Vincenzo Torretta

• Professor (Full) at University of Insubria

Featured Application This work presents important data about the impact of the coagulation and flocculation process on the industrial-scale treatment of brewery wastewater, providing technical operators with essential information about the efficacy of various reagents under varied conditions. Abstract Brewery wastewater (BWW) often contains a high...

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In indoor environments, a structured strategy is needed to reduce the risk of infection. In addition to maintaining proper ventilation and wearing face masks, the development of effective technologies for limiting the transmission of SARS-CoV-2...

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) are emerging contaminants (ECs), whose presence in the environment is of increasing concern due to their widespread use and possible detrimental effects on wildlife and humans. These chemicals may present multiple hazardous properties such as environmental persistence, toxicity, high mobility, and...

The transition from a linear to a circular production system involves transforming waste into valuable resources, reintroducing them into the production cycle, and thereby generating value. One of the major challenges for the coming years is to implement sustainable strategies for waste management and valorisation. In particular, current recovery s...

The introduction of appropriate solid waste management (SWM) strategies can foster the mitigation of waste open dumping and burning in low-income developing cities. In this work, the SWM system in Gulu (Uganda) has been studied, and a material flow analysis, also of informal flows of waste, has been carried out. Moreover, the effectiveness of the S...

The paper explores the implementation of process performance management systems in the automotive industry, specifically focusing on improving the assembly line of an organization within this sector thanks to the introduction of cobots in the line of manufacturing electronic modules used in car seat control systems. With an emphasis on environmenta...

To date, few studies that developed a complete Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) are available in literature, but they are limited to non-conventional processes and did not take into consideration the entire drinking water treatment plant (DWTP). Moreover, few data of the environmental impact are currently available for some of the most widely applied te...

Thermoplastic compounds are present in various industrial, domestic and consumer applications thanks to their strength, lightness, flexibility and processing properties. However, thermoplastics are often derived from polymers formed from non-renewable sources, such as petroleum. In addition, the production processes have a high consumption of energ...

In recent years, the importance of sustainability and circularity in waste management systems has become increasingly evident. As the world grapples with the environmental consequences of excessive waste generation, it has become crucial to find innovative and sustainable solutions. Universities, as centres of knowledge and research, play a vital r...

Two case studies are reported in the present work. They regard municipal solid waste (MSW) management trends in the last decades in two Italian provinces selected to analyse some issues of waste management in mountainous areas. The first case study refers to a selective collection (SC) rate expected to reach 80 % soon. This scenario assumes SC main...

Collecting urban solid waste (USW) is a critical and essential phase for proper waste management and valorization. To date, many data are available for large cities, but few studies have focused on low-density areas, such as mountainous regions. Considering this lack in the literature, this study aimed to compare two separate waste collection syste...

Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas found in rocks, soil, and building materials. Precisely because of its gaseous nature, it tends to concentrate in indoor environments, resulting in a danger to human health. The effects of radon have been described, documented, and attested by the international scientific community and recognized as th...

The research assessed waste-based briquettes consumption compared to conventional fuels in the Andes. Laboratory tests were conducted together with on-field analysis in Colquencha (Bolivia). The laboratory study shows that the performances of briquettes are better in terms of PM2.5 (933.4 ± 50.8 mg kg−1) and CO emissions (22.89 ± 2.40 g kg−1) compa...

Textile plays a crucial role in a circular economy and its traditional use needs to be replaced with sustainable ways. A circular economy gives repurpose and value to a resource in a continuous loop to be useful to its maximum extent at the end of stage life. Also, with the increase in population, consumption of resources, inflation, and environmen...

Open dumping and burning of solid waste are common practices in low-income countries. On small and touristic islands, the problem is exacerbated due to the additional volume of waste amount generated by tourists. This article presents how, using Nosy Be island in Madagascar as a case study, waste recovery and recycling can be fostered by tourism to...

Open burning and incineration are the two most common treatments for hospital solid waste in low-income countries. Due to the absence of limits on emissions and the lack of technical capacity or funding, obsolete incinerators do not guarantee neither a low environmental and economic impact nor people health. The SIRSU Project, co-financed by the It...

In the present paper, two case studies are reported regarding the municipal solid waste (MSW) management trend in the last decades in two Italian areas in order to propose some guidelines for replicating the approaches. The first case study has a very good selective collection (SC) rate that is expected to reach 80 % in a few years. SC is made main...

