Advances in Recycling & Waste Management

Standards are one way to address the issues caused by plastic pollution. Standards can help to drive the transition to a circular economy for plastic resources by addressing quality and safety as well as information and measurement, reducing variety and increasing compatibility. The goal of this work was to categorise existing plastic standards within a circular economy framework, identify potential gaps, and highlight areas for future standards development. 95 plastic standards were identified using desktop research on existing standards, only 9 of which are Australian standards. The majority of the standards address recycling as well as compostable or biodegradable plastics. There are numerous opportunities to create standards for higher levels of the plastics waste hierarchy, such as design and reuse.

Numerous studies have shown that fruits and vegetables are important sources of bioactive compounds. The antioxidant activity of by-products derived from the food industry is comparable or higher. On the other hand, intensive industrialization produces a large volume of by-products, raising serious environmental concerns. As a result, this situation necessitates the development of new strategies to exploit the generated wastes, ensuring the ability to develop new high-added-value products. The purpose of this review is to summarise the utilisation of fruit wastes, specifically apple and citrus, as well as vegetable by-products derived from tomato, potato, and carrot cultivation.