Nanoplastics at lofty heights

Researchers detect microscopic plastic particles on alpine glaciers with the help of mountaineers

18-Feb-2025 - Nanoplastics - plastic particles smaller than 1 µm - are widely dispersed because of their low weight. A research team coordinated by the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) has now published an article in Scientific Reports that shows the extent to which glaciers at an altitude of ...

BASF to sell Styrodur® business

13-Jan-2025 - BASF has signed an agreement with Karl Bachl Kunststoffverarbeitung GmbH & Co. KG (BACHL) for the sale of its business with Styrodur®, an insulation material made from extruded polystyrene (XPS). BACHL is one of the leading manufacturers of insulation materials in Germany, an experienced XPS ...

Using sunlight to recycle black plastics

"Simple, visible light irradiation holds the potential to transform the chemical recycling of plastics..."

27-Nov-2024 - Not all plastics are equal — some types and colors are easier to recycle than others. For instance, black foam and black coffee lids, which are often made of polystyrene, usually end up in landfills because color additives lead to ineffective sorting. Now, researchers report in ACS Central ...

Carbon recycling instead of plastic trash

Iron electrocatalysis breaks down polystyrene and delivers green hydrogen

14-Nov-2024 - Plastics are inescapable in our daily lives. The vast amounts of plastic garbage heaped in landfills and in the environment, however, are as problematic as the plastics are useful. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, a German research team has now introduced a new method for recycling polystyrene ...

How much microplastic are you drinking?

New tool can tell you in minutes

29-Aug-2024 - Micro- and nanoplastics are in our food, water and the air we breathe. They are showing up in our bodies, from testicles to brain matter. Now, University of British Columbiaresearchers have developed a low-cost, portable tool to accurately measure plastic released from everyday sources like ...

Scientists achieve more than 98% efficiency removing nanoplastics from water

The liquid-based solution uses a solvent to trap the plastic particles, leaving clean water behind.

20-Aug-2024 - University of Missouri scientists are battling against an emerging enemy of human health: nanoplastics. Much smaller in size than the diameter of an average human hair, nanoplastics are invisible to the naked eye. Linked to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases in people, nanoplastics continue ...

New polystyrene recycling process could be world’s first to be both economical and energy-efficient

Chemical method identified to tackle hard-to-recycle packaging material, cutting landfill waste

24-May-2024 - Engineers have modelled a new way to recycle polystyrene that could become the first viable way of making the material reusable. The team of chemical engineers, based at the University of Bath in the UK and Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, US, say their technique could be the ...

How to make ubiquitous plastics biodegradable

Understanding the function of a specific bacterial enzyme has paved the way for the biotechnological degradation of styrene

22-May-2024 - Polystyrene is made from styrene building blocks and is the most widely used plastic in terms of volume, for example in packaging. Unlike PET, which can now be produced and recycled using biotechnological methods, the production of polystyrene has so far been a purely chemical process. The ...

Plastic Recycling with a Protein Anchor

Peptide with a cobalt complex oxidizes polystyrene microparticles

22-Feb-2024 - Polystyrene is a widespread plastic that is essentially not recyclable when mixed with other materials and is not biodegradable. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, a German research team has introduced a biohybrid catalyst that oxidizes polystyrene microparticles to facilitate their subsequent ...

Scientists develop artificial ‘worm gut’ to break down plastics

Hopes for a nature-inspired way to tackle global plastic pollution

13-Feb-2024 - By feeding worms with plastics and cultivating microbes found in their guts, researchers from NTU’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering (SCELSE) have demonstrated a new method to accelerate plastic ...