Editorial - Waste management

摘要

Modern societies are inevitably correlated with the production of large per capita volumes of waste and wastewater. As a rule of thumb, the higher the life quality standards and GDP, the higher the per capita production of waste and wastewater. On the other hand, novel technologies for waste and wastewater management, with emphasis on waste/water recycling, are available and are gradually employed from modern societies. Increased concern about sustainable waste/wastewater management, in relation with the tightening of the relative environmental legislation and with the increased availability of novel waste/wastewater management options, result into improved standards of life, without compromising in environmental quality. In fart, all existing main targets for waste minimization and recycling are expected to increase in the near future, as the current trend is to make all attempts to promote industrial symbiosis and circular economy. Indicatively, the targets of the EU Waste Framework Directive are getting tighter, prompting for substantial reduction to the volume of waste that ends in landfills. However, in order to move towards this direction in the forthcoming years, the role of applied research and the development and optimization of new waste/wastewater management technologies will be crucial. The tendency is not only to prevent waste production and support reuse, recycling and energy conservation/recovery, but also to develop novel, financially viable, processes for the production of high added value products from waste/wastewater.