From Circular Economy to Circular Ecology: A Review on the Solution of Environmental Problems through Circular Waste Management Approaches

From perception to action: Waste management challenges in Kassena Nankana East Municipality

This study examines the perceptions and behaviours related to waste management (WM) among residents of the Kassena Nankana East Municipality in Ghana. A mixed-method approach was used to garner data from 394 household respondents, and the data was analysed using SPSS software. The findings reveal a weak correlation between educational attainment and effective waste management practices and a mildly positive correlation between waste awareness and the effectiveness of policies and legislation. Notably, a significant proportion of respondents preferred open burning (42.1 %) and dumping (18.8 %) as disposal methods, indicating critical areas for intervention. The study introduces a novel comprehensive analysis by integrating attitude formation, collective action, and institutional and rational choice theories to understand WM behaviours. This theoretical integration significantly contributes to the field, providing a heterogeneous understanding of the factors influencing WM practices. Furthermore, the research identifies key gaps in WM infrastructure and public engagement, offering innovative recommendations to address these challenges. This study's significant outputs include identifying specific community behaviours towards waste disposal and evaluating the effectiveness of existing WM policies. These findings provide actionable insights for policymakers and stakeholders to develop targeted interventions that promote sustainable WM practices. The study's contributions and recommendations are crucial for advancing environmental sustainability efforts in similar contexts, aligning with the Sustainable Development Goals.

Sustainable strategies: Nature-based solutions to tackle antibiotic resistance gene proliferation and improve agricultural productivity and soil quality

The issue of antibiotic resistance is now recognized by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as one of the major problems in human health. Although its effects are evident in the healthcare settings, the root cause should be traced back to the One Health link, extending from animals to the environment. In fact, the use of organic fertilizers in agroecosystems represents one, if not the primary, cause of the introduction of antibiotics and antibiotic-resistant bacteria into the soil. Since the concentrations of antibiotics introduced into the soil are residual, the agroecosystem has become a perfect environment for the selection and proliferation of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). The continuous influx of these emerging contaminants (i.e., antibiotics) into the agroecosystem results in the selection and accumulation of ARGs in soil bacteria, occasionally giving rise to multi-resistant bacteria. These bacteria may harbour ARGs related to various antibiotics on their plasmids. In this context, these bacteria can potentially enter the human sphere when individuals consume food from contaminated agroecosystems, leading to the acquisition of multi-resistant bacteria. Once introduced into the nosocomial environment, these bacteria pose a significant threat to human health. In this review, we analyse how the use of digestate as an organic fertilizer can mitigate the spread of ARGs in agroecosystems. Furthermore, we highlight how, according to European guidelines, digestate can be considered a Nature-Based Solution (NBS). This NBS not only has the ability to mitigate the spread of ARGs in agroecosystems but also offers the opportunity to further improve Microbial-Based Solutions (MBS), with the aim of enhancing soil quality and productivity.

Swine slaughterhouse biowaste: an environmental sustainability assessment of composting, amended soil quality, and phytotoxicity

In this article, the environmental sustainability of a circular economy concept applied to the management of biowaste was studied. To achieve this goal, the composting performance, compost-amended soil health, and phytotoxicity were assessed in the case of management of solid waste from a small swine slaughterhouse. Microorganisms present in a similar composting process were used as inoculums to improve the efficiency of composting. Addition of the inoculum promoted a faster and more efficient composting process than composting without the inoculum. The physical, chemical, and microbiological characteristics of soil were considered to be improved after compost application. Phytotoxicity tests in soils with and without compost amendment showed that a soil-compost mixture (90:10 and 70:30 mass ratios) was not phytotoxic to the plant species Sorghum saccharatum and Lepidium sativum, and that soil with compost showed higher plant biomass growth than that without compost amendment. The triple bottom line methodology used in this study can help in the assessment of circular economy activity in relation to the environmentally sustainable management of solid waste generated in small swine slaughterhouses.

