Glassy Powder Derived from Waste Printed Circuit Boards for Methylene Blue Adsorption.

Electronic waste (e-waste) is one of the fastest-growing waste streams in the world and Europe is classified as the first producer in terms of per capita amount. To reduce the environmental impact of e-waste, it is important to recycle it. This work shows the possibility of reusing glassy substrates, derived from the MW-assisted acidic leaching of Waste Printed Circuit Boards (WPCBs), as an adsorbent material. The results revealed an excellent adsorption capability against methylene blue (MB; aqueous solutions in the concentration range 10-5 M-2 × 10-5 M, at pH = 7.5). Comparisons were performed with reference samples such as activated carbons (ACs), the adsorbent mostly used at the industrial level; untreated PCB samples; and ground glass slides. The obtained results show that MW-treated WPCB powder outperformed both ground glass and ground untreated PCBs in MB adsorption, almost matching AC adsorption. The use of this new adsorbent obtained through the valorization of e-waste offers advantages not only in terms of cost but also in terms of environmental sustainability.

Current Scenario and Future Prospects of Endophytic Microbes: Promising Candidates for Abiotic and Biotic Stress Management for Agricultural and Environmental Sustainability.

Globally, substantial research into endophytic microbes is being conducted to increase agricultural and environmental sustainability. Endophytic microbes such as bacteria, actinomycetes, and fungi inhabit ubiquitously within the tissues of all plant species without causing any harm or disease. Endophytes form symbiotic relationships with diverse plant species and can regulate numerous host functions, including resistance to abiotic and biotic stresses, growth and development, and stimulating immune systems. Moreover, plant endophytes play a dominant role in nutrient cycling, biodegradation, and bioremediation, and are widely used in many industries. Endophytes have a stronger predisposition for enhancing mineral and metal solubility by cells through the secretion of organic acids with low molecular weight and metal-specific ligands (such as siderophores) that alter soil pH and boost binding activity. Finally, endophytes synthesize various bioactive compounds with high competence that are promising candidates for new drugs, antibiotics, and medicines. Bioprospecting of endophytic novel secondary metabolites has given momentum to sustainable agriculture for combating environmental stresses. Biotechnological interventions with the aid of endophytes played a pivotal role in crop improvement to mitigate biotic and abiotic stress conditions like drought, salinity, xenobiotic compounds, and heavy metals. Identification of putative genes from endophytes conferring resistance and tolerance to crop diseases, apart from those involved in the accumulation and degradation of contaminants, could open new avenues in agricultural research and development. Furthermore, a detailed molecular and biochemical understanding of endophyte entry and colonization strategy in the host would better help in manipulating crop productivity under changing climatic conditions. Therefore, the present review highlights current research trends based on the SCOPUS database, potential biotechnological interventions of endophytic microorganisms in combating environmental stresses influencing crop productivity, future opportunities of endophytes in improving plant stress tolerance, and their contribution to sustainable remediation of hazardous environmental contaminants.

New trajectories of technologies for the removal of pollutants and emerging contaminants in the environment.

Modern society has increasingly a diffusion of pollutants and emerging contaminants (e.g., different types of chemicals and endocrine disruptors in pharmaceuticals, pesticides, household cleaning, and personal care products, etc.) that have detrimental effects on the environment (atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and anthroposphere) and also generate diseases and disorders on the people health. Environmental science requires efforts in the detection and elimination of manifold pollutants and emerging pollutants with appropriate product and process technologies. This study aims to analyze different paths of treatment technologies to investigate their evolution and predict new directions of promising technological trajectories to support the removal of contaminants directed to reach, whenever possible, sustainable development objectives. The work is mainly devoted to wastewater treatment technologies. A proposed model analyzes the evolution of patents (proxy of innovation and new technology) on publications (proxy of science and knowledge advances) to quantify the relative growth rate of new trajectories of technologies to remove pollutants and emerging contaminants. Results reveal that new directions of treatment technologies having an accelerated rate of growth are (in decreasing order): biochar and reverse osmosis in physical-based technologies, coagulation, and disinfection water treatments in chemical-based technologies and anaerobic processes in biological-based technologies. Other main technologies, such as carbon nanotubes and advanced oxidation processes, seem to be in the initial phase of development and need learning by using processes and further science and technology advances to be implemented as effective treatments and cost-effective methods. The results here show similar trends to global market revenue in water and wastewater treatment technologies. These findings bring us to the main information to extend the knowledge about new directions of technologies for the treatment and/or elimination of pollutants and microorganisms in order to support decisions of policymakers towards goals of sustainable development by reducing environmental degradation and people health disorders.

