Journal of Environmental Management最新文献

{"title":"Building resilient clean energy transitions: Does economic, fiscal, and climate policy uncertainties contribute to renewable energy consumption in United States","authors":"Hu Tao ,&nbsp;Sheena Rehman ,&nbsp;Joshua Chukwuma Onwe ,&nbsp;Tomiwa Sunday Adebayo","doi":"10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.127730","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.127730","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The study investigates the dynamic and asymmetric linkages between renewable energy consumption (REC) and policy uncertainties in the United States over the period 1988–2024, employing a Quantile VAR (QVAR) connectedness framework with rolling windows and forecast horizons, complemented by Multi-Frequency Quantile Correlation (MFQC). The dynamic total connectedness results reveal that spillovers are strongly time- and state-dependent, intensifying during crises such as the dot-com bubble, the global financial crisis, and COVID-19, with both adverse and exuberant states amplifying systemic transmission. Net connectedness analysis shows that fiscal policy (FP) and climate policy uncertainty (CPU) are persistent shock transmitters, while REC, the stock market (STM), and economic policy uncertainty (EPU) are mostly receivers, although REC's role shifts toward transmission after 2010, particularly during COVID-19, highlighting its growing systemic importance. Quantile network plots confirm these nonlinear dynamics, with CPU, FP, and REC emerging as dominant transmitters in both lower and upper quantiles, while EPU and STM absorb shocks, reflecting heightened vulnerability in extreme states. Robustness checks using MFQC further demonstrate that fiscal policy shocks are most influential in short-run extremes, EPU dampens renewable adoption in low-frequency stable conditions, and CPU consistently undermines renewables, while industrial production (INDP) supports REC in the long run. Overall, the findings highlight that renewable energy remains highly sensitive to policy and macroeconomic shocks, underscoring the need for credible and stable policy frameworks to strengthen resilience and ensure a sustainable clean energy transition.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":356,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Management","volume":"395 ","pages":"Article 127730"},"PeriodicalIF":8.4,"publicationDate":"2025-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145335079","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"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":"Exploring Australian landholders' readiness to restore coastal wetlands: Motivations, challenges and opportunities for blue carbon projects on private land","authors":"A. Rifaee Rasheed ,&nbsp;Romy Greiner ,&nbsp;Micheli D.P. Costa ,&nbsp;Peter I. Macreadie ,&nbsp;Melissa Wartman","doi":"10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.127650","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.127650","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Coastal wetlands—such as mangroves and saltmarshes are vital global carbon sinks. In Australia, many of these wetlands are concentrated on private lands, but are in decline due to land clearing for urban development and agriculture. One opportunity to safeguard these ecosystems is through voluntary coastal wetland restoration. However, little is known about landholder's interest in recovering such wetlands. We conducted a survey with coastal landholders across Australia to explore their readiness to restore coastal wetlands, and their motivations and challenges to engage in restoration policy measures such as blue carbon projects on their properties. Using Exploratory Factor Analyses we identified key drivers of landholder readiness, followed by a cluster analysis to segment landholders based on their levels of readiness and shared characteristics. We found that motivations were largely shaped by stewardship and environmental values, including climate change outcomes. Barriers included limited technical knowledge on restoration, financial uncertainty, and concerns about project contracts and regulatory complexity. The cluster analysis revealed three landholder groups: ‘Eco-stewards’, ‘Optimists’, and ‘Reluctant adopters’. Eco-stewards were motivated by legacy and environmental values, showing strong interest in restoration, and blue carbon projects with minimal demand for financial assistance. “Optimists” valued both environmental and economic benefits but are likely to require more technical and administrative support. “Reluctant adopters” prioritised land autonomy and profitability and showed the least interest in adopting blue carbon projects. Our findings highlight that flexible programs with tailored support, and simplified project pathways are important to promote wide scale coastal wetland restoration projects in Australia.