Environmental sustainability is driving an intense search for “green materials”. Biobased plastics have emerged as a promising alternative. Their building blocks can now be obtained from diverse biomass, by-products, and organic residues due to the advances in biorefineries and bioprocessing technologies, decreasing the demand for fossil fuel resources and carbon footprint. Novel biobased polymers with high added value and improved properties and functionalities have been developed to apply diverse economic sectors. However, the real opportunities and risks of such novel biobased plastic solutions have raised scientific and public awareness. This paper provides a critical review on the recent advances in biobased polymers chemistry and emerging (bio)technologies that underpin their production and discusses the potential for biodegradation, recycling, environmental safety, and toxicity of these biobased solutions.

Electronic and electric waste (e-waste) management strategies often fall short in dealing with the plastic constituents of printed circuit boards (PCB). Some plastic materials from PCB, such as epoxy resins, may release contaminants, but neither potential environmental impact has been assessed nor mitigation strategies have been put forward. This study assessed the biodegradation of microplastics (1-2 mm in size) from PCB by the fungus Penicillium brevicompactum over 28 days, thus contributing to the discussion of mitigation strategies for decreasing the environmental impact of such plastics in the environment. The capacity of P. brevicompactum to induce microplastic fragmentation and degradation has been determined by the increased the number of smaller-sized particles and microplastic mass reduction (up to 75 % within 14 days), respectively. The occurrence of chain scission and oxidation of microplastics exposed to P. brevicompactum when compared with the control conditions (which occurred only after 28 days of exposure) can be observed. Furthermore, Attenuated Total Reflectance-Fourier Transform Infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy performed in dried biomass put in evidence an increase in the absorption intensities in regions that could be attributed to functional groups associated with carbohydrates. The results underline the potential role of the genus Penicillium, particularly P. brevicompactum, in the biodegradation of microplastics from PCB, thus providing the basis for further exploration of its potential for e-waste bioremediation and research on the underlying mechanisms for sustainable approaches to mitigate e-waste pollution.

The increasing e-waste volumes represent a great challenge in the current waste management landscape, primarily due to the massive production and turnover of electronic devices and the complexity of their components and constituents. Traditional strategies for e-waste treatment focus on metal recovery through costly, energetically intensive, and environmentally hazardous processes, such as pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical approaches, often neglecting other e-waste constituents. As efforts are directed towards creating a more sustainable and circular economic model, biobased alternative approaches to these traditional techniques have been increasingly investigated. This critical review focuses on recent advances towards sustainable e-waste treatment, exclusively considering studies using e-waste sources. It addresses, from a critical perspective, approaches using inactive biomass, live biomass, and biogenic compounds, showcasing the diversity of strategies and discussing reaction parameters, advantages and disadvantages, challenges, and potential for valorization of generated by-products. While ongoing research focuses on optimizing operational times and metal recovery efficiencies, bioprocessing approaches still offer significant potential for metal recovery from e-waste. These approaches include lower environmental impact by reducing energy consumption and effluent treatments and the ability to recover metals from complex e-waste streams, paving the way for a more circular economy in the electronics industry.

The accelerated growth of the electrical and electronic equipment market is a major driver behind increasing e-waste volumes worldwide. Although e-waste contains valuable resources, most remain unrecycled or improperly managed. Recycling efforts primarily focus on recovering metals, while plastic constituents remain overlooked. Furthermore, current e-waste plastic recycling approaches have led to environmental contamination by hazardous materials. Recent efforts for the valorisation of e-waste plastics have demonstrated the potential applications of these materials and their role in efforts towards implementing a more sustainable plastics economy. While the environmental impact and potential strategies for recycling e-waste plastics have been recently reviewed, a thorough discussion that accounts for the environmental impact, characterisation strategies, and potential biotechnological treatment options remains lacking. Accordingly, this review addresses this gap, discussing recent developments in the e-waste plastics field. It focuses on their environmental impacts, the collection of environmental samples and their characterisation, as well as innovative approaches for valorisation through biotechnological strategies. Specifically, the discussion is centred on studies that directly use or focus on plastics derived from e-waste. While progress has been made in the characterisation of environmental contaminants and remediation/bioprocessing strategies for this type of hazardous waste, challenges remain, including financial barriers, limited research volume compared to related fields (e.g., e-waste metals), and environmental impact and relevance concerns. This review identifies a need for increased research, interdisciplinary collaboration, and policy support to overcome these barriers and advance sustainable e-waste plastic management.

The rapid growth in manufacturing and use of electrical and electronic equipment has led to unprecedented volumes of poorly managed e-waste, posing serious ecological risks. Although data on individual chemical substances in e-waste are available, evidence of ecotoxicity from actual e-waste materials remains scattered. This review consolidates organism-level ecotoxicity data on real e-waste samples (mixed fractions, fragments, leachates) and samples collected near e-waste facilities (soil, sediments, dust, water) across aquatic and terrestrial environments. It critically examines how methodological approaches influence reported outcomes and outlines research priorities. In aquatic environments, toxic responses vary with increased amounts of toxicants (dissolved metals, particles from dismantling operations) that mobilise to surface waters, while hydrophobic organic compounds cause sublethal behavioural and genotoxic effects. The few studies on terrestrial environments show impaired invertebrate growth and reproduction, along with changes in soil and “plastisphere” microbiota. However, tested concentrations, material complexity, and incomplete reporting of exposure chemistry, among other factors, limit the environmental relevance and comparability of the data. Uniformised procedures, combined with thorough chemical characterisation, environmentally realistic conditions, and cross-system bioassays (including different exposure routes and cumulative assessments), may provide mechanistic insights into e-waste toxicity, supporting evidence-based risk management strategies while contributing towards the development and validation of robust new approach methodologies (NAMs).