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Plastic has become a critical material in the modern world due to its low cost and easy production. However, inadequate management and open disposal make plastic a major obstacle to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals. This article emphasizes the role of biotechnology in addressing the issue of microplastic waste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global electronic waste management is emerging as a critical issue, especially in developing countries. Collective societal effort and scientific innovation are required along with interdisciplinary approaches to the development of sustainable technologies for recycling precious metals. Bioprospecting of electronic waste is a promising approach to provide economic, environmental, and public health benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE or e-waste) is regarded as one of the fastest growing waste streams in the world and is becoming an emerging issue owing to adverse consequences on the natural environment and the human health. This research article reveals the presence of a strong linear correlation among global e-waste generation and Gross Domestic Product. The obtained results indicate that the best fit for data can be reached by comparing e-waste collected volumes and GDP PPS. More in detail, an increase of 1000 GDP PPS means an additional 0.27 kg of e-waste collected and 0.22 kg of e-waste reused/recycled. Furthermore, for each additional citizen, there will be an increase of 7.7 kg of e-waste collected and 6.2 kg of e-waste reused/recycled. The better collection of e-waste acts an important role concerning the circular economy, and it can be an advantageous approach. Therefore, e-waste could be considered as an opportunity for recycling or recovery of valuable metals (e.g., copper, gold, silver, and palladium), given their significant content in precious metals than in mineral ores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) is now a part of daily life. When this equipment becomes waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE or E-waste), however, it needs to be properly processed, for use as a source of materials for future production and renewable energy, and to minimize both the exploitation of raw materials and the deleterious effects on both the environment and human health. A large quantity of e-waste is generated in both India and China, and both countries still suffer from an entrenched informal e-waste processing sector. Consequently, valuable materials in e-waste are disposed in open land, rather than being properly extracted for reuse and recycling. In this article we note that the major portion of e-waste in China and India is collected by the informal sector and treated with primitive methods. Additionally, illegal shifting agents also play a role by mislabeling e-waste and exporting them to developing countries. This article proposes that: the implementation of e-waste management laws and policies for proper e-waste collection, treatment and recycling, better educate consumers on the dangers of e-waste contamination, restrict the illegal movement of e-waste across borders, and support the development of a formal, regulated e-waste processing industry by funding incentive programs constructing recycling infrastructure. These measures should increase the recycling capacity and decrease the amount of WEEE contaminating the environment and endangering human health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Municipal solid waste (MSW) leachate management has become an important issue worldwide. The present study evaluated the potential of indigenous fungi for biosorption of Cd 2+ from leachate. Three isolates— Trichoderma harzianum , Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus flavus were selected based on their ability to exclude the Cd 2+ at the preliminary stage. Among these, Trichoderma harzianum was found to be an excellent fungus for cadmium absorption. The highest biosorption rate for Cd 2+ was achieved under the conditions: temperature 45 °C (64.87%), pH 6.0 (64.78%) and spore concentration [10 5 cfu ml −1 ] (64.41%). The obtained data indicated that the developed fungal consortium is very efficient and effective for cadmium removal (72.41%), thereby demonstrating that it is a promising solution for removing toxic metals from MSW leachate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single-use plastics (SUPs), invented for the modern "throwaway society," are intended to be used only once. They are being increasingly produced and used globally, most notably as packaging or consumables, such as SUP shopping bags or disposable tableware. We discuss how most SUPs are landfilled or incinerated, which causes pollution, consumes valuable land, and squanders limited natural resources. Only relatively small amounts are currently recycled, a hindrance to the concept of a circular economy. Moreover, SUP litter aggregation in the natural environment is a major concern. This article briefly reviews SUP contamination in various environmental media including soil, rivers, lakes and oceans around the world. In the face of mounting evidence regarding the threat posed to plant growth, soil invertebrates and other land animals, (sea) birds, and marine ecosystems, there is a growing push to minimize SUPs. Regulatory tools and voluntary actions to reduce SUP usage have been put forward, with some suggestions for minimizing SUP waste. Unlabelled Image • SUPs doubled as the amount in 2000, with packaging is the highest portion (40%). • Landfilling accounts for >40% and is presently the dominant disposal method. • SUP wastes leaking into the environment have visible adverse impacts on ecology. • Multi-solution strategies are the most effective way to stop SUP pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the production and usage of pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and personal care products have greatly improved the quality of life for humans, their application has increasingly been contaminating aqueous systems with micropollutants due to seepage, run-off, effluent discharge and uptake in the environment. Micropollutants exhibit considerable ecotoxicities and adverse effects on human health, making them a critical environmental concern. Current micropollutant remediation methods which involve advanced oxidation processes and membrane technologies are costly, consume excess chemicals, require high amounts of energy, form harmful by-products and sludge that are difficult to manage. The usage of oxidative laccases and peroxidases, microalgae and microalgae-bacteria consortia are emerging as novel green alternatives for the remediation of micropollutants from contaminated aqueous systems. This review details recent advances made in the application of green media utilized in micropollutant remediation through degradation, immobilization, adsorption, bioaccumulation and co-metabolism. These methods are discussed as secondary treatment techniques for wastewater plant effluents or as a tertiary treatment in conjunction with other chemical and biological technologies