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TreeTote: The Tote Bag That Saves +1100 Liters of Water

Posted on by dishanth
TreeTote: The Tote Bag That Saves +1100 Liters of Water

Did you know that a cotton tote bag consumes +1141 liters of water to be produced?

Cotton tote bags have flooded the market. Originally manufactured to combat single-use bags, this bag has become a trendy accessory. Brands have turned it into a true cult accessory. Yet, cotton tote bags are an ecological disaster. Cotton production involves astronomical amounts of water and pesticides, leading to soil drought and the development of dead marine zones.

In recent years, the “ fiber gap” phenomenon has appeared. Demand for cotton continues to rise while supply decreases. The consequence is skyrocketing prices. Natural fibers like cotton are increasingly being replaced by fibers derived from fossil resources. Cotton is predominantly produced in Asia and requires intercontinental transportation. Off-centre cotton supply chains release large amounts of CO2.

Organic growing systems are better for the soil as they maintain a higher soil quality, which reduces the runoff into local rivers. The soil is also much more resilient and can withstand extreme weather. Healthy soil acts like a sponge – it can absorb and retain water for longer periods, including droughts. This leads to a much lower consumption of organic cotton though it remains 90% higher than our lyocell wood fibre.

The Tree Tote

The TreeTote, a 100% wood fiber tote bag, was developed to address these challenges. Our totes are made from 100% European production. We keep our supply chain as close as possible to reduce CO2 emissions related to transport while producing a socially responsible and affordable bag. Our supply chain is exclusively European and includes three streams: Made in Europe, Made in the Alps and Guaranteed French Origin. The entire supply chain is traceable via the Respect Code on all our bags. By scanning the QR codes on our bags, you will see the entire journey from research to development, raw materials, production, distribution and use.

The prime material for our bags is timber, and they are made from 100% wood fibre from sustainable sources. Of the tree species used in the sourcing of wood for the TreeTote, the main contender is Beech. Beechwood availability is increasing as forests are being returned to a more natural species mix. Rising temperatures are also increasing its growth rate. This beech wood comes purely from PEFC/FSC-certified sources.

The material is generated by thinning or damaged wood left over from other operations. Almost all of the wood used to produce the TreeTote comes from Austria, where the fibre is produced. The rest comes from neighbouring countries, minimising transport and therefore the carbon emissions that come with it. Transport is highly optimised to keep our carbon footprint to a minimum. Shared transport is used whenever possible and, for longer distances, low-emission transport such as trains is prioritised.

Over 99% of the solvent used is recovered and recycled, and water consumption is reduced drastically. Even sustainable bags use plastic thread and tags, which are cheaper and widely available. We stray from plastic and only use TENCEL accessories to make our TreeTote 100% wood fiber. We also don’t add any extra mechanical or chemical steps to the line after weaving, which is rare in textile production, to save energy and water.

Regarding the water used to produce our tote bag, we achieved a 90% reduction in water consumption. If we compare our tote bag to a conventional cotton bag, which uses about 1200L of water, we reduce consumption by 99%. In the case of organically grown cotton, the reduction reaches 90%. Over 39,158,595 liters of water have been saved by TreeTote so far as a replacement for cotton bags.

Because dyeing, and the processes that come with it, have an enormous impact, especially due to water use for the dying itself and the washing steps that follow. We, therefore, choose to work with the fabric in its natural white colour.

OEKO-TEX® STANDARD 100 is one of the world’s best-known labels for textiles tested for harmful substances. It stands for customer confidence and high product safety. TreeTote has been awarded Class I certification, complying with the label’s strictest requirements.

After using the tote bag as many times as possible, we recommend recycling it with textiles as this is the highest value disposal. The Tree Tote is also 100% compostable.

 

 

 

 

Source   Happy Eco News

She’s making shampoo more sustainable by eliminating the most useless ingredient in it – water

Posted on by dishanth
She’s making shampoo more sustainable by eliminating the most useless ingredient in it – water

Did you know that 80 per cent of our regular shampoo is made of water? This water however does not enhance the formula in any way. On the contrary, it dilutes the product so consumers need a larger quantity for a single wash.

“The thing is, when you shampoo, you still need to wet your hair to lather the product. So why do we need to add water to the shampoo formula in the first place?” said Lynn Tan, founder of The Powder Shampoo.

“Also, why are we transporting gallons and gallons of liquid shampoo around the world? The water makes it heavier than it needs to be. And because of the liquid, brands usually use single-use plastic to store the product. It is all so unnecessary.”

Her solution is so logical, it is a wonder no big brands have picked up on it sooner. To reduce single-use plastic and the carbon footprint of transporting products – simply subtract water from the formula.

This April, Tan will launch four variants of Singapore’s very first powder shampoo. Don’t confuse these for dry shampoo, which you sprinkle on your scalp to absorb excess oil. Tan has designed her product to be applied directly to wet hair for the full lathering shampoo experience.

 

THE POWDER REVOLUTION

Beauty insiders will know Tan. The 43-year-old runs a distribution business BBN International, which specialises in botanical brands such as Phyto, Lierac and Trilogy.

In early 2021 however, as she was watching Netflix documentaries on sustainability, she felt increasingly shaken and saddened, and began asking questions about the beauty industry – especially the need for single-use plastic bottles in personal care products.

“Only 9 per cent of plastic is recycled; 12 per cent is incinerated, which releases toxic fumes into the air. The rest is living among us.

“This plastic harms our ecosystem, birds, animals and sea creatures. It also becomes microplastic, goes in the air we breathe and the water we drink, and affects our lungs, brain, nervous system and reproductive system. A lot of reports show that plastic is poisoning us,” she said.

“This led me to wonder if there will be a beautiful earth left for my children, my grandchildren and everyone’s grandchildren if we keep going like this,” added the mother-of-three.

 

Tapping into her extensive haircare expertise, Lynn Tan created Singapore’s first powder shampoo and tweaked the formula 10 times to get it right. (Photo: The Powder Shampoo)

 

It also dawned upon Tan that she has been part of the problem. “As a business owner, you want to sell as much as you can, as often as you can, to as many people as you can. However, the more I sell, the more I contribute to this plastic plague,” she reflected.

“While a lot of us are trying to be eco-friendly, it is so hard because we have very limited sustainable options. You can shampoo less, pick products that use recycled plastic packaging (but these can only be recycled once), or use shampoo bars.”

While shampoo bars were a good option, Tan did not enjoy the experience. She wanted a sustainable product that was “easy to use, lathers nicely and smells amazing”.

Tan decided to go to the drawing board to create her own product from scratch. And so The Powder Shampoo was born.

