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UrduThe New York Aquarium is debuting a traveling art exhibit, “Washed Ashore: Art to Save the Sea” to message about how plastics polluting the environment are harmful to wildlife and people. The exhibit will be at the aquarium Friday, May 24, to Monday, Sept. 2, 2024.
Tag: Plastic
Recycling study demonstrates new possibilities for a circular plastics economy powered by renewable energy
Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign demonstrated a way to use electricity to recycle polyoxymethylene (POM), a form of plastic that’s growing in use but more challenging to recycle.
Making Renewable, Infinitely Recyclable Plastics Using Bacteria
In a study published today, researchers successfully engineered microbes to make biological alternatives for the starting ingredients in an infinitely recyclable plastic known as poly(diketoenamine), or PDK.
Plastic surgery goes to the movies: Journal of Craniofacial Surgery looks at facial disfigurement
Characters with facial disfigurement have long been a recurring theme in films. Their characteristics and outcomes lend insights into perceptions of facial deformities and the effects of plastic surgery, reports a study in The Journal of Craniofacial Surgery under the guidance of Editor-in-Chief Mutaz B. Habal, MD, FRCS, FACS of Tampa, Florida. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.
GW Expert Available: UN Committee Meets This Week on Treaty to End Global Plastic Pollution
Talks are underway this week to create a global treaty that would bring an end to plastic pollution. According to The Associated Press, a United Nations committee is meeting in Paris to work on what would be a landmark agreement that…
Engineering team receives $3.6M to combat plastic waste
Plastics transformed engineering in the past century, but they also transformed the environment in ways that will take millennia to repair. Washington University in St. Louis is leading a new effort to address the grand challenge of developing the next generation of high-performance, sustainably sourced and biodegradable plastics that advance engineering while also protecting the environment.
New ‘stealth’ polymer a promising alternative for delivering drugs around the body
Researchers have developed a novel synthetic substance that has the potential to be a more effective and safer way of delivering drugs around the body.
Phthalate alternative may harm brain development and health
Growing concerns over the potential health effects of exposure to phthalates have led to a search for safer alternatives. Researchers found that the chemical acetyl tributyl citrate (ATBC) might not be the best replacement.
Upcycling is the new recycling
The world generates about 300 million tons of plastic waste annually, and more than 90% of all plastic ever made has never been recycled. Part of what drives all that waste into landfills or into the environment is the difficulty of recycling plastic, which is designed to last for a very long time. Traditional plastic recycling suffers from a fundamental flaw, said Marcus Foston: there’s no financial incentive for companies to do it.
A lasting impact: microplastics settling into soil
Soils with high concentrations of microplastics could experience limited water flow
BGSU researcher helps create process to decompose plastic on demand
The plastic, made from a chemical found in the extract of a vanilla bean, degrades when exposed to a specific wavelength of light
Call for Abstracts – The 11th International Symposium on Feedstock Recycling of Polymeric Materials (ISFR)
The Center of Excellence on Petrochemical and Materials Technology together with Chulalongkorn University’s Department of Chemical Technology (Faculty of Science), the Petroleum and Petrochemical College, and Research Association for Feedstock Recycling of Plastics (FSRJ) (Japan) cordially invite all interested to join the “11th International Symposium on Feedstock Recycling of Polymeric Materials (ISFR)” on November 29 – December 2, 2022 at Nongnooch Garden Pattaya, Chonburi, Thailand. The event will be one of the first carbon-neutral events to be held in Thailand.
Scientists develop new material inspired by limpets with super strength
An interdisciplinary team of biologists, chemists and engineers from the University of Portsmouth have become the first to successfully grow a limpet inspired biomaterial with extreme strength.
Closed-loop additive manufacturing fueled by upcycled plastic
Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed an upcycling approach that adds value to discarded plastics for reuse in additive manufacturing, or 3D printing. The readily adoptable, scalable method introduces a closed-loop strategy that could globally reduce plastic waste and cut carbon emissions tied to plastic production.
Step Toward a Circular Economy?
Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is one of the most common plastics. Discarded PET most often ends up in landfills or in the environment because the rate of recycling remains low.
Turning Plastic Grocery Bags into Sustainable Fuel
In Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, by AIP Publishing, researchers from Caltech report using catalytic pyrolysis to turn plastic wastes into a valuable fuel source. They focused on recycling plastic and upgrading plastic into other products or converting it to a vapor with heat, which met a catalyst and turned into the desired fuel-like product.
Flexible, wearable X-ray detector doesn’t require heavy metals
Researchers in ACS’ Nano Letters report a proof-of-concept wearable X-ray detector prepared from nontoxic metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) layered between flexible plastic and gold electrodes for high-sensitivity sensing and imaging.
University of Portsmouth becomes the first non-US partner of a new project to tackle plastic pollution in the USA
The University of Portsmouth is now a key member of a collaborative effort funded by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) and industry to tackle the growing global crisis of plastic waste.
New enzyme breaks down waste for less expensive biofuels, bioproducts
In a step toward increasing the cost-effectiveness of renewable biofuels and bioproducts, scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory discovered a microbial enzyme that degrades tough-to-break bonds in lignin, a waste product of biorefineries.
This crystal impurity is sheer perfection
Scientists at Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley have developed a nanoparticle composite that grows into 3D crystals. The new 3D-grown material could speed up production and eliminate errors in the mass manufacturing of nanoscale photonics for smart buildings or actuators for robotics.
The Future Looks Bright for Infinitely Recyclable Plastic
Plastics are ubiquitous, but they’re not practical. Less than 10% are recycled, and the other ~8 billion tons are creating a pollution crisis. A Berkeley Lab team is determined to change that. A new analysis shows producing and recycling their game-changing new plastic could be easy and cheap enough to leave old plastics in the dust.
