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Recycling Cigarette Butts into Asphalt

Posted on March 12, 2024March 12, 2024 by dishanth

Cigarette butts are the most littered item worldwide. Over 4.5 trillion cigarette butts pollute our environment every year. They do not easily biodegrade and are full of chemicals that are toxic to the wildlife that may ingest them. They are small individually, but they add up to a big problem. A waste management company in Bratislava, Slovakia, has found a new way of recycling cigarette butts, and that is by transforming cigarette butts into asphalt.

The environmental effect of cigarettes

More than 6 trillion cigarettes are smoked yearly around the world. You are probably familiar with how cigarettes cause air pollution due to the burning of tobacco, which releases harmful chemicals into the air. But did you know the butts from cigarettes are the most common form of personal litter in the world?

In the world total, cigarette butts make up more than one-third of litter. While cigarette butts may look like cotton, they are made of plastic fibers which are tightly packed together. And because they are made from man-made materials, they won’t organically break down into the environment.

Moreover, because cigarette butts are made of toxic chemicals when they are disposed of improperly, these chemicals (such as nicotine, lead, cadmium, and arsenic) will leach into the environment. The toxic chemicals can find their way into rivers, lakes, and oceans, harming aquatic life and contaminating water sources. There is also a risk of wildlife mistaking cigarette butts for food, accidentally injesting them.

Transforming cigarette butts into asphalt

A municipal waste management company in Bratislava, Slovakia, is pioneering a new way of recycling cigarette butts. At the end of 2023, the company trialed special containers designed to collect standard cigarette filters and those found in modern heated tobacco devices like vapes. And placed them around the city.

In collaboration with companies SPAK-EKO and EcoButt, the Bratislava City Council will be recycling cigarette butts to use the discarded materials to create asphalt for roads. Once the filters have been collected from the specialized bins, they will undergo a cleaning process to remove toxins and any residual tobacco. The cleaned filters are composed of cellulose acetate from the filters, which are then transformed into fine fibers. The fibers are mixed with traditional asphalt materials, which help with the asphalt’s durability and longevity.

The final product can be used just like conventional asphalt for creating new roads or repairing existing ones.

This isn’t the first time Slovakia is recycling cigarette butts into asphalt to be used on their roads. Their first cigarette filter road is located in Ziar and Hronom and was the first in the world.

With this program, cities in Slovakia can encourage people not only to stop throwing their cigarette butts on the ground, where they will do harm to the environment. But this project can also show people how they can participate in sustainable urban development.

Recycling cigarette butts into asphalt can also help reduce the environmental impact of the construction industry. The production of asphalt involves heating and mixing aggregates with bitumen, a petroleum-based binder. This process releases greenhouse gases and other air pollutants, contributing to air quality issues and climate change.

Rainwater runoff from asphalt surfaces can carry pollutants, such as oil, heavy metals, and chemicals from vehicle exhaust, into waterways, potentially contaminating aquatic ecosystems. Recycling cigarette butts in the asphalt may help absorb and reduce many of these environmental harms and could change how we construct our roads.

Cigarettes might not be disappearing in the very near future, but we can find ways to make them less damaging to our planet and help cities be a little cleaner. Providing users with these specialized cigarette butt bins is one way to keep cigarette butts off the ground and out of our waters. And repurposing these butts is one way we can support a circular model and reuse and repurpose our resources.

Slovakia has a very innovative plan, and we hope it catches on around the world.

Source Happy Eco News

Recycle Plastic Bags into Oil with New Machine

Posted on December 1, 2023 by dishanth

A Japanese inventor learned how to recycle plastic bags into oil with a new machine.

A Japanese inventor has designed an innovative machine that can recycle plastic bags into oil. 70-year old Akinori Ito created the recycling device to process hard-to-recycle plastic waste into usable fuel.

Ito’s machine shreds plastic bags into flakes and then melts them at high heat, producing an oil liquid similar to light crude. The unconventional recycling method aims to reduce waste while generating income for local communities. The machines come in a variety of sizes, from desktop-sized to community-scale.

