Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are designated to enable the management of damaging activities within a discrete spatial area, and can be effective at reducing the associated impacts, including habitat loss and over-exploitation. Such sites, however, may be exposed to the potential impacts from broader scale pressures, such as anthropogenic litter, due to its diffuse nature and lack of constraint by legislative and/or political boundaries. Plastic, a large component of litter, is of particular concern, due to increasing evidence of its potential to cause ecological and socio-economic damage. The presence of sensitive marine features may mean that some MPAs are at greater potential risk from the impacts of plastic pollution than some non-protected sites. Understanding the abundance, distribution and composition of litter along coastlines is important for designing and implementing effective management strategies. Gathering such data, however, can be expensive and time-consuming but litter survey programmes that enlist citizen scientists are often able to resolve many of the logistical or financial constraints. Here, we examine data collected over 25-years (1994–2018), by Marine Conservation Society volunteers, for spatial patterns in relation to the English MPA network, with the aim of highlighting key sources of litter and identifying management priority areas. We found that MPAs in southeast (Kent) and southwest (Cornwall and Devon) England have the highest densities of shore-based litter. Plastic is the main material constituent and public littering the most common identifiable source. Items attributed to fishing activities were most prevalent in southwest MPAs and sewage related debris was highest in MPAs near large rivers and estuaries, indicating localised accumulation. When comparing inside and outside of MPAs, we found no difference in litter density, demonstrating the need for wider policy intervention at local, national and international scales to reduce the amount of litter.

The cities of today present requirements that are dissimilar to those of the past. There are cities where the industrial and service sectors are in decline, and there are other cities that are just beginning their journey into the technological and industrial sectors. In general, the political and social realms have been restructured in terms of economics, which has resulted in an entirely different shape to the primitive structures of civilization. As people begin to understand the dynamic nature of landscapes, they stop seeing landscapes as a static scene. Sustainable cities must be simultaneously economically viable, socially just, politically well managed and ecologically sustainable to maximize human comfort. The present research suggests a multi-disciplinary approach for attaining a holistic understanding of urban environmental quality and human well-being in relation to sustainable urban development.

There was an increasing interest in reducing production and emission of air pollutants to improve air quality for animal feeding operations (AFOs) in the U.S. in the 21st century. Research was focused on identification, quantification, characterization, and modeling of air pollutions; effects of emissions; and methodologies and technologies for scientific research and pollution control. Mitigation effects were on pre-excretion, pre-release, pre-emission, and post-emission. More emphasis was given on reducing pollutant emissions than improving indoor air quality. Research and demonstrations were generally continuation and improvement of previous efforts. Most demonstrated technologies were still in a limited scale of application. Future efforts are needed in many fundamental and applied research areas. Advancement in instrumentation, computer technology, and biological sciences and genetic engineering is critical to bring major changes in this area. Development in research and demonstration will depend on the actual political, economic, and environmental situations.

The area of agricultural wastes valorisation to fertilizers is attracting growing attention because of the increasing fertilizer prices of fertilizers and the higher costs of waste utilization. Despite the scientific and political interest in the concept of circular economy, few studies have considered the practical approach towards the implementation of elaborated technologies. This article outlines innovative strategies for the valorisation of different biobased wastes into fertilizers. The present work makes a significant contribution to the field of new ideas for waste biomass management to recover significant fertilizer nutrients. These results emphasize the importance of the biomass use as a base of renewable resources, which has recently gained special importance, especially in relation to the outbreak of pandemia and war. Broken supply chains and limited access to deposits of raw materials used in fertilizer production (natural gas, potassium salts) meant that now, as never before, it has become more important and feasible to implement the idea of a circular economy and a green deal. We have obtained satisfactory results that demonstrate that appropriate management of biological waste (originating from agriculture, food processing, aquaculture, forest, pharmaceutical industry, and other branches of industry, sewage sludge) will not only reduce environmental nuisance (reducing waste heaps), but will also allow recovery of valuable materials, such as nitrogen (especially valuable amino acids), phosphorus, potassium, microelements, and biologically active substances with properties that stimulate plant growth. The results reported here provide information on production of biobased plant protection products (bioagrochemicals) from agri-food waste. This work reports an overview of biopesticides and biofertilisers production technologies and summarizes their properties and the mechanisms of action.

