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Aims: Shared sanitation was excluded from the basic service level due to perceived limitations of their hygiene, accessibility and safety. But how does the current body of scientific knowledge influence the narrative? This paper is aimed at reviewing data on the current status and vulnerability issues reported to be associated with shared sanitation in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Methodology: Literature was searched using key search terms from nine databases. Peer-reviewed articles and various reports of individual country studies published in English from January 2000 to April 2022 were selected. Results: As at 2020, the proportion of the population sharing sanitation facilities in SSA was estimated as 19% compared to 7% globally. The review revealed a mixed opinion about issues and vulnerabilities associated with shared sanitation which may have arisen from inconsistencies in the typologies and levels of sharing of facilities among the reviewed studies. Using shared sanitation was found to be associated with an increased risk of diarrheal diseases (OR=1.06; 95%CI: 1.03-1.08) and non-partner violence against women (OR=1.52; 95%CI: 1.22-1.82). However, there is also evidence that many shared facilities, particularly those shared by a few (2-3) households, are clean, meet the needs of the users and afford them similar health outcomes as non-shared facilities. Conclusion: The findings of the review suggest that the outright exclusion of all forms of shared sanitation from basic sanitation potentially underestimates the global efforts and progress toward access to sanitation. There is a need to segregate communal and public toilets from privately shared facilities in future research as well as the progress reporting by the Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP). It is also recommended that steps are taken by the JMP to develop indicators for identifying and incorporating quality shared sanitation facilities into the basic sanitation service level in order to give a more realistic account of the global effort towards sanitation access.

Sharing facilities with other households offers the most realistic opportunity for access to sanitation for many households in low-income settings. However, questions remain about the safety of shared toilets, including those shared at the household level. This study sought to compare the usage and microbial safety of household-level shared and unshared toilets in a Ghanaian rural district to investigate any association between their microbial safety and sharing status. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data on the user characteristics of the sampled toilets, while common contact surfaces (door handles and toilet seats) were assessed for faecal contamination following standard swab sampling and analytical protocols. The results of the study indicate that sharing toilets affords about 90% more household-level access to sanitation as compared to single-household toilets. Toilet sharing mostly occurred between two households, with a maximum user population of 14 per toilet. Generally, there was a high prevalence of faecal contamination on the door handles and seats of both shared and unshared toilets, but this had no association with the sharing status of the toilets. The median concentration of Escherichia coli (E. coli) on the door handles and seats of shared toilets was 34.3 × 105 and 103.2 × 105 CFU/mL, respectively, as compared to 54.7 × 105 and 125.0 × 105 CFU/mL, respectively, on unshared toilets. In conclusion, the sharing of toilets at the household level nearly doubles access to sanitation at home without necessarily exposing the users to a higher risk of faecal–oral disease transmission.

The environmental impact of small-scale palm oil processing mills in Ghana has come under serious questioning, especially the disposal of wastewater generated from their operations. This chapter describes the small-scale palm oil production operations in Ghana to highlight the associated environmental problems arising from the disposal of wastewater and other waste by-products. The chapter further discusses the effluent discharge permitting arrangements and possible modifications to the production practices and policy interventions that could improve their environmental compliance and encourage resource recovery. The data in this chapter was obtained from a survey of selected small-scale palm oil processing mills in Ghana, laboratory analysis of wastewater samples from processing mills and review of related literature. Wastewater generated from the processing activities is currently disposed of without any form of treatment. The characteristics of wastewater indicate the need for treatment before disposal. Treatment technologies that could achieve resource recovery (such as biogas, compost, earthworm biomass) and fit into the framework of circular economy should be explored.

In last decades, Rare Earth Elements (REEs) have assumed a fundamental importance in the electrical and electronic (EE) industry because of the increasing interest in low-carbon and smart technologies. The availability in limited areas of the globe, the complexity in extraction processes and the high costs affecting their valorization negatively influence the supply chain at such a point to jeopardize the future EE equipment offer. This issue is particularly acute in Europe, that imports all REEs, especially from China, the current leader of the market. In order to contrast that dependence and ensure a stable future demand, industrial stakeholders have started an innovative path aimed to recover REEs from EEE waste. The promotion of policies and measures or circular economy has also boosted the application of urban mining concept. Cities are conceived as reserve of minerals but applied research s still in its infancy. Only 1% of REEs is actually recovered. The contribution of the fluorescent lamps is the most challenging lower because of the presence of hazardous substances, however, it can deliver the highest pure rare-earth oxides. This work represents a preliminary multi-criteria analysis aimed to assess the feasibility of launching an urban mining project based on the valorization of REEs from fluorescent lamps. The article summarizes the activity done by the Italian WEEE company DISMECO in collaboration with the University of Bologna to test the valorization of fluorescent lamps powders and provide recommendations to a more profitable after-use economy in this field.