 

WHY SWITCH TO POWDER?

Tan’s product is not the first powder shampoo. Over the past couple of years, a handful of cult brands from the US, UK and New Zealand have launched similar products.

Most consumers, however, aren’t even aware of them. And Tan’s goal is to create more awareness and more options.

“This should be a new movement and new category because you would reduce so much single-use plastic just by switching to powder,” she said.

Tan also stressed that powder shampoos are longer lasting, reduce overconsumption and are more cost effective as compared to liquid shampoos. “You only need 0.5g to wash short hair, 1g to wash shoulder length hair, and 1.5g to 2g to wash thick long hair. Our 100g bottle can last for 100 washes, which means you only need to buy a new bottle in three to six months,” she said.

She added: “In comparison, a 100ml bottle of liquid shampoo only lasts for 10 washes on average. Most liquid shampoos are 250ml to 500ml and only last for one to two months.”

The Powder Shampoo’s water-free formulas are easy to use, gentle on your scalp and hair, and leave it feeling soft and bouncy after each wash.

A self-confessed aromatherapy junkie, Tan incorporated micro-encapsulated essential oils such as bergamot, grapefruit, tea tree and mint into the products. These double as a natural preservative, giving the paraben-free products a shelf life of two years after opening.

She also uses a biodegradable coconut-based ingredient as a sulphate-free surfactant to thoroughly cleanse the scalp.

 

 

Tan has taken pains to ensure her shampoos are free of common controversial ingredients. These include: Parabens and phthalates, which Tan believes harms the body; silicone, which may clog pores and harm marine creatures when it goes into the water stream; sulphates, retinol, artificial fragrances and mineral oils, which may irritate sensitive skin.

The products are vegan and cruelty-free. “There is no need to use animal byproducts when we have so many options in the plant world. And there is certainly no need to test products on non-consenting animals when there are so many people willing to volunteer to try the product,” stressed Tan, who tested her products on 100 friends and colleagues from Singapore, Canada, Europe, the Philippines and China, to ensure that they suit different climates, hair types and types of water – including hard water.

 

In place of plastic, Tan says The Powder Shampoo is packaged in aluminium bottles because each one can be recycled 100 times or more. (Photo: The Powder Shampoo)

 

Packaging was another big concern for the eco-entrepreneur. She chose aluminium because it is durable, light and can be infinitely recycled, unlike plastic, which can only be recycled once.

To reduce the production of aluminium bottles, Tan also offers 100g refill packs of the shampoo, which are packaged in 100 per cent paper; all products are available on the brand’s online store.

 

FEEL GOOD BEAUTY

Having said that, one cannot help but wonder why powder shampoo as a haircare category hasn’t taken off sooner? Tan has a theory. She believes it goes against the grain of how businesses usually run.

“As a big brand, if you create a culture of people buying shampoo every month, why would you suddenly create a product where people buy from you every quarter or only twice a year?” she asked.

Nonetheless, the straight-shooting businesswoman is not afraid to speak out against liquid shampoos even though it remains one of the key products she currently distributes. “Why hasn’t haircare evolved? Why are we still making shampoos the same way as we have in the 50s?” she asked.

Will speaking out alienate the brands she distributes? “It may,” she mused. “Then maybe (the big brands) want to do something about it? My dream is not to be the only one selling powder shampoo, but for everyone to sell it because it makes the most sense. I hope this will create a ripple effect across the globe.”

Another cool bonus for consumers, The Powder Shampoo works with non-profit organisation Tree-Nation. So each time you purchase a bottle, you will get an email notifying you that a tree has been planted in your name in Tanzania, Eastern Africa.

Tan spent her childhood playing at her mother’s plant nursery in Malaysia and is a huge tree lover. “My dream is to plant a million trees by 2030, or in this lifetime. This is my beacon and will be my legacy. It’s important to choose a beacon that you feel deeply for, so you can look towards it when times are tough and you feel lost,” she said.

 

Lynn Tan credits her children (from left) Julian, 6, Kaela, 13, and Reynna, 17, for inspiring her to create The Powder Shampoo; when she has to work weekends, her husband helps with childcare duties. (Photo: The Powder Shampoo)

 

After this launch, Tan will be introducing head-to-toe washes in the third quarter of this year and powder conditioners in the last quarter.

“I spent the first 20 years of my career as an advocate for scalp care, hair care and plant-based products, but I contributed to the plastic problem. I feel everything has come full circle and I will spend the next 20 years trying to address this problem (with powder shampoos),” she said.

CNA Women is a section on CNA Lifestyle that seeks to inform, empower and inspire the modern woman. If you have women-related news, issues and ideas to share with us, email [email protected].

 

 

Source CNA Lifestyle

Tesco to stop selling baby wipes that contain plastic in first for UK supermarkets

Posted on by dishanth
Tesco to stop selling baby wipes that contain plastic in first for UK supermarkets

Tesco is to become the first of the main UK retailers to stop selling baby wipes containing plastic, which cause environmental damage as they block sewers and waterways after being flushed by consumers.

The supermarket said it was stopping sales of branded baby wipes containing plastic from 14 March, about two years after it ceased using plastic in its own-brand products.

The UK’s largest grocer is also the country’s biggest seller of baby wipes. Its customers purchase 75m packs of baby wipes every year, amounting to 4.8bn individual wipes.

Tesco said it had been working to reformulate some of the other own-label and branded wipes its sells to remove plastic, including cleaning wipes and moist toilet tissue. It said its only kind of wipe that still contained plastic – designed to be used for pets – would also be plastic-free by the end of the year.

Tesco began to remove plastic from its own-brand wet wipes in 2020, when it switched to biodegradable viscose, which it says breaks down far more quickly.

Sarah Bradbury, Tesco’s group quality director, said: “We have worked hard to remove plastic from our wipes as we know how long they take to break down.”

Tesco is not the first retailer to remove wipes from sale on environmental grounds. Health food chain Holland and Barrett said it was the first high-street retailer to ban the sale of all wet-wipe products from its 800 UK and Ireland stores in September 2019, replacing the entire range with reusable alternatives. The Body Shop beauty chain has also phased out all face wipes from its shops.

It is estimated that as many as 11bn wet wipes are used in the UK each year, with the majority containing some form of plastic, many of which are flushed down the toilet, causing growing problems for the environment.

Last November, MPs heard how wet wipes are forming islands, causing rivers to change shape as the products pile up on their banks, while marine animals are dying after ingesting microplastics.

They are also a significant component of the fatbergs that form in sewers, leading to blockages that require complex interventions to remove.

