Flawed recycling results in dangerous chemicals in black plastic

Unsafe recycling of electronic waste has resulted in the distribution of dangerous chemicals into new products made out of black plastic. Published in Environment International, a new study documents the presence of bromide and lead in 600 consumer products made out of black plastic and clarifies its potential negative impact on human and ecological health. “There are environmental and health impacts arising from the production and use of plastics in general, but black plastics pose greater risks and hazards,” explained study lead author Andrew Turner in a statement. “This is due to the technical and economic constraints imposed on the efficient sorting and separation of black waste for recycling, coupled with the presence of harmful additives required for production or applications in the electronic and electrical equipment and food packaging sectors.”

Although black plastics compose fifteen percent of domestic plastic waste in the United States, they are particularly difficult to recycle. As a result, hazardous chemicals that were originally used as flame retardants or for color are being processed back into new products. “Black plastic may be aesthetically pleasing, but this study confirms that the recycling of plastic from electronic waste is introducing harmful chemicals into consumer products,” explained Turner. “That is something the public would obviously not expect, or wish, to see and there has previously been very little research exploring this.”

Related: Biotech company Nanollose could offer plant-free alternatives for the textile industry

Of particular concern is black plastic’s wide usage in food service, with the majority of black plastic being used in food trays or packaging. The black plastic also risks poisoning marine life as its dangerous chemicals seep into the ocean through microplastics. However, the presence of dangerous chemicals, such as the potentially cancer-causing bromine, is not limited to food products; it is also found in plastic jewelry, garden hoses, Christmas decorations, coat hangers and tool handles at high, and possibly even illegal, levels. Given the health risks, the industry must reform. “[T]here is also a need for increased innovation within the recycling industry to ensure harmful substances are eliminated from recycled waste and to increase the recycling of black plastic consumer products,” said Turner.

Via Ecowatch

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'House of Trash' proves how waste can transform into beautiful home design

Taipei-based engineering firm Miniwiz is already known as a pioneer in technology for the circular economy, but now it is determined to find a new place for old waste — back into our homes. The innovative company has recently teamed up with homeware company Pentatonic to create the House of Trash, a home design exhibit that showcases everyday decor and furniture made from post-consumer waste.

Already known internationally, The House of Trash celebrates Miniwiz’s expansion into the Milan market. Located on Foro Bonaparte in the center of the city, the home is filled with various prototype products designed by Pentatonic. According to its description, the space is a 360-degree real-world demonstration of what can be achieved by converting consumer waste into usable products.

Related: Miniwiz’s Stylish Re-Wine Desktop Lamp is Made from 100% Trash

Everything from food packaging and coffee cups to furniture and artwork in the house is made with trash. Also on display will be prototypes of Pentatonic’s AirTool Soft, which is a line of modular fabric components woven from trash on Italian looms. Additional displays include recycled pieces by multidisciplinary Italian architect, Cesare Leonardi and an art series, “We’re All In This Together,” by famed graffiti artist, Mode2.

After its unveiling, the home will become a permanent place where the sustainably-minded companies can display their latest green innovations. The space will allow people and companies of all backgrounds to come together and collaborate on ideas that address sustainability, recycling and eco-consciousness.

According to Miniwiz founder Arthur Huang, Milan is the perfect setting to find a real market for the innovative “trash technologies.” He said, “There is no better place than Milan to engage designers and architects with our trash innovation and circular technology.”

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The Dung Beetle Project farts flames as it transforms plastic into fuel

We tend to view plastic waste as worthless garbage, but a group of innovators and creators in Africa view it as an unexploited asset. In fact, they’ve used it to create the Dung Beetle Project, an art project that includes a pyrolysis gasifier to turn plastic into usable fuel. Through the effort, which recently debuted at AfrikaBurn and was spotted by the Land Art Generator Initiative, the Dung Beetle Project hopes to convert plastic from a problem to a solution. Inhabitat spoke with the project’s Finance and Marketing Director, David Terblanche, to find out more.

