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Dear Colleagues,

The rapid growth of waste generated around the world is a great concern from multiple environmental perspectives.

It is estimated that the worldwide annual production of waste is around 4 billion tonnes. Half of this constitutes municipal solid waste, while the other half originates from industrial and production activities.

Landfilling still represents one of the main waste management strategies today, preventing the possibility to exploit potentially recyclable resources. In this context, it is necessary to move toward a circular economy and more efficient resource management to minimize wastage, maximize the (re)use of materials and products, and decouple economic growth from materials extraction and consumption. This transition would minimize the reliance of modern society on natural raw materials, as well as mitigate the climate emergency as reuse, recovery and recycling strategies are often less energy- and carbon-intensive than primary production routes.

The development of new sustainable and ecomaterials based on recycled resources in the frame of “Azure chemistry” can be a more powerful way to respect all the sustainability pillars. Without greater resource efficiency, the Sustainable Development Goals will likely stay out of our reach.

This Special Issue welcomes original articles or reviews addressing the following issues:

Recovery of valuable sustainable materials from wastes;
Reuse of stabilized residues, such as ecomaterial;
Novel methods for environmental and economical sustainability assessment of new materials/technologies;
Dissemination of best practices for waste management.

Dr. Alessandra Zanoletti
Dr. Luca Ciacci
Prof. Dr. Ivano Vassura
Guest Editors

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Keywords

waste recycling
ecomaterials
end of waste
circular economy
sustainability tools

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 3384 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Carbon Fibers Waste Recovery via Pyro-Gasification: Semi-Industrial Pilot Plant Testing and LCA

by Luca Ciacci, Giorgio Zattini, Cristian Tosi, Beatrice Berti, Fabrizio Passarini and Loris Giorgini

Sustainability 2022, 14(7), 3744; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14073744 - 22 Mar 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2077

Abstract

Carbon-fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRPs) are increasingly used in a variety of applications demanding a unique combination of mechanical properties and lightweight characteristics such as automotive and aerospace, wind turbines, and sport and leisure equipment. This growing use, however, has not yet been accompanied by the setting of an adequate recycling industry, with landfilling still being the main management route for related waste and end-of-life products. Considering the fossil-based nature of carbon fibers, the development of recovery and recycling technologies is hence prioritized to address the environmental sustainability challenges in a bid to approach mitigating the climate emergency and achieving circularity in materials’ life cycles. To this aim, we scaled up and tested a novel semi-industrial pilot plant to pyrolysis and subsequent oxidation of uncured prepreg offcuts and cured waste of CFRPs manufacturing. The environmental performance of the process proposed has been evaluated by means of a life cycle assessment to estimate the associated carbon footprint and cumulative energy demand according to three scenarios. The scale-up of the process has been performed by investigating the influence of the main parameters to improve the quality of the recovered fibers and the setting of preferable operating conditions. The pyro-gasification process attested to a reduction of 40 kgCO₂eq per kg of recycled CFs, compared to virgin CFs. If the pyro-gasification process was implemented in the current manufacturing of CFRPs, the estimated reduction of the carbon footprint, depending on the composite breakdown, would result in 12% and 15%. This reduction may theoretically increase up to 59–73% when cutting and trimming waste-optimized remanufacturing is combined with circular economy strategies based on the ideal recycling of CFRPs at end-of-life. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Waste Technologies for Sustainable Materials and Products)

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11 pages, 2050 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Reuse of Municipal Solid Waste Fly Ash as Flame Retardant Filler: A Preliminary Study

by Alessandra Zanoletti and Luca Ciacci

Sustainability 2022, 14(4), 2038; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14042038 - 11 Feb 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1557

Abstract

The growing increase in the production of municipal solid waste incinerator (MSWI) ashes has led to the research of new possibilities to reuse these by-products. This work aims to use MSW fly ash (FA) as a flame retardant filler. The FA was stabilized according to a simple stabilization process involving the mixing of only different ashes: bottom ash (BA), flue gas desulphurization (FGD) residues and coal fly ash (CFA). Stabilized FA, calcite and commercial flame retardants were compared as additives in an epoxy resin or polypropylene (PP) matrix. The self-extinguish performance of fillers was evaluated by fire resistance tests: the vertical burning test (UL94-V) and glow wire test (GWT) at 750 °C and 850 °C. A life cycle assessment (LCA) evaluation was also performed to estimate the reduction in environmental impact related to the production of the flame retardant with stabilized FA. The results show that this new filler is a promising alternative to traditional flame retardant. The ignition time of composites with calcite was lower than the corresponding sample with FA. From an environmental point of view, the replacement of calcite in an epoxy resin matrix or commercial flame retardant in a PP matrix with stabilized FA allows for a reduction in the impact of about 24.1% and 49.5%, respectively. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Waste Technologies for Sustainable Materials and Products)

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