Tesco said any wipes it sold that could not be flushed down the toilet were clearly labelled “do not flush”.

Nevertheless, environmental campaigners and MPs have long called on retailers to do more to remove plastics from their products and packaging.

The supermarket said it was trying to tackle the impact of plastic waste as part of its “4Rs” packaging strategy, which involves it removes plastic waste where possible, or reducing it, while looking at ways to reuse more and recycle.

The chain said it had opened soft plastic collection points in more than 900 stores, and had launched a reusable packaging trial with shopping service Loop, which delivers food, drink and household products to consumers in refillable containers.

 

 

Source The Guardian

How ‘super-enzymes’ that eat plastics could curb our waste problem

Posted on by dishanth
How ‘super-enzymes’ that eat plastics could curb our waste problem

Beaches littered with plastic bottles and wrappers. Marine turtles, their stomachs filled with fragments of plastic. Plastic fishing nets dumped at sea where they can throttle unsuspecting animals. And far out in the Pacific Ocean, an expanse of water more than twice the size of France littered with plastic waste weighing at least 79,000 tonnes.

The plastic pollution problem is distressingly familiar, but many organisations are working to reduce it. Alongside familiar solutions such as recycling, a surprising ally has emerged: micro-organisms. A handful of microbes have evolved the ability to “eat” certain plastics, breaking them down into their component molecules. These tiny organisms could soon play a key role in reducing plastic waste and building a greener economy.

 

The scale of the problem

As a species, we make an enormous amount of plastic. In 2020, the most recent year for which we have data, 367m tonnes were produced globally, according to trade association Plastics Europe. This represented a slight decline compared with 2019, when 368m tonnes were made, but that was probably because of the Covid-19 pandemic: production had previously increased almost every year since the 1950s. A 2017 study estimated that 8.3bn tonnes of plastic had been made in total.

 

In 2016, the world produced 242m tonnes of plastic waste. Pictured below, volunteers collect plastic rubbish from a beach in Lima, Peru. Photograph: Ernesto Benavides/AFP/Getty Images

 

A huge fraction of this goes to waste. In 2016 the world generated 242m tonnes of plastic waste, according to the World Bank. Despite the popular image, only a small fraction of this ends up in the ocean – but the seas may still be absorbing more than 10m tonnes of plastic every year. As well as the dangers of the plastics themselves, they contain a lot of additives that leach out into the water. “Over time we really don’t know what effects these have,” says Tiffany M Ramos of Roskilde University in Denmark.

Much of the rest ends up in landfills. That does not sound so bad, but a lot of it is single-use plastic, which is inherently wasteful. Making plastic requires extracting fossil fuels such as oil from the ground, with all the pollution risks that entails. Plastic manufacturing also releases greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. A 2021 report found that the US plastics industry alone releases 232m tonnes of greenhouse gases every year, the equivalent of 116 coal-fired power plants.

The solution is not to stop using plastics altogether, because they are incredibly useful. For example, plastic bottles are far lighter than glass ones, so transporting them requires less energy and releases a smaller amount of greenhouse gases. But we do need a revolution in how we handle plastics, and this is where the micro-organisms come in.

 

On the scrapheap

In 2016 researchers led by microbiologist Kohei Oda of the Kyoto Institute of Technology in Japan reported a surprise discovery. Oda’s team visited a recycling site that focused on items made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a clear plastic that is used to make clothing fibres and drinks bottles.

Like all plastics, PET is a material made up of long string-like molecules. These are assembled from smaller molecules strung together into chains. The chemical bonds in PET chains are strong, so it is long-lasting – exactly what you do not want in a single-use plastic.

Oda’s team took samples of sediment and wastewater that were contaminated with PET, and screened them for micro-organisms that could grow on the plastic. It found a new strain of bacterium, called Ideonella sakaiensis 201-F6. This microbe could grow on pieces of PET. Not only that: Oda’s team reported that the bacterium could use PET as its main source of nutrients, degrading the PET in the process.

 

A Chinese labourer sorts plastic bottles for recycling, 2015. In 2017, China banned trade in most plastic waste, putting pressure on the EU and US to find new ways to deal with the issue. Photograph: Fred Dufour/AFP/Getty Images

 

The key to this ability was a pair of enzymes made by the bacteria. Enzymes are complex molecules that can speed up chemical reactions. They are crucial to life: our digestive system relies on enzymes to break down the complex chemicals in food into simpler ones that our bodies can absorb and use. For example, our saliva contains an enzyme called amylase that breaks up the long molecules of starch found in foods such as bread.

Ideonella sakaiensis 201-F6 produces two unique enzymes. The first is a PETase that breaks the long PET molecules down into smaller molecules called MHET. A second enzyme called MHETase then goes to work, producing ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid. These two chemicals are the building blocks of PET, so Ideonella sakaiensis 201-F6 can completely reverse the manufacturing process that made PET.

 

Plastic eaters

The finding made headlines around the world, but it was not the first example of an organism that could degrade plastics. Reports of plastic-munching microbes date back to at least the early 1990s. The earliest examples were arguably less remarkable, because they could only eat plastics that were chemically flimsy or biodegradable. But by the 2000s researchers had found enzymes that could tackle tougher plastics.

A prominent researcher in this area has been Wolfgang Zimmermann of Leipzig University in Germany. His team studied enzymes called cutinases, which it obtained from bacteria such as Thermobifida cellulosilytica, and which could also break down PET.

 

If you’re the first bacterium in that rubbish pile that suddenly has a taste for plastic, then you’ve got an unlimited food source – Prof John McGeehan, University of Portsmouth

Lars Blank of Aachen University in Germany first heard about this in 2012. He set about creating a consortium of researchers to study plastic-eating enzymes. This became the P4SB project, which ran from 2015 to 2019. Blank has since set up a project called MIX-UP, which sees European and Chinese researchers cooperating.

By the mid-2010s plenty of plastic-degrading enzymes were known. The potential was clear to Gabriella Caruso of the Institute for Coastal Marine Environment in Messina, Italy, who wrote in a 2015 review that “microbial degradation of plastic is a promising eco-friendly strategy which represents a great opportunity to manage waste plastic materials with no adverse impacts”.

So why did Ideonella sakaiensis 201-F6 cause such a stir? “The difference with the 2016 paper was this micro-organism could use the plastic as its sole energy and food source,” says John McGeehan of the University of Portsmouth. “That’s actually quite surprising and it kind of shows evolutionary pressure in action. If you’re the first bacterium in that rubbish pile that suddenly has a taste for plastic, then you’ve got an unlimited food source.”

