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NTU team invents biodegradable paper battery 10 times cheaper than lithium batteries

Posted on December 17, 2021 by dishanth

Local scientists have invented a cheap, rechargeable, and a fully biodegradable paper battery that can someday be used to power wearables of the future.

This battery is made by screen printing an ink layer of manganese on one side of a sheet of strengthened paper, and a layer of zinc and conductive carbon on the other.

Developed by a team from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), it can hold a substantial amount of charge. For instance, a 4cm by 4cm printed paper battery about 0.4mm thick can power a small electric fan for at least 45 minutes.

Bending or twisting the paper battery does not interrupt the power supply.PHOTO: NTU

Bending or twisting the battery does not interrupt the power supply, and larger battery sheets can be printed and cut up and used as individual, smaller batteries of different sizes and shapes for different uses.

Professor Fan Hongjin from the NTU School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences and the study’s co-lead author, said: “(The versatility of use, durability and efficacy of these batteries) make our paper batteries ideal for integration in the sorts of flexible electronics that are gradually being developed.”

Beyond the potential ergonomics of these batteries, the researchers said these batteries cost at least 10 times less to manufacture in the lab as compared with lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, the world’s standard for rechargeable batteries.

The paper batteries are made up of electrodes screen-printed on to both sides of a piece of cellulose paper reinforced with hydrogel.PHOTO: NTU

This is because the primary electrodes use manganese and zinc, which are much cheaper and more common metals than lithium.

The entire battery can be safely degraded underground within a month, with the metals contributing to the mineral culture in the soil.

Assistant Professor Lee Seok Woo from the NTU School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and the study’s co-lead author said: “We believe the paper battery we have developed could potentially help with the electronic waste problem, given that our printed paper battery is non-toxic and does not require aluminum or plastic casings to encapsulate the battery components.”

These batteries serve as an improvement over current Li-ion batteries that are commonly used.

Li-ion batteries contain toxic substances that when crushed, may leak and contaminate water sources. Furthermore, exhausted Li-ion batteries need to be disposed of safely because they can cause fires in the event of a leak.

The team is now focused on optimising the battery, which is in its early stages of development and sees the battery is integrated with printed-on sensors at scale.

The scientists from NTU who developed the batteries are (from left) Dr Li Jia, Assistant Professor Lee Seok Woo, Professor Fan Hongjin and Dr Yang Peihua. PHOTO: NTU

Prof Fan said: “As we move towards the future of the Internet of Things, many more of our everyday objects will need to be embedded with sensors that need to be powered in order to communicate with other objects.

“We believe that our battery is contributing to that future.”

Three devices that may benefit from paper batteries

1. Electronic medical skin patches

Sufferers of chronic health conditions can wear a skin patch with sensors to measure vital signs or a drug delivery system that supplies medication when necessary.

For instance, an asthma patient’s breathing patterns can be monitored round the clock by a medical patch that keeps track of wheezing. The patch can inform its wearer that they are about to get an asthma attack and remind them to use their inhaler.

Other uses might be insulin patches that can administer insulin at regular intervals based on blood glucose levels measured. Paper batteries can keep these patches thin and unobtrusive to wear.

2. GPS-tracking stickers

Although tracking devices, such as Tile and Apple’s Airtags, are becoming more mainstream, they are relatively bulky additions and can trace only objects large enough to hold them, such as bags or wallets.

In the future, small GPS-tracking stickers integrated with thin paper batteries can be stuck onto small items – such as pens.

3. Thinner wearables

Most smartwatches today are relatively bulky as they require higher-capacity rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that can be the size of an SD memory card or bigger.

If powered by thin, flexible paper batteries, smartwatches can have more creative configurations, such as batteries fitted into watch straps.

And as the metaverse, a 3D virtual environment, becomes increasingly important, demand for thinner and lighter virtual reality headsets and augmented reality glasses for everyday use will rise.

Source The Straits Times

Sri Lanka returns first batch of imported waste from the UK

Posted on December 11, 2020 by dishanth

The first batch of 21 containers out of a total of 263 was labeled for recycling, but has been uncovered to be medical waste. This constitutes a violation of the Basel Convention that regulates the global movement of hazardous waste.

Sri Lanka has sent back the first batch of hundreds of containers of waste to the UK., becoming the latest nation in the Global South to push back against abuses of a worldwide recycling framework by exporters in the West.

An initial consignment of 21 containers arrived back in the UK., the county of origin, in late November, according to the ship-tracking data. There are still another 242 containers waiting to be shipped back, according to Sri Lanka Customs.

Sri Lanka, like many other countries in the Global South, routinely imports waste from the West to recycle. The country is also a party to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, which means exporters must obtain its consent to send medical or other biohazardous waste.

But the exporters behind the containers in question appeared to have flouted that rule by packing their containers with suspected medical waste, according to a customs inspection in July 2019. Officials reported finding discarded mattresses, carpets and rugs that appeared to be soiled.

