A short lifespan and increased consumption patterns make e-waste the world's fastest-growing waste stream. Computers are one of the most significant parts of e-waste. Recycling of e-waste has been introduced as the main solution to deal with environmental problems and to save natural mines. This research aims to investigate the bioleaching of Cu, Ni, and Al from computer printed circuit boards (CPCBs)

According to the Environmental Protection Agency's National Emissions Inventory Report, hundreds of thousands of tons of particulate matter (PM2.5) are released by diesel combustion per year (Enviromental Protection Agency 2020; Hammer et al., 2020). The toxic PM2.5 air pollution causes serious public health problems and is responsible for millions of worldwide deaths each year (Apte et al., 2015)

European Commission has promulgated a series of directives to divert MSW from landfills to more sustainable management options. To investigate whether the directives affect the MSW management practice locally, the transition of MSW management in Nottingham, UK, since the enforcement of the EU Landfill Directive, has been assessed by combining materials flow analysis (MFA) and life cycle assessment

Livestock operations have been highly intensified over the last decades, resulting in the advent of large concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). Intensification decreases production costs but also leads to substantial environmental impacts. Specifically, nutrient runoff from livestock waste results in eutrophication, harmful algal blooms, and hypoxia. The implementation of nutrient recovery

Globally, wilderness areas are being lost at a rate that outpaces their protection, which has adverse effects on the global environment. Rapid action is needed to understand the trends and consequences of global wilderness change. We present projections of global wilderness decline in 2100 under the influence of land-use change within the framework of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special

Globally, ecosystems are becoming damaged or degraded due to stresses associated with anthropogenic activities. To identify the quantitative connection between nitrogen fertilizer-related agricultural production processes and ecosystem health, a dose-response approach based on the ReCiPe 2016 method is developed. Rice production had the highest potential ecosystem health risk (EHR) (560 species.yr)

Global demand for buildings and infrastructure is extremely high as provision of shelter, sanitation and healthcare are paramount to safeguard the world's growing population. Concrete is a preferred construction material to meet this demand, but its production is leading to overexploitation of natural gravel and sand, causing an environmental crisis in regions where these materials are extracted unsustainably

Mitigating carbon emissions from the coal-fired power system is at the core of China's carbon neutrality target. In this paper, we tracked the carbon footprint of coal-fired power plants from 2000 to 2020 in China, considering both construction and various operating processes. We linked an inventory of three types of plants (350MW, 660MW, and 1000MW) to an input–output database. The spatial distribution

Today's societies consider the transportation sector as a key component of the economy that contributes significantly to sustainability and global economic development. However, the challenges resulting from transportation are expected to increase more seriously in the years to come in light of socioeconomic growth and increasing living standards. One of the most unfavorable outcomes of the transportation

Consumer food waste, like many environmental behaviours, takes place in private, and is not directly subject to social monitoring. Nevertheless, social interactions can affect private opinions and behaviours. This paper builds an agent-based model of interactions between consumers heterogeneous in their sociability, their initial opinions and behaviours related to food waste, and their willingness

Environmental regulation is a critical instrument for achieving sustainable economic and social development in the context of carbon neutrality. The iron and steel industry is highly polluting and energy-consuming, posing a significant threat to China's environmental sustainability. Based on the panel of Chinese provincial-level data from 2000 to 2017, this paper empirically examines how environmental

In response to climate change, the Chinese government has set a clear goal to reach its carbon peak by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, endeavoring to gradually realize net-zero carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. This paper explores the concept of carbon neutrality and makes a comparative analysis of the gap between China, the European Union, and the United States vis-à-vis carbon neutrality

Recently, California has made large investments in wastewater recycling to replace applications that use potable water. It may be expected that the use of recycled water reduces potable water use, but such an equivalency is not assured. The addition of recycled water infrastructure in a large Californian water district creates a natural experiment where this work tests how recycled water usage affects

Consumer electronics contain a broad spectrum of materials whose production requires water and potentially discharges contaminants into the water supply, exacerbating freshwater scarcity and pollution. These water impacts have not yet been fully studied, as much of the literature on consumer electronics focuses on supply chain energy or carbon footprint. This study evaluates life cycle water consumption

The agri-food sector is one of the key sectors where the action is needed to ensure the transition to a more sustainable development model in line with the principles of the circular economy (CE). The use of indicators to monitor progress and areas for action is a key element in the shift of companies, regions, and countries toward a circular model. This study aims to create a dashboard that can be

The ever-growing production of non-recyclable plastic products causes plastic pollution to be the one of most pressing environmental issues. The transition of petrochemical-based plastic with eco-friendly biodegradable plastic has become the promising solution to overcome the plastic pollution crisis. Recent research addressed the production of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), which is a class of bioplastic

This study examines a green building retrofit plan through a system dynamics model (SDM) creating symbiosis embedded in a building-scale food-energy-water (FEW) nexus. An indicator approach was employed to exploit cross-domain seams via the use of carbon, water, and ecological footprints for sustainability, as well as food security and energy supply reliability ratio for resilience. The SDM was formulated

Multi-material multilayer plastic packaging (MMPP) is widely applied in fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) combining functionalities of distinct materials. These packaging structures can enhance properties, such as resource-use efficiency and barrier performance leading to consequential benefits like a prolonged shelf-life. Nevertheless, they represent a challenge for existing recycling systems, confronting

Because poverty and natural resource conservation are multi-dimensional, complex interactive processes, ecological compensation (EC) mechanism, which is global environmental resource management policy instruments, have become important tools for poverty alleviation. This study developed a unified analysis framework that incorporated a tripartite evolutionary game that included EC-investors, who promote