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Social acceptance has proven to be a significant barrier in the implementation of renewable energy systems (hereinafter “RES”). While a general acceptance of RES is high, low local acceptance has hindered the development of renewable energy projects (hereinafter “REP”). This study assesses the determinants of local and general social acceptance of REP across Europe through a qualitative analysis from 25 case studies of the most significant social drivers and barriers that include all European countries. These case studies contain qualitative and quantitative analyses of the main factors for social acceptance of many representative groups including residents, stakeholders, and experts. Understanding the influences of social acceptance enables us to create strategies that will promote the development of REP by mitigating any public opposition.

The recycling of plastic waste is undergoing fast growth due to environmental, health and economic issues, and several blends of post-consumer and post-industrial polymeric materials have been characterized in recent years. However, most of these researches have focused on plastic containers and packaging, neglecting hard plastic waste. This study provides the first experimental characterization of different blends of hard plastic waste and virgin polypropylene in terms of melt index, differential scan calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), mechanical properties (tensile, impact and Shore hardness) and Vicat softening test. Compared to blends based on packaging plastic waste, significant differences were observed in terms of melt flow index (about 10 points higher for hard plastic waste). Mechanical properties, in particular yield strain, were instead quite similar (between 5 and 9%), despite a higher standard deviation being observed, up to 10%, probably due to incomplete homogenization. Results demonstrate that these worse performances could be mainly attributed to the presence of different additives, as well as to the presence of impurities or traces of other polymers, other than incomplete homogenization. On the other hand, acceptable results were obtained for selected blends; the optimal blending ratio was identified as 78% post-consumer waste and 22% post-industrial waste, meeting the requirement for injection molding and thermoforming.

For more than 40 years, intensive research has been devoted to shedding light on the mechanisms of asbestos toxicity. Given the key role of fibre length in the mechanisms of asbestos toxicity, much work has been devoted to finding suitable comminution routes to produce fibres in desired size intervals. A promising method is cryogenic milling that, unlike other mechanical size reduction techniques, preserves the crystal–chemical properties of materials. In this study, the effect of cryogenic milling on the physical–chemical properties of commercial Russian chrysotile was studied in order to produce precise size fractions with invariant properties compared to the pristine fibres. In particular, two batches with fibres > 5 µm and < 5 µm were prepared, as this limit sets their potential toxicity. The results are fundamental for future in vitro toxicity testing of this commercial product, widely used in chrysotile-friendly countries but not yet adequately studied. Results show that fibre length can be controlled by milling time under cryogenic conditions without inducing structural defects or amorphization; short fibres (95% L < 5 µm) can be obtained by cryogenic milling for 40 min, while 10 min is enough to yield long chrysotile fibres (90% L > 5 µm).

This paper shows the environmental changes and high-frequency cyclicity recorded by Lower Jurassic shallow-water carbonates known as the Calcare Massiccio Formation which crop out in the central Apennines of Italy. Three types of sedimentary cycle bounded by subaerial erosion have been recognized: Type I consists of a shallowing upward cycle with oncoidal floatstones to rudstones passing gradationally up into peloidal packstone alternating with cryptoalgal laminites and often bounded by desiccation cracks and pisolitic-peloidal wackestones indicating a period of subaerial exposure. Type II shows a symmetrical trend in terms of facies arrangement with peloidal packstones and cryptoalgal laminites present both at the base and in the upper portion of the cycle, separated by oncoidal floatstones to rudstones. Type III displays a shallowing upward trend with an initial erosion surface overlain by oncoidal floatstones to rudstones that, in turn, are capped by pisolitic-peloidal wackestones and desiccation sheet cracks. Sheet cracks at the top of cycles formed during the initial phase of subaerial exposure were successively enlarged by dissolution during prolonged subaerial exposure. The following sea-level fall produced dissolution cavities in subtidal facies, while the successive sea-level rise resulted in the precipitation of marine cements in dissolution cavities. Spectral analysis revealed six peaks, five of which are consistent with orbital cycles. While a tectonic control cannot be disregarded, the main signal recorded by the sedimentary succession points toward a main control related to orbital forcing. High frequency sea-level fluctuations also controlled diagenetic processes.

Margins, slopes, and toe-of-slopes represent regions of sediment transfer and bypass from shallow-water settings to the basin. They are zones of sediment flux triggered by different types of physical process including sediment-gravity flows, storm-driven currents, unidirectional currents, and oscillatory flows. As a consequence, they are zones where sediment can be remobilized and strongly reworked from inner environments to offshore settings and deposited as a mixture of autochthonous/allochthonous sediments. In the Monte La Serra and Monte Torretta (Central Apennines) lower-to-upper Eocene reworked sedimentary succession, two main facies associations are differentiated on textural characteristics and tested for robustness by hierarchical cluster analysis: a grain-supported (packstone-to-grainstone) facies FA1 and a mud-supported (mudstone-to-wackestone) facies FA2. The outcrops allow investigation of the transition zone between the margin of the Latium–Abruzzi platform and the adjoining basin and especially the identification of the carbonate factories that supplied the sediment to the slope zone of the Latium–Abruzzi platform. During the Paleogene, this platform was a shaved isolated platform under the action of waves, with sediment deposition during the transgressive and highstand phases of sea level, and erosion of this material during a subsequent lowstand phase. During these phases, storm-driven currents acted on the carbonate platform, remobilizing, resuspending, and reworking sediments. The remobilized material was transferred from the inner platform on to the slope, generating a mixture of detrital shallow- and deep-water biotic assemblages and depositing autochthonous/allochthonous units mainly constituted by alveolinids, large rotaliids, hooked gypsinids, nummulitids, and orthophragmines (discocyclinids and orbitoclypeids) assemblages. This mixture of shallow- and deep-water biotic assemblages demonstrates that a systematic study of the provenance of carbonate-producing biota, even if they are not preserved in their original context, can be useful in palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of the original carbonate factory system.

Brake wear emission is a significant contributor to vehicle-related particulate matter, especially in areas with high traffic density and braking frequency. Only recently, non-exhaust emissions from car brake wear have been regulated under Euro 7 regulation, which introduces emission limits for both brake and tires. It also introduces a standard brake particle assessment procedure which includes sampling procedure and measurement techniques defined in the Global Technical Regulation on brakes from light-duty vehicles up to 3.5 t. Over the years, various experimental setups have been tried leading to non-comparable results. The brake wear particle emissions, expressed as emission factors, are mostly estimated as particle mass or particle number and described using different units (e.g., mg/stop brake, mg/km brake; particle number/cm 3 ) making the comparison between studies very difficult. The aim of the present literature review is to present the state-of-the-art of different experimental methods tuned for assessing brake wear emissions, including electric vehicles. The experiments are carried in close, semi-closed, and open systems, and depending on the experimental design, different sampling methods are applied to reduce particle transport loss and guarantee the efficiency of the particle sampling. Driving condition (e.g., speed and applied pressure), formulation of brake materials, and friction temperature have been found to strongly affect the emission characteristics of brake particles, and this needs to be considered when designing study procedures. The findings reported in this review can be beneficial to policy makers and researchers.

The use of asbestos was banned because of the carcinogenic properties of its fibres, but asbestos-containing wastes are still present in great amounts. They are currently landfilled or encapsulated with resins, but these approaches led to the release of fibres in the environment. Hence, the destruction of asbestos fibres is now regarded as a preferable option. This study aims at reviewing the currently available technologies for the destruction of asbestos fibres, considering thermal, chemical and mechanochemical processes. The considered thermal treatments include both standard vitrification and thermal treatments with controlled recrystallization. Advantages and applications of the addition of other inorganic materials are described, and the use of microwaves and oxyhydrogen as heat carrier are discussed in full details. The best practices for chemical treatments based on strong acidic or basic solutions are reported, as well as the use of fluorine. This study also investigates the reaction of asbestos with reducing agents in the self-propagating high-temperature syntheses and the use of supercritical water in a hydrothermal treatment. Mechanochemical processes such as high-energy milling are also reviewed. A comparison is given in terms of energy costs, consumption of chemicals, emissions and final use of obtained byproducts.