The spread of the omicron variant: Identification of knowledge gaps, virus diffusion modelling, and future research needs.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recognised variant B.1.1.529 of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) as a variant of concern, termed "Omicron", on November 26, 2021. Its diffusion was attributed to its several mutations, which allow promoting its ability to diffuse worldwide and its capability in immune evasion. As a consequence, some additional serious threats to public health posed the risk to undermine the global efforts made in the last two years to control the pandemic. In the past, several works were devoted to discussing a possible contribution of air pollution to the SARS-CoV-2 spread. However, to the best of the authors' knowledge, there are still no works dealing with the Omicron variant diffusion mechanisms. This work represents a snapshot of what we know right now, in the frame of an analysis of the Omicron variant spread. The paper proposes the use of a single indicator, commercial trade data, to model the virus spread. It is proposed as a surrogate of the interactions occurring between humans (the virus transmission mechanism due to human-to-human contacts) and could be considered for other diseases. It allows also to explain the unexpected increase in infection cases in China, detected at beginning of 2023. The air quality data are also analyzed to evaluate for the first time the role of air particulate matter (PM) as a carrier of the Omicron variant diffusion. Due to emerging concerns associated with other viruses (such as smallpox-like virus diffusion in Europe and America), the proposed approach seems to be promising to model the virus spreading.

Accelerated and natural carbonation of a municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) fly ash mixture: Basic strategies for higher carbon dioxide sequestration and reliable mass quantification.

The carbonation of alkaline wastes is an interesting research field that may offer opportunities for CO2 reduction. However, the literature is mainly devoted to studying different waste sequestration capabilities, with lame attention to the reliability of the data about CO2 reduction, or to the possibilities to increase the amount of absorbed CO2. In this work, for the first time, the limitation of some methods used in literature to quantify the amount of sequestered CO2 is presented, and the advantages of using suitable XRD strategies to evaluate the crystalline calcium carbonate phases are demonstrated. In addition, a zero-waste approach, aiming to stabilize the waste by coupling the use of by-products and the possibility to obtain CO2 sequestration, was considered. In particular, for the first time, the paper investigates the differences in natural and accelerated carbonation (NC and AC) mechanisms, occurring when municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) fly ash is stabilized by using the bottom ash with the same origin, and other by-products. The stabilization mechanism was attributed to pozzolanic reactions with the formation of calcium silicate hydrates or calcium aluminate hydrate phases that can react with CO2 to produce calcium carbonate phases. The work shows that during the AC, crystalline calcium carbonate was quickly formed by the reaction of Ca(OH)2 and CaClOH with CO2. On the contrary, in NC, carbonation occurred due to reactions also with the amorphous Ca. The sequestration capability of this technology, involving the mixing of waste and by-products, is up to 165 gCO2/Kg MSWI FA, which is higher than the literature data.

Environmental challenges of COVID-19 pandemic: resilience and sustainability - A review.

The emergence of novel respiratory disease (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2 has become a public health emergency worldwide and perturbed the global economy and ecosystem services. Many studies have reported the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in different environmental compartments, its transmission via environmental routes, and potential environmental challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. None of these studies have comprehensively reviewed the bidirectional relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and the environment. For the first time, we explored the relationship between the environment and the SARS-CoV-2 virus/COVID-19 and how they affect each other. Supporting evidence presented here clearly demonstrates the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in soil and water, denoting the role of the environment in the COVID-19 transmission process. However, most studies fail to determine if the viral genomes they have discovered are infectious, which could be affected by the environmental factors in which they are found.The potential environmental impact of the pandemic, including water pollution, chemical contamination, increased generation of non-biodegradable waste, and single-use plastics have received the most attention. For the most part, efficient measures have been used to address the current environmental challenges from COVID-19, including using environmentally friendly disinfection technologies and employing measures to reduce the production of plastic wastes, such as the reuse and recycling of plastics. Developing sustainable solutions to counter the environmental challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic should be included in national preparedness strategies. In conclusion, combating the pandemic and accomplishing public health goals should be balanced with environmentally sustainable measures, as the two are closely intertwined.