Polystyrene waste is everywhere; scientists just found a way to break it down
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory and their partners from Clemson University have discovered a green, low-energy process to break down polystyrene, a type of plastic that is widely used in foam packaging materials, disposable food containers, cutlery, and many other applications.
How Does Plastic Debris Make Its Way Into Ocean Garbage Patches?
Researchers in the U.S. and Germany decided to explore which pathways transport debris to the middle of the oceans, causing garbage patches, as well as the relative strengths of different subtropical gyres and how they influence long-term accumulation of debris. In Chaos, they report creating a model of the oceans’ surface dynamics from historical trajectories of surface buoys. Their model describes the probability of plastic debris being transported from one region to another.
Plastics pose threat to human health
Plastics contain and leach hazardous chemicals, including endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) that threaten human health. An authoritative new report, Plastics, EDCs, & Health, from the Endocrine Society and the IPEN (International Pollutants Elimination Network), presents a summary of international research on the health impacts of EDCs and describes the alarming health effects of widespread contamination from EDCs in plastics.
Pervasive plastics increase exposure to harmful chemicals
The Endocrine Society and IPEN will release a comprehensive joint report Dec. 15 on endocrine-disrupting chemicals in plastics and the threat they pose to public health. Experts will share highlights from the report during a virtual news conference Dec. 15.
New study the first to link plastic ingestion and dietary metals in seabirds
A new study by Australian scientists is the first to find a relationship between plastic debris ingested by seabirds and liver concentrations of mineral metals, with potential links to pollution and nutrition.
NSF grant to fund research into ‘microcleaners’ for waterways
Engineers from Cornell University and North Carolina State University have proposed a creative solution: an army of swimming, self-propelled biomaterials called ‘microcleaners’ that scavenge and capture plastics so they can be decomposed by computationally-engineered microorganisms.
FSU researchers help develop sustainable polymers
Researchers at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering have made new discoveries on the effects of temperature on sustainable polymers. Their findings may help the industry to produce plastics that are better for the environment.
From Plastic to Protein Powder
Michigan Tech researchers have been selected for a $7.2 million DARPA cooperative agreement award to turn military plastic waste into protein powder and lubricants.
Micro- and nanoplastics detectable in human tissues
When plastic breaks down, tiny fragments can get into the environment. Scientists now report that they are among the first to examine micro- and nanoplastics in human organs and tissues. They will present their results today at the American Chemical Society Fall 2020 Virtual Meeting & Expo.
New Science Behind Algae-based Flip-flops
UC San Diego researchers formulated polyurethane foams, made from algae oil, to meet commercial specifications for midsole shoes and the foot-bed of flip-flops. Their latest result, in a series of recent research publications, offers a complete solution to the plastics problem—at least for polyurethanes.
Harmful Microbes Found on Sewer Pipe Walls
Can antibiotic-resistant bacteria escape from sewers into waterways and cause a disease outbreak? A new Rutgers study, published in the journal Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology, examined the microbe-laden “biofilms” that cling to sewer walls, and even built a simulated sewer to study the germs that survive within.
Rutgers’ William Roberts, inventor of air-inflated greenhouses, dies
New Brunswick, N.J. (June 9, 2020) – Rutgers University–New Brunswick faculty are available to discuss the late William Roberts, who had a 41-year career at Rutgers and invented the air-inflated greenhouse covering system that revolutionized agriculture worldwide. Roberts, a Distinguished…
Using Big Data to Design Gas Separation Membranes
Researchers at Columbia Engineering and the University of South Carolina have developed a method that combines big data and machine learning to selectively design gas-filtering polymer membranes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Their study, published today in Science Advances, is the first to apply an experimentally validated machine learning method to rapidly design and develop advanced gas separation membranes.
Faster-degrading plastic could promise cleaner seas
To address plastic pollution plaguing the world’s seas and waterways, Cornell University chemists have developed a new polymer that can degrade by ultraviolet radiation, according to research published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
ESF is First College in New York to Sign Plastic Ban Pledge
The SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) is the first college in New York state to sign the #breakfreefromplastic pledge committing to develop a roadmap to a plastic-free campus by 2025. Students drive the college’s zero-waste efforts.
Designing plastic to break down in the ocean is possible, but is it practical?
In a study, the researchers used a machine learning algorithm to classify more than 110 types of plastics, including commercial and lab-made varieties, to better understand how they might degrade in the ocean.
Scientists Discover New Clue Behind Age-Related Diseases and Food Spoilage
Berkeley Lab scientists have made a surprising discovery that could help explain our risk for developing chronic diseases or cancers as we get older, and how our food decomposes over time.
NYS plastic bag ban key but fees, loopholes are cause for concern
Starting March 1, 2020, New York’s ban on single-use plastic bags will take effect. Just this week, the state Department of Environmental Conservation released its final regulations to govern the ban. Mildred Warner is a professor of city and regional planning,…
Breaking Down Biodegradable: UF Scientist Creates Guide to Bioplastics
“Bioplastics—a better option for the environment?” is a compilation of information about bioplastics. These alternative plastics have become more popular, and as it turns out, they’re effectively still the same as petroleum-based plastic, according to Dr. McGuire’s document.
Why It Matters: China Doesn’t Want Your Trash
For years, China processed more than half of the world’s plastic recycling. Then, in 2018, it stopped. Things have gotten messy since then.
Sunlight degrades polystyrene faster than expected
A study published by researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) shows that polystyrene, one of the world’s most ubiquitous plastics, may degrade in decades or centuries when exposed to sunlight, rather than thousands of years as previously thought. The study published October 10, 2019, in the journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters.