Everything will decompose eventually – it just takes hundreds of years for fossil-based plastics to disappear. Of course, they don’t really disappear, they just break down into smaller microplastics and nanophysics. This begs the question, what exactly do we mean by decompose? Things get even more complicated with an increasing range of biodegradable polymers available […]
Pickleballs are piling up
Pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in the United States. Introduced in 1965 it had attracted nearly 9 million players by 2022 and international interest is growing, with a professional league already operating in Australia. In the United States, there are already more than 3000 courts, just in the largest 100 cities. Similar to tennis or […]
Recyclable wind farms
Wind turbine blades have a life expectancy of around twenty years. As they are usually made from composites containing carbon fibre and can’t be recycled economically, used blades are typically buried in landfills. Apart from the environmental impact, this provides opponents of renewable energy with ammunition to attack wind farms. Global expansion of wind farms […]
Everyone likes a fungi
Mycelium, the vegetative part of fungi, grows by digesting organic material including low-cost agricultural waste streams (such as cotton, corn, wheat, hemp, and flax residues), and is being increasingly used to replace petroleum-based plastics, particularly in packaging and insulation. Fast growing, with minimal energy and water needs combined with unique aesthetic qualities mycelium offers the […]
Luxury Handbag Market Faces Eco Crisis—Who’s Fighting Back?
The luxury handbag market is estimated to be worth a staggering US$72.7 billion (in 2023) and consumes between 5 and 10% of global leather production (totaling around 2 billion square meters annually). All these bags are held together with plastic-based components with foams used for filling, making it impossible to recycle discarded bags. With such […]
What a load of wrap
It’s hard to deny that cling film is a useful product in the kitchen. When used to wrap prepared food or unused veggies it can help keep food fresher for longer and reduce food waste. But soft plastics are challenging to collect and sort for recycling, meaning most of it ends up in landfill, where […]
Plastic roofs and platic walls
In the 1940s, industry commentators predicted that plastics would surround our lives. For example, in 1942 the Australian Woman’s Mirror claimed: “You will soon rise from your plastic bed, bathe in your plastic bath, use your plastic brush and comb, and breakfast from a plastic table while seated on a plastic chair. Later on you […]
Are your trainers really green?
Running shoes and athletic footwear are usually made from a range of plastic foams and fabrics which are stitched or glued together, effectively preventing recycling at the end of life. Alarmingly many of the materials traditionally used for insoles and midsoles rely on chemical foaming agents, which can release VOCs (volatile organic compounds) during use, […]
A plastic chair has grown into an enterprise
Jane Atfield was among the first to use recycled plastics to make consumer goods, with the 1992 release of the RCP2 Chair. Atfield made her own flat panels by recycling HDPE containers, colour sorting to produce panels in a variety of colours. While the chair was originally released in a limited edition it has since […]
3D printed parts reinforced with contiuous carbon fibre
Reinforce 3D, a Spanish start-up, has developed a technique to insert continuous carbon firbe strands (4-8mm in diameter) into 3D printed components. This exciting development allows fibres and resins to be inserted into cavities after components are printed (in plastic, ceramics, or other materials), overcoming the problems associated with placing fibres and printing at the […]