“In this case, Sri Lanka hasn’t received any request from the UK., so this is an illegal shipment,” Ajith Weerasundara, director of chemicals and hazardous waste management unit at the Central Environment Authority (CEA), told Mongabay. “We have officially requested the UK. to recall the hazardous waste.”

Sunil Jayarathne, a spokesman for Sri Lanka Customs, told Mongabay that the containers were imported by a Sri Lankan company between 2017 and 2018 for the stated purpose of recycling, mainly to extract any metal contained in the waste items. A hundred and thirty of the containers were released to a metal recycling company, and some of the waste subsequently processed, but the rest were impounded in a free-trade zone.

In the meantime, a leading local environmental NGO, the Centre for Environmental Justice (CEJ), filed a petition seeking a court order to re-export the waste containers to the UK. and prosecute those responsible for the illegal shipment. In its petition, the CEJ highlighted possible damage to environment and threats to the health of the general public, as the waste appeared to be discarded hospital waste.

Responding to Sri Lanka’s formal request, the UK.’s Environment Agency agreed to recall the dumped garbage.

“UK is committed to tackling illegal waste exports, with individuals found to be exporting incorrectly described waste can be punished with a two-year jail term and an unlimited fine,” it said in a statement.

Following the agreement, the CEJ withdrew its petition, according to its executive director, Hemantha Withanage.

“It is also important to track the movement of the waste back to the country of origin as there had been instances of such garbage being dumped elsewhere,” he told Mongabay, adding that the CEJ continues to track the ships’ movement through online vessel-tracking portals. “We should also get the numbers of the individual containers as we can drill down to that level now,” he added.

Global South as a dumping site

Jayarathne of Sri Lanka Customs and Weerasundara of CEA said they are investigating the matter and those responsible for importing the hazardous waste can also be punished under the law.

Sri Lanka is also claiming 1.6 billion Sri Lankan rupees ($8.7 million) from the UK. as compensation under the provisions of the Basel Convention.

There are several recent examples of individual countries taking waste-exporting countries to task for violating the global treaty and attempting to use countries in the Global South as their waste dumps without obtaining consent.

Malaysia sent back 150 containers of plastic waste to their countries of origin in January 2019, and the Philippines returned 1,500 metric tonnes of garbage to Canada in June 2019. Cambodia also sent back 1,600 metric tonnes of plastic waste to the US and Canada in July 2019.

Sri Lanka is pushing in the same direction, according to Samantha Gunasekara, a former deputy director of Sri Lanka Customs. A 37-year customs veteran, Gunasekara told Mongabay there have always been attempts to dump foreign waste in Sri Lanka, and that an absence of specific legislation prevented the full prosecution of the perpetrators.

“Things have improved in the legal sphere since then with new regulatory mechanisms being improved, especially under the Imports and Exports Act,” Gunasekara said. “Sri Lanka, however, should introduce domestic laws to enable the application of Basel Convention provisions to advance our interests.”

Sri Lanka signed the Basel Convention in 1992, but the enabling legislation has yet to be introduced, he added.

He also warned about the growing trend of electronic waste, or e-waste, being dumped in Global South countries.

“There are a number of schemes where developed countries send their used computers to be distributed to students in poorer countries. This looks like a generous gesture, but computers have a limited lifespan, and when the machines turn into e-waste, this happens in the developing countries and add to their e-waste records,” Gunasekara said.

Managing local hazardous waste

Notwithstanding the influx of foreign waste, Sri Lanka needs to develop its capacity to handle hazardous waste, said Ajith de Alwis, a professor of chemical and process engineering at the University of Moratuwa.

The Covid-19 pandemic has shown the importance of having an industry-based economy as it is more resilient than a service-based one. But more factories would mean the generation of more waste. Across Sri Lanka, much of this waste is incinerated, but this is a process that’s nether desirable nor sustainable, de Alwis said.

“Sri Lanka needs to secure landfill sites to effectively handle such hazardous waste,” he said.

By Malaka Rodrigo, Mongabay.com

Source Eco Business

InterContinental Hotels Group turning plastic bottles into plush hotel bedding

Posted on November 23, 2020 by dishanth

Hospitality businesses have a special opportunity when it comes to driving positive change. Whether you’re a restaurant owner or run thousands of hotels like InterContinental Hotel Group, hospitality companies work in a connected, people industry and exist at the heart of communities — employing local people and operating with a network of partners and suppliers.

IHG is uniquely positioned to be able to make a difference because of its scale and, importantly, this is all underpinned by the company’s culture of doing business responsibly, which guides our decisions and how we work.

IHG has almost 6,000 hotels around the world and the vast majority — around 80 percent — are franchised, which presents a unique challenge when it comes to implementing change at scale. It means the IHG team is in constant dialogue with our hotel owners, who operate and finance these hotels, so that we can work with them to drive sustainable change. We also know that our guests and colleagues are hugely passionate about how we behave towards the planet and our communities, so this makes engagement, collaboration and partnership key to getting things done.

