spread across the units of Solid & Hazardous Waste Management. Difficulty: 0 easy, 12 medium, 8 hard.

MSW sources, generation rates and characteristics2
Composting and vermicomposting of organic waste2
Thermal processes: incineration, pyrolysis, gasification2
Sanitary landfill design, leachate and landfill gas2
Biomedical waste management2
E-waste: hazards and resource recovery2
Waste management rules and their national equivalents2
Waste hierarchy and integrated solid waste management1
Collection, transfer and transport1
Material recovery and recycling1
Anaerobic digestion and biogas from organic waste1
Hazardous waste: characteristics, treatment and disposal1
Plastic waste and extended producer responsibility1

10 practice questions, worked

Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.

1 · MSW sources, generation rates and characteristics · medium

Which describes typical Indian MSW compared with that of high-income countries?

  1. Lower moisture and higher fixed carbon, ideal for direct incineration
  2. Almost no organic matter, mostly metals and glass from households
  3. Higher paper and plastic content with much higher calorific value
  4. Higher organic and moisture content, lower calorific value
Answer and working

D. Higher organic and moisture content, lower calorific value

This favours biological processing over mass incineration.

2 · MSW sources, generation rates and characteristics · hard

Why must waste sampling for characterisation cover different seasons, neighbourhoods and weekdays?

  1. Seasonal sampling is needed only for radioactive wastes
  2. Composition varies with income, season and day, so a single sample misleads
  3. Waste composition is fixed by law, so sampling only checks compliance
  4. Laboratory rules require exactly one sample from each ward per year, taken on the first working day
Answer and working

B. Composition varies with income, season and day, so a single sample misleads

Representative data prevent mismatched facilities. No rule fixes one sample per ward, and composition is not set by law.

3 · Collection, transfer and transport · medium

Which MRF equipment separates non-ferrous metals such as aluminium cans?

  1. Overhead magnet
  2. Baling press
  3. Trommel screen
  4. Eddy-current separator
Answer and working

D. Eddy-current separator

Magnets catch ferrous metals; trommels sort by size; balers compress.

4 · Sanitary landfill design, leachate and landfill gas · medium

Methane in air is explosive at concentrations of roughly:

  1. 60-90%
  2. 25-50%
  3. 0.5-1.5%
  4. 5-15%
Answer and working

D. 5-15%

Gas migration from landfills creates explosion risks. Concentrations below about 5% are too lean and above about 15% too rich to explode.

5 · Hazardous waste: characteristics, treatment and disposal · medium

Which treatment converts toxic hexavalent chromium to a less toxic form?

  1. Oxidation with chlorine
  2. Aeration in a lagoon
  3. Incineration at 850 degrees C for two seconds
  4. Chemical reduction to trivalent chromium
Answer and working

D. Chemical reduction to trivalent chromium

Cr(III) is then precipitated as hydroxide. Oxidation with chlorine would not reduce Cr(VI), and incineration does not change chromium's toxicity.

6 · Biomedical waste management · hard

What are CBWTFs in India?

  1. Common boiler water treatment facilities
  2. Central biogas plants that digest cattle dung
  3. Community-based wetland treatment fields
  4. Shared plants treating an area's biomedical waste
Answer and working

D. Shared plants treating an area's biomedical waste

They collect and treat waste within set time limits. Biogas plants, boiler-water facilities and wetland fields are unrelated.

7 · Plastic waste and extended producer responsibility · hard

India's EPR guidelines (2022) place multilayer plastic packaging in which category?

  1. Category III
  2. Category IV
  3. Category II
  4. Category I
Answer and working

A. Category III

I rigid, II flexible, III multilayer, IV compostable. Rigid plastics are category I and flexible plastics category II.

8 · E-waste: hazards and resource recovery · medium

Which hazardous substance is found in old cathode-ray tubes and solder?

  1. Lead
  2. Argon
  3. Silicon
  4. Helium
Answer and working

A. Lead

Mercury, cadmium and brominated flame retardants are other hazards.

9 · Waste management rules and their national equivalents · medium

Under US RCRA, which subtitle governs hazardous waste?

  1. Subtitle Z
  2. Subtitle D
  3. Subtitle A
  4. Subtitle C
Answer and working

D. Subtitle C

Subtitle D governs municipal solid waste landfills. Other subtitles cover general provisions and other matters.

10 · Waste management rules and their national equivalents · hard

Under India's SWM Rules 2016, 'bulk waste generators' must:

  1. Send all waste directly to landfill unsorted
  2. Process wet waste on site or pay for its processing
  3. Burn their waste openly to reduce volume
  4. Export all their waste to other states
Answer and working

B. Process wet waste on site or pay for its processing

They also segregate and hand over dry waste to authorised recyclers.

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Read the subject

Solid & Hazardous Waste ManagementThe full study manual, free ICAR AICE-JRF/SRFFormat, sections and how it has changed

More ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF practice

Agrobiodiversity & Genetic ResourcesAtmospheric Science & AgrometeorologyWetlands, Coastal Ecosystems & Blue CarbonEnvironmental & Agro-ecosystem ModellingBiodiversity Science & ConservationClimate Change Impacts on Agriculture & Food SystemsEnvironmental Monitoring & Instrumental AnalysisClimate Adaptation, Climate-Smart Agriculture & Disaster RiskEcosystem Services & Pollinators in Agricultural LandscapesRemote Sensing & GIS for Environmental MonitoringResearch Methods in Environmental & Sustainability ScienceEnergy, Environment & Agri-energy TransitionsLandscape Ecology, Protected Areas & Human-Wildlife InteractionsPesticides in the Environment: Fate, Risk & ReductionClimate Models, Scenarios & DownscalingAgroforestry & Trees on Farms for SustainabilityEcology & Ecosystem ScienceSoil Contamination, Toxicology & RemediationAgroecology: Principles & PracticePrinciples of Environmental ScienceSoil Science & Soil HealthLand Degradation, Desertification & Soil ConservationHydrology & Water Resources for Environmental ScientistsSoil Organic Carbon & Carbon Sequestration

Solid & Hazardous Waste Management for other exams

GATE · India

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