Waste Management and Environmental Protection
A special issue of World (ISSN 2673-4060).
                
                    Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2026                     | Viewed by 28
                
                
                
            
Special Issue Editors
Interests: recovery of metals from secondary resources; waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE); hydrometallurgy; mineral processing
Interests: energy and complexity; environmental politics; postliberal politics and political economy; environmental management and sustainability
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
- Introduction:
 
The challenge of waste generation affects all sectors of society and the economy. Urbanization, changing consumption patterns, and expanding industrial activity create diverse waste streams, including municipal solid waste, industrial residues, agricultural by products, wastewater sludge, end-of-life products such as batteries and electronic equipment, spent catalysts, mine tailings, construction and demolition waste, and mixed plastic and glass wastes. Proper management of these streams is essential to protect the environment, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, conserve natural resources, and secure supplies of critical raw materials. Research that advances technologies, policies, and practices for prevention, recovery and safe disposal is therefore of strategic scientific and societal importance.
- Aim of the Special Issue:
 
This Special Issue aims to gather high-quality contributions that address waste management and environmental protection from multidisciplinary perspectives. Emphasis is placed on approaches that combine rigorous science with practical applicability and policy relevance. Contributions may report novel experimental results, process development and scale up, field case studies, methodological advances, life cycle and economic assessment, policy analysis, and comprehensive reviews. The topic aligns with the journal scope by addressing both environmental protection and sustainable resource management and promoting solutions that support the circular economy.
- Suggested themes:
 
We welcome original research articles and reviews in, but not limited to, the following areas: waste prevention reduction and reuse strategies; material recovery and recycling from municipal and industrial waste, including WEEE batteries and plastics; recovery of metals and critical raw materials from secondary resources such as spent catalysts and mine tailings; hydrometallurgical, electrochemical, pyrometallurgical, biological, and mechanochemical approaches for resource recovery; advanced sorting separation and pre-treatment technologies and sensors; treatment and valorization of wastewater sludge and organic residues, including biogas and composting; process intensification scale up and pilot plant studies; life cycle assessment, environmental impact assessment, and techno-economic analysis; policy, regulatory, and social aspects of waste management and circular economy implementation; and case studies and field data that demonstrate the applicability and transferability of methods.
In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. We look forward to hearing from you.
Dr. Soroush Rahmati
Dr. Stephen Quilley
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. World is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly 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 1200 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
- metal recovery
 - secondary resources
 - waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE)
 - spent batteries
 - industrial residue
 - spent catalysts
 - mine tailings
 - hydrometallurgy
 - flotation
 - mechanochemical processing
 - circular economy
 - life cycle and techno-economic assessment
 
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