Ideally, the Dung Beetle Project will roll around emulating the insect from which it draws its name — cleaning up waste and transforming it into something useful. The trailer-mounted movable art piece was sculpted with recycled metal in Johannesburg, South Africa, and it contains gasification technology that recycles plastic into low-emission diesel and liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG. It’s not just the shape of the Dung Beetle that catches attention — it actually shoots flames into the sky by firing recycled gas, and it features an art stage as a platform for musicians, artists or jugglers to create “a spectacle of light and sound…to ignite people’s imaginations and spark excitement about solutions to environmental problems,” according to the group’s statement.

Related: Shimmering Solar Arch to generate power for a post-industrial Connecticut town

“We want to change people’s perceptions around what plastic is,” Terblanche told Inhabitat. “Right now it’s viewed as a waste, as litter, as a blot on the landscape,” but the Dung Beetle Project could help communities realize “this is a commodity that we can harvest, that it’s got some value, that we can turn it into something.”

The Dung Beetle Project got its start when inventor Pierre “Pops” Pretorius, who lives on a rural farm, was tinkering with a gasification system using macadamia nut shells that would otherwise largely be discarded, according to Terblanche, a longtime friend of Pretorius and Jeffrey Barbee, project director and director of Alliance Earth, the organization backing the Dung Beetle Project. Pretorius wondered what else he might be able to gasify and thought of plastic. The friends all attend AfrikaBurn, a regional offshoot of Burning Man, and thought maybe they’d show off the gasification technology there. They had a scale working prototype and decided to transform it into a playa-ready art project. Both AfrikaBurn and Burning Man offered funding that the Dung Beetle team used to create a more sophisticated prototype; artist Nathan Honey designed the metal beetle shell.

Here’s how the Dung Beetle Project works: plastic is shredded into pieces and burned in an oxygen-free environment in a reactor; gases then rise up while physical particles are recirculated to be burned again. The gases run through cooling ribs and condense into liquid, “similar to how a whisky still might work,” Terblanche says. Fuel drips out, and it can be used to power a vehicle or generator. According to the group’s statement, “Anything not burnt will fall out the bottom as pure carbon that can be placed directly into the soil to enrich it, or made into something more exciting like nano-tubes or graphene sheets.” There’s no waste, and while some emissions are produced when the resulting fuel is burned — it isn’t a clean fuel — the process used to create that fuel has no emissions,  and the fuel itself burns cleaner than oil.

Any plastic could be gasified, but there are some types the team avoids using, like PET, as it’s easily recycled, or white PVC piping, which has chemicals like chlorine that don’t work well with the gasification process. “The big benefit is that [the Dung Beetle Project] can process things that can’t be recycled, like the cellophane wrapping your pre-packed salad comes in, and this process allows you to process items that would have just ended up in a landfill,” Terblanche said.

The vision for the Dung Beetle goes beyond AfrikaBurn. The group aims to take it on a roadshow to educate people and work with communities to create lower-tech versions inspired by Pretorius’ original gasifier built with recycled parts.

“The really nice thing about the low-tech version is it can kind of be built in any little backyard garage. So imagine a mechanic who has a welding machine and a workshop. That’s all you probably need to make one of these,” Terblanche said. “So we want to spread the message, and if we can get hundreds of these out there, then we’re going to have hundreds of communities which are cleaning up their own plastic. And then at a community level you starting changing people’s behavior so the plastic doesn’t reach the ocean.”

The project could even offer incentives to preserve forests: in places with shortages of fuel or employment, people chop down ancient hardwoods to make charcoal to sell. The Dung Beetle technology could provide fuel security as people use plastic instead of wood for fuel, and people could even sell the plastic for money or some of the fuel a gasification system would generate.

