MONEY FROM TRASH. Plastic waste has become a major environmental concern in today's world. The excessive use of plastic and its improper disposal has led to the pollution of our oceans, landfills, and even our air. However, instead of viewing plastic waste as a problem, we can see it as an opportunity. With the right technology and processes, plastic waste can be transformed into high-quality secondary raw material, which can be used in various industries. This not only helps in reducing the amount of plastic waste in our environment but also creates a new source of income. By turning trash into money, we can incentivize individuals and businesses to properly manage their plastic waste. This could potentially lead to a cleaner and more sustainable future for our planet. Through the efficient processing of plastic waste, we can not only tackle the issue of pollution but also create a circular economy where waste is seen as a valuable resource. It is time for us to rethink our approach towards plastic waste and explore its potential as a secondary raw material.
Plastic Waste and Recycling: Environmental Impact, Societal Issues, Prevention, and Solutions begins with an introduction to the different types of plastic materials, their uses, and the concepts of reduce, reuse and recycle before examining plastic types, chemistry and degradation patterns that are organized by non-degradable plastic, degradable and biodegradable plastics, biopolymers and bioplastics. Other sections cover current challenges relating to plastic waste, explain the sources of waste and their routes into the environment, and provide systematic coverage of plastic waste treatment methods, including mechanical processing, monomerization, blast furnace feedstocks, gasification, thermal recycling, and conversion to fuel. This is an essential guide for anyone involved in plastic waste or recycling, including researchers and advanced students across plastics engineering, polymer science, polymer chemistry, environmental science, and sustainable materials. - Presents actionable solutions for reducing plastic waste, with a focus on the concepts of collection, re-use, recycling and replacement - Considers major societal and environmental issues, providing the reader with a broader understanding and supporting effective implementation - Includes detailed case studies from across the globe, offering unique insights into different solutions and approaches
Survey’s the issues typically raised in discussions of sustainability and plastics Discusses current issues not covered in detail previously such as ocean litter, migration of additives into food products and the recovery of plastics Covers post-consumer fate of plastics on land and in the oceans, highlighting the environmental impacts of disposal methods Details toxicity of plastics, particularly as it applies to human health Presents a clear analysis of the key plastic-related issues including numerous citations of the research base that supports and contradicts the popularly held notions
The problems related to the process of industrialisation such as biodiversity depletion, climate change and a worsening of health and living conditions, especially but not only in developing countries, intensify. Therefore, there is an increasing need to search for integrated solutions to make development more sustainable. The United Nations has acknowledged the problem and approved the “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. On 1st January 2016, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the Agenda officially came into force. These goals cover the three dimensions of sustainable development: economic growth, social inclusion and environmental protection. The Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals comprehensively addresses the SDGs in an integrated way. It encompasses 17 volumes, each one devoted to one of the 17 SDGs. This volume addresses SDG 12, namely "Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns" and contains the description of a range of terms, which allows a better understanding and fosters knowledge. Concretely, the defined targets are: Implement the 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns, all countries taking action, with developed countries taking the lead, taking into account the development and capabilities of developing countries Achieve the sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources Halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses Achieve the environmentally sound management of chemicals and all wastes throughout their life cycle, in accordance with agreed international frameworks, and significantly reduce their release to air, water and soil in order to minimize their adverse impacts on human health and the environment Substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse Encourage companies, especially large and transnational companies, to adopt sustainable practices and to integrate sustainability information into their reporting cycle Promote public procurement practices that are sustainable, in accordance with national policies and priorities Ensure that people everywhere have the relevant information and awareness for sustainable development and lifestyles in harmony with nature Support developing countries to strengthen their scientific and technological capacity to move towards more sustainable patterns of consumption and production Develop and implement tools to monitor sustainable development impacts for sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes local culture and products Rationalize inefficient fossil-fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption by removing market distortions, in accordance with national circumstances, including by restructuring taxation and phasing out those harmful subsidies, where they exist, to reflect their environmental impacts, taking fully into account the specific needs and conditions of developing countries and minimizing the possible adverse impacts on their development in a manner that protects the poor and the affected communities Editorial Board Medani P. Bhandari, Luciana Londero Brandli, Morgane M. C. Fritz, Ulla A. Saari, Leonardo L. Sta Romana
Over the few coming decades, bio-based and biodegradable plastics produced from sustainable bioresources should essentially substitute the prevalent synthetic plastics produced from exhaustible hydrocarbon fossils. To the greatest extend, this innovative trend has to apply to the packaging manufacturing area and especially to food packaging implementation. To supply the rapid production increment of biodegradable plastics, there must be provided the effective development of scientific-technical potential that promotes the comprehensive exploration of their structural, functional, and dynamic characteristics. In this regard, the transition from passive barrier materials preventing water and oxygen transport as well as bacteria infiltration to active functional packaging that ensures gas diffusion selectivity, antiseptics' and other modifiers' release should be based on the thorough study of biopolymer crystallinity, morphology, diffusivity, controlled biodegradability and life cycle assessment. This Special Issue accumulates the papers of international teams that devoted to scientific and industrial bases providing the biodegradable material development in the barrier and active packaging as well as in agricultural applications. We hope that book will bring great interest to the experts in the area of sustainable biopolymers.