“I don’t want this equipment to just be used by major companies. I want it to be used in small towns and villages,” Ito shared.

His compact recycling unit measures around 4.5 meters long by 2.5 meters wide with various control stations. Up to 1 kilogram of plastic bags can be loaded into the shredder per hour.

The shredded plastic is then fed into a hot furnace, melting the material at temperatures up to 430 degrees Celsius. The intense heat decomposes the hydrocarbons and will recycle plastic bags into oil.

Different grades of fuel oil can be created depending on the temperature and components used. Higher heat produces lighter oils akin to diesel or gasoline. The oil can then be sold to buyers as recycled petroleum products.

Japan generates over 9 million tons of plastic waste annually but recycles only 22% of it, government statistics report. The country imports much of its energy and previously recycled most plastics into lower-grade uses like concrete filler. The ability to recycle plastic bags into oil is something that Japan needs.

Motivated by both the waste and energy issues, Ito spent over 20 years perfecting a system to upcycle plastics into usable crude oil.

After testing various methods, the retired electronics engineer pioneered the pressurized hot furnace technique to recycle plastic bags into oil.

“I didn’t expect oil made from plastic bags would be such good quality when I first produced it,” shared Ito. “The quality of oil is high enough to be sold to consumers.”

By selling the oil produced, local groups and municipalities can fund new recycling efforts in a self-sustaining loop. “I hope more people will use the machine in their community,” said Ito.

Several Japanese municipalities have already installed Ito’s invention to process hard-to-recycle plastic films, bags, wrappings, and other waste into oil.

The city of Akita estimates they can convert several hundred kilograms of plastic waste per day into nearly $500 worth of oil. Some groups report producing over 80 liters of oil daily.

But challenges remain in scaling up the niche recycling concept. Collecting sufficient plastic volumes is difficult in smaller towns. Removing ink and labels from plastic bags is an added step. The systems also require maintenance of technical equipment.

Still, supporters believe Ito’s invention provides an important outlet to reduce unrecyclable plastics piling up in Japan and other countries. His machine offers a rare solution for polyethylene films that lack recycling markets globally.

If expanded, systems that recycle plastic bags into oil could reduce environmental and crude oil imports for countries while generating income. With further development, experts envision entire localized supply chains optimizing the plastic-to-fuel concept.

For his innovation, Ito was awarded the Medal of Honor from Japan’s Ministry of Environment in 2018. His persistence in creating a real-world solution also highlights the power of grassroots initiatives to spur change.

Said Ito: “I don’t want my technology to end up sitting on the shelf. I want it to be used practically to help communities.”

Source Happy Eco News

The Importance of Whale Poop to Maintain Healthy Oceans

Posted on November 28, 2023 by dishanth

The importance of whale poop to maintain healthy oceans

Here are some fun facts about whales that I bet you didn’t know. There are two main groups of whales: baleen whales (which include humpbacks and blue whales) and toothed whales (which include orcas, belugas and sperm whales). The difference? One has teeth, and the other has fibrous ‘baleen’ plates. Another fun fact is that the Antarctic blue whale is the largest animal on the planet, weighing up to 200 tons and reaching up to 30 metres in length. These big blue whales can consume about 3600 kg of krill daily.

What I bet you didn’t know is how important whales and their poop are in sustaining marine life and minimizing the impacts of climate change. The ocean is full of whale poop which floats on the uppermost layer of the ocean’s water. Although whales will feed in deeper waters, they will poop when they swim up to the surface to breathe. Whale poop can help with the growth of phytoplankton, the tiny plants that are the foundation of the aquatic food web. Small fish and invertebrates will eat the plant-like organisms, and then the smaller animals are eaten by bigger ones.

The phytoplankton not only contribute at least 50 percent of the world’s oxygen, but they do so by capturing more than 37 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide produced. When the phytoplankton die, the carbon they captured will sink into the deep ocean, where it won’t return to the surface for thousands of years. Unfortunately, with the rise in ocean temperatures, an increase in pollution and the rise of microplastics found in the ocean, phytoplankton levels are dropping in certain parts of the world.