 

Colourised slides of Ideonella sakaiensis (left) and the degraded remains of plastic (right). Enzymes produced by the bacterium reduce PET to its constituent chemicals. Photograph: © 2016 Kohei Oda, Kyoto Institute of Technology

 

Put another way, the earlier enzymes had not evolved for plastics. They evolved to break down tough chain molecules found in living things, and their ability to degrade plastic was a side-effect. In contrast, the enzymes in Ideonella sakaiensis 201-F6 were specialised.

Blank has a different interpretation, arguing that the Ideonella sakaiensis 201-F6 enzymes are not especially good because they only degrade PET slowly. “Wolfgang Zimmermann had far better enzymes at that point,” he says. But the excitement the paper created had a huge impact. “Suddenly the media and also the academic literature really cranked up and a lot of interest came in.”

 

Better and better enzymes

Two years later McGeehan and his colleagues took things further. They produced a three-dimensional structure of the Ideonella sakaiensis 201-F6 PETase, shedding light on how it worked. Hoping to understand how it evolved, they tweaked the structure. To their surprise, this made the enzyme more efficient at degrading PET. Clearly, it was possible to improve the enzyme.

McGeehan now wants to take that further, modifying the PETase and other such enzymes so that they can be used on an industrial scale to break down plastics that would otherwise linger in the environment. “We’ve got a big £6m grant from the government,” he says, and they have started a specialist institute called the Centre for Enzyme Innovation.

This is now bearing fruit. In 2020 McGeehan’s team reported that it had linked the PETase and MHETase enzymes together. This “super-enzyme” could eat PET about six times faster than the two enzymes working separately. Other groups such as Blank’s MIX-UP have produced modified enzymes of their own.

 

Prof John McGeehan, director of the Centre for Enzyme Innovation at the University of Portsmouth. His team have created a ‘super-enzyme’. Photograph: University of Portsmouth/Stefan Ventur/PA

 

Meanwhile there is evidence that microbes all around the world are evolving similar abilities. A study published in October 2021 looked at microbial DNA from a range of habitats. In areas with high levels of plastic pollution, the researchers found that the microbes were more likely to have enzymes with plastic-degrading tendencies. In line with this, a 2020 study identified a soil bacterium that can feed on some of the components of polyurethane, which releases toxic chemicals when it breaks down.

The question now becomes: how significant a role can these enzymes really play in reducing plastic pollution?

 

The circular economy

So far, most of the activity has been in universities, but some groups are attempting to commercialise the technology. The University of Portsmouth has set up Revolution Plastics, which aims to forge links between academics and industry. “We’ve already advertised a joint PhD project with Coca-Cola,” says McGeehan. He is also part of an international research team called BOTTLE, which is negotiating with large companies.

The most advanced project is run by Carbios, a French biotechnology company. In September 2021 it opened a pilot plant in Clermont-Ferrand, where it will test a system for recycling PET. Carbios’s system uses an enzyme that was first identified in compost, which they modified so that it worked faster and could operate at high temperatures where PET is softer.

The advantage of these enzymes is that they break down the plastic at the molecular level, so it is possible to recreate the highest-quality plastic. In contrast, other forms of recycling cause a slow decline in quality, until eventually the plastic cannot be recycled again and gets landfilled or incinerated. Enzymatic recycling, in theory at least, is truly circular. “That’s what we call a closed-loop recycling system,” says Ramos. “You recycle something, but then you’re able to make something new of the same quality out of that.” To date, only a tiny percentage of plastics are being recycled in this way, but the enzymes could change that – “Which would be great.”

 

In a circular economy, everything is recycled as much as possible. Photograph: Yagi Studio/Getty Images

 

McGeehan says: “I think in the next five years we’re going to be seeing demonstration plants all over the place.”

Still, there are limits to the enzymes’ usefulness. “It will never be a one-size-fits-all type of solution,” says Ramos, and we should not count on the enzymes to mop up all our plastic waste. Some plastics are even tougher than PET.

Blank points out that the enzymes work best if the plastic has been softened by heating. That means releasing the enzymes into the environment would not do much good: they only really work in temperature-controlled reactors. So the solution to plastic in the sea remains the same as before: we have to stop releasing it in the first place.

Nevertheless, it seems likely that plastic-eating enzymes will have a role to play as societies move towards a circular economy in which everything is recycled as much as possible. In a study published in July 2021, McGeehan and his colleagues estimated how much enzymatic recycling of PET will cost. They calculate that it could compete on cost with standard manufacturing methods, which use fossil fuels as feedstock.

The key is to be savvy about where we use the enzymes, says Blank. Some plastics can be mechanically recycled, a technology that is improving rapidly, so they probably are not the best targets. Instead, he says, researchers should go for plastics that cannot be recycled any other way – particularly if they can become substances that are otherwise expensive to make.

Ultimately, the enzymes have to be part of a revolution in the entire way we make and use plastics, says Ramos. Better methods of recycling are useful, she adds, but they are only part of the solution. It is also important for plastic products to be designed in such a way that they can easily be reused and recycled. That might mean avoiding designs that use several kinds of plastic, or fuse plastic with other materials, as these are very difficult to recycle.

As with all our environmental problems, there is no silver enzyme. These chemical machines can help us recycle plastic better, but we will always need to pick up our litter.

 

 

Source The Guardian

Happy Green Year! French eco-friendly packaging laws go into effect

Posted on by dishanth
Happy Green Year! French eco-friendly packaging laws go into effect

New laws, including a ban on plastic packaging for several fruits and vegetables came into effect in France on New Year’s Day. The measures aimed at reducing pollution will also prevent manufacturers from dumping certain clothing, hygiene and furniture products that have not been sold.

 

 

 

Environmentalists have long campaigned against single-use plastics as pollution worsens globally while President Emmanuel Macron has backed the move defending a “pragmatic” approach.

The October decree covers for example the sale of under 1.5 kilos (3.3 lbs) of apples.

However, the full legislation will not be applied until 2026, allowing firms to adapt, including on the sale of red fruits considered fragile. Six months has also been granted to use up existing plastic packaging stocks.

“We were never consulted,” complained Laurent Grandin, head of the fruit and vegetable sector’s Interfel association.

He told AFP the costs were “insurmountable” for small companies who would have to keep using plastic to protect exports, notably to Britain, a major client for apples.

But Armand Chaigne, director of industrial markets at packaging firm DS Smith, sees the benefits, notably for cardboard manufacturers.

“It is estimated that in Europe, out of the eight million tonnes of plastic produced per year for single-use packaging, 1.5 million tonnes could already be removed,” he told AFP.