This multidisciplinary study aims to analyse how the urban waste management system has changed in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna, during the decade in which a single regional regulatory unit, the Emilia-Romagna Territorial Agency for Water and Waste Services (ATERSIR), was established and became operational, and the waste management planning was centralized at regional level. Particularly, the following changes have been analysed: i) the methods of municipal waste management (WM), considering waste generation, separate waste collection and waste treatment; ii) the costs of WM service, with a focus on cost of treatment and disposal of unsorted waste; and iii) the urban solid WM policies, in terms of levels of governance, territorial planning and implementation of policies on the regional territory. The period within which the analysis was carried out covers the years from 2008 to 2018, comparing two time frames, before and after ATERSIR establishment. Data at municipal level were gathered and analysed. The results of the technical, economical and institutional assessment show that relevant benefits occurred, such as a constant improvement of environmental performances, the optimisation of the waste flows to plants, a higher level of uniformity of WM cost among Municipalities and a better quality of data collected from waste providers for the technical and economic regulation of the sector. Potential improvements are identified, whilst the institutional reform is positively evaluated in all the analysed aspects.

Effective and efficient urban waste management systems (WMSs) are a cornerstone for a sustainable society. Life cycle costing (LCC) provides a useful framework for the joint analysis of economic and environmental impacts of a WMS, by considering both financial and external costs. The present study applies the methodology of societal LCC to the WMS of the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna to provide a case study on how the available information on waste flows and budget costs of a real WMS can be used to obtain an estimate of the total cost of waste management, including externalities. The results evidence that the main source of negative externality in the analyzed WMS is the transportation of waste, with only a minor role of external burdens due to incinerators and landfills. However, the positive externality resulting from recycling more than compensates those impacts, leading to a net external benefit associated to the WMS. The contribution of both uncertain unit external costs and environmental benefits imputable to recycled materials to the overall uncertainty of the result is systematically investigated by parametric uncertainty analysis. The most critical parameters in determining the sensitivity of the result are the monetary values attributed to primary energy consumption and CO2 emissions, together with assumptions on energy savings related to recycling. Eventually, it is shown how the developed LCC model can be used as decision-support tool to preliminarily investigate the implications of alternative management options on the financial and external costs of the WMS.

The authors appreciate the support of the research group RNM-197 (Environmental Management and Technology) of the University of Granada. We are grateful to four anonymous referees for their comments and useful discussions., Worldwide, organic waste represents one of the most significant shares in the waste management system. Within the framework of circular bioeconomy, new and cutting-edge infrastructure has been developed at the European level to turn organic waste into valuable resources. The present paper aims to provide an exhaustive comparison between the European Union and Latin America regarding organic waste valorization. To this end, an introductive analysis about the state of the art circular bioeconomy in Latin America and Caribbean countries was developed. Subsequently, a systematic literature review in the context of South and Central America was conducted to detect differences and similarities in technologies and best practices for treating biowaste. The results show that the Latin American region is home to numerous bio-based infrastructures: biogas recovery, composting facilities and bioremediation strategies. Nevertheless, a conclusive remark underlines that some social, economic and political barriers are still encountered in the region, and therefore, new and locally-based studies are of paramount importance., Environmental Management and Technology) of University of Granada RNM-197

Water supply represents a constant worldwide challenge for people and authorities. This issue is significantly severe in semiarid regions such as Gaza Strip, where groundwater constitutes the only fresh water source. Furthermore, Gaza Strip area suffers from water scarcity due to the decrease in water recharge and a constantly groundwater over-pumping, along with seawater intrusion, which cause serious problems in fresh water supply. Treated wastewater reuse represents a sustainable approach to increase water resource availability, to alleviate stressed polluted Gaza’s coastal aquifer and to contribute to local agriculture development. On this issue, a pilot-scale plant has been designed to evaluate the feasibility of a municipal wastewater recovery for agricultural purposes in Rafah (Gaza Strip), reproducing the working conditions and performances of a real plant, which will be built by summer 2020. The paper aims to describe the case study in the context of Appropriate Technology (AT) for Developing Countries approach.

