Pharmaceuticals are a class of biologically active compounds used in human and veterinary medicine, while some of them may be applied for feed production and plant growth stimulation. To systemise the knowledge on pharmaceuticals in plant and soil environment, a literature review was performed. Active substances of pharmaceuticals and their metabolites are typically released into the environment through agricultural application of wastewater and sewage biosolids containing pharmaceuticals, derived from wastewater discharged by households, hospitals and other medical facilities. Another, no less important, source of pharmaceutical release are natural fertilisers (manure and slurry). The fate and behaviour of pharmaceuticals in the soil, including their mobility and availability to plants, depends on the soil physical, chemical and biological properties as well as on the properties of the substance itself. Pharmaceuticals introduced into the soil are taken up and retained in various plant parts. In general, the highest accumulation coefficients have been found in vegetative plant parts, in the following decreasing order: roots> leaves> stems, while the lowest in generative parts, such as grains of cereals.
Pharmaceuticals are long-lasting, biologically active substances that, when discharged into the natural environment, affect ecosystem stability. The presence of increasing amounts of pharmaceuticals and their transformation products in the environment has been a subject of growing interest. Many of the commonly used pharmaceuticals, especially analgesics and antibiotics, are used in quantities similar to those of agricultural chemicals but are not required to undergo the same level of environmental risk assessment. The fate and behavior of medicines in the environment require further research. Human and veterinary pharmaceuticals and their metabolites are distributed in the environment in various ways. The incidence of medicines and their transformation products has been so far recorded in surface and ground waters, drinking water, bottom sediments, soils, wastewater, and sewage sludge, as well as in animal organisms. The article presents issues related to the fate and behavior of pharmaceuticals both in the environment and in the processes of wastewater treatment, ecotoxicology and risk assessment.
In this chapter, the life cycle assessment was presented as a tool to implement sustainable development in the bioeconomy and circular economy. Bulky waste includes large items such as furniture, doors, flooring and mattresses. The management of bulky waste is a serious problem for European countries. The URBANREC project proposed a solution to this problem through the use of new technologies for the bulky waste processing. The aim of the URBANREC project is to implement an eco-innovative, integrated system of bulky waste management and demonstrate its effectiveness in various regions of Europe. The project has received funding from the European Union. In this chapter, the LCA environmental analysis was performed for the technology of grinding bulky waste using a water jet by the Ecofrag company. The calculations were carried out using SimaPro 8.5.2.0. The LCA analysis shows that the reuse of foams and mattresses contributes to the avoidance of their targeted production, which is related with the reduction of greenhouse gas emission and consumption of fossil raw materials.
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