For example, when it comes to minimizing IHG’s waste footprint, our teams consider each stage of the hotel lifecycle to find solutions that can be amplified and rolled out at scale. We do this in a way that supports the hotel’s operational needs, while enhancing the guest experience wherever we can.

Today’s technology plays an important role in making such changes because it enables IHG to identify suppliers and partners that have developed innovative solutions to find new ways to embed sustainability into their products, and in turn create solutions that help us reduce our environmental footprint, drive a more circular approach and produce an even better experience for our guests.

IHG has around 400,000 colleagues around the world. Source: IHG.

One great supplier relationship that illustrates this at IHG is with The Fine Bedding Company, which is working with us to help minimize the global plastic waste footprint through our growing voco hotels brand.

The supplier takes single-use plastic bottles that have been discarded and repurposes them in its eco factory to become plush, cozy filling inside the duvets and pillows of our voco guest rooms all over the world. In fact, more than 3 million water bottles have been diverted from landfill and into our bedding to date. When you think of the scale this innovation ultimately can create over time, it’s a huge amount of waste that’s being repurposed and also helping to drive more circular operations for our hotels.

Filling is extruded and spun from recycled plastic bottles. Source: The Fine Bedding Co.

Since forming this partnership, we have received great feedback from our guests, who say that this initiative not only provides them with a great sleep experience, but knowing it is good for the planet brings extra value to their stay.

For us, it’s exciting that consumers are becoming more aware of sustainable innovations such as these, and we are seeing uptake grow across our hotels, with our owners showing increasing interest. It’s a great opportunity for the suppliers themselves, too. Claire Watkin, managing director at The Fine Bedding Company, says working with IHG has many benefits for her business.

“At The Fine Bedding Company, our aspiration is to find ways to recycle products at the end of their life so that they can be truly circular, and so this bedding was really exciting for us,” Watkin said. “We worked in partnership with IHG to create something that had never been done before in the hospitality sector, and it achieved many firsts: It was fully traceable with Global Recycling Standard, it used more sustainable cotton and it was produced in our zero-waste factory that uses 100 percent renewable energy. A few years on, it’s great to see the positive feedback from the guests at voco hotels on both the quality and innovative nature of the product. For us, it has set a new standard in sustainability of bedding, which we look forward to seeing roll out across other brands as it becomes more mainstream.”

The Fine Bedding Company’s Nimbus Smartdown collection. Source: The Fine Bedding Co.

As we begin to recover from the impact of COVID-19, the focus must remain on the long-term sustainability agenda, ensuring we adapt to a new normal in a way that continues to drive circular economy practices and protects environments and communities.

This makes partnerships such as the one we have with The Fine Bedding Company more important than ever. If we want to emerge from the events of this year in a stronger position that helps protect the planet, it’s important we share ideas and collaborate to find solutions. You can’t isolate a business from its value chain, so working together towards common goals becomes even more central to moving forward.

By Sopan Shah

Source Green Biz

How Singapore’s biggest supermarket player plans to unpack the packaging waste issue

Posted on October 18, 2020 by dishanth

In 2018, an investigation by news outlet The Guardian found that Britain’s leading supermarkets generated about 800,000 tonnes of plastic packaging waste each year.

How much plastic and other packaging waste do supermarkets in Singapore—with a population of about 5.7 million, compared to Britain’s 66.5 million—generate?

The picture could become clearer when mandatory packaging reporting begins next year. Companies such as brand owners, importers and large retailers including supermarkets will have to collect data on the types and amounts of packaging that they place on the market.

This is the first step towards an extended producer responsibility (EPR) framework for packaging waste that the Singapore aims to roll out by 2025. It will require companies to take responsibility for the life cycle of packaging they produce.

The country’s largest supermarket chain has started preparing for mandatory packaging reporting. FairPrice Group has set up a team that is able to work with suppliers to gather the necessary information, and recently received the template for reporting from Singapore’s National Environment Agency, said its group chief executive Seah Kian Peng.

Tackling packaging waste earlier in the production process is a beneficial approach since it also helps the company to potentially save costs.

Seah Kian Peng, group chief executive, FairPrice Group

FairPrice believes the EPR framework will encourage businesses to rethink the design of their packaging, he said.

“Tackling packaging waste earlier in the production process is a beneficial approach since it also helps the company to potentially save costs,” said Seah. “Nonetheless, given the current economic circumstances due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we recognise also there might be inertia and apprehension to move out of the existing systems and infrastructure setups. Industry players, government agencies and the public will have to come together to collectively address these pertinent issues.”

FairPrice already collects some data. According to its 2019 sustainability report, it engaged waste contractors to recycle key material waste that included about 12,500 tonnes of cartons, 52 tonnes of Styrofoam boxes and 46 tonnes of stretch film.