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":356,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Management","volume":"395 ","pages":"Article 127650"},"PeriodicalIF":8.4,"publicationDate":"2025-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145335081","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"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":"Catalytic pyrolysis of wind turbine blades waste for plasticizers recovery and its life cycle assessment","authors":"Samy Yousef ,&nbsp;Justas Eimontas ,&nbsp;Kęstutis Zakarauskas ,&nbsp;Inga Stasiulaitiene ,&nbsp;Nerijus Striūgas ,&nbsp;Simona Tuckute","doi":"10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.127690","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.127690","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This research aims to recover the plasticizers compounds and glass fibers (GFs) from wind turbine blade waste (WTB: GFs reinforced unsaturated polyester resin) breakdown its styrene toxic compound into light hydrocarbons using catalytic pyrolysis. The catalytic conversion process was conducted on WTB using a single small fixed-bed pyrolysis reactor over Y-type zeolite catalyst and different pyrolysis temperatures. The solid residue was subjected to sieving, washing, and oxidation as post-treatments to liberate GFs. The catalytic pyrolysis products were examined using GC/MS, GC/TCD, SEM-EDX, and FTIR. The life cycle assessment (LCA) of this approach was also studied based on ISO 14040/44 standards and compared with the typical pyrolysis of WTB. The results showed the success of the catalytic pyrolysis in converting WTB into oil (13–14.2 wt%), gaseous (10.4–12.8 wt%), and solid residue (74.2–75.4 wt%). The GC/MS results showed the absence of styrene in the oily product and terephthalic acid, di(2- ethylhexyl) ester (up to 93.35 %) and benzene, 1,1'-(1,3-,propanediyl)bis-compounds, which represent the main components associated with plasticizer production, were strongly present up to 93.35 % (650 °C). While hydrogen was the predominant flammable gas in the gaseous product, especially at 650 °C. The LCA results showed that catalytic pyrolysis may add additional environmental burdens to WTB management due to the inclusion of spent catalyst regeneration in the modelling process, as well as the implementation of conversion and upgrading operations in a single stage using a single reactor. Accordingly, it is highly recommended to implement the WTB conversion and upgrading process using two-stage reactors in future works to avoid the use of too much catalyst and its pollution, thus reducing the environmental burden of this approach.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":356,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Management","volume":"395 ","pages":"Article 127690"},"PeriodicalIF":8.4,"publicationDate":"2025-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145335083","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"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":"Defect-driven bifunctional Cu/N co-doped biochar for synchronized adsorption and instant catalysis in organic pollutant degradation","authors":"Rui Yu,&nbsp;Fang He,&nbsp;Jingjing Wang,&nbsp;Zaiwen Jia,&nbsp;Chao Liu,&nbsp;Haihong Zhou","doi":"10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.127703","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.127703","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As a commonly used antibiotic in healthcare and livestock production, tetracycline (TC) remains in water bodies and poses ecological and health risks, making its efficient removal from wastewater essential. A copper (Cu) and nitrogen (N) co-doped biochar (BC) catalyst (denoted as Cu-N@KBC) was synthesized, exhibiting low energy consumption, excellent adsorption capacity, and superior catalytic performance. Cu-N@KBC achieved 35.2 % TC removal within 20 min, with the solid-liquid distribution coefficient (K_d) of 4.541 L g⁻¹, owing to its well-developed pore structure and abundant defect sites. N doping into the sp²-hybridized carbon network, synergistically coupled with uniform Cu loading, induced the formation of oxygen vacancies and surface defects, thereby creating additional active sites for TC adsorption. A maximum TC degradation of 96.5 % was achieved within 60 min under the optimized conditions. The combined incorporation of Cu and N elevated the graphitization degree (I_D/I_G = 0.93), optimizing electron transfer and facilitating ≡ Cu²⁺-O-O-SO₃ configuration. This further accelerated the Cu⁺/Cu²⁺ redox cycle and the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) (•OH, SO₄^•−, O₂^•−, ¹O₂, and Cu^III=O). Additionally, the Cu-N@KBC/peroxymonosulfate (PMS) system demonstrated excellent stability, universality, and resistance to interference. Notably, its integration with membrane technology demonstrated the potential of the Cu-N@KBC-cellulose acetate membrane for practical wastewater treatment applications. This study offered a fresh perspective on the adsorption mechanism and the ¹O₂-dominant non-radical degradation pathway of Cu-N@KBC/PMS/TC system.