Biowaste treatment with Black Soldier Fly (BSF) larvae is an alternative option for organic waste valorization. Its environmental impacts should be assessed and compared with conventional treatment options. The research aims to evaluate the treatment of organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) with BSF larvae through a life cycle assessmen...

Waste-based briquettes can be a secondary product capable to cope with solid waste management issues and a lack of energy sources. This study evaluates the socio-economic aspects of non-recyclable cardboard waste and sawdust briquettes production and consumption in Bolivia. The goal is to understand whether waste-based briquettes can be cost-effect...

The accumulation of synthetic plastic waste in the environment has become a global concern. Microbial enzymes (purified or as whole-cell biocatalysts) represent emerging biotechnological tools for waste circularity; they can depolymerize materials into reusable building blocks, but their contribution must be considered within the context of present...

The occurrence of arsenic in water is a global problem for public health. Several removal technologies have been developed for arsenic removal from water, and adsorption onto iron oxy-hydroxides is the most widely used technique. Granular ferric hydroxide (GFH) has been used mainly for As(V) removal, but it has the disadvantage that it can create a...

The Universitas Indonesia GreenMetric World Ranking is the most widely adopted system nowadays to rank worldwide universities’ sustainability. The number of participating universities has consistently increased throughout the last decade. An in-depth analysis of this ranking system is made to assess how sustainability in universities is measured th...

Developing countries suffer from both lack of resources and appropriate solid waste management systems. Therefore, the introduction of alternative options for waste valorisation is imperative. The current research introduces an environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of waste-based briquettes produced with 80 % of non-recyclable cardboard waste f...

A pilot-scale experiment was implemented in a waste bioreactor with an inner capacity of 1 m³ in order to simulate a real-scale composting process. The waste underwent composting conditions that are typical of the initial bio-oxidation phase, characterised by a high production of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), hydrogen sulphide (H2S) and odoran...

In Bolivia, construction and demolition waste (CDW) is unmanaged. The current research implemented a CDW flow analysis and a cost assessment in the city of La Paz, aiming to compare future recycling scenarios. Lack of data is challenging; therefore, a review of 31 international studies has been conducted. Results report that the waste generation ra...

Solid waste management (SWM) represents an important issue for small islands. This research evaluates the municipal SWM system of the Pelagian archipelago, in Italy. The research aims to evaluate environmental and econoemic benefits of onsite treatment plants for the valorization of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste. The sizing of the a...

Developing countries suffer poor solid waste management (SWM) systems, and setting priorities to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is urgent. The current research aims to assess Ugandan SWM system, and the main circular strategies implemented in the last decade to identify actions that should be prioritised towards a sustainable developm...

Waste-based briquettes can be an alternative option that can foster the reduction of waste inflow into final disposal sites and introduce alternative energy sources for cooking and heating in rural areas. In particular, the assumption of waste-based briquettes in Andean areas can be of higher potential, due to the lack of biomass sources locally av...

Solid waste management and the increasing energy demand are a global concern. Waste can play the role of alternative fuel, partly reducing the environmental footprint in the waste management sector. Waste briquetting is used as a treatment option for improving waste combustion efficiency, as well as its management and handling. This critical review...

Solid recovered fuels (SRF) can provide another treatment option to the solid waste management (SWM) sector. However, in developing countries, to date, this system approach has not found considerable application. In Bolivia, SRF is not deemed within the national regulation and the final disposal in open dumping areas is still a reality. This resear...

Bolivia faces increasing challenges with solid waste management. Rapid urbanisation and population growth will increase the need of Bolivia's cities to develop an effective waste management system. This study performed 998 household surveys in La Paz through online forms during the covid19 pandemic. The aim is to explore residents' waste recycling...

This paper introduces the preliminary results of a development project focused on waste recycling and recovery in La Paz (Bolivia). The aim is to share best practices and to present real-world challenges when implementing appropriate waste management systems in developing countries. Environmental pollution, social inequality, lack of resources, and...

Nowadays, most countries of the world are implementing the transition to the low-carbon economy which implies the need to carry out a full-scale eco-modernization of the energy sector. Green energy may be identified as one of the core concerns of energy sector modernization as it allows a considerable decrease in emissions of harmful substances int...

The implementation of investment projects has an important role to play in the development of the economy and also to be in concordance with the Circular Economy concepts, as it causes not only the flows of financial and labour resources into the regional economy but also stimulates the development of scientific and technological progress and the e...

