(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . ACM: Good Plastics News Roundup [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-04-02 The world's fate is in our hands and good hands are working hard to shape change We are in good hands, as long as those are the hands of people wanting to save our planet instead of amassing useless “wealth”. My personal wealth is the health of myself, my family, and my garden. Lucky for us there is some good news. While the good news is oft ignored, deferred to raging negative headlines (and people) instead. I say let’s change that! Here is some balance for the doomer in you! I see five main groupings of environmental action exist on the plastics front: Cleaning up the plastics from the environment Stopping the need for new plastics via recycling Recycling plastics into new products Stopping the need for new plastics via alternative materials Creating plastics which are biodegradable There is good news on all horizons. Cleaning up the plastics from the environment www.sciencedaily.com/... Plastic-eating enzyme could eliminate billions of tons of landfill waste An enzyme variant created by engineers and scientists at The University of Texas at Austin can break down environment-throttling plastics that typically take centuries to degrade in just a matter of hours to days. -snip- The project focuses on polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a significant polymer found in most consumer packaging, including cookie containers, soda bottles, fruit and salad packaging, and certain fibers and textiles. It makes up 12% of all global waste. The enzyme was able to complete a "circular process" of breaking down the plastic into smaller parts (depolymerization) and then chemically putting it back together (repolymerization). In some cases, these plastics can be fully broken down to monomers in as little as 24 hours. -snip- Recycling is the most obvious way to cut down on plastic waste. But globally, less than 10% of all plastic has been recycled. The most common method for disposing of plastic, besides throwing it in a landfill, is to burn it, which is costly, energy intensive and spews noxious gas into the air. Other alternative industrial processes include very energy-intensive processes of glycolysis, pyrolysis, and/or methanolysis. Biological solutions take much less energy. Research on enzymes for plastic recycling has advanced during the past 15 years. However, until now, no one had been able to figure out how to make enzymes that could operate efficiently at low temperatures to make them both portable and affordable at large industrial scale. FAST-PETase can perform the process at less than 50 degrees Celsius. www.samsaraeco.com/... Samsara Eco technology Recycling based on plastic-degrading capabilities found in nature. Samsara Eco uses enzymes which can attack complex plastics (polymers), reverting them back to their original chemical building blocks (monomers). This is what makes our technology infinite: by reverting complex polymers into simple monomers, we can make new, virgin-grade plastics without ever needing fossil fuels again. A truly circular process. We have optimised enzymes found in nature to efficiently recycle PET and polyester plastics at scale. But there are other plastics out there needing to be recycled, including plastic fibres (such as those found in textiles), soft plastics, and mixed plastics. This is what makes Samsara Eco such a powerful platform technology: We have the capability to discover and develop enzymes for any type of plastic, not just the ones our scientists have working today. (emphasis theirs) Well, so does anyone with the proper lab / tools. AMIRIGHT?!? www.msn.com/... Scientists make breakthrough in removing plastic pollution from drinking water: ‘These things are getting into our body and staying there for years’ Scientists at Tarleton State University, led by Dr. Ranjani Srinivasan, have been working with plants like okra, cactus, and aloe to clean water of these tiny, problematic pollutants. They’ve found that certain combinations of extracts from these plants can efficiently collect and remove microplastics from water. newatlas.com/... Slow sand filter cleans 99.9 percent of nanoplastics from drinking water Today's filtration technologies do a wonderful job of producing potable water, but the spread of plastic waste throughout the environment means there are new threats to contend with. A new study has investigated the performance of different techniques when it comes to removing nanoplastics from water, and shown that biologically active systems known as slow sand filters can remove the tiny particles with 99.9 percent efficacy. -snip- Nanoplastic particles were tagged with the chemical element palladium and added to untreated water in considerable quantities, enabling their journey through water treatment process to be tracked with a mass spectrometer. Of the techniques studied, the team found slow sand filtration "dominated" removal of the nanoplastic particles, successfully eliminating them with an efficacy of 99.9 percent. Based on their results, the team says that this filtration method would be effective at removing high levels of nanoplastics for extended periods of time, though the top few centimeters of sand would need to be removed to prevent clogging of the biofilm. www.theguardian.com/... ‘Incredibly promising’: the bubble barrier extracting plastic from a Dutch river …when volunteers sifted through an oil drum full of Oude Rijn river water, in between the duckweed they saw tiny plastic particles. “We saw so much pollution, we were shocked,” says van Delft, the co-founder of the local charity Coast Busters. Fast forward to July 2022, and Katwijk is the site for the world’s first river “bubble barrier” – an experimental concept where a 120-metre stream of rising bubbles, plus the water