Novel Sources, Designs and After-Use Pathways for Plastics in a Circular Economy
A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Ecology Science and Engineering".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2025 | Viewed by 28
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Plastics are everywhere. They constitute an essential part of the global economy due to their affordability and versatility. Since their large-scale production began, plastic output has acutely increased, and it is expected to double within the next fifteen years. However, plastics contribute to environmental degradation, pose health risks, and aggravate climate crisis, leading to plastic pollution. Consequently, the plastics economy faces the challenge of mitigating these drawbacks while maintaining the value and benefits that plastics offer.
The circular economy is a sustainable economic framework aimed at ensuring that resource extraction does not exceed consumption and that waste production remains within the environment's capacity to absorb and convert it. Actions promoted to achieve these goals are long-lasting design, maintenance, repair, reuse, sharing, remanufacturing, refurbishing, and recycling activities. In this context, a circular economy for plastics presents an opportunity to benefit from plastics without imposing a risk to the planet.
This Topic seeks contributions to “Novel Sources, Designs and After-Use Pathways for Plastics in a Circular Economy”, considering a wide range of subjects, including (but not limited to) the following:
- Measures towards the prevention, reduction and elimination of plastic pollution.
- Actions pertaining to education and awareness-raising about plastic pollution.
- Assessments of the lifecycle of plastics.
- Innovative sources, product design and market structures.
- Mechanical and chemical recycling technologies.
- Socioeconomic assessments of plastic pollution.
- Effective tracking, sorting and collecting methodologies for plastics.
- Evaluations of the hazards and risks of chemicals in plastics and the impact of plastics and microplastics in human health.
Dr. María José Arévalo-Caballero
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- plastic pollution
- lifecycle of plastics
- plastic feedstock
- waste management
- plastic recycling
- sustainability
- microplastics
- circular economy
- greenhouse gas emissions
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