In the present paper, different types of pure and commercial plastic waste from different EU countries (UK, France, Italy, and Romania) were investigated for microstructure surface morphology and chemical properties by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDXS). The goal of the current investigation was to de...

The development of renewable energy is one of the strategic directions of eco-modernization of the Russian energy sector, which will not only reduce the negative impact of the industry on the environment, but also provide remote territories with the stable access to electricity. Despite the fact that the Russian regions have a great potential for t...

Effective fluoride removal from water is a persistent global concern both for drinking water and wastewater treatment. According to World Health Organization (WHO), standards for the maximum contaminant level in drinking water cannot be higher than 1.5 mg F⁻ L⁻¹ since affects the skeletal and nervous systems of humans. Various technologies have bee...

Construction and demolition waste (CDW) and municipal solid waste (MSW) are the waste flows mostly generated at a global level. In developing countries, most of these waste streams are disposed of in open dumps. Policy-makers should be informed in which priorities should be established in order to improve the quality of the environment. The current...

The interest in research on up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactors is growing. The meta-analysis of bibliometric data highlighted the growing interest in four diverse topics: (i) energy recovery production; (ii) combination with other treatments; (iii) the study of processes for the removal of specific pollutants and, (iv) characterizatio...

Ecological and economic assessment is a key stage in the selection process of investment projects as it defines their efficiency and allows to forecast their likely impact on the environment and the socio-economic situation of the territory. Approaches to the efficiency assessment of investment projects include only basic criteria and do not suffic...

To date, energy recovery from biological sewage sludge (BSS) by anaerobic digestion has been very popular. However, it can often happen that anaerobic reactors are volumetrically undersized, thus reducing performance in terms of biogas production. A continuous-flow pilot-scale plant was used to investigate, for the first time, the effects of mesoph...

Construction and demolition waste (CDW) management in developing countries is a global concern. The analysis of scenarios and the implementation of life cycle assessment (LCA) support decision-makers in introducing integrated CDW management systems. This paper introduces the application of an LCA in La Paz (Bolivia), where CDW is mainly dumped in o...

The life cycle assessment (LCA) of municipal solid waste (MSW) systems in developing countries is a matter of research. Obtain reliable results is challenging since field data and local databases are not always available. The research presented in this paper explores this issue in La Paz (Bolivia), where six environmental impact categories were ass...

This research aimed to identify a tool to objectively analyse the performance and the environmental contextualization of sewer systems (SwSs) and wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). This procedure performs assessment by calculating performance indices which could be subsequently applied to SwSs and WWTPs with different characteristics. The propose...

With more than 350 GWh per year and thousands of installations around the world, biogas is an appealing strategy in the field of energy production and industrial waste optimization. In this sense, it is of paramount importance to address the risk associated with such plants, as an increasing trend of accidents have been recorded in the last 20 year...

The present special issue collected articles that address the very important topic of innovative approaches in water and wastewater treatment technologies. Thirteen articles are published, ten research paper and three review articles. The papers can be divided in four major categories, namely, membrane treatment, adsorption studies, advanced oxidat...

Among the critical issues that prevent the reuse of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) effluents in a circular economy perspective, the microbiological component plays a key role causing infections and diseases. To date, the use of conventional chemical oxidants (e.g., chlorine) represent the main applied process for wastewater (WW) disinfection f...

Solid waste open dumping is a big issue in the developing world. Environmental and social impacts due to this practice affect population health, increasing the spread of diseases and child mortality. The safe collection of waste is the first step for reducing these impacts. This research assesses households' waste collection in a Bolivian developin...

The concrete industry is a core element of the building sector, but it has to deal with the increasing attention on the environmental issues related to the production process: increasing energy efficiency and the adoption of alternative fuels or raw materials represent the most relevant solutions. The present work analyses physical, mechanical, and...

The management of food waste has been considered an extremely important issue since the 1990s but finding efficient solutions for small and rural communities is still challenging. Anaerobic digestion (AD) may provide interesting opportunities in terms of carbon emissions and economic payback in the long term, but the choice of the correct technolog...

In the last decades, the considerable improvements made on the mitigation of the environmental impacts from waste-to-energy (WtE) plants have let heavy metals emerge as the most concerning pollutants emitted from this sector. Heavy metals include a broad spectrum of compounds with very different toxicological effects on human health. However, in th...

The implementation of waste selective collection (SC) schemes in low-income countries is a challenge although it is one important way for improving environmental sustainability. The inclusion of the population is necessary for gaining effective results, and social surveys are support methods for understanding citizens’ involvement and behaviour. Th...

The optimization of municipal solid waste management requires the re-organization of niche sectors too. The sector of the university is not fully explored from the scientific point of view. The creation of networks among universities in order to face this issue allows an exchange of expertise also at an international level as demonstrated in this a...

Solid waste open dumping in developing countries is a global concern. To move towards sustainable development, mixed waste should be reduced, and recyclable waste recovered. The aim of the current research was to find appropriate solutions to disposable used baby-diapers recycling in Bolivia since it is a waste fraction widely produced and commonly...

In recent years, several studies focused on developing processes aimed at recovering nutrients such as nitrogen. In this paper, a real plant for ammonia stripping has been tested on a real aqueous waste in order to optimize the process conditions (air flow rate and pH). The results of a finite element mathematical model were compared with the ones...

Fluorides represent a significant problem in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In fact, this ion is essential for human health but, if taken in excess, it can cause dental and skeletal fluorosis. In LMICs, the pollution of groundwater from fluorides is of natural origin. Therefore, if providing alternative sources for drinking water (DW) su...

Organic dust explosions were and are still today a critical issue in the food, pharmaceutical, and fine chemical industry. Materials such as flour, corn starch, sugar and APIs represent a cause of severe accidents. In this framework, we investigated a modified version of Recursive Operability Analysis−Incidental Sequence Diagrams (ROA–ISD), called...

The formation of persistent foams can be a critical problem in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) as it could lead to a series of operational problems, especially the reduction of the overall system performance. To date, the effects of foaming in the WWTPs are a problem that is currently very common and shared, but which to date is treated mainly...

Studies about the measurement of outdoor tobacco smoke (OTS) are limited to a few very recent studies. In many countries around the world, within public buildings, smoking is prohibited by law. However, these prohibitions often drive smokers to move to the border of the areas where smoking is forbidden, typically the entrances of buildings, in orde...

In the coming years, water stress is destined to worsen considering that the consumption of water is expected to increase significantly, and climate change is expected to become more evident. Greywater (GW) has been studied as an alternative water source in arid and semiarid zones. Although there is no single optimal solution in order to treat GW,...

Using a life cycle assessment (LCA) to evaluate municipal solid waste management (MSWM) systems is strongly recommended and the approach has been used in high-income contexts. However, stakeholders in low to middle-income countries are not aware of the potential of this approach, mainly due to a lack of financial resources and technical ability. Th...

The implementation of solid waste selective collection (SC) systems is quite difficult in low-middle income countries. Lack of awareness, infrastructure, administrative support and knowledge about recycling are the main barriers for its operation, reducing the possibility of successes. This paper introduces the methodological approach for assessing...

An adequate access to water supply systems is crucial for a sustainable future. Climate change is expected to increase water shortage problems worldwide. Reuse/recycling of treated wastewater for domestic and/or agricultural purposes can be considered an interesting water supply: it is independent from seasonal drought and meteorological variabilit...

The analysis of municipal solid waste (MSW) selective collection (SC) scenarios is compulsory for planning future policies and actions towards circular economy. The use of geographic information system (GIS) is appropriated for obtaining reliable data about SC yields and management costs. However, in low-middle income countries, advanced assessment...

In spite of their positive role in the framework of circular economy, waste-to-energy processes are responsible for the emissions of a large number of air pollutants. Although this sector has made significant improvements in the air pollution control of primary emissions, the role of other sources (i.e. secondary emissions) has been often neglected...

In spite of their positive role in the framework of circular economy, waste-to-energy processes are responsible for the emissions of a large number of air pollutants. Although this sector has made significant improvements in the air pollution control of primary emissions, the role of other sources (i.e. secondary emissions) has been often neglected...

In the developing world, healthcare waste management is a human health and environmental burden that should be solved for improving sustainability. Solutions should be introduced in the short term, concerning management, planning, financial assistance and expertise. The paper introduces an indicator set for assessing healthcare waste management in...

The issues concerning the management of sewage sludge produced in wastewater treatment plants are becoming more important in Europe due to: (i) the modification of sludge quality (biological and chemical sludge are often mixed with negative impacts on sludge management, especially for land application); (ii) the evolution of legislation (landfill d...