#biodegradable materials

[greenwichpackaging]

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[jcmarchi]

Say Hello to Biodegradable Microplastics - Technology Org

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/say-hello-to-biodegradable-microplastics-technology-org/

Say Hello to Biodegradable Microplastics - Technology Org

Microplastics are tiny, nearly indestructible fragments shed from everyday plastic products. As we learn more about microplastics, the news keeps getting worse. Already well-documented in our oceans and soil, we’re discovering them in the unlikeliest places: our arteries, lungs and even placentas.

Particle counts of petroleum-based (EVA) and plant-based (TPU-FC1) microplastics show that, over time, EVAs exhibit virtually no biodegradation, while the TPUs have mostly disappeared by day 200.

Microplastics can take anywhere from 100 to 1,000 years to break down and, in the meantime, our planet and bodies are becoming more polluted with these materials every day.

Finding viable alternatives to traditional petroleum-based plastics and microplastics has never been more important. New research from scientists at the University of California San Diego and materials science company Algenesis shows that their plant-based polymers biodegrade — even at the microplastic level — in under seven months. The paper, whose authors are all UC San Diego professors, alumni or former research scientists, appears in Nature Scientific Reports.

“We’re just starting to understand the implications of microplastics. We’ve only scratched the surface of knowing the environmental and health impacts,” stated Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Michael Burkart, one of the paper’s authors and an Algenesis co-founder. “We’re trying to find replacements for materials that already exist, and make sure these replacements will biodegrade at the end of their useful life instead of collecting in the environment. That’s not easy.”

“When we first created these algae-based polymers about six years ago, our intention was always that it be completely biodegradable,” said another of the paper’s authors, Robert Pomeroy, who is also a professor of chemistry and biochemistry and an Algenesis co-founder. “We had plenty of data to suggest that our material was disappearing in the compost, but this is the first time we’ve measured it at the microparticle level.”

Putting it to the test

To test its biodegradability, the team ground their product into fine microparticles, and used three different measurement tools to confirm that, when placed in a compost, the material was being digested by microbes.

The first tool was a respirometer. When the microbes break down compost material, they release carbon dioxide (CO2), which the respirometer measures. These results were compared to the breakdown of cellulose, which is considered the industry standard of 100% biodegradability. The plant-based polymer matched the cellulose at almost one hundred percent.

Next the team used water flotation. Since plastics are not water soluble and they float, they can easily be scooped off the surface of water. At intervals of 90 and 200 days, almost 100% of the petroleum-based microplastics were recovered, meaning none of it had biodegraded. On the other hand, after 90 days, only 32% of the algae-based microplastics were recovered, showing that more than two thirds of it had biodegraded. After 200 days, only 3% was recovered indicating that 97% of it had disappeared.

The last measurement involved chemical analysis via gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GCMS), which detected the presence of the monomers used to make the plastic, indicating that the polymer was being broken to its starting plant materials. Scanning-electron microscopy further showed how microorganisms colonize the biodegradable microplastics during composting.  

“This material is the first plastic demonstrated to not create microplastics as we use it,” said Stephen Mayfield, a paper coauthor, School of Biological Sciences professor and co-founder of Algenesis. “This is more than just a sustainable solution for the end-of-product life cycle and our crowded landfills. This is actually plastic that is not going to make us sick.”

Creating an eco-friendly alternative to petroleum-based plastics is only one part of the long road to viability. The ongoing challenge is to be able to use the new material on pre-existing manufacturing equipment that was originally built for traditional plastic, and here Algenesis is making progress. They have partnered with several companies to make products that use the plant-based polymers developed at UC San Diego, including Trelleborg for use in coated fabrics and RhinoShield for use in the production of cell phone cases. 

“When we started this work, we were told it was impossible,” stated Burkart. “Now we see a different reality. There’s a lot of work to be done, but we want to give people hope. It is possible.” 

Source: UCSD

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[attheideality]

Introducing KOHR: Crafting Sustainable Fashion with a Purpose

[harshitajoshi28]

Sustainable pots and planters are some of the best items that you can use to redesign your garden and add a distinct charm to it. With Brown Living, you can choose from a wide range of sustainable planters and pots online and use them to redesign your garden to make it more eco-friendly.

[rainbowresurrection]

I like to head canon that the technology of TOS *is* the future because it is more sustainable than our current tech. We must go back to knobs n levers

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Researchers invent 100% biodegradable 'barley plastic'

A biofriendly new material made from barley starch blended with fiber from sugarbeet waste—a strong material that turns into compost should it end up in nature—has been created at the University of Copenhagen. In the long term, the researchers hope that their invention can help put the brakes on plastic pollution while reducing the climate footprint of plastic production. Enormous islands of plastic float in our oceans and microscopic particles of it are in our bodies. The durability, malleability and low cost of plastics has made them ubiquitous, from packaging to clothing to aircraft parts. But plastics have a downside. Plastics contaminate nature, are tough to recycle and their production emits more CO2 than all air traffic combined. Now, researchers at the University of Copenhagen's Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences have invented a new material made from modified starch that can completely decompose in nature—and do so within only two months. The material is made using natural plant material from crops and could be used for food packaging, among many other things.

