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Sustainability
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Recycling of Materials for Sustainable Development and Circular Economy
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Recycling of Materials for Sustainable Development and Circular Economy

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Waste and Recycling".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2025 | Viewed by 1880

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Paolo Sospiro

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Engineering, Università Ecampus, 22060 Novedrate, Como, Italy
Interests: circular economy; waste management; life cycle assessment; smart cities; sustainable solid waste management; material flow analysis (MFA)
Dr. Marta Rossi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Engineering, Università Ecampus, 22060 Novedrate, Como, Italy
Interests: life cycle assessment; eco-design; circular economy; sustainable strategies; environmental sustainability
Dr. Antonis A. Zorpas

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Laboratory of Chemical Engineering and Engineering Sustainability, Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences, Open University of Cyprus (OUC), Giannou Kranidioti 89, Latsia, Nicosia 2231, Cyprus
Interests: general chemistry; water and soil pollution; processing and supply of liquid waste; treatment and disposal of solid waste; composting of biosolids management; advanced treatment of liquid and solid waste; restoration technologies; hazardous waste management and treatment; clean technology design systems; design of waste and wastewater treatment plants; utilization of biomass; strategic development; circular economy; energy recovery; smart cities; urban metabolism; waste to energy; energy efficiency; life cycle analysis (LCA); material flow analysis (MFA); environmental impact assessment; health and safety
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue, titled "Recycling of Materials for Sustainable Development and Circular Economy", delves into the crucial role that recycling plays in sustainable development and the promotion of a circular economy. It covers a comprehensive range of topics, including the following:

  • Resource recovery;
  • Sustainable construction materials;
  • Water and energy efficiency;
  • Carbon-neutral processes;
  • Zero waste initiatives;
  • Life cycle and organizational life cycle assessments;
  • The integration of smart grids and smart cities;
  • Innovative recycling strategies and technologies;
  • Case studies on recycling initiatives;
  • The application of circular economy principles in emerging economies;
  • Circular material flow.

This Special Issue aims to drive the adoption of sustainable recycling practices that minimize environmental impact, reduce our reliance on non-renewable resources, and enhance economic efficiency. By presenting innovative strategies, advanced technologies, and insightful case studies, it seeks to create a collaborative platform for researchers, industry practitioners, and policymakers, facilitating knowledge exchange and promoting advancements in sustainability.

This Special Issue seeks to bridge gaps in the existing literature on sustainability and circular economy by providing fresh insights and practical applications of recycling. While many studies focus on theoretical frameworks, this Special Issue emphasizes practical innovations and technological advancements, connecting theory with real-world implementation. It adopts an interdisciplinary approach, integrating perspectives from engineering, environmental science, and economics to develop comprehensive solutions to sustainability challenges. Real-world case studies highlight successful recycling initiatives, offering replicable models for policymakers and practitioners. Special emphasis is placed on applying circular economy principles in emerging economies, an often overlooked area in current research. The inclusion of organizational life cycle assessment deepens our understanding of the broader impacts and benefits of recycling on organizational sustainability. Furthermore, this Special Issue considers how smart cities and grids can facilitate recycling and circular economy for materials, and as a result, the sustainability of cities. The advancement of smart cities will create better opportunities to utilize and reuse materials and by doing so continue to loop materials back into the economy in a smarter way, rather than losing them to landfills or other potentially 'unintended' uses, such as data loss. This will reduce waste and improve resource efficiency, and it should be aligned with the principles of the circular economy. This Special Issue aims to benchmark and highlight the state of the art in the area, as well as indicate new research directions that are of interest to the community or findings that are intended to offer new potential solutions that can help drive a more sustainable and circular global economy.

Dr. Paolo Sospiro
Dr. Marta Rossi
Dr. Antonis A. Zorpas
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 submissions that pass pre-check are 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. Sustainability 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 2400 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

  • sustainable development
  • circular economy
  • recycling
  • water efficiency
  • energy efficiency
  • carbon-neutral processes
  • zero waste initiatives
  • life cycle assessment (LCA)
  • organizational life cycle assessment (OLCA)
  • smart cities
  • innovation in recycling