Quantification of ternary microplastic mixtures through an ultra-compact near-infrared spectrometer coupled with chemometric tools.

The ubiquitous distribution of plastics and microplastics (MPs) and their resistance to biological and chemical decay is adversely affecting the environment. MPs are considered as emerging contaminants of concern in all the compartments, including terrestrial, aquatic, and atmospheric environments. Efficient monitoring, detection, and removal technologies require reliable methods for a qualitative and quantitative analysis of MPs, considering point-of-need testing a new evolution and a great trend at the market level. In the last years, portable spectrometers have gained popularity thanks to the excellent capability for fast and on-site measurements. Ultra-compact spectrometers coupled with chemometric tools have shown great potential in the polymer analysis, showing promising applications in the environmental field. Nevertheless, systematic studies are still required, in particular for the identification and quantification of fragments at the microscale. This study demonstrates the proof-of-concept of a Miniaturized Near-Infrared (MicroNIR) spectrometer coupled with chemometrics for the quantitative analysis of ternary mixtures of MPs. Polymers were chosen representing the three most common polymers found in the environment (polypropylene, polyethene, and polystyrene). Daily used plastic items were mechanically fragmented at laboratory scale mimicking the environmental breakdown process and creating "true-to-life" MPs for the assessment of analytical methods for MPs identification and quantification. The chemical nature of samples before and after fragmentation was checked by Raman spectroscopy. Sixty three different mixtures were prepared: 42 for the training set and 21 for the test set. Blends were investigated by the MicroNIR spectrometer, and the dataset was analysed using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Partial Least Square (PLS) Regression. PCA score plot showed a samples distribution consistent with their composition. Quantitative analysis by PLS showed the great capability prediction of the polymer's percentage in the mixtures, with R2 greater than 0.9 for the three analytes and a low and comparable Root-Mean Square Error. In addition, the developed model was challenged with environmental weathered materials to validate the system with real plastic pollution. The findings show the feasibility of employing a portable tool in conjunction with chemometrics to quantify the most abundant forms of MPs found in the environment.

Novel CRISPR/Cas technology in the realm of algal bloom biomonitoring: Recent trends and future perspectives.

In conjunction with global climate change, progressive ocean warming, and acclivity in pollution and anthropogenic eutrophication, the incidence of harmful algal blooms (HABs) and cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (CHABs) continue to expand in distribution, frequency, and magnitude. Algal bloom-related toxins have been implicated in human health disorders and ecological dysfunction and are detrimental to the national and global economy. Biomonitoring programs based on traditional monitoring protocols were characterised by some limitations that can be efficiently overdone using the CRISPR/Cas technology. In the present review, the potential and challenges of exploiting the Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR)-Cas technology for early detection of HABs and CHABs-associated toxigenic species were analysed. Based on more than 30 scientific papers, the main results indicate the great potential of CRISPR/Cas technology for this issue, even if the high sensitivity detected for the Cas12 and Cas13 platforms represents a possible interference risk.

Microbial strategies for degradation of microplastics generated from COVID-19 healthcare waste.

