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• A bidirectional causal relationship between municipal solid waste generation and GDP emerges. • Waste recovery (recycling and composting) is a key driver in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. • The D2C algorithm shows that more waste coincides with higher consumption and more significant economic growth. Municipal solid waste generation is becoming a prominent issue in the environmental arena. The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship among municipal waste generation, greenhouse gas emissions, and GDP in Switzerland over the period 1990–2017. We apply both time series procedures (stationarity and causality tests) and a Machine Learning approach. Empirical findings underline a bidirectional causal relationship between municipal solid waste generation and GDP, indicating that the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis holds for Switzerland. Moreover, we found that waste recovery (recycling and composting) is a key driver in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, in the Tree Model, the probability that a change in the waste recovery variable could lead to a reduction in the greenhouse gas emissions registered a value of 87%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A key element in making our food systems more efficient is the reduction of food losses across the entire food value chain. Nevertheless, food losses are often neglected. This paper quantifies food losses in Switzerland at the various stages of the food value chain (agricultural production, postharvest handling and trade, processing, food service industry, retail, and households), identifies hotspots and analyses the reasons for losses. Twenty-two food categories are modelled separately in a mass and energy flow analysis, based on data from 31 companies within the food value chain, and from public institutions, associations, and from the literature. The energy balance shows that 48% of the total calories produced (edible crop yields at harvest time and animal products, including slaughter waste) is lost across the whole food value chain. Half of these losses would be avoidable given appropriate mitigation measures. Most avoidable food losses occur at the household, processing, and agricultural production stage of the food value chain. Households are responsible for almost half of the total avoidable losses (in terms of calorific content). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In Switzerland many kinds of waste, e.g. paper, metals, electrical and electronic equipment are separately collected and recycled to a large extent. The residual amount of municipal solid waste (MSW) has to be thermally treated before final disposal. Efforts to recover valuable metals from incineration residues have recently increased. However, the resource potential of critical elements in the waste input (sources) and their partitioning into recyclable fractions and residues (fate) is unknown. Therefore, a substance flow analysis (SFA) for 31 elements including precious metals (Au, Ag), platinum metal group elements (Pt, Rh) and rare earth elements (La, Ce, etc.) has been conducted in a solid waste incinerator (SWI) with a state-of-the-art bottom ash treatment according to the Thermo-Re® concept. The SFA allowed the determination of the element partitioning in the SWI, as well as the elemental composition of the MSW by indirect analysis. The results show that the waste-input contains substantial quantities of precious metals, such as 0.4±0.2mg/kg Au and 5.3±0.7mg/kg Ag. Many of the valuable substances, such as Au and Ag are enriched in specific outputs (e.g. non-ferrous metal fractions) and are therefore recoverable. As the precious metal content in MSW is expected to rise due to its increasing application in complex consumer products, the results of this study are essential for the improvement of resource recovery in the Thermo-Re® process. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]