Vegetated coastal ecosystems, such as mangroves, marshes and seagrasses, are an important carbon sink and their destruction increases greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. A new study estimates that 0.15-1.02 Pg (petagrams) of CO2 are being released annually from degradation of these valuable ecosystems, resulting in economic losses of US$6-42 billion (€4.68 to 32.81 billion) per year.

Coastal wetlands can substantially reduce erosion, property damage and human deaths in the face of rising sea levels and severe storms, recent research concludes. Understanding whether wetlands can provide effective coastal protection is essential to developing effective climate change adaptation strategies.

Several barriers to upgrading existing social housing with innovative energy systems (IES) have been identified by a study of eight large-scale renovation projects in the Netherlands. These include a lack of trust between stakeholders, opposition from tenants on grounds of increased costs or delays, or poor experience with previous energy projects.

When assessing the environmental impacts of new ‘green’ concretes, care should be taken to ensure that a range of impacts are considered, such as ecosystem damage and water depletion, rather than a sole focus on CO2 emissions, a recent study concludes. It demonstrates that cement incorporating industrial by-products performs substantially better than Portland cement when rated across several classifications of environmental impact.

Simple measures to upgrade buildings by improvements to insulation or heating systems could result in energy savings of up to 85% in Italian homes, according to recent research. Across Europe, such measures could potentially provide energy savings of more than 40% on average, say the researchers.

Long, unbroken periods of drought can be damaging to the mental health of people living in rural areas, new research suggests. An Australian study found that rural inhabitants who had experienced extensive drought periods over a seven-year period, combined with an unbroken spell for the year before they completed the survey had substantially higher distress scores than other participants.

Marine biodiversity conservation in the north-east Atlantic needs a combination of more adaptable management strategies and international co-operation, a new study says. This is required to deal with a potential increase in marine conservation hotspots under climate change.

Science not communicated is said to be science not done, but journalists’ portrayal of scientific findings can sometimes have a negative impact on public perceptions of science and even create false controversy. This study examined how presenting opposing scientific viewpoints affects public perceptions of environmental risk.

While extreme environmental events — such as floods and tsunamis — may trigger migrations, the underlying drivers of migration are far more complex and diverse, says new research. The research reviewed the available evidence on population movements associated with extreme weather events and found that people could find themselves ‘trapped’ and vulnerable, whether they stayed at their homes or moved to new locations.

Decision-making about complex environmental problems like desertification, which also have important social and economic implications, could be improved by employing methods outlined in a new study. The study outlines the steps taken by researchers on behalf of the Canary Islands government in devising a policy strategy for tackling desertification and describes a three-step methodology and participatory decision-making process.

Over half of a low-energy building’s environmental impact occurred before it was even occupied, a new case study from Italy calculates. The researchers recommend expanding the environmental assessment of buildings from just the operational stage of a building’s life, when it is in use, to include production and transport of materials, construction activities and building maintenance. A wide range of environmental impacts should also be considered, they argue, and not just energy use.

Researchers have modelled the exposure to multiple hazards across different regions of Europe in relation to heat, cold, drought, wildfire, flooding and wind. The study indicated that, over the next century, environmental hazards are likely to increase, particularly along coastlines and on floodplains, and that south-western Europe is likely to be the worst-hit region.

The most effective way to lower the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with metal production is to pursue a circular economy for the material in the long term, says a recent study. This century will see a high demand for seven major metals; the resultant overall environmental impact is expected to outweigh any environmental savings that may result from greener production processes or an increased use of renewable energy.

Precious metals, such as gold and silver, constitute a small but valuable part of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). New research suggests that significant amounts of these precious metals are lost in the initial stage of the waste recovery process and makes recommendations for improvements in the recycling chain.

Spanish medical and public health researchers have found no clear evidence for increased heavy metal levels in adults living near a recently-built urban solid waste incinerator over two years of operation. Concentrations of lead, chromium and mercury in blood and urine samples taken around the plant were not significantly higher than for populations who lived further away.

A new study has investigated the possibility of a regional industrial symbiosis of metal industries across the Sweden-Finland border. The analysis suggests that it is technologically feasible, but that regulatory support may be inefficient, particularly with respect to changing the status of a waste product to a by-product.

Vast resources are required to extract speciality and difficult-to-recycle metals that are often only used once before disposal. Researchers argue in a new analysis that more must be done to improve metal recycling rates in order to secure our material needs for the future.

Improved public communications and standardised collection systems can greatly increase uptake of safe and sustainable waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) disposal and recycling. This is according to new insights from Italy and Romania, where WEEE collection rates have risen in response to these measures.

A recent study has investigated how waste disposal sites in southern Italy have affected residents living nearby. Villagers reported being annoyed by odours, but the perceptions of residents living in the village closest to the facilities were possibly influenced by receiving financial compensation for the presence of the facilities.

