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Scientists Found the ‘Achilles’ Heel’ That Could Destroy ‘Forever Chemicals’ for Good

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Scientists Found the ‘Achilles’ Heel’ That Could Destroy ‘Forever Chemicals’ for Good

plastic waste

via Popular Mechanics

Scientists have been working on ways to destroy PFAS chemicals that permeate our environment, but no easy method exists. That’s because these standoffish compounds don’t react to anything—not biological or other chemical agents. They stick only to each other and resist being torn apart. Current methods require “very harsh conditions to decompose these compounds,” according to chemists at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Until now, how to break those PFAS bonds has been unclear.

Read the full story here: https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/a40961089/how-to-destroy-forever-chemicals-for-good/

Plastic to metal, steel to aluminum: The future of welding and lightweight vehicles

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Plastic to metal, steel to aluminum: The future of welding and lightweight vehicles

via TechExplore

plastic manufacturing

Making vehicle structures out of a combination of metals and plastics could make them dramatically lighter, stronger, safer and more environmentally friendly than the all-steel or all-aluminum approaches that dominate today.

But how to quickly and cheaply join all those materials together has been a sticky problem. A University of Michigan lab is developing solutions.

Read the full story here: https://techxplore.com/news/2022-11-plastic-metal-steel-aluminum-future.html

New type of metallic plastic can be sprayed on and made from chains of polymers

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New type of metallic plastic can be sprayed on and made from chains of polymers

via Interesting Engineering

Scientists at the Anderson Laboratory at the University of Chicago have discovered a metallopolymer that can be made into various shapes, and remains stable in almost any environment.

A plastic material has been discovered that has metallic properties and remains stable when chilled, heated, left out in the air, or exposed to acid. Researchers are saying it could prove valuable in medical devices that are wearable, or other kinds of wearable electronics.

Read the full story here: https://interestingengineering.com/science/new-type-of-metallic-plastic-can-be-sprayed-on-and-made-from-chains-of-polymers

plastic material

Award-winning — plastic-eating robo-fish is finally here to rid our waters of waste

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Award-winning — plastic-eating robo-fish is finally here to rid our waters of waste

via Interesting Engineering

A robot fish that filters microplastics has been created after winning a robotics contest at the University of Surrey.

Researchers in robotics make the “robo-fish” concept a reality, according to a press release published by the University on Thursday.

“Water pollution, especially plastic pollution, is a huge problem. It’s not just the ocean which suffers but rivers, streams, lakes, and ponds. This makes it a problem without a one-size-fits-all solution,” Eleanor Mackintosh, a chemistry undergrad student at the University of Surrey and the contest winner, told New Atlas.

Read the full story here: https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/plastic-eating-robo-fish-to-clean-our-waters

 

Plastic-eating superworms with ‘recycling plant’ in their guts might get a job gobbling up waste

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Plastic-eating superworms with ‘recycling plant’ in their guts might get a job gobbling up waste

via SCMP Scientists from Australia’s University of Queensland have discovered that a type of beetle larvae called Zophobas morio can consume and break down polystyrene. Research published in the scientific journal Microbial Genomics on June 9, 2022, says the superworms possess special gut enzymes that can break down plastic. The researchers say they now hope to study the enzymes to engineer ways the substance could be used to break down and dispose of plastic waste in the future.

Microplastics detected in meat, milk and blood of farm animals

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Microplastics detected in meat, milk and blood of farm animals

via The Guardian

Microplastic contamination has been reported in beef and pork for the first time, as well as in the blood of cows and pigs on farms.

plastic scrap

Scientists at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VUA) in the Netherlands found the particles in three-quarters of meat and milk products tested and every blood sample in their pilot study.

Read the full story here: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/08/microplastics-detected-in-meat-milk-and-blood-of-farm-animals

Material Insights: Ukraine crisis drives resin price increases

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From Razors to Soda Bottles, Consumer Goods Feel Resin-Cost Burn

via Bloomberg

Booming prices for resins, the building blocks for plastic, have already helped drive up the cost of making everyday products such as toys, bottles and face masks.

polyethylene recycle

Now the fossil-fuel-derived ingredient could get even more expensive as Russia’s attack on Ukraine raises the risk of higher oil prices, potentially trickling down to what consumers pay for household and personal care products. Brent crude had already risen almost 48% in the last year.

Read the full story here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-25/from-razors-to-soda-bottles-consumer-goods-feel-resin-cost-burn

Lab turns hard-to-process plastic waste into carbon-capture master

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Lab turns hard-to-process plastic waste into carbon-capture master

via Phys.org

What seems like a win-win for a pair of pressing environmental problems describes a Rice University lab’s newly discovered chemical technique to turn waste plastic into an effective carbon dioxide (CO2) sorbent for industry.

plastic scrap

Rice chemist James Tour and co-lead authors Rice alumnus Wala Algozeeb, graduate student Paul Savas and postdoctoral researcher Zhe Yuan reported in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Nano that heating plastic waste in the presence of potassium acetate produced particles with nanometer-scale pores that trap carbon dioxide molecules.

Read the full story here: https://phys.org/news/2022-04-lab-hard-to-process-plastic-carbon-capture-master.html

 

Chemists cook up way to remove microplastics using okra

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Cooking up a way to remove microplastics from wastewater — with okra, aloe

via the American Chemical Society.

SAN DIEGO, March 22, 2022 — In many cuisines, okra serves as a master thickener of stews and soups. The goo from that fruit and other plants, such as aloe, cactus and psyllium, can also clean water and wastewater of some types of solid pollutants, as well as some that are dissolved. Now, researchers have demonstrated that combinations of these food-grade plant extracts can remove microplastics from wastewater.

microplastics okra

The health effects of ingesting microplastics — tiny pieces of plastic 5 mm or smaller — are currently unclear, but studies suggest that people unintentionally consume tens of thousands of these particles every year. “We think that microplastics by themselves may not be much of a health hazard, but anything that they get into or any type of toxic substance that gets attached to these plastics could go inside our bodies and cause problems,” says Rajani Srinivasan, Ph.D., the principal investigator for the project.

Read the full story here: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/newsreleases/2022/march/cooking-up-a-way-to-remove-microplastics-from-wastewater.html

Scientists find microplastics in blood for first time

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Scientists find microplastics in blood for first time

via Phys.org

Microplastic sperules in tooth paste, about 30 µm in diameter. Credit: Dantor (talk) 20:55, 18 November 2013 (UTC), CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Scientists have discovered microplastics in human blood for the first time, warning that the ubiquitous particles could also be making their way into organs.

The tiny pieces of mostly invisible plastic have already been found almost everywhere else on Earth, from the deepest oceans to the highest mountains as well as in the air, soil and food chain.

Read the full story here: https://phys.org/news/2022-03-scientists-microplastics-blood.html