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The management of end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) has become a significant environmental and economic challenge due to the substantial volumes of hazardous waste generated. This article analyses sustainable practices in ELV management across Europe, with a focus on contributions to the circular economy. The systematic literature review, conducted for articles published in the period 2016-2024, identifies five topics: (1) policy and regulatory frameworks evaluations and suggestions; (2) economic and environmental benefits through optimization modelling; (3) trends and performances analysis; (4) advanced treatment technologies and their impact and (5) economic and environmental impacts assessments. The findings highlight the importance of state-of-the-art recycling processes and coordinated stakeholder efforts in improving ELV management outcomes. In addition, the correlation between ELVs recycling and gross domestic product (GDP) was analysed. Data analysis for 27 European countries in the period 2016-2021 shows a moderate correlation. Specifically, countries with stronger economies tend to produce more ELVs, distinguishing two clusters when GDP is 35,000 € per capita. By adopting best practices and innovative approaches, European countries can enhance their ELV management systems, support a more circular economy and sustainable development. This work highlights the possible correlation between GDP per capita and ELV recycling rates across the European Union, the identification of economic clusters, and the critical role that advanced recycling technologies play in improving sustainability., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

The European Union (EU) is moving towards sustainable development, and a key role is played by circular economy (CE) models geared towards reducing pressure on natural resources, generating jobs and fostering economic opportunities. Indicators are able to aggregate a variety of information and their use, through the use of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA), allows the performance of alternatives to be monitored. This work aims to calculate the performance of the EU27 in the years 2019 and 2020 according to 15 CE indicators available on Eurostat. The results of the Analytic Hierarchy process show that the greatest impact on circularity is determined by the category 'competitiveness and innovation', which together with the category 'global sustainability and resilience' accounts for two thirds of the overall weight. The MCDA results show that Belgium prevails in both the baseline and alternative scenarios, ahead of Italy and the Netherlands respectively. In general, circular policies see western European countries excel, while the performance of eastern European countries is weaker. The implications of this work highlight the three main barriers to the development of CE models: (i) illegal waste management; (ii) lack of knowledge and low level of investment in circular technologies and (iii) low distribution of value among stakeholders. In this way, resource management based on circularity will enable Europe to meet the challenges of sustainability with less dependence on imported raw materials., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

The ecological transition in the transport sector is a major challenge to tackle environmental pollution, and European legislation will mandate zero-emission new cars from 2035. To reduce the impact of petrol and diesel vehicles, much emphasis is being placed on the potential use of synthetic fuels, including electrofuels (e-fuels). This research aims to examine a levelised cost (LCO) analysis of e-fuel production where the energy source is renewable. The energy used in the process is expected to come from a photovoltaic plant and the other steps required to produce e-fuel: direct air capture, electrolysis and Fischer-Tropsch process. The results showed that the LCOe-fuel in the baseline scenario is around 3.1 €/l, and this value is mainly influenced by the energy production component followed by the hydrogen one. Sensitivity, scenario and risk analyses are also conducted to evaluate alternative scenarios, and it emerges that in 84% of the cases, LCOe-fuel ranges between 2.8 €/l and 3.4 €/l. The findings show that the current cost is not competitive with fossil fuels, yet the development of e-fuels supports environmental protection. The concept of pragmatic sustainability, incentive policies, technology development, industrial symbiosis, economies of scale and learning economies can reduce this cost by supporting the decarbonization of the transport sector., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Agricultural management influences the soil ecosystem by affecting its physicochemical properties, residues of pesticides and microbiome. As vineyards grow crops with the highest incidence of pesticides, the aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of conventional and sustainable management systems of vineyards from DOP Ribeiro on the soil's condition. Samples from soils under three different management systems were collected, and the main soil physicochemical properties were evaluated. A selection of 50 pesticides were investigated by liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry. The bacterial and fungal microbiomes were characterized through amplicon sequencing. The results show that organic agriculture positively influences soil pH and the concentration of some nutrients compared to conventional management. Our microbiome analysis demonstrated that transitioning from conventional to organic management significantly improves several BeCrop ® indexes related to key microbial metabolism and soil bio-sustainability. Such a transition does not affect soil alpha diversity, but leads to a higher interconnected microbial network structure. Moreover, differential core genera and species for each management system are observed. In addition, the correlation of the microbiome with geographical distance is evidence of the existence of different microbial terroirs within DOP Ribeiro. Indeed, sustainable management leads to higher nutrient availability and enhances soil health in the short term, while lowering pesticide usage.

