Themed collection Topic highlight: Circular economy

Chemistry has a vital role in enabling the reductions in greenhouse gases, stewardship of material resources and new production processes needed to bring net CO₂ emissions to zero by 2050, keeping within 1.5 °C of global warming.

The Composites Industry needs to participate in future circular chemical economies. Cooperation, standardisation and increased availability of transparent industry data for life cycle analysis, are seen as critical to a more sustainable future.

Current European (EU) policies, such as the Green Deal, envisage safe and sustainable by design (SSbD) practices for the management of chemicals, which cogently entail nanomaterials (NMs) and advanced materials (AdMa).

This review has focused on the concept of upcycling, which involves utilizing PET waste as a raw material for the production of value-added products such as monomers, fine chemicals, hydrogen, or carbon materials.

Latest advances in hydrometallurgical recycling open new sustainable processing options beyond efficient recovery of metals towards direct recycling and upcycling of the NMC active materials.

The advent of lithium-ion battery technology in portable electronic devices and electric vehicle applications results in the generation of millions of hazardous e-wastes that are detrimental to the ecosystem.

Utilizing waste streams to produce bio-based products has the potential to promote a circular economy. In addition, by incorporating biowaste into the circular economy, the production of sustainable bioproducts and bioenergy can be enhanced.

Post-consumer poly(lactic acid) (PLA) is recycled to high value monomers, either acrylic acid (AA) or lactide (LAC), using a phosphonium ionic liquid as the active solvent, in the presence or absence of an acid cocatalyst.

We propose an affordable and safe route to recover palladium in its metallic form from waste fashion items and recycle it in electronic devices.

Fiber surface functionalization can play a dual role in the development of fiber reinforced polymer composites; improving the overall performance and enabling recovery of high-quality fibers.

An experimentally guided, early-stage techno-economic analysis reveals how ionic liquids can be economically adapted at scale through novel recycling methods to unlock their environmental benefits when used as solvents for nanoparticle syntheses.

An integrated process using Eucalyptus globulus essential oil as a bio-based solvent to extract triterpenic acids from hydrodistilled leaves is discussed.

Closing the loop in the flow of C, nutrients and water between agriculture, the human diet and sanitation services offers benefits for humanity across multiple platforms of public health, food security and climate mitigation.

Supercritical CO₂ efficiently extracts classes of polar compounds connected with the relevance of silverskin's phytochemical profile, justifying the valorization of this coffee waste towards added value products.

Effective amino-functional carbon adsorbents for heavy metals are upcycled to catalysts for converting C5/C6 carbohydrates into food additives and biochemicals.

Aerogels and cryogels were obtained from cellulose-based textile waste.

A new recyclability path for unusable textiles are processed into electronic textiles. These materials can be implemented into such applications as energy harvesting or sensing devices that can be worn as demonstrated by our smart mask.

Smart wearable electronics are now of great significance in the fields of biomedical applications and environmental sensors.

Aluminates have been used as synthetic inorganic pigments due to their structural stability.

The synergy of Ni-phytocat and microwave driven process leads to highly desirable monocyclic aromatics and low molecular weight hydrocarbons, and H₂, thereby paving the way to harness complete circular chemical potential of plastic waste.