How do whales contribute to nutrient recycling, help to maintain healthy oceans and even increase phytoplankton levels? The process is called the “whale pump”. Whale’s poop contains nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and iron, which phytoplankton need to grow. Whales benefit the entire ocean ecosystem by creating conditions encouraging fish populations to grow.

University of Alaska Southeast researchers are testing this relationship between whale poop and climate change. They are testing whale poop and comparing, in a lab, how well phytoplankton grows in different types of feces compared with plain seawater.

To date, they have tested whale poop samples from humpbacks, harbour porpoises and grey whales and found that there was more growth in some conditions that contained whale poop. With climate change intensifying and the physical and chemical characteristics of the ocean changing, the whale pump may become even more important for bringing nutrients up from the deep.

Unfortunately, many species of whales (including the blue whale, vaquitas, the grey whale, etc.) from around the world are at risk of disappearing. Some things impacting whale populations include ship strikes, bycatch (whales being trapped in fishing nets), habitat degradation and climate change. Conservation efforts, such as international agreements, marine protected areas, and efforts to reduce entanglement in fishing gear, are helping to protect and recover some whale species.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen the impact animal poop can have on climate change. Elephant dung, which sometimes has seeds in it, is helping to grow trees and restore the forest’s role as climate sinks. Whale poop has a very similar impact. It not only helps feed the entire marine ecosystem but also significantly contributes to maintaining the ocean’s role as a carbon sink. Without whales pooping in our oceans, the health and balance of the ocean’s ecosystems will be compromised. We need the oceans, the whales, and the phytoplankton to help fight against the challenges of climate change.

Source Happy Eco News

Candy Bar Wrappers Go Plastic Free

Posted on June 30, 2023 by dishanth

For the first time since its launch in 1936, Nestlé is changing the packaging of their famous Mars candy bar wrapper for a more environmentally friendly alternative.

Traditionally, candy bar wrappers are made out of a combination of aluminum and plastic. These materials are difficult to recycle because of how hard it is to separate the two materials. Moreover, the plastic is not biodegradable and can take 10-20 years to decompose. This is at the risk of pieces remaining in the environment longer than that. At the end of their short life, candy bar wrappers will inevitably end up either in landfills or the environment.

New Jersey based TerraCycle has implemented a candy bar wrapper recycling program to address this problem, collecting used wrappers from individuals and institutions.

Candy bar wrappers are recycled at TerraCycle through a process called mechanical recycling. This process involves shredding the wrappers into small pieces, washing them to remove any contaminants, and then melting them down to create new plastic pellets. These pellets can then be used to make new products, such as benches, flower pots, or playground equipment.

TerraCycle offers a variety of recycling programs for candy bar wrappers. These programs are available to individuals, schools, businesses, and organizations. To participate in a program, the only cost is to purchase a collection kit from TerraCycle. The collection kit includes a shipping label and a prepaid shipping box.

Once you have purchased a collection kit, you can collect candy bar wrappers. You can collect wrappers from your own home, school, or workplace. When the collection kit is full, you can ship it back to TerraCycle for recycling.

Nestlé Steps Up

Nestlé is taking the problem of candy bar wrapper waste one step further by completely changing what their chocolates are packaged in. The company is piloting a program to wrap its Mars bars in recyclable paper.

The company also announced that it would be switching the plastic packaging on KitKat bars to 80% recycled plastic, allowing them to be recycled at supermarkets across the UK or put in household recycling bins in Ireland. This is an initiative that could save 1900 tonnes of CO2 annually.

In addition, the company is looking to explore new types of packaging. Nestle is investing hundreds of millions of pounds to redesign thousands of types of packaging. This investment will be put towards meeting its goal of reducing the use of virgin plastics by one-third by 2025. The company also plans for over 95% of its plastic packaging to be designed for recycling by 2025.

