Waste Management Practice-Based Approaches to the Optimization of Waste

Dear Colleagues,

Waste is a mirror of society and its civilization. The development of civilization is closely linked to waste generation and management, and today, when we need to minimize the environmental impact of all our activities, resources both from and within waste must also be optimized. This involves new strategies for waste management and waste reduction that may involve end users/citizens, new forms of recycling of materials, new ways of composting organic waste, and the use of residual waste as an energy source in energy recovery processes—all efforts to become more sustainable and circular. Any sustainable development path must find ways to promote economic growth without significantly degrading natural resources and the environment, as the Brundtland report says: “A sustainable development meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. This view requires long-term resource management including optimization of the resources that waste represents.

In this Special Issue of Sustainability, the focus is placed on resources in waste, how to make use of them, and methods that promote improved waste management, recycling, and reuse (including repair)—central for a more sustainable society and a circular economy. We take a practice-based approach in this Special Issue and welcome experiences from both high- and low-income countries and from academia and practice. We look to countries that may lack waste management and waste technologies, acknowledging that they may be sources of inspiration for improved recycling and reuse, providing discarded items with a prolonged life before their final end-of-life stage. We encourage submissions that show, for instance, new ways and types of use of residues, specific actions dedicated to specific waste categories, or legislations for improved waste management, acknowledging that these topics may also inspire in the opposite direction. We also encourage articles from practitioners who have initiated waste actions that could be relevant in many regions. In the spirit of mutual inspiration and with scarce resources as a common challenge, each contributor must include a short section on how their activity and results may be useful to others: Scaling for the common good.

With an action-oriented focus in this Special Issue, we wish to present interesting and inspirational facts about, among others, the management of solid municipal waste, circular waste initiatives, the recycling of different waste categories, and the education of citizens for a waste-based circular transition. We welcome original research articles and reviews. Research areas include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Extended Producer Responsibility, waste policy and regulation;
• Reuse, including repair, or recycling of discarded products;
• Citizen inclusion and/or education;
• Strategies for prolonging life of discarded products;
• Residues and new life;
• New/innovative recycling actions or technologies;
• Case studies and analyses of waste management strategies;
• Urban waste management;
• Modern packaging and biodegradable and compostable materials;
• Digitalization in waste management.

Dr. Bettina Hauge
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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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-anonymized 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.

• waste optimization
• waste behavior and practices
• waste initiatives
• citizen inclusion
• residues and new life
• reuse, repair and recycling of waste
• digital technology in waste