Is advanced recycling the answer to plastic waste?
GreenBiz
AUGUST 1, 2022
Waste into materials not just once but continuously: It’s the brass ring of the circular economy. Can it work?
Taming plastic waste with silica plastic blocks
Inhabitat - Innovation
JUNE 23, 2020
In a bid to curb plastic waste pollution, India-based company Rhino Machines has invented a way of using plastic to make construction blocks. The silica plastic blocks (SPBs) are strong enough to build a house and can be useful in reducing world pollution problems.
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The U.S. Plastics Pact launches new initiative to redesign the plastics value chain at Circularity 20
GreenBiz
SEPTEMBER 2, 2020
Plastics Pact launches new initiative to redesign the plastics value chain at Circularity 20. recycling system had been a mess for far longer — seeing as the country never fully developed the infrastructure to recycle anywhere near the amount of plastic waste it produces. Plastics Pact. Holly Secon. Indeed, only 8.4
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Planet vs. plastic: Three steps to solving the global plastics waste crisis
GreenBiz
MAY 18, 2022
Here's how innovators at Circularity 22 are dealing with the scourge of plastic waste mismanagement.
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Beating food waste needs plastic — the question is where and when
GreenBiz
MARCH 10, 2022
Plastic, while bad for the environment, is an important tool in the fight against food waste. How do we balance those pros and cons?
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Innovative mortar blend uses recycled plastic to enhance insulation and cut waste
TechXplore
FEBRUARY 18, 2025
A mortar made from recycled plastic and silica aerogel that improves insulation and reduces plastic waste has been developed by Newcastle University researchers. The team hopes this new building material could reduce heating and cooling bills while being environmentally friendly.
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Using sunlight to recycle black plastics
Envirotec Magazine
NOVEMBER 27, 2024
Now, a US group has shown that the use of an additive in black plastics can allow sunlight or white LEDs to break down black and colored polystyrene waste into reusable materials. However, finding the right helper that won’t create more waste and is easily incorporated into recycled materials remains a challenge for researchers.
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Dow’s Jim Fitterling on tackling plastic waste and the company’s sustainability goals
GreenBiz
JUNE 17, 2020
Dow’s Jim Fitterling on tackling plastic waste and the company’s sustainability goals. Its other commitments are related to protecting the climate, stopping waste and closing the loop. That includes looking at Scope 1 through 3 emissions. taylor flores.
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Beyond the bale: Viridor unveils plan to eliminate waste plastic exports
Envirotec Magazine
DECEMBER 6, 2021
Viridor says its soon-to-be-opened Avonmouth plastics recycling plant will reprocess over 80,0000 tonnes of plastic, creating recycled raw material ready to be returned to the economy. The circular economy for plastics report highlights the significant role that recycling plastics can play in ensuring the UK achieves net zero.
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Study pinpoints pathways to boost plastic waste recycling globally
Envirotec Magazine
DECEMBER 14, 2023
A new study highlights potential pathways to significantly increase waste collection and plastic recycling rates globally. Category 2 – Incipient Systems includes countries with basic waste regulations but limited collection and end-of-life treatment infrastructure. Examples of countries include Kenya, Iraq and Congo.
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Circular economics and the $57B e-waste opportunity
GreenBiz
JULY 12, 2021
Circular economics and the $57B e-waste opportunity. The plastic waste problem gets plenty of attention, and for good reason: If we continue mismanaging this material as usual, there could be 7.7 Just as stunning: Plastic isn't the fastest growing waste stream the world needs to deal with. . Heather Clancy.
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How a global treaty could solve the plastic waste crisis
GreenBiz
MAY 22, 2023
Can plastics achieve par with climate and biodiversity as critical issues worthy of a global treaty? We’re about to find out.
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Where does your waste plastic go? This guide can help businesses develop the details
GreenBiz
MARCH 25, 2020
The Plastic Leak Project, created by Quantis in partnership with 35 organizations, takes a science-based approach to understanding plastic pollution in order to help companies reduce their waste flows.
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US Plastics Pact 101
GreenBiz
SEPTEMBER 14, 2020
US Plastics Pact 101. Plastics Pact and how are its signatories advancing a circular economy for plastics? Plastics Pact brings together businesses, government entities, NGOs, researchers, and other collaborators as part of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s network of Plastics Pacts around the world.
