Poultry litter represents a promising feedstock for biogas production through anaerobic digestion (AD), offering potential benefits for both on-farm energy supply and organic waste management. This opportunity is particularly relevant in resource-constrained countries, where limited access to reliable energy and inadequate waste management remain critical challenges. This study investigates the integration of poultry litter-based biogas production into a decentralized energy system supplying a poultry farm and a nearby household in Yaoundé, Cameroon. A techno-economic optimization framework based on mixed-integer linear programming is used to determine the cost-optimal configuration of the energy system. The results show that anaerobic digesters are only selected when constraints on poultry litter disposal are introduced. Total annual system costs increase from approximately 2680 EUR·y⁻¹ in the unconstrained scenario to 3720 EUR·y⁻¹ when up to 50% of the poultry litter is valorized locally through AD. Increasing biogas production primarily substitutes liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) used for heating and progressively reduces electricity purchases from the grid. Overall, the analysis indicates that anaerobic digestion is currently not economically competitive when evaluated solely on energy supply benefits, mainly due to the high capital cost of digesters. However, when waste management objectives or external investment support are considered, poultry litter-based biogas systems can contribute to integrated energy–waste management strategies and support circular resource use in small-scale agricultural systems.

Cities are artificial ecosystems that suffer most from environmental issues and climate change. Urban Heat Island (UHI) effects represent an increasing challenge, especially for compact Mediterranean cities characterized by high population density and extensive impervious surfaces. This study assessed localized microclimatic conditions within the small Maltese coastal town of Isla through a 15-day summer field monitoring campaign. Air temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed were measured across urban locations characterized by different levels of vegetation coverage and thermal vulnerability. The analysis combined descriptive statistics, Mann–Whitney U testing, and Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) models. In addition, site-specific Nature-based Solutions (NbS) scenarios were proposed as context-sensitive strategies to support urban heat mitigation and climate resilience. The results highlighted distinct microclimatic responses between the sites investigated. In particular, the MLR analysis suggested that non-vegetated areas were more sensitive to short-term atmospheric variability associated with wind speed and relative humidity fluctuations. These findings suggest that urban vegetation may contribute not only to localized cooling, but also to increased microclimatic stability within compact Mediterranean urban environments.

The increase in fossil fuel–based plastic use and its subsequential refuse production and dispersion in the environment cause long-lasting waste that can pile up quickly. Compostable bio-based plastics, polymeric compounds that are functionally similar to fossil fuel–based plastics, seem to be more environmentally sustainable and particularly useful and recommended in food packaging. Even with the lower impacts of bioplastics, there is still a need for effective end-of-life management strategies to promote more efficient treatment of bioplastic waste. For biodegradable bioplastics, this endeavour could involve composting. Bioplastics would be processed like any other organic waste, prompting a closer study of how efficient this process is in degrading them, or if their presence can persist in high-quality compost or even in cultivated food. This paper focuses on organic waste treatment and compost production to assess the efficiency of bioplastic degrada-tion, aiming to explore the bioplastic content in compost in reference with a wide com-posting plants overview. An analysis of waste flow data from selected Italian composting plants highlighted a bioplastic reduction rate near 80%, with a small variance for different kinds of bioplastics, stressing the importance of investing in collection.