{"title":"A systematic review of plastic recycling: technology, environmental impact and economic evaluation.","authors":"Xiaoli Jiang, Buhe Bateer","doi":"10.1177/0734242X241310658","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0734242X241310658","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In this systematic review, advancements in plastic recycling technologies, including mechanical, thermolysis, chemical and biological methods, are examined. Comparisons among recycling technologies have identified current research trends, including a focus on pretreatment technologies for waste materials and the development of new organic chemistry or biological techniques that enable recycling with minimal energy consumption. Existing environmental and economic studies are also compared. The findings highlight differences in the environmental characteristics of various recycling methods, including their ability to recover plastic resins, carbon footprint, electricity consumption and gas emissions. The comparisons also reveal the challenges associated with these methods: mechanical recycling often encounters economic barriers due to contamination and inefficiencies in sorting and cleaning processes; thermolysis is constrained by high energy demands and operational costs, whereas chemical and biological recycling faces limitations related to scalability and material costs. Additionally, current challenges, emerging research areas and future directions in plastic recycling are discussed. For example, the role of innovative techniques, such as artificial intelligence, in refining recycling processes is emphasized. The importance of incorporating circular economy principles in the integrated sustainable analysis of recycling processes is also highlighted. The innovative contribution of this review is to address both technological developments and their environmental and economic implications. The focus is placed on literature from the past 10 years to ensure coverage of the most recent advancements. Overall, the insights of this review article aim to guide researchers, policymakers and industry stakeholders in improving sustainable management practices for plastic waste.</p>","PeriodicalId":23671,"journal":{"name":"Waste Management & Research","volume":" ","pages":"734242X241310658"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143012066","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A comprehensive review of recycling and reusing methods for plastic waste focusing Indian scenario.","authors":"Kishor Kalauni, Ajitanshu Vedrtnam, Sahendra P Sharma, Abhishek Sharma, Shashikant Chaturvedi","doi":"10.1177/0734242X241308499","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0734242X241308499","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Plastics are integral to modern life but present significant environmental and economic challenges due to ineffective waste management systems. This article provides a comprehensive review of global plastic waste management (PWM) strategies, focusing on advancements in processing technologies, policy frameworks and their practical applications. It highlights the role of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and regulatory bodies across the United States, Canada, Europe, Britain, India, Japan, Australia and China in fostering sustainable PWM practices. The study evaluates key processing techniques, including pyrolysis, gasification, supercritical water conversion, plasma-assisted processes, mechanical reprocessing and landfilling, emphasizing their technological advancements, limitations and scalability. Supercritical water conversion (operating at >374°C and 22.1 MPa) and plasma-assisted processing (using ionized gas at >3000°C) are identified as advanced methods capable of converting plastics into simpler molecules or valuable by-products. However, these technologies face challenges such as high energy requirements, operational costs and limited scalability. Persistent issues, including microplastic pollution, environmental impacts and the chemical-intensive nature of certain processes, are critically analysed. Drawing on extensive reviews of patents, case studies and real-world implementations, the study also examines the reuse potential of plastic by-products in diverse industries and evaluates state-level PWM initiatives in India. This review provides actionable insights for policymakers, researchers and industry stakeholders, highlighting critical gaps and opportunities to enhance the sustainability and scalability of PWM systems. By addressing persistent challenges, it contributes to advancing a circular economy for plastics and sustainable waste management practices globally.</p>","PeriodicalId":23671,"journal":{"name":"Waste Management & Research","volume":" ","pages":"734242X241308499"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142955905","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Valdir M Pereira, Raphael Baldusco, Patricia B Silva, Valdecir A Quarcioni, Rosângela S Motta, Seiiti Suzuki, Sergio C Angulo
{"title":"Thermoactivated cement from construction and demolition waste for pavement base stabilization: A case study in Brazil.","authors":"Valdir M Pereira, Raphael Baldusco, Patricia B Silva, Valdecir A Quarcioni, Rosângela S Motta, Seiiti Suzuki, Sergio C Angulo","doi":"10.1177/0734242X241227370","DOIUrl":"10.1177/0734242X241227370","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Construction and demolition waste (CDW) worldwide generation accounts 10 billion tonnes yearly. The major fraction is landfilled requiring innovative recycling methods to reduce the associated environmental impacts and to increase its circularity. Our study demonstrated the feasibility of using different CDW fines to develop recycled cements and optimized the content of CDW recycled cements with well-graded crushed stone (WGCS) for use as pavement base layer. We scaled up the study obtaining CDW cement and aggregates from a local recycling plant, as well as pilot pavement sections designed, constructed and field deflections measured. As results, the CDW cement pastes exhibited accumulated heat values of up to 111 J g<sup>-1</sup> and achieved a compressive strength of approximately 16 MPa. The unconfined compressive strength and resilient modulus (RM) achieved using CDW cement and WGCS were 2-3 and >3000 MPa, respectively. The sections constructed using CDW cement exhibited intermediate behaviour compared to those obtained using reference materials (6% Portland cement-WGCS and a conventional granular base made using WGCS). The deflection decreased over time owing to the pozzolanic reaction.</p>","PeriodicalId":23671,"journal":{"name":"Waste Management & Research","volume":" ","pages":"121-132"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11689967/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139913580","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Waste to energy, indispensable cornerstone for circular economy: A mini-review.","authors":"Paul H Brunner, Leo S Morf","doi":"10.1177/0734242X241227376","DOIUrl":"10.1177/0734242X241227376","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This mini-review aims at proving that waste-to-energy (WtE) is an essential cornerstone for circular economy (CE). Based on literature, the history of thermal waste treatment over the last 150 years is investigated, from open burning to WtE with resource recovery and final sink function. The results show that in the past incineration solved the issues it was designed for but often created new and sometimes even worse problems: The introduction of incineration in the 19th century improved urban sanitation, decreased waste volume and prolonged operational life of landfills. But it also polluted the environment, triggering an unprecedented scientific and engineering effort of all stakeholders. Today, WtE is one of the best investigated and optimized technologies in waste management. It enables the recovery of energy as heat and electric power and facilitates the 'cleaning' of cycles by the destruction of hazardous organic substances. Recent developments in resource recovery from WtE residues allow to recycle metals and, in the case of sewage sludge, even phosphorus by thermal recycling. Combined with carbon capture and storage technology, WtE stands for a quantifiable contribution to greenhouse gas reduction. Today, WtE is indispensable to reach the goals of CE, namely recycling of energy and materials, supplying safe final sinks for persistent organic substances and minimizing the need for sinks for hazardous inorganic substances.</p>","PeriodicalId":23671,"journal":{"name":"Waste Management & Research","volume":" ","pages":"26-38"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11690026/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139571470","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Media exposure and plastic-reducing behaviours in China: The mediating effect of environmental concern and locus of control.","authors":"Yingying Li, Bairong Wang, Yong Li","doi":"10.1177/0734242X241227382","DOIUrl":"10.1177/0734242X241227382","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The environmental problems caused by plastic pollution have increased at an astonishing speed. However, attempts to study the dynamics of plastic-reducing behaviours are few and far between. In this regard, based on the attitudinal-contextual-behavioural (ABC) theory of pro-environmental behaviours, this study conducts an online survey to analyse the functioning of media exposure on Chinese consumers' three types of plastic bag reducing behaviours during shopping, including saving inner plastic packaging bags by putting many goods into one bag, hand-carrying and bringing reusable bags. Employing the snowball sampling method, this study successfully collected 361 valid questionnaires for analysis. The findings of this study indicate that environmental concern and locus of control play mediating roles between media exposure and plastic-reducing behaviours. However, the study finds no supporting evidence for the mediating function of plastic pollution knowledge. These results have implications for plastic crisis managers and governmental officials. In designing media content for environmental education campaigns, it is advisable to prioritize strategies that evoke emotions over a sole focus on disseminating knowledge about plastic pollution.