Identifying the socioeconomic determinants of industrial hazardous waste generation: South Korea as a case study

The South Korean government has set an ambitious target to reduce industrial hazardous waste (IHW) as part of its transition towards a circular economy. Moreover, effective management of IHW within the country has become crucial, given that IHW trade is regulated by the Basel Convention. Despite the urgent need for well-founded environmental policies, there is a lack of essential information on the characteristics and determinants of IHW generation, which hinders the effectiveness of existing IHW policies. To address this information gap, this study developed a South Korean extended IHW input-output model for 2008 and 2018 to characterize IHW generation and applied structural decomposition analysis to identify the socioeconomic determinant of change of IHW generation. The results reveal that consumption, export, and direct IHW intensity change of 'Chemical', 'Electronic and electrical equipment', 'Basic metal', and 'Other service' emerge as dominant determinants for IHW growth. Conversely, technology change, including technological structure change and direct IHW intensity change, of 'Basic metal' and 'Other service' is the key driver for IHW reduction. In addition, an intriguing aspect of the study relates to the supply chain's influence on IHW generation. The indirect growth of IHW resulting from expanding exports and consumption contributes nearly twice as much to the overall increase in IHW as direct IHW growth. These valuable insights pave the way for the South Korean government to establish holistic and customized environmental policies regarding IHW. It emphasizes the importance of considering expanded global system boundaries, technological advancements, and purchasers' consumption patterns as dominant factors in formulating these policies. Furthermore, this study not only provides crucial guidance for the government's decision-making but also suggests strengthening environmental management and monitoring practices.

Towards a circular economy in virgin olive oil production: Valorization of the olive mill waste (OMW) "alpeorujo" through polyphenol recovery with natural deep eutectic solvents (NADESs) and vermicomposting

Virgin olive oil (VOO) production generates large amounts of a harmful by-product, olive mill waste (OMW) or alpeorujo, which has a strong environmental impact and that must be recycled to adapt VOO production to a circular economy model. Here, the valorization of OMW was studied by considering three consecutive stages: Stage 1 involves the generation of OMW; Stage 2 the recovery of bioactive phenolic compounds from the fresh OMW using natural deep eutectic solvents (NADESs), generating a valuable phenolic extract and a new by-product, a dephenolized OMW named "alpeoNADES"; and Stage 3 involves vermicomposting alpeoNADES with Eisenia fetida earthworms. Six NADES were formulated and tested, selecting a NADES composed of citric acid and fructose (CF) derived from food grade and biodegradable substances. CF was the most effective solvent to obtain phenolic extracts for nutraceutical and agronomical purposes, extracting 3988.74 mg/kg of polyphenols from fresh OMW. This alpeoNADES is a non-palatable substrate for E. fetida earthworms, as the residual CF gives it an acidic pH (pH 2). Its palatability was improved by mixing it with horse manure and straw for vermicomposting, in a 1:1 and 3:1 dry weight ratio. When these substrates were precomposted for 3 weeks they reached pH 5.5-6 and they could then be vermicomposted for 23 weeks (using OMW as a control). The best substrate for vermicomposting was determined by the worm biomass, growth rate, carbon to nitrogen (C:N) ratio, and N and P content. AlpeoNADES and manure 3:1 produced the highest quality vermicompost in the shortest time, generating a product that complied with European standards for organic fertilizers. Hence, alpeoNADES was recycled to a low-cost, organic balanced fertilizer in Stage 3, enabling the olive oil industry to transition to sustainable production through this integrated circular economy design.

Enabling green shared vision: linking environmental strategic focus and environmental performance through ISO 14001 and technological capabilities

Consistent with the worldwide call to combat environmental degradation concerns and advance sustainable development, there is increasing pressure on organizations to ensure organizational strategies include green initiatives. In this regard, environmental strategic focus is a relevant concept for scholars and business leaders. Underpinned by dynamic capability and stakeholder theory, the present study hypothesizes that ESF derives environmental performance, coordinated by mediating role of green shared vision that strategic environmental planning and decision making. Additionally, the current study employed ISO 14001 and technological capability as moderators between ESF and the green shared vision link. Methodologically, the data for this study was collected from 162 senior managerial officials working in EMS 14,001-accredited manufacturing firms in Malaysia. The data were analyzed with the AMOS 23 software to perform covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM), and then hierarchical regression analysis and moderated-mediation analysis were applied with SPSS 25. The findings confirmed that ESF is positively linked to environmental performance. The results validate that green shared vision acts as a positive mediator between ESF and environmental performance, in which the creation and sharing of knowledge embedded in a green shared vision serve as enablers to create higher environmental performance. The current study also validates a significant moderating role of ISO 14001 and technological capability between ESF and green shared vision. The study confirms how environmental strategies are integrated into environmental management processes that can serve as a source of dynamic capabilities.