Read more.

[astranauticus]

Rolling With Difficulty as texts I have saved on my computer for some reason

(i drew every day for like a month straight and burnt out so have this nonsense instead)

[protoindoeuropean]

went to buy some tea and a new stash of teabags and the lace where i usually buy them didn't have the ones i usually take. and the guy at the counter said "yeah we decided to remove those ones from our selection" so i was like, ok i guess i'll have o try one the other ones ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and picked one that seemed the closest to the ones i previously used

anyway when i got home and made some tea it was a bit weird at first try, but it seemed like it was gonna work. then as i was about to throw the bag away i was like, is this the same material as the previous ones? because i chose those specifically because i checked that they're biodegradable (an unexpectedly difficult thing to do). and it seemed like it was the same material, but well, better check

and as it turns out, it's not and now none of the teabags they offer are biodegradable. so that was a scam

[kalpanahandmadepaper]

Personalized Corporate Gifting: The Unique Appeal of Handmade Paper Gift Boxes

[greenwichpackaging]

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[jcmarchi]

Finding nature-inspired alternatives to plastics focus of new center - Technology Org

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/finding-nature-inspired-alternatives-to-plastics-focus-of-new-center-technology-org/

Finding nature-inspired alternatives to plastics focus of new center - Technology Org

Despite efforts to reduce the use of plastic or recycle it, most plastic produced in the world ends up in landfills, the oceans, or is dumped, causing catastrophic effects on the environment, the ecosystem, and the economy.

The mission of the Synthetic Biology Manufacturing of Advanced Materials Research Center is to push the frontiers of knowledge through convergent research; develop pathways to train a manufacturing workforce; leverage an environment of diversity; and enhance innovation in the manufacturing of synthetic biological materials. Image credit: Aimee Felter/McKelvey School of Engineering

To address this, a team of researchers in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis has established the Synthetic Biology Manufacturing of Advanced Materials Research Center (SMARC) to create an integrated education, research and innovation ecosystem enabled by the convergence across multiple disciplines and research areas.

Its mission is to push the frontiers of knowledge through convergent research; develop pathways to train a manufacturing workforce that can harness artificial intelligence and the biological transformation in manufacturing; leverage an environment of diversity and inclusion to maximize human capital; and enhance innovation in the manufacturing of synthetic biological materials by understanding and overcoming barriers to technology adoption in partnership with industry.

Marcus Foston, an associate professor of energy, environmental and chemical engineering, will co-lead the center with Fuzhong Zhang, a professor of energy, environmental and chemical engineering and co-director of the center, which is funded in part by a five-year $3.6 million Growing Convergence Research grant from the National Science Foundation. With this funding, the team plans to develop a new class of biologically synthesized, protein-based and biodegradable materials that harness themes from nature to replace traditional petroleum-derived plastics.

“Our vision is a future in which advances in synthetic biology, biotechnology and biomanufacturing, machine learning, social sciences, materials science and mechanics converge to transition the world toward wide-spread use of bio-derived and biodegradable plastics from renewable feedstocks,” Foston said.

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Also on the Washington University leadership team are Guy Genin, the Harold and Kathleen Faught Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and Roman Garnett, an associate professor of computer science and engineering. Researchers from Northwestern University, Iowa State University and the University of South Florida bring together a convergence of cross-disciplinary expertise to evolve the plastics economy by developing a platform for the discovery of synthetic biological materials with desired properties.   

Foston and Zhang will lead a team that includes experts in synthetic biology, machine learning, polymer science, material mechanics and computational materials simulation. They will use machine learning aided with material screening and simulation approaches to accelerate the process of finding promising protein sequences that can be used to make biodegradable materials with targeted properties to replace plastics in both high- and low-value applications. In addition, they will develop synthetic biological methods and genetically engineered microbes to produce protein-based materials sustainably and economically. 

While much of the biomanufacturing industry has focused on medicines and biotherapeutics, this center will focus on fundamental scientific and engineering problems that occur during the design, development and manufacturing stages of synthetic biological materials, with the goal of leading a large-scale transition to an economy based upon sustainable and biodegradable plastics. This transition will begin with high-performance polymers.

“Synthetic biology has the potential to deliver the next generation of advanced materials with new functional properties to address a wide range of unmet needs,” Genin said. “With examples such as spider silk, elastin and resilin, synthetic biology also has the potential to leverage nature to provide access to affordable and sustainable production of novel macromolecular materials.”

Along with research, the center will include an education component.

“We will develop unique graduate educational frameworks for cross-disciplinary innovation at WashU, while simultaneously working to develop a pipeline of future innovators in the St. Louis community,” said Zhang, the center’s director of education and outreach. “This is a unique opportunity to impact our community and our world.”

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The center will open with a major international symposium April 18-19. Until then, Foston said, their work is cut out for them.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for major impact in the region and world,” he said. “We are all thrilled to have these resources to bring together the particular strengths of WashU and St. Louis to solve a pressing global challenge.”

Source: Washington University in St. Louis

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[mabelsguidetolife]

there needs to be more biodegradable glitter out there….. we have the technology!!!!! save our planet!!!!!

[hezhongxi435]

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