Chemists at Colorado State University think they've found a polymer that's similar to plastic and can be easily manufactured and recycled.

Drinking straws are one item that's days are numbered as Ikea vows to eliminate throwaway plastic products from its product range and in-store eateries.

A study found that microplastics can be kept inside water-dwelling creatures, like mosquitoes, as they age.

Many countries, states and municipalities are getting serious about reducing the use of plastic bags, utensils and containers.

159 coral reefs were examined in the Asian-Pacific region, and 89 percent of those reefs were contaminated with plastics and disease.

Irish teen Fionn Ferreira won the 2019 Google Science Fair for removing microplastics from water.

You're ingesting microplastics when you consume this trendy salt source.

A 'living' wrapper called kombucha slime could ease the world's plastic pain.

Microplastics in fresh water are primarily laundry lint that comes from washing machines, and they end up in your drinking glass.

Just because you put plastic items in the recycling bin, doesn't mean they get recycled.

To meet growing demand, Diversified Plastics, Inc. has enlarged its molding and packaging, environmentally controlled, room by 2,775 square feet (257.81 square meters).

Committed to exceeding customer needs with responsive support, Diversified Plastics, Inc. has hired three experienced sales engineer and technical support team members.

Diversified Plastics, Inc. (DPI), a custom plastic-injection molder of high-precision thermoplastic components, has appointed James Garvin to its board of directors.

Helping Customer Navigate City Compliance with Efficiency

Carbon technology is next-generation 3D-additive manufacturing.

Minnesota-based T.O. Plastics also offers products for the expanding cannabis, hemp and microgreens markets

Waste Industry Company Expanded to Include Metal Fabrication, Assembly and Custom Engineering

The invention provides a method for preventing discoloration of pyrithione-containing materials, in particular plastic materials or other material such as paints, coatings, adhesives or textiles which are exposed to an outdoor environment. The method is likewise suited for preventing discoloration of other pyrithione-containing materials such as personal care compositions like shampoos. A discoloration inhibitor that includes dehydroacetic acid or a salt thereof is added to the pyrithione-containing material. The discoloration is prevented without the addition of a cyclic organic phosphoric acid ester or an organic phosphite. Use of the discoloration inhibitor does not interfere with the antimicrobial effect of the pyrithione.

An environmentally beneficial process for utilizing waste drill cuttings from oil and gas exploration. The waste drill cuttings (20) are used as a filler and combined with plastic to provide a plastic based product (26) in the plastics industry. In an embodiment the cuttings are thermally treated and formed into pellets. In a further embodiment the cuttings are treated and mixed with recycled plastic to be formed into pellets. The pellets are then used in the manufacture of rigid plastic products such as bollards, planters, benches and decking.

An apparatus and method for the shaping of plastics material pre-forms into plastics material containers with at least one blow moulding station which is arranged on a conveying device rotatable about a pre-set axis of rotation (D). The blow moulding station has a blow mould and this blow mould forms a cavity in the interior of which the plastics material pre-forms are capable of being expanded by being acted upon with a gaseous medium to form the plastics material containers, with a stressing device, which acts upon the plastics material pre-forms with the gaseous medium in order to expand them, and with a clean room, which surrounds the blow moulding station at least in part. The clean room is bounded off from an environment by at least two walls which are movable relative to one another.

Oil compositions having a high concentration of polyunsaturated fatty acids are described for use in various applications including use as drying oils, in ink compositions and coating compositions. Oil compositions wherein the double bonds of the fatty acids are substantially epoxidized are described and used as plasticizers and thermal stabilizers for various halogenated polymer compositions.

Pigmented substantially crack-free casein plastic compositions containing a minor, luster-imparting quantity of coated mica platelets, wherein at least 75% of the pigment particles possess an average platelet size of below 10 μm., a thickness of about 0.1 to 0.7 μm. and a ratio of diameter to thickness of about 10 to 200.

Plastic has unique properties not shared by other materials. If you're designing something that will eventually be created in plastic, considering the complexities of manufacturing in your design process is critical. In this course, learn how to design parts for additive manufacturing in plastic using Autodesk Fusion 360—the affordable cloud-powered CAD and CAM tool that works like more expensive, industry-focused tools. Instructor Thom Tremblay explains how to create a form, complete and visualize your design, and set it up for 3D printing, all while designing a ready-to-manufacture part. Plus, learn a more complex alternative modeling processes for creating a solid from surfaces and subdividing a solid model.

A small town team harnesses sewing power to create more than 4,000 reusable alternatives to single-use plastic bags in a bid to save the planet.

The South Australian Government is looking at banning single-use plastic products such as straws and cutlery in a bid to lead the nation in another anti-littering cause.

It comes as no surprise to researchers that densely-populated beaches in Australia are contaminated with microplastics but what about our remote coastal areas?

