Papers

20 results
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Article Tier 2

A critical review on sustainable hazardous waste management strategies: a step towards a circular economy

Researchers review global strategies for managing hazardous industrial and household waste — including chemicals, heavy metals, and electronic waste — with a focus on aligning disposal practices with circular economy principles that minimize environmental and health harm. The review finds that prevention, recycling, and advanced treatment technologies must work together, guided by stronger international policy frameworks.

2023 Environmental Science and Pollution Research 74 citations
Article Tier 2

Chemicals management approach to sustainable development of materials

This review examines how chemicals management approaches must evolve for sustainable materials development, arguing that planetary boundaries and path-dependent industrial trajectories require rethinking how chemicals including plastics are produced and regulated.

2023 MRS Bulletin 12 citations
Article Tier 2

Circularity in Practice: Review of Main Current Approaches and Strategic Propositions for an Efficient Circular Economy of Materials

This review proposes a structured framework for classifying circular economy strategies — including reuse, remanufacturing, recycling, and biological cycles — and evaluates their current adoption and barriers to scaling toward genuinely circular material flows.

2022 Sustainability 24 citations
Article Tier 2

Chemistry and materials science for a sustainable circular polymeric economy

Researchers reflected on the fundamental chemistry challenges limiting a circular plastic economy — including the sheer variety of polymer types, contamination during use, and imperfect recycling — and argued that solving plastic pollution requires both chemical innovation and systemic non-chemical interventions.

2022 Nature Reviews Materials 58 citations
Article Tier 2

Strategies for efficient management of microplastics to achieve life cycle assessment and circular economy

This review examines strategies for managing microplastic waste through a circular economy and life cycle assessment (LCA) lens, arguing that current recycling practices and waste disposal methods are inadequate given the sheer volume of plastics entering ecosystems. The authors propose a conceptual framework integrating LCA principles into microplastic management to better quantify ecological risks and guide more sustainable plastic use policies.

2023 Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 9 citations
Article Tier 2

Design framework for circular and sustainable packaging design

Researchers developed a novel packaging design framework integrating circularity and sustainability (C&S) criteria using literature review, expert brainstorming, and field visits. The framework addresses conflicts between sustainability and functional requirements and provides practical iterative strategies for packaging designers.

2025 Proceedings of the Design Society
Article Tier 2

Method to incorporate green chemistry principles in early-stage product design for sustainability: case studies with personal care products

Researchers developed a method integrating green chemistry principles with ecological risk assessment and life cycle assessment to guide sustainable early-stage product design for down-the-drain consumer products such as personal care items, demonstrating the approach through case studies.

2022 Green Chemistry 10 citations
Article Tier 2

Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design Framework: (Re-)Designing the Advanced Materials Lifecycle

This paper proposed a Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) framework for redesigning advanced materials — including plastics and nanomaterials — to minimize hazards and environmental impacts from the earliest design stage. The framework integrates safety, environmental, and circularity criteria into materials development.

2024 Sustainability 8 citations
Article Tier 2

New Management Strategy Framework for Effectively Managing Microplastic in Circular System from Plastic Product Manufacturing to Waste Treatment Facility

Researchers proposed a new management strategy framework for controlling microplastic release throughout the lifecycle of plastic products, from manufacturing through end-of-life in circular economy systems, incorporating soil, atmospheric, groundwater, and river-based pollution pathways. The framework provides actionable guidance for producers, regulators, and waste managers to systematically reduce microplastic entry into land and marine environments.

2024 Sustainability
Article Tier 2

Circular Product Practices for a Post-Plastic Transition

This study examines how designers can support a post-plastic transition by identifying circular product practices, combining design theory with practical action frameworks to define the competencies and strategies needed for responsible polymeric material use within circular economy models.

