Special Issue "Circular Economy in Wastes and Wastewaters"

A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Science and Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2022.

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Gabriela Ionescu
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Guest Editor
Departement of Energy Production and Use, Faculty of Power Engineering , University Politehnica of Bucharest, Splaiul Independenţei 313, Romania
Interests: integrated waste management; circular economy; waste to energy; renewable energy; energy and environmental sustainability; intermediate bioenergy carriers; environmental impact assessment
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Dr. Roberta Ferrentino
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical, University of Trento, 77 - 38123 Trento, Italy
Interests: biological nutrient removal; environmental engineering; excess sludge reduction in wastewater treatment plants membrane bioreactors; pollution; sanitary engineering; solid waste disposal; wastewater treatment; wastewater treatment plants
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Dr. Michela Langone
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Laboratory Technologies for the efficient use and management of water and wastewater, , Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), via Anguillarese, 301 - 00123 Roma, Italy
Interests: Sustainable wastewater treatments and zero energy concepts; innovative processes for wastewater treatment; biological nutrient removal; anaerobic digestion; excess sludge reduction; circular economy, industrial symbiosis, renewable energy
Dr. Luigi Petta
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Guest Editor
Laboratory Technologies for the efficient use and management of water and wastewater, , Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), via M.M. Sole 4, 40129, Bologna, Italy.
Interests: zero energy wastewater treatment plants, biological nutrient removal; anaerobic digestion; sludge treatment and disposal, circular economy, industrial symbiosis, renewable energy, water reuse, microplastics and emerging contaminants

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Waste and wastewaters can be an important part of circular sustainability due to the integration of energy production, resource recovery, and efficiency. In the framework of the circular economy principle, products, components, and raw materials should remain in the economy for as long as possible, and waste and wastewaters should be valorized and considered as resources and a source of secondary raw materials that can be recycled, processed, and reused. This will allow the transition from a linear economy based on the “take–make–dispose” system—still in great use today, in which waste is the last stage of the product lifecycle—to the circular economy concept.

In the circular economy, waste and wastewaters would become “ecologically sustainable”, promoting the sustainable management of materials and energy and reducing, as much as possible, the amount of waste generation and, consequently, its disposal. This allows waste to be given a second life, in which part of it is  recovered or reused as secondary material.

The aim of this Special Issue, “The Circular Economy of Waste and Wastewaters”, is to present up-to-date innovative research papers focused on technologies, processes, methods, and strategies applied to waste and/or wastewaters that enable the requirements for the circular economy concept to be met.

The Guest Editors invite researchers to submit high-quality articles or comprehensive reviews. Papers selected for publication in this Special Issue will first be subjected to rigorous peer review, with rapid and wide dissemination of results upon acceptance and publication

 

Dr. Gabriela Ionescu
Dr. Roberta Ferrentino
Dr. Michela Langone
Dr. Luigi Petta
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2300 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • circular economy
  • waste
  • wastewaters
  • recycling
  • re-use
  • re-buy
  • secondary materials
  • resource recovery
  • water reuse
  • energy recovery
  • industrial symbiosis

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

Article
Production and Destination of Sewage Sludge in the Piemonte Region (Italy): The Results of a Survey for a Future Sustainable Management
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(7), 3556; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18073556 - 30 Mar 2021
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Abstract
The management of sewage sludge originated from municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is an urgent issue. In 2019, the local authority of the Piemonte region started a survey with the aim of collecting recent data concerning wastewater and sludge management in the WWTPs [...] Read more.
The management of sewage sludge originated from municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is an urgent issue. In 2019, the local authority of the Piemonte region started a survey with the aim of collecting recent data concerning wastewater and sludge management in the WWTPs located in its own territory. The survey’s results revealed that 60% of the sludge (51,000 t, as dry substance, d.s.) produced by the local WWTPs was recovered or disposed of outside of the region, and a similar amount of sludge was recovered in agriculture directly or after composting. The increase in the costs to accommodate sewage sludge in recovery or disposal plants, followed to a recent Italian Sentence (27958/2017), and the more and more stringent requirements fixed by lots of European countries for the application of sludge in agriculture, are pushing the Piemonte region authority to re-organize its own network for sludge management, with solutions based onto proximity and diversification. Whether the provisions of the current German legislation are applied in the future also in Italy, approx. 90% of sewage sludge produced into the Piemonte region should be incinerated, with a subsequent step of phosphorous recovery. The new regional plan, according to the Regional Address Deed, should consider a diversification of sludge treatment and recovery practices. On this basis, a need for new plants for around 40,000 t d.s./y could be planned. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Circular Economy in Wastes and Wastewaters)
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