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":356,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Management","volume":"395 ","pages":"Article 127703"},"PeriodicalIF":8.4,"publicationDate":"2025-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145335082","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"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":"Improving nitrogen management and mitigating pollution in semi-arid areas of Western Inner Mongolia, China: Insights from sugar beet cultivation","authors":"Shifeng Dong ,&nbsp;Lei Wei ,&nbsp;Shude Shi,&nbsp;Liuxi Yi,&nbsp;Xingbo Tong,&nbsp;Yina Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.127727","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.127727","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Optimizing nitrogen (N) management mitigates fertilization pollution in arid and semi-arid areas. This study used sugar beet in Western Inner Mongolia as a case, integrating ¹³C/¹⁵N tracing, metabolomics, and enzyme analysis to quantify carbon-nitrogen partitioning, yield, and fertilizer fate under different N regimes. In this region, the optimized N rate (180 kg ha⁻¹, N180) significantly enhanced nitrate reductase activity during early to middle growth stages, and synergistically improved ¹⁵N partitioning to taproots and late-phase ¹³C assimilation. This synergy achieved the highest ¹⁵N recovery (40.73 %) during root and sugar accumulation and a maximal sugar yield of 14.55 Mg ha⁻¹, exceeding N60 (60 kg ha⁻¹) and N300 (300 kg ha⁻¹) yields by 20.9 % and 12.7 %, respectively. Critically, under N300, shoot δ¹⁵N decreased least during root and sugar accumulation, with higher ¹⁵N accumulation and a 53.0 % greater partial N balance than N180, indicating severe N remobilization impairment and more residual N prone to environmental losses. Under N60, leaves maintained energy via glycolysis-pentose phosphate pathway-tricarboxylic acid cycle, while taproots adopted low-energy state via nucleotide salvage, a potential N-limited adaptation for this crop. This study demonstrates that 180 kg ha⁻¹ precision N management is effective for sugar beet production in Western Inner Mongolia, China, synchronizing high productivity and fertilizer-N recovery to reduce soil N residue and non-point source pollution. While nitrogen management practices have crop-specific and region-specific limitations, the integrated method identifies optimal regional N strategies by dissecting crop physiology, yield, and N use efficiency, providing insights for precision N management in other crops.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":356,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Management","volume":"395 ","pages":"Article 127727"},"PeriodicalIF":8.4,"publicationDate":"2025-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145335080","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"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":"Regulating phosphorus bioavailability and dissolved organic matter dynamics through deep eutectic solvent addition in distillery waste composting","authors":"Jie Hu ,&nbsp;Yunbo Zhai ,&nbsp;Fashen Liang ,&nbsp;Liming Liu ,&nbsp;Piao Yang ,&nbsp;Cheng Huang ,&nbsp;Changlan Hou ,&nbsp;Xuan Chi ,&nbsp;Hongkui He ,&nbsp;Min Xu","doi":"10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.127707","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.127707","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The efficient use of phosphorus (P) through organic waste composting is a sustainable strategy for fertilizer production. This research investigated how two choline chloride-based deep eutectic solvents (DES) (ethylene glycol/citric acid) affected P fraction transformation, dissolved organic matter (DOM) characteristics, and microbial communities during co-composting of dewatered sludge and distiller's grains from a Baijiu winery, compared to DES-free controls. After 30 days of composting, the P bioavailability of compost was increased in all cases, 49.46 % in the control group and 99.49 % and 67.17 % in the experimental group after addition of DES. DES treatment enhanced P bioavailability and promoted the conversion of organic P to inorganic P. Mental tested the significant positive correlation between Proteobacteria, Firmicutes in the bacterial community and NaHCO₃-P, NaOH-P. Partial least squares path modeling analysis revealed that DES improved P bioavailability through both direct effects and indirect regulation of compost physicochemical properties and microbial activity. In addition, the addition of DES does not affect the relevant characteristics of DOM, whose humic-like components may be associated with P release, and the produced compost all meets the requirements of the maturity standards. Therefore, the addition of DES to compost provides a waste-resource solution to utilize the potential of P in the long term.