Plastic generation exacerbates the challenge of solid waste management. Moreover, plastics emit substantial amounts of microplastics, which infiltrate the environment and food chain, posing significant environmental risks. Compounded by their production from fossil fuels, such as crude oil and natural gas, plastics present a formidable environmental concern. As a result, bioplastics are an attractive alternative to fossil-based plastics since they use renewable energy sources, aim to alleviate worries about reliance on fossil fuels, and are biodegradable, further enhancing their environmental appeal. Along similar lines, the utilization of food waste to produce bioplastics is attracting international interest. The current study presents the results of a life cycle assessment conducted on bioplastic production from food waste, carried out in a pilot-scale reactor located in Greece. The objective was to ascertain the comparative sustainability of recovering food waste for bioplastic production versus utilizing cultivable raw materials. To this end, an equivalent amount of polylactic acid was produced from corn. The findings revealed a reduction in climate change, eutrophication, and ecotoxicity as a result of the study process. Despite these environmental benefits, the study highlighted that energy consumption throughout the process poses a significant environmental burden. This aspect calls for attention and modification to enhance the entire sustainability of the process.

This article proposes a mixture of actions for the development of an effective and rational energy transition plan for all sectors and for all types of onshore final energy use in Crete. Energy transition is initiated with an appropriate capacity building campaign. The plan is based on the introduction of energy saving measures and the exploitation of all the locally available energy resources (wind, solar, geothermal potential, biomass), integrated in a cluster of centralized and decentralized power plants and smart grids to produce electricity and heat and for the transition to e-mobility. The core of the energy transition in Crete will be a set of 14 wind parks and Pumped Hydro Storage systems (PHS) for electricity generation and 12 Combined Heat and Power plants, properly designed and dispersed in the insular territory. Economic analysis is executed for the proposed essential power plants on the island. Biomass, solar and geothermal potential can cover the heating demand in Crete several times. Heat can be produced with a specific cost of 0.05 EUR/kWh_th from cogeneration plants fired with solid biomass and biogas. The wind parks-PHS systems exhibit payback periods of approximately 10 years with a final electricity selling price at 0.12 EUR/kWh_el. The article shows that 100% energy transition in Crete constitutes a feasible target.

To reduce plastic pollution, biodegradable plastics have been introduced to the market to replace petroleum-based plastics. This work investigates the biodegradation/disintegration of pure poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA_B2B), composed of food waste (FW), and PLLA_B2B bags, under industrial composting conditions, in order to determine whether they are compostable and to examine compost quality. In order to study the biodegradation, pure PLLA_B2B was degraded in laboratory conditions and bag samples were put into simulation systems using windrow technology. Phytotoxicity tests were carried out for every compost sample and high germination values were found (97–103.8%). The pure PLLA reached an average biodegradation value of 100.2 ± 3.7% and a disintegration value of 100.0 ± 0.0%, resulting in biodegradable mature compost. After a seven week composting trial, the bag samples had fully decomposed. The samples had no influence on compost characteristics and there were no visually perceptible changes to the compost. Therefore, we suggest that food waste bioplastic can be used as a potential eco-material for compostable bags, one which could be used in industrial composting units and which offers degradable active materials with low environmental impact.

In this work, we investigated the effect of various adsorption parameters (solution pH, temperature, contact time, and the presence of phosphate and nitrate ions) on the adsorption of Reactive Red 120 (RR120) dye by Polyamide Nylon 6 (PN6) microplastics (MPs). Maximum uptake was achieved at pH 2.0, and the temperature rise from 295 to 313 K resulted in the decrease of the RR120 sorption by PN6. Equilibrium was achieved after 7 h, and the adsorption kinetic data obeyed the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The experimental adsorption data were better fitted by the Langmuir isotherm model, and the q_m was found to be 3.96 mg/g at pH 2.0 and 295 K. Thermodynamic studies pointed out that the adsorption was spontaneous and exothermic, with decreasing entropy at the solution/solid interface. Future work will focus on the effect of aging on the adsorptive properties of PN6 toward RR120 dye.