Potato ( Solanum tuberosum L. ) is considered one of the most widely consumed crops worldwide, due to its high yield and nutritional profile, climate change-related environmental threats and increasing food demand. This scenario highlights the need of sustainable agricultural practices to enhance potato productivity, while preserving and maintaining soil health. Plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) stimulate crop production through biofertilization mechanisms with low environmental impact. For instance, PGPB promote biological nitrogen fixation, phosphate solubilization, production of phytohormones, and biocontrol processes. Hence, these microbes provide a promising solution for more productive and sustainable agriculture. In this study, the effects of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens QST713 based-product (MINUET™, Bayer) were assessed in terms of yield, soil microbiome, potato peel and petiole nutrient profile as a promising PGPB in a wide range of potato cultivars across the United States of America. Depending on the location, potato yield and boron petiole content increased after biostimulant inoculation to maximum of 24% and 14%, respectively. Similarly, nutrient profile in potato peel was greatly improved depending on the location with a maximum of 73%, 62% and 36% for manganese, zinc and phosphorus. Notably, fungal composition was shifted in the treated group. Yield showed strong associations with specific microbial taxa, such as Pseudoarthrobacter, Ammoniphilus, Ideonella, Candidatus Berkiella, Dongia . Moreover, local networks strongly associated with yield, highlighting the important role of the native soil microbiome structure in indirectly maintaining soil health. Our results showed that treatment with B. amyloliquefaciens based product correlated with enhanced yield, with minor impacts on the soil microbiome diversity. Further studies are suggested to disentangle the underlying mechanisms of identified patterns and associations., Competing Interests: The biostimulant used in this article is commercialized by Bayer under the name MINUET™. AA is a cofounder and IA, MA-A, SR, DP, BMB, JZ, and BG-J are current employees of Biome Makers, Inc. PJ-R, LCC, and RG are current employees of the Bayer Germany and U.S. The authors declare that this study received funding from Bayer U.S. The funder had the following involvement in the study: study design, sample collection, writing of the manuscript, and the decision to submit it for publication., (Copyright © 2024 Adamo, Acin-Albiac, Röttjers, de Prado, Benito, Zamora, Godara, García-Jiménez, Jiang-Rempel, Cline and Acedo.)

Higher education institutions (HEIs), based on learning, innovation, and research, can support the progress of civil society. Many HEIs are implementing sustainability practices and projects to counteract climate change, often involving youth participation. The present study aimed at identifying how sustainable communities may be fostered in a university setting. To that end, a questionnaire was administered to engineering students at the start and end of a course on energy issues, assessing their perceptions of sustainability using multi-criteria decision analysis. The results showed that students placed greater value on sustainability at the end of the course. Additionally, the findings highlight that the implementation of projects aimed at tackling real problems may be useful for disseminating knowledge and sustainable practices. The main implications of this study indicate that sustainable communities in academia lay on six foundational pillars: sustainable education, energy (and resource) independence, subsidies in support of the green economy, initiatives aimed at reducing the carbon footprint, energy community development, and new green professional opportunities., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

In this article, we analyze the role of social capital in the formation of sustainable energy communities. Specifically, we study the impact of different dimensions of social capital (i.e., structural, relational, cognitive) in determining willingness to participate in an energy community. Our survey data suggest that social contexts contribute to the development of energy communities, via (at least) two channels: (i) a family path, with individual perspectives showing a partial correlation with those of at least one relative, and (ii) a social channel, with higher social trust and greater interaction with neighbors favoring the propensity to participate in an energy community. The social coordination required for the formation of sustainable energy communities is determined by the quality of social interactions, and the spread of virtuous behavior is determined by not only economic policies (i.e., incentives), but also forward-looking policies favoring local aggregation and the creation of high-quality social capital. Thus, local actions and interactions can contribute to solving global climate change challenges., (© 2023. Springer Nature Limited.)

Photovoltaic (PV) panels have a crucial role in coping with the global warming mitigation and the energetic crisis currently affecting the European Community. However, from the circular perspective of end-of-life (EoL) management, there are still big issues to be solved in order to recover materials from this kind of e-wastes. Because of several reasons (e.g. type of embedded materials, illegal shipments, location of manufacturers) EoL businesses do not have the interest in approaching them. This poses a significant environmental concern in terms of their management. This work wants to assess the profitability of a specific PV module recycling plant, by evaluating several market contexts in which multiple scenarios of material price, investment and process costs will be considered. The results for a 3000 tonnes plant show that profitability is not verified in the absence of an avoided landfill cost. Instead, when a value of 200 €/tonnes is applied, the net present value is positive in 35.2% of the scenarios and at 87.6% when a value of 350 €/tonnes is considered. The policy choice of this value requires linking the PV module disposal fee to the circular benefits associated with its recovery.