Waste collection is the first step of waste management, and its characteristics impact workers' health and safety. Arising out of the challenge for waste collection operators to design sustainable systems of work, the authors review the literature on ergonomics and socio-economic sustainability and design a theoretical framework for assessing the sustainability of waste collection. The framework quantitatively assess the impact of the door-to-door collection system on the health and safety of the workers to provide indications to waste collection operators on how the load carried by workers can be minimised and the economic and social sustainability can be improved. As a case study, this paper investigates the musculoskeletal disorders derived from the manual material handling of waste containers affecting the workers in charge of door-to-door sorted collection of paper waste with the goal of optimizing the workers well-being and overall waste collection system performance The research study was conducted in collaboration with a company which operates in solid waste collection for Italian municipalities. For this purpose, the ergo-quality level of two paper waste collection systems is evaluated. For each system, ten scenarios of door-to-door paper waste collection are considered. The analysis is complemented by an economic analysis, which estimates the costs associated with the collection system under consideration, and a social life-cycle assessment. Results suggest that using 120-litres capacity bins would effectively improve ergonomics and optimise the costs of the investigated activity. More specifically, due to mechanised collection, the more limited number of lifting and carrying operations would expose the workers to lower ergonomic risk.

La economía circular y la bioeconomía han resultado ser una alternativa a nivel mundial a los modelos de producción lineales y basados en combustibles fósiles y materias primas muchas veces no–renovables. Aunque en Centroamérica existen iniciativas de este tipo, principalmente en el sector bioenergético, se debe impulsar la aplicación de estos principios en sectores más amplios como la bio emediación, la fabricación de bio–fertilizantes e incluso de materiales de más alto valor como bio–polímeros y bio–cosméticos. De igualmanera, la preservación de la biodiversidad debe ser un objetivo común centroamericano, aunado a esto, se debe añadir el efecto sinérgico entre los países centroamericanos, en donde el SICA puede jugar un rol institucional neutro, más no pasivo, de coordinación y articulación entre los países. La migración hacia una economía bio–basada y circular con enfoque ambientalmente sostenible es viable en la región considerando las tecnologías actuales y el potencial de biodiversidad de Centroamérica.

The study focuses on an Italian composting plant and aims to investigate the impact of the presence of plastic impurities in the collected biowaste on the environmental and economic performance of the plant. The study is divided into two main steps: firstly, a material flow analysis was conducted to quantify the number of impurities (e.g., conventional plastics and biodegradable plastics) before and after the composting process. Secondly, a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and a complementary Life Cycle Costing (LCC) of the composting process were conducted. The results of the material flow analysis confirmed the initial assumption that conventional plastic remains almost constant before and after the composting treatment, while biodegradable plastic almost disappears. As far as the life cycle analyses are concerned, the most environmentally damaging phases of the process were the shredding and mixing phases, while the operating costs (OPEX) contributed the most to the total annual costs of the company. Finally, a further scenario analysis was performed, assuming that the plastic contaminants in the treated biowaste consisted exclusively of biodegradable plastics. The comparison with this ideal scenario can support decision-makers to understand the potential improvements achievable by addressing the presence of plastic impurities in the biowaste. The results show that the treatment of plastic impurities cause relevant environmental and economic impacts, being responsible for 46% of the total waste to treat at the end of the process, almost 7% of the total annual costs covered by the plant owners and about 30% of all negative externalities.