Coupling Coordination Analysis of Regional IEE System: A Data-Driven Multimodel Decision Approach

Coordinating regional innovation–economy–ecology (IEE) systems is an important prerequisite for overall continuous regional development. To fully understand the coordination relationship among the three, this study builds a data-driven multimodel decision approach to calculate, assess, diagnose, and improve the regional IEE system. First, the assessment indicator system of the regional IEE system is established. Secondly, the range method, entropy weight method, and weighted summation method are employed to calculate the synthetic developmental level. Thirdly, a multimodel decision approach including the coupling degree model, the coordination degree model, and the obstacle degree model is constructed to assess the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of the regional IEE system coupling coordination and diagnose the main obstacles hindering its development. Finally, the approach is tested using Anhui Province as a case study. The results show that the coupling coordination degree of the Anhui IEE system presents a stable growth trend, but the coupling degree is always higher than the coordination degree. The main obstacle affecting its development has changed from the original innovation subsystem to the current ecology subsystem. Based on this, some countermeasures are put forward. This study, therefore, offers decision support methods to aid in evaluating and improving the regional IEE system.

A facilitating framework for a developing country to adopt smart waste management in the context of circular economy

To achieve higher standards of sustainability, the waste management sector now requires the incorporation of circular economy (CE) principles. However, an easy transition toward the particular goal would require the use of smart waste technologies. To achieve the aforementioned goal, this study aims to provide a facilitating framework for the adoption of smart waste management in the context of CE for Pakistan. To help Pakistan transition toward the new paradigm, a total of 16 critical facilitators are evaluated based on five distinctive criteria using a novel fuzzy hybrid multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach. The hybrid MCDM approach includes fuzzy Stepwise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis (SWARA) for allocating weights to the determined criteria; whereas, the fuzzy VIšekriterijumsko kompromisno rangiranje (VIKOR) approach is used to rank the critical facilitators adopted from the secondary literature. The fuzzy approach in both cases is to deal with any kind of uncertainty during the data collection process. Based on the achieved results, the study suggests that before the application of smart waste technologies in the country, Pakistan should first focus on devising regulations that effectively address the mismanagement of waste produced in the country. Also, the industries in the country need to become more responsible and should adopt environmental management systems that foster waste minimization. Lastly, the country in the third phase should focus on the wide application of digitalization both in the streams of ICT and IoT, for collecting, sharing, and receiving waste data. The study further provides policy recommendations to the respective stakeholders that will help the country achieve zero-waste CE.

The Mechanism of Forming the Strategic Potential of an Enterprise in a Circular Economy

In the framework of this study, significant features of the formation of the strategic potential of the enterprise in a circular economy are identified. The characteristics and elements of the strategic potential of the enterprise, which can ensure its integrity and continuity of operations, are highlighted. The authors conducted and analyzed a theoretical review of the concept of the “circular economy” and its impact on business and resource conservation and environmental protection. The conditions for the transition to a circular economy at the macro level are formed. The key stages of ensuring the strategic potential of the enterprise, taking into account the internal and external environmental factors, are highlighted. The authors forecast the volume and dynamics of waste until 2027 using the Cobb–Douglas function. The mechanism of the formation of the strategic potential of the enterprise in the conditions of a circular economy is offered. This mechanism provides for the potential compliance with the strategic goals of the enterprise, as well as the rationality and balance of structural elements. Assessing the compliance of strategic potential with the developed strategy allows decisions to be made on the implementation of measures to meet the objectives of the enterprise, or to search for opportunities and reserves to improve its level. A set of measures aimed at the effective implementation of the proposed mechanism and the results of resource-efficient production is developed.