Food safety and quality

While the figures may dismay zero-packaging advocates, others will note that packaging enables greater access to food by enabling it to be transported, intact, to different customers. Packaging also extends the shelf life of food, which reduces food waste and the significant amounts of water, land and other resources needed to produce the wheat, rice, vegetables and meat that people eat.

Food safety and quality is of “paramount importance” to FairPrice, said Seah.

“A variety of packaging including cling wrap, foam nets, trays, and bags is used to ensure consistency, minimise damage and preserve the quality of the product, particularly for fresh produce such as leafy vegetables and corn,” he said. “This means that we are able to prevent food wastage by lengthening the shelf life of these fresh produce.”

Vegetables are wrapped in bags to minimise mishandling and delicate fruits like mangoes and strawberries are packed in boxes to prevent bruising, he said.

Fresh produce sold by FairPrice are mainly pre-packed by suppliers before they arrive at stores, Seah added. Stores may, however, also use their own packaging to wrap pre-cut fruits and vegetables. At times, they have to re-pack some produce to replace damaged packaging or cut the risk of cross-contamination.

We are constantly on the lookout to explore ways to reduce packaging waste while ensuring product safety and quality.

Seah Kian Peng, group chief executive, FairPrice Group

Solutions to waste and pollution needed

The growing heaps of packaging waste and plastic pollution worldwide, however, mean that better solutions are urgently needed. Environmentally-conscious entrepreneurs around the world have introduced zero-waste or packaging-free grocery stores and many are on an expansion path, although they are still much smaller in scale than supermarkets in general. Some activists are also championing plastic-free supermarket aisles.

Meanwhile, major consumer goods manufacturers, which have been named as some of the world’s biggest ocean polluters, are introducing recyclable packaging or using alternatives to plastic. Critics, however, say they are not addressing the root causes of the plastic pandemic.

Singapore generated 930,000 tonnes of plastic waste in 2019, of which only 4 per cent was recycled. Of that amount, only 7 per cent was processed locally, while the rest was sent overseas.

The government, which encourages businesses to rethink production processes and eliminate unnecessary packaging, has plans to boost its plastic recycling capabilities and close the plastics loop.

‘No plastic bag’ pilot has been ‘encouraging’

What about plastic bags, a subject of heated public debate for more than a decade now?

Singapore has not followed in the footsteps of Thailand and more than 120 countries that have regulated the use of plastic bags in some way. However, analysts have also noted that despite curbs, plastic pollution remains a problem. This is because of uneven policies, loopholes, and other reasons. The World Resources Institute noted in a blog post last year that most countries fail to regulate plastic through its life cycle, and virtually none restricts the manufacture of plastic bags, of which an estimated five trillion are produced a year.

On its part, FairPrice launched a “no plastic bag” initiative last September, expanding it two months later to 25 of its 230 supermarkets and convenience stores for a year. Customers at those outlets are charged S$0.10 or S$0.20 for plastic bags. Asked about the outcome of the trial, Seah said results have been “encouraging” and FairPrice will announce an update later this year when it finishes assessing the pilot initiative.

He added that FairPrice works with the government, customers and civil society groups to reduce single-use plastics, and advocates the use of reusable shopping bags.

“We are constantly on the lookout to explore ways to reduce packaging waste while ensuring product safety and quality,” he said.

Eco-Business, with the support of FairPrice Group, will be organising Packaging waste: A circular future, or talking in circles? on 19 October 2020 from 3 to 4.30pm. Tune in to the live-streamed dialogue on our Facebook page.

Source: Eco Business

Wood, metal, paper and fabric can help cut climate-harming plastics

Posted on October 11, 2020 by dishanth

Replacing plastics used in buildings with metal, wood, ceramics and glass, turning to paper and fabric for packaging, and boosting recycling rates could slash planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, researchers said on Monday.

A mixture of substitution, changes in business models and consumer behaviour, and producing more plastics without using fossil fuels could halve global plastic consumption and cut emissions from plastics by more than half, they said.

Otherwise, emissions from plastics are expected to increase threefold by 2050, jeopardising a goal of keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, said a new report from the London-based Overseas Development Institute.

“Although plastics permeate our lives and every corner of our planet, it is technically possible to largely phase them out,” the report said.

When somebody buys a plastic product, they don’t actually generate emissions when they’re using it. But there’s emissions embodied in the product from the previous stages. – Andrew Scott, research fellow, Overseas Development Institute

Lead researcher Andrew Scott told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that all but 1-2 per cent of plastics are made from fossil fuels, principally oil and gas, with the emissions produced at different stages of the value chain.

“When somebody buys a plastic product, they don’t actually generate emissions when they’re using it. But there’s emissions embodied in the product from the previous stages,” he said, adding emissions could also come from discarded plastics.