COVID-19 pandemic has led to the generation of massive plastic wastes, comprising of onetime useable gloves, masks, tissues, and other personal protective equipment (PPE). Recommendations for the employ of single-use disposable masks made up of various polymeric materials like polyethylene, polyurethane, polyacrylonitrile, and polypropylene, polystyrene, can have significant aftermath on environmental, human as well as animal health. Improper disposal and handling of healthcare wastes and lack of proper management practices are creating serious health hazards and an extra challenge for the local authorities designated for management of solid waste. Most of the COVID-19 medical wastes generated are now being treated by incineration which generates microplastic particles (MPs), dioxin, furans, and various toxic metals, such as cadmium and lead. Moreover, natural degradation and mechanical abrasion of these wastes can lead to the generation of MPs which cause a serious health risk to living beings. It is a major threat to aquatic lives and gets into foods subsequently jeopardizing global food safety. Moreover, the presence of plastic is also considered a threat owing to the increased carbon emission and poses a profound danger to the global food chain. Degradation of MPs by axenic and mixed culture microorganisms, such as bacteria, fungi, microalgae etc. can be considered an eco-sustainable technique for the mitigation of the microplastic menace. This review primarily deals with the increase in microplastic pollution due to increased use of PPE along with different disinfection methods using chemicals, steam, microwave, autoclave, and incineration which are presently being employed for the treatment of COVID-19 pandemic-related wastes. The biological treatment of the MPs by diverse groups of fungi and bacteria can be an alternative option for the mitigation of microplastic wastes generated from COVID-19 healthcare waste.

Biotechnological methods to remove microplastics: a review.

Microplastics pollution is major threat to ecosystems and is impacting abiotic and biotic components. Microplastics are diverse and highly complex contaminants that transport other contaminants and microbes. Current methods to remove microplastics include biodegradation, incineration, landfilling, and recycling. Here we review microplastics with focus on sources, toxicity, and biodegradation. We discuss the role of algae, fungi, bacteria in the biodegradation, and we present biotechnological methods to enhance degradation, e.g., gene editing tools and bioinformatics.

A global assessment of COVID-19 diffusion based on a single indicator: Some considerations about air pollution and COVID-19 spread.

The extraordinariness of COVID-19 occurred in a world that was completely unprepared to face it. To justify this, sometimes literature proposes positive associations between concentrations of some air pollutants and SARS-CoV-2 mortality and infectivity. However, several of these studies are affected by incomplete data analysis and/or incorrect accounts of spread dynamics that can be attributed to respiratory viruses. Based on separate analyses involving all the USA states and globally all the world countries suffering from the pandemic, this communication shows that commercial trade seems to be a good indicator of virus spread, being proposed as a surrogate of human-to-human interactions. The results of this study strongly support the conclusion that this new indicator could result fundamental to model (and avoid) possible future pandemics, strongly suggesting dedicated studies devoted to better investigate its significance.

Analysis of the lockdown effects due to the COVID-19 on air pollution in Brescia (Lombardy).

SARS-CoV-2 virus (COVID-19) pandemic has impacted several countries, with also some differences at local levels. When lockdown restrictions were imposed, the concentrations of some air pollutants were reduced, as reported in some other cities in the world. This was often considered a positive by-product of the pandemic. However, often literature reporting the connection of air quality (AQ) and lockdown, suffers of limited and incomplete data analysis, not considering, for example, some confounding factors. This work presents a methodology, and the results of its application, to assess the impact of pandemic restrictions on AQ (in particular nitrogen oxides, NO2 and particulate matter, PM10) in spring 2020 in Brescia, located in one of the most affected areas in terms of virus diffusion and in one of the most polluted areas in Europe (Po Valley, Italy). In particular, the proposed methodology integrates data and AQ modelling simulations to distinguish between the changes in the PM10 and NO2 pollutants concentration that occurred due to the restriction measures and due to other factors, like spatial-temporal characteristics (for example the seasonality), meteorological factors, and governmental actions that were introduced in the past to improve the air quality. Results show that NO2 is strongly dependent to traffic emission. On the contrary, although the expected decrease in PM10 concentrations, the results highlight that the reduction of transport emission would not help to avoid severe air pollution, due to the other pollution sources that contribute to its origin. The results presented for the first time in this work are of particular interest because they may be used as a basis to investigate in more details the sources that can impact on the air quality in Brescia, with the aim to propose effective measures able to reduce it.

The environment, epidemics, and human health.

In this editorial piece, the Editors of the Virtual Special Issue (VSI) "The environment, epidemics, and human health" comment on the papers accepted for publication, which were selected after peer-reviewing among all those manuscripts submitted to the Special Issue. In view of the title of the VSI, it is clear that its aim goes beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, trying to explore relations among environmental aspects, any kind of epidemics, and human health. However, COVID-19 is still hitting as a global and current main issue, causing that manuscripts dealing with this disease and the SARS-CoV-2 virus are of high relevance in the whole set of research papers published.

The soil bacterium, Corynebacterium glutamicum, from biosynthesis of value-added products to bioremediation: A master of many trades.

Ever since its discovery in 1957, Corynebacterium glutamicum has become a well-established industrial strain and is known for its massive capability of producing various amino acids (like L-lysine and L-glutamate) and other value-added chemicals. With the rising demand for these bio-based products, the revelation of the whole genome sequences of the wild type strains, and the astounding advancements made in the fields of metabolic engineering and systems biology, our perspective of C. glutamicum has been revolutionized and has expanded our understanding of its strain development. With these advancements, a new era for C. glutamicum supremacy in the field of industrial biotechnology began. This led to remarkable progress in the enhancement of tailor-made over-producing strains and further development of the substrate spectrum of the bacterium, to easily accessible, economical, and renewable resources. C. glutamicum has also been metabolically engineered and used in the degradation/assimilation of highly toxic and ubiquitous environmental contaminant, arsenic, present in water or soil. Here, we review the history, current knowledge, progress, achievements, and future trends relating to the versatile metabolic factory, C. glutamicum. This review paper is devoted to C. glutamicum which is one of the leading industrial microbes, and one of the most promising and versatile candidates to be developed. It can be used not only as a platform microorganism to produce different value-added chemicals and recombinant proteins, but also as a tool for bioremediation, allowing to enhance specific properties, for example in situ bioremediation.

SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogens in municipal wastewater, landfill leachate, and solid waste: A review about virus surveillance, infectivity, and inactivation.

This review discusses the techniques available for detecting and inactivating of pathogens in municipal wastewater, landfill leachate, and solid waste. In view of the current COVID-19 pandemic, SARS-CoV-2 is being given special attention, with a thorough examination of all possible transmission pathways linked to the selected waste matrices. Despite the lack of works focused on landfill leachate, a systematic review method, based on cluster analysis, allows to analyze the available papers devoted to sewage sludge and wastewater, allowing to focalize the work on technologies able to detect and treat pathogens. In this work, great attention is also devoted to infectivity and transmission mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2. Moreover, the literature analysis shows that sewage sludge and landfill leachate seem to have a remote chance to act as a virus transmission route (pollution-to-human transmission) due to improper collection and treatment of municipal wastewater and solid waste. However due to the incertitude about virus infectivity, these possibilities cannot be excluded and need further investigation. As a conclusion, this paper shows that additional research is required not only on the coronavirus-specific disinfection, but also the regular surveillance or monitoring of viral loads in sewage sludge, wastewater, and landfill leachate. The disinfection strategies need to be optimized in terms of dosage and potential adverse impacts like antimicrobial resistance, among many other factors. Finally, the presence of SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogenic microorganisms in sewage sludge, wastewater, and landfill leachate can hamper the possibility to ensure safe water and public health in economically marginalized countries and hinder the realization of the United Nations' sustainable development goals (SDGs).

New Insights in factors affecting ground water quality with focus on health risk assessment and remediation techniques.

Groundwater is considered as the primary source of water for the majority of the world's population. The preponderance of the nation's drinking water, as well as agricultural and industrial water, comes from groundwater. Groundwater level is becoming increasingly challenging to replenish due to climate change. Fertilizer application and improper processing of industrial waste are the two major anthropogenic drivers of groundwater pollution. Arsenic and cadmium are two of the principal heavy metal pollutants that have affected groundwater quality by human activity. When people are exposed to both non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic contaminants for an extended period, toxic effects might occur. It can have detrimental health effects from long-term exposure to contaminants, even in low amounts. As a result, metal contamination concentrations and fractions can be used to determine potential health concerns. At the same time, contaminants also need to be removed or converted to harmless products by groundwater remediation. Remediation of groundwater quality can be accomplished in several ways, including natural and artificial means. The purpose of this review is to explore a wide range of factors that affect groundwater quality, including their possible health effects. This communication provides state-of-the-art information about remediation approaches for groundwater contamination including hindrances and perspectives in this area of research. The in-depth information provided in different sections of this communication would expand the scope of interdisciplinary research.