While sustainability is at the centre of many government agendas, there is a great risk of entrusting strategic decisions to those lacking in sustainability expertise. It is therefore necessary to ensure that universities are the green engines of sustainable communities. The present study administered a questionnaire to students enrolled in a Management Engineering programme at an Italian university, to collect their perceptions of and opinions on sustainability and energy issues. Students completed the questionnaire twice: once prior to beginning and once at the end of term. The results showed that students held more sustainable attitudes at the end of term, and perceived sustainable education and youth confidence as the building blocks of future society. They also observed that decarbonisation of the Italian energy system and national energy independence would require the significant development of renewable systems and interventions to promote energy efficiency. In addition, they recognised subsidies for green production, energy communities, differentiated waste collection and professional skills training as crucial. The sustainable university should support younger generations by encouraging student engagement in real-world projects and the development of long-term, structured teacher-student relationships., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

The green transition requires renewable energy resources, especially the role of biomass is very crucial as it promotes resource circularity if sustainable substrates are used. This mini-review focuses on green gas derived from biomass called biomethane, which appears to be strategic in the face of soaring energy costs. Hence, combined Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats-Analytic Hierarchy Process analysis is used to compare and evaluate the critical factors. The results provide not only methodological insights through the application of the local-global priority method, but also managerial insights that see biomethane as a winning element for the green transition, fighting climate change and reducing dependence on external energy sources. Subsidies have played a key role in pursuing economic sustainability; however, their use should be reduced over time and measured to the actual contribution related to environmental and social improvement. The results of this work highlight that biomethane development is important to tackle climate change and to be self-sufficient from an energy perspective. This development plan, based on circularity of resources, includes subsidies for small-scale plants, substrates from neighbouring territories, citizen involvement in decision-making processes, valorization of suitable waste from an environmental perspective and stability of political choices.

The European Union has recently prioritized waste policies by embedding them in the new Horizon Europe work programme. Here, circular economy (CE) and digitalization are matching together in order to support all the industrial sectors in increasing their sustainability level. One of the main impacts expected from the EU is a better exploitation of wasted resources. However, waste streams are very different in terms of volumes, embedded materials and management policies. Considering only those waste streams with highest volumes, this study focuses on End-of-Life Vehicle (ELV), Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) and Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE). Starting from some policy recommendations and analyses identified through a literature review and the support of the experts, a survey has been conducted to identify the most critical items for each waste stream. Results of the survey show that, on the one hand, end of waste strategies has the highest importance for WEEE and ELV categories. On the other hand, social change has the highest importance for MSW. Consequently, end of waste strategies and social change should be considered as enablers of reuse and recycling practices in their reference contexts. In order to counteract the significant socio-economic issues already caused by delays in taking clear decisions about climate change mitigation strategies, policymakers should focus on these policy implications urgently if even more imminent environmental catastrophes are to be avoided., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The residential sector is characterized by new digital challenges. The Internet of Things (IoT) is a key-driver of innovation and operations management. This study aims to measure and assess IoT devices at the level of individuals, which are households, in European countries. For this scope, through the multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA), we analyse data from Eurostat providing a mix of indicators allowing information to be aggregated at the level of individual Europeans and disaggregated by age group. The results highlight that only four countries (Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Malta) are classified as a high cluster in the examined scenarios. The 16-24 age group is the most involved in the uses of IoT devices, but the previous three northern European countries also show very high values for the 35-44 age group. IoT devices serve as a springboard for achieving a powerful propulsion toward technological innovation in the new business models, identifying opportunities and being a way to make many routine tasks more agile. Training programs and awareness campaigns are policy suggestions for the development of IoT devices favouring a cultural change on their use. However, there is an emerging need for studies that monitor environmental health impacts to prevent possible threats.

