Plasticumwelt and umwelt diffraction: A new materialist ecosemiotics

The impacts of plastics’ life cycle

Plastics and climate change—Breaking carbon lock-ins through three mitigation pathways

Charting success for the Plastics Treaty

Catalytic processing of plastic waste on the rise

We need real solutions to plastic pollution: Q&A with Jen Fela

Plastic waste management, a matter for the 'community'.

Plastic is a material associated with various Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions along the life cycles of different products. Many economies have adopted or planned for strategies to reduce, reuse, and recycle plastic goods and materials. The benefits of reductions in waste generation and GHG emissions need to be evaluated for setting the priority to select policy instruments for managing various plastic materials, products, and wastes. Several studies have made evaluations for the circulation of plastic using different models. However, many models for the circular economy focused on the effect on the macroeconomy rather than the detailed supply chain effects of an individual policy proposal. The reason could be the lack of an environmental assessment model with sufficient clear resolutions in the sectors, waste types, and waste treatments. In addition, the structure of the models limits many studies in modeling the scenarios diverting end-of-life products from waste treatments to recycling and reuse as secondary materials. To bridge this gap, this study adopted the waste input–output analysis methodology and compiled the models of baseline and four scenarios using the material flow and waste stream data of Taiwan with reference to a classification of four kinds of circular intervention from a review paper. We provide the details about the modeling results and settings for diverting plastic to the solid recovered fuel for power generation, closing the loops of plastic bags, extending the life of plastic cabinets and other plastic products, and improving the plastic products supply chain’s resource efficiencies. In the illustration of the results of GHG reductions in the supply chains and waste treatment activities, we present Sankey diagrams, which make the analysis of supply chains more straightforward. The developed method to render the Sankey diagram from the modeling result of an input–output-based model is presented in this article.

Managing plastic waste in East Africa: Niche innovations in plastic production and solid waste

A few times a year, volunteers fan out along the causeway that links the South Carolina mainland with the seashore community of Folly Beach to clean up plastic bottles, straws, bags, and other debris from along the road and the salt marsh. Some of this debris has come from cities miles away. On windy days, litter is often blown off city streets into waterways. During rainstorms, debris floats into drains that empty into rivers. Other trash probably came from places closer to home. “I see bags and other plastic flying off the beds of pickup trucks going down the causeway,” says Marty Morganello, who organizes the cleanups for the Charleston-area chapter of the nonprofit Surfrider Foundation. “I see them coming out the open windows of cars and out the backs of garbage trucks and even recycling trucks. This material is lightweight, and if you don’t secure it, it will fly away.” By one estimate, the volume of plastic debris going into the world’s oceans could more than double by 2025, assuming current trends in coastal development and plastics use. Some countries have begun identifying ways to improve management of plastic ... Beach cleanups yield enormous amounts of trash, with plastic items a major constituent.1 Although the human health impacts of this marine plastic pollution remain poorly characterized, it is widely seen as an emerging problem that deserves much more research attention.2 Likewise, there is a growing urgency among industry, government, nongovernmental organizations, and environmental groups to develop tools and policies to track, capture, and recycle plastic waste before it reaches the ocean.

Little research is reported on the properties of Portland cement concrete (PCC) mixtures comprising plastic waste materials. Therefore, this novel study was initiated to evaluate the effects of plastic waste materials on different properties of PCC. Plastic boxes and containers made of polypropylene were cut, grinded, pulverized, and incorporated into PCC mixtures. Sand was partially replaced by plastic waste materials with 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% volume ratios. Experiments were conducted using PCC cylinders and prisms to evaluate several unique properties of PCC containing plastic waste. Innovative interactions and contributions of several PCC properties including workability, air content, density, water absorption, mechanical properties, rapid chloride ion penetration, and freeze–thaw deterioration are investigated. The new experimental data indicated that the workability and density of PCC decreased with increasing plastic waste replacement levels. The maximum decreases in workability and density were 23% and 6.2% for the PCC with 20% plastic replacement, respectively. On the other hand, our research has shown that air content and water absorption of PCC increases with increasing plastic waste amount. The maximum increase in air content and water absorption were 78% and 29% for the PCC with 20% plastic waste. This study also shows that the mechanical properties of PCC (e.g., compressive and splitting strengths) after 7 and 28 days of moist curing decreased with increasing plastic waste content. Another new finding is that the rapid chloride permeability of PCC increased and the freeze–thaw durability of PCC decreased with an increase in plastic waste amount. One of the most critical discoveries of this experimental study is that plastic waste increases the durability of PCC, i.e., durability factor of PCC with 20% plastic waste was 9.3% compared to 28.5% for the control PCC without plastic waste materials.

