• Researchers at Egypt's Nile University are developing a way to turn dried shrimp shells that would otherwise be thrown away into thin films of biodegradable plastic they hope will be used t make eco-friendly grocery bags and packaging. (aqua.deals)
  • A team of Egyptian researchers at the country's Nile University has developed a unique alternative to plastic by turning dried shrimp cells into thin films of biodegradable plastic for eco-friendly grocery bags and packaging. (designindaba.com)
  • While consumers may expect that "compostable" plastics will degrade quickly in their compost bins, this may not be the case, say researchers. (channelnewsasia.com)
  • These microbes degrade plastics into much smaller fragments before consuming them, which makes new biomass (cell growth), and releases water, carbon dioxide and, when oxygen is limited, methane. (channelnewsasia.com)
  • So while consumers may expect that "compostable" plastics will degrade quickly in their backyard compost bins, this may not be the case. (channelnewsasia.com)
  • The products made from these chemical building blocks are intended to degrade or digest when they're discarded, so they won't contribute to the problem of plastic pollution. (theiet.org)
  • The new technology should theoretically be applicable to other types of polyester plastics, perhaps allowing the creation of compostable plastic containers, which currently are made of polyethylene, a type of polyolefin that does not degrade. (eurekalert.org)
  • They degrade under ultraviolet light and are present at a concentration of less than 1% of the weight of the plastic -- low enough not to be a problem. (eurekalert.org)
  • When you see something labelled [as biodegradable], I think you automatically assume it will degrade more quickly than conventional bags,' says Imogen Napper, the research fellow leading the study. (lsnglobal.com)
  • Oxo-degradable plastics contain inorganic additives ─ metal salts ─ that are triggered by oxygen and UV-light and cause the plastic to degrade. (youris.com)
  • Unlike biodegradables, plastics never degrade and instead only break down into smaller fragments. (californianorth.com)
  • Plastics are one of the world's largest polluters, taking hundreds of years to degrade in nature. (yale.edu)
  • It also does not degrade, creating tons of plastic waste that sits in landfills for years. (acs.org)
  • By Isabel Thomlinson, PhD Researcher, Centre for Sustainable Chemical Technologies The idea of a "biodegradable" plastic suggests a material that would degrade to little or nothing over a period of time, posing less of a hazard to wildlife and the. (bath.ac.uk)
  • Most biodegradable and compostable plastics are bioplastics, made from plants rather than fossil fuels and depending on the application you need them for, there are plenty to choose from. (bbc.com)
  • Most compostable plastics, made primarily of the polyester known as polylactic acid, or PLA, end up in landfills and last as long as forever plastics. (eurekalert.org)
  • University of California, Berkeley, scientists have now invented a way to make these compostable plastics break down more easily, with just heat and water, within a few weeks, solving a problem that has flummoxed the plastics industry and environmentalists. (eurekalert.org)
  • Most biodegradable or compostable plastics require industrial processes and high temperatures to break them down. (foodnavigator-asia.com)
  • The big drive now is to produce biorenewable and biodegradable polymers or plastics. (zmescience.com)
  • The researchers employed natural antimicrobial agents derived from sources such as cloves, oregano, thyme and paprika to create novel biodegradable polymers or plastics to potentially block the formation of bacterial biofilms on food surfaces and packaging. (medindia.net)
  • Iowa State University researchers are using ultrasonics to break up and disperse nanoclays that can reinforce biorenewable and biodegradable plastics made from corn and soy proteins. (iastate.edu)
  • Feb. 13, 2019 Plastic bag pollution has become a huge environmental problem, prompting some cities and countries to heavily tax or ban the sacks. (sciencedaily.com)
  • She tested bags labelled as biodegradable, compostable, and oxo-biodegradable, as well as conventional high density polyethylene (HDPE) bags. (bbc.com)
  • Most of these plastics are either high-density polyethylene (used for plastic bottles and pipes), polypropylene (used for packaging, but has many other applications) or polyvinylchloride (PVC - used for piping). (discovermagazine.com)
  • The team pinned down conventional high-density polyethylene plastic bags and biodegradable bags made from corn-starch in sediment plots in the marsh. (acs.org)
  • What if we had something that looked like plastic, behaved like plastic but is totally biodegradable? (tricitynews.com)
  • The result is a biocompositewhich is totally biodegradable and thus supports sustainable development. (bakeryandsnacks.com)
  • Biodegradable and recyclable plastics can be used more than once but are also less of an environmental threat if they end up in oceans or landfills. (sciencedaily.com)
  • Biodegradable plastics have been advertised as one solution to the plastic pollution problem bedeviling the world, but today's "compostable" plastic bags, utensils and cup lids don't break down during typical composting and contaminate other recyclable plastics, creating headaches for recyclers. (eurekalert.org)
  • There are many different ideas and notions of what recyclable plastics are, but there's no clear picture as to where we are going and where we want to be by 2050", says Teis Hansen. (lu.se)
  • Bioplastics are a form of plastics derived from plant sources such as hemp oil, soy bean oil and corn starch rather than traditional plastics which are derived from petroleum. (nextnature.net)
  • In research described in Communications Materials , the team used those predictors to identify 14 PHA-based bioplastics that could replace nearly 75 percent of the world's plastic production. (lanl.gov)
  • While biodegradable plastics are a growing market, not all bioplastics are equal. (foodnavigator-asia.com)
  • Scientists at Tel Aviv University say the bioplastics polymer they developed derives from microorganisms that feed on seaweed, making it biodegradable, with zero toxic waste and completely recyclable. (ifcj.org)
