Tackling plastic pollution with worms | Reuters.com

Tackling plastic pollution with worms | Reuters.com

uk.reuters.com/video/2015/11/.../tackling-plastic-pollution-with-worms?...

Nov 4, 2015 - Scientists report that mealworms can biodegrade Styrofoam and other ... lead to new methods to tackle the growing problem of plastic pollution, .


 

3D printing at home could be a green and socially responsible choice

Oktober 2014

Plastic waste in the oceans and in landfills all over the world has been recognized as a huge problem in urgent need of a solution. Joshua M. Pearce, Associate Professor for Materials Science and Engineering at Michigan Technological University, is working on several methods that could reduce the amount of plastic produced from petroleum while fostering creativity and distributed manufacturing. His approach: Using recycled plastic (do-it-yourself-style) for 3D printing at home and in communities.
Pearce interest stems from his work with the Recyclebot, an open-source hardware device for converting plastic waste into filament for open-source 3D printers like the RepRap. At first, he and the Open Sustainability Technology Research Group at Michigan Tech looked at the economical savings that 3D printing with recycled plastic from milk jugs and other recycled containers could bring.

“But we wanted to make sure we were not suggesting a path that was more environmentally destructive than conventional recycling”, he says. “As it turns out distributed recycling is better for the wallet and the environment.” The energy savings amounted to between 3 % and 80 %, depending on whether the recycling was done locally or in distance locations that required transportation.
The economical benefits provide an additional incentive. “Everyone that has been 3D printing for a while knows how fast you go through filament”, says Pearce. Instead of spending 40-60 USD on a kilogram of filament, several commercialized recyclebots allow users to make their own filament for less than a dollar per kilo. The Plastic Bank has released the open source designs for a recyclebot that is powerful enough to be used on a small industrial or on a neighborhood scale. Even better: The Plastic Bank provides the recyclebots to impoverished communities all over the world so that they can turn plastic waste into a valuable commodity they can sell, thus improving their own social situation.
This will, in the long term, not only help reduce the amount of plastic that is produced from petroleum, it will also address the growing problem of plastic pollution on land and in the oceans.  “Much of the world’s ocean plastic starts on land in developing countries. The Plastic Bank’s waste plastic exchange system will help prevent ocean bound plastic waste from being dumped into the rivers and waterways by making it too valuable to throw away”, reads a statement on The Plastic Bank’s website.




From a technology standpoint, this is viable: “We have tested some ocean plastic sent to us from the Plastic Bank. It was primarily HDPE and printed really well”, says Pearce. “If such ocean plastic is accepted in the market as a substitute for conventional filament — it will look like the beaches clean themselves as waste pickers scour them clean to make money.” While waste picking is a very hard way to make a living, it provides the economical basis for more than 15 million people in developing nations worldwide. They often live in the poorest and most disadvantaged regions of the world and work under horrible conditions. Pearce is very aware of the problems associated with using recycled plastic from these communities even if the economic and environmental advantages are clear. “If the people laboring to collect the waste plastic are treated as slaves we have not made any real progress”, he says. This is why he supports and works with the Ethical Filament Foundation that develops Fair Trade standards for recycled filament. Pearce has also been collaborating on several projects with the non-profit TechforTrade, which is the driving force behind Ethical Filament.

The standard includes provisions such as no child labor, reasonable working hours, no forced labor, health and safety standards, anti-discrimination and anti-harassment provisions and the freedom of association and collective bargaining. “Fair Trade standards in this context are meant to help ensure the people doing the bulk of the labor get to share in some of the benefits of improved technology”, says Pearce. The benefit for 3D printers in the Western world: They get to use good quality filament made in fair conditions while cleaning up the environment – all for competitive prices.

One of the first producers of Ethical Filament is Protoprint, a social enterprise in India that is producing filament for 3D printers. Wholesale and individual customers can already place an interest for Fair Trade Filament on Protoprint’s website. Their work has not gone unnoticed: Protoprint has been honored with an award at the MIT Ideas competition. More companies that produce Ethical Filament and are supported by the Ethical Filament Foundation will follow. And if the trend continues, it won’t be long before filament from recycled plastic produced under fair conditions will be available in large quantitis for the new group of creative people who use 3D printers at home or in their businesses.

3D printing to tackle pollution

3D printing to tackle pollution: Study

IANS | Apr 4, 2016, 07.35 PM IST

NEW YORK: In a first, a team of US researchers used 3D printing technique to create a handheld sponge-like structure that could help in mitigating pollution. Led by chemistry professor Matthew Hartings from American University, the researchers demonstrated how to use commercial 3D printers to create a structure with active chemistry.

They designed a small sponge-like plastic matrix by dispersing chemically active titanium dioxide (TiO2) nano particles through same filament that are used in the printing process of 3D-printed figures.

New solar-powered organic compound to tackle air and water pollution (Nanowerk News) Nanoscientists at the Univeristy of Alicante have modified a commonly-used compound, titanium dioxide, turning it from white to black to boost its efficiency and make environmental applications a real possibility.

Researcher Elena Serrano at the Universidad de Alicante (University of Alicante, UA) has modified the colour of titanium dioxide from white to black for use as an efficient sterilising agent, removing organic contaminants from air and water.

Black and white titanias. (Image: NANOMOL, University of Alicante)

Cheap to produce and not at all toxic, titanium dioxide (known as titania) has many uses. It is used as a pigment to provide whiteness and opacity to everything from soaps, cosmetics, paints, paper to foods, toothpaste and medicines. It is also widely used as a sunscreen, due to its strong UV light-absorbing capabilities.

It is also an excellent photocatalyst, reacting under ultraviolet light to become a sterilising agent. However, since UV light accounts for just 5% of solar radiation, white titania is relatively inefficient in this role.

In this study, researchers added a common compound present in hair dyes during the preparation of the titanium dioxide to create “black titania”. Since black absorbs a much larger range of the solar spectrum, black titania presents a much more efficient photocatalytic activity in both the UV and visible light ranges.

As such, black titania finds significant uses in water treatment plants and such as pool cleaning. Powered only by sunlight, it is able to break down organic pollutants and purify the water.

It can also be applied to roads, building facades and terraces, where this “black dust” works to remove nitrogen oxide from the atmosphere and improve air quality.

Although similar technologies do already exist, “they generally require the use of noble metals like gold, or are the result of very complicated synthesis procedures, both of which are very expensive. Our black titania is much more efficient and cost-effective to produce, needing only water, alcohol and mild temperatures” (Serrano).

The simple and cost-effective new procedure has been patented by the UA under the title (translated) “Procedure for the in-situ synthesis of functionalised titanias and their uses”. Elena Serrano appears as co-author, alongside the director of the UV’s Molecular Nanotechnology Lab (NANOMOL), Javier García, where the work has been carried out.

Source: Univeristy of Alicante

 

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