28,387 Results Found

Plastics has been an integral part of our lives for the last century as the main material for various useful commodity items. Irony of fate, the same specific properties that make plastics ideal to create such a wide range of products are also respon...

Bio-based plastics are increasingly appearing in a range of consumption products, and after use they often end up in technical recycling chains. Bio-based plastics are different from fossil-based ones and could disturb the current recycling of plasti...

Plastic is a broad name given to different polymers with high molecular weight, which can be degraded by various processes. However, considering their abundance in the environment and their specificity in attacking plastics, biodegradation of plastic...

Agricultural plastic waste (APW) is an emerging source of soil pollution and potential micro- and nano-plastic (MNP) contamination in agroecosystems. This study focuses on the Apulia region in southern Italy, a key horticultural and viticultural area...

Plastics, due to their varied properties, find use in different sectors such as agriculture, packaging, pharmaceuticals, textiles, and construction, to mention a few. Excessive use of plastics results in a lot of plastic waste buildup. Poorly managed...

Microplastic particles have been found virtually everywhere, including within our food and drinking water. While the implications of microplastics on human health are not fully known, early effects have been seen on marine life and the environment. S...

Over 5.5 million tons of plastic waste are generated globally from the research sectors. A university laboratory, e.g., pathology, can generate 250 tons of clinical plastic waste annually. The UK National Health Service (NHS) generates 133 kilotons (...

Governments around the world are introducing single-use plastics bans to alleviate plastic marine pollution. This paper investigates whether banning single-use plastic items is an appropriate strategy to protect the environment. Product life cycle as...

Achieving plastic circularity is imperative to using plastics without adverse effects. Today, only 9% of global plastic waste is recycled, signifying the need for more substantial advancements to accelerate our progress toward achieving plastic circu...

Plastic pollution has emerged as a critical environmental challenge due to the widespread accumulation of petrochemical plastics in natural ecosystems. Conventional waste management strategies, including mechanical recycling and incineration, have de...

International policy discussions on plastic pollution are entering a new phase, with more than 100 governments calling for the launch of negotiations for a new global plastics agreement in 2022. This article aims to contribute to efforts to identify...

Plastics are increasingly a preferred material choice in designing and developing complex, consumer products, such as automobiles, because they are mouldable, lightweight, and are often perceived to be highly recyclable materials. However, actually r...

The lack of precise definitions in plastics-related terminology continues to hinder the development of coherent sustainability strategies across the materials value chain. This communication revisits current definitions of plastics, polymers, and bio...

Plastics are part of our everyday life, as they are versatile materials and can be produced inexpensively. Approximately 10 Gt of plastics have been produced to date, of which the majority have been accumulated in landfills or have been spread into t...

The mismanagement of plastic materials has grown to become a mounting global pollution concern that is closely implicated in unsustainable production and consumption paradigms. The ecological, social, and economic impacts of plastic waste mismanageme...

Recently, cell-plastics, which are composed of unicellular green algal cells and biodegradable compounds as ingredients and fillers, have been suggested as carbon-recyclable materials instead of petroleum-based plastics. In this study, cell-plastics,...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the physical and chemical properties of engineering plastics processed using supercritical CO₂. First, we prepared disk-shaped test pieces via a general molding process, which were plasticized using supercrit...

Cumulative plastic production worldwide skyrocketed from about 2 million tonnes in 1950 to 8.3 billion tonnes in 2015, with 6.3 billion tonnes (76%) ending up as waste. Of that waste, 79% is either in landfills or the environment. The purpose of the...

An innovative route for plastics recycling is proposed, based on a combination of a logarithmic sorting process and colour plus high-resolution near-infrared (NIR) sensors. Although counterintuitive, it is shown that such a technology could sort clea...

This systematic review study adopted the PRISMA methodology to investigate recent research on wood-plastic composites (WPC) utilizing post-consumer plastics in the construction industry. Initially, 3111 articles were selected from academic databases...

Plastic pollution is a growing environmental problem, in part due to the extremely stable and durable nature of this polymer. As recycling does not provide a complete solution, research has been focusing on alternative ways of degrading plastic. Fung...

Microplastics are a ubiquitous environmental pollutant that can potentially pose a threat to both aquatic organisms and to human health. Prevention methods are pivotal to microplastic mitigation, and new trends are emerging, that include a growing in...

The excessive use of plastics in recent years, especially so-called single-use plastics, has led to an incipient increase in the presence of this material in the soil. As soil is the essential production factor in agriculture, this study aims to test...

The use of waste products in the production of asphalt binders and asphalt mixtures has become widespread due to economic and environmental benefits. In particular, the use of recycled waste plastic in asphalt binders and mixtures is gaining more att...

This work investigates the effect of a bio-based plasticizer derived from used sunflower oil on the crystallization behavior of poly (lactic acid) (PLA), comparing it with that of the conventional plasticizer tributyrin. This study aims to explore bi...