  • American Texas A&M University researchers have developed a technique involving a 'plug-in' preconditioning process that uses agriculture byproducts of corn stubble, grasses, and mesquite to produce sustainable bioplastics. (hospitalmanagement.net)
  • Texas A&M researchers build a plug-in preconditioning process based on previous research to produce bioplastics. (hospitalmanagement.net)
  • But researchers have made a breakthrough, using wood byproducts, that shows promise for producing more durable and sustainable bioplastics. (yale.edu)
  • Colorado State University chemists have done the impossible: they've synthesized a fully recyclable, biodegradable polymer. (zmescience.com)
  • Their work will not only keep countless tons of plastic from piling up in the landfills in the future, but also break petroleum's grip on the polymer industry. (zmescience.com)
  • A graphical illustration of the researchers' polymer synthesis process. (zmescience.com)
  • They developed precise reaction conditions that allow the GBL to polymerize at low temperature, and a process involving heat between 220-300 degrees Celsius (428-572 Fahrenheit) that breaks the polymer down into the original monomer, making it the first truly chemically recyclable plastic ever developed. (zmescience.com)
  • The adult carcasses are being used as a new starting material for the researchers, especially as they contain chitin, a polymer chain with numerous uses. (theiet.org)
  • PLA is one such polymer in the bio-based plastics market, often labeled as biodegradable and compostable. (press-news.org)
  • When exposed to heat and water, the enzyme shrugs off its polymer shroud and starts chomping the plastic polymer into its building blocks -- in the case of PLA, reducing it to lactic acid, which can feed the soil microbes in compost. (eurekalert.org)
  • The most durable plastics have an almost crystal-like molecular structure, with polymer fibers aligned so tightly that water can't penetrate them, let alone microbes that might chew up the polymers, which are organic molecules. (eurekalert.org)
  • Xu's idea was to embed nanoscale polymer-eating enzymes directly in a plastic or other material in a way that sequesters and protects them until the right conditions unleash them. (eurekalert.org)
  • Aquapak Polymers has developed a new polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH) polymer that is both 100 percent recyclable and 100 percent biodegradable, and effectively bypasses the difficulties of separating film and rigid plastic. (sustainablebrands.com)
  • The new polymer could replace multilayer packaging for a wide range of products, such as pouches, films, wrappers, plastic windows in paper envelopes and bread bags, and more. (sustainablebrands.com)
  • A two-step approach that converts a common plastic into a biodegradable polymer could cut the number of packing peanuts and Styrofoam cups that end up in landfills, researchers suggest. (sciencenews.org)
  • These one-celled helpers feed on seaweed which can be cultivated offshore and are then used to produce a polymer to create nontoxic and biodegradable plastics. (ifcj.org)
  • We mated natural substances with controlled-release, biodegradable polymers that could inhibit or prevent the formation of bacterial biofilms," explained Ashley Carbone, a graduate student at Rutgers who constructed the polymer compounds that were tested. (medindia.net)
  • Researchers who have developed a self-cleaning bioplastic inspired by the lotus leaf that is sturdy, sustainable and compostable, and ideal for fresh food packaging, are now looking for commercial partners. (foodnavigator-asia.com)
  • RMIT PhD researcher Mehran Ghasemlou, lead author of the study published in Science of the Total Environment ​, said the new bioplastic was ideal for fresh food and takeaway packaging. (foodnavigator-asia.com)
  • A team of researchers from the KTU Faculty of Chemical Technology have created a fully-compostable packaging for food products from bioplastic, which disintegrates with the help of microorganisms. (plastemart.com)
  • According to researchers, the main challenge while creating bioplastic is not only to make it degradable but also transparent, as this quality is often required by customers. (plastemart.com)
  • Yao then led a comprehensive life cycle assessment to test the environmental impacts of the bioplastic against commons plastics. (yale.edu)
  • additionally, researchers say the bioplastic can be broken back down into the slurry by mechanical stirring, which also allows for the DES to be recovered and reused. (yale.edu)
  • According to the researchers, another advantage is that the new bioplastic products canbe manufactured on the same machinery as conventional plastic productswhich are only partially biodegradable. (bakeryandsnacks.com)
  • Finland is the leader in Europe forcompletely biodegradable bioplastic. (bakeryandsnacks.com)
  • As single-use plastics bans come in around the world - next year in the UK, and by 2021 in Canada - new materials are going to become ever more important. (bbc.com)
  • People are now prepared to move into biodegradable polymers for single-use plastics, but if it turns out that it creates more problems than it's worth, then the policy might revert back," said Ting Xu, UC Berkeley professor of materials science and engineering and of chemistry. (eurekalert.org)
  • We can solve this continuing problem of single-use plastics not being biodegradable. (eurekalert.org)
  • Less than 10 per cent of single-use plastics are recycled. (tricitynews.com)
  • Green' alternatives to throwaway plastics don't always break down in sea water. (bbc.com)
  • While awareness of the detrimental impact plastic can have on the environment has exploded in recent years, environmentally friendly alternatives are only now picking up steam. (bbc.com)
  • Biodegradable plastics are one set of materials that are becoming a popular replacement as consumers demand green alternatives. (bbc.com)
  • We found that while there's a lot of enthusiasm for biodegradable alternatives, there's also a great deal of confusion over what constitutes a biodegradable plastic. (channelnewsasia.com)
  • But alternatives are not necessarily greener: People buy more plastic trash bags when shopping bags are unavailable. (journalistsresource.org)
  • by the British environmental agency argued that plastic bags are greener than many alternatives. (journalistsresource.org)
  • Awareness of plastic pollution has led to the growth of biodegradable and compostable alternatives, but this research suggests that brands across sectors need to ensure that more sustainable products live up to their claims. (lsnglobal.com)
  • To identify bio-synthesized and biodegradable alternatives to plastics from among natural, microorganism-produced polymers called polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers have developed multitask deep neural network property predictors. (lanl.gov)
  • "Plastic waste is one of our biggest environmental challenges but the alternatives we develop need to be both eco-friendly and cost-effective, to have a chance of widespread use," ​ Ghasemlou said. (foodnavigator-asia.com)
  • But researchers at TU Graz are looking into potential alternatives. (tugraz.at)
  • Synthetic textiles, including so-called compostable plastic materials like polylactic acid (PLA), and the synthetic portions of textile blends, showed no signs of degradation even after more than a year submerged in the ocean. (press-news.org)
  • In both the finished compost and the liquid fertilizer, PLA (polylactide acid, also called polylactic acid) and PBAT (polybutylene adipate terephthalate) are the most common types of plastic. (phys.org)
  • A paper bag must be used four or more times "to reduce its global warming potential to below" that of conventional plastic bags. (journalistsresource.org)
  • Biodegradable, oxo-biodegradable, and conventional plastic bags were all functional as shopping bags after being in the soil and sea environments after three years. (businessinsider.com)
  • But it was the biodegradable, oxo-biodegradable, and conventional plastic bags that were the most intact. (businessinsider.com)
  • The researchers found that mud beneath both the conventional plastic bags and biodegradable bags had far fewer animals than in control plots-only about one-sixth as many in both cases. (acs.org)
  • Through our bio-inspired engineering that mimics the 'lotus effect', we have delivered a highly-effective starch-based biodegradable plastic. (foodnavigator-asia.com)
  • image: A modified plastic (left) breaks down after just three days in standard compost (right) and entirely after two weeks. (eurekalert.org)
  • Xu thinks that polyolefin plastics are best turned into higher value products, not compost, and is working on ways to transform recycled polyolefin plastics for reuse. (eurekalert.org)
  • The most important thing, he said, is that the plastic replacement film remains strong when needed and can still be thrown in the compost. (tricitynews.com)
  • A study by the University of Bayreuth shows that finished compost from composting plants in Germany contains a large number of biodegradable plastic particles. (phys.org)
  • This is the first scientific study to systematically examine commercially available compost for biodegradable plastic particles. (phys.org)
  • In the finished compost from the four plants, the Bayreuth researchers discovered a significant number of biodegradable microplastic particles that have a size of less than one millimeter. (phys.org)
  • The German Fertilizer Ordinance (DüMV) does require that the proportion of biodegradable plastic in high-quality compost be a maximum of only 0.1 percent of the dry weight. (phys.org)
  • Lithuania have created biodegradable plastic, which decays in a compost bin in a couple of years. (plastemart.com)
  • Moreover, we could even use the bag for collecting biodegradable waste and put all into the compost bin together", says Dr Paulius Pavelas Danilovas, the lead researcher of the team. (plastemart.com)
  • There are plenty of microorganisms in compost and they digest our plastic very well", says Dr Danilovas. (plastemart.com)
  • The European Commission has recently recommended a ban on oxo-biodegradable plastics , because of fears that they break down into microplastics. (bbc.com)
  • Researchers say that more microplastics pollution is getting into farm soil than oceans - and these tiny bits are showing up in our fruits, veggies, and bodies. (greenbiz.com)
  • Microplastics, loosely defined as plastic pieces smaller than 5 millimeters across, or roughly the size of a small grain of rice, have made their mark on both the global ecosystem and the popular consciousness, famously killing seabirds and raining down on wilderness areas . (greenbiz.com)
  • And while the impacts of ocean microplastics have been the subject of significant media and scientific attention, researchers say that most microplastics actually accumulate on land, including agricultural areas. (greenbiz.com)
  • Microplastics arrive on farms through processed sewage sludge used for fertilizer, plastic mulches and even are intentionally added as slow-release fertilizers and protective seed coatings. (greenbiz.com)
  • Microplastics have been reported in U.S. sewage sludge as early as 1998, and in 2020 researchers estimated roughly 21,249 metric tons of microplastics are released to U.S. agricultural lands from sewage sludge annually. (greenbiz.com)
  • Because of their recalcitrance in soils, U.S. researchers even investigated the possibility of using the contemporary microplastics profile of soils as an indicator of past sewage sludge application. (greenbiz.com)
  • Microplastics also can enter agricultural soils through the degradation of plastic materials used by farmers. (greenbiz.com)
  • The legally defined limit value for the proportion of biodegradable microplastics should in future also include much smaller particles in order to significantly reduce the pollution of agricultural land. (phys.org)
  • In a newly published study from researchers at the University of Hull and Hull York Medical School, microplastics have now been found deep inside tissues of human lungs. (californianorth.com)
  • May 7, 2020 Plastic waste often ends up in river bodies and oceans, posing a serious threat to the marine ecosystem. (sciencedaily.com)
  • Scientists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture have discovered a way to use the milk protein casein to create an edible packaging film that is better at preventing spoilage than regular plastic. (sustainablebrands.com)