</p>","PeriodicalId":23671,"journal":{"name":"Waste Management & Research","volume":" ","pages":"86-96"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139692982","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Social cost--benefit analysis of solid waste management options with application to Mumbai, India.","authors":"Nishith Jardosh, Vinish Kathuria","doi":"10.1177/0734242X241231401","DOIUrl":"10.1177/0734242X241231401","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Managing solid waste continues to be an environmental, technical and economic challenge, especially for developing countries. Though these countries' urban local bodies (ULBs) are moving up the waste management hierarchy, most waste is still openly dumped. One key reason for this choice is the non-accounting of (a) social costs associated with open dumping (OD) and (b) direct/indirect benefits of other options. The current study conducts a complete social cost-benefit analysis (SCBA) comparing OD to sanitary landfilling, composting, bio-methanation, incineration and gasification alternatives. The study finds that when only private costs/benefits are considered, a mix of OD and sanitary landfills is preferred; however, when external costs/benefits are factored in, the mix shifts towards alternatives like incineration and gasification. These learnings from the SCBA are then applied to Mumbai, which generates 9000 tonnes of waste daily. To determine the optimal mix for Mumbai ULB, a constrained optimization exercise is carried out considering the technical feasibility of the alternatives and the ULB's capital budget. The study finds that with the current practice of OD, the net present value (NPV) of the social costs over a 30-year horizon will be over US$ 6-9 billion. However, even if one-fifth of the ULB's capital budget is allocated towards other waste management alternatives, the mix would shift towards sophisticated technologies and the NPV of social costs would reduce to around half that amount.</p>","PeriodicalId":23671,"journal":{"name":"Waste Management & Research","volume":" ","pages":"39-49"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139933125","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The evolutionary path of medical waste management research: Insights from co-citation and co-word analysis.","authors":"Arif Soyler, Serhat Burmaoglu, Levent Bekir Kidak","doi":"10.1177/0734242X241227378","DOIUrl":"10.1177/0734242X241227378","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Over the past decades, medical waste management (MWM) has evolved into a paramount global challenge, intertwining environmental sustainability and public health dimensions. This manuscript traces the paradigm shift from the foundational Basel Convention of 1989 to the significant sway of World Health Organization publications on contemporary debates. Utilizing a mixed approach strategy that blended qualitative and quantitative techniques, the research employed extensive literature review, co-citation and co-word analysis methodologies to ascertain the direction of contemporary trends in MWM. Within the scope of the research findings, current strategies reveal noticeable gaps, especially those that lack sound policy structures, comprehensive insights and effective operational frameworks. Co-citation evaluations spotlight predominant themes in academic references. Foremost among them are the socioeconomic factor, environmental significance, medical waste (MW) stabilization and sustainable society, sequenced by cluster magnitude. Co-word analysis unveils that, despite the long-standing presence of incineration plants, pyrolysis has, since 2016, prioritized environmental considerations. The recycling ethos peaked in 2014, but the sustainability paradigm burgeoned in 2020, with the 'circular economy' gaining momentum in 2021. Emerging trend analysis underscores the mounting significance of circular waste technologies and sustainability as indispensable solutions. Results demonstrate MW advancements and highlight emerging trends shaping the future of the field. The research concludes by accentuating the necessity of global collaborative efforts, integrating cutting-edge technologies and infusing sustainability and circularity tenets into societal frameworks to navigate MWM's intricate landscape. Future research trajectories, including wastewater governance, novel mobile waste disposal strategies and a cyclic waste classification paradigm, are proposed.