Plastics, including microplastics, have generally been regarded as harmful to organisms because of their physical characteristics. There has recently been a call to understand and regard them as persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic. This review ela...

Incorporation of plastic waste into concrete mitigates harm to the environment through encapsulation of plastics in concrete. This study presents a comprehensive investigation of the effects of using six commonly used plastic materials (i.e., polyeth...

Plastic waste is an issue of global concern because of the environmental impact of its accumulation in waste management systems and ecosystems. Biodegradability was proposed as a solution to overcome this problem; however, most biodegradable plastics...

Living in a society where plastic has become a necessity, the over-reliance on these materials is quite disturbing as they have social and economic effects, especially in waste disposal and resource management. Such issues have introduced the circula...

The long term ambition of energy security and solidarity, coupled with the environmental concerns of problematic waste accumulation, is addressed via the proposed waste-to-fuel technology. Plastic waste is converted into automotive diesel fuel via a...

The increasing consumption of plastics and plastic products results in correspondingly substantial volumes of waste, which poses considerable environmental burdens. With the ongoing environmental actions, the application of circular economy on this w...

This study analyzes people’s bag usage before and after the introduction of the tougher 2021 plastics ban policies by counting the number of charged carrier bags, inner bags, old plastic bags, and reusable bags used by consumers at the exits of the i...

The rapid growth in the production and application of plastic globally has resulted in plastic pollution with a negative impact on the environment, especially the marine ecosystem. One main disadvantage in the majority of polymers is disposal after a...

The issue of waste plastic generation is a pressing global concern with several significant environmental, economic, and health implications. Various studies have explored the utilization of recycled plastics in construction, yet there is a notable g...

The automotive industry has used plastics almost since the beginning. The lightness, flexibility, and many qualities of plastics make them ideal for the automotive industry, reducing cars’ overall weight and fuel consumption. Engineering plasti...

The exhaustion of fossil energy and the severe pollution induced by using plastics has forced people to embark on the road to sustainable development. The high value of the recycling of plastics has become an important part of energy conservation. Mi...

Massive plastic accumulation has been taking place across diverse landscapes since the 1950s, when large-scale plastic production started. Nowadays, societies struggle with continuously increasing concerns about the subsequent pollution and environme...

Microplastics are the biggest pollutants in marine ecosystems. Each year, over 8 million tons of plastic enter the oceans. Via microbes, microplastics may transport toxic chemicals into food webs. It is therefore important to create a way to remove m...

In this research work, five different types of post-consumer plastics were mechanically ground into fine aggregate, and each type was used to prepare 2 in. (50 mm) mortar cubes by partial volumetric replacement of the sand. The purpose is to evaluate...

Plastic production has increased dramatically, leading to accumulated plastic waste in the ocean. Marine plastics can be broken down into microplastics (<5 mm) by sunlight, machinery, and pressure. The accumulation of microplastics in organisms an...

Polymer materials offer several advantages as supports of biosensing platforms in terms of flexibility, weight, conformability, portability, cost, disposability and scope for integration. The present study reviews the field of electrochemical biosens...

European Commission is strongly committed into issues related to plastic materials production and plastic waste management. While the Circular Economy Package has set targets generally referred to recycling rates, the European Strategy for plastics i...

The use of plastics in agriculture and in fisheries has been vital to increase food production and meet the demands of an increasingly growing global population. However, there are several drawbacks to the use of plastics in these industries. Most pl...

The environmental impact of plastics is worsened by their inadequate end-of-life disposal, leading to the ubiquitous presence of micro- (MPs) and nanosized (NPs) plastic particles. MPs and NPs are thus widely present in water and air and inevitably e...

This paper presents a comprehensive review of the environmentally friendly management and reutilization of electronic waste (e-waste) plastics in flexible pavement construction. The discussion begins with an overview of e-waste management challenges...

The article presents an author’s approach to the study of the behavior of plastic hydraulic cylinder structures under load. Plastics as design materials, due to their different properties, behave differently from metals. So far, there is little...

Waste tires (granulate) and selected plastics from the automotive industry were evaluated by using the tertiary (pyrolysis) and quaternary (calorimetry) recovering. Pyrolysis is proving to be an environmentally friendly alternative to incineration an...

Plastics have become an essential part of the modern world thanks to their appealing physical and chemical properties as well as their low production cost. The most common type of polymers used for plastic account for 90% of the total production and...

The amounts of e-waste, consisting of metal (e-metals) and plastic (e-plastics) streams from electronic goods, are increasing in the United States and elsewhere. The e-metals waste streams are being recycled to a reasonable degree due to the value of...

Over the past 50 years, global plastic production has surged exponentially. Around 40% of this plastic is used for packaging, most of which is single-use, while 20% is used in construction. Despite the vast quantities produced, only about 6% of disca...