  • Instead of running a multistep reaction in numerous flasks with solvent and energy-intensive workups between each step, scientists can do one-pot reactions, which are designed to take place in a single flask without researchers' needing to stop and purify. (acs.org)
  • For this reason, designers, scientists and researchers are developing new goods and methods of production that aim to reduce the severe impact on the world's natural resources. (designindaba.com)
  • Scientists have grown increasingly concerned about the marine impacts of plastics, ranging from plastic beads to films to bottles. (acs.org)
  • Numerous indications point to the fact that they largely originate from commercially available biodegradable rubbish bags that have been disposed of in the bio-waste bins of private households together with the bio-waste they contain. (phys.org)
  • Many private households in Germany nowadays readily use commercially available biodegradable waste bags and biodegradable food films. (phys.org)
  • Plastics like polyethylene and polystyrene are the current superstars of synthetic polymers, and have come under fire for piling up in landfills with almost no known biological process that can break them down. (zmescience.com)
  • These plastics will end up being burnt or in landfills, or worse, leaking into the environment. (channelnewsasia.com)
  • Our appetite for cheap, durable materials is such that humans have produced 9.1 billion tons of plastics thus far, a new study says, the vast majority of which has ended up either in landfills or scattered around the world. (discovermagazine.com)
  • Instead of throwing the shells away, we can make biodegradable plastic bags," Hani Chbib, a researcher on the project, told Reuters. (aqua.deals)
  • To test how different kinds of plastic bag fare in different environments, Imogen Napper at the University of Plymouth collected carrier bags with various claims about biodegradability, and put them in three different natural environments over a period of three years: buried in soil, left in the sea, and hung up in the open air. (bbc.com)
  • One example is polyethylene - the largest family of polymers produced globally, widely used in flexible film packaging, such as plastic bags. (channelnewsasia.com)
  • Press-News.org) Plastic pollution is seemingly omnipresent in society, and while plastic bags, cups, and bottles may first come to mind, plastics are also increasingly used to make clothing, rugs, and other textiles. (press-news.org)
  • Government bans on lightweight plastic shopping bags have spread in recent years amid fears about plastic's negative impact on the environment. (journalistsresource.org)
  • In recent years, local and national governments have begun phasing out or banning lightweight plastic shopping bags. (journalistsresource.org)
  • And a British government study found single-use paper bags contribute more toward global warming than plastic bags. (journalistsresource.org)
  • For some activists, the effort to reduce the use of plastic shopping bags is both urgent and too late. (journalistsresource.org)
  • people around the world discard between 500 billion and 1 trillion plastic bags a year. (journalistsresource.org)
  • more than 5 trillion pieces of plastic (not all from bags) weighing a combined 250,000 tons are floating in the world's oceans. (journalistsresource.org)
  •  became the first Massachusetts city to ban plastic bags altogether and require merchants to offer paper bags for a fee of no less than 10 cents. (journalistsresource.org)
  • Like its plastic counterpart, it could also be formed into bags for coffee, cereal, chips, as well as frozen and fresh fruit or vegetables. (tricitynews.com)
  • Plymouth, UK - A new study shows that biodegradable plastic bags do not deteriorate after long-term exposure to the environment. (lsnglobal.com)
  • Researchers from the University of Plymouth examined the degradation of five plastic materials widely used for bags by retailers in the UK. (lsnglobal.com)
  • On the other hand there are also petrol derived polymers that are biodegradable , such as PBAT , used for plastic bags, wraps and antibacterial film. (youris.com)
  • Another category is the so-called oxo-degradable plastics , used for checkout bags, flexible packaging and plastic sheets to protect crops and to inhibit weeds. (youris.com)
  • After three years, biodegradable bags could still hold shopping. (businessinsider.com)
  • Biodegradable bags can actually survive three years in the natural environment, according to a new study. (businessinsider.com)
  • Researchers at the University of Plymouth found that while air broke up bags into fragments, in soil and sea environments they lasted a lot longer. (businessinsider.com)
  • You might want to think twice about buying "biodegradable" plastic bags if you're environmentally-minded. (businessinsider.com)
  • A new study from the University of Plymouth , UK, has found that when bags labeled as biodegradable are thrown away, they can actually survive three years in nature - and they are intact enough to hold your shopping. (businessinsider.com)
  • The team said their results raise several questions, including whether environmental and weather conditions are a realistic means of decomposing bags when they are thrown away, even if they are labelled as "biodegradable. (businessinsider.com)
  • A plastic bag litters a marsh near Dublin, Ireland, where researchers found that such bags can smother marine ecosystems trapped underneath. (acs.org)
  • It can be molded into a film that can be used in plastic bags and packaging - one of the major uses of plastic and causes of waste production. (yale.edu)
  • He explains that not all biopolymers are biodegradable. (youris.com)
  • If commercialized, this could really help us decrease our waste… and it could help us improve our food exports because the plastic has antimicrobial and antibacterial properties," Irene Samy, a Professor overseeing the project, told Reuters. (aqua.deals)
  • Since 2018, she has received national media coverage for working on transforming shrimp shell waste into biodegradable plastics. (wikipedia.org)
  • She started off feeding waste cooking oil to the microbes to make PHAs, but in recent years has been investigating how waste plastics like polystyrene can be turned into new, biodegradable kinds of plastic. (bbc.com)
