Handbook of Recycling, Second Edition is an authoritative review of the current state of recycling, reuse and reclamation processes commonly implemented today, and how they interact with one another. Fully updated to cover recent developments in the field, this second edition has also been restructured to cover general aspects of recycling, applications, technology, recovery and collection, economics, governance and policy. Several new chapters on global recycled material flows, sludges, reinforced plastics, and landfill mining have been added. It concludes with a review of the policy and economic implications, including the impact of recycling on energy use, sustainable development, and the environment.
This book is a crucial aid to students and researchers in a range of disciplines, from materials and environmental science to public policy studies.
- Chapters authored by key experts from academia, industry, and the policymaking community
- Provides a thorough analysis from theory to practice to deeply understand the fundamentals, dynamics, complex interactions, opportunities, and challenges of recycling, within the larger picture of a circular system
- Describes the state of the art and lessons learned, to understand future challenges in recycling of a wide variety of products, materials, and waste flows
- Introduces the tools and practices to understand the opportunities and limitations of recycling in the context of a circular economy
Christina Meskers, Ph.D. is senior research scientist at SINTEF, in the Industrial eco-systems department. Prior to this, she was senior advisor at the Industrial Ecology programme of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (2021-2022), and senior manager open innovation, and market intelligence & business research at Umicore, Belgium. She graduated from Delft University of Technology with degrees in resource engineering and materials science. Christina has a passion for innovation and strategy, connecting people and ideas across disciplines, industries, organisations and value chains. Her work focuses on the contribution of metals and materials industry to the transition to sustainable products and a sustainable society. She has over 15 years of experience in the (raw) materials sector, including co-authoring a United Nations' International Resource Panel report on recycling (2013), and contributing to Principles of metal refining & recycling (2021), as well as organizing numerous symposia. She served on the advisory boards of international master programs, innovation networks, the Board of Directors of The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society (2020-2023), and is associate editor of the Journal of Sustainable Metallurgy. Christina was a 2020 Brimacombe Medalist and awarded the TMS Young Leaders Professional Development Award (2008).
Ernst Worrell (Ph.D.) is professor of ‘Energy, Resources & Technological Change’ at Utrecht University in the Copernicus Institute. His research focuses on the technical, economic and policy aspects of the energy-resource nexus, including energy, material, and resource efficiency improvement, as well as waste management and processing. The research includes the transition to a circular economy working on recycling and material efficiency. He has led the industrial energy assessment work at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory until 2008 and was Director Energy Use & Efficiency at the sustainable energy consulting company Ecofys between 2004 and 2010. He is (co-) author of over 300 publications, of which over 200 peer-reviewed articles. He was until 2013, for 12 years Editor-in-Chief of the peer-reviewed journal Resources, Conservation and Recycling, and also serves as associate editor of Energy, the International Journal and of Energy Efficiency.
Markus A. Reuter is with SMS Group in Düsseldorf, Germany. Prior to holding this position, Reuter was director at Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology; chief technologist, Ausmelt Australia; and director of technology management, Outotec (now Metso) Australia and Finland. He also worked at Mintek & Anglo American Corporation both in South Africa. In addition, he has served as a full professor at TU Delft in the Netherlands and the University of Melbourne in Australia, and has held honorary and adjunct professorships at Aalto University in Finland, at Central South University in China, and presently ongoing positions at TU Bergakademie Freiberg in Germany, as well as Curtin University Perth in Australia. He holds honorary doctorates from the University of Liège in Belgium and the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa; D.Eng. & Ph.D. degrees from Stellenbosch University; and a Dr. habil. from RWTH Aachen in Germany. Recent honors include receiving The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS) TMS Extraction & Processing Division Distinguished Lecture Award in 2016, delivering the TMS Extraction & Processing Division (EPD) and Light Metals Luncheon Lectures in 2020 & 2022 respectively, receiving 3 TMS Science Awards in 2022 & 2014 and as well as receiving an Outotec Technology award in 2014.
