Waste Recycling and Circular Economy: From Trash to Treasure—2nd Edition
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Waste and Recycling".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2025) | Viewed by 3966
Special Issue Editors
Interests: sustainable and applied chemistry; extractive metallurgy; mineral processing; waste recycling/management; resource recovery; material synthesis for metal extraction applications
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: hydrometallurgy; critical metal processing; solution purification; end-of-life product recycling; secondary resource processing; mining waste treatment; sustainable processing; circular economy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: recycling of Li-ion batteries; recovery of REE from primary and secondary resources; purification and crystallization of materials for battery industry; development of next-generation Al-ion batteries; material synthesis for NMC Li-ion batteries; thermal management of Li-ion batteries
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
In recent decades, developments in science and technology has made human life easier and more comfortable, but has also increased environmental and economic pressure. It has increased the consumption of primary resources due to the high market demand and the huge generation of waste during the production of products as well as at the user end. In a World Bank report published in 2018, global waste production was deemed responsible for about 5% of global emissions with an output of the equivalent of 1.6 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2016, and is expected to reach 2.6 billion metric tons by 2050. It has an adverse effect on nature, climate, and living beings. The preservation of primary resources, fulfillment of market demand, and recycling of waste have also been addressed through the concept of circular economy, which is based on the implementation of cleaner and sustainable technologies and innovative business models with supported policies.
Scientists have developed many technologies for the recycling of different kinds of waste, e.g., mining/metallurgical, electronic, batteries, polymer, construction, plastic, food, and end-of-life product waste. Despite the increasing number of recycling methods, further efforts are still required to develop innovations which provide more green, sustainable, and economical solutions for waste material treatment and provide a second life to the recycled materials. In addition, the use of circular economy principles will be useful for the improvement of technologies and will affect the overall economic and environmental impact.
This Special Issue invites both research and review articles focused on a broad range of waste (mentioned above) recycling and their conversion into useful products via sustainable technologies. Studies on the circular economy and possible industrial solutions are also welcomed. Possible themes of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Sustainable processes for different kinds of waste (mentioned above) recycling;
- Novel methods for the separation of critical metals from secondary resources;
- Complexity, challenges, and risks in a circular economy;
- Circular economy models for waste recycling and its impact;
- Innovative processes for the extraction of REEs, Li, Ni, Co, Ga, In, etc., from end-of-life products;
- Application of biological processes to recover values from wastes and plastic/polymer waste degradation;
- Food waste treatment, including biogas production and bioenergy sustainability;
- Hazardous waste remediation/detoxification;
- Current trends for construction and demolition waste management.
Dr. Harshit Mahandra
Dr. Farzaneh Sadri
Dr. Monu Malik
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- circular economy
- net-zero carbon emission
- critical metals
- waste recycling
- end-of-life product
- sustainability
- waste degradation
- hazardous materials
- biotechnology
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