The environmental benefits of recycling construction and demolition waste (CDW) are considerable, even after accounting for the impacts of the recycling process itself, research confirms. By assessing CO2 and energy use at a large-scale recycling plant in Portugal reseachers have shown that, over its 60-year lifespan, the CO2 emissions prevented will be ten times as much as those produced, and eight times as much energy will be saved, than is used.

Life-cycle indicators to monitor selected waste streams' impacts on the environment have been developed by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC). These are presented in a recent study which describes a method for analysing waste's impacts using these indicators. The study also reveals the need for better statistics and more detailed categorisation of waste streams to effectively inform decision making in waste management.

To solve the problem of food waste we need to radically rethink how our food is produced and consumed, researchers argue in a recent study. They propose a new framework that considers how to reduce wastage throughout the supply chain. Preventing excess levels of food production and consumption in the first place is its most important step.

Littering on coasts could be reduced by providing environmental information to temporary residents, research suggests. The study found that temporary residents were just as likely to litter as permanent resident populations and other visitors, but tended to be the group least aware of local environmental programmes.

Mining metals from landfill sites can be economically viable, a recent project in the US has demonstrated. Approximately 34 352 tonnes of metals, conservatively valued at US$7.42 million (€6.67 million) were recovered from the 8 hectare ashfill site, according to researchers who analysed the project.

The Alang-Sosiya shipbreaking yard in India is highly polluted with heavy metals, a study concludes. The researchers studied heavy metal contamination in sediments taken from the intertidal zone of the shipbreaking yard and compared them to a control site. The area was found to be ‘strongly polluted’ with copper, cobalt, manganese, lead and zinc.

Turkey is a major ship recycling centre and is the largest OECD member country with a significant ship recycling industry. In this study, researchers reviewed the environmental, health and safety issues surrounding the Turkish shipbreaking industry, its compliance with environmental regulations and its ability to claim ‘green recycling’.

A 2013 study has estimated the costs of upgrading existing ship recycling facilities to more environmentally friendly, and regulatory compliant, standards. The research focuses on alternatives to the ‘beaching’ method of shipbreaking, widely criticised for its environmental impact and safety record.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) can measure the environmental impact of the different stages of a ship’s life cycle, from design to dismantling. This assessment focused on the impact of recycling the metal parts of a ship and did not consider the crucial impact of the hazardous materials present on board. The results showed that re-use of metals had environmental benefits, but overall these were small compared to the environmental impact of other life cycle stages, such as operation.

Transnational environmental crime is notoriously difficult to control. Intelligence-led policing (ILP) has been suggested as one way of tackling the complex issue. This study assessed the use of ILP to prevent the illegal export of e-waste in the UK. The authors found that ILP successfully generated intelligence to address the problem and recommend that cross-border ILP be established to tackle environmental crime in Europe.

A US-based study has confirmed the prominent position that recycling and personal waste management take in the public consciousness. Crucially, the researchers suggest that understanding the popularity of such waste- management activities could help policymakers promote other forms of pro-environmental behaviour.

Researchers have examined environmental and economic impacts of supermarket food waste in a new study. Bread and meat products made the largest contribution to the environmental footprint of the supermarket assessed. Alternative waste strategies, such as using bread waste as animal feed, have the potential to reduce these impacts.

The development of future recycling technologies must be informed by data about products and materials that will enter the waste stream, but such forecasts are subject to a high level of uncertainty. In this study, researchers have proposed a methodology for predicting emerging waste materials, applying it to silicon-based photovoltaic (PV) panels. The findings show that closed-loop recycling — when post-consumer waste is recycled to make new products — of PV panel materials could mitigate up to 0.2% of the annual environmental impact of Flanders1, Belgium, if suitable technology was developed.

A successful circular economy for valuable metals needs more than just effective recycling technologies, as a new study shows. The research, which explored the governance of recovering vanadium from steel-industry waste, revealed that industry stakeholders feel the prospect of financial gain, or reduced costs, through recovery is too distant at present. This perception could hinder a circular economy for critical materials from industrial residue, the study warns.

Scientists have tested the behaviour of biodegradable plastics in managed composting and anaerobic conditions, as well as under simulated environmental conditions, such as in seawater or soil. This study found that blending different types of biodegradable plastics may open up new opportunities in relation to their end-of-life treatment — notably the potential to make one of the world’s best-selling biodegradable plastics, polyactic acid (PLA), home-compostable by blending it with another polymer (polycaprolactone — PCL). However, the researchers were also concerned that most materials tested could still cause plastic pollution as they failed to biodegrade sufficiently — and, in some cases, not at all, in particular, in soil and the marine environment.