Occurrence, transformation, bioaccumulation, risk and analysis of pharmaceutical and personal care products from wastewater: a review.

Almost all aspects of society from food security to disease control and prevention have benefited from pharmaceutical and personal care products, yet these products are a major source of contamination that ends up in wastewater and ecosystems. This issue has been sharply accentuated during the coronavirus disease pandemic 2019 (COVID-19) due to the higher use of disinfectants and other products. Here we review pharmaceutical and personal care products with focus on their occurrence in the environment, detection, risk, and removal. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10311-022-01498-7.

A post-pandemic sustainable scenario: What actions can be pursued to increase the raw materials availability?

On January 30, 2020, COVID-19 outbreak, detected for the first time in Wuhan (China), was declared by WHO a Public Health Emergency. In a strongly connected world, the consequent slowdown of the Chinese economy contributed to disrupt the global supply chains of several products. In a post-pandemic scenario, the expected rapid increase in demand of critical raw materials (associated with the transition to more green energy sources), coupled with the problems that some mining activities are relegated only in certain countries and regions, must be considered in a sustainable perspective. This work analyses the literature about (critical) raw materials and COVID-19, not only to present the impact of the pandemic on their supply, but also to propose some actions that should be pursued in a post-pandemic renaissance scenario, to increase raw materials availability, with great attention to most critical ones, in the frame of circular economy principles. The post-pandemic possibilities are evaluated and suitable actions are suggested to secure the raw materials availability for the foreseen increase of investments in crucial and strategic sectors, in accord with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The proposed actions can be summarized as policy, strategy, economy, and technology activities.

SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogenic microorganisms in the environment.

The title of the Virtual Special Issue (VSI) "SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogenic microorganisms in the environment", clearly indicates a main focus not only on the virus causing the current pandemic, but also on other pathogenic microorganisms and their spatial and temporal dynamics in environmental compartments. Overall, the VSI has received more than 100 submissions relating to most of the possible fields connected to the pandemic, many of them of high scientific value. A rigorous peer-reviewing process has been carried out, with a panel of experts making a great work to evaluate that important number of submissions. As a result, those manuscripts reaching the highest scientific standards were selected for publication. We think that the papers included constitute a set of high-quality contributions, which should help to improve the overall scientific perspective regarding this crucial issue. In this piece, the Editors comment some issues on the papers accepted for publication, and include additional reflections.

Novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic: From transmission to control with an interdisciplinary vision.

There a lot of review papers addressing specific COVID-19 research sectors, then devoted to specialists. This review provides an in-depth summary of the available information about SARS-CoV-2 and the corresponding disease (also known as COVID-19), with a multi-disciplinary approach. After the paper introduction, the first section treats the virological characteristics of SARS-CoV-2, the medical implications of the infection, and the human susceptivity. Great attention is devoted to the factor affecting the infection routes, distinguishing among the possible human-to-human, environmental-to-human, and pollution-to-human transmission mechanisms. The second section is devoted to reporting the impact of SARS-CoV-2 not only on the healthcare systems but also on the economy and society. The third section is devoted to non-pharmaceutical behaviours against COVID-19. In this context, this review section presents an analysis of the European second wave allowing not only to focalize the importance of some restrictions, but also the relevance of social acceptance of some measures. The data reassumed in this work are very useful for interdisciplinary researchers that work in a team to find the basic available information about all the aspects connected with this pandemic (from virus diffusion mechanism to health information, from economic and social impacts to measures to reduce the pandemic spread), with great attention to social acceptance of restriction measures and of vaccines (that currently results to be insufficient to achieve community immunity). Then, this review paper highlights the fundamental role of the trans-multi-disciplinary research that is devoted not only to understand the basics of the pandemic to propose solutions but has also the commitment to find strategies to increase population resilience. For this aim, the authors strongly suggest the establishment of an international health-care trans-multi-disciplinary workforce devoted to investigate, mitigate, and control also future viral events.