Integrated Biowaste Research: Emerging Opportunities and Challenges
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Waste and Recycling".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2024) | Viewed by 4833
Special Issue Editors
Interests: phytomanagement; soil-plant interactions; circular economy; biowaste land application; ecotoxicology
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Biowaste can be defined in general terms as any solid or liquid organic and biodegradable waste, which includes agricultural or aquaculture waste, sewage sludge, organic industrial waste, green waste, food waste, compost, sewage effluent, and greywater. Given its organic matter content and generally high concentration of plant nutrients, it has demonstrated potential to be reused on land as a soil conditioner or fertilizer or to produce energy. The rising awareness of current environmental crises, such as climate change, depletion of phosphorous, increased droughts, and soil degradation, provides new incentives to optimize and valorize the reuse of these resources and reduce their incineration or disposal into landfills or oceans, which is still a common practice in many countries around the world. However, the reuse of biowaste poses challenges that require careful investigation and management, such as the potential presence of human pathogens, including antimicrobial-resistant organisms, or contaminants such as trace elements, emerging organic contaminants, and microplastics. These challenges, including the inextricable mix of economic, social, political and cultural factors, make the management of biowaste a complex problem that requires a multidisciplinary and holistic approach.
The aim of this Special Issue is to explore novel theoretical and experimental research that demonstrates the emerging opportunities that biowaste can offer to mitigate current environmental crises as well as to highlight challenges that need to be taken into consideration with a focus on potential solutions. In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Dr. María Jesús Gutiérrez-Ginés
Dr. Alexandra Meister
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- organic waste
- nitrogen
- phosphorous
- carbon
- energy
- circular economy
- greenhouse gas
- metals
- organic contaminants
- microplastics
- antimicrobial resistance