  • That's preferable to using freshly grown crops as a source material, because it spares plants that could instead be used for food, at the same time as using up waste plastic. (bbc.com)
  • Ultimately, we'd like the insects to eat the waste plastic as their food source, and then we would harvest them again and collect their components to make new plastics," Wooley said. (theiet.org)
  • Wrapping food in plastic can reduce spoilage, but presents challenges related to waste recovery and recycling. (sustainablebrands.com)
  • It presents a tough choice for producers between prioritizing food waste or plastic waste, both of which are top-of-mind with consumers. (sustainablebrands.com)
  • the first step in overhauling plastic packaging materials, formats and after-use systems and standards to combat the plastic waste problem. (sustainablebrands.com)
  • There are an estimated eight million tonnes of plastic in the world's oceans and the food industry is one of the main sources of plastic waste. (huffingtonpost.co.uk)
  • With funding from B.C.'s Ministry of Forests, Jiang and his graduate students devised a way to distil cellulose from wood waste, though the researcher says hemp fibre and agriculture waste are also viable sources. (tricitynews.com)
  • Approximately 8 million metric tons of plastic waste washes off land into the ocean each year. (youris.com)
  • This development could help drastically reduce issues of waste as well as plastic pollution. (designindaba.com)
  • If commercialised, this could really help us decrease our waste…and it could help us improve our food exports because the plastic has antimicrobial and antibacterial properties," says Professor Irene Samy, head of the Nile University research team. (designindaba.com)
  • Plastics help sustain many facets of modern lifestyles and current technologies, at the cost of generating environmentally harmful plastic waste. (lanl.gov)
  • According to the Ocean Protection Council, about 8 million metric tons of plastic waste enters the ocean every year. (californianorth.com)
  • To create the slurry mixture, the researchers used a wood powder - a processing residue usually discarded as waste in lumber mills - and deconstructed the loose, porous structure of the powder with a biodegradable and recyclable deep eutectic solvent (DES). (yale.edu)
  • Not only does this create a lot of non-recyclable, non-biodegradable waste, but thin plastic films are not great at preventing spoilage. (acs.org)
  • The researchers say that the waste costs for products made from this new packaging will be small, and that the material will lead to an increasing number of applications for biodegradable packaging. (bakeryandsnacks.com)
  • The primary objective of the project is to create an industrially-comparable method of producing PHA, a biodegradable plastic, from Styrofoam (polystyrene) waste. (experiment.com)
  • Our device will aim to reduce the 30% of plastic waste volume accounted for by polystyrene while simultaneously enabling cost-effective production of PHA. (experiment.com)
  • Suppliers of coffee, cakes, lunch, dinner and so forth needs to have a well documented strategy for how to minimise all use of resources (food, plastic and paper waste). (lu.se)
  • Biodegradable plastics (plastics that can be broken down into carbon dioxide, water, and minerals through natural processes) are an alternative, but make sure to properly sort all waste and recycle everything. (lu.se)
  • Chen's lab is focused on making renewable and degradable plastics and other polymers to replace conventional petroleum-based materials. (zmescience.com)
  • Bio-based plastics made from renewable natural resources such as cornstarch or sugar cane have been marketed as a potential solution to the plastic problem. (press-news.org)
  • Efforts to shift from petrochemical plastics to renewable and biodegradable plastics have proven tricky - the production process can require toxic chemicals and is expensive, and the mechanical strength and water stability is often insufficient. (yale.edu)
  • What are the social, technical, financial and political obstacles to replacing fossil fuels with renewable raw materials in order to produce plastics? (lu.se)
  • Not only are these created from renewable raw materials, but also can be manufactured to be biodegradable after use, and often require manufacturing techniques that avoid toxic chemicals. (lu.se)
  • Compostable cutlery and other products made from the biomaterial PLA are biodegradable, but not fully recyclable. (zmescience.com)
  • An estimated 62 percent of textiles - 68 million tons - are now made from plastic fibers and plastic blends, which can persist in the environment for decades to centuries. (press-news.org)
  • The new process involves embedding polyester-eating enzymes in the plastic as it's made. (eurekalert.org)
  • Up to 98% of the plastic made using Xu's technique degrades into small molecules. (eurekalert.org)
  • Törnqvist's new prototype 'plastic' is made from potato starch and water and, the inventor says, can be turned into straws or cutlery that will biodegrade within two months. (huffingtonpost.co.uk)
  • Meanwhile, tackling population growth and the growing meat consumption that comes with it, researchers Karla Rosales García and Mariana Cervantes Macias from the National Autonomous University of Mexico have designed a ready-made ants nest, turning the insects into human food that could be farmed. (huffingtonpost.co.uk)
  • These statistics are thanks to a new study led by a University of California-Santa Barbara researcher and published Wednesday in Science Advances , attempting to quantify the sheer amount of plastics out there right now - its imposing title is 'Production, Use, and Fate of All Plastics Ever Made. (discovermagazine.com)
  • For example Green PET, made from sugar cane, is chemically identical to classic PET, the most common plastic used for beverage containers. (youris.com)
  • Designed by Felix Pöttinger, this biodegradable food packaging is made from dried seagrass fibres and bound together in a cellulose-based substance extracted from the same plant. (designindaba.com)
  • To make their lotus-inspired material, the RMIT team of science and engineering researchers first synthetically engineered a plastic made of starch and cellulosic nanoparticles. (foodnavigator-asia.com)