In recent years, the impact of Plant Protection Products (PPPs) on insect pollinator decline has stimulated significant amounts of research, as well as political and public interest. PPP residues have been found in various bee-related matrices, resulting in governmental bodies worldwide releasing guidance documents on methods for the assessment of the overall risk of PPPs to different bee species. An essential part of these risk assessments are PPP residues found in pollen and nectar, as they represent a key route of exposure. However, PPP residue values in these matrices exhibit large variations and are not available for many PPPs and crop species combinations, which results in inaccurate estimations and uncertainties in risk evaluation. Additionally, residue studies on pollen and nectar are expensive and practically challenging. An extrapolation between different cropping scenarios and PPPs is not yet justified, as the behaviour of PPPs in pollen and nectar is poorly understood. Therefore, this review aims to contribute to a better knowledge and understanding of the fate of PPP residues in pollen and nectar and to outline knowledge gaps and future research needs. The literature suggests that four primary factors, the crop type, the application method, the physicochemical properties of a compound and the environmental conditions have the greatest influence on PPP residues in pollen and nectar. However, these factors consist of many sub-factors and initial effects may be disguised by different sampling methodologies, impeding their exact characterisation. Moreover, knowledge about these factors is ambiguous and restricted to a few compounds and plant species. We propose that future research should concentrate on identifying relationships and common features amongst various PPP applications and crops, as well as an overall quantification of the described parameters; in order to enable a reliable estimation of PPP residues in pollen, nectar and other bee matrices.

In this study, we conducted an experimental panel survey in Norway, Germany and Portugal to explore consumers' willingness to pay more for products that are certified microplastic free. This is placed within the context of private certification schemes and private governance as mechanisms to increase consumer conscientiousness, establish a higher environmental standard in terms of microplastic and reduce marine pollution. We find that consumers in general are very conscious about the issue, would generally prefer products that are microplastics free, but would seldom choose these when there is a price premium on the label. This had a geographical offset though, with the results aligning with that of political trust in the nation, with Norwegians being less likely to purchase items with price premiums for private governance labels, and Portugal being most likely to – even with a price premium.

This paper focuses on destructive fishing practices in coastal Tanzania. I argue that the dominant conservation narrative that increased capacity and ‘political will’ for enforcement of marine protected areas (MPAs) reflects a form of spatial fetishization, in that it overemphasizes the influence of space over social behaviour. I contend that Tanzanian MPAs offer bandage solutions to underlying structural problems that are contingent upon the inconsistent availability of social and financial resources for monitoring activities. I suggest that a paradigm shift is necessary, involving the de-territorialization of marine conservation discourse in Tanzania, and a movement towards addressing the underlying social, political and economic conditions that influence marine resource use.

The leakage of large plastic litter (macroplastics) into the ocean is a major environmental problem. A significant fraction of this leakage originates from coastal cities, particularly during extreme rainfall events. As coastal cities continue to grow, finding ways to reduce this macroplastic leakage is extremely pertinent. Here, we explore why and how coastal cities can reduce macroplastic leakages during extreme rainfall events. Using nine global cities as a basis, we establish that while cities actively create policies that reduce plastic leakages, more needs to be done. Nonetheless, these policies are economically, socially and environmentally cobeneficial to the city environment. While the lack of political engagement and economic concerns limit these policies, lacking social motivation and engagement is the largest limitation towards implementing policy. We recommend cities to incentivize citizen and municipal engagement with responsible usage of plastics, cleaning the environment and preparing for future extreme rainfall events.

We analysed the extent to which European politicians have adhered to scientific recommendations on annual total allowable catches (TACs) from 1987 to 2011, covering most of the period of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). For the 11 stocks examined, TACs were set higher than scientific recommendations in 68% of decisions. Politically-adjusted TACs averaged 33% above scientifically recommended levels. There was no evidence that the 2002 reform of the CFP improved decision-making, as was claimed at the time. We modelled the effects of such politically-driven decision-making on stock sustainability. Our results suggest that political adjustment of scientific recommendations dramatically increases the probability of a stock collapsing within 40years. In 2012 European fisheries policy will undergo a once-a-decade reform. Ten years ago radical reforms were promised but the changes failed to improve sustainability. It is likely that the 2012 reform will be similarly ineffective unless decision-making is changed so that catch allocations are based on science rather than politics.