Assessment of polyethylene degradation after aging through anaerobic digestion and composting

Alassali, Ayah; Moon, Hee Sun; Picuno, Caterina; Meyer, Robert S. A.; Kuchta, Kerstin

doi:10.1016/j.polymdegradstab.2018.10.014

Cited by 31 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…However, from these studies it is clear that the impact of weathering is hugely dependent on both the plastic particle composition and the environmental conditions in which they are degraded [7]. In some cases, very limited effect is noted, whereas in other cases weathering has resulted in changes to particle surfaces such as oxidation, formation of flakes, cracks and changes in crystallinity [198], all of which may impact on the toxic effect. Due to this variability, it is clear that using particles collected directly from the environment would be most relevant to accurately assess the hazard to weathered NMPs, however as discussed previously, it may become difficult to obtain enough of these samples to complete the suite of toxicity testing necessary.…”

Section: Continued Use Of In Vitro Toolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Paradigms to assess the human health risks of nano- and microplastics

et al. 2021

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Human exposure to nano- and microplastics (NMPs) has raised major societal concerns, yet no framework to assess the risks of NMPs for human health exists. A substantial proportion of plastic produced worldwide is not properly disposed and persists in the environment for decades while degrading. Plastic degradation generates a size continuum of fragments, including nano- and microplastic particles, with numerous associated environmental pollutants and plastic additives, and microbial communities colonising their surfaces. The ubiquitous presence of NMPs, their availability for uptake by organisms and their potential to act as vectors for toxicants and pathogens render risk assessment a priority on the political agenda at the global level. We provide a new, fully integrated risk assessment framework tailored to the specificities of NMPs, enabling an assessment of current and future human health risks from NMPs. The framework consists of four novel paradigms to the traditional risk assessment methodology. These paradigms deal with techniques in NMP analysis, gaps in empirical data, theoretical and modelling approaches and stakeholder engagement. Within the proposed framework, we propose how we can use research experiences gained so far to carry out the different steps of the assessment process, and we define priorities for further research.

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Section: Continued Use Of In Vitro Toolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Paradigms to assess the human health risks of nano- and microplastics

et al. 2021

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“…Plastics quality deterioration can significantly limit the application of closedloop recycling. Quality deterioration comes in the form of material degradation [5,102,103] and/or contamination [15,67,69,104].…”

Section: The Quality Of Recycled Plastic Materials In the Context Of A Circular Economymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Changes in plastics properties (e.g., mechanical, optical, thermal characteristics) are a result of polymer degradation. As an example, cracking, erosion, discolouration, and phase separation might be the consequences of chemical transformation, bond scission, and/or the formation of new oxidised groups [102,179]. Degradation can occur via various pathways and by numerous factors.…”

Section: Degradationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards Higher Quality of Recycled Plastics: Limitations from the Material’s Perspective

et al. 2021

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The increasing consumption of plastics and plastic products results in correspondingly substantial volumes of waste, which poses considerable environmental burdens. With the ongoing environmental actions, the application of circular economy on this waste stream is becoming inevitable. In this paper, the topics of plastics recycling, circular economy on plastics, and challenges to plastic waste recycling are critically reviewed. In the first part of this paper, the development of research on plastic recycling was viewed from 1950 until 2020 using the scientific database Web of Science, and 682 related studies were found and used to assess the changing research priorities along that timeline. The following sections discuss the potentials and requirements to enhance the quality of the produced recycled plastic, in connection with the factors that currently limit it. In conclusion, the quality of recycled plastic is generally determined by the homogeneity of the recovered plastic feed. There are various strategies which could be implemented to overcome the hindrances identified in the paper and to improve the quality of the recycled plastic, such as working on enhanced product designs for minimised waste heterogeneity and controlling the materials’ degree of contamination by applying advanced sorting.

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“…long storage time of the container without immediate decontamination, long storage time of a container with the pesticide not fully used and stored for a future application). More specifically, the simulated storage time was calculated using Equation (1) (Alassali et al, 2018):…”

Section: The Agrochepack Projectmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(1) where: tstorage: storage time in days; treal: the real aging time applied, using accelerated conditions in days; Q10: accelerated aging factor. Based on the material, a value of 2 is considered (Alassali et al, 2018); Taging: the aging temperature applied (°C); Tambient: the ambient temperature (°C).…”

Section: The Agrochepack Projectmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agrochemical plastic packaging waste decontamination for recycling: Pilot tests in Italy

Picuno

Godosi²,

Kuchta

et al. 2019

J Agricult Engineer

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Agriculture, one of the main economic pillars in Europe, plays a growing important role towards the environmental sustainability of the extra-urban land, in which the agricultural activities may proactively contribute to control and regulate the whole ecological conditions. Modern agriculture currently needs big quantities of agrochemicals, which are necessary for the growth and protection of crops and animals. These agrochemicals are commercially distributed to consumers in many types of containers. The most widely used packaging solutions usually employ plastic materials (e.g., containers for liquid pesticide; sacks for granular fertiliser; etc.). These materials, after the use of the agrochemical, need to be decontaminated, before being entrained in a recycling process, in the framework of a circular economy. In the present paper the main results coming from a EU-funded international project are reported, with specific reference to a pilot station that was realised in Italy with the aim to implement and test a codified system for the decontamination of these plastic containers for agrochemicals. The experimental tests were supported by relevant laboratory analysis, which have confirmed that the triple-rinsing decontamination procedure - traditionally employed by farmers for washing and decontaminating these containers - may be effective only under some well-defined conditions. Triple rinsing by farmers has indeed led to an only partial decontamination of the plastic containers, if farmers did not follow an appropriate triple-rinsing protocol, or did not triple-rinse the containers immediately after their emptying.

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Assessment of polyethylene degradation after aging through anaerobic digestion and composting

Cited by 31 publications

References 34 publications

Paradigms to assess the human health risks of nano- and microplastics

Paradigms to assess the human health risks of nano- and microplastics

Towards Higher Quality of Recycled Plastics: Limitations from the Material’s Perspective

Agrochemical plastic packaging waste decontamination for recycling: Pilot tests in Italy

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