  • While efforts have been made in producing more biodegradable products, the health of our oceans has already been severely impacted. (californianorth.com)
  • However, if we made the window from biodegradable plastic, it could be composted. (plastemart.com)
  • There are many people who have tried to develop these kinds of polymers in plastic, but the mechanical strands are not good enough to replace the plastics we currently use, which are made mostly from fossil fuels," says Yao. (yale.edu)
  • Never use disposables made of plastic produced with fossile ingredients. (lu.se)
  • Using shrimp shells is more sustainable because it could replace synthetic amterials used in plastics and cut the amount of biowaste produced by the Egyptian food industry, Samy said. (aqua.deals)
  • Redesigning plastic products to be valuable and sustainable is our biggest leap toward prevention. (youris.com)
  • See what our researchers are doing in the Field of Expertise Sustainable Systems, and learn about how their results will affect our lives. (tugraz.at)
  • These casein-based films are up to 500 times better than plastics at keeping oxygen away from food and, because they are derived from milk, are biodegradable, sustainable and edible. (acs.org)
  • How do we create a sustainable cycle of plastic? (lu.se)
  • wonders Teis Hansen, innovation researcher and part of the research programme Sustainable Plastics and Transition Pathways (STEPS). (lu.se)
  • Together, they will try to find the answer to what information is needed in order to change regulations and policies to create an environmentally sustainable cycle of plastic in Sweden. (lu.se)
  • In all material respects, a plastic like this is identical to petroleum-derived polyethylene, including its inability to break down. (channelnewsasia.com)
  • The process we propose will enable countries with a shortage of fresh water, such as Israel, China, and India, to switch from petroleum-derived plastics to biodegradable plastics. (ifcj.org)
  • Left in typical 'litter' environments, including air, soil and the sea, the biodegradable, oxo-biodegradable and conventional plastic formulations all remained intact after being buried in the soil or discarded in the sea for more than three years. (lsnglobal.com)
  • Her experiment became a chapter in the new book "Particulate Plastics in Terrestrial and Aquatic Environments. (greenbiz.com)
  • The researchers examined how well five plastic bag materials that are all widely available from UK retailers decomposed when exposed to air, soil, and sea environments - whether there was any loss of surface area, or changes in strength and chemical structure. (businessinsider.com)
  • A project in the UW College of Built Environments, led by researcher Judy Bowes, is examining how building architecture contributes to bird collisions, and the ways bird-safe glass and other designs can help address the problem. (washington.edu)
  • This was what you could call a bit of a setback, as the tiny molecular monomers themselves aren't readily usable as materials - they need to be tied to each other to create a cohesive, solid material such as plastic. (zmescience.com)
  • This study shows the need for standardizing tests to see if materials promoted as compostable or biodegradable actually do biodegrade in a natural environment," said Royer, who performed the research while a postdoctoral scholar in the Dimitri Deheyn laboratory at Scripps Oceanography. (press-news.org)
  • Developing bio-sourced materials for biodegradable food packaging has been the aim of the research project EcoBioCap . (youris.com)
  • Professor Richard Thompson OBE, the head of the International Marine Litter Research Unit, said the results of the study show that "biodegradable" materials don't seem to show a "consistent, reliable and relevant advantage. (businessinsider.com)
  • The printer then builds the object layer by layer, using a variety of materials such as plastics, metals, and ceramics. (artist-3d.com)
  • Ghasemlou said nature was full of ingeniously-designed structures that could inspire researchers striving to develop new high-performance and multifunctional materials. (foodnavigator-asia.com)
  • Our company acquired knowledge suggesting that it would be good to continueworking on product development and research in order to bring new,biodegradable materials onto the markets. (bakeryandsnacks.com)
  • A type of plastic that is based on biological materials, such as forest industry by-products? (lu.se)
  • In six decades, humans have produced 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic, only nine percent of which has been recycled, according to a 2018 joint report by the National Geographic Society and Great Britain's Royal Statistical Society. (ifcj.org)
  • June 30, 2022 Only a fraction of the material that could be turned into new plastic is currently recycled. (sciencedaily.com)
  • If that wasn't bad enough, by 2060, humanity's consumption of plastics is projected to triple, while the volume that leaks into the environment is forecast to double to 44 million tonnes per year, according to the OECD's 2022 Global Plastics Outlook . (tricitynews.com)
  • Thus, we are tackling the transformation of Styrofoam into biodegradable plastic. (experiment.com)
  • Biodegradable" plastic is often touted as an environmentally friendly alternative. (channelnewsasia.com)
  • But depending on the type of plastic, this label can be very misleading and can lead environmentally conscious consumers astray. (channelnewsasia.com)
  • They draw into question whether biodegradable plastics are suitable for replacing conventional plastics in environmentally and nutritionally sensitive areas. (phys.org)
  • cadmium and other toxic trace elements [are] increased when we have these particulate plastics in the soil. (greenbiz.com)
  • These mulches, sheets of plastic laid out on the ground to suppress weeds, warm the soil, retain moisture and are challenging to recycle and costly to dispose of. (greenbiz.com)
  • The innovative plastic developed at RMIT University in Australia repels liquids and dirt - just like a lotus leaf - then breaks down rapidly once in soil. (foodnavigator-asia.com)
  • Researchers hope to make a dent in hospitals' need with a single 3D printer. (scitechdaily.com)
