Sustainable Waste Management: Recycling and Resource Recovery Required for the Renewable Energy Transition

Dear Colleagues,

With increasing awareness of the need to reduce human-generated greenhouse gases to mitigate global warming and climate change, global energy systems are transitioning to renewable sources. Over recent years, energy generation from non-renewable sources like coal, gas and petroleum has begun to be gradually phased out and replaced with renewable sources like solar and wind. Transitioning to renewable sources requires system-wide changes in infrastructure, consumption, and behavioral patterns.  Renewable energy systems are not without their environmental costs, as most of these technologies require non-renewable and scarce material like lithium, cobalt, and zinc.

These transitions result in older power plants needing to be decommissioned, sites remediated, and the obsolete infrastructure being managed in the most environmentally and economically optimal manner. With more distributed energy generation systems in place, current infrastructure will need to be upgraded, and some infrastructure, like gas pipelines, may need to be decommissioned and disposed of.  

At a household level, the reliance on electric appliances and vehicles will increase. As this happens, current equipment will become obsolete and there will be an increase in the quantity of such equipment being disposed of. As the uptake of rooftop solar PV increases, the disposal of such energy generation sources will be the responsibility of individual households, which contrasts with the decommissioning of larger infrastructure, which are typically owned by governments or larger corporations. As these electric systems come to the end of their life, proper management and recovery processes need to be in place so that resource use is optimized.

The aim of this Special Issue is to compile research on how waste management systems need to change to cope with this energy transition so that wider environmental impacts are mitigated.

Themes:

• Circular economy practices complementing a low carbon economy;
• Policy and governance;
• Behavioral and social change;
• Recycling and resource recovery.

• Developing circular economy systems and circular business models catered to a low carbon economy;
• Optimal recycling and recovery solutions for obsolete equipment and vehicles (internal combustion engine vehicles, gas cooktops and heating units, etc.);
• Optimal recycling and recovery solutions of renewable energy generation sources (solar PV systems, wind turbines, etc.);
• Repurposing current systems and equipment to be compatible with renewable transition (conversion of internal combustion to EV);
• Behavioral and attitudinal changes enabling a renewable transition;
• Assessment of regulatory, policy, and governance mechanisms;
• Product as service models supporting decarbonization;
• Case studies/ best practices;
• Forecasting of quantities and types of waste generation due to the transition to renewable energy.

I/We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Usha Iyer-Raniga
Dr. Akvan Gajanayake
Guest Editors

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• recycling
• resource recovery
• renewable energy
• electrification
• energy transition