current, pushes plastic waste to one side in order to be collected. www.euronews.com/... Plastic-eating bacteria could help scientists fight pollution, new study claims Plastic pollution releases unnatural chemicals into lakes, devastating local ecosystems. But according to a new study of 29 European lakes, some naturally-occurring lake bacteria grow better on the remains of this plastic than on natural matter like leaves and twigs. This means enriching the water with particular species of bacteria could help banish plastic pollution. -snip- According to the study, the rate of bacterial growth more than doubled when plastic pollution raised the overall carbon level in lake water by just 4 per cent. These turbo-charged bacteria then stimulate the entire lake eco-system. -snip- In 2020, Researchers in Germany have discovered a strain of bacteria capable of breaking down some forms of plastic. -snip- In 2018, a different team of scientists discovered an enzyme capable of breaking down PET, the material used to make plastic bottles. This accidental breakthrough was made when looking at organisms that had evolved at a waste dump in Japan. While trying to work out how the process had occurred, they inadvertently changed something that made the molecule even better at breaking down the bottles. Stopping the need for new plastics via recycling www.vice.com/... Government Scientists Make Breakthrough in Recycling Plastics That End Up In Landfills The study, which was led by researchers at NREL as part of the Bio-Optimized Technologies to Keep Thermoplastics out of Landfills and the Environment (BOTTLE) Consortium, presents a hybrid approach to recycling that utilizes both chemical and biological processes to try and repurpose plastics. -snip- First, the group used metal-catalyzed oxidation to break the plastics down into smaller molecules that are ideal for biological conversion. These molecules can best be described as “smaller, biologically friendly chemical building blocks” co-author and Oregon State University Researcher Lucas Ellis notes in a press release. This is necessary for the next step of the process: feeding it to bacteria. They then used a biologically-engineered soil microbe called Pseudomonas putida to try and convert the oxygenated building blocks into a more useful product. The bacteria were able to “funnel” (aka convert) the compounds into two different products: biopolymers used in biodegradable bioplastics, and another compound that can be utilized in nylon production. newatlas.com/... Recycling breakthrough turns one common type of plastic into another The team started with the most widely produced plastic in the world, namely polyethylene (PE), which accounts for around 29% of the world’s plastic consumption. A catalyst was then used to remove hydrogen from the material and create a reactive location in the chain of molecules, and then another catalyst to split the molecules at this location and cap the exposed ends. A third catalyst then shifts this reactive location along the chain so the process can be repeated. This leaves behind molecules of propylene, which serve as the building blocks for the world’s second most widely used plastic, polypropylene (PP). -snip- “Our preliminary analysis suggests that if just 20% of the world’s PE could be recovered and converted via this route, it could represent a potential savings of [greenhouse gas] emissions comparable to taking 3 million cars off the road," said Garrett Strong, a graduate student associated with the project. www.scrapmonster.com/... PVC Plastics Now Recyclable After Breakthrough by Michigan Scientists SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Polyvinyl chloride or PVC is now a recyclable type of plastic after scientists at the University of Michigan discovered a way to chemically recycle the widely used material. -snip- “PVC is the kind of plastic that no one wants to deal with because it has its own unique set of problems,” Fagnani said. “PVC usually contains a lot of plasticizers, which contaminate everything in the recycling stream and are usually very toxic. It also releases hydrochloric acid really rapidly with some heat.” -snip- The researchers explored electrochemistry to find a way to recycle PVC plastics without using heat. -snip- They discovered the plasticizer that caused a major challenge to recycle the material through traditional means in contrast improves the efficiency of the electrochemical method. And the hydrochloric acid problem is resolved, too. www.weforum.org/... Machine learning can tackle plastic pollution - here's how Researchers at University College London (UCL) have published a paper in Frontiers in Sustainability in which they used machine learning to automatically sort different types of compostable and biodegradable plastics and differentiate them from conventional plastics. “The accuracy is very high and allows the technique to be feasibly used in industrial recycling and composting facilities in the future,” said Prof Mark Miodownik, corresponding author of the study. Stopping the need for new plastics via alternative materials Unfortunately plastics degradation into the environment and into our bodies seems unavoidable without a complete stop to their use. Mechanical recycling is probably the worst form of recycling, as it typically involves shredding plastics, causing it to disperse into the air in a much higher rate than sitting out in the sun to degrade. Alternative materials seem to be the only way to completely do away with plastics creation, and it is unlikely there will be enough alternatives to fulfill the millions of applications of plastics in use today. That said, every little bit helps! thefishsite.com/... Using salmon waste for bioplastic production “It is important that we start designing plastics with an end-of-life plan, whether it’s chemical degradation that turns the