“That represents about 70 billion units of single-use plastic packaging”, or “about €7 billion ($7.9 billion) of additional turnover potential for cardboard”, he said.

 

 

Source France 24

NTU team creates paper made of pollen that can be used to make boxes, straws etc

Posted on by dishanth
NTU team creates paper made of pollen that can be used to make boxes, straws etc

A new light brown paper made of sunflower pollen can automatically fold itself into a food container or straw when exposed to moisture in the air, breaking the mould for single-use packaging.

The intelligent pollen paper – created by scientists from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) – is created by adding potassium hydroxide to sunflower pollen grains.

After 24 hours, the pollen transforms into a gel that is moulded onto a petri dish, for example, and left to dry overnight. The dried pollen paper is then peeled from the mould.

The pollen paper can vary in thickness from 20 to 200 micrometres, similar to that of a strand of hair – but it is far from fragile.

In fact, pollen is known as the diamond of the plant kingdom as it is one of nature’s most durable materials, said the research team’s co-lead, Professor Cho Nam-Joon from NTU’s School of Materials Science and Engineering.

Prof Cho’s research includes turning pollen into plastic and metal alternatives.

The pollen paper can be made thicker or layered if it were to be folded into a container or straw. It can be used as a greener alternative to materials such as plastics and styrofoam for disposable products and packaging.

Pollen is also abundant and can be degraded in nature gradually.

“If we make the paper thicker, its properties will be more plastic-like. The original raw material itself is very strong. So, by modifying that, it can be stronger,” said Prof Cho.

The pollen paper comes to life when it is exposed to humidity, and after some toner – a powder that works like printer ink – prints lines and patterns on the brown paper. Toner acts as the ink in office and home laser printers.

To apply toner on the pollen paper, it goes through an ordinary printer, just like writing paper.

The pollen paper is then exposed to different humidity levels in a controlled environment.

 

 

 

While the pollen paper is sensitive to moisture in the air and curls up, the inked parts do not respond to water. These opposing behaviours cause the flat paper to morph into three-dimensional shapes as humidity drops.

How the paper folds or twists depends on the printed pattern.

For example, a piece of pollen paper cut into an outline of a box would automatically fold into a box when the folded hinges are printed with barcode-like vertical lines.

A strip of paper printed with diagonal lines would curl into a straw.

 

Pollen paper with an ink pattern printed on it. PHOTO: NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

 

Prof Cho said: “Products can be produced without manual folding, reducing the skill and time necessary for fabrication. The whole process is also eco-friendly and scalable.”

Coating the morphed paper with petroleum jelly or chitosan – a natural sugar found in the shells of crabs and shellfish – will prevent the product from unravelling due to humidity changes, and lock it in shape.

NTU president Subra Suresh, who co-led the research, said: “We combined easy-to-process pollen grains and cost-effective digital printing to develop a moisture-sensitive (material) that can morph on demand into… complex shapes depending on the patterns we print.”

 

(From left) Professor Cho Nam-Joon, NTU President Subra Suresh, and NTU research fellow Zhao Ze examining the pollen paper. PHOTO: NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

 

Prof Cho said this is the first time pollen is used to develop self-folding materials. The research team’s method was published in the scientific journal Proceedings Of The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America last month.

Packaging waste, including plastics, makes up about one-third of domestic waste in Singapore. Last year, about 200,000 tonnes of disposables – including carrier bags and takeaway containers – were thrown away here.

The NTU team is now working on optimising its pollen paper and method so that companies can eventually use the technology to manufacture greener products, including humidity sensors.

 

Source: NANGYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

 

 

Source The Straits Times

Compostable plastic cutlery can be recycled into home-insulating foam

Posted on by dishanth
Compostable plastic cutlery can be recycled into home-insulating foam

Compostable plastic can be turned into a foam that functions as building insulation, creating a potential solution to difficulties in recycling the material.

Polylactic acid (PLA) is a plastic made of fermented starch from corn or sugar cane. It is designed to break down into harmless material once used and disposed of, but doing so requires industrial composting, which isn’t available in all locations.

If PLA makes its way into the environment, it often won’t break down. Because of this, it is classed as compostable rather than biodegradable by the European Union.

Now, Heon Park at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand and his colleagues have developed a method to convert plastic knives, spoons and forks made from PLA into a foam that can be turned into insulation for walls or flotation devices.

 

Foam structures of various sizes made from recycled PLA plastic. Source: Heon Park

 

The researchers placed the PLA cutlery into a chamber filled with carbon dioxide. As they increased the pressure inside the chamber, the gas dissolved into the plastic. When they released the pressure, the gas expanded rapidly and turned the plastic into a foam. The process is entirely mechanical and involves no chemical reaction.

“Tweaking temperature and pressure, there is a window where we can make good foams,” says Park. “We found what temperature or what pressure is the best to make those non-foamable plastics into foams.”

Each time plastic is recycled it loses strength, but turning plastic into foam avoids any problems with strength as it is an inherently soft material.

Making PLA plastics directly recyclable in this way could be a better way to alleviate plastic pollution than industrial composting. PLA requires up to 12 weeks of composting at 57°C to break down, and must be carefully separated from other plastic waste, so this may not be the best option.

“If you’ve taken all of the energy and resources to make something, any product or packaging, then the very best thing that you can do with that is to try and keep those resources and turn them back into another item of product or packaging,” says Helen Bird at UK waste and recycling charity WRAP. “From an environmental perspective, if you look at the hierarchy of what’s preferable for the environment, composting actually is a little bit below recycling.”

Journal reference: Physics of Fluids, DOI: 10.1063/5.0050649

 

 

Source New Scientist

New York bans mini toiletry bottles from hotels, saving tons of plastic from the ocean

Posted on by dishanth
New York bans mini toiletry bottles from hotels, saving tons of plastic from the ocean

The State of New York has passed legislation that will eliminate millions of single-use plastic toiletry bottles from hotels. Bills S543 and A5082—led by State Senator Todd Kaminsky and Assemblymember Steve Englebright—prohibit hotels and motels from providing single-use plastic toiletry bottles smaller than 12 ounces in guest rooms. The hotels are expected to switch to larger, refillable dispensers, thereby reducing both the amount of unused liquids discarded and the amount of plastic waste generated during every guest visit. The new laws take effect January 1, 2024 for all hotels with more than 50 rooms and one year later for all smaller hotels.