The largest use of plastic is for packaging, accounting for 36 per cent of total output in 2015, followed by construction at 16 per cent, the report said.

However, switching to non-plastic alternatives that are currently available, such as wood and metal, could reduce the use of plastics in the construction industry by 95 per cent, it said.

A combination of regulation on single-use plastics and changes in consumer behaviour could cut plastic consumption by 78 per cent in the packaging sector, it added.

There is also much room for improvement with recycling as only about 20 per cent of plastic waste is recycled today, the report noted.

It also looked at the automotive and electrical and electronic equipment sectors, which together with construction and packaging make up more than 60 per cent of plastic use, said Scott.

North America, Europe and East Asia consume almost two-thirds of the world’s plastics, the report said.

Globally, per-capita consumption of plastics is 47 kg (103.6 lb) per year, but in Africa and South Asia, it is less than 10 kg per year.

A report last week from the Changing Markets Foundation criticised consumer giants such as Colgate-Palmolive, Danone, Nestlé and Unilever for failing to meet their pledges to use less plastic in their products.

It also said they had lobbied against and undermined efforts to tackle plastic pollution, a charge the companies denied.

This story was published with permission from Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, climate change, resilience, women’s rights, trafficking and property rights. Visit http://news.trust.org/climate.

By Thomson Reuters Foundation

Source: Eco-Business

Unilever pledges to invest €1bn in eliminating fossil fuels from cleaning products by 2030

Posted on September 2, 2020 by dishanth

Unilever has announced it is to invest €1bn in measures that could allow it to eliminate fossil fuels from its cleaning and laundry products by the end of the decade, an intervention it claims is critical if it is to deliver on its goal of reaching net zero emissions from its products by 2039.

The company intends to transition the products across its cleaning brands – which include Persil, Sunlight, Domestos and Cif – away from chemicals made from fossil fuel feedstocks and replace them with renewable or recycled sources of carbon, such as carbon captured using carbon capture utilisation technology or recovered from waste materials.

Unilever said the €1bn of funding will specifically finance biotechnology research, CO2 utilisation technologies, low carbon chemistry research, and biodegradable and water-efficient product formulations, while also helping the firm halve its use of virgin plastic by 2025.

In addition, the funding will support the development of brand communications that explain the various technologies to customers.

Peter ter Kulve, Unilever’s president of home care, predicted the newly launched ‘Clean Future programme’ would help “radically overhaul” the business. “As an industry, we must break our dependence on fossil fuels, including as a raw material for our products,” he said. “We must stop pumping carbon from under the ground when there is ample carbon on and above the ground if we can learn to utilise it at scale.”

The chemicals in Unilever’s cleaning and laundry products make up the greatest proportion of the company’s carbon footprint, accounting for roughly 46 per cent of its emissions. The firm expects its new programme to reduce the carbon footprint of its product formulations by a fifth.

The Anglo-Dutch company confirmed that work is already underway to wean its products off fossil fuel derived carbon across various global locations. For example, in Slovakia the company is working with biotechnology company Evonik Industries to develop the production of rhamnolipids, a renewable and biodegradable surfactant used in its Sunlight dishwashing liquid in Chile and Vietnam. Meanwhile, in Southern India Unilever is sourcing soda ash – an ingredient in laundry powders – from CO2 capture technology. The company intends to scale up both initiatives in the coming years.

Similarly, liquid detergent made by Persil – one of Unilever’s largest and most popular brands in the UK – has been reformulated to rely on plant-based stain removers. The new line is to be sold in British supermarkets from later this month.

And in order to demystify the different production processes to its consumers, competitors, and partners, Unilever has today published a ‘carbon rainbow’ model geared at outlining the range of alternatives to fossil fuel derived carbon. Non-renewable, fossil-based sources of carbon are labelled on the Carbon Rainbow as ‘black carbon’, while captured CO2 is referred to as ‘purple carbon’, plants and biological sources are branded ‘green carbon’, marine sources such as algae are labelled ‘blue carbon’, and carbon recovered from waste materials is described as ‘grey carbon’.

Ter Kulve urged other businesses to adopt the ‘carbon rainbow’ system. “Diversifying sources of carbon is essential to grow within the limits of our planet,” he said. “Our suppliers and innovation partners play a critical role through this transition. By sharing our Carbon Rainbow model, we are calling on an economy-wide transformation in how we all use carbon”.

The investment announced today comes just months after the company announced it would spend €1bn on a range of nature-based initiatives in support of its over-arching net zero emission goal, including reforestation, water preservation and biodiversity, through a Climate and Nature Fund.

By Cecilia Keating

Source: Business Green

Sunderland to host ‘UK’s greenest’ waste tyre recycling plant

Posted on August 24, 2020 by dishanth

A recycling facility designed to turn old car tyres into chemical materials used in altnernative fuel production and rubber manufacturing is set to begin contruction at the Port of Sunderland next year, after the Norwegian developers inked a deal with Sunderland City Council.

Expected to come online in 2022, the waste tyre recycling plant is set to use a process known as pyrolysis to break down used tyres otherwise destined for landfill, before converting the material into liquid hydrocarbons and carbon black, which can then be used to produce fuel and ground rubber, Wastefront explained.

The recycling specialist said heat generated during the energy-intensive process would also be utilised, with plans to channel the excees energy to nearby homes and industry in the North East.

Announcing the deal with the council today, Wastefront’s director and co-founder Christian Hvamstad hailed the project as a major milestone for the Norwegain state-owned firm. “The construction of our first ever plant with the Port of Sunderland marks a huge step in Wastefront’s efforts to combat the global issue of end-of-life tyres (ELT) waste,” he said. “Our ambition is to create a new circular economy for dealing with waste issues, and a crucial element of sustainable waste handling is to be able to do so locally.”

Wastefront said it would be seeking investment for the project from UK, Nordic and international investors in the first quarter of 2021, having already received funding from Norway’s national development bank Innovation Norway and government agency the Research Council of Norway.

The full-scale plant is expected to break down 180 tonnes of end-of-life tyre (ELT) waste daily, producing 60 tonnes of carbon black, a chemical building block found in tyres, plastics, water filtration, printer ink, cosmetics and toothpaste, according to Wastfront.

It also expects the facility to produce 90 tonnes of liquid hydrocarbons, which can be refined to produce fuels such as ethane, propane, butane, diesel and gasoline used in residential, commercial, industrial, transportation and electric power.

Sunderland’s industrial history, access to feedstock, geographymake it an “ideal location” for the plant, according to the company, which claimed the facility would be the “greenest waste recycling tyre plant in the UK”, utilising a gas purification to remove pollutants and avoiding the release of any by-products into the environment.

Port of Sunderland director Matthew Hunt said the project would also help support ongoing regeneration efforts in the area, creating an estimated 100 local jobs during construction, with 30 permanent staff then required to operate the plant thereafter.

“Port of Sunderland is currently undergoing a major transformation, with over £8m being pumped into improving its roads and infrastructure, and the decision by Wastefront to invest in the port shows just how much confidence this is breeding among our stakeholders and the wider market,” he said.

By Cecilia Keating

Source: Business Green

New study finds $3.8 billion in food wastage each year due to faults in the Cold Food Chain

Posted on June 28, 2020 by dishanth

A study has reported an estimate of 2,183,500 tonnes of fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, seafood and dairy products is wasted each year due to breaks and deficiencies in the cold food chain.

A report prepared for Refrigerants Australia and the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment has shown that poor temperature management is the greatest risk for perishable food. During transportation and handling between mobile and stationary refrigeration points, there are sometimes huge temperature variations between truck or trailer, loading docks and storage facilities. This results in significant amounts of food waste before items get to the supermarket or restaurant.

Preliminary and conservative estimates put the cost of food waste within the cold food chain at $3.8 billion at farm gate values in 2018. This is comprised of:

• 25% (1,930,000 tonnes) of annual production of fruit and vegetables worth $3 billion
• 3.5% of annual production of meat (155,000 tonnes) worth $670 million, and seafood (8,500 tonnes) worth $90 million
• 1% (90,000 tonnes) of annual dairy production valued at $70 million

The greenhouse gas emissions from food waste, attributed to sub-par refrigeration technology, practices and processes in the cold food chain, are estimated at 7.0 Mt CO2-e in Australia. Globally, if wasted food was viewed as a country, it would be the third-largest greenhouse gas emitter on the planet.

The transportation and storage of food in this country is big business. In 2018, more than 23 million tonnes of foodstuffs, worth $42 billion based on farm gate values, passed through the Australian cold food chain. This number is predicated to get bigger with production and transport of food and is projected to grow strongly in Australia over the next 20 years as export capacities expand.

Dr Greg Picker, Executive Director of Refrigerants Australia, says whilst industry was aware there was a problem, the report shows the true size and the implications this has on business and the environment.

“The numbers in this report are truly astonishing,” said Picker. “We always thought there were issues, which has now been confirmed for us in a big way. And it’s alarming as the faults are mainly behavioural which could be changed through educating those involved. Leaving food on the loading dock for too long, not closing truck doors, incorrectly stacked crates, these are small things that are resulting in temperature changes and food being spoiled.

“The cold food chain in Australia is long and complicated, and innocently each company, each link in that chain, would think a little bit of waste at their point wouldn’t matter. However, when you collate that waste across the entire chain the end figure is mind blowing.

“There is also the environmental consequence to consider. Think of all the water that would get used to grow and produce this food, or the emissions emitted during the farming, packaging and transporting of this food that gets tossed out. There are far too many people hungry people in Australia and starving across the world for this amount to be wasted unnecessarily,” said Picker.

