About this Research Topic

Background

Industrial symbiosis (IS) represents a vital application of the circular economy. It brings together two different parties with a win-win strategy, establishing various partnerships such as personnel, workforce, waste recovery, recycling, and more. This process involves utilizing waste produced by one enterprise as raw material in another. Consequently, it reduces raw material consumption, energy usage, and labor requirements. Moreover, it transforms waste into economic input, resulting in minimized waste generation while conserving precious resources and energy. This sustainable process offers environmental, economic, and social benefits. The main focus of this Research Topic is to explore the intersection of industrial sustainability—a broad research field—and air pollution, specifically its contribution to reducing air pollution.

Rapid population growth, uncontrolled urbanization, unplanned industrialization, and excessive waste from unsustainable consumption have escalated environmental problems. These trends in urbanization and industry have led to a significant increase in carbon dioxide emissions over the past 50 years. By the 1990s, it became clear that this issue was not confined to local or regional levels but had become a global concern. As a result, countries recognized the necessity of implementing global measures rather than individual ones. Over the past three decades, countries worldwide have made substantial efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, resulting in agreements to decrease overall emissions. In this context, the widespread adoption of IS practices plays a crucial role. These practices not only minimize resource and energy consumption but also contribute to emission reduction. The primary objective of this Research Topic is to investigate IS applications specifically designed to combat air pollution.

The scope of this Research Topic is to promote IS practices and highlight their significant contributions to reducing air pollution. In this context, our goal is to gather academic scientific papers under various research areas conducted in different fields, unifying them within this special issue. The themes of contributions may include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. IS and low-carbon city applications
2. Industrial parks, IS applications, and their relation to air pollution
3. Life cycle assessment
4. Emission reduction through IS
5. Environmental benefits of IS in the context of air pollution
6. Emerging air contaminants and their relationship with IS
7. International agreements and their effects on emission reduction and IS applications.

Keywords: Low carbon city, Industrial park, Life cycle assessment, Emission reduction, Environmental benefits

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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