In the future, the members of the Dung Beetle Project even see themselves taking to the seas on a boat powered with their tech, bringing the message to island communities facing plastic washing up on their shores. Terblanche said they’d love to “go out into some of these ocean gyres and basically fish for plastic and turn it into fuel on the boat, which we can then store in oil bunkers at the bottom of the boat. At worst, you’ll power the boat and get it across the ocean with its own plastic fuel; at best, you’re creating a commodity which you can actually sell.”

The group has been invited to come work with a Mozambique nonprofit; there’s also been interest in the Dung Beetle Project from a Cape Town sustainability institute and even Serengeti National Park. Regardless of what happens, we’re curious to see where the Dung Beetle rolls in the future.

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Via Land Art Generator Initiative

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Biotech company Nanollose could offer plant-free alternatives for the textile industry

The clothing industry isn’t generally known for its sustainability, but many brands are starting to turn to more environmentally friendly materials such as bamboo, organic cotton, or recycled plastic. Australia-based biotechnology company Nanollose is going a step further by developing plant-free cellulose from “industrial organic and agricultural waste products.” The cellulose can then be turned into a sustainable rayon fiber, providing an alternative to plant-based fabrics.

Nanollose, or microbial cellulose created with the company’s technology, is a plant-free cellulose created “by a non-hazardous and non-infectious bacterium in a biological system,” according to Nanollose’s website. Microbial cellulose is made through natural fermentation and doesn’t need sunshine, land, pesticides, fertilizers or big quantities of water. Microbes transform “biomass waste products from beer, wine, and liquid food industries” into microbial cellulose in their process. New Atlas reported that Nanollose currently draws on coconut byproducts sourced from Indonesia for the project’s pilot phase, although they aim to utilize waste from large industries when they begin full-scale production.

Related: Designer unveils biodegradable dress made from mushrooms

From that microbial cellulose, the company can produce what they believe is “the world’s first plant-free viscose-rayon fiber,” which they’re calling Nullarbor. Some potential applications are in athleisure, shirts, dresses, sportswear, and home furnishings. Nanollose said in a December press release that numerous companies have expressed interest in their technology. They launched the plant-free viscose-rayon fiber at the Planet Textiles Summit in Canada earlier this week.

Nanollose CEO Alfie Germano told New Atlas he became aware of the environmental concerns troubling the textile and apparel industry during his 30-year career. He said in a company statement, “The entire industry is experiencing a green wind of change that is customer-driven, and many global players are stepping up their search for sustainable, long-term fiber alternatives, and we believe we have a solution.”

Check out the Nanollose website for more information.

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Via New Atlas

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Adidas unveils a Manchester United jersey created with ocean plastic

Ocean plastic just got a flashy new awareness effort—in Manchester United Football Club jerseys. Adidas has teamed up with Parley for the Oceans to release a kit utilizing recycled ocean plastic and inspired by the team’s 1968 European Cup Final win. Manchester United director Richard Arnold said in a statement, “We are all acutely aware of the threat of plastic to the environment and we are delighted to be able to raise further awareness with this recycled kit, which I am sure the fans will love.”

Manchester United’s third kit features a navy blue shirt adorned with gold detailing from Parley for the Oceans and Adidas. It’s a throwback to the team’s 1968 royal blue kit in order to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its European Cup victory. But the blue also calls to mind the world’s oceans, which are plagued by plastic pollution. Adidas Category Product Director Oliver Nicklisch said, “We all need to change the way we think and act towards our oceans…By working with Manchester United to create new, stunning jerseys made with Parley Ocean Plastic, we hope that we can highlight the issue of plastic damaging our oceans, and ultimately encourage and inspire football fans to join us in creating a better environment for everyone.” Players will don the kit for the first time on the field during Manchester United’s summer tour in the United States.

Related: These Adidas sneakers double as subway passes in Berlin

This isn’t the first time Adidas and Parley for the Oceans have collaborated; they’ve also created running shoes and clothes with plastic plucked out of the oceans. The apparel is available for purchase on Adidas’ website. The plastic upcycled in their clothing is sourced from beaches, coastal communities, and shorelines.