material into carbon dioxide and water, or recycling and repurposing,” [Dr Francesca Kerton, the project’s principal investigator] says. -snip- The conventional method for producing polyurethanes presents a number of environmental and safety problems. It requires crude oil, a non-renewable resource, and phosgene, a colourless and highly toxic gas. The synthesis generates isocyanates, potent respiratory irritants, and the final product does not readily break down in the environment. The limited biodegradation that does occur can release carcinogenic compounds. -snip- Leftover fish struck Kerton as a promising alternative. Salmon farming is a major industry for coastal Newfoundland, where her university is located. After the fish are processed, leftover parts are often discarded, but sometimes oil is extracted from them. Kerton and her colleagues developed a process for converting this fish oil into a polyurethane-like polymer. First, they add oxygen to the unsaturated oil in a controlled way to form epoxides, molecules similar to those in epoxy resin. After reacting these epoxides with carbon dioxide, they link the resulting molecules together with nitrogen-containing amines to form the new material. www.wral.com/... Searching for a sustainable replacement for single-use plastics in agriculture "It's a breakthrough," said Zamir Eldar, CEO of Bioplasmar, an Israeli company that aims to reduce global warming by replacing single-use plastics with pots and trays made of local organic waste. "It looks and feels like plastic, but it's actually compost," Eldar said. Because the pots biodegrade in soil, they can stay around the plant as it grows and protect roots from damage, disease, and temperature changes that are threatening crops more often with climate change. -snip- N.C. State has also working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture on a project over the past year to replace plastic ground covers with sustainable options made with banana fiber or hemp hearts. www.weforum.org/... These Eco Friendly Surfboards Are Made From Mushrooms These mushroom-made eco-friendly surfboards are 100% biodegradable. The small-sized version was invented by Steve Davies when he was a design student at Cardiff Metropolitan University. Now, Davies is working on the full-sized prototype. It’s made from mycelium, the root-like part of fungi from which mushrooms sprout. Its inventor hopes it can help surfing become more sustainable and reduce the amount of plastic waste in the ocean. In the words of Davies, “Surfing does have a really negative impact on the environment at times, and this is something that really needs to be acted upon. I genuinely do think that sustainable design is the way forward.” (Video available via the link above) Recycling plastics into other resources This has a long history of woven baskets, playground surfaces, roads, reusable bags, and many of the creative ways plastics of one form are re-used to create new plastics. www.earth.com/... Upcycling plastic waste into valuable products A groundbreaking research initiative, led by the Institute for the Cooperative Upcycling of Plastics (iCOUP), is poised to revolutionize the way we deal with plastic waste. This Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science Energy Frontier Research Center combines the expertise of chemists and materials scientists from national labs and universities across the United States. The collective goal is to develop innovative chemical pathways that empower companies to transform plastic waste into valuable commodities. -snip- The researchers have had a stream of recent successes. One notable achievement is the development of a method to make plastics easier to recycle. The team successfully broke up plastics and transformed them into a new biodegradable polymer, which is simpler to recycle. This innovative chemical recycling method resulted in plastic products with quality comparable to the original plastic waste. Remarkably, the process allows plastics to be recycled repeatedly without compromising their quality. Another significant breakthrough came in the form of a new catalyst. The researchers created a zirconia-based catalyst capable of separating polymers in plastic waste. Current catalysts often rely on expensive rare earth metals, such as platinum. Zirconia serves as an effective, relatively inexpensive, and abundant alternative. By suspending ultrasmall zirconia nanoparticles in silica, the scientists managed to separate the long plastic polymers at specific intervals, producing new high-value chemicals at a low cost. www.msn.com/... Could waste plastic become a useful fuel source? Prof Reisner and his team have developed a process that can convert not one, but two waste streams - plastic and CO2 - into two chemical products at the same time - all powered by sunlight. The technology transforms CO2 and plastic into syngas - the key component of sustainable fuels such as hydrogen. It also produces glycolic acid, which is widely used in the cosmetics industry. The system works by integrating catalysts, chemical compounds which accelerate a chemical reaction, into a light absorber. -snip- "Combining the two means we add value to the process," says Prof Reisner. "We now have four value streams - the mitigation of plastic waste, the mitigation of CO2, and the production of two valuable chemicals. We hope this will bring us close to commercialisation." "Usually, plastic contaminated with food waste goes to incineration, but this plastic is really good for us. In fact, food is a good substrate - so it makes our process work better." www.torquenews.com/... Miracle of Recycling: Two Companies Achieve Breakthrough in Plastic Waste Management Two companies, Plastonix (Canada) and Elemental Recycling (Texas, USA), have done what others could not in the last half a century: they have just found technologies