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Study indicates marine plastic pollution as a breeding ground for disease-causing bacteria
Envirotec Magazine
JANUARY 24, 2025
Microplastics (plastic particles under 5mm) are a widespread environmental pollutant, with more than 120trillion estimated to have accumulated in the global ocean. Upon entering the environment, microplastics are rapidly colonized by diverse microbial communities, forming what is known as the Plastisphere.
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How online ordering could cut food waste
GreenBiz
MAY 8, 2020
How online ordering could cut food waste. This week, we’ll look at some potentially good news from the intersection of online delivery and food waste. Any good news on waste is welcome, because the situation is insane. Around a third of that waste comes at home, which is a head-scratcher. It also cuts waste at the store.
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Plastic waste has some economic benefit for developing countries
Envirotec Magazine
JULY 2, 2021
Collecting waste in Lubango, Angola (image credit: Carsten ten Brink , CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 In a study published in the Journal of World Systems Research , Yikang Bai of Washington State University and Jennifer Givens of Utah State University analyzed 11 years of data on the global plastics trade against economic measures for 85 countries.
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As plastics pile up, can 'advanced' recycling cut the waste?
GreenBiz
JUNE 30, 2023
Proponents of pyrolysis — including oil and gas companies — contend it will reduce plastic pollution. But critics say it will only perpetuate a dependence on fossil fuels.
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Just 20 companies create half the world's single-use plastic waste
Inhabitat - Innovation
MAY 19, 2021
Approximately 50% of all single-use plastic waste originates from just 20 companies, according to a recent study. The study also took a holistic look at the plastics industry supply chain, including those that make polymers and other building blocks for plastic production.
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Preserving the Value of Our Ocean by Preventing Plastic Waste
GreenBiz
MARCH 22, 2022
This panel will highlight the challenges and opportunities for the GreenBiz community to engage in the fight against plastic pollution and further the circular economy. What does it take to build global projects through partnerships with investors, businesses and nonprofits?
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From Ambition to Accountability: How to (Actually) Solve the Plastics Waste Crisis
GreenBiz
MAY 26, 2022
By now, we all know the scale of the problem: Up to 13 million tons of plastic leaks into the ocean every year; this is equivalent to dumping one garbage truck full of plastic waste into the ocean every minute; without intervention, we’ll have more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050.
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An idea for solving the plastics crisis
GreenBiz
SEPTEMBER 15, 2020
An idea for solving the plastics crisis. A major problem with behavior-change programs in the waste industry is that they rely on consumers being taught to feel the guilt of plastic in the ocean, and the harm to turtles and whales. percent of America’s plastic waste is actually recycled. Sara Kingman.
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Failure is an option: We already know the outcome of global plastic waste negotiations
GreenBiz
JUNE 3, 2024
meeting in November will likely fail to produce a binding international treaty that will reverse the growing trend of plastic pollution. Delegates at the final U.N.
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Down plastic, up morale: How a sustainability graduate school is reducing single-use plastic
GreenBiz
JANUARY 24, 2020
Our finance department measured the “before” of our office’s single-use plastic, and implemented improvements right away.
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From high school science project to $18.3M: AI-accelerated enzymes are coming for fast fashion’s plastic waste
TechCrunch: Climate
MARCH 5, 2025
startup, originating from founder Jacob Nathan’s high school science project on using enzymes to break down plastic waste, has secured an oversubscribed $18.3 million in Series A funding. Founded in 2019 in London, Epoch Biodesign now a 30+ strong multidisciplinary team of chemists, biologists and software engineers.
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Walgreens Boots Alliance exec talks plastic, packaging and COVID-19
GreenBiz
MARCH 1, 2021
Walgreens Boots Alliance exec talks plastic, packaging and COVID-19. One of those is reducing plastics in Boots-owned brand packaging, in line with the UK Plastics Pact 2025. Ellis: When the Plastics Pact came along, it was formulating and putting in place a series of targets to capitalize upon work that we were already doing.