to metabolize toxic chemicals in-situ and yield innocuous outputs. A critical discussion on advantages, application, current developments, drawbacks and future perspectives of these biotechniques is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lignocellulosic biomass is the most abundant and sustainable feedstock available globally. As a source of the polysaccharides, cellulose and hemicellulose, it can be converted into biofuels and other platform chemicals. This article highlights some important aspects that needs to be focused upon for the commercial development of lignocellulosic biorefineries. Although, lignocellulosic biomass offers clear value in terms of its green advantages and sustainability, there has been very low commercial success at industrial production levels. This can be attributed to a few key factors such as an irregular biomass supply chain, inefficient or complex pre-treatment and saccharification technologies, and scale up challenges leading to high capital and operating expenditures. Moreover, techno-economic studies performed on lignocellulosic biorefineries have revealed that process complexity is the most detrimental factor prohibiting scale-up. Although there have been several research efforts funded both by the public and private sectors, biomass valorization into biofuels and chemicals remains a technical and economical challenge. This review examines the global drivers towards the advancements of lignocellulosic biorefineries, technical and operational challenges for industrialization and future directions towards overcoming them. • Commercialization of lignocellulosic biomass refineries needs efficient value chain. • Sustainable feedstock supply can be gained with biomass source diversification. • New pre-treatment technologies can enhance yield and accelerate industrial scale-up. • Novel enzyme cocktails can improve extraction and hydrolysis of polysaccharides. • Industrial scale-up requires development of efficient co-processing techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent trends in food waste and its management have increasingly started to focus on treating it as a reusable resource. The hazardous impact of food waste such as the release of greenhouse gases, deterioration of water quality and contamination of land areas are a major threat posed by food waste. Under the circular economy principles, food waste can be used as a sustainable supply of high-value energy, fuel, and nutrients through green techniques such as anaerobic digestion, co-digestion, composting, enzymatic treatment, ultrasonic, hydrothermal carbonization. Recent advances made in anaerobic co-digestion are helping in tackling dual or even multiple waste streams at once with better product yields. Integrated approaches that employ pre-processing the food waste to remove obstacles such as volatile fractions, oils and other inhibitory components from the feedstock to enhance their bioconversion to reduce sugars. Research efforts are also progressing in optimizing the operational parameters such as temperature, pressure, pH and residence time to enhance further the output of products such as methane, hydrogen and other platform chemicals such as lactic acid, succinic acid and formic acid. This review brings together some of the recent progress made in the green strategies towards food waste valorization. [Display omitted] • Food waste is a sustainable source of feedstock for production of valuable chemicals. • Addition of co-substrates to food can enhance the quality and yield of end-products. • Tuning operational parameters of valorization techniques can impact product quality. • Integrated strategies for food waste can tackle multiple waste streams economically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Biomass waste is an important resource towards development of sustainable bioproducts. • Bacteria, fungi and crude enzymes can convert biomass waste into value-added products. • Lifecycle assessment of bioprocessing can help optimize production and reduce waste. • Techno-economic analysis of bioprocessing can help industrialize biomass waste treatment. Growing concerns around the generation of biomass waste have triggered conversation around sustainable utilization of these seemingly waste materials as feedstock towards energy generation and production of chemicals and other value-added products. Thus, biotechniques such as utilization of microbes and enzymes derived thereof have become important avenues for green pretreatment and conversion of biomass wastes. Although the products of these bioconversions are greener at an overall level, their consumption and utilization still impact the environment. Hence it is important to understand the overall impact from cradle to grave through lifecycle assessment (LCA) techniques and find avenues of process optimization and better utilization of all the materials and products involved. Another factor to consider is overall cost optimization to make the process economically feasible, profitable and increase industrial adoption. This review brings forward these critical aspects to provide better understanding for the advancement of bioeconomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study dealt with to identified and screened out potential cellulase producing fungal strains. All the indigenous fungal strains were developed on carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) mandel media at 30 °C for 3–4 days to examine their congo red cellulase activity. It was found from the primary screening test result that only four isolates Trichoderma viride , Aspergillus niger , Aspergillus fumigatus and Fusarium oxysporum were shown large zone formation that meant they have great potential cellulase activity. Among these, Trichoderma viride and Aspergillus niger strains were showed highest enzymatic activity during the secondary screening, while Trichoderma viride generated the highest protein (89.51 μg/ml). Furthermore, these potential fungal strains will be useful for the organic municipal solid waste degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) industry has increased its mass production; however, the EEE life span has similarly diminished. Owing to the rapid expansion of manufacturing, innovation and consumer demand, there has been a vast improvement in various electronic equipment, so the amount of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE, or e-waste) generated has also increased proportionally to production. The main objective of this article is to evaluate the remanufacturing concept which can be adopt by the electronic manufacturing industry. The article reveals differential steps debated by industry as well as academia in assets to reduce the amount of e-waste. The concept of e-waste remanufacturing is quite dissimilar from case studies among developing and developed countries and regions. The findings can assist the academic research and leads to industry regardless remanufacturing of used EEE or WEEE by exemplifying different methods and ideologies of remanufacturing implementation plus the main issues in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]