Approximately 8 to 10 million tons of plastic ends up in the world’s oceans every year where it threatens marine life. In recent years, reports and images of suffering animals have flooded the Internet, many showing whales with stomachs full of plastic, turtles with plastic straws stuck in their nostrils, and fish wrapped in plastic six-pack rings. A famous photo posted to Instagram in 2017 showed a seahorse off Indonesia clutching a plastic swab in his/her tail.

 

 

“Reducing single-use plastics is vital in the fight against the climate crisis—plastic is a major source of carbon emissions and a financial anchor to the fossil fuel industry. This new law tackles the ever-growing problem associated with plastic waste and will prevent tens of millions of plastic bottles from becoming a waste burden in New York every year,” Eric A. Goldstein, Senior Attorney and New York City Environment Director at Natural Resources Defense Council, said. “The Kaminsky-Englebright toiletry bottle ban legislation is a step forward in its own right and emblematic of emerging efforts to break away from all throw-away plastics made from fossil fuels.”

 

Hotel chains ditch single-use plastic

Once it is signed into law, New York will become the second state in the nation to enact such a ban. In 2019, the State of California enacted a ban on single-use plastic toiletry bottles, set to take effect beginning in 2023.

In recent years, several large hotel chains have begun embracing reusable alternatives. In 2019, Marriott, the world’s largest hotel chain, committed to stop its use of plastic mini toiletry bottles in all of its 7,000 properties by December 2020. The company estimates that it will prevent around 500 million small bottles, or 1.7 million pounds, of plastic waste every year. The announcement followed a similar commitment by InterContinental Hotels Group, which owns the Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza chains, as well as Walt Disney Co. and Hyatt Hotels.

 

 

By Nicole Axworthy

Source Veg News

17 things you can change to reduce your impact on the environment while overlanding

Posted on by dishanth
17 things you can change to reduce your impact on the environment while overlanding

Overlanders are usually use large vehicles, with either gas or diesel engines with low mpg’s.

While using hybrids or even electric vehicles for overlanding is still in the distant future (and those types of vehicles may not even be desired by the overlanding community), there are still several things that overlanders can do to decrease their impact on the environment.

 

— Please Click Here For The Infographic —

 

Travelers should preserve nature in a way for their children and grandchildren to enjoy as well.

While it is a fun, family activity, camping and overlanding have both positive and negative effects on the environment.

Camping is great for socialization since often there’s no technology around, and you have more interaction and communication with family and friends.

 

 

It also improves your mood and reduces stress. On the negative side, people may end up making campfires which can release toxic gases into the air and are harmful.

These toxic gases contain carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, which both heavily pollute the air.

Ultimately, if the fire is not placed in an appropriate spot, it can often kill wildlife and even plant life in the area that you are camping in.

We’re not against campfires, we love them! But with moderation and with precautions.

Also, some people fall into the habit of leaving garbage and waste behind after their camping trips. This leftover trash can harm the animals because they may end up eating the garbage and choking on whatever waste is left behind, to only mention one of the downsides of such recklessness.

Ultimately what people need to remember is that how they live, shop and camp have an effect on the places that they journey actually to experience.

 

 

However, it’s never too late to start making positive choices such as using less water, pollutants, plastic, and fuel as well.

At the end of the day by creating an eco-friendly footprint, you’ll not only protect the wildlife and environment, but you’ll also save money in the interim.

 

During our travels, luckily literally no campers or overlanders we ever met were inconsiderate. Quite the opposite!

There seems to be a great trend among overlanders to really look after the environment, and many follow the awesome principle of “leave the campground cleaner than you found it“.

So let’s see, as overlanders and campers, what can we do for the environment. Here are thirteen habits that you may adopt in order to improve your stamp on the world.

 

Don’t Use Plastic Bags

 

The best way to protect the environment is to stop using plastic bags. By refusing to use plastic bags like the ones you buy at checkouts, you’re taking the first step in making an eco-friendly footprint on your local environment.

The next step, however, is to choose plastic-free food and groceries. Always opt for items packaged in recyclable cardboard cartons, tins, bottles, and boxes as these are more environmentally friendly than plastic.

Furthermore, plastic is hard to recycle, and it is never really biodegradable.

You may also choose to switch to bleach-free paper products when it comes to household items. These are supplies such as paper towels and toilet rolls and pack your fruit and vegetables in drawstring bags made from mesh as opposed to plastic packets.

 

Always Recycle

 

It’s not always easy to find recycling bins in remote places; however, it’s not impossible either.

If you simply keep the good housekeeping habits that you exercise at home when you are camping, you’ll do your share to limit waste and your footprint on the environment.

So basically staying committed to recycling means that you have to keep your glass bottles, tins, cardboard and newspapers, and jars in your own bags until you reach town or home.

Ultimately, this is the best thing that you can do as a traveler and it also it forces you to account just how much waste you are responsible for on a daily or weekly basis.

Before making your way to your camping destination, remove and recycle as much packaging from your groceries as you possibly can.

So if space is limited and you are camping in a remote site, consider switching to aluminum, crushable beer cans, and compact wine casks as opposed to space-hogging glass bottles.

Another environmental nightmare is dead batteries dumped on the roadside. While it’s all too tempting to simply throw them on the side of the road and drive away, you should think twice about this.

 

Avoid Single-Use Products

 

USB rechargeable gadgets, kinetic watches, and solar torches are all cutting-edge and mobile camping products that have been making disposable batteries a thing of the past.

However, everyone just needs to learn how to start using them.

This is the year to stop investing in single-use batteries and other once off only throwaway containers, especially the little butane stove canisters that seem to be very convenient.

We’re guilty of that too! It’s a habit we’re changing right now!

A good example where most people don’t realize the large amount of single plastic use is toiletries or anything similar, like cotton swabs!

We’ve switched over to only use reusable ones, such as the ones from Last Object:

 

They are extremely popular with travelers for quick stop cooking; however, they are incredibly harsh on the environment as well.

So instead opt for refillable gas bottles to cook your food and choose solar lights and solar powered device charging as often as you can.

 

Slow Down and Pump your Tires up

 

You can save yourself a lot of money by simply using less fuel.

By simply reducing your speed and covering fewer miles each day, you will also lessen your carbon emissions. Also, do what you can to inspect your roof and reduce your vehicle’s drag.

By keeping your tires inflated to the maximum recommended pressure on the bitumen and having your vehicle regularly serviced, you’ll keep it running smoothly.

Also, try to opt for biodiesel (if your vehicle allows) as often as you can.

 

Be Wise with Water

 

Cherishing your water supply keeps you off the beaten track for longer, but it’s also good for the environment you are camping in.

By making peace with the dust in your rig, showering less, and saving your laundry for the next holiday park, you’re doing your part for a campsite and the environment.

