Anthropocene, the plastic age and future perspectives

Abstract

The issue of plastic waste is one of the main topics on the international societal and political agenda since ever‐increasing growth in the quantity of plastic materials produced has gone beyond the ability to manage them effectively at their end‐of‐life. Mostly pushed by social campaigns, an ever‐increasing number of initiatives have been taken by different institutions to reduce the huge amount of plastic waste: first of all, specific legal regulations have been introduced, both to realize effective systems of plastic collection, reuse and recycling, and to outlaw the use of unnecessary disposable one‐use items. However, due to the indisputable advantages derived from the use of such a material, every action of decision makers to limit the production or use of plastics is unavoidably affected by economic evaluations, as well as by the deficiency or drawbacks of alternative materials, rather than by environmental reasons. In the three reviews in this Special ‘In the Limelight’ section, Oliver Bajt, Paola Fabbri et al. and Frederic Debeaufort – invited speakers at the Special Session on Science & Society, entitled ‘Plastics: revolution, pollution and substitution’, of the 45th FEBS Congress to be held in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on 3–8 July 2021 – describe in detail the consequences of plastic pollution (Bajt, 2021, FEBS Open Bio 11, 954‐966), the complex transition to bioplastics (Degli Esposti et al., 2021, FEBS Open Bio 11, 967‐983) and the possibility to obtain these innovative biodegradable materials from food and marine waste (Debeaufort 2021, FEBS Open Bio 11, 984‐998), respectively. This introductory commentary highlights that, in the frame of the bioeconomy paradigm, not only multidisciplinary but also inter‐ and transdisciplinary research with integrated and multifaceted approaches are needed to produce novel eco‐friendly materials with features similar to those of traditional plastics, as well as with acceptable economic and environmental impact.

An In Situ Experiment to Evaluate the Aging and Degradation Phenomena Induced by Marine Environment Conditions on Commercial Plastic Granules

“…The amount of marine litter has increased enormously since the middle of the twentieth century, when the awareness of the problem first started to grow, so much so that its size is tentatively considered as one of the factors defining the time boundaries of a new geological era. Many studies confirm that plastic is the main component of marine litter [ 2 , 3 , 4 ]. However, this quantity can be roughly estimated only and existing reports lead to different results [ 5 ].…”

Multifunctional, Robust, and Porous PHBV—GO/MXene Composite Membranes with Good Hydrophilicity, Antibacterial Activity, and Platelet Adsorption Performance

“…All countries are aware of the serious environmental problems caused by white pollution with the rapid development of the national economy, especially the petrochemical industry [1][2][3][4]. Every year, the amount of plastic waste that is difficult to recycle reaches tens of millions of tons [5,6]. China has already committed to achieving peak emissions of carbon dioxide before 2030 and carbon neutrality before 2060 [7,8].…”

Ten years ofFEBS Open Bio

“…We fully expected that the special section would materialise after the Congress, little expecting that the event would be postponed a year and then transformed into a virtual event. As it happened, the Bioplastics section preceded the Science and Society session by four months, and we hope it was able to stimulate interest in the event [3].…”