Mr Mark Mitchell, Chairman of the Australian Cold Food Chain Council, forecasts that Australia will need to adopt training and education programs so that those responsible for moving food and pharmaceuticals around the country can get the best out of available technology.

“The best way for Australian food and refrigerated transport businesses to celebrate World Refrigeration Day would be to promise to do a great deal more to limit horrific food waste through better management of their refrigerated spaces and transport processes,” said Mitchell.

“While this is an opportunity to remind the world of the great benefits and opportunities provided by refrigeration, it also provides us with an opportunity to call to account those industry sectors in Australia that are misusing refrigeration through abuse of temperature controls and poor food handling processes in refrigerated transports, loading docks and cold rooms.

“Due to the vast distances in this country, food transport is a series of refrigerated events, in the hands of a range of stake holders, many of whom don’t understand how it all works. As an example, mangoes picked in the Northern Territory may be handled through stationary and mobile refrigerated spaces as many as 14 times by multiple owners on a 3,400 km journey to Melbourne. If temperature abuse through poor refrigeration practices occurs in just one of those spaces, the losses at the consumer end are compounded, and shelf life can be either drastically reduced, or result in the whole load being sent to landfill,” said Mitchell.

Kylie Farrelley, General Manager of Refrigerants Reclaim Australia, says this report highlights how the refrigeration industry and those organisations involved in the food cold chain can make improvements to reduce waste.

“The refrigeration industry is a crucial part of the cold food chain which, considering the volume of food that moves through it, has been extraordinarily successful,” said Farrelley. “However, there is room for improvement, both in how refrigeration technology is used and improved practices in the cold food chain. If everyone in the cold food chain works together, we can reduce the amount of food that is wasted, which will have positive impacts on everyone involved, from farmers, to the end consumer and the environment.

“While there are many and varied causes of food loss and waste, this study identifies many simple practices that would cost-effectively reduce perishable food waste, which would be of benefit to the whole community,” said Farrelley.

David Appel, President of Refrigeration Carrier (Global), of which Carrier Transicold is a sub brand, says the cold chain is in greater demand now more than ever.

“Carrier technology plays a leading role in the safe transport of medicine and the global effort to reduce food loss and waste, and greenhouse gas emissions,” said Appel. “COVID-19 shines an even brighter spotlight on the cold chain and getting food and medicine to those most in need. Cold chain system resiliency has proven to be an essential element to supply availability. We see that in the life sciences segment, monitoring strict temperature compliance is mission-critical to the delivery of diagnostic test kits, clinical-trial materials and vaccines.

“Greater connectivity is an essential piece of the future for the entire cold chain. We envision and are working to build an end-to-end cold chain that will reduce cost and waste in today’s cold chain network,” said Appel.

Source www.ecovoice.com.au

‘More masks than jellyfish’: coronavirus waste ends up in ocean

Posted on June 10, 2020 by dishanth

Conservationists have warned that the coronavirus pandemic could spark a surge in ocean pollution – adding to a glut of plastic waste that already threatens marine life – after finding disposable masks floating like jellyfish and waterlogged latex gloves scattered across seabeds.

The French non-profit Opération Mer Propre, whose activities include regularly picking up litter along the Côte d’Azur, began sounding the alarm late last month.

Divers had found what Joffrey Peltier of the organisation described as “Covid waste” – dozens of gloves, masks and bottles of hand sanitiser beneath the waves of the Mediterranean, mixed in with the usual litter of disposable cups and aluminium cans.

The quantities of masks and gloves found were far from enormous, said Peltier. But he worried that the discovery hinted at a new kind of pollution, one set to become ubiquitous after millions around the world turned to single-use plastics to combat the coronavirus. “It’s the promise of pollution to come if nothing is done,” said Peltier.

In France alone, authorities have ordered two billion disposable masks, said Laurent Lombard of Opération Mer Propre. “Knowing that … soon we’ll run the risk of having more masks than jellyfish in the Mediterranean,” he wrote on social media alongside video of a dive showing algae-entangled masks and soiled gloves in the sea near Antibes.

The group hopes the images will prompt people to embrace reusable masks and swap latex gloves for more frequent handwashing. “With all the alternatives, plastic isn’t the solution to protect us from Covid. That’s the message,” said Peltier.

In the years leading up to the pandemic, environmentalists had warned of the threat posed to oceans and marine life by skyrocketing plastic pollution. As much as 13 million tonnes of plastic goes into oceans each year, according to a 2018 estimate by UN Environment. The Mediterranean sees 570,000 tonnes of plastic flow into it annually – an amount the WWF has described as equal to dumping 33,800 plastic bottles every minute into the sea.

These figures risk growing substantially as countries around the world confront the coronavirus pandemic. Masks often contain plastics such as polypropylene, said Éric Pauget, a French politician whose region includes the Côte d’Azur.