Ultimately, by using a lesser amount of soap and shampoo, you also reduce the amount of time you’re spending in the shower and the amount of water you’re using and storing on board.

The amount of detergent being released into the environment would also be much less.

Some tips that you can apply while water hoarding is to install low-flow taps in your rig, water-saving showerheads, and always ensure that you catch a rain shower.

Have your vehicle rigged up to catch and channel rainwater directly into your water tank is a good idea.

Another tip while showering is to use a bucket at your feet to catch the water that flows while waiting for the hot water to kick in. Ultimately this can be used in your hand-operated washing machine.

Alternatively, for long-term usage consider modifying your rig to redirect the water from the sink and shower so it can be used to flush your toilet.

– Further tips from Sirocco Overland:

Filter/Purify Water

“Do not buy water in plastic bottles. Before you leave ensure you have a sustainable water filter/purification system along with replacement filters and a back-up.

Even developed countries struggle with plastic recycling, do not increase the burden.

Fill your containers/bottles from mountain springs, streams, people’s homes etc and filter from there. We have had no issues with this since using a proper system (we do not recommend chlorine or iodine for longterm use).”

 

Eat Local and Organic

 

Always consider your foods fuel bill. By purchasing locally grown food that has fewer food miles and uses a lesser amount of fuel to transport and refrigerate it, you’ll be supporting the environment.

Consequently, you also enjoy more nutritious, fresh, and tasty produce while supporting local farmers wherever you go.

As much as possible, opt for healthier, organic food that makes use of fewer fossil fuels to produce.

Also, try to buy produce that uses no artificial fertilizers, energy-intensive pesticides, and chemical feeds. Produce that contributes less nitrogen into the environment is also recommended.

 

Use Eco-Friendly Products

 

This is the year that you should make a priority to switch to biodegradable and natural personal and washing products.

Products such as shampoo, soap, sunscreen as well as laundry and kitchen detergents.

Not only are biodegradable products healthier for you and your family, but they are also kinder on the environment.

Natural ingredients such as vinegar and bicarbonate of soda are not only cheap but safe ingredients as well.

They can be used to clean toilets, floors, showers as well as bench tops. All you need to do is spray any caravan surface with bicarbonate of soda and a blend of vinegar and water and watch it fizz.

After that simply wipe the residue off.

You can also choose to spray and wipe all hard surfaces in your RV with the vinegar mix and thereafter wipe with clove oil and one liter of water before leaving to dry.

This makes your hard surfaces mold resistant.

 

Change Your Camping Habits

 

Some people are under the impression that just because they are staying in an established campground with all the amenities and power access right at each site, they can forget their power saving habits.

Always ensure that you switch off the shower while you soap up your hair and body and press the half flush button on the toilet each time.

Never leave a tap running as it can drain up to 16 liters of water per minute from your tank when left unattended.

Switch off the valve while you brush your teeth as well.

Furthermore, consider whether you actually need to wash your vehicle when returning from a camping trip.

If you would rather wear it as a badge of adventures honor letting everyone know where you’ve been, that’s perfectly fine.

However, if you absolutely must wash our vehicle, use less detergent and more elbow grease to ensure that you reduce the amount of water needed to rinse off the soapy residue.

 

Ditch Plastic Straws

 

Did you know that every single straw you have ever used is still on the planet today and they will never go away?

So basically they will always accumulate. Research suggests that people use millions of straws each day, and it’s a big problem with a rather simple solution.

And that is merely leaving straws on the counter. However, straws make sipping on your favorite drinks more convenient, and this is why people use them.

The more environmentally safer alternative is bamboo straws.

Not only are they renewable and sustainable, but they are 100% compostable.

So if you are a smoothie or juice drinker, bamboo straws are easy to pack and most come with a thin cleaner.

 

Ditch Single Use Coffee Cups

 

Perhaps one of the best and most earth-friendly things that campers do at 10:30 AM in the morning is stop to brew a cup of coffee.

Brewing your own coffee ensures that you keep non-recyclable cups at bay and out of the landfills.

You’ll be surprised at the number of cups you can keep out of the waste by simply making your own coffee in your own cup.

It is estimated that approximately 3 billion coffees are sold in disposable cups each year.

These cups are not biodegradable, and they leave behind a polyurethane lining that lives longer than you.

So if you do fancy a cup of coffee while you are on the road, you can always order one in a ceramic cup or mug and sit down and enjoy it.

And if you need to take some coffee away, simply hand the waitress your own reusable travel mug.

The best solution is, of course, is to make your own coffee in a remote place and just enjoy the moment!

 

Switch to Safer and Eco-Friendly Sunscreen

 

Sunscreen is a campers best friend; however, you may be surprised to know that most sunscreens sold contain toxic ingredients that are not only harmful to humans but also the waterways.

If you check the back of your sunscreen bottle and you see ingredients such as oxybenzone or octinoxate, then your sunscreen is toxic.

In fact, these ingredients have recently been banned in states such as Hawaii as it was proven to damage and kill coral reefs.

Natural sunscreens make use of the zinc oxide to shield your skin from harmful solar rays. This ingredient is human safe, as well.

Using toxic sunscreen is also making showering dangerous as it washes off into the drains, which eventually end up in your waterways.

So the chemicals that you put on your skin also affects the environment.

 

Invest in Good Camping Gear

 

Perhaps it may seem like a challenge to invest in proper camping gear since what’s good is never cheap, quality gear actually lasts the distance.

So ultimately you’ll save money in the long run. Furthermore, quality gear will never fail you when you need it the most.

Neither will it end up in a landfill sooner than it should. So make your goal for this year to invest in quality travel and overlanding gear, especially when it comes to clothing, footwear as well as portable fridges, kayaks, and car tires. Cry only once!

Spend your hard-earned cash wisely and invest in environmentally motivated equipment companies, such as Kupilka, that make use of recyclable materials that are not harsh on the environment and leave a small ecological print.

 

Ditch Wet Wipes

 

Using wet wipes are delightfully convenient. However, you may want to the rethink this convenience.

While lots of supermarkets claim that they are biodegradable, the truth is that many of them are not.

Most wet wipes end up in sewers after being flushed down the toilet and become what is known as fatbergs.

Unfortunately, the next destination for these wet wipes is the ocean where it will take approximately 100 years for them to break down or worse kill a sea creature that ingests it.

So an alternative which is biodegradable and environmentally friendly would be washable muslin cloth which is natural and also soap free.

 

Manage Waste Vehicle Oils

 

Top tip from Sirocco Overland: “Probably the biggest problem for long-haul overland travel.