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":356,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Management","volume":"395 ","pages":"Article 127707"},"PeriodicalIF":8.4,"publicationDate":"2025-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145334448","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"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":"Dynamic evolution and scenario-based prediction of urban flood resilience: A system dynamics modeling approach in Kunming, China","authors":"Yuan Zhiyong ,&nbsp;Cai Lei ,&nbsp;Xie Zhiqiang ,&nbsp;Zhao Xiaoqing ,&nbsp;Zhang Huarui ,&nbsp;Zhao Sidong ,&nbsp;Zhao Xue","doi":"10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.127740","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.127740","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The interplay between global climate change and urbanization has exacerbated urban flood disaster risks. However, disaster prevention efforts are often hampered by an insufficient understanding of flood mechanisms and their drivers. To address this issue, this study combines the Pressure-State-Response (PSR) framework with System Dynamics (SD) to develop a coupled PSR-SD model that spans the entire disaster cycle. Focusing on the main urban area of Kunming, China, this study established a dynamic evaluation index system for flood resilience from 2010 to 2030, systematically analyzing its intrinsic driving mechanisms. Five development scenarios—business-as-usual, economic development priority, environmental protection priority, extreme climate challenge, and coordinated development—were designed to quantitatively project flood resilience evolution trends under distinct pathways from 2023 to 2030. Key findings include: (1) Kunming's flood resilience evolution exhibits a three-phase trajectory (“decline-stabilization-recovery”), demonstrating spatiotemporal coupling with urban developmental stages. (2) A 2-year policy effect lag period exists for flood control engineering measures, revealing temporal cost characteristics in resilience-oriented urban development. (3) Multi-scenario simulations indicate that the coordinated development scenario achieves the optimal resilience index (0.8807) by 2030, outperforming the extreme climate scenario by 18.12 %, confirming the marginal flood prevention benefit advantages of multidimensional coordinated governance. This study further discusses the proactive significance of integrated governance strategies in enhancing urban flood resilience, providing dynamic decision-making support for resilient city planning.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":356,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Management","volume":"395 ","pages":"Article 127740"},"PeriodicalIF":8.4,"publicationDate":"2025-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145334877","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"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":"Amorphization engineering of Fe-MOFs for intensified photo-Fenton decontamination","authors":"Qiangshun Wu ,&nbsp;Lei Liu ,&nbsp;Yuyao Luo ,&nbsp;Shi Wang ,&nbsp;Muhammad Saboor Siddique ,&nbsp;Xiaofei Fu ,&nbsp;Yongjie Qi ,&nbsp;Pei Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.127702","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.127702","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Fe-MOFs as the prominent Fenton-like catalysts have garnered enormous attention in wastewater decontamination. Herein, a facile amorphization strategy for Fe-MOFs synthesis was developed under ambient conditions. Distinct from highly-crystalline counterpart, Fe-BDC-W (BDC and W denote the ligand of terephthalic acid and the solvent of water, respectively) exhibited the amorphous characteristics, giving rise to its enlarged specific surface area, enhanced light-harvesting capacity, facilitated separation of photogenerated carriers, increased number of coordinatively unsaturated sites and more importantly, peculiar electron-rich Fe centers. Benefited from these, Fe-BDC-W delivered a markedly improved photo-Fenton catalytic performance towards tetracycline hydrochloride degradation, with <em>K</em>_obs being 0.26 min⁻¹, 2.36 times higher than that of the counterpart. Additionally, Fe-BDC-W exhibited significant superiorities like excellence pH tolerance, robust resistance on environmental matrices and good structural stability. Interestingly, due to the coexistence of the dual excitation pathways in Fe-BDC-W, viz., ligand-to-metal charge transfer and direct excitation of iron-oxo clusters under visible-light irradiation, the electron-rich state of Fe centers could be dynamically maintained, realizing the excellent recyclability in long-term operation. This work not only provides a feasible way to modulating the local electron density of reactive metal centers from the perspective of crystallographic structure, but also gives deep insights into the ameliorated Fenton-like catalytic performance based on directional electron transfer.