+ Parley for the Oceans

+ Adidas

+ Adidas x Parley

+ Manchester United Football Club

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Noise pollution is the new 'secondhand smoke' according to experts

Noise pollution is “the new secondhand-smoke.” Researchers at New York University are conducting a five-year study of noise in the City to better understand how the sounds that constantly surround us impact our health, which is important since a recent study showed that 97% of the population is subjected to manmade noise. Scientists generally agree that anything over 50 decibels increases stress, anxiety, hypertension, and heart attack risk – that’s the same level of sound as a quiet suburb. Now, experts are asking what we can do with this information to help change are sound landscape, or risk harming our collective health like we did for decades with secondhand smoke.

There have been no definitive studies on change in city noise levels, which is what makes this study so vital. But while there is no official word, yet, there have been greater numbers of lawsuits over noise and more people with hearing problems, as well as short-term studies that point to the negative health effects of noise. “It took decades to educate people on the dangers of secondhand smoke. We may need decades to show the impact of secondhand noise, ”activist Bradley Vite told the Washington Post.

Policymakers in the United States have some catching-up to do when it comes to noise pollution. “We’re in active denial,” Rick Neitzel, director of environmental health policy at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, told the Washington Post. “We’re far, far behind what Europe is doing.” In 2009, the European Union (EU) approved regulations that set noise levels to 40 decibels at night to “protect human health,” while also limiting continuous day-time noise to 50 decibels.

Related: The National Park System just got its first Dark Sky Sanctuary

In the United States, 97 percent of the population must contend with human-caused noise. Even national parks are subject to loud human activity, with over two-thirds reporting significant levels of noise pollution, much of which is caused by airplanes and industrial activity such as drilling. So what can we do? To combat this rising threat, Texas is testing specially-grooved concrete that is capable of reducing highway sound levels by 5.8 decibels on average. In Phoenix, more than 200 highways have been repaved with a concrete-tire mix that uses recycled tires to create a more sound-absorbent roadway. Elkhart, Indiana recently approved high fines on “loud and raucous sounds,” such as caravans of motorcycles. “These biker gangs that roar through town can get up to 125 decibels,” Vite said. As a result of these fines, Elkhart has received $1.6 million in new revenue, which it has used to purchase four new police cars.

Via the Washington Post

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'World's deepest plastic bag' found in the Mariana Trench

Plastic pollution is a scourge upon the planet – and it turns out that it’s reached the deepest ocean trench on the earth. While studying man-made debris in the deep sea, scientists recently discovered a large number of single-use plastic products near the ocean floor – including a plastic bag in the Mariana Trench, almost 36,000 feet beneath the ocean’s surface.

Plastics are now showing up in the very deepest, most remote parts of our planet. This plastic bag was found at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, nearly 11km under water.

It's time to #BreakFreeFromPlastics. Retweet if you agree. https://t.co/18RZyUIA4K pic.twitter.com/95Rts4vDyg

— Greenpeace East Asia (@GreenpeaceEAsia) May 10, 2018

The bag, which The Telegraph referred to as the “world’s deepest plastic bag,” was one of 3,425 pieces of man-made debris from the past 30 years that scientists recorded in the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC)’s Deep-sea Debris Database. Launched for public use last year, the database includes photographs and images of trash obtained by remotely-operated vehicles and deep-sea submersibles. While the bag’s discovery came to light in an April article for Marine Policy, JAMSTEC’s video of the debris lists the dive date as 1998. JAMSTEC led the team that wrote the article, which included researchers from the United Nations Environment World Conservation Monitoring Center and Marine Works Japan.