This work focuses on the carbonate factories constituting the Pietra di Finale Fm cropping out in the Ligurian Alps. This unit constituted a mixed carbonate–siliciclastic coastal wedge developed during the Middle Miocene. The carbonate factories characterizing the coastal wedge of the Pietra di Finale clearly differ from those of the coastal mixed systems and carbonate platforms developing during the Miocene elsewhere in the Mediterranean area. Here, in the Ligurian Alps, the euphotic carbonate factory does not show any evidence of seagrass meadows and coral bioconstructions. Zooxanthellate corals are present only as skeletal debris associated with abundant stylasterids. In the mesophotic and oligophotic zones, the typical oligophotic biota of red algae and larger benthic foraminifers are strongly reduced. The coastal wedge of the Pietra di Finale shows an unusual abundance of stylasterids, classically interpreted as deep-water biota. However, in this example, the absence of low-energy textures and other skeletal components suggest a shallow-water origin, probably in the eu- or mesophotic zone. The stylasterids colonized the hard substrates available and were successively removed and resedimented to form the skeletal fraction of the coastal wedge of the Pietra di Finale. The abundance of stylasterids is restricted to particular and limited situations in the Miocene of the Mediterranean, thus suggesting that their abnormal development is controlled by local rather than global factors.

The Lithothamnion Limestone constitutes the uppermost carbonate unit of the Bolognano Formation outcropping in the Majella structure (Central Apennines, Italy). It represents the northern extension of the large Apulia Carbonate Platform and preserves an excellent record of the progressive decay of trophic conditions due to the approach of foredeep systems characterized by turbiditic siliciclastic sedimentation during the early Messinian. Sedimentological and compositional analyses were used to reconstruct the depositional model and evolution of platform environmental conditions. The profile is consistent with a homoclinal carbonate ramp, with a wide middle-ramp environment in which coralline algae, mainly forming the maërl facies, dominated carbonate production. This facies was associated with seagrass meadows colonizing the inner ramp. The outer ramp was characterized by bioturbated hemipelagic marl with planktonic foraminifera and pectinids in the aphotic zone. Three main stages of ramp evolution have been identified. During the first stage, the ramp was subjected to high-energy wave-dominated conditions, which favored the development of deep rip channels in which accumulations of vertebrate bones have been identified. In the second stage, maërl facies and seagrass meadows developed, initially in an oligotrophic setting, later followed by a slight reduction in light penetration. The third stage involved a general increase in fine terrigenous sediments, together with a further decrease in light and also by the spread of coralline algal bindstone facies. This elevated terrigenous input was associated with increased trophic conditions, as also shown by the occurrence of abundant plankton and low-oxygenated foraminiferal assemblages.

Small islands are recognized for their vulnerability to climate change. In this context, mitigation and adaptation policies are needed, but the ecological transition must be based on data. This study aims to assess the level of sustainability reached by 26 of the inhabited Italian small islands; it collects and analyzes the data and initiatives on the energy, mobility, waste, and water sectors and discusses the islands’ steps toward sustainability. The findings show that 18 of the 26 islands are not interconnected with the national grid and that the renewable sources cover less than 5% of the energy demand on 25 of the 26 islands. The number per capita of private vehicles reaches 90 cars per 100 inhabitants on three islands. The average of the separate collection of waste on the islands is 52%, which is far from the minimum recommended threshold of 65%. Pipelines or tankers on 17 of the 26 islands guarantee the water supply, and desalination plants are still not the rule, while the presence of wastewater treatment has been detected on 12 islands, and it often provides only partial treatment. An ambitious multi-stakeholder sustainability plan for each island should be developed to overcome the typical barriers of the island and to increase the building capacity in order to use economic incentives for that goal.