Nestlé’s Institute of Packaging Science has been working since 2019 to develop the next generation of packaging materials. In addition to recyclable packaging materials, they are looking at developing refillable or reusable packaging and how to incorporate compostable and biodegradable materials. The Institute’s strategy focuses on five pillars, all of which are linked to reducing waste:

Reducing the use of plastic packaging material
Scaling reusable and refillable systems
Designing better packaging materials
Supporting infrastructure to help make recycling easier
Shaping new behaviours

Nestlé is a global food and beverage company that has been criticized for its water bottling operations. Critics argue that Nestle is extracting too much water from local communities, often with no meaningful compensation to local jurisdictions and areas already facing water shortages. Some have argued that the company doesn’t sell water; the company sells single-use bottles. Bottles that contribute to pollution and environmental damage.

The need for bottled water, is of course, a marketing ploy. Critics argue that Nestle’s marketing campaigns make bottled water seem like a healthier and more convenient alternative to tap water, even though there is no scientific evidence to support this claim.

The plastic-free Mars bars will be available at 500 Tesco stores in the UK for a limited time.

Source Happy Eco News

Developing Alternatives to Plastic Payment Cards

Posted on May 10, 2023 by dishanth

Over six billion plastic payment cards are produced and shipped worldwide every year. These cards are quickly replacing cash payments because they are a more convenient and secure way of paying. These cards typically comprise several layers of PVC plastic, one of the most common forms of plastic. Each card will contain approximately 5 grams of plastic, weighing 15 000 tonnes. These cards are replaced on average every 3-4 years, and most are discarded into landfill.

Since 2018,Master card has been working to develop more sustainable card options for their cards and other card issuers. Some of these options include:

Recycled PVC plastic uses post-industrial waste to make the card. PVC recycling reduces the need for more oil extraction, which supports the creation of new PVC.
Polylactic Acid is a bio-sourced plastic produced from either corn or sugar starch. The cards can be industrially composted if they are collected and processed in the correct conditions.
Polyethylene Terraphlate contains no chlorine or styrene and is more widely recycled. PETG can be a step towards introducing full circularity.
Ocean-sourced cards are made from post-consumer plastic waste found in the ocean or from coastal areas.

Additionally, Mastercard has introduced its Sustainable Card Badge, part of its certification program to encourage the use of more sustainable materials in card manufacturing. The Badge is a card mark made available to qualified card manufacturers and issuers who reduce first-use PVC in plastic payment cards. Issuers will have access to an approved list of vendors and alternative sustainable materials found in the Mastercard Sustainable Materials Directory. This is the world’s first directory of sustainable card materials and information on where to source them. More than 60 financial institutions in more than a dozen countries worldwide have issued Mastercard cards made from approved recycled, recyclable and bio-sourced materials.

Mastercard is also exploring the end-of-life for payment card options, as most materials used in these cards cannot be composted or recycled efficiently. The contaminants, such as the chips and magnetic tape, still need to be addressed as they cannot be composted, separated, or removed in the recycling processes. The emergence of new chemical recycling techniques alongside the traditional mechanical processes makes this an emerging option for cards which will likely see further improvement over the coming years. Mastercard is invested in research regarding the chemical recycling of plastics to find ways they can contribute to a more circular economy.

Mastercard’s efforts will significantly reduce the need for plastic, especially as these cards continue to be manufactured each year. Although these cards are small, the impact can be huge, and it is important to reduce plastic use wherever we can.

Source Happy Eco News

Using Light to Convert Lignin into Sustainable Plastic

Posted on February 24, 2023 by dishanth

Its biochemical cousin cellulose, a byproduct of the paper and wood milling industry, is well known to many people. But, according to industry analysts, the same procedures generate 50 million tons of lignin each year. 98% of the inky liquid is burnt to create electricity once it has been distilled.

Researchers have been looking for more effective and sustainable methods to turn this naturally occurring polymer into a cleaner and greener building block for use in developing next-generation materials.

According to a new study published in the journal ACS Central Science, scientists at Boston College have created a method for turning lignin into eco-friendly plastics using light.

The scientists then transformed the oligomers into eco-friendly plastics by reacting with crosslinkers, a molecular glue, according to the study. The oligomers produced by the catalyst have distinct chemical structures, allowing the plastics produced in this way to be chemically broken down back into the oligomers and reformed from the oligomers and the crosslinker.