  • Throwaway plastic has found its way into almost every aspect of our lives: from the disposable coffee cup you pick up on the way to work or the straw in your smoothie, to the hidden fibres woven into wet wipes and tiny glittering fragments in make-up. (bbc.com)
  • At the moment, PHAs make up around 5% of biodegradable plastics worldwide . (bbc.com)
  • Soda bottles, cups, keyboards and a myriad of other plastic products are marked as recyclable because they can be repurposed to extend the product's lifecycle, but from a chemical point of view, they're not "recyclable" - they can't be used to make an object, then broken down to the initial molecules by simply heating the polymers. (zmescience.com)
  • We found what temperature or what pressure is the best to make those nonfoamable plastics into foams. (sciencedaily.com)
  • Researchers have developed a process that uses insects as a source of chemicals to make biodegradable plastics. (theiet.org)
  • Researchers added citrus pectin to the milk protein base to make the film more durable and increase its resistance to heat and humidity. (sustainablebrands.com)
  • The next goal is to make a roll of plastic. (tricitynews.com)
  • The problem could make its way back to humans, too, as the plastic pellets work their way up the food chain. (discovermagazine.com)
  • And, producing such plastics entails other tradeoffs such as diverting the corn used to make it from food supplies and greater energy expenditures. (discovermagazine.com)
  • University of Washington researchers found that when prompted to make pictures of "a person," the AI image generator over-represented light-skinned men, failed to equitably represent Indigenous peoples and sexualized images of certain women of color. (washington.edu)
  • A team led by researchers at the University of Washington developed 11 actions a robotic arm can make to pick up nearly any food attainable by fork. (washington.edu)
  • oil-based plastic (polyethylene terephthalate and polypropylene), and fabric blends of Lyocell mixed with polyester and polypropylene. (press-news.org)
  • Polyethylene is considered non-biodegradable and is also the most pervasive type of plastic around. (smithsonianmag.com)
  • As the researchers write, the results "provided promising evidence for the biodegradation of [polyethylene] in the environment. (smithsonianmag.com)
  • But given the incredible amount of plastic pollution that's already around (and doesn't seem to be naturally biodegrading), it's probably easier and more effective to just limit the amount of polyethylene plastic littering the planet in the first place. (smithsonianmag.com)
  • Also, better product design may ease many of the challenges plastic recyclers face. (youris.com)
  • Consumers have also become increasingly concerned over the practice of "greenwashing" - marketing a product as biodegradable when, in reality, its rate of degradation and the environment in which it will decompose don't match what the label implies. (channelnewsasia.com)
  • The biodegradable plastic adoption in emerging economies has increased due to changing public perception strict government regulations to control environmental pollution. (hospitalmanagement.net)
  • Worse, the horrifying ecological spectacle hides the fact that 70 per cent of the plastic at sea sinks to the bottom as microscopic particles - fundamentally changing the makeup of ocean floors and beaches across the world. (tricitynews.com)
  • This has become an issue in the oceans where tiny plastic particles - called nurdles - are building up in sea creatures' digestive systems and leaching toxins. (discovermagazine.com)
  • The plastic breaks down into minuscule particles but there seems to be no proof that this continues to levels which result in complete biodegradation. (youris.com)
  • According to this standard, plastics are biodegradable if 90% of them have decomposed into particles smaller than two millimeters in less than twelve weeks. (phys.org)
  • The study, published in Scientific Reports , also covers biodegradable plastic particles contained in liquid fertilizers. (phys.org)
  • Several thousand plastic particles per liter were found in the liquid fertilizers. (phys.org)
  • Biochemical research has shown that it is possible to create fuels, chemicals, plastics and more using biomass rather than fossil fuels. (lu.se)
  • It is not only completely biodegradable but also boasts antibacterial properties that help keep dry food fresh. (designindaba.com)
  • This is a good start - more effective recycling and recovery of plastics will go a long way to solve the problem. (channelnewsasia.com)
  • They then repurposed it into a biodegradable film that mimics plastic, helping solve two problems at once. (tricitynews.com)
  • Bacterium from marine algae is capable of producing biodegradable plastic, Israeli researchers discovered. (israelnews.cc)
  • Israeli Researchers Produce Su. (ifcj.org)
  • Temmink is a marine ecologist at Utrecht University and one of the researchers of the Building with Biobuilders project. (nextnature.net)
  • After two years, he founded Algalita , a pioneer in the study of plastic pollution and its impacts on marine life and ecosystems. (youris.com)
  • These plastics are found lying on the bottom of the ocean floor, floating on the surface of the sea, inside or tangled around marine life and even find their way into our farm lands. (californianorth.com)
  • But marine ecologist Dannielle Senga Green of Trinity College , in Ireland, noticed that few studies had examined plastic litter's effects on whole communities of living things, especially muddy communities with organisms such as worms, snails, and crabs. (acs.org)
  • While biodegradable material eventually breaks down in nature, it is even better for the environment if plastics can be repurposed. (sciencedaily.com)
  • As a packaging material it outperforms both cornstarch and many conventional plastics, while also overcoming the usual barriers to recovery and recycling. (sustainablebrands.com)
  • The prototype material has similar properties to the plastic used in bubble wrap or envelopes in the mail. (tricitynews.com)
  • The European certification standard EN 13432 for compostable and therefore biodegradable material is also not very effective in the context of the new study. (phys.org)