Food packaging waste is currently under scrutiny. In the context of its Circular Economy Action Plan, the EU is addressing this through, among others, its Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) initiative , which aims to enhance the reliability of environmental claims — both in a business-to-consumer and in a business-to-business context. The initiative aims, therefore, to boost the market of green and circular products. However, a review of the methods available for assessing the environmental sustainability of packaging now highlights the difficulty of clearly characterising packaging's environmental impact. The study suggests a new, fully quantifiable framework that could help to standardise assessment methods and bring 'environmental footprint labelling' to fruition.

Moving to an area with good access to green spaces has a positive, lasting effect on residents' mental health, new research suggests. The study shows that people who move to greener areas report considerably improved mental health three years after leaving their previous neighbourhood.

Greening urban areas can reduce the number of people dying from heat-related health problems, according to a recent study. The researchers found that doubling vegetation cover in central Melbourne could reduce heat-related mortality of the elderly by up to 28% during heat waves.

Doctors prescribe fewer antidepressants in urban areas with more trees on the street, according to recent UK research. The study examined the link between mental health and wellbeing and the presence of trees in London neighbourhoods. Its findings support the idea that maintaining a link to nature, even in an urban area, may help provide a healthy living environment.

Researchers have devised a blueprint to integrate the efficient use of waste wood throughout a bioeconomy system — part of the economy that uses renewable biological resources from land and sea. This study assessed the environmental sustainability of three scenarios for increasing targeted levels of industrial symbiosis within the wood-based bioeconomy of central Germany, and found that, in most cases, the three alternative future bioeconomy networks outperformed the selected fossil-based reference systems, mitigating environmental impacts by 25 to 130%.

The laid off employees in the United States will get 14 weeks of base pay plus one additional week for every year at Airbnb

A recent study has assessed some of the environmental impacts of the production of batteries used with low carbon systems, such as photovoltaic cells and wind turbines. The results indicate that lithium-based batteries have the most significant impact, in terms of metal depletion and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but more complete data are needed on possible toxic impacts to conduct a full comparison between batteries.

Using vegetable waste to produce bioplastics can provide sustainable alternatives to non-biodegradable plastic, new research has found. The biodegradable plastic developed for this study, produced using parsley and spinach stems, cocoa pod husks and rice hulls, have a range of mechanical properties comparable to conventional plastics which are used for products from carrier bags to kitchenware and computer components.

Erratum
This article was amended 10.12.14 to give more information about the nature of trifluoroacetic acid.

A nanoscale 3D printing technique could be useful for nanomanufacturing processes with environmental applications. The authors of a new study have found a way to control their printing process by incorporating a simple pattern into the printing surface. They say their technique could reduce costs for nanoscale printing.

A new study has found evidence for lung toxicity of different forms of ‘cellulose nanocrystals’ (CNCs) in mice. The study suggests that physical characteristics, such as length, of the CNC relates to the type of effect it has on the lung. These nanosized crystals, made from plant-derived materials, are increasingly being used in novel applications, such as cleaning up oil spills in water and flexible electronic displays, and consumer products, which raises concerns about their potential health impacts.

Satellite images can provide important evidence of environmental crime, according to a UK researcher. Satellites are now able to take near-photographic pictures of objects on Earth as small as 0.3 metres which means that individual trees, cars and industrial pipes, for example, can be monitored from space.

A new oil-spill risk-management system has been developed by researchers, which shows the likely effects of a coastal spill on the environment and economic activities for specific locations. It provides maps of oil-spill risk through a web portal and could help decision makers and emergency-response authorities protect the local environment and businesses through targeted and efficient planning and responses.

In-depth soil information is increasingly required to achieve an array of environmental and economic goals. In particular, accurate estimates of soil carbon stocks are necessary to guide land-management practices and climate- related policymaking. To help meet this need, Australian scientists have developed a new sensing method to analyse cylindrical soil samples (soil cores), known as the Soil Condition ANalysis System (SCANS). By integrating a novel automated soil- core sensing system (CSS) with advanced statistical analytics and modelling, the SCANS provides a level of detail that is difficult to achieve with existing alternatives. SCANS is not only rapid, accurate and inexpensive1, but is likely to be a useful tool for farmers, land managers and policymakers, as the improved assessment of soil functions, structures and carbon stocks will facilitate more informed, sustainable decision-making.

Indium, a unique metal, is in short supply worldwide and is not recycled at the end of its life (EoL). Indium is used in a wide range of technologies, causing regions across the world that are reliant on its import — such as Europe — to be concerned about security of supply. Primary sources of indium are thought to be sufficient for medium-term needs, but with growing demand comes growing concern over long-term supply. A new study has conducted a material flow analysis and examined secondary sources of indium within European ‘urban mines’ and in-use stocks (IUS) of indium products, identifying these as potential sources of 500 tonnes of indium — if it were recycled at EoL.