The research advances a viable strategy for the circular plastic economy, a system of waste-free polymer production and reuse, according to the study co-author Dunwei Wang, the Margaret A. and Thomas A. Vanderslice Chair in Chemistry at Boston College.

Wang and Niu, both interested in creating sustainable materials, chose the project based on Wang’s experience in utilizing photocatalysis to induce chemical transformations and Niu’s work of creating recyclable polymers.

Wang added, “The pleasant surprise was the level of controls we were able to exert in decomposing lignin, which is a biopolymer that is notorious for its difficulty to break down. Such a level of control paves the way for downstream applications.”

The study team wants to improve the novel technique for turning lignin into environmentally sustainable plastics that are easy to recycle chemically.

Graduate students Gavin Giardino and Hongyang Wang, along with former post-doctoral researchers Rong Chen and Cangjie Yang, are also co-authors of the study with Niu and Wang.

Source AZoMaterial

New approach to recycling plastic could change the way we reuse waste

Posted on September 30, 2021 by dishanth

Every person will discard two metric tonnes of plastic in their lifetime.

But a study has suggested a new way to deal with plastic waste.

The Swiss research suggests a proof-of-concept idea of a new approach to plastic recycling – inspired by the way nature ‘recycles’ the components of organic polymers present in our environment.

Proteins inside organic polymers are constantly broken down into parts and reassembled into different proteins.

Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) believe that this approach could work with plastics too.

Researcher Simone Gavieri wrote: “A protein is like a string of pearls, where each pearl is an amino acid. Each pearl has a different colour, and the colour-sequence determines the string structure and consequently its properties.

“In nature, protein chains break up into the constituent amino acids and cells put such amino acids back together to form new proteins, that is they create new strings of pearls with a different colour sequence.”

Professor Francesco Stellacci, of EPFL, said: “We selected proteins and divided them up into amino acids. We then put the amino acids into a cell-free biological system that assembled the amino acids back into new proteins with entirely different structures and applications.”

Giaveri and Stellacci successfully transformed silk into a protein used in biomedical technology.

Stellacci said: “Importantly, when you break down and assemble proteins in this way, the quality of the proteins produced is exactly the same of that of a newly-synthesised protein. Indeed, you are building something new.”

Stellacci said it would take time to develop a working method to recycle plastic in this way.

He added: “It will require a radically different mindset. Polymers are strings of pearls, but synthetic polymers are made mostly of pearls all of the same colour and when the colour is different the sequence of colour rarely matters.

“Furthermore, we have no efficient way to assemble synthetic polymers from different colour pearls in a way that controls their sequence.”

Research this year found that thousands of rivers, including smaller ones, are responsible for most of the plastic pollution worldwide.

Previously, scientists believed that 10 large rivers – such as the Yangtze in China – were responsible for the bulk of plastic pollution.

In fact, 1,000 rivers – just 1% of all rivers worldwide – carry most of the plastic to the sea.

The research means that areas like tropical islands are likely to be among the worst polluters, the researchers said.

The study by non-profit organisation The Ocean Cleanup used measurements and modelling to work out that 1,000 rivers worldwide are behind 80% of plastic emissions.

Source Yahoo News

Airline’s new cabin crew uniform made from recycled plastic bottles

Posted on August 25, 2021 by dishanth

European budget airline easyjet’s new cabin crew uniforms have been unveiled, and it has gone down a very “green” route with the fabric.

Each uniform has been created from about 45 recycled plastic bottles.

Linking up with Northern Irish manufacturer Tailored Image, it is estimated the new uniforms will prevent up to half a million plastic bottles from ending up as plastic waste each year.

The new threads have already been trialled, so presumably have passed the comfort test as well.

Director of Cabin Services, Tina Milton, said the airline is looking at ways to be more sustainable.

Each uniform has been created from about 45 recycled plastic bottles.

“It is a priority for us to continue work on reducing our carbon footprint in the short term, coupled with long-term work to support the development of new technology, including zero-emission planes which aspire to reduce the carbon footprint of aviation radically,” said Milton.