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":356,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Management","volume":"395 ","pages":"Article 127702"},"PeriodicalIF":8.4,"publicationDate":"2025-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145334879","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"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":"Large-scale assessments of bottom trawling effects on Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems can significantly under-represent impacts","authors":"Fabrice Stephenson ,&nbsp;Edoardo Zelli ,&nbsp;Matthew Bennion ,&nbsp;Ashley A. Rowden ,&nbsp;Owen F. Anderson ,&nbsp;Malcolm R. Clark ,&nbsp;Jordi Tablada ,&nbsp;Jan Geert Hiddink ,&nbsp;Laura Kaikkonen ,&nbsp;Brittany Finucci ,&nbsp;Dianne M. Tracey ,&nbsp;Joanne I. Ellis ,&nbsp;Conrad Pilditch ,&nbsp;Lyndsey P. Holland ,&nbsp;Shane W. Geange","doi":"10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.127672","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.127672","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Bottom trawling threatens Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems (VMEs). We evaluated historic benthic trawling impacts on 10 VME indicator taxa (e.g. cold-water corals) and estimates of VME distribution (based on the overlap of taxa abundance-based and richness-based indices) across New Zealand waters, using a dynamic Relative Benthic Status model, incorporating 30 years of fishing data, and taxon-specific depletion and recovery rates. The analysis was conducted at a national scale and within six ecologically relevant bioregional scales. We predicted severe, lasting impacts at bioregional levels, despite modest national-scale effects. All VME indicator taxa fell below an 80% 'good ecosystem state' threshold in at least one bioregion, with VMEs in three of six bioregions below this critical limit. Combined with limited observed recovery for these taxa 20–40 years post-fishing, these impacts likely represent Significant Adverse Impacts. By integrating high-resolution spatial predictions with long-term impact assessments at ecologically relevant scales, our approach provides a novel replicable framework for regional and global assessments, identifying pristine areas vital for conservation under agreements like the High Seas Treaty. This study is an important step towards sustainable fisheries management and marine biodiversity conservation, providing essential insights to guide policy decisions and protect the oceans' most vulnerable ecosystems from bottom trawling.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":356,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Management","volume":"395 ","pages":"Article 127672"},"PeriodicalIF":8.4,"publicationDate":"2025-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145335084","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"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":"From waste to wealth: How sustainable supply chain management shapes the link between waste management and investment efficiency?","authors":"Nouha Ben Arfa ,&nbsp;Kaouther Chebbi ,&nbsp;Aymen Ammari","doi":"10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.127684","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.127684","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Despite growing corporate sustainability initiatives, the direct relationship between waste management practices and investment efficiency remains largely unexplored, particularly regarding how sustainable supply chain management moderates this relationship. This study investigates the relationship between waste management and investment efficiency, offering new insights into how sustainable supply chain management affects this relationship. A sample of 1458 firm-year observations from S&amp;P 500 firms was collected from Bloomberg and Refinitiv databases between 2010 and 2023. This study uses instrumental variables quantile regression (IVQR) to address potential concerns of endogeneity. The findings reveal that effective waste management significantly enhances investment efficiency. A 10-percentage point increase in recycling ratio reduces investment inefficiency by 0.73 basis points, while a 10-percentage point increase in total waste increases investment inefficiency by 3.83 basis points. The IVQR results confirm these findings while revealing significant moderating effects of sustainable supply chain management. Specifically, sustainable supply chain practices reduce the negative impact of total waste on investment efficiency, particularly for firms in the 90th percentile of investment inefficiency. Conversely, these practices diminish the positive effects of recycling on investment efficiency for high-inefficiency firms, suggesting that operational complexity arising from concurrent recycling and supply chain management initiatives may impair the effectiveness of capital allocation. These findings suggest that managers should strategically sequence waste reduction and supply chain sustainability initiatives to minimize operational complexity. Meanwhile, regulators should implement differentiated policies, emphasizing waste reduction incentives for high-waste firms and providing tailored recycling support based on each firm's efficiency profile, to optimize investment outcomes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":356,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Management","volume":"395 ","pages":"Article 127684"},"PeriodicalIF":8.4,"publicationDate":"2025-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145335086","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"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}