2025 DIID
Article Tier 2

Management of Emerging Pollutants with a Circular Economy Approach: Lessons from Developed Countries and a Case Study in Northern Cyprus

Researchers reviewed how developed countries manage emerging pollutants through circular economy frameworks and applied those lessons to a case study in Northern Cyprus. The study assessed policies for handling contaminants including microplastics, pharmaceuticals, and industrial chemicals. The findings suggest that circular economy approaches can be adapted for developing regions to more effectively manage emerging pollutant threats.

2025 Advances in water security 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Circularity in polymers: addressing performance and sustainability challenges using dynamic covalent chemistries

Researchers reviewed how dynamic covalent chemistry can be applied to polymeric materials to enable closed-loop recyclability, addressing the waste accumulation caused by current plastics. The study examines how reversible chemical bonds can be tailored for specific reprocessing conditions and evaluates the potential economic and environmental impacts of these recyclable polymer systems.

2023 Chemical Science 92 citations
Article Tier 2

Incorporating Health Impacts into the Circular Economy: A Comprehensive Assessment of Worker and Consumer Safety in the Plastic Production and Recycling Industries

This study assessed the health impacts on workers and consumers across circular economy strategies for plastics, finding that while recycling reduces environmental burden, it also introduces occupational and exposure risks that must be incorporated into circular economy assessments.

2023 3 citations
Article Tier 2

Waste Management, Circular Economy and Life Cycle Assessment

This presentation examines research strategies and analytical approaches for integrating life cycle assessment methodologies with circular economy principles and waste management practices.

2024 OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information)
Article Tier 2

Legacy additives in a circular economy of plastics: Current dilemma, policy analysis, and emerging countermeasures

This review analyzed the challenges posed by legacy chemical additives such as flame retardants and plasticizers in achieving a circular economy for plastics. Researchers found that recycling plastics containing these now-restricted or banned substances creates a dilemma, as hazardous additives can be reintroduced into new products, and the study discussed emerging countermeasures to address this problem.

2020 Resources Conservation and Recycling 204 citations
Article Tier 2

Chemistry must respond to the crisis of transgression of planetary boundaries

This paper argued that chemistry as a discipline must urgently respond to the transgression of planetary boundaries, including those related to chemical pollution. The study outlined three steps: understanding the threats from a chemistry perspective, developing sustainable solutions through innovation, and transforming chemistry education and industry toward sustainability and circularity.

2022 Chemical Science 44 citations
Article Tier 2

Sustainable production of marine equipment in a circular economy: deepening in material and energy flows, best available techniques and toxicological impacts

Researchers examined the environmental impacts of marine leisure equipment production within a circular economy framework, analyzing material and energy flows, best available techniques, and toxicological impacts to identify opportunities for more sustainable manufacturing practices.

2019 The Science of The Total Environment 34 citations
Article Tier 2

System innovation and life cycle thinking in packaging value chain: the circularity of plastics.

This paper examines the role of circular economy principles in reducing plastic packaging waste, noting that despite existing recycling systems, plastics remain pervasive environmental contaminants. The authors argue that redesigning packaging systems for recyclability and reducing over-packaging are essential steps to address microplastic pollution at its source.

2020 AMS Dottorato Institutional Doctoral Theses Repository (University of Bologna) 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Bio-based plastics in a circular economy: A review of recovery pathways and implications for product design

Researchers reviewed how bio-based plastics — made from renewable plant sources — can be recovered and recycled at end-of-life, finding that the feasibility of eight different recovery methods depends heavily not just on plastic chemistry but on how products are designed, and offering guidance for designers to improve recyclability.

2023 Resources Conservation and Recycling 34 citations
Article Tier 2

Recirculation: A New Concept to Drive Innovation in Sustainable Product Design for Bio-Based Products

This paper introduces a 'recirculation' framework for designing bio-based products that maximizes resource efficiency and minimizes waste throughout a product's life cycle. While bio-based materials offer a sustainable alternative to petroleum plastics, the authors argue that sustainable design principles must be built in from the start to maximize their environmental benefit.

2016 Molecules 52 citations