The aim of the project is to create knowledge on how plastics recycling can increase without increasing the risk of emitting hazardous substances to the environment.The first general conclusion is that to be able to increase recycling there are measures needed at different levels. The following areas are of interest: • Legislation: new legislation is not necessary, but harmonisation and clear guidance to the existing one is. • Market: to create a market safety on content is needed. • If substances added are less hazardous the recycled raw material would be “more safe” to use. • There should be higher attention put on the knowledge of the recyclers. • Traceability and content: Further work on labelling reaching the recycle part of the value chain needs to be developed. It is also needed to develop a systematic approach towards risk assessments linked to recycling.
This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license.This book presents results relevant in the manufacturing research field, that are mainly aimed at closing the gap between the academic investigation and the industrial application, in collaboration with manufacturing companies. Several hardware and software prototypes represent the key outcome of the scientific contributions that can be grouped into five main areas, representing different perspectives of the factory domain:1) Evolutionary and reconfigurable factories to cope with dynamic production contexts characterized by evolving demand and technologies, products and processes.2) Factories for sustainable production, asking for energy efficiency, low environmental impact products and processes, new de-production logics, sustainable logistics.3) Factories for the People who need new kinds of interactions between production processes, machines, and human beings to offer a more comfortable and stimulating working environment.4) Factories for customized products that will be more and more tailored to the final user’s needs and sold at cost-effective prices.5) High performance factories to yield the due production while minimizing the inefficiencies caused by failures, management problems, maintenance.This books is primarily targeted to academic researchers and industrial practitioners in the manufacturing domain.
Systemic change is required to move to a circular economy (CE) model which can meet the demands of a growing population in a manner that is decoupled from resource use and waste generation. This book takes a deep dive into the innovation aspect of the circular economy (CE), with a specific focus on India as a geography, where the transformation to a circular economy is underway. How a developing country like India is tackling the complexities of the transformation and creating innovative solutions is showcased in this book through many practical examples and inspirational case studies. The book lays out the foundations for mainstreaming resource efficiency (RE)/CE in India, and covers innovation led by businesses and start-ups, along with the innovative policies, financing, and collaborative models required to spur and accelerate circular economy approaches, while also providing linkages to the international context. Features: Provides insight into the role of innovation in the circular economy transition Helps to develop and facilitate adoption of resource-efficiency policy and strategy with particular focus on key resource sectors and waste streams Treats the circular economy as a holistic approach across the entire lifecycle, and places emphasis on upstream interventions and systems change Examines the current context of COVID-19 and its impact on circular economy models and practices Touches upon how the EU-based approach was adapted and contextualised significantly to work in the unique Indian landscape This book is aimed at students, researchers, and professionals engaged in the domains of circular economy, sustainability, business innovation, environmental studies, natural resources management, and environmental and resource conservation policy.
Winner of the International Solid Waste Association's 2014 Publication Award, Handbook of Recycling is an authoritative review of the current state-of-the-art of recycling, reuse and reclamation processes commonly implemented today and how they interact with one another. The book addresses several material flows, including iron, steel, aluminum and other metals, pulp and paper, plastics, glass, construction materials, industrial by-products, and more. It also details various recycling technologies as well as recovery and collection techniques. To completely round out the picture of recycling, the book considers policy and economic implications, including the impact of recycling on energy use, sustainable development, and the environment. With contemporary recycling literature scattered across disparate, unconnected articles, this book is a crucial aid to students and researchers in a range of disciplines, from materials and environmental science to public policy studies. - Portrays recent and emerging technologies in metal recycling, by-product utilization and management of post-consumer waste - Uses life cycle analysis to show how to reclaim valuable resources from mineral and metallurgical wastes - Uses examples from current professional and industrial practice, with policy and economic implications
