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The Role of Wastewater Treatment in Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Water Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2025 | Viewed by 583

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Environmental Engineering and Occupational Safety and Health, Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Trg Dositeja Obradovića 6, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia
Interests: emerging micropollutants; green technologies; industrial wastewater; water monitoring; wastewater monitoring
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Environmental Engineering and Occupational Safety and Health, Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Trg Dositeja Obradovića 6, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia
Interests: emerging micropollutants; advanced oxidation processes; nanomaterials; industrial wastewater
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In every sphere of human society, the increase in non-sustainable urbanization and industrialization processes has placed enormous pressure on various environmental media. Regarding the unregulated emission of untreated effluent and multiple types of harmful chemical micropollutants, as an outcome, the aforementioned activities have a detrimental effect on the treatment and destruction of natural water resources.

Adequate wastewater management and treatment is closely linked to up to 11 of the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs), according to scientific information. The role of wastewater treatment in achieving SDGs can be viewed in several directions: Achieving sustainable management and implementing wastewater treatment techniques not only improves human health by preventing exposure to dangerous diseases (SDG 3: Good Health and Well-Being), but also greatly contributes to the availability of clean water supplies (SDG 2 and 6). From an economic standpoint, implementing sustainable and green wastewater treatment can be viewed as an opportunity to generate money (SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth). From an environmental perspective, the water–energy nexus can be accomplished by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and climate change adaptation by turning leftover waste from wastewater treatment plants into electricity (SDG 7 and 9).

We welcome the scientific community and other relevant contributors (stakeholders, water sectors, policy makers etc.) to assist in this purpose by submitting their research to this Special Issue on specific topics, including the following:

  • Water quality;
  • Circular economy;
  • Green wastewater stream treatment;
  • Climate change adaptation;
  • Wastewater management;
  • Waste management;
  • Greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs);
  • Waste to energy;
  • Ecological footprint;
  • Measuring, monitoring and evaluating the SDGs;
  • Methods for monitoring SDG performance;
  • SDG indicators;
  • Water–energy nexus.

To assess progress toward attaining the SDGs, this Special Issue will serve as a valuable knowledge base and compilation of the most recent studies in the context to wastewater treatment of aquatic media.

Dr. Ivana Mihajlović
Dr. Mladenka Novaković
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

  • clean water
  • sustainable water management
  • water ecosystems
  • clean energy technology
  • untreated wastewater
  • water quality
  • resource use efficiency
  • climate resilience
  • waste management
  • recycled water
  • SDG monitoring
  • SDG indicators
  • ecological footprint

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

32 pages, 2390 KiB  
Article
Valorizing Date Seeds into Biochar for Pesticide Removal: A Sustainable Approach to Agro-Waste-Based Wastewater Treatment
by Ivana Mihajlović, Ali Hgeig, Mladenka Novaković, Vesna Gvoić, Dejan Ubavin, Maja Petrović and Tonni Agustiono Kurniawan
Sustainability 2025, 17(11), 5129; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17115129 - 3 Jun 2025
Viewed by 185
Abstract
The increasing prevalence of emerging pesticides in aquatic ecosystems poses significant risks to environmental and human health. This study explores the valorization of date seeds—an abundant agro-waste in arid and semi-arid regions—into functional biochar for the adsorption of emerging pesticides from contaminated wastewater. [...] Read more.
The increasing prevalence of emerging pesticides in aquatic ecosystems poses significant risks to environmental and human health. This study explores the valorization of date seeds—an abundant agro-waste in arid and semi-arid regions—into functional biochar for the adsorption of emerging pesticides from contaminated wastewater. Biochar was synthesized via pyrolysis at 550 °C for 30 min under a nitrogen atmosphere and characterized using BET and FT-IR techniques. The prepared date seed biochar (DSBC) exhibited a high specific surface area of 307.45 m2/g and a well-developed microporous structure conducive to pollutant adsorption. The optimized DSBC achieved maximum adsorption capacities of 28.3 mg/g for carbendazim and 25.7 mg/g for linuron. The removal efficiency exceeded 90% for all pesticides at pH 6–8 and equilibrium was reached within 60 min. Regeneration tests demonstrated that DSBC retained its removal efficiency of 60.3% and 75.5% for carbendazim and linuron, respectively, after tenth cycles, highlighting its reusability and cost-effectiveness. Significant performance potential was demonstrated via the formed biochar regarding stability when exposed to real wastewater composition. Overall, date seed biochar presents a sustainable, low-cost, and efficient solution for mitigating pesticide pollution in wastewater treatment systems. Full article
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