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Sustainable Waste Management and Resources Evaluation

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Waste and Recycling".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 November 2023) | Viewed by 2057

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Plant, Food, and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Dalhousie University, Truro, NS B2N 5E3, Canada
Interests: waste management; plastic degradation; pollutant toxicity; bioremediation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Department Plant Food, and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Dal-housie University, Bible Hill, NS B2N5E3, Canada
Interests: horticulture; biostimulants; compost; abiotic stress
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues:

The global quest for socio-economic and infrastructural developments has made waste generation an important component of various ecosystems such as agricultural, human, aquatic, and other systems. It has become imperative that waste be managed in a way that minimizes environmental pressure while enhancing material recovery in sustainable waste management.

An overview of some waste management practices indicates that improper waste management induces environmental and health problems, greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change are released into the atmosphere due to the open decomposition of some wastes, and future generations could pay more attention to the management of waste disposal sites.  Therefore, adopting a sustainable approach to waste management ensures adequate protection of human health, property, and the environment and conserves valuable natural resources.

However, a proper resource evaluation will define any sustainable waste management approach to ensure adequate planning and strategic implementation, with a current knowledge gap in most waste management mechanisms of some growing municipalities. Selecting a sustainable waste management option should go beyond financial effectiveness to include concerns for resource use and environmental impact.

This Special Issue aims to publish recent advances in waste reduction at the source and during collection services; the diversion of waste from landfill through reuse, recycling, and composting; and the recovery of products and energy from residual waste materials.

This Special Issue will focus on but is not limited to the following topics:

  • Sustainable options in waste management;
  • Plastics and biodegradable plastics in household and agricultural waste streams;
  • Optimal bioconversion of agro-waste;
  • Compost management and use of biosolids in agroecosystem;
  • Influence of sustainable waste management on soil carbon sequestration;
  • Waste management and water pollution prevention;
  • Sustainable management of chemicals from agricultural solid wastes;
  • Impact of decision-making on integrated waste management;
  • Impact of budget on landfill leachate treatment facility;
  • Green building market and effective waste management;
  • Economic implications for refused-derived fuel (RDF);
  • Influence of volatile market prices for recycling materials;
  • Sustainability of healthcare waste management models;
  • Environmental impact of construction waste;
  • Policy impact on hazardous waste management (international and local);
  • Government interventions for sustainable management of food waste;
  • Role of community–industry partnership toward sustainable waste management. 

Dr. Chijioke Emenike
Dr. Lord Abbey
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

  • sustainability
  • economy
  • waste management
  • agriculture
  • environment
  • policy

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

19 pages, 12464 KiB  
Article
The Côte d’Argent, France: Quantification of Plastic Pollution in Beach Sediments
by Daniela Bornstein and Johannes Steinhaus
Sustainability 2024, 16(7), 2992; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16072992 - 3 Apr 2024
Viewed by 1526
Abstract
Pollution with anthropogenic waste, particularly persistent plastic, has now reached every remote corner of the world. The French Atlantic coast, given its extensive coastline, is particularly affected. To gain an overview of current plastic pollution, this study examined a stretch of 250 k [...] Read more.
Pollution with anthropogenic waste, particularly persistent plastic, has now reached every remote corner of the world. The French Atlantic coast, given its extensive coastline, is particularly affected. To gain an overview of current plastic pollution, this study examined a stretch of 250 km along the Silver Coast of France. Sampling was conducted at a total of 14 beach sections, each with five sampling sites in a transect. At each collection site, a square of 0.25 m2 was marked. The top 5 cm of beach sediment was collected and sieved on-site using an analysis sieve (mesh size 1 mm), resulting in a total of approximately 0.8 m3 of sediment, corresponding to a total weight of 1300 kg of examined beach sediment. A total of 1972 plastic particles were extracted and analysed using infrared spectroscopy, corresponding to 1.5 particles kg−1 of beach sediment. Pellets (885 particles), polyethylene as the polymer type (1349 particles), and particles in the size range of microplastics (943 particles) were most frequently found. The significant pollution by pellets suggests that the spread of plastic waste is not primarily attributable to tourism (in February/March 2023). The substantial accumulation of meso- and macro-waste (with 863 and 166 particles) also indicates that research focusing on microplastics should be expanded to include these size categories, as microplastics can develop from them over time. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Waste Management and Resources Evaluation)
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