Applied Research Fund

The Harris Centre – MMSB Waste Management Applied Research Fund provides up to $15,000 per project per year to investigate waste management issues in Newfoundland and Labrador. It is open to all faculty, staff, post-doctoral fellows and graduate students at Memorial University.

About the Applied Research Fund

MMSB partnered with Memorial University’s Leslie Harris Centre of Regional Policy and Development (the Harris Centre) in 2010 to stimulate research into Newfoundland and Labrador’s waste management needs and opportunities.

The fund was designed to:

• Develop an inventory of issues relating to waste management in the province.
• Support research opportunities at each stage of the waste management process.
• Identify new waste management solutions for Newfoundland and Labrador.

Managed by the Harris Centre, the fund allows Memorial faculty, staff, post-doctoral fellows and graduate students to apply for project funding, up to a maximum of $15,000 per project. The total operating cost contribution by MMSB is $100,000.

• Read the release announcing the fund: Waste Management Research Fund Established with $300,000 in Funding(.pdf)

Reports from Past Recipients

• 2022

  • Sustainable production of engineered soils from local materials: A formulation, evaluation, and repurposing of engineered soils – Dr. Adrian Unc & Amana Kedir,  Memorial University 
  • Recycling Solutions for End-of-Life Fishing Rope in Newfoundland – Dr. Lesley James, Memorial University
  • Efficient and Economic Storage of Salmon Processing Waste as a Prospective Source for High Value Products – Dr. Deepika Dave, Memorial University

• 2019

  • A Biorefinery Approach for Sustainable Utilization of Newfoundland Aquaculture Industry’s Waste Resources – Deepika Dave, Marine Institute of Memorial University of Newfoundland
  • Application of Waste Cooking Oil in Construction of Asphalt Pavement – Rayhan Ahmed & Kamal Hossain, Advanced Road and Transportation Engineering Lab (ARTEL), Department of Civil Engineering
  • Granulation of Powdered Activated Carbon Generated from Corner Brook Pulp and Paper Mill Ash Waste – Afsoon Taghizadehgan & Tahir Husain, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University
  • Improved Safety and Value for Paper Pulp Waste Associated with Bottle Cleaning: Development of a Treatment Process for Alkaline Paper Slurries from Brewery Labels – David Hopkins, Soraya Moore, Christina Bottaro & Kelly Hawboldt
  • Vison Based – Pay as you Throw System: Motion Detection for Garbage and Recycle Based on Faster RCNN – Songyuan Ji & Minglun Gong

• 2018

  • Pyrolysis of waste plastic fish bags (polyethylene and polypropylene) to useable fuel oil – Dr. Shofiur Rahman, Dr. Kelly Hawboldt, Dr. Robert Helleur & Dr. Stephanie MacQuarrie
  • Solid-Liquid Separation of Waste Petroleum Drilling Mud in Offshore Newfoundland and Labrador – Hesam Hassan Nejad, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science

• 2017

  • Applying Biochar to Reduce Leachate Toxicity and Greenhouse Gas Production in Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) – Joinal Abedin, Labrador Institute
  • Composting of Municipal Sludge: Riverhead Waste Management Treatment Facility – Jingjing Ling, He Zhang at al.  
  • Corner Brook Pulp and Paper Mill Waste Management – He Zhang, Tahir Husain & Yuan Chen, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science
  • Organic Waste in Newfoundland and Labrador: A Review of Available Agriculture, Fishery, Forestry and Municipal Waste Literature – Lesley Butler, Daniel Altdorff, Erika Young, Lakshman Galagedara, Kelly Hawboldt, Robert Helleur, Adrian Unc

• 2016

  • Documenting spatial and temporal variations of subsurface contaminants using tree cores: Implications for the design of effective waste management strategies – Merline L.D. Fonkwe, Labrador Institute
  • Salmon Processing Waste: A Prospective Source for Nutraceuticals – Deepika Dave, Marine Institute 

• 2015

  • MUN (St. John’s Campus) Composting Pilot Project – Madonna Bishop, MUN Botanical Gardens
  • Solid Waste Spent Catalyst’s Metal Recovery from North Atlantic Refining Limited’s Petrochemical Plant in Come By Chance, Newfoundland and Labrador – Shirin Shafiei Zadeh, Paris Georghiou & Hesam Hassan Nejad
  • Spatial Interference in a Scalable Robot Recycling System – Andrew Vardy
  • Use of Blue-Green Algae to Improve the Chemical Quality of Municipal Solid  Waste Compost – Yujio Wang & Tahir Husain

• 2014

  • The Potential of Fish Processing Wastes for Biodiesel Production – Deepika Dave & Heather Manuel, Centre for Aquaculture and Seafood Development (CASD), Marine Institute
  • Sorting Recyclable Materials by a Robotic Swarm – Andrew Vardy

• 2013

  • Development of Advanced Composting Technologies for Municipal Organic Waste Treatment in Small Communities in Newfoundland and Labrador – Dr. Baiyu Zhang, Dr. Leonard Lye, Khoshrooz Kazemi & Weiyun Lin, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science
  • Production of Biomaterials from Solid Biomass Wastes for the Mining Industry – Shafiq Alam, Ph.D., P.Eng.

• 2012

  • Closing the Loop on Lignocellulosic-Based Solid Waste Management: Production of Biochar for Agricultural Land and Contaminant Adsorption Applications and for Climate Change – Robert Helleur, Travis Dalley & Perry Mitchell, Department of Chemistry, Memorial University
  • Memorial University Waste Audit 2011-12 St. John’s Campus – Toby Rowe, Sustainability Coordinator, Memorial University Sustainability Office
  • Recycling from the Margins: Informal Recycling Networks in St. John’s as Social Interactions – Michelle Porter, Department of Geography, Memorial University
  • Risk-Based Evaluation of Landfill Gas Flare Efficiency Using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) – Dr. Rouzbeh Abbassi and Professor Kelly Hawboldt, Process Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland