Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country and a major plastic consumer, faces growing challenges in transitioning from a linear to a circular plastic economy. Despite increasing attention to recycling and waste reduction, structural constraints continue to limit progress. This study analyzed polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyethylene (PE), and polypropylene (PP) material flows and circularity barriers in Nigeria through Material Flow Analysis (MFA) and stakeholder-based value chain assessment. The MFA demonstrated high linearity of the system, with upstream flows of 396.5 kt PET, 1030.8 kt PE, and 866.9 kt PP, generating approximately 920 kt of waste in 2018. Limited recycling (rate) of 58 kt PET (25
Man-made disasters, such as industrial accidents and technological failures, generate substantial volumes of waste, posing significant challenges for effective waste management. This study investigates waste management practices in the context of man-made disasters, drawing on data from the EM-DAT database, which classifies technological disasters into industrial, railway, and miscellaneous categories. A systematic review of 102 studies was conducted, with 21 articles selected for in-depth analysis, focusing primarily on 12 industrial accidents and 9 other disaster events. The findings highlight the critical need for rapid, coordinated, and technically proficient responses to manage waste during crises, such as nuclear incidents, oil spills, and conflicts. Man-made disasters, generate substantial volumes of waste, posing significant challenges for effective waste management. This study investigates waste management practices in the context of man-made disasters, drawing on data from the EM-DAT database, which classifies technological disasters into industrial, railway, and miscellaneous categories Waste management in disasters involves three interrelated phases: rapid waste assessment, operational management, and organizational learning for system maintenance. The recommended strategies hold delivering tangible benefits including shorter cleanup times, reduced operational costs, minimized long-term environmental liabilities, and enhanced safety standards.
This study presents a bibliometric analysis of research at the intersection of circular economy (CE) and sustainable business practices in the manufacturing sector, drawing on 1,772 documents indexed in the Web of Science (WoS) between 2010 and 2024. Using the Bibliometrix package, VOSviewer, and bibliometric.com, the analysis mapped temporal publication trends, key authors, leading journals, prominent institutions, country-level scientific production, and keyword co-occurrence networks. Results reveal an annual growth rate of approximately 35.96
This study was prompted by the fact that plastic management is becoming a topical issue within the field of public administration. Research on innovative approaches to managing plastics in slums remains limited. Inspired by the concept of carbon credits, this study provides a scientific inquiry into the opportunities and challenges of plastic credit in Ghana. We adopted the exploratory design within the qualitative methodology to purposively select twenty-one research participants for in-depth interviews. The study established that plastic credit offered employment opportunities along the circular economy value chain, enhanced environmental cleanliness efforts, and maximised the use of plastic resources. It further revealed behavioural change towards plastics, a lack of technological capacity, and the absence of a ready market to enhance plastic resources as the main challenges. The findings provide contextual reality for future policy direction, emphasising that plastic should not be perceived as an enemy or threat, but as a resource. This study is among the few that empirically examine and advocate for the adoption of the carbon credits concept as a national policy to mitigate the spread of plastic pollution in a developing country.