Related: “Extraordinary” levels of pollution found in deepest parts of the ocean

The scientists said over 33 percent of the debris “was macro-plastic, of which 89 percent was single-use products, and these ratios increased to 52 percent and 92 percent, respectively, in areas deeper than 6,000 meters.” They spotted deep-sea organisms in 17 percent of the images of plastic debris, “which include entanglement of plastic bags on chemosynthetic cold seep communities.” Rubber, metal, glass, cloth, and fishing gear were among the other debris found.

The scientists also sounded the alarm on plastic pollution’s threat to deep-sea ecosystems, pointing to a statistic estimating that almost 80 percent of global plastic waste generated from 1950 to 2015 remains in landfills or the environment, and has not been burned or recycled. According to the research team, “Minimizing the production of plastic waste and its flow into the coastal areas and ocean is the only fundamental solution to the problem of deep-sea plastic pollution.”

You can check out a video of the Mariana Trench plastic on the JAMSTEC website.

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Via The Telegraph

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Ecobricks transform plastic trash into reusable building blocks

People are getting creative with plastic waste around the world, and now Ecobricks wants to utilize plastic for building. They encourage people to pack soft plastic garbage into plastic bottles to make blocks that can create buildings, walls, or modular furniture. The group says ecobricks offer a zero-cost solution to plastics pollution that allows people to take action right now.

According to the Ecobricks website, “Ecobricks are designed to leverage the longevity and durability of plastic to create an indefinitely reusable, cradle to cradle, building block.” People create these blocks by packing cleaned plastic into drinking bottles, then connecting them with “tire bands, silicone, cob, and cement,” although the group advises against using concrete. “No special skills, machinery, funding, NGOs, or politicians are needed,” the group said in a YouTube video.

Related: Cameroon student nonprofit recycles plastic bottles into boats

Ecobricks describes itself not as an NGO, but as a people-powered movement. Designer Russell Maier, one of the people behind the movement, said in an interview that he discovered ecobricking while living in Sabangan in the Northern Philippines. Currently based in Indonesia, Maier was a lead author of the Vision Ecobricks Guide, originally created for schools in the Northern Philippines. According to the Ecobricks website, the guide is now part of the curriculum in over 8,000 schools in the Philippines, and Maier has “overseen the construction of hundreds of ecobrick playgrounds, gardens, and buildings.”

People in the United States, South America, and Africa have gotten involved in ecobricking as well, creating projects that include an eco-restaurant in the Ecuadorean Amazon. You can find more information about ecobricking on the group’s website.

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UK government wants to 'eliminate' wet wipes in plastic crackdown

It’s not just plastic bottles and plastic bags clogging waterways — but wet wipes too, and the United Kingdom government aims to take action and banish the wipes in a plastic waste crackdown. A Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra) spokesperson told The Independent, “As part of our 25-year environment plan, we have pledged to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste, and that includes single-use products like wet wipes.”

Many wet wipes, which contain plastic, are still flushed down toilets — and according to the BBC, are behind around 93 percent of sewer blockages in the UK. The Defra spokesperson didn’t say whether or not it would be illegal to sell or buy wet wipes. She did say, “We are continuing to work with manufacturers and retailers of wet wipes to make sure labeling on packaging is clear and people know how to dispose of them properly — and we support the industry’s efforts to make their customers aware of this important issue.”

Related: Wet wipe pollution is clogging up riverbeds across the UK

The BBC said manufacturers will either have to design wipes free of plastic, or people will have to live without them. They quoted Defra as saying it is “encouraging innovation so that more and more of these products can be recycled and are working with industry to support the development of alternatives, such as a wet wipe product that does not contain plastic and can therefore be flushed.”

Besides congesting rivers, wet wipes are also part of so-called fatbergs, or congealed mounds of trash and fat in sewers — and the BBC said fatbergs are mainly comprised of wet wipes. The Independent said there are thought to be at least 12 fatbergs beneath London.

Earlier this month, a UK environmental organization revealed over 5,000 wet wipes in a space as big as half of a tennis court near the River Thames. Tens of thousands of the wipes are sold every year in Britain.

Via The Independent and the BBC

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