“We continue to work with innovative technology partners Wright Electric and Airbus. Each of them has set out its ambitious timetables for bringing zero-emission aircraft into commercial service to become a reality.”

Certainly, easyjet will be hoping the uniforms will not cause their crew discomfort or illness.

Staff at US airlines Delta and American ended up suing their companies saying the clothes were making them sick.

AirAsia’s uniforms made the news for a completely different reason when a Kiwi doctor claimed the outfits were too sexy and were ruining Malaysia’s reputation as a “respectful” country. Some local politicians agreed.

Textiles have a large global environmental footprint second only to the extractive oil and gas industries, and businesses and manufacturers have been trying various ways to make clothing more sustainable.

In 2020, fashion retailer Glassons launched a range of clothes made from recycled plastic. The knitwear was made from clear plastic bottles that were processed to form strings of yarn.

In 2019, Polo Ralph Lauren launched a version of its iconic polo shirt made entirely of recycled plastic bottles and dyed through a process that used zero water.

Source Stuff

Turning wood Into recyclable, biodegradable plastic

Posted on March 29, 2021 by dishanth

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. But researchers have made a breakthrough, using wood byproducts, that shows promise for producing more durable and sustainable bioplastics.

A study published in Nature Sustainability, co-authored by Yuan Yao, assistant professor of industrial ecology and sustainable systems at Yale School of the Environment (YSE), outlines the process of deconstructing the porous matrix of natural wood into a slurry. The researchers say the resulting material shows a high mechanical strength, stability when holding liquids, and UV-light resistance. 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.

“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. “We’ve developed a straightforward and simple manufacturing process that generates biomass-based plastics from wood, but also plastic that delivers good mechanical properties as well.”

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). The resulting mixture, which features nanoscale entanglement and hydrogen bonding between the regenerated lignin and cellulose micro/nanofibrils, has a high solid content and high viscosity, which can be casted and rolled without breaking.

Yao then led a comprehensive life cycle assessment to test the environmental impacts of the bioplastic against commons plastics. Sheets of the bioplastic were buried in soil, fracturing after two weeks and completely degrading after three months; 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.

“We’ve developed a straightforward and simple manufacturing process that generates biomass-based plastics from wood, but also plastic that delivers good mechanical properties as well.” — Yuan Yao, assistant professor of industrial ecology and sustainable systems

“That, to me, is what really makes this plastic good: It can all be recycled or biodegraded,” says Yao. “We’ve minimized all of the materials and the waste going into nature.”

The bioplastic has numerous applications, says Liangbing Hu, a professor at the Center for Materials Innovation at the University of Maryland and co-author of the paper. 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. Hu also says that because the bioplastic can be molded into different shapes, it has potential for use in automobile manufacturing, as well.

One area the research team continues to investigate is the potential impact on forests if the manufacturing of this bioplastic is scaled up. 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.

Yao says the research team has already begun working with a forest ecologist to create forest simulation models, linking the growth cycle of forests with the manufacturing process. She also sees an opportunity to collaborate with people who work in forest-related fields at YSE — an uncommon convenience.

“It’s not often an engineer can walk down the hall and talk to a forester,” says Yao.

Yao, an emerging scholar in the field of industrial ecology, joined the YSE faculty last year. Her research examines the environmental and economic impacts of emerging technologies and industrial processes., integrating interdisciplinary approaches from the fields of industrial ecology, sustainable engineering, and systems modeling to develop techniques that promote more sustainable engineering approaches and policies.

Reference: “A strong, biodegradable and recyclable lignocellulosic bioplastic” by Qinqin Xia, Chaoji Chen, Yonggang Yao, Jianguo Li, Shuaiming He, Yubing Zhou, Teng Li, Xuejun Pan, Yuan Yao and Liangbing Hu, 25 March 2021, Nature Sustainability.
DOI: 10.1038/s41893-021-00702-w

By YALE SCHOOL OF THE ENVIRONMENT

Source SciTech Daily