Since the impending warning of fossil fuel inadequacy, researchers’ focus has shifted to alternative fuel generation. This resulted in the use of a wide variety of renewable biomass sources for making biofuels. Biofuels made from biomass are seen as the most promising long-term strategy for addressing issues associated with conventional energy sources, atypical climate change, and greenhouse gas emissions. Hydrocarbons may be efficiently extracted from biomass, which contains a lot of sugars. Biofuels including bioethanol, biodiesel, biohydrogen, and biogas can be produced from biomass for widespread usage in transportation, industry, and households. In recent years, there have been numerous reports of breakthroughs in the manufacturing of biofuels and biogas. This paper examines the big picture of biogas generation, with an emphasis on the many forms of biomass utilization in both commercial and residential settings in rural areas.

Zero waste according to the Zero Waste International Alliance is an ethical, economical, effective and forward-thinking concept whereby people can change their lifestyles and habits to one that mimics natural cycles, where all discarded materials are designed to become resources that can benefit others. The aim of the study was to determine the knowledge of the Zero Waste problem (subject of the study) by respondents in selected Central and Eastern European countries, including Poland, Slovakia (EU countries) and Ukraine (EU associated country), as well as to verify whether the Zero Waste rules are known and implemented in sustainable activities of residents in the studied countries. The research was carried out using the CAWI method. The research tool was a structured questionnaire. The analysis of data from the countries covered by the study showed a significant relationship between the basic elements in the daily functioning of households related to the protection of the environment through responsible consumption, reuse and recovery of selected products, packaging and materials and food and the concept of Zero Waste. Research has shown that respondents consciously identify these activities with Zero Waste. According to the authors, the results of the research are the basis for public discussion at the European and global level in the field of creating legal regulations and educational programs in the context of waste management.

The valorisation of food and fruit wastes has the potential for the production of sustainable energy and biochemicals. Approximately 70% of the weight of the original jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus L.) fruit is lost during its processing as waste in the form of peeled skin and core, both of which have not been utilized and, thus these contribute to disposal as well as pollution issues. The major components such as cellulose and hemicellulose can be easily biologically transformed into bioenergy sources such as ethanol, methanol, and butanol; valuable phenolics and biotechnological products such as pectin, citric acid, bromelain, ferulic acid, and vanillin; and many other products. These residues can also be utilized as essential sources for the biological transformation process, leading to the production of numerous products with added value, such as phenolic antioxidants, phenolic flavour compounds, and organic acids. Thus, the value addition of jackfruit waste can support sustainable solutions towards food and nutritional security. In this way, zero waste can be achieved through novel biorefineries, which are critically highlighted in this paper. Furthermore, novel technologies for the conversion of jackfruit waste are summarized with recent findings.

In the modern state, the role and importance of communes is growing. They can carry out their tasks when equipped with stable and efficient sources of income. Financial resources are the basis for the operation and implementation of current and development tasks. Their analysis makes it possible to assess the budget structure and provides information on the state of the local economy or endogenous growth potentials. The aim of the article is to assess the diversity of the financial situation of rural communes using a synthetic measure. In addition, using the econometric models, the impact of socio-economic factors on the diversity of the measure of synthetic financial situation was examined. In order to build synthetic measures, the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution method and based on distance in real space with Euclidean metrics were used. The aggregated value of the synthetic variable facilitates the comparison of objects in multidimensional spaces, but also makes it possible to order them due to the examined phenomenon. Empirical data were collected in spatial terms of 484 rural communes in the Eastern Poland region. In the case of municipalities, the choice of variables was largely determined by the availability of secondary data collected in a municipal system at the Local Data Bank of the Central Statistical Office for 2009–2018. The analysis showed that the rural communes of eastern Poland are characterized by significant disproportions in terms of financial standing. Rural communes with the best financial condition were characterized by a higher share of own revenues in total revenues, a higher level of income from local taxes and obtained from the share in the tax on natural and legal persons. It seems that the main reason for the relatively small impact of financial conditions on economic and social development is their strong dependence on transfer revenues transferred from the state budget and the amount of current expenditure. The above circumstances stiffen and stabilize the financial economy, making it relatively less susceptible to the influence of other factors. The obtained results may constitute for the local authorities an important source of information on the disproportions occurring between units on setting out potential directions for optimizing the structure of local finances.

The level of agricultural development in European Union countries is characterized by great diversity. This is due to differences in natural conditions, the type of agricultural production, agrarian fragmentation, and the level of economic development. The concept of a circular economy is the latest vision of changing the current economic systems, the assumptions of which constitute an alternative to the linear model of resource use. The implementation of the principles of a circular economy aims to create a system that will contribute to the implementation of sustainable development. This could be a strategy to support agriculture in the absence of agricultural land and water resources. This research aimed to identify and assess the spatial diversification of agricultural production-economic conditions and their links with the circular economy at the level of EU countries. The basis for grouping countries was synthetic measures obtained in the areas of agriculture and the circular economy. The analyses were performed for 2012 and 2020. The obtained results indicate the existence of significant spatial dependencies in the development of agriculture and the circular economy. Countries with a higher level of agricultural development were also higher in the ranking of the advancement of the implementation of the circular economy concept.

The actions, decisions and behavior of consumers in a circular economy are defined as a circular consumption system. The circular economy is an alternative economic model to the linear model of production and consumption. This model is in line with the zero waste concept, which according to the Zero Waste International Alliance, is an ethical, economical, efficient and forward-looking concept in which consumer behavior includes buying products, caring for them and then recycling or reusing them. This is closely linked to adopting and committing to the circular business model of extending and reusing products. The aim of the study was to identify and describe consumer behavior and activities related to the zero waste concept. The analysis was conducted in the context of reusable products. The research was based on the CAWI method. The tool used to obtain the information was a structured questionnaire. The survey included 821 respondents from Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine. The survey shows that consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the consequences of consumption not based on choices with a positive attitude towards the environment. In addition, consumer sensitivity to environmental problems is growing. Growing consumer awareness and the promotion of healthy lifestyles by environmental organizations and movements are reversing unfavorable trends in favor of conscious consumption based on rational consumer choices, which translates into economic effects for households. The study found that the behavior of many respondents fits into the zero waste concept, implementing habits on a daily basis that are in line with sustainable consumption.