Plastic pollution: Where are we regarding research and risk assessment in support of management and regulation?

Plastics were first invented in 1860, but have only been widely used in the last 30 years. Plastics are light, durable, modifiable and hygienic. Plastics are made up of long chain of molecules called polymers. Polymers are made when naturally occurring substances such as crude oil or petroleum are transformed into other substances with completely different properties. These polymers can then be made into granules, powders and liquids, becoming raw materials for plastic products. Worldwide plastics production increases 80 million tons every year. Global production and consumption of plastics have increased, from less than 5 million tons in the year 1950 to 260 million tons in the year 2007. Of those over one third is being used for packaging, while rest is used for other sectors. Plastic production has increased by more than 500% over the past 30 years. Per capita consumption of plastics will increase by more than 50% during the next decades. In the Western Europe total annual household waste generation is approximately 500 kg per capita and 750 kg per capita in the United States; 12% of this total waste is plastics. The global total waste plastic generation is estimated to be over 210 million tons per year. US alone generate 48 million tons per year (Stat data from EPA). The growth in plastics use is due to their beneficial characteristics; 21st century Economic growth making them even more suitable for a wide variety of applications, such as: food and product packaging, car manufacturing, agricultural use, housing products and etc. Because of good safety and hygiene properties for food packaging, excellent thermal and electrical insulation properties, plastics are more desirable among consumers. Low production cost, lower energy consumption and CO2 emissions during production of plastics are relatively lower than making alternative materials, such as glass, metals and etc. Yet for all their advantages, plastics have a considerable downside in terms of their environmental impact. Plastic production requires large amounts of resources, primarily fossil fuels and 8% of the world’s annual oil production is used in the production of plastics. Potentially harmful chemicals are added as stabilizers or colorants. Many of these have not undergone environmental risk assessment and their impact on human health and environment is currently uncertain. Worldwide municipal sites like shops or malls had the largest proportion of plastic rubbish items. Ocean soup swirling the debris of plastics trash in the Pacific Ocean has now grown to a size that is twice as large as the continental US. In 2006, 11.5 million of tons of plastics were wasted in the landfill. These types of disposal of the waste plastics release toxic gas; which has negative impact on environment.

Mono-material product design with bio-based, circular, and biodegradable polymers

Research results showed that plastic waste in Vietnam arises from many different sources; The total amount of plastic waste in Vietnam is 3.27 million tons/year, accounting for about 8-12% of household solid waste and about 5% of medical waste; The treatment and recycling of plastic waste is still limited, up to 90% of plastic waste is burned, buried or discharged into the environment, only about 10% of plastic waste is recycled. To reduce plastic waste, it is necessary to raise awareness and and community responsibility in the production, distribution, use of plastic products and in the collection and classification, recycling and treatment of plastic waste. Propaganda solutions need to be implemented in many different forms, suitable for each audience. Propaganda activities must have long-term, clear, focused, and scripted strategies and campaigns to orient the community and help the community understand the harmful effects of plastic and microplastic waste, thereby changing consumption habits (refuse and minimize the use of plastic bags and single-use plastic products at the workplace and in entertainment services, restaurants, hotels, markets, supermarkets, conferences, seminars, meetings and holidays, anniversaries and other events); Encourage the use of recycled, environmentally friendly products to replace toxic plastic products.

Chemical recycling of plastic waste via thermocatalytic routes