The transition to a circular economy is a key concern for the fashion industry. The emerging second-hand market is a practice that could enable the circular economy in the fashion industry. As this is an emerging trend, the literature has not yet sufficiently explored how it is possible to simultaneously meet consumer and industry expectations in the management of second-hand garments within the value chain. This article aimed to fill that gap with the analytic hierarchy process, which demonstrated that garment collection and recycling are not necessarily best practices for the circular economy. For this to happen, close collaboration between manufacturers and retailers in the value chain is needed to move the industry towards responsibly sustainable production and consumption models. The results emphasise that harvesting management and internal competition on low-cost collection are critical business drivers, while responsible consumption and benefits are opportunities for consumers., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This data article presents data collected through a survey with the aim of understanding consumers' behavior in the fashion industry. The analyses of these data are elaborated in the article "The circular economy and bioeconomy in the fashion sector: Emergence of a "sustainability bias"" (Colasante and Adamo 2021). As highlighted in the literature, the fashion industry contributes significantly to environmental pollution in all steps, from the production to the delivery. Often, consumers are not aware of the impact of their fashion habits on the environment and this led to the emergence of the well-known fast fashion phenomenon. Even though there is a lack of evidence on this topic, shifting consumers to embrace bioeconomy as well as circular economy principles constitutes a possible solution to reduce the impact of the fashion sector on the environment. We collected these data on consumers' habits and preferences regarding both bioeconomy and circular economy by means of a questionnaire in which a total of 402 Italian people took part by using Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) platform. This paper aims at presenting the data split in the three main blocks: (i) consumer perception; (ii) purchasing habits; and (iii) consumers' willingness to pay (WTP). The results obtained are of interest to citizens, business, academics and policy makers to understand consumers' perception of sustainability in the fashion industry. The proposed dataset can be replicated on a global scale, on specific market segments of the fashion industry and can be used to compare the perception of the circular bioeconomy in other sectors., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships which have, or could be perceived to have, influenced the work reported in this article., (© 2022 The Author(s).)

The monitoring report on progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a global context involves a large number of actors as it represents probably the biggest change that our society is implementing. Actions at all levels, from local, regional and national to the aggregation of multiple countries (e.g. EU 27) are needed to achieve a sustainable future. This work focuses on a national perspective (Italy) where multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) is used to measure current performance. A sustainability score for each region is calculated from a set of 175 indicators contained in all 17 SDGs. Additionally, sustainability scores are disaggregated along the three pillars - social (1-5, 10, 16, and 17), environmental (6, 13-15) and economic (7-9, 11, and 12). The results highlight the positive performance of northern regions and, in particular, of Trentino Alto Adige, which ranks first in the two considered scenarios. In addition, the relevance of territorial specificities emerges for which the analysis of individual SDGs shows different leading regions. It is noteworthy to highlight the performance of the environmental sub-group of SDGs in southern regions, in contrast to the social and economic sub-groups. Evidently, policy actions are needed to reduce the long-lasting North/South divide-yet the highlighted heterogeneous sustainability performance along the three dimensions calls for well targeted policy measures necessary to regain competitiveness at a European and global level, without compromising with environmental sustainability., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

Successional dynamics of plants and animals during tropical forest regeneration have been thoroughly studied, while fungal compositional dynamics during tropical forest succession remain unknown, despite the crucial roles of fungi in ecological processes. We combined tree data and soil fungal DNA metabarcoding data to compare richness and community composition along secondary forest succession in Costa Rica and assessed the potential roles of abiotic factors influencing them. We found a strong coupling of tree and soil fungal community structure in wet tropical primary and regenerating secondary forests. Forest age, edaphic variables, and regional differences in climatic conditions all had significant effects on tree and fungal richness and community composition in all functional groups. Furthermore, we observed larger site-to-site compositional differences and greater influence of edaphic and climatic factors in secondary than in primary forests. The results suggest greater environmental heterogeneity and greater stochasticity in community assembly in the early stages of secondary forest succession and a certain convergence on a set of taxa with a competitive advantage in the more persisting environmental conditions in old-growth forests. Our work provides unprecedented insights into the successional dynamics of fungal communities during secondary tropical forest succession.

