Implementation of construction works on weak (e.g., compressible, collapsible, expansive) soils such as peatlands often is limited by logistics of equipment and shortage of available and applicable materials. If preloading or floating roads on geogrid reinforcement or piled embankments cannot be implemented, then soil stabilization is needed. Sustainable soil stabilization in an environmentally friendly way is recommended instead of applying known conventional methods such as pure cementing or excavation and a single replacement of soils. Substitution of conventional material (cement) and primary raw material (lime) with secondary raw material (waste and byproducts from industries) corresponds to the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations, preserves resources, saves energy, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Besides traditional material usage, soil stabilization is achievable through various secondary raw materials (listed according to their groups and subgroups): 1. thermally treated waste products: 1.1. ashes from agriculture production; 1.2. ashes from energy production; 1.3. ashes from various manufacturing; 1.4. ashes from waste processing; 1.5. high carbon content pyrolysis products; 2. untreated waste and new products made from secondary raw materials: 2.1. waste from municipal waste biological treatment and landfills; 2.2. waste from industries; 3. new products made from secondary raw materials: 3.1. composite materials. Efficient solutions in environmental engineering may eliminate excessive amounts of waste and support innovation in the circular economy for sustainable future.

Industrial and strategic significance of platinum group elements (PGEs)—Os, Ir, Ru, Rh, Pd, Pt—makes them irreplaceable; furthermore, some PGEs are used by investors as “safe heaven” assets traded in the commodity markets. This review analyzes PGEs from various aspects: their place in the geosphere, destiny in the anthroposphere, and opportunity in the economy considering interactions among the exploration, recycling of urban ores, trade markets, speculative rhetoric, and changes required for successful technological progress towards the implementation of sustainability. The global market of PGEs is driven by several concerns: costs for extraction/recycling; logistics; the demand of industries; policies of waste management. Diversity of application and specific chemical properties, as well as improper waste management, make the recycling of PGEs complicated. The processing approach depends on composition and the amount of available waste material, and so therefore urban ores are a significant source of PGEs, especially when the supply of elements is limited by geopolitical or market tensions. Recycling potential of urban ores is particularly important in a long-term view disregarding short-term economic fluctuations, and it should influence investment flows in the advancement of innovation.

Growing global production leads to continuing generation of waste, part of which still ends its life cycle in landfills and dumps. Despite the efforts of waste reuse and recycling and waste self-degradation, existing and old landfills and dumps remain a huge challenge for the future. The majority of landfills can be identified as non-sanitary and can be designated as existing or former dumps, meaning hills or fields of abandoned garbage and degraded inert waste masses without any or with little aftercare maintenance. In contrast, the term ‘landfill’ refers to legally organized waste disposal sites created in a controlled manner, according to modern environmentally responsible standards. The paper gives a case study-based integrated assessment of closed and revitalized waste disposal sites that have undergone a functional change from ‘lost territories’ to primarily green space beneficial for society and the urban environment, in terms of ecosystem services estimation based on the criteria evaluation approach and monetary assessment of land assets value recovery potential. The chosen four case studies (in the United States, Australia, Poland and Estonia) serve as successful examples of a sustainable degraded site revitalization gateway indicating opportunities for accelerating land value through the prism of ecosystem services estimations and spatial planning criteria. Beneficial value of land assets after site revitalization is assessed in monetary terms.

In a recent study published in Viruses