Waste marble slurry powder (WM), generated > 6 mt annually in Rajasthan, India as an unmanaged industrial by-product, poses acute landfill burden and contamination challenges. This study develops a novel alkali-activated geopolymer system by valorizing WM combined with locally abundant desert sand (DS) into a durable non-erosive crust, thereby closing the marble waste loop while suppressing aeolian erosion on desert dunes. Experimental data were collected through pocket penetrometer testing for surface strength, scaled wind tunnel experiments at 10, 20, and 30 m/s for wind erosion resistance, and standardized wetting-and-drying durability tests, while mineralogical and microstructural analyses were performed using XRD, FTIR, TGA, and SEM-EDS. The optimum formulation (60
Laundering is essential for textile care, yet washing conditions such as temperature and repeated cycles can significantly affect fabric performance. Despite the growing use of recycled fibers in apparel, the influence of material origin (virgin vs. recycled) on performance under repeated laundering remains poorly understood. This study investigates the effects of laundering temperature on the physical properties and cleaning performance of virgin and recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and nylon 6 (NY) fabrics, as well as the effects of repeated laundering cycles on their durability. Cleaning performance is evaluated using water-soluble, oily, and particulate soils. PET maintains dimensional stability and tensile strength due to its high glass transition temperature and hydrophobic nature, whereas NY is sensitive to laundering conditions due to its lower thermal resistance. Under harsh conditions of 60 °C, NY experiences substantial tensile strength loss (up to 66
Marine plastic litter poses a significant threat to marine biodiversity and port operations, particularly at Bangladesh’s vital maritime facilities, Chattogram Port (CP) and Mongla Port (MP). This study investigates the generation and disposal pathways of plastic waste at these two key seaports, which are essential for regional maritime activities. While foreign vessels adhere to international regulations and land-based waste management systems are in place, waste management practices for local vessels remain critically inadequate. An average of 1,281 local vessels operate at CP daily, generating approximately 52.62 kg of plastic waste. In contrast, MP accommodates 224 vessels, each contributing an average of 8.59 kg/day of waste. The predominant types of plastic waste are pure plastics, mainly polyethylene and polyethylene terephthalate, with a significant portion exceeding 40 mm in size. The study revealed that 83.5
Efficient disassembly of end-of-life (EoL) smartphones is essential for sustainable resource recovery and circular manufacturing. However, the structural complexity and uncertain conditions of EoL smartphones make conventional manual disassembly inefficient, while fully automated disassembly lacks the flexibility required for diverse product conditions. Human-robot collaboration (HRC) offers a promising alternative, but disassembly task allocation and disassembly sequence planning (DSP) remain challenging in dynamic and uncertain environments. To address this problem, an HRC DSP method for EoL smartphones is proposed using Q-learning algorithm. Unlike conventional optimization methods that rely on predefined search strategies, the proposed method learns an effective disassembly policy through environmental interactions and reward feedback, enabling adaptive decision-making for uncertain EoL smartphone disassembly scenarios. An EoL Honor 6 smartphone was selected to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method. When benchmarked against manual and fully robotic disassembly methods, the proposed method yields improvements of 9.2
Enhancing sustainable food literacy among restaurant staff may improve food waste management in the food service sector, as staff play a key role in food procurement, preparation, storage, and portioning. This cross-sectional study evaluated food waste management practices and the relationship between food wasting behaviours and sustainable food literacy among 170 staff from 27 restaurants in Burdur, Türkiye. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews using validated questionnaires. Most restaurants monitored food waste (92.6
The increasing electronic waste, overuse of natural aggregates, and high carbon emissions from cement production pose serious environmental challenges. Geopolymers offer a sustainable, low-carbon solution, especially when using industrial by-products. In this study, geopolymer mortars based on ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) and cenospheres were developed to incorporate plastic e-waste as a partial replacement for natural river sand. An optimized binder composed of 50
Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) is one of the fastest growing waste streams globally, with an estimated annual growth rate of 3–5 wt
Household waste separation remains limited in many Ghanaian secondary cities despite its importance for sustainable solid waste management. This study examined household waste separation awareness, willingness, and behavioural intentions in three peri-urban communities within Wa Metropolis. A quantitative cross-sectional survey design was employed, and data were collected from 88 households selected through stratified random sampling in Gberu, Jonga, and Kpongu. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics in SPSS, including chi-square, regression, and Kruskal–Wallis tests. The findings revealed high awareness of waste separation (87.5
Single-use plastic packaging is widely used, particularly in the food industry, and it causes significant environmental problems due to its low recycling rates and long environmental lifetime. This study investigates the environmental impact of polypropylene (PP) disposable plastic cups using life cycle analysis and real-world production data from a manufacturing plant. The system boundaries include the production and transportation of PP granules and packaging materials, as well as the cups’ manufacturing and packaging processes. Three improvement scenarios have been evaluated to reduce environmental impact: replacing PP with polylactic acid (PLA), incorporating renewable energy, and optimizing transportation routes. The results show that the largest environmental burdens come from the production and transport of PP granules, which has a significant impact on resources. Wind energy offers the most reliable reductions among renewable energy sources, and scenario analysis shows that switching to sea-based transportation routes can reduce environmental impacts by up to 45
Pakistan has experienced an increase in plastic waste generation from domestic consumption and imports from developed countries. Based on the 7th population census (2023), country generates approximately 3.2 million tons (Mt) of plastic waste annually which is projected to reach 4.79 Mt by 2050 at a 1.5
The development of eco-friendly geopolymers without commercial alkali activators has attracted considerable attention due to their superior economic and environmental advantages over conventional geopolymers. This study proposes a novel approach for synthesizing sustainable geopolymers using four industrial solid waste: red mud, phosphogypsum, ground granulated blast furnace slag, and calcium carbide slag. The effects of phosphogypsum and calcium carbide slag content, along with different curing methods, on flexural strength, compressive strength, and fluidity were systematically investigated. Four micro-characterization techniques were employed to elucidate hydration mechanisms under varying formulations and curing methods. The results indicate that appropriate incorporation of phosphogypsum under water curing significantly improves compressive strength and fluidity. However, excessive phosphogypsum addition causes expansion, cracking, and substantial strength loss. Among the curing methods evaluated, sealed curing proved more effective than heat curing, achieving high strength while offering greater practical convenience. The developed geopolymer exhibits potential for use in low-strength unreinforced applications, contributing to the sustainable advancement of green construction materials. Mix of 30
This study determines unit area debris (UAD) and earthquake waste amounts following the February 6, 2023, Earthquakes in Turkey. A field study was conducted in Malatya, one of the eleven cities severely affected by the earthquakes. The research involved the selection of residential reinforced concrete (RC) buildings, demolition of buildings, debris removal, and weighing debris trucks to calculate UAD values for structures categorized into three construction periods: ≤ 1999, 2000–2010, and 2011–2018. The UAD values were estimated using two field-based approaches developed to correct for debris originating from basement filling: Approach 1 determined the basement filling contribution through direct field observations, while Approach 2 quantified it via structural calculations. Approach 1 yielded average values of 0.845, 0.952, and 1.009 tons/m2, while Approach 2 resulted in 0.933, 0.979, and 1.107 tons/m2 for the respective periods. Based on these findings, earthquake debris generation was estimated to range from 93.9 to 159.3 million tons across the affected region, with the highest amounts occurring in Hatay, Kahramanmaraş and Malatya. These results highlight UAD’s importance for estimating waste across varying seismic codes. Further research into material properties and construction techniques will provide valuable insights for minimizing future debris generation.
The reuse and recycling of construction products are crucial strategies within the transition to circular economy in the construction sector. The aim of this study is to identify and analyze the main barriers influencing construction product reuse and recycling in the Berlin region and understand the connections among these barriers as a system. The system is fed with data obtained through interviews with key stakeholders active in the construction sector in the study region, which allows us to identify twelve significant barriers. Among the most prominent barriers are the high effort needed to comply with certifications and legislation and the low-level demand and low acceptance of recycled and reused construction products. Three important causal loops revealing direct and indirect connections among barriers are identified. These findings result in policy recommendations targeting regional relevant leverage points in the system, such as the implementation of end-of-waste criteria, the requirement of considering recycled and reused construction products in tenders and process digitalization.
The vast generation of silica‑rich iron ore tailings (IOT) poses major environmental and economic challenges. This study presents a hydrometallurgical route for selective silica recovery using ammonium bifluoride (NH4HF2) to produce high‑grade nanoscale amorphous silica. Near‑complete extraction ( 98
The planned cessation of support for Microsoft’s Windows 10 operating system in October 2025 presents a significant environmental challenge, exacerbating the escalating global electronic waste (e-waste) crisis and associated carbon emissions as millions of functional personal computers face technological redundancy. Industry analysts estimate this single event could render approximately 240 million personal computers obsolete, potentially generating an estimated 158 million metric tons of CO₂e emissions from the production of their replacements. This study critically analyzes the environmental and societal ramifications of planned obsolescence, explicitly examining the implications of this forthcoming technological transition. The investigation encompasses the generation of hazardous e-waste, ethical considerations surrounding resource extraction, and the issue of environmental injustice embedded within current e-waste disposal paradigms. Advocating for the adoption of Linux operating systems as a viable, resource-efficient, cost-effective, and sustainable alternative, this paper promotes the repurposing and extended utilization of existing computer hardware as a direct countermeasure to unsustainable consumption patterns. Quantitative analysis demonstrates that extending a PC’s lifespan from 4 to 8 years can reduce its average annual carbon footprint by over 40