</p>","PeriodicalId":23671,"journal":{"name":"Waste Management & Research","volume":" ","pages":"3-15"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11697513/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139730543","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Recycling alkali lignin-derived biochar with adsorbed cadmium into cost-effective CdS/C photocatalyst for methylene blue removal.","authors":"Peng Yu, Ronghao Zhuang, Hui Liu, Zhiguo Wang, Chun Zhang, Qiongchao Wang, Hongyu Sun, Wei Huang","doi":"10.1177/0734242X241231394","DOIUrl":"10.1177/0734242X241231394","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Cadmium (Cd)-enriched adsorbents wastes possess great environmental risk due to their large-scale accumulation and toxicity in the natural environment. Recycling spent Cd-enriched adsorbents into efficient catalysts for advanced applications could address the environmental issues and attain the carbon neutral goal. Herein, a facile strategy is developed for the first time to reutilize the alkali lignin (AL)-derived biochar (ALB) absorbed with Cd into cadmium sulphide (CdS)/C composite for the efficient methylene blue (MB) removal. The ALB is initially treated with Cd-containing solution, then the recycling ALB samples with adsorbed Cd are converted to the final CdS/C composite using NaS<sub>2</sub> as the sulphurizing reagent for vulcanization reaction. The optimal ALB400 demonstrates a high adsorption capacity of 576.0 mg g<sup>-1</sup> for Cd removal. Then the converted CdS/C composite shows an efficient MB removal efficiency of 94%. The photodegradation mechanism is mainly attributed to carbon components in the CdS/C composite as electron acceptor promoting the separation of photoelectrons/holes and slowing down the abrasion of CdS particles. The enhanced charge transfer and contact between the carrier and the active site thus improves the removal performance and reusability. This work not only develops a method for removing Cd from wastewater effectively and achieving the waste resource utilization but also further offers a significant guidance to use other kinds of spent heavy metal removal adsorbents for the construction of low-cost and high value-added functional materials.</p>","PeriodicalId":23671,"journal":{"name":"Waste Management & Research","volume":" ","pages":"75-85"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139933123","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Chunxiang Hua, Linyan Chen, Chenyu Liu, Chenxi Yang
{"title":"The effect of incentive policies on the diffusion of construction and demolition waste recycling: A government perspective.","authors":"Chunxiang Hua, Linyan Chen, Chenyu Liu, Chenxi Yang","doi":"10.1177/0734242X241231400","DOIUrl":"10.1177/0734242X241231400","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Construction and demolition (C&D) waste recycling plays a significant role in waste reduction and carbon reduction, which is critical for sustainable development. However, due to various limitations such as financial problems, C&D waste recycling industry is not well developed in developing countries. To address this problem, this study combines complex network theory and evolutionary game theory to analyse the diffusion of C&D waste recycling behaviour among enterprises under governmental incentive policies within a complex network context. The results demonstrate that the size of the network has limited effects on behaviour diffusion in Watts-Strogatz small-world network. Additionally, the study highlights the clear impact of governmental incentive probability, initial rate and connection degree on the diffusion path. By quantitatively investigating the effects of incentive tools, this study contributes to the knowledge of C&D waste management and provides valuable implications for stakeholders seeking to promote the diffusion of C&D waste recycling.</p>","PeriodicalId":23671,"journal":{"name":"Waste Management & Research","volume":" ","pages":"50-61"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139933126","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Effects of governmental supportive policies on waste management for two substitutable products made of virgin and waste materials: A game-theoretic approach.","authors":"Hamed Jafari, Soroush Safarzadeh","doi":"10.1177/0734242X241231399","DOIUrl":"10.1177/0734242X241231399","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In recent years, the concept of sustainability has attracted a great amount of attention, due to increasing energy resources scarceness. Waste recycling is known as an efficient approach to improve sustainability and save energy. In this view, a sustainable supply chain is established in the current study to investigate the effects of waste recycling on sustainable development. The considered supply chain consists of the government, two manufacturers, a supplier, a waste depot, and a recycler. Under this structure, two substitutable products are made of the virgin and recyclable waste materials. The supplier provides the virgin materials for the first product. The waste depot collects the non-recycled waste, whereas the recycler recycles it and supplies the recycled waste for the second product. Also, the government supports the second product to provide an incentive for its members to collect and recycle more waste. Then, the game theory is applied to make decisions under the considered structure. Finally, the results are revealed and some managerial insights are provided. It is derived that the governmental supportive policies play a significant role in resources conservation and energy storage. Moreover, increasing the quality of the product made of the recyclable waste improves the government's utility.</p>","PeriodicalId":23671,"journal":{"name":"Waste Management & Research","volume":" ","pages":"62-74"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141154855","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}