Try to plan your service intervals around large or even capital cities (usually when you’re waiting for visas), this may be the only place with facilities to at least store or better still recycle oils responsibly.

If your servicing yourself make sure you have oil spill mats and enough containers to carry/store the waste oil in. Try not to use soft drink or milk bottles as these will likely leak in the heat.

Take all spill mats/rags, old filters along with the oil for disposal.”

 

Manage Daily Trash

 

Top tip from Sirocco Overland: “Only dispose of this stuff in towns or cities with proper facilities. Depending on your destination you may be carrying out 3-4 weeks worth of rubbish and it soon stacks up.

Consider what you are carrying and the space it will take up after you are done with it. Tinned foods for example take up a lot of room and are not easy to crush.

Transfer suitable food types to ziplock bags for re-use later whilst your in a town/city to minimise carrying waste later on.

Consider your space for waste. We use a Trasharoo spare wheel trash bag. (Read the full Trasharoo Review here.) This keeps the waste and smells outside and can take a huge amount of bagged rubbish.

We took the time to separate this stuff out so we could easily handle and recycle when needed. We managed 3 weeks of waste in ours whilst in Mongolia easily.”

 

Manage Poop

 

Top tip from Sirocco Overland: “Yes, it was going to come up sooner or later. Realistically you cannot pack this out when overlanding so its the bury option.

Human waste should be disposed of in a shallow hole six to eight inches deep at least 200 feet from water sources. Cover and disguise the hole with natural materials.

It is recommended to pack out your toilet paper but again realistically you should burn this responsibly.

Don’t forget the hand gel afterwards!”

Alternatively, we’d also say that another option is to purchase (real) recycled and eco-friendly toilet paper that you can just also bury, so there is no need to burn it.

You can read our full guide on How to Poop in the Wilderness.

We had a modified camping chair that functioned as a toilet. Get yourself something similar and in remote areas you can enjoy a view in your most private moments!

If you don’t want to be viewed, though, use a shower tent over your modified camping chair for a full setup.

 

Be Careful with Jerry Cans and Fuel Filling

 

Top tip from Sirocco Overland: “Only fill your vehicle or jerry cans at filling stations. Take your time and prepare in advance to avoid spillages.

Some pumps do not have auto shutoff and will continue to run when you have your back turned. Line up your cans in advance with lids open and have your fuel cap(s) open ready.

Only used approved fuel cans for transport not plastic barrels.”

We also came across several gas stations where the equipment was from the Soviet era and the pumps didn’t have auto-shutoff.

Those can surprise you in a very nasty way, as one of our friends’ have experienced a full diesel-shower on one of our trips in 2014 in Uzbekistan.

 

 

In Conclusion

Camping is a wonderful way to de-stress and enjoy quality time with family and friends.

Thanks to beautiful and natural campsites, you are afforded the privilege of enjoying what Mother Nature has to offer.

Therefore, it is in your best interest and that of the generations to come that you try your utmost best to limit your impact on the environment.

Overlanding may not be the most environmentally friendly option while camping, however, there are dozens of good habits that you can start practicing to ensure that you limit your carbon footprint on nature.

 

 

Source Over Land Site

Food giants respond to worries over packaging

Posted on by dishanth
Food giants respond to worries over packaging

When Rebecca Prince-Ruiz recalls how her eco-friendly movement Plastic Free July has progressed over the years, she can’t help but smile. What began in 2011 as 40 people committing to going plastic-free one month a year has gained momentum to 326 million people pledging to adopt this practice today.

“I’ve seen that uptick in interest every year,” says Ms Prince-Ruiz, who is based in Perth, Australia, and author of Plastic Free: The Inspiring Story of a Global Environmental Movement and Why It Matters.

“These days, people are taking a hard look at what they are doing in their lives and how they can seize an opportunity to be less wasteful,” she says.

Since 2000, the plastics industry has manufactured as much plastic as all the preceding years combined, a World Wildlife Fund report in 2019 found. “The production of virgin plastic has increased 200-fold since 1950, and has grown at a rate of 4% a year since 2000,” the report says.

This has spurred companies to replace single-use plastic with biodegradable and compostable packaging designed to dramatically reduce the toxic footprint plastics leave behind.

In March, Mars Wrigley and Danimer Scientific announced a new two-year partnership to develop compostable packaging for Skittles in the US, estimated to be on shelves by early 2022.

 

Mars Wrigley plans to have a compostable wrapper for Skittles by next year GETTY IMAGES

 

It involves a type of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) that will look and feel the same as plastic, but can be thrown into the compost where it will break down, unlike regular plastic that takes anywhere from 20 to 450 years to fully decompose.

Danimer Scientific’s polymer product is made from canola oil, and it acts similarly to wood, meaning it breaks down when bacteria interact with it. “PHA goes away naturally and is still a very strong material for all types of products,” says Stephen Croskrey, chief executive of Danimer Scientific, based in the US state of Georgia.

 

Alastair Child, Mars Wrigley vice-president for global sustainability, says: “Our vision is to support a circular economy where packaging never becomes waste and by 2025 we plan to reduce our virgin plastic use by 25% and for 100% of our plastic packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable.”

 

Polymateria’s plastic biodegrades after three years POLYMATERIA

 

Hindering the widespread use of eco-friendly packaging such as PHA is the cost. It can be three to fives time as expensive to manufacture as regular plastic.

But that hasn’t stopped companies such as California-based Mango Materials and London-based Polymateria from dedicating their businesses to producing products that biodegrade over a shorter period of time.

For example, Polymateria’s Cycle+ plastic is biodegradable after three years and is still able to be recycled during its usable lifetime. Their clients range from East Africa businesses making bread bags to Extreme E, a new electric racing series that uses Polymateria products for cups and food packaging.

 

Consumers are demanding biodegradable plastics, says Niall Dunne, chief executive of Polymateria SUZANNE PLUNKETT

 

The plastics industry should wake up to the growing trend of alternative packaging, says Niall Dunne, chief executive of Polymateria. “We’ve seen how consumer pressure is saying to the big guys that they have to be on board [with reducing their plastic production] and to be more transparent and authentic in this important conversation,” Mr Dunne says.

Meg Sobkowicz, associate professor of plastics engineering at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, says that kind of pressure has already worked to push the plastics industry to steer away from the toxic BPA ingredient that was commonly found in reusable plastic bottles. “I think we’re coming around to where public concern is pushing them to tip the scales in favour of environmentally friendly packaging, despite its costs.”

 

 

By David Silverberg
Technology of Business reporte

Source BBC