Gloves, masks and bottles of hand sanitiser have been collected around France’s Côte d’Azur. Photograph: Courtesy Operation Terre-Mer

“With a lifespan of 450 years, these masks are an ecological timebomb given their lasting environmental consequences for our planet,” he wrote last month in a letter to Emmanuel Macron, calling on the French president to do more to address the environmental consequences of disposable masks.

Earlier this year the Hong Kong-based OceansAsia began voicing similar concerns, after a survey of marine debris in the city’s uninhabited Soko Islands turned up dozens of disposable masks.

“On a beach about 100 metres long, we found about 70,” said Gary Stokes of OceansAsia. One week later, another 30 masks had washed up. “And that’s on an uninhabited island in the middle of nowhere.”

Curious to see how far the masks had travelled, he began checking other nearby beaches. “We’re finding them everywhere,” he said. “Ever since society started wearing masks, the cause and effects are being seen on the beaches.”

While some of the debris could be attributed to carelessness, he speculated that the lightweight masks were at times also being carried from land, boats and landfills by the wind.

“It’s just another item of marine debris,” he said, likening the masks to plastic bags or straws that often wash up on the city’s more remote shorelines. “It’s no better, no worse, just another item we’re leaving as a legacy to the next generation.”

Still, given the likelihood that porpoises and dolphins in the region could mistake a mask for food, he was bracing himself for a grim find. “We’re constantly getting them washing up dead and we’re just waiting for a necropsy when we find a mask inside,” he said. “I think it’s inevitable.”

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/

By Ashifa Kassam

This is how worms could help to eat up the planet’s plastic pollution.

Posted on February 10, 2020August 12, 2020 by dishanth

Research has found mealworms can eat plastic and still be nutritious as food for other animals.
Even those that ate Styrofoam, which contains a toxic chemical, seemed to show no adverse side-effects and the chemical didn’t build up in its body.

New findings suggest mealworms could be the solution to our big plastic problem.

They can not only consume various forms of plastic, but also Styrofoam containing a common and toxic chemical additive. And even after that meal, they can serve as protein-rich feedstock for other animals.

The study is the first to look at where chemicals in plastic end up after being broken down in a natural system—a yellow mealworm’s gut, in this case. It serves as a proof of concept for deriving value from plastic waste.

“This is definitely not what we expected to see,” says Anja Malawi Brandon, a PhD candidate in civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University and lead author of the paper in Environmental Science & Technology.

The process of how meal worms could help to minimize plastic waste.
Image: Environmental Science and Technology

“It’s amazing that mealworms can eat a chemical additive without it building up in their body over time.”

Mealworms as animal food

In earlier work, researchers revealed that mealworms, which are easy to cultivate and widely used as a food for animals ranging from chickens and snakes to fish and shrimp, can subsist on a diet of various types of plastic.

They found that microorganisms in the worms’ guts biodegrade the plastic in the process—a surprising and hopeful finding. However, concern remained about whether it was safe to use the plastic-eating mealworms as feed for other animals given the possibility that harmful chemicals in plastic additives might accumulate in the worms over time.

“This work provides an answer to many people who asked us whether it is safe to feed animals with mealworms that ate Styrofoam“, says Wei-Min Wu, a senior research engineer in the civil and environmental engineering department.

The researchers looked at Styrofoam or polystyrene, a common plastic typically used for packaging and insulation that is costly to recycle because of its low density and bulkiness.

It contains a flame retardant called hexabromocyclododecane, or HBCD, commonly added to polystyrene. The additive is one of many used to improve plastics’ manufacturing properties or decrease flammability.

Plastic, worms, shrimp

In 2015 alone, nearly 25 million metric tons of these chemicals were added to plastics, according to various studies. Some, such as HBCD, can have significant health and environmental impacts, ranging from endocrine disruption to neurotoxicity. Because of this, the European Union plans to ban HBCD, and US Environmental Protection Agency is evaluating its risk.

Mealworms in the experiment excreted about half of the polystyrene they consumed as tiny, partially degraded fragments and the other half as carbon dioxide. With it, they excreted the HBCD—about 90% within 24 hours of consumption and essentially all of it after 48 hours.

Mealworms fed a steady diet of HBCD-laden polystyrene remained as healthy as those eating a normal diet. The same was true of shrimp fed a steady diet of the HBCD-ingesting mealworms and their counterparts on a normal diet. The plastic in the mealworms’ guts likely played an important role in concentrating and removing the HBCD.

The researchers acknowledge that mealworm-excreted HBCD still poses a hazard, and that other common plastic additives may have different fates within plastic-degrading mealworms. While hopeful for mealworm-derived solutions to the world’s plastic waste crisis, they caution that lasting answers will only come in the form of biodegradable plastic replacement materials and reduced reliance on single-use products.

“This is a wake-up call,” Brandon says. “It reminds us that we need to think about what we’re adding to our plastics and how we deal with it.”

Written by

Rob Jordan-Stanford, ,

This article is published in collaboration with Futurity.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.