that recycle all kinds of plastics, an amazing achievement that benefits the environment and the whole world. The Canadian company Plastonix has just developed a technology that uses several proprietary techniques, including a number of methods, systems, and chemical agents, to reduce any petroleum-based material to processable chips or powder. Some of the composite materials that can be made from these chips and dust are paving materials, pavers, building blocks, tile beams, sheet material, and boards. -snip- In turn, Elemental Recycling - a Houston, Texas company - has gone a step further than Plastonix by developing and selling a plastics recycling machine; its proprietary system will be delivered to customers in the first quarter of 2023. In a one-step process, they convert any type of plastic into high-purity graphite and graphene. -snip- Graphene has become a valuable and useful nanomaterial due to its exceptionally high tensile strength, electrical conductivity, transparency, and being the thinnest two-dimensional material in the world. The global market for graphene was already $9 million back in 2012, that is, 10 years ago; with most of the demand coming from research and development in semiconductor, electronics, electric batteries, and composites. Graphene can be used to make smartphones, electronic devices of all kinds, airplanes, and it is one of the composite materials in the manufacture of electric vehicles. Interestingly, one of the by-products of Elemental's recycling process is the production of hydrogen. The market for hydrogen-based products is growing rapidly and will include solutions such as storage, transportation, energy, and shipping, among many other uses. Creating plastics which are biodegradable news.berkeley.edu/... New process makes ‘biodegradable’ plastics truly compostable A modified plastic (left) breaks down after just three days in standard compost (right) and entirely after two weeks. (UC Berkeley photo by Ting Xu) 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. -snip- The new process involves embedding polyester-eating enzymes in the plastic as it’s made. These enzymes are protected by a simple polymer wrapping that prevents the enzyme from untangling and becoming useless. 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. The polymer wrapping also degrades. The process eliminates microplastics, a byproduct of many chemical degradation processes and a pollutant in its own right. Up to 98% of the plastic made using Xu’s technique degrades into small molecules. Too good to be true, or just plain green-washing? www.globalcosmeticsnews.com/… Garnier partners with Loop to launch 100 percent upcycled bottle From the Loop website: Loop is a global platform for reuse. We collaborate with brands and manufacturers to enable refillable versions of their conventional single-use products, and partner with leading retailers to embed these offerings into their online eCommerce and physical retail stores. We're working with category-leading brands, retailers, restaurants, and more to activate a circular reuse ecosystem offering thousands of products - from your cup of coffee to your shampoo bottle - with an aim to make reuse as convenient and accessible as single use. So Loop (exploreloop.com/...) is positioning itself as a global partner to manufacturers, aiming to change single-use to multi-use containers. Ya know, I remember when we took bottles in to be refilled. Glass bottles. Nothing new here, especially with a capitalist trying to create their sustainable wealth model utilizing the economic disaster of plastics as an avenue of growth. And… take a look at some other positive environmental news on DailyKos: Earth Matters: Floating solar could provide 35% of world electricity; the right kind of optimism Meteor Blades Climate Deniers Get Expelled From National Science Teaching Association Conference ClimateDenierRoundup Good News Roundup for Tuesday, March 28, 2023 — "Once we start to act, hope is everywhere." arhpdx for Good News — specifically: “Plastic paving: Egyptian startup turns millions of bags into tiles” This is a big deal, considering that Egypt has been labeled the worst polluter in the Mediterranean region. It’s also a great example of one person creating major change. Local ecosystem restoration and food forestry Gardening Toad World's Largest Salmon Restoration Project Underway on Klamath River Dan Bacher EPA approves California rules phasing out diesel trucks Associated Press stories chosen by Daily Kos staff We are still a very long way from solutions which prove cost-effective (which to me means not cost-prohibitive), scalable, and possible in the short time-frame we need. Many of the ideas presented here do have promise, from helpful to enormous impact. All of them need more attention. What can you do? Here are a couple places to start: https://www.earthday.org/what-you-can-do-to-end-plastic-pollution/ www.seed.world/… Want to do some beach cleanup? Here is a DIY system to help pull plastics from sand & water: Build Your Own SEED System The systems we have developed are an innovation in beach cleanups, microplastic removal and marine debris assessment. These systems allow others the ability to help our global community start tackling a deeper layer in plastic pollution removal. Below we have three videos that showcase each step of our process and system. We encourage you to watch and share each of the videos to learn about the process and then download the instructions to build your own! I have no doubt we will solve all facets of climate change given enough time and energy. We are running headlong into a full-stop on time, so energy and urgency is of the utmost importance! Every bit helps. EVERY BIT! [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/2/2161545/-ACM-Good-Plastics-News-Roundup Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/