Climate change and ecological crisis are a huge threat to Europe and the world. To overcome these challenges, Europe adopted the New Green Deal as a strategy transforming the Union into a competitive resource-efficient economy without greenhouse gas emissions and become carbon neutral in a few decades. The European Green Deal includes the new circular economy action plan, highlighting the importance of a products’ “green design”, saving raw materials, and waste prevention oriented along the entire life cycle of products. Construction and buildings represent one of the key topics for the green transition. In the European Union, buildings are responsible for 40% of our energy consumption and 36% of greenhouse gas emissions, which are mainly caused by construction, usage, renovation, and demolition. Improving environmental efficiency can play a key role in reaching the carbon neutrality of Europe that is expected to be achieved by 2050. In this research, it was explored how Eco-design, as an innovative approach in buildings and construction, Life Cycle Thinking and Life Cycle Assessment, as fundamental supporting tools in sustainability, and finally appropriate and effective Construction and Demolition Waste recycling processes, particularly oriented to concrete recycling according to the case studies analyzed, can promote a circular economy in buildings and construction.

Climate change, depletion of natural resources and world population explosion are alarm bells for the future that must push humanity to turn to a more sustainable use of natural resources, particularly water. Water management solutions focusing on the protection of existent global water resources from pollution and the application of efficient water managements methods are fundamental steps but are no longer enough. There is the need to enlarge the prospective, to consider all the resource cycles together and to change the economy structure, from linear (‘take-make-use-dispose’) to circular. The use of resources must be thrifty, the efficiency of industrial processes must be improved, and the waste valorised and considered as new precious secondary raw material to be recycled to the process and reused. As a consequence, the wastewater collection, treatment and reuse has become urgent, especially considering that 80% of worldwide wastewater are untreated or not correctly treated and directly discharged into the water bodies. Wastewater management is included in SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation) and it aims to “ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all”. In detail, the SDG 6 focus on the entire water cycle, including the management of water, wastewater, and ecosystem resources. A new water scheme must be implemented, in which the waste paradigm must be substituted with a resource-oriented paradigm. It must be sustainable and integrated, composed of smart collection and natural-based processing of all resources contained in wastewaters (water, contained substances, energy) with the purpose of further reuse and marketability. Application of circular economy principles can help achieve this, but this will require mapping the interactions of the water cycle, how it is used, and where within the river basin and urban water cycles value can be extracted and new enterprises established. The paper explores the role of constructed wetlands as a promising nature-based technology for wastewater treatment in the framework of circular economy. Constructed wetland recreates the removal processes developed in natural wetlands, utilizing complex biochemical, physical, and physiological removal processes. The functions of these systems can be various, as water treatment plants, wildlife habitat, water storage, recreational facilities, landscape engineering and ecological areas. The potential applications of constructed wetlands are outlined and an in-depth study on recreative applications of natural swimming pools technology are presented, in order to reveal their function in aesthetically improving the urban environment and creating recreational areas.

Water supply represents a constant worldwide challenge for people and authorities. This problem is significantly severe in arid and semiarid regions such as Gaza Strip, where groundwater constitutes the only freshwater source. Furthermore, Gaza Strip area suffers from water scarcity due to the decrease in water recharge, constant groundwater over-pumping, seawater intrusion, and the huge gap between water demand and water supply, which cause serious problems in freshwater supply by quantity and quality point of view. In that region, agriculture represents the second-highest sector for water consumption, using more than 50% of the water from the stressed polluted Gaza’s coastal aquifer. Treated wastewater reuse and recycling could represent a sustainable approach to increase water resource availability, alleviate stressed polluted Gaza’s coastal aquifer, and contribute to local agriculture. This study presents an analysis for applying of natural wastewater treatment system in Al-Mawasi District, Rafah Governorate, Gaza Strip, where the inadequate management of wastewaters has a high impact on public health and the environment. The experimental study began at the end of 2018 with an environmental and territorial framework of the Southern area of Gaza Strip and in-depth research to choose the appropriate technology (phytoremediation and aerated lagoon). Firstly, a pilot-scale plant has been designed and installed to evaluate the feasibility of a municipal wastewater recovery for agricultural purposes in Rafah (Gaza Strip), reproducing real working conditions and performances of a real plant. The pilot plant has been fed by the sewage coming from the municipal WWTP of Rafah City after the primary treatment. The technology was monitored with physico-chemical, and microbiological analysis, which has been carried out in the “Coastal Municipalities Water Utility Central Lab – State of Palestine”, to evaluate the quality of treated water in comparison with the Palestinian legal limits for wastewater reuse in irrigation. The preliminary results highlighted that the phytoremediation system, followed by natural disinfection, improves the overall wastewater treatment process. The analysis of the effluents demonstrates that, under controlled conditions, treated municipal wastewater can be used for agriculture purposes with effective economic and environmental benefits. The results have allowed the construction, in summer 2021, of a real scale finishing treatment plant, in the same area, able to treat a municipal wastewater flow of about 1000 m3/day that will be used for local crops (such as olives, citrus, potatoes, grapes, and guava) by many farmers, final beneficiaries of the project. In the meantime, a socio-economic study to identify the beneficiaries and evaluate the social impact of the project was carried out. The whole project has been designed according to a sustainability approach, demonstrating actual environmental, social, and economic effectiveness. This study has been developed inside a research project carried on by the University of Bologna together with the Italian NGO “Overseas”, the University of Applied Sciences (UCAS), Gaza, and the Union of Agricultural Work Committees Association (UAWCA) – Gaza, in the context of a longtime collaboration between University of Bologna and Palestine.

Due to the increasing and hazardous level of plastic pollution in our planet, many researchers and experts from the public and private sector have been working in order to promote and implement solutions overcoming this global issue. The present project joins the scientific community in this discussion by focusing on polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which is considered one of the most used polymers in engineering infrastructures. The goal of the paper is to quantitatively assess environmental impacts of the PVC production with the aim of proposing cleaner industrial solutions and more environmentally sound products. To this end, a Life Cycle Assessment analysis was used to evaluate the environmental performance of the PVC manufacturing process. The functional unit considered was 1 kg of PVC granules. The modelling was facilitated by the Gabi software developed with three different characterization methods: CML 2001, EDIP 2003 and ReCipe 1.08. Fossil fuels depletion, climate change and human toxicity resulted to be the most significant impact categories due, respectively, to the huge quantity of crude oil extracted, the big amount of emission released into the atmosphere and the intensive toxic substances involved during the whole process. In the last section, a number of recycling and raw material alternatives were suggested to reduce the environmental impact obtained from the analysis.

The evidence of the impact of the mismanagement of plastic goods in the environment has captured the attention of scientists, policy makers and manufacturers. Urgent measures, regarding a combination of preventing plastic use and massively improving waste management, have been acclaimed by different stakeholders with the common goal to make a more resilient and competitive plastic industry. European Commission has pledged itself publishing the first EU-wide policy framework on plastics. The new recycling targets and calculation method put under pressure the current waste management system (WMS), characterized by fragmentation in responsibilities and underperforming cost-benefit balance. In addition, the public-private governance and the increasing number in waste consortia and platforms contribute to make the waste streams traceability challenging. The following study, resulting from a collaboration between the University of Bologna (UNIBO), the Emilia-Romagna Region (ERR), and the Regional Agency for Prevention, Environment and Energy (ARPAE), investigates the current panorama of plastic waste recycling system in ERR (Italy) with the aim to find out to what extent the current performance fulfils the future scenario established by the European Commission. The market of secondary plastics (SPs) has been investigated as well. The secondary resources, which are no longer waste, are not registered and monitored by official data collection scheme. Data extrapolated from official waste databases are integrated with results coming from individual questionnaire submitted to local recyclers. The identification of the main polymeric streams and, therefore, the exploitation of economic potential represent the preliminary actions to strategically plan an after-use plastic economy whose main goal is having all recyclable and/or recycled plastic packaging by 2030.

Plastic banners are largely used for advertising and communication of cultural and academic events. In both applications, they quickly turn into waste because of their short lifespan. In Bologna, for instance, it was calculated that an average of 15 plastic banners for about 2 weeks festival or temporary exhibi-tion was used. In that way, their end of life management has become more concerned for municipality and other public banner owners. The considered plastic banners consist in multicomponent materials composed by a polyester film coated by polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Due to the double compositions, plastic banners are difficult to be recycled and in most of the case they are incinerated or landfilled according to regional policies. The paper shows a case study conducted by the Students’ “Green Office” of the University of Bolo-gna, within a European project aiming to promote common sustainable solutions for city and Universi-ty together. One of the purposes of the Green Office initiative was to engage students in developing new sustainable activities and programmes in collaboration with the Municipality of Bologna. The project aimed at investigating a secondary use of the banners and at finding new alternative solutions. The specific plastic banners considered have a very short usage, from one to maximum two months, therefore alternative uses are of paramount importance to extend their lifespan. More specifically, three end of life management options were examined within a circular economy perspective. Some physical-mechanical characterization tests were developed to analyse materials properties in order to explore a secondary use by reprocessing plastic banners into new products (e. g. pencil case or bicycle accessories) or to evaluate recycling alternatives. Finally, an eco-design approach has been considered to explore different solution in materials and components of banners, in their polymers’ composition or assembling, in order to facilitate recycling or reuse options.

This study characterised faecal sludge from public ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrines in Cape Coast to assess their potential impact on the environment and to guide the selection of appropriate management solutions. The paper also estimates the amount of beneficial resources wasted due to the lack of a faecal sludge (FS) treatment facility. The study employed a quantitative design involving laboratory analysis of FS sampled from 13 purposively sampled VIP latrines in Cape Coast, Ghana. Sampling activities were carried out in January and February (dry season) and September and October (wet season) of 2015. Samples of unhardened pit latrine sludge were collected from all 13 pit latrines for quality assessment. Physicochemical parameters (moisture content, COD, BOD5, total solids and total volatile solids) of homogenous samples from the surface, middle and bottom of pit contents were analysed following standard procedures. Apart from total solids, all other parameters decreased with the depth of sampling and the differences were statistically significant (p

This research was supported by research group TEP-968 Tecnologias para la Economia Circular (Technologies for Circular Economy) of the University of Granada., The circular economy (CE) concept applied to construction and demolition waste (CDW) is a developing field of research that entails a large amount of complex and disjointed information; thus, a comprehensive review of scientific contributions could provide a completed perspective. This article aims to analyse the existing knowledge of CE research applied to CDW, using a double integrated analysis, a systematic literature review and a bibliometric analysis. For this purpose, Science Mapping Analysis Tool (SciMAT), a software for the analysis of performance indicators and visualisations of scientific maps, has been used, which offers a complete approach to the field and evaluates the most cited and productive authors and subject areas related to this discipline. The results obtained from the 1440 bibliographic records from 1993 to 2020 show a still-developing scientific field, evolving from concerns about economic aspects to the most recent progresses in the evaluation of sustainable deconstruction. This work will contribute to the existing body of knowledge by establishing connections, mapping networks of researchers and recommending new trends., Tecnologias para la Economia Circular (Technologies for Circular Economy) of the University of Granada TEP-968

The paper illustrates a model to support waste management (WM) operators of municipal solid waste (MSW) services. This study proposes a framework to evaluate the potential of preparation for reuse (PfR) as strategy to jointly decrease social, environmental and economic impacts and meet the legal targets on waste management. As general indicators to evaluate the reusability of products do not exist yet, the aim of this study is the definition of a comprehensive indicator, which may be calculated for each product category by waste collection operators. The proposed reusability indicator includes one coefficient evaluating the potential for reuse, and three impact indicators for the assessment of social, environmental and economic performances. The indicator can be calculated by using real data, gathered by the waste collection operators in collaboration with reuse centres and referred to previous years. Hence, the proposed methodology allows waste collection operators to evaluate the potential consequences of the reuse strategy on their MSW collection system to monitor and disclose to public the impacts related to reuse activities, facilitating the achievement of sustainability in the WM sector. Graphical abstract [Formula: see text]

Recent earthquakes have highlighted a general inadequacy of the existing building stock in Italy and the need to address this critical issue by increasing its structural resilience. At the same time, the problem of energy consumption in existing residential and commercial buildings is increasingly significant and incompatible with the environmental targets set by governments. Considering all the aforementioned aspects, the seismic upgrading of existing buildings, based on the use of an eco-friendly and sustainable technology, has become more and more relevant and different intervention approaches have been developed. This paper aims to provide a multidisciplinary approach for the performance assessment of an eco-friendly and sustainable RC-framed skin for integrated refurbishment of existing buildings. A preliminary description of such skin technology is provided with particular attention to the simultaneous improvement of structural (e.g., seismic) and non-structural (e.g., energy, acoustic) performances and to issues concerning the limitation of invasiveness and interruption of use of the building. Technological details and in situ installation phases are described with special regard to connection and interaction with the existing building. Procedures for the assessment of upgraded building performances, in terms of seismic capacity and thermo-hygrometric and acoustic performances, are defined and applied to a selected basic cell structure. The feasibility and sustainability of the proposed upgrading intervention is finally investigated by means of a holistic Life Cycle Assessment for environmental impact and Life Cycle Cost for an economic evaluation. Finally, results from a multidisciplinary performance assessment are critically discussed by relating the performance aspects to the technological and installation issues.

In civil and environmental field, the general approach to move towards more sustainable strategies includes, among others - reducing virgin materials, using recycled materials, reducing energy consumption and environmental impacts. Towards achieving a vision of sustainability, the Cooperativa trasporti Imola Scrl (CTI) decided to collaborate with Department of Civil, Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering (DICAM), University of Bologna. The study aims to evaluate the envirnonmental and physicomechanical performances of designed asphalt mixtures by means of hot technologies and recycled materials. The life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology was applied to evaluate the current environmental impacts, to identify critical aspects and to suggest improvement actions. The proposed approach in the production of asphalt mixtures promotes the Industrial Symbiosis (IS), using primary and secondary materials which came from local/regional industrial activities, located close to CTI company. By definition, it supports the circular economy (CE) and its principles, according to Directive 2008/98/CE.

The Metropolitan City of Bologna, since its establishment, has been at the forefront of Sustainable Development (SD). Following the G7 Environment Ministerial meeting held in Bologna in 2017, the authority promoted the Bologna’s Chart for the Environment, which is rooted in the international principles of the UN 2030 Agenda, and has then set the environmental, economic and social sustainability as fundamental principles of the 2018 Metropolitan Strategic Plan 2.0. With the purposes to guide the future political line and the metropolitan development according to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a new research project aimed at creating a Metropolitan Agenda for SD 2.0 has been recently started. The novelty of the project, carried out by a multi-disciplinary working group, lies in the meaningful stakeholder engagement that is operated in each work phase. The construction of a local Agenda for Sustainable Development aims to provide a shared set of goals, integrated by tools and actions for the implementation, to all the territorial stakeholders belonging to different sectors. Hence, this paper intends to present the context of development, the experimented methodology, and its value of including public, private, and civil society entities both in the drafting progress and in the following stages. The project is not limited to a good practice of localization of the SDGs: it aims at offering a model to be scaled-up in other Metropolitan realities.

This paper aims to compare the cost-effectiveness of recycling and landfilling scenarios both in China and Europe. A Full-Cost Accounting method has been implemented to evaluate the total costs to be sustained during CDW disposal. The analysis highlighted some differences between the two geographic areas. CDW recycling sector appears to be encouraged in Europe also through a properly designed framework of directives and taxation system. On the other hand, the FCA pointed out that Chinese CDW recycling sector has room for improvement. Based on these results, suggestions to boost the CDW management and Urban Mining in China have been proposed. The most significant challenges identified include the redesigning of fees and subsides system, the improvement of the supervision on CDW management activities, the improvement of the existing recycling plant network, the development of a national CDW management strategy for Circular Economy. For each one of these, some possible improvements have been listed and all of them require a strong participation of the Chinese government.

The diffusion of the culture of sustainability and circular economy increasingly pushes companies to adopt green strategies and integrate circular business models in the corporate agenda. It assumes higher relevance in the packaging industry because of the growing plastics demand, the increasing awareness of consumers on single-use-products, the low recyclability performance and last but not least, the challenge of urban littering and microplastics dispersion in marine ecosystem. This paper presents the case of a small-medium enterprise that implemented a decision-making process to rethink the design of frozen food packaging in accordance with systemic and life cycle thinking. Eco-design and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) have been simultaneously used to test and validate the redesign process, thus fostering the substitution of the plastic &ldquo, open and close&rdquo, cap with a closing method entirely made of cardboard. Results shows how using an integrated decision-making system at the design stage have allowed to get up many benefits at multiple levels, including sustainable and safe supply chain, efficient logistic operations, better recyclability, and lower energy consumption. Moreover, even if it cannot be assessed by the existing tools, the solution provides a strong contribution to the reduction in the consumption of plastics and the prevention of marine pollution.