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New process could enable more efficient plastics recycling
MIT News
The accumulation of plastic waste in the oceans, soil, and even in our bodies is one of the major pollution issues of modern times, with over 5 billion tons disposed of so far. Despite major efforts to recycle plastic products, actually making use of that motley mix of materials has remained a challenging issue.
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Resin price report: PP resin prices drop for 7th straight week
Plastics Today
Completed volumes of spot resin trading tallied slightly below average last week as buyers and sellers closed out September, reports the PlasticsExchange in its Market Update.
The slower trading activity came as market participants monitored Hurricane Ian’s impact on Florida, far removed from the Gulf Coast's petrochemical infrastructure. Hurricane season officially ends on Nov. 30, leaving enough time for another major storm to hit vulnerable production.
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.SPE CALENDAR OF EVENTS
'Humble' worm saliva can break down tough plastic
BBC
One of the worst forms of plastic pollution may have met its match in the saliva of a humble worm.
Spanish researchers say they've discovered chemicals in the wax worm's drool that break down polyethylene, a tough and durable material.
The researchers say that one hour's exposure to the saliva degrades the plastic as much as years of weathering.
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Bioplastics made of bacteria to reduce plastic waste in oceans
University of Rochester
Plastic waste poses an urgent problem for our planet’s ecosystems, especially our waterways. Millions of tons of plastic waste enter Earth’s oceans every year, and plastic has been found in every part of the ocean, including at the bottom of the deepest ocean trenches.
Although some biodegradable plastics, or bioplastics, have recently been developed, these plastics were intended to break down in industrial compost facilities.
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Promoted By
Wacker Chemical Corporation
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Promoted By
Extreme Coatings
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Trick turns plastic bags into building blocks for new stuff
Futurity
Polyethylene plastics — in particular, the ubiquitous plastic bag that blights the landscape — are notoriously hard to recycle.
They’re sturdy and difficult to break down, and if they’re recycled at all, they’re melted into a polymer stew useful mostly for decking and other low-value products.
The new process uses catalysts to break the long polyethylene polymers into uniform chunks—the three-carbon molecule propylene — that are the feedstocks for making other types of high-value plastic, such as polypropylene.
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Breakthrough plastic recycling process transforms PE into PP
Plastics Today
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and University of California, Santa Barbara researchers teamed with Dow to develop a breakthrough process to transform the most widely produced plastic — polyethylene — into the second-most widely produced plastic, polypropylene. The process could reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
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Success in synthesizing biodegradable plastic materials using sunlight and CO2
Osaka Metropolitan University via ScienceDaily
Scientists have achieved an 80% conversion yield of a biodegradable plastic material from acetone and CO2, tackling the plastic waste crisis while moving toward carbon neutrality. Scientists have successfully synthesized 3-hydroxybutyrate, a raw material for poly-3-hydroxybutyrate — a strong, water-insoluble, biodegradable plastic used for packaging materials — from acetone and CO2.
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New method converts old PLA into a robust 3D-printing resin
Intelligent Living
Plant-based polylactic acid bioplastic is praised as a biodegradable material, but it takes a long time to break down in the natural environment. In light of this, Washington State University scientists have developed a method to upcycle it into a 3D-printing, or additive manufacturing, resin.
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Promoted by Polyfil
 Polyfil, a Kafrit Group company, together with Kafrit IL and N3Cure (an Israeli based Start Up) provides solutions for UV curing systems and CROSSITOL® masterbatches. Crosslinking enables the production of recyclable packaging with a single-polymer structure (Mono-material), saving costs and reducing the consumption of fossil-based polymers. As a result, it will have a smaller effect on the environment than most plastic solutions.
CROSSITOL® masterbatches can be used in a wide range of applications including cast and blown film extrusion. Its technology is coupled with N3Cure’s curing system to target specific layers for crosslinking, downgauging, and production costs.
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Material advantages of polymer batteries
Plastics Today
Wind and solar farms are springing up around the world as the shift away from coal and fossil fuel continues. Alternatives like these are mainly supplemental though, only supplying a small fraction of electricity to the power grid due to their intermittent nature. The excess supply from windmills and solar cells needs to be stored in a way such that it can be easily accessible to the grid when needed, usually in peak demand hours.
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