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Sustainability
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Advancing Environmental Sustainability Through Life Cycle Assessment
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Advancing Environmental Sustainability Through Life Cycle Assessment

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 February 2027 | Viewed by 866

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Zenon Foltynowicz

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Industrial Products Quality and Ecology, Poznan University of Economics and Business, Poznań, Poland
Interests: products quality and ecology; sustainable development; circular economy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Anna Lewandowska

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Quality Management, Poznan University of Economics and Business, Poznań, Poland
Interests: life cycle assessment; eco-design; environmental footprint
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has become one of the most influential methodological frameworks for evaluating environmental sustainability across products, processes and systems. As global challenges intensify—ranging from climate change and resource depletion to circularity and sustainable consumption—LCA is increasingly used not only as an analytical tool but also as a strategic instrument supporting policy development, industrial innovation and informed decision making. This Special Issue, Advancing Environmental Sustainability Through Life Cycle Assessment, aims to explore recent methodological advances, practical applications and integrative approaches that strengthen the role of LCA in sustainability transitions.

The issue seeks to position LCA within the broader scientific landscape by linking it to contemporary research on environmental assessment, sustainable design, circular economy strategies and systems thinking. By bringing together contributions from diverse fields, the Special Issue will highlight how LCA can support robust sustainability assessments, guide responsible innovation and enhance transparency in environmental communication. Both methodological and applied studies are welcome, including case studies, comparative analyses and interdisciplinary approaches that expand the boundaries of LCA research.

Prof. Dr. Zenon Foltynowicz
Prof. Dr. Anna Lewandowska
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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

  • assessment
  • decision-making
  • impact
  • life cycle
  • sustainability

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

32 pages, 1638 KB  
Article
Environmental Performance of Post-Consumer Plastic Mechanical Recycling in Türkiye: A Process-Level Analysis of Cumulative Energy Demand and Global Warming Potential
by Birnur Bozdoğan, Hakan Tutumlu and Adem Atmaca
Sustainability 2026, 18(8), 3862; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18083862 - 14 Apr 2026
Viewed by 545
Abstract
Plastic recycling technologies are developing rapidly as countries seek to reduce carbon emissions, use resources more efficiently, and move toward circular economy models. Although mechanical recycling remains the most widely applied option worldwide, its environmental performance depends strongly on process design, feedstock quality, [...] Read more.
Plastic recycling technologies are developing rapidly as countries seek to reduce carbon emissions, use resources more efficiently, and move toward circular economy models. Although mechanical recycling remains the most widely applied option worldwide, its environmental performance depends strongly on process design, feedstock quality, and operational stability, especially in emerging economies where automation and process control may be limited. This study provides a process-level environmental assessment of an industrial mechanical recycling facility in Gaziantep, Türkiye, using twelve months of real, meter-based operational data. Unlike many previous assessments based on simplified or short-term assumptions, the present study combines long-term industrial monitoring, scenario-based process modeling, and probabilistic uncertainty analysis within a single facility-scale evaluation. An ISO 14040/14044-compliant life cycle assessment was performed for four major polymers (PET, HDPE, LDPE, and PP), combining digital energy monitoring with Monte Carlo-based uncertainty analysis. The results show that extrusion is the dominant energy hotspot, accounting for 72–79% of cumulative energy demand (CED), and that the baseline configuration leaves substantial room for improvement in terms of energy and emissions performance. Scenario analysis indicates that combining high-efficiency extrusion with sensor-based sorting can reduce CED and GWP by up to 17.6% and 18.1%, respectively. Monte Carlo simulations demonstrate reduced operational variability under improved configurations and confirm the statistical robustness of these improvements. Overall, the findings provide process-level evidence for improving the environmental performance of mechanical recycling systems in developing industrial contexts. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advancing Environmental Sustainability Through Life Cycle Assessment)
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