#plastic pollution crisis

[thepastisalreadywritten]

World’s first ice cream made from plastic

Reuters | 28 September 2023

The world’s first food made from plastic waste - according to its developer - is vanilla ice cream.

Despite being locked in a freezer in London, she hopes it kickstarts a heated debate about the future of food and the plastic pollution crisis.

The ice cream is actually an art installation called ‘Guilty Flavours’ by artist and designer Eleanora Ortolani, 27, intended to challenge the way we think about plastic waste and what we are - and are not - prepared to eat.

"Guilty Flavours is what I believe is the first sample of ice cream made from plastic waste,” Ortolani told Reuters at Central Saint Martins, part of the University of the Arts London.

“It's coming from the same plastic as we can find in bottles, plastic bottles,” she said.

The process, developed by scientists in Edinburgh, harnesses the metabolic power of bacteria and enzymes to behave as eco-friendly factories to digest polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and turn it into vanillin, the molecule that gives vanilla its flavour.

“There are certain enzymes which do certain chemical reaction,” Dr Joanna Sadler, a biotechnologist at the University of Edinburgh, told Reuters.

“So if you plug those together, you can get through to lots of different chemical products," she said.

Plastic is made of a string of molecules bonded together into what are known as polymers.

Sadler broke those bonds with a hungry microbe, leaving her with molecules that were no longer plastic.

That former PET-soup was then easily processed by another bacteria into vanillin.

Sadler's research, published in the Journal Biochemist in December 2021, focuses on degrading and upcycling plastic and using it as feedstock for microbial growth.

She produced the specially engineered bugs for Ortolani's project but was at pains to point out that the student's ice cream is very much a research project.

It's not currently for human consumption.

"I've even had members of the public email me saying it's irresponsible to encourage people to eat plastic," Sadler said.

"It is really important that we take the safety side of it really, really seriously and we make it very clear that this has to go through exactly the same regulatory processes and food standard processes as any other food ingredient.

And only once it has been through all of those would it go anywhere near any kind of consumer product."

Ortolani, who is from Verona, Italy, said Guilty Flavours was inspired by her frustration with the failure of the recycling system to stop plastic polluting the environment.

It is locked away to highlight what she says is a looming global food crisis.

“We have the tools today to rethink the food system we're living in,” she said.

“This is ready now and today but nobody can really touch it or interact with it because it's not tested for safety yet."

Vanilla, sometimes called 'green gold', is the second most expensive spice in the world after saffron.

UK designer recycles plastic into vanilla ice cream

27 September 2023

Introducing the world's first food made from plastic waste... vanilla ice cream!

Named Guilty Flavours, the ice cream has been designed to provoke viewers into thinking about plastic waste.

The ice cream was developed by scientists in Edinburgh, who used bacteria and enzymes to digest PET plastic and turn it into vanillin -- the molecule that gives vanilla its flavour.

The ice cream is still in its research phase and currently not for human consumption.

[lilithism1848]

[alwaysbewoke]

[climate-crisis]

😌 Nature finds a way. To read more about these two knights in shining armour, tap here (full article on Medium).

[cleopatrachampagne]

“though it might be nice to imagine there once was a time when man lived in harmony with nature, it’s not clear that he ever really did.” — elizabeth kolbert, the sixth extinction

[victoria-may-art]

Trash In Beauty

Oil & Mixed Media on canvas

15 x 30 x 1 in.

2021

Victoria May

This piece was inspired by the many bodies of water that continue to become toxic from human actions. Using my own plastic and paper wastage as part of the piece, I wanted to show how these everyday wastes can dirty the beauty of nature and life. Now, I do not believe that the everyday person is responsible for the many forms of global wastage. The ‘Plastic Waste Makers Index’ published by Minderoo Foundation, reported an analysis in May 2021 that supports my belief. They found that just 20 companies - supported by a small group of financial backers - are responsible for producing over 50% of ‘throwaway’ single-use plastics. Showing my own actual plastic and paper wastes as part of this piece, along with anyone who views and thinks of their own, we have admitted something a simple 20 companies have not. Admittance of a problem, a need and want for solutions. We as everyday people of this world try to change in ways to lessen the environmental impact. But the 1%, many governments, and the top companies in the world couldn’t care less. Oh wait, it doesn’t matter to them because Elon Musk will just get them to mars so we’re left with the toxic planet they made. This beautiful planet will outlast all of us, we are only poisoning ourselves and the symbiotic life systems that we are part of. I have no clear answer to these problems. The only thing I do know is to hold those who are truly responsible for this, to the mark. Hold onto that rage you feel and use it to RESIST.

~Victoria

Link to purchase painting

https://www.artsy.net/artwork/victoria-may-b-1999-trash-in-beauty-1

[vii-illu]

Vii, Recycler mes lunettes roses, 2023, wood, fabric, acrylic paint, disposable water bottles, LED light, installation.

Vii, Recycler mes lunettes roses, 2023, bois, tissus, acrylique, bouteille d’eau jetable, lumière DEL, installation.

Ma pratique artistique, centrée sur la nostalgie et la mémoire, s’attache aux enjeux de justice sociale et environnementale. Recycler mes lunettes roses change l’échelle du jouet lumineux Lite-Brite™, que j’avais lorsque j’étais enfant. Ses gros pions étant désormais faits de bouteilles d’eau jetables colorées, symboles de la catastrophe climatique imminente et d’un changement de comportement nécessaire, l’objet interactif représente l’innocence et l’insouciance qui est la n��tre face à la réalité des problématiques actuelles. Il en résulte un jouet mélangeant deux imaginaires contradictoires : l’univers ludique de l’enfance et celui de la responsabilité individuelle face à la crise environnementale. Dans ce contexte d’anxiété grandissante, vous êtes invitée-e-s à suspendre le temps et la réalité en jouant avec la sculpture, idéalement à plusieurs puisque la solution à ces enjeux semble se trouver dans l’action collective.

[signpetitions]

The cosmetics mega-brand Dove campaigns about how much they ”care about women and girls” while at the same time polluting this planet with massive amounts of single-use plastic. Click the link below and sign a letter to tell Dove it’s time to actually start caring for the wellbeing of their customers!

[garthnadermemestash]

The environment stupid

[shreygoyal]

View on Twitter

(Source)

[sunlightthroughtrees1]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DD0N1saoxJ6/?igsh=aXlqZmFjczh5bzlw

Credit to: @jackofftoart on Instagram for posting the video

Please watch this! It’s about pollution in our waterways

[overdoso]

500 milhões de toneladas de plástico são produzidas anualmente, mas apenas nove por cento são recicladas globalmente. Os plásticos estão em todo lugar: do topo do Monte Everest até a parte mais profunda da Fossa das Marianas.🌎