Papers

61,005 results
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Systematic Review Tier 1

Composting as a Sustainable Solution for Organic Solid Waste Management: Current Practices and Potential Improvements

This systematic review of composting practices finds that technological advances like microbial inoculants and in-vessel systems have improved efficiency, but managing contaminants such as heavy metals and microplastics in compost remains a significant challenge. The presence of microplastics in organic waste streams threatens compost quality and can introduce plastic pollution into agricultural soils.

2024 Sustainability 122 citations
Article Tier 2

Removal Potential of Microplastics in Organic Solid Wastes via Biological Treatment Approaches

This review examines biological treatment approaches — including composting, anaerobic digestion, and vermicomposting — for removing microplastics from organic solid wastes, finding that while these methods can reduce microplastic abundance, significant knowledge gaps remain about fragmentation and fate during treatment.

2022 6 citations
Article Tier 2

Sustainable energy from waste organic matters via efficient microbial processes

This review examined the potential for converting waste organic matter, including microplastics, from water and soil sources into sustainable energy through microbial processes. Researchers discussed how anaerobic digestion and other wastewater treatment technologies can help address the environmental challenge of organic waste while producing useful bioenergy and other primary metabolites.

2020 The Science of The Total Environment 136 citations
Article Tier 2

Biogenic Materials and Wastes: A Sustainable Source of Clean Energy

This review examines biogenic wastes — from agriculture and industry — as sources of clean energy through processes like fermentation, composting, and combustion. The study is focused on renewable energy from organic waste and is not directly related to microplastic research.

2023 International Journal for Research in Applied Science and Engineering Technology
Article Tier 2

Municipal-Based Biowaste Conversion for Developing and Promoting Renewable Energy in Smart Cities

This review explores how cities can convert municipal biowaste into renewable energy sources to address both waste management and energy needs. Researchers discuss technologies like anaerobic digestion, pyrolysis, and gasification for transforming food waste and plant residues into clean fuels. The study highlights that biowaste conversion offers a practical pathway toward smarter, more sustainable urban environments.

2023 Sustainability 16 citations
Article Tier 2

Assessment of Energy-Efficient Spouted Bed Aerobic Composting Performance for Municipal Solid Waste: Experimental Study

This study evaluated the performance of spouted bed aerobic composting as an energy-efficient method for treating municipal solid waste, which contains large proportions of organic material. The mechanized composting process reduced waste volume and produced material usable in agriculture, offering an environmentally cleaner alternative to landfill disposal.

2023 Processes 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Composting of Organic Solid Waste of Municipal Origin: The Role of Research in Enhancing Its Sustainability

This review examines the role of composting in managing the organic fraction of municipal solid waste, highlighting both its benefits for material recovery and its challenges. Researchers found that issues such as the presence of microplastics and other toxic substances in compost can undermine the circularity of the process. The study suggests that continued research is needed to improve composting practices and reduce contaminant transfer to agricultural soils.

2022 International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 44 citations
Article Tier 2

Hyperthermophilic Composting Technology for Organic Solid Waste Treatment: Recent Research Advances and Trends

This review compares conventional thermophilic composting with the emerging hyperthermophilic composting (HTC) approach for organic solid waste treatment, highlighting HTC's advantages in speed, efficiency, and pathogen elimination while identifying remaining challenges for large-scale adoption.

2021 Processes 37 citations
Article Tier 2

Advancements and Innovations in Harnessing Microbial Processes for Enhanced Biogas Production from Waste Materials

This review examines microbial processes in anaerobic digestion for enhanced biogas production from agricultural residues, food waste, animal manure, and municipal solid waste, covering feedstock selection, microbial community dynamics, and biotechnological innovations. Advanced approaches including co-digestion, pretreatment, and microbial augmentation are highlighted as strategies for improving biogas yields.

2023 Agriculture 29 citations
Article Tier 2

A perspective on hydrothermal processing of sewage sludge

Researchers reviewed hydrothermal processing as a strategy for treating sewage sludge, finding it can recover eleven times more energy than landfilling and, when integrated with anaerobic digestion, offers a scalable approach to converting the 79 million dry tons of liquid organic waste the US generates annually.

2020 Current Opinion in Environmental Science & Health 107 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics as an underestimated emerging contaminant in solid organic waste and their biological products: Occurrence, fate and ecological risks

This review identified solid organic waste streams including compost, sewage sludge, and food waste as important but underappreciated repositories of microplastics that can reintroduce particles into agricultural soils and water systems. The authors call for standardized monitoring of microplastics in organic waste before environmental application.

2022 Journal of Hazardous Materials 71 citations
Article Tier 2

Food Waste–Derived Organic Fertilizers: Critical Insights, Agronomic Impacts, and Pathways for Sustainable Adoption

This review critically examined four conversion routes for turning food waste into organic fertilizers—composting, vermicomposting, anaerobic digestion, and pyrolysis—evaluating their impacts on soil health, nutrient cycling, crop yield, and environmental trade-offs including microplastic contamination.

