The myth of historical bio-based plastics

Altman, Rebecca

doi:10.1126/science.abj1003

Cited by 56 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Although these mechanisms are typically associated with consumer actions, the entire supply chain and governing bodies need to be engaged to solve litter pollution (Borrelle et al 2020). Producers can create more reusable or less environmentally harmful products (Altman 2021), and governments can pass ordinances to regulate products and improve waste management strategies (Borrelle et al 2020). This study focuses on roadside litter in the Inland Empire and aims to develop a strategy for assessing litter transport processes, identifying factors that control litter accumulation rates, and advancing litter composition quantification to inform litter prevention.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Litter origins, accumulation rates, and hierarchical composition on urban roadsides of the Inland Empire, California

Cowger

Gray

Hapich

et al. 2022

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Urban areas are the primary source of human-made litter globally, and roadsides are a primary accumulation location. This study aimed to investigate how litter arrives at roadsides and determine the accumulation rate and composition of roadside litter. We monitored select roadsides in the Inland Empire, California, for litter abundance (count) and composition (material, item, and brand type). Receipt litter with sale time and location information was used to investigate whether wind, runoff, or human travel were dominant transport agents. Only 9% of the receipts could have experienced runoff, and wind direction was not correlated with receipt transport direction. However, human travel and receipt transport distances were similar in magnitude and distribution, suggesting that the displacement of litter from the place of purchase was predominantly affected by human travel. The median distance receipts traveled from the sale location to the litter observation location was 1.6 km, suggesting that most sources were nearby to where the litter was found. Litter accumulation rates were surprisingly stable (mean 40,349 (33,255-47,865) #/km/year or 1170 (917-1447) kg/km/year) despite repeated cleanups and the COVID-19 stay-at-home orders. A new approach was employed to hierarchically bootstrap litter composition proportions and estimate uncertainties. The most abundant materials were plastic and paper. Food-related items and tobacco products were the most common item types. The identified branded objects were from the primary manufacturers (Philip Morris (4, 2-7 %), Mars Incorporated (2, 1-3 %), RJ Reynolds (2, 1-3 %), and Jack in The Box (1, 1-3 %)), but unbranded objects were prevalent. Therefore, identifiable persistent labeling on all products would benefit future litter-related corporate social responsibility efforts. High-resolution monitoring on roadsides can inform urban litter prevention strategies by elucidating litter source, transport, and accumulation dynamics.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Litter origins, accumulation rates, and hierarchical composition on urban roadsides of the Inland Empire, California

Cowger

Gray

Hapich

et al. 2022

Environ. Res. Lett.

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“…However, meeting global climate targets will require net-zero GHG emissions by the second half of the century (7), so the life-cycle GHG emissions of plastics must be reduced. Strategies to mitigate GHG emission include decarbonization of the energy supply of the plastics supply chain from oil extraction to plastic production, and the implementation of circular technologies (8)(9)(10)(11)(12)such as (i) chemical and mechanical recycling, (ii) biomass utilization, and (iii) carbon capture and utilization (CCU)-to exchange the fossil carbon feedstock.…”

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confidence: 99%

Achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emission plastics by a circular carbon economy

Meys

Kätelhön

Bachmann

et al. 2021

Science

330

194

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Reducing net emission The great majority of plastics in current use are sourced from fossil fuels, with additional fossil fuels combusted to power their manufacture. Substantial research is focused on finding more sustainable building blocks for next-generation polymers. Meys et al . report a series of life cycle analyses suggesting that even the current varieties of commercial monomers could potentially be manufactured and polymerized with no net greenhouse gas emissions. The cycle relies on combining recycling of plastic waste with chemical reduction of carbon dioxide captured from incineration or derived from biomass. —JSY

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“…Despite these environmental concerns, the plastic generated annually continues to grow as does the plastic waste . This review focuses on the recycling of solid, postconsumer plastic waste and will not consider the additional challenges posed by microplastics or energy recovery through incineration to recover value from plastics, or efforts into plastics from renewable, biobased feedstocks . Understanding the nature of the generated plastic waste stream is important to provide context to the challenges facing nascent technologies and strategies to enhance the recycling of plastics.…”

Section: Plastic Waste Streamsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why is Recycling of Postconsumer Plastics so Challenging?

Vogt

Stokes²,

Kumar

2021

ACS Appl. Polym. Mater.

187

122

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The ubiquitous use of plastics has been driven by their combination of low cost and properties, but these attributes directly challenge waste management schemes for plastic recycling. Some postconsumer recycling programs are now nearly 50 years old, but a significant fraction of plastics still finds landfills or other dumping strategies at their end of life. With the growing concern regarding plastic waste, especially ocean plastics, there is a need for innovation and alternative strategies for the economic translation of plastic waste to valued product(s) that will promote their efficient circular utilization. This review first describes the technical and economic hurdles associated with the recycling of postconsumer plastics, but then it focuses on providing an overview of emergent strategies to recover plastic waste through new polymer design, new recycling processes, and chemical transformations to value-added products. Specific challenges discussed include plastic waste sorting and separations, product variability including additives, and the high efficiency/low cost in which the existing petrochemical industry can produce virgin polymers, in particular polyolefins. Although a wide variety of technical strategies have been demonstrated for recycling of plastics through both mechanical and chemical means, the commercial success of these different strategies is generally limited by either performance, including large variance in key metrics, or economics where the products can match the performance of virgin materials but the recycling process is expensive. Successful capture of postconsumer plastic waste through recycling likely will depend on economic incentives and government regulations.

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The myth of historical bio-based plastics

Abstract: Early bio-based plastics, which were neither clean nor green, offer lessons for today

Cited by 56 publications

References 7 publications

Litter origins, accumulation rates, and hierarchical composition on urban roadsides of the Inland Empire, California

Litter origins, accumulation rates, and hierarchical composition on urban roadsides of the Inland Empire, California

Achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emission plastics by a circular carbon economy

Why is Recycling of Postconsumer Plastics so Challenging?

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