Everyday beach walkers in my condo community scour the incoming tide and wrack line for litter. The amount of debris they pick up can depend on the direction of the current or a recent storm at sea. Tourist season, which runs from January through April in Florida, definitely increases human-made … [continued]
Key Process Improvements Save Energy and Cut Costs for Recycling Polyester With Enzymes A successful collaboration involving a trio of research institutions has yielded a road map toward an economically viable process for using enzymes to recycle plastics. The researchers, from NREL, the University of Massachusetts Lowell, and the University of … [continued]
Why is the full lifecycle of plastics — including production — so important? Plastic degrades into microplastics, pieces less than 5 millimeters long. Nanoplastics, which measure less than 1 micrometer, are the smallest of these and the most likely to get into our blood and tissues. World Environment Day, which … [continued]
PepsiCo has backed away from a pledge it made 2 years ago to use more refillable packaging to reduce plastic waste.
By Alison Cove, Founder and CEO, USEFULL Higher education is a proving ground for innovative ideas, from incubating these ideas to advancing them. They are also hubs for sustainability-driven scholarship and innovation. At the same time, college campuses generate millions of single-use plastic containers every year through dining halls, cafes, … [continued]
What’s this? Microplastics entering human brains? Yup. The results of a new study published in Nature Medicine point out that tiny fragments of plastic are passing the blood-brain barrier and entering into human brains. Moreover, the amount of microplastics in the brain appears to be increasing over time. “There are … [continued]
I really enjoyed sitting down with Fredrik Malmfors, CEO of Lignin Industries, to talk about how his company and its patented technology are taking on fossil based plastics, leveraging good old fashioned horse sense, supply chains, waste materials, and … carbon sequestration technologies? As it turns out, Sweden-based Lignin Industries … [continued]
The newest Taylor Sheridan series is The Landman. Billy Bob Thornton plays a field executive for a mid-sized oil company in West Texas. Protagonist Tommy describes the oil industry as a complicated, problematic, filthy, dangerous, and necessary business that feeds most of our lifestyles. He lectures about how much we … [continued]
"This photo of takeout Chinese food is an important historical artifact" by Brad.K is licensed under CC BY 2.0 license.
When you arrive at a restaurant, you’re ravenous, and you order more food than you can eat. Inevitably, you need a takeout container to transport the leftovers home. Most people accept takeout food in single-use containers, and data shows that most diners are aware of the waste issues associated with … [continued]
As we should all know by now, plastic recycling is a sham. That little recycle symbol (“chasing arrows”) on bottles? Invented by a consortium of plastic industry front groups to put the onus on the consumer to fix the problem they’re creating. Just like the personal carbon footprint was. Plastic … [continued]
