Sustainable Urban Mining

Dear Colleagues,

In a world increasingly in demand of materials as well as concerned about environmental effects, there has been growing interest in urban mining: the extraction and utilization of materials from anthropogenic stocks. In this special issue we invite papers that look critically and constructively at:

• The economic or environmental promise of urban mining: which concentrations of materials are verifiably comparable or higher than natural stocks? What does this mean locally and globally? Which data do we need for reliable estimates and localization?
• The flows of materials in urban environments and their relation to different industries and urban activities: how materials enter cities, how they are processed, how they may become waste, when does this happen and who is involved. How do these constrain urban mining?
• Differences between kinds of materials, anthropogenic stocks and flows: can urban mining be applied to all kinds? Do we need to prioritize or adapt to particular conditions?
• Sustainable processes through which materials can be recovered from urban environments or their products, without impeding human activities but maximizing circularity and reducing environmental impact.

Papers reporting on specific cases and detailed quantitative analyses are particularly welcome, as are balanced studies that transparently explore the sustainability of urban mining in all its aspects.

Dr. Alexander Koutamanis
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Urban mining
• sustainability
• environment
• circularity
• waste
• recycling
• material scarcity
• resources
• cities