One thing you should know about me is that I am from New York and I am half Italian. That means when I like something,…

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Crawling along the world's river bottoms, the larvae of the caddis fly suffer a perpetual housing crisis. To protect themselves from predators, they gather up sand grains and other sediment and paste them all together with silk, forming a cone that holds their worm-like bodies. As they mature and elongate, they have to continuously add material to the case -- think of it like adding rooms to your home for the rest of your life, or at least until you turn into an adult insect. If the caddis fly larva somehow loses its case, it's got to start from scratch, and that's quite the precarious situation for a defenseless tube of flesh. And now, the microplastic menace is piling onto the caddis fly's list of tribulations. Microplastic particles -- pieces of plastic under 5 millimeters long -- have already corrupted many of Earth's environments, including the formerly pristine Arctic and deep-sea sediments. In a study published last year, researchers in Germany reported finding microplastic particles in the cases of caddis flies in the wild. Then, last month, they published the troubling results of lab experiments that found the more microplastic particles a caddis fly larva incorporates into its case, the weaker that structure becomes. That could open up caddis flies to greater predation, sending ripple effects through river ecosystems. In the lab, the researchers found that the larvae chose to use two kinds of microplastics to build their cases, likely because the plastic is lighter than the sand, so it's not as hard to lift. The problem is that the cases with more plastic and less sand collapse more easily, weakening the larvae's protection from predatory fish, among other things. A more long-term concern is bioaccumulation. "A small fish eats a larva, a bigger fish eats the smaller fish, all the way on up, and the concentrations of microplastic and associated toxins accumulate over time," the report says. "The bigger predators that people eat, like tuna, may be absorbing those microplastics and the chemicals they leach." The study has been published in the journal Environmental Science and Pollution Research.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

(American Association for the Advancement of Science) Microplastic particles entering the sea surface were thought to settle to the seafloor directly below them, but now, a new study reveals that slow-moving currents near the bottom of the ocean direct the flow of plastics, creating microplastic hotpots in sediments of the deep sea.

(University of Manchester) An international research project has revealed the highest levels of microplastic ever recorded on the seafloor, with up to 1.9 million pieces in a thin layer covering just 1 square meter.

In October of this year, the European Parliament voted in favor of a ban of the ten most notorious single-use plastics that harm our planet and marine life, including straws, plastic cutlery and cotton buds. The vote also committed to a move towards a circular economy – recognizing the inherent value of the 2.12 billion tonnes of waste that is dumped globally each year. Yet questions remain about how we deal with the items not on the list, the ones where there are no obvious alternatives; the fruit trays, the ice cream tubs, the burger boxes. With waste generation expected to double by 2025 we must continue to act on this growing crisis and be more innovative with waste.

The public consultation launched by the European Chemicals Agency (“ECHA”) on the topic of microplastics closed on 20 September 2019 with the submission of 477 comments. The consultation followed the publication by ECHA earlier this year...

Alarmed by the amount of rubbish they were generating by just drinking coffee and eating cup noodles, two former garments entrepreneurs decided it was time to find an eco-friendly alternative to all the plastic packaging that ends up in landfills globally.George Chen Dah-ren and Vivian Chang first approached material scientists in Hong Kong and mainland China, and were in 2013 pointed in the direction of Alexander Bismarck, then a Materials Science professor at Imperial College London. The…

Tiny particles of plastic are in our food, water and even the air we breathe. We investigate the impact they have inside our bodies

Slow-moving underwater currents are leading to build ups of microplastics in biologically rich areas on the sea floor

Caddis fly larvae typically construct protective cases out of sand grains and silk.

Ocean pollution 'threatening biodiversity more than is currently recognised', warn researchers

Researchers melt an ice core taken from Antarctica 10 years ago and find dozens of microplastic particles, including polyethylene used to make plastic bags.

A ban on single-use plastics including cutlery and straws will be pushed back in SA to allow restaurants and cafes to reopen "sooner rather than later" amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Medical device manufacturer, Boddingtons, has lately been resourcing fast-tooling and moulding projects in relation to emergency procurement for the Covid-19 crisis.

During Covid-19, magnetic separation, metal detection, and conveying products are essential because they support the plastics processing industry and protect plastic from metal contamination.

You can view all of the articles from this issue individually in full here.

Formosa Plastics Corp., Texas, and Formosa Plastics Corp., Louisiana, will spend more than $10 million on pollution controls to address air, water, and hazardous waste violations at two petrochemical plants in Point Comfort, Texas, and Baton Rouge, La.

U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz sentenced Irika Shipping S.A., a ship management corporation registered in Panama and doing business in Greece, today to pay a $4 million penalty, which includes a $3 million criminal fine and $1 million in organizational community service payments that will fund various marine environmental projects.

SABIC Innovative Plastics US LLC, and its subsidiary, SABIC Innovative Plastics Mt. Vernon LLC, have agreed to pay an approximately $1 million civil penalty and improve leak detection and repair practices to settle alleged violations of the Clean Air Act (CAA) at chemical manufacturing facilities in Mt. Vernon, Ind., and Burkville, Ala., the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today.

Finally, one nation is taking firm, clear action toward going plastic-free.

From now on, thirsty visitors can refill their own bottles at water fountains or grab a reusable cup in the cafeteria.

The UN Environment Assembly is putting together a "political declaration on pollution," but we need action more than words at this point.

But there's a strange loophole for biodegradable plastics, which we know aren't much better.