Waste-derived ecosystems: vegetation responses and sustainability challenges

Summary Waste management is one of the major environmental challenges of the twenty-first century. This Perspective examines how vegetation dynamics at composting facilities and landfills both reflect and influence anthropogenic environmental change. We define our use of the Anthropocene as a human-dominated epoch that is functionally and stratigraphically distinct from the Holocene, and we argue that waste-derived ecosystems constitute model systems for detecting its signals through technogenic substrates and synanthropic succession. Although composting reduces pressure on landfills, incomplete processing of biowaste can disseminate propagules of invasive plant species. Landfills, shaped by disturbance and altered edaphic regimes, support synanthropic plant assemblages dominated by neophytes that act as bioindicators of leachate stress and other pressures. At the same time, spontaneous vegetation provides functional benefits, including slope stabilization, organic matter accumulation and habitat provision during early successional stages. We bring together information on risks and functions, link ecological criteria to permitting, monitoring and post-closure management pathways, and outline practical considerations for integrating plant-based indicators with geochemical screening. These steps enable ecologically sensitive strategies to be implemented that mitigate biodiversity risks while leveraging succession to improve the resilience of waste-derived landscapes.