  • It is quite possible that this is why we still found residues of biodegradable material in the finished composts. (phys.org)
  • By utilising chitosan - a material found in the shells of many crustaceans - they are able to produce a clear, thin plastic prototype. (designindaba.com)
  • The researchers say the resulting material shows a high mechanical strength, stability when holding liquids, and UV-light resistance. (yale.edu)
  • Or a material which is biodegradable and manages to break down on its own? (lu.se)
  • However, plastic is also a good, durable and inexpensive material that can be used for many different things. (lu.se)
  • Recently the U.S. president Barack Obama signed a law to ban the use of these plastic microbeads in rinse-off cosmetics from 2017. (youris.com)
  • In a new study, researchers report that mailing HPV test kits significantly increased cervical cancer screening rates. (washington.edu)
  • Seven researchers at the University of Washington conducted a three-month autoethnographic study - drawing on their own experiences as people with and without disabilities - to test AI tools' utility for accessibility. (washington.edu)
  • Researchers from Iowa State's Institute for Social and Behavioral Research found in a study of 416 rural Iowa women that divorce increased chronic stress and produced greater physical illness over a 10-year span. (iastate.edu)
  • A minimally invasive, image-guided procedure that blocks small vessels in the knee with the help of biodegradable microspheres relieves symptoms of knee osteoarthritis (OA), a small study found. (medscape.com)
  • Owing to a growing need and demand for greater food safety and natural or organic food products, the Rutgers researchers joined forces to build up natural ways in order to thwart food contamination and spoilage. (medindia.net)
  • And some plastics are suspected of leaching potentially harmful compounds into food. (acs.org)
  • Of the 6.3 billion tonnes of plastic we've thrown away since we started mass-producing it in the 1950s, just 600 million tonnes has been recycled - and 4.9 billion tonnes has been sent to landfill or left in the natural environment. (bbc.com)
  • Biodegradable plastics are supposed to be good for the environment. (sciencedaily.com)
  • QUEENSLAND: Over one-fifth of all plastic produced worldwide is tossed into uncontrolled dumpsites , burned in open pits or leaked into the environment. (channelnewsasia.com)
  • Biodegradable plastics are those that can completely break down in the environment and are a source of carbon for microbes (such as bacteria). (channelnewsasia.com)
  • Plastics will likely be a part of our lives for as long as human civilization is able to produce them, and the authors seem well aware of this, advocating instead for sensible strategies to deal with the millions of tons of plastic spilling out into the environment. (discovermagazine.com)
  • However, just because a product is bio-sourced and biodegradable doesn't necessarily mean it is better for the environment. (youris.com)
  • Natural exfoliants such as salt or oatmeal are biodegradable and a healthier choice for the environment. (californianorth.com)
  • It can also be recycled or safely biodegraded in the natural environment, and has a lower life-cycle environmental impact when compared with petroleum-based plastics and other biodegradable plastics. (yale.edu)
  • Rather than remaining stable for hundreds of years - the quality for which we prized plastic when we first began using it - biodegradable plastics can be broken down by microbes, chewed up and turned into biomass, water and carbon dioxide (or in the absence of oxygen, methane rather than CO2). (bbc.com)
  • The researchers suspected that, like cows that use microbes living in their rumens to digest grass, the worms might also have a mutually beneficial arrangement with bacteria. (smithsonianmag.com)
  • When they suddenly released the pressure in the chamber, the carbon dioxide expanded within the plastic, creating foaming. (sciencedaily.com)
  • The investigators placed the cutlery, which was previously thought to be "nonfoamable" plastic, into a chamber filled with carbon dioxide. (sciencedaily.com)
  • In Australia, 1.1 million tonnes of plastic are placed in the market, yet just 16 per cent (179,000 tonnes) is recovered. (channelnewsasia.com)
  • Plastic found in nature has become a greater issue, increasing in the future. (israelnews.cc)
  • The researchers found, contrary to what was previously thought, lower chamber pressures led to bulky foams. (sciencedaily.com)
  • However, researchers at NREL have found a strain of bacteria that could 'fix' CO 2 and convert it to a precursor for plastics as well. (boisestate.edu)
  • Has this B.C. researcher found a replacement for plastic? (tricitynews.com)
  • Their hunch proved right: the researchers found that two types of bacteria living inside the worm- Enterobacter asburiae and Bacillus sp. (smithsonianmag.com)
  • Though researchers found cases in which the tools were helpful, they also found significant problems. (washington.edu)
  • The Nature Conservancy has found that half of the plastic being produced today is only single use. (californianorth.com)
  • The researchers buy unwanted shrimp shells from restaurants, supermarkets and local fishermen at cheap prices. (aqua.deals)
  • While the process currently uses wood byproducts in manufacturing, the researchers say they are keenly aware that large-scale production could require usage of massive amounts of wood, which could have far-reaching implications on forests, land management, ecosystems and climate change, to name a few. (yale.edu)
  • Keep going as we are, they say, and by 2050 we'll have churned out almost 38 billion tons of plastic and thrown 13 billion tons away. (discovermagazine.com)
  • Biodegradable plastics have been hailed as another solution, but the amount produced today is tiny - around 4.5 million tons, according to the researchers. (discovermagazine.com)
  • In other words, understanding the pathways within the cells, and combining strains of cultivated bacteria to maximize their best properties, can help researchers design better bacteria. (boisestate.edu)
  • Another advantage comes out of the Rutgers researchers' decision to focus on the biofilms, rather than attempting to attack the individual bacteria. (medindia.net)