Understanding whether the occurrences of ectomycorrhizal species in a given tree host are phylogenetically determined can help in assessing different conservational needs for each fungal species. In this study, we characterized ectomycorrhizal phylogenetic composition and phylogenetic structure in 42 plots with five different Mediterranean pine forests: i.e., pure forests dominated by P. nigra , P. halepensis , and P. sylvestris , and mixed forests of P. nigra-P. halepensis and P. nigra-P. sylvestris , and tested whether the phylogenetic structure of ectomycorrhizal communities differs among these. We found that ectomycorrhizal communities were not different among pine tree hosts neither in phylogenetic composition nor in structure and phylogenetic diversity. Moreover, we detected a weak abiotic filtering effect (4%), with pH being the only significant variable influencing the phylogenetic ectomycorrhizal community, while the phylogenetic structure was slightly influenced by the shared effect of stand structure, soil, and geographic distance. However, the phylogenetic community similarity increased at lower pH values, supporting that fewer, closely related species were found at lower pH values. Also, no phylogenetic signal was detected among exploration types, although short and contact were the most abundant types in these forest ecosystems. Our results demonstrate that pH but not tree host, acts as a strong abiotic filter on ectomycorrhizal phylogenetic communities in Mediterranean pine forests at a local scale. Finally, our study shed light on dominant ectomycorrhizal foraging strategies in drought-prone ecosystems such as Mediterranean forests.

Soil sampling is a critical step affecting perceived fungal diversity, however sampling optimization for high-throughput-DNA sequencing studies have never been tested in Mediterranean forest ecosystems. We identified the minimum number of pooled samples needed to obtain a reliable description of fungal communities in terms of diversity and composition in three different Mediterranean forests (pine, oak, and mixed-pine-oak). Twenty soil samples were randomly selected in each of the three plots per type. Samples obtained in 100 m 2 plots were pooled to obtain mixtures of 3, 6, 10, 15, 20 samples, and sequenced using Illumina MiSeq of fungal ITS2 amplicons. Pooling three soil samples in Pinus and Quercus stands provided consistent richness estimations, while at least six samples were needed in mixed-stands. β-diversity decreased with increasing sample pools in monospecific-stands, while there was no effect of sample pool size on mixed-stands. Soil sample pooling had no effect over species composition. We estimate that three samples would be already optimal to describe fungal richness and composition in Mediterranean pure stands, while at least six samples would be needed in mixed stands., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare they have no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 British Mycological Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The development of photovoltaic (PV) energy has been very significant in the last years, thanks to cost reductions brought about by policy actions favouring the transition from a fossil to a green society. As this transition is likely to stretch over the long term, policy support must be programmed accordingly. In light of the human and economic shock effected by COVID-19, the Italian government has offered a tax deduction of 110% over 5 years for the realization of new PV residential plants. We propose to integrate this tool with the application of a bonus for energy produced and self-consumed, in order to support the development of decentralized systems. In this paper, we provide an economic assessment of a 3 kW plant in the context of several policy scenarios. The results underline the great opportunity for consumers to tackle climate change whilst obtaining relevant economic profits. The study can be replicated on a global scale., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This data article aims at providing a data description about the manuscript entitled "A socio-economic indicator for EoL strategies for bio-based products" [1]. Data regarding the socio-economic assessment of End of Life (EoL) options for the specific case of PLA-based film for food packaging are presented, with a special emphasis on policy recommendations and actions for the EoL practices in the bioeconomy sectors. A new framework, based on data gathering and validation through experts involvement, is proposed in order to calculate a new indicator to measure the socio-economic performance of EoL practices (SEI-EoL) for bio-based products. Experts were identified from the Horizon 2020 LIFE-funded projects and/or Scopus databases. Two rounds of survey were carried out to determine the weights of socio-economic criteria for bio-based products and the values for the selected case study. The aggregation of these data enabled us to obtain a final ranking of different EoL alternatives. Finally, a third round of survey was conducted to further deepen our understanding of actions and recommendations needed to improve EoL practices in bio-based sectors. Resulting data have a mix of quantitative and qualitative characterization. A potential reuse of these data can allow future estimations, empirical analyses or a direct comparison with the use of experimental observations., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships which have, or could be perceived to have, influenced the work reported in this article., (© 2020 The Author(s).)

The transport sector has a low penetration of renewable energy, and this presents a serious obstacle to tackling climate change. Biomethane is seen as a decarbonisation solution, but only some European countries have pursued its development. Italy is one of these countries, having released a decree to stimulate development of the sector. The present work considers two typologies of substrate (the organic fraction of municipal solid waste and by-products) used in three sizes of plants (125 m 3 /h, 250 m 3 /h and 500 m 3 /h). A detailed socio-economic analysis is presented and policy implications are provided. The recovery of waste enables the creation of a circular economy, but the economic feasibility of such a model is verified in only some scenarios. A sensitivity analysis on the critical variables is conducted to support investment in this area. The use of green gas is found to be capable of significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector, but the economic value of any environmental externality is low due to the value of carbon dioxide., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)