2025 International Journal of Food Science
Article Tier 2

Food Waste Treatment Methods and its Effects on the Growth Quality of Plants: A Review

This review examines how different food waste treatment methods including composting, anaerobic digestion, and biochar conversion affect the quality and efficacy of the resulting soil amendments, finding that treatment method significantly influences nutrient availability and plant growth outcomes.

2021 Pertanika journal of tropical agricultural science 7 citations
Article Tier 2

OFMSW Biomethane Energy Generating System in Hong Kong

This paper describes an anaerobic digestion system for converting Hong Kong's organic municipal solid waste into biomethane energy, addressing the city's severe landfill capacity crisis. This paper is not about microplastics; it covers organic waste management and biogas engineering without examining plastic pollution.

2026 Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Article Tier 2

Research Progress on Efficient Aerobic Composting Technology for Livestock and Poultry Manure

This review systematically examines efficient aerobic composting technologies for livestock and poultry manure, summarizing advances in controlling heavy metal contamination, antibiotic residues, estrogens, and microplastics while reducing greenhouse gas emissions during the composting process.

2024 Advances in computer and materials science research.
Article Tier 2

Remediation and Management of Sewage Sludge

This review covers technologies for treating and managing municipal sewage sludge, including anaerobic digestion, composting, and thermal methods. Sewage sludge is one of the main pathways through which microplastics in wastewater become concentrated and then spread to agricultural land when sludge is used as fertilizer.

2023 Sustainable development 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Overcoming micro/nanoplastics-induced inhibition in anaerobic digestion: Advances in remediation techniques

This review examines how micro- and nanoplastics inhibit anaerobic digestion performance — reducing biogas yield and organic removal — and surveys remediation strategies including physical, chemical, and biological approaches to overcome their disruptive effects in waste treatment systems.

2025 Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews
Article Tier 2

Research on the Preparation of Biochar from Waste and Its Application in Environmental Remediation

This review covers the preparation of biochar from four categories of waste materials - agricultural and forestry waste, industrial by-products, municipal solid waste, and sewage sludge - and methods to enhance biochar performance through physical, chemical, and biological treatments. Biochar offers a resource-recovery approach to converting waste into environmental remediation materials.

2023 Water 15 citations
Article Tier 2

Análise da eficiência de compostagem e vermicompostagem para resíduos sólidos orgânicos com inserção de material biodegradável

Researchers analysed the efficiency of composting and vermicomposting for organic solid waste in Brazil, incorporating biodegradable materials and evaluating how these treatment approaches can reduce the approximately 45.3% of urban solid waste that currently ends up in landfills.

2024 Periódico Eletrônico Fórum Ambiental da Alta Paulista.
Article Tier 2

The Current Status and Future Potential of Biogas Production from Canada’s Organic Fraction Municipal Solid Waste

This review of Canada's organic waste biogas sector found growing adoption of anaerobic digestion driven by renewable natural gas policies, but identified gaps in organic waste collection infrastructure and plant capacity needed to meet ambitious decarbonization targets.

2022 Energies 43 citations
Article Tier 2

Waste-Derived Fertilizers: Conversion Technologies, Circular Bioeconomy Perspectives and Agronomic Value

This review examined technologies for converting organic wastes (manure, food residues, sewage sludge, combustion by-products) into fertilizers, evaluating biological, thermal, and chemical processes. The authors noted that waste-derived fertilizers can introduce microplastics and other contaminants into agricultural soils and called for better characterization of these inputs.

2025 Preprints.org 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Integrated Biotechnology Management of Biosolids: Sustainable Ways to Produce Value—Added Products

This review examined sustainable biotechnology approaches for managing biosolids from wastewater treatment plants, covering methods to extract value-added products including bioenergy, biofertilizers, and bioplastics from the estimated 100-125 million tons produced annually.

2021 Frontiers in Water 36 citations
Article Tier 2

Bioresources in Organic Farming: Implications for Sustainable Agricultural Systems

This review examines how bioresources such as compost, biochar, and organic amendments can support sustainable organic farming practices. Researchers assessed the benefits and limitations of various biological inputs for improving soil health, nutrient cycling, and crop yields without synthetic chemicals. The study highlights the growing need for innovative organic approaches as conventional intensive agriculture continues to degrade soil quality and threaten food safety.

2023 Horticulturae 29 citations
Article Tier 2

Co-Management of Sewage Sludge and Other Organic Wastes: A Scandinavian Case Study

This review analyzes sewage sludge management in Scandinavian countries with a focus on resource recovery through co-digestion with other organic municipal wastes. Researchers found that anaerobic digestion is the dominant treatment approach and that co-management strategies can improve energy yields and nutrient recovery in a circular economy framework.

2021 Energies 29 citations