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A new ‘supercritical water’ approach to recycling plastic packaging waste
Envirotec Magazine
FEBRUARY 10, 2022
Supercritical water can be a solvent for all organic materials including plastics. Its gas-like penetration power makes it a superior medium to decompose mixtures of complex waste plastics into value-added materials, which are feedstock for manufacturing new plastics. Above the critical point of 374.5
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Pilot plant for recycling plastic lab waste is a UK first
Envirotec Magazine
SEPTEMBER 15, 2023
A pilot plant on the University of Bath campus is said to be able to recycle up to 60% of plastic lab waste, to make back into new lab consumables. Currently, less than 1% of this waste is being recycled. Research and healthcare workers can focus on reducing and reusing single-use plastic items when possible.
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Plastic pollution is growing relentlessly as waste management and recycling fall short, says OECD
Envirotec Magazine
FEBRUARY 22, 2022
The world is producing twice as much plastic waste as two decades ago, with the bulk of it ending up in landfill, incinerated or leaking into the environment, and only 9% successfully recycled, according to a new OECD report. Almost half of all plastic waste is generated in OECD countries, according to the Outlook.
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6 ways to tackle the damage plastics are doing
GreenBiz
JUNE 14, 2024
Emissions from plastic are on the verge of exceeding those from cars — yet companies often don’t include plastic in their net-zero strategies. At Circularity 24, a panel of experts gave advice on how to reduce corporate dependency on plastic waste.
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Chemical looping turns environmental waste into fuel
TechXplore
JANUARY 29, 2025
Turning environmental waste into useful chemical resources could solve many of the inevitable challenges of our growing amounts of discarded plastics, paper and food waste, according to new research.
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Initiative turns marine plastic pollution into reusable PPE
Envirotec Magazine
AUGUST 24, 2020
The two groups have combined already-established and community-led marine debris and plastic waste interception programmes from the Dominican Republic with a UK volunteer network producing sustainable eye protection. Through this collaboration, plastic trash will protect lives instead of destroying it.”
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World needs ambitious target of 0% new plastic waste by 2040
Envirotec Magazine
NOVEMBER 10, 2022
The United Nations is being urged to make a bold pledge and set a target of zero for new plastic pollution by 2040 in its upcoming Global Treaty to End Plastic Pollution. Plastic production and subsequent pollution are key drivers of climate change, the focus of discussion at COP27 in Egypt this week.
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Group attempts to turn plastic waste into a useful soil additive
Envirotec Magazine
JANUARY 10, 2023
Researchers from University of California, Riverside, have detailed a method to convert plastic waste into a highly porous form of charcoal or char that has a whopping surface area of about 400 square meters per gram of mass. The plastic-to-char process was developed at UC Riverside’s Marlan and Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering.
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Report reveals hypocrisy of world’s biggest plastic polluters
Envirotec Magazine
SEPTEMBER 18, 2020
A new report from advocacy group The Changing Markets Foundation appears to reveal how, behind a veil of nice-sounding initiatives and commitments to address the plastics crisis – the plastics industry, consumer brands and retailers have obstructed and undermined proven legislative solutions to the crisis for decades.
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Funding for plastic recycling tech
Envirotec Magazine
JANUARY 21, 2021
Greenback Recycling Technologies , a company striving to develop circular solutions for packaging waste, has closed an approximately £8m series A financing round. The firm says it is building a globally distributed, decentralised network of advanced recycling plants near the sources of plastic waste.
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Where there's hope for speeding up business action on plastics
GreenBiz
AUGUST 26, 2020
Where there's hope for speeding up business action on plastics. Its landmark report, "The New Plastics Economy," sounded the alarm in 2016 that if "business as usual" continues, by 2025 the ocean may hold more plastic than fish by weight. Only five years ago, few corporate leaders had plastic pollution on their official radar.
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These innovations pull plastic pollution from rivers before it reaches the ocean
GreenBiz
MARCH 11, 2022
Over 90 percent of ocean plastic waste comes from just 10 rivers. But innovative businesses are deploying low-cost, low-tech solutions to stop them.
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Novel system converts CO2 and plastic waste into a clean fuel
Envirotec Magazine
JUNE 20, 2023
Researchers have demonstrated a novel system for transforming captured carbon and plastic waste into sustainable fuels and other valuable chemicals using solar energy. On the other plastics are converted into useful chemicals using only sunlight. The various components of the system (image credit: Ariffin Mohamad Annuar).
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