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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21 pages, 1751 KiB  
Article
Economic Cost–Benefit Analysis on Smart Grid Implementation in China
by Newell Sarpong Boateng, Marco Ciro Liscio, Paolo Sospiro and Giacomo Talluri
Sustainability 2025, 17(7), 2946; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17072946 - 26 Mar 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 831
Abstract
The last Five-Year Plans (2016–2025) in China emphasise economic modernisation, focusing on boosting the services sector, urbanisation, and the expansion of the social safety net. China’s net-zero strategy targets achieving climate neutrality by 2060, necessitating a transition away from coal toward cleaner energy [...] Read more.
The last Five-Year Plans (2016–2025) in China emphasise economic modernisation, focusing on boosting the services sector, urbanisation, and the expansion of the social safety net. China’s net-zero strategy targets achieving climate neutrality by 2060, necessitating a transition away from coal toward cleaner energy sources, which accounted for 60.6% of total energy consumption in 2023, to Variable Renewable Energy Sources (VRES). By 2021, VRES contributed 23.4% of power generation. To integrate VRES, Smart Grids are critical, as they autonomously manage energy production, distribution, and consumption. These grids support industrial and residential smart devices, electric vehicle charging, and battery storage. This paper applies a cost–benefit analysis using a customised version of the Electric Power Research Institute US methodology to assess Smart Grid investment in China from 2020 to 2050. The results show a benefit-to-cost ratio of 6.1:1, demonstrating substantial economic benefits. The focus on China serves as a valuable case study for Smart Grid implementation worldwide, with the methodology adaptable for use in other countries and across different scales. These findings can assist global decision-makers in evaluating the advancement in technology, policies, and potential economic impact of Smart Grids and also in comparisons with other players such as the US. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recycling of Materials for Sustainable Development and Circular Economy)
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Review

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36 pages, 3259 KiB  
Review
Recent Progress in the Recovery and Recycling of Polymers from End-of-Life Silicon PV Modules
by Pradeep Padhamnath
Sustainability 2025, 17(10), 4583; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17104583 - 16 May 2025
Viewed by 79
Abstract
Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology has emerged as the most preferred source of clean energy generation and has been deployed at a large scale. However, end-of-life management of the PV modules is a critical issue that has garnered the recent attention of lawmakers and [...] Read more.
Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology has emerged as the most preferred source of clean energy generation and has been deployed at a large scale. However, end-of-life management of the PV modules is a critical issue that has garnered the recent attention of lawmakers and researchers alike. Consequently, several researchers are actively developing technology to recycle the end-of-life PV modules. Since silicon PV modules account for more than 90% of the modules deployed globally, most of these efforts are focused on recycling crystalline silicon PV modules. Researchers have primarily focused on recovering pure silver from the contacts and pure Si from the solar cells. However, to ensure complete recyclability of such panels, the different polymers used in these modules must also be recycled. This review addresses the issue of recycling the polymers from end-of-life c-Si modules. Scopus and Google Scholar were used to search for the relevant literature. This review presents the current state-of-the-art technology related to polymer recycling found in the PV modules, the challenges encountered in their recycling, and the outlook. While research on the recycling of polymers has progressed in the last few decades, the instances of their applications in the recycling of polymers from PV panels are rarely reported in the literature. In this work, certain technical pathways, which can be employed to recycled polymers obtained from end-of-life PV panels, are presented. Recycling the polymers from the end-of-life silicon PV modules is crucial for improving the sustainability of solar PV technology. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recycling of Materials for Sustainable Development and Circular Economy)
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24 pages, 12979 KiB  
Review
Constitutive Behaviour of Recycled Rubber-Involved Mixtures for Transportation Infrastructure
by Yujie Qi, Kavishka Wijesooriya, Buddhima Indraratna and A. S. M. Riyad
Sustainability 2025, 17(9), 3956; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17093956 - 28 Apr 2025
Viewed by 339
Abstract
The scarcity of natural aggregates and the growing accumulation of waste materials have driven the demand for sustainable and circular economy solutions in transportation infrastructure, and this has led to the utilization of waste materials in transport infrastructure, such as recycled rubber. Although [...] Read more.
The scarcity of natural aggregates and the growing accumulation of waste materials have driven the demand for sustainable and circular economy solutions in transportation infrastructure, and this has led to the utilization of waste materials in transport infrastructure, such as recycled rubber. Although numerous laboratory experiments have been conducted on granular mixtures mixed with rubber, predicting the complex stress–strain behaviour of these mixtures mathematically and capturing the influence of rubber on the geotechnical properties of waste mixtures are imperative. This paper presents a comprehensive review of the constitutive models developed to predict the stress–strain behaviour, dilatancy, and shear strength of rubber-mixed waste materials, including sand–rubber, coal wash–steel furnace slag–rubber crumbs, and coal wash–rubber crumbs in various transport infrastructure applications under static loading. This paper also highlights the innovations and limitations of these existing constitutive models on rubber-mixed materials. It was found that existing constitutive models based on hyperbolic, hypoplastic, critical state, and bounding surface plasticity approaches can capture the behaviour of these materials under static loading conditions. However, further developments are required to incorporate the influence of the type and size of the rubber, particle breakage, and damping properties and also account for train-induced cyclic loading in models developed for railway substructures. This paper contributes to advancing future research aimed at deepening the fundamental understanding of rubber-mixed materials used in transportation infrastructure. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recycling of Materials for Sustainable Development and Circular Economy)
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