A sustainable solution for the global construction industry can be partial substitution of Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) by use of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) sourced from industrial end-of-life (EOL) products that contain calcareous, siliceous and aluminous materials. Candidate EOL materials include fly ash (FA), silica fume (SF), natural pozzolanic materials like sugarcane bagasse ash (SBA), palm oil fuel ash (POFA), rice husk ash (RHA), mine tailings, marble dust, construction and demolition debris (CDD). Studies have revealed these materials to be cementitious and/or pozzolanic in nature. Their use as SCMs would decrease the amount of cement used in the production of concrete, decreasing carbon emissions associated with cement production. In addition to cement substitution, EOL products as SCMs have also served as coarse and also fine aggregates in the production of eco-friendly concretes.

Heavy metal abundance and potential environmental risks are reported for surface sediments (n = 21) from the Port of Koper area, Republic of Slovenia. The enrichment factor (EF) indicates minor enrichment in arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), molybdenum (Mo), lead (Pb), antimony (Sb), and zinc (Zn), moderately to severely enriched with nickel (Ni). The trace metal chemistries, in the context of sediment quality guidelines (SQG), imply adverse threshold effect concentrations (TEC) and probable effect concentrations (PEC), for Ni only. Sediment sequential leaching experiments demonstrated that the majority of heavy metals were of natural lithogenic origin and low bioavailability. The heavy metals’ potential for “Risk Assessment Code” values exhibited no or low anthropogenic environmental burden, with the exception of Mo.

The Zletovo is lead–zinc (Pb–Zn) deposit, adjacent to the Plavica volcanic centre (R. Macedonia) with high-sulphidation and porphyry mineralisation. The analysis of fluid inclusions showed homogenisation temperatures in the range 335–145°C, which reflects phases of pulsation of hydrothermal solutions and defined into four groups from the lowest to the highest temperatures. The frequency of the homogenisation temperatures ranged from 265 to 125°C and with the most dominant from 245 to 225°C, from 225 to 205°C and from 145 to 125°C. Also, it was confirmed that hydrothermal ore-bearing solutions were defined as NaCl-type with range from 4.4 to 8.6 wt% NaCl equivalent. The latest stage salinities ranged from 3 to 12 wt% NaCl equivalent, where those from 10 to 12 wt% and from 6 to 8 wt% NaCl equivalent, prevailed. This suggests that hydrothermal solutions within analysed quartz grains were at final mineralizing phase. Density of fluid inclusions ranged from 0.7 to 0.95g/cm³. Calculated pressures and paleo-depths of mineralisation ranged from 14 to 130 bar and from 0.6 to 0.8 km.

Hypersaline environments are among the most vulnerable coastal ecosystems and are extremely noteworthy for a variety of ecological reasons. Comprehensive assessment of metal(oid) contamination in hypersaline sediments from Sečovlje (Northern Adriatic, Slovenia) was addressed by introducing the detrital and diagenetic mineralogy and geochemical properties within the solid sediment material. Close associations between Fe/Mn oxides and oxyhydroxides with As, Cr, Ni, Pb and Zn, and between organic matter with Cu, Pb and Zn were confirmed using X-ray powder diffraction, SEM-EDS and ICP emission spectrometry analysis. Possible incorporation or adsorption on the crystal lattices of clay minerals (As, Cr, Pb, Sn and Zn), halite (As) and aragonite/calcite (Cd, Cu, Pb, Sr and Zn) were also detected. All presented correlations were highlighted by various statistical analyses. The enrichment factor (EF) values showed a low degree of anthropogenic burden for As, Bi, Hg and Zn, while Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Sn and Sr originated from the geological background. These results emphasise that a detailed mineralogical and geochemical characterisation of solid (especially detrital and diagenetic) sediment particles is crucial in further understanding the metal(oid) translocation within the hypersaline ecosystems.