plastic waste

Bubble Curtain Technology Prevents Entry Of 500 Tonnes Of Plastic Waste In Yamuna River

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via The Logical Indian

In a bid to address the growing menace of plastic pollution in the water bodies, Geocycle India—the in-house waste management arm of Ambuja Cements Limited and ACC Limited, has been doing enormous efforts to collect and co-process the plastic waste in the country. The company implemented bubble curtain technology in April 2021 to stop plastic from entering the river Yamuna in Agra. Now, it has successfully managed to thwart 500 tonnes of plastic waste leakage in the river within a span of just six months. The collected waste will now be processed within Ambuja and ACC plants, as per India CSR.

Read the full story here: https://thelogicalindian.com/responsiblebusiness/geocycle-indias-bubble-barrier-plastic-waste-yamuna-30936

Activities at PVC market should be stopped till fire-safety arrangements made: Delhi Fire Service

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via Outlook India

Terming a recent fire incident at the PVC market as the most “intense and widespread”, the fire department said, “It has been observed that the scrap is spilled outside the plots, covering almost the entire stretch of the road, and at some points, it is mixing with the scrap of other plots too. The situation is highly alarming from the fire safety point of view as it helps in propagation of fire at a rapid rate.”

The move comes after a massive fire broke out at an open godown in the PVC market in the Tikri Kalan area on July 11. According to the fire department, it took more than 200 fire-fighters over 10 hours to douse the blaze as PVC materials in huge quantities were stocked up at the spot and since the godown did not have a boundary wall, the risk of the fire spreading to the adjoining areas was high.

Read the full story here: https://www.outlookindia.com/newsscroll/activities-at-pvc-market-should-be-stopped-till-firesafety-arrangements-made-delhi-fire-service/2129182

Genetically engineered microbes convert waste plastic into vanillin

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via Chemistry World

Scientists in the UK have genetically engineered Escherichia coli to transform plastic waste into vanillin. ‘Instead of simply recycling plastic waste into more plastic, what our system demonstrates for the first time is that you can use plastic as a feedstock for microbial cells and transform it into something with higher value and more industrial utility,’ says Stephen Wallace from the University of Edinburgh. The biotransformation ‘isn’t just replacing a current chemical process, it’s actually achieving something that can’t be done using modern synthetic methods.’

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is one of the most widely used types of plastic. Most existing recycling technologies degrade PET into its substituent monomers, ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid, then repurpose them in second-generation plastic materials. Wallace and Joanna Sadler, also at the University of Edinburgh, want to upcycle these monomers into alternative products.

Read the full story here: https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/genetically-engineered-microbes-convert-waste-plastic-into-vanillin/4013767.article

plastic scrap

Myanmar volunteers build a great library for orphans from plastic waste

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via EuroNews.Green

Volunteers have built a library for orphans in Yangon, Myanmar, using recycled plastic waste.

The project at Taikkyi, a neighbourhood in the north of Myanmar’s biggest city, started in December 2020 as a venture of the NGO Clean Yangon. Using rubbish donations from the local community, the team made eco-bricks by filling plastic bottles with other plastic waste.

Read the full story here: https://www.euronews.com/green/2021/05/30/myanmar-volunteers-built-a-stunning-library-for-orphans-from-plastic-waste

DOE invests $14.5M in plastics recycling R&D

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via Waste Today Magazine

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Washington, has announced it plans to invest up to $14.5 million for research and development to cut waste and reduce the energy used to recycle single-use plastics such as plastic bags, wraps and films. This funding is part of the department’s Plastics Innovation Challenge.

According to a news release from the DOE, this funding directed toward plastics recycling technologies will advance the department’s work to address the challenges of plastic scrap recycling and support the Biden administration’s efforts to build a clean energy economy and ensure the U.S. reaches net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Read the full story here: https://www.wastetodaymagazine.com/article/department-energy-funding-plastics-innovation-challenge-update/

MSU Researchers Publish Study On Biomineralization Of Plastic Waste For Cement Mortar

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via JDSupra

On April 13, 2021, Montana State University (MSU) researchers from its Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering published an article entitled “Biomineralization of Plastic Waste to Improve the Strength of Plastic-Reinforced Cement Mortar.” The study evaluates calcium carbonate biomineralization techniques applied to coat plastic waste and improve the compressive strength of plastic-reinforced mortar (PRM), a type of plastic-reinforced cementitious material (PRC).

Read the full sotry here: https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/msu-researchers-publish-study-on-8199658/

Plastic waste in the sea mainly drifts near the coast

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via Science Daily

The pollution of the world’s oceans with plastic waste is one of the major environmental problems of our time. However, very little is known about how much plastic is distributed globally in the ocean. Models based on ocean currents have so far suggested that the plastic mainly collects in large ocean gyres. Now, researchers at the University of Bern have calculated the distribution of plastic waste on a global scale while taking into account the fact that plastic can get beached. In their study, which has just been published in the Environmental Research Letters scientific journal, they come to the conclusion that most of the plastic does not end up in the open sea. Far more of it than previously thought remains near the coast or ends up on beaches. “In all the scenarios we’ve calculated,” says Victor Onink, the study’s lead author, “about 80 percent of floating plastic waste drifts no more than 10 kilometers from the coast five years after it entered the ocean.”

Read the full story here: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/06/210602130246.htm

Sri Lanka Sues Singapore After Ship Spews Plastic Waste, Causing Huge Environmental Damage

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via Global Citizen

Sri Lanka is currently dealing with “the worst beach pollution in our history,” after a Singapore-owned container ship carrying toxic chemicals caught fire, burnt for 12 consecutive days, and spilled plastic debris and other hazardous waste into the ocean. 

The ship, carrying tens of tons of nitric acid, caustic soda, sodium methoxide and methane, was located nine miles off the coast of the capital of Colombo when it caught fire on May 20.

Read the full story here: https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/plastic-pollution-ocean-ship-sri-lanka/

The Coca-Cola Company And The Ocean Cleanup Join Forces To Clean Up 15 Of The World’s Most Polluting Rivers Of Plastic Waste

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via Forbes

The Coca Cola Company and The Ocean Clean-Up project have announced they will be collaborating on a ground-breaking partnership to clean up some of the world’s worst polluting rivers – and collect plastic waste which can be recycled to make new bottles.

The Ocean Clean-Up’s research shows that 1,000 rivers are responsible for nearly 80% of riverine plastic entering the world’s oceans, and their goal is to tackle them with their River Interceptor solution.

Read the full story here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/afdhelaziz/2021/06/02/the-coca-cola-company-and-the-ocean-cleanup-join-forces-to-clean-up-15-of-the-worlds-most-polluting-rivers-of-plastic-waste/

As the Rest of the World Tackles Plastic Disposal, the US Remains Slow to Move

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via Science The Wire

plasic scrap

For the first time ever, international shipments of plastic waste came under global control this year. That’s because disposable plastic – a major pollutant of the world’s waters and atmosphere, fodder for incinerators, occupier of overflowing landfills, and material for costly recycling – was added to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal.

The convention is a United Nations treaty aimed at managing the adulterating of lands and seas with novel polluting entities, but how effectively this international protocol will work to control plastics disposal remains to be seen.

Read the full story here: https://science.thewire.in/environment/as-the-rest-of-the-world-tackles-plastic-disposal-the-us-remains-slow-to-move/