Development of the Concept of Circular Supply Chain Management—A Systematic Review

This systematic review presents the most important characteristics and trends of research in circular supply chain management (CSCM), taking into account the impact of COVID. In addition, the similarities and differences between the basic concepts often used as synonyms for sustainability are also presented. First, the sample database (39,000 records) was based on a search containing publications’ titles regarding supply chain management (SCM). After narrowing the topic from SCM towards CSCM, the considered paper characteristics were expanded, including abstract and author keywords, to get a manageable number of samples for the systematic analysis (6095 documents) and the most accurate results possible. The analysis’ base sample was divided into two periods (before and after 2012) due to a significant increase and change in the number of publications, their subject, characteristic journals and geographical location. Sustainability has emerged since 2012, while a circular approach emerged after 2017 with a significant share of research, mainly thanks to relevant EU policies. Although the role of the US has been decisive in the field, the European research bases of previous years have increasingly been replaced by Far Eastern dominance. Currently, CSCM’s most important journal is the International Journal of Supply Chain Management (Elsevier), but most articles on the impact of COVID have been published in Sustainability (MDPI). More effective policy implementation and the fight against COVID in the development of supply chains are also likely to spread the circular economic model in the future.

Home Bio-Waste Composting for the Circular Economy

The consequence of the current economic development model is the generation of large amounts of waste and energy losses. One way to change this negative trend is a more rational use of raw materials reducing the amount of generated wastes. Biowaste, which may be divided into garden and kitchen waste, constitutes the main part of municipal waste. At the household level, it can be managed through composting—the most sustainable way of biowaste management. In this context, this paper aims to assess the economic and environmental effects of implementing the home composting incentive program introduced by one of the municipalities near Warsaw (Poland). The study is based on the estimation of the amount of biowaste generated in the commune, as well as on the number of households with the potential to compost biowastes. The effects of implementing the composting program were evaluated at different participation levels. The cartographic-based methods (GIS) were used in the analyses. Additionally, willingness to accept home composting by residents and its main determinants were examined. The results of the study indicate that the changes in the current household biodegradable waste management model are practicable and generate positive economic and environmental effects. However, the promotion of home composting requires active support from the local authorities, both in the financial dimension and by increasing residents’ environmental awareness.

Tackling the Circular Economy Challenges—Composites Recycling: Used Tyres, Wind Turbine Blades, and Solar Panels

Transformation of waste into resources is an important part of the circular economy. Nowadays, the recovery of materials in the most effective way is crucial for sustainable development. Composite materials offer great opportunities for product development and high performance in use, but their position in a circular economy system remains challenging, especially in terms of material recovery. Currently, the methods applied for recycling composites are not always effective. The aim of the article is to analyse the most important methods of material recovery from multilateral composites. The manuscript presents three case studies related to the recycling of products manufactured from composites: used tyres, wind turbine blades, and solar panels. It shows the advantages and disadvantages of currently applied methods for multilateral composite utilisation and presents further trends in composite recycling. The results show that increasing volumes of end-of-life composites have led to increased attention from government, industry, and academia.

Physical and Biological Treatment Technologies of Slaughterhouse Wastewater: A Review

Physical and biological treatment technology are considered a highly feasible and economic way to treat slaughterhouse wastewater. To achieve the desired effluent quality for disposal or reuse, various technological options were reviewed. However, most practical operations are accompanied by several advantages and disadvantages. Nevertheless, due to the presence of biodegradable organic matter in slaughterhouse waste, anaerobic digestion technology is commonly applied for economic gain. In this paper, the common technologies used for slaughterhouse wastewater treatment and their suitability were reviewed. The advantages and disadvantages of the different processes were evaluated. Physical treatments (dissolved air floatation (DAF), coagulation–flocculation and sedimentation, electrocoagulation process and membrane technology) were found to be more effective but required a large space to operate and intensive capital investment. However, some biological treatments such as anaerobic, facultative lagoons, activated sludge process and trickling filters were also effective but required longer start-up periods. This review further